My first Career Workshop in Asuncion...I'm not going to be teaching a lot because it takes too much time away from my research, but it was fun to teach all by myself and get back into the workshop again!
This is Catalina, my adopted mom....look at how much she loves me!
This is a poster hanging in the municipality building...a Wanted poster for the Dengue mosquito...to be honest, I don't WANT to see a single one, but I had to take the picture...
I about died seeing my flag in ñandutí!!! Alongside the Paraguayan flag it makes a great display don't you think?This is the famous vaka akângue or cow's head in all its glory...
The girls had to make a scene with the huge jawbone...not the most appetizing part of seeing a cooked head on the table...
Me with the birthday twins Iris and David
Hey all, this has been an interesting week full of fun activities that have helped me adapt to my new environment. For anyone that might be wondering, yes, culture shock is real and is doesn't matter how many places you have been to or lived in over the course of your life, anyone with a heart and a sense of sociability is bound to experience it in a new place. I am learning that Paraguay is extremely unique and I have a lot to learn about how people relate to each other and carry out their lives in this land-locked tropical desert.
This week I taught a Career Workshop in the office in Asuncion and it was an interesting experience teaching again. I had a difficult group but they turned out to really like the workshop in the end. One of the participants was an Argentine missionary finishing up his time and heading back to his homeland...but came to the office accompanied by his 3-week newby Utahn companion. Luckily, he stayed quiet most of the time but he didn't speak enough Spanish to participate and wanted me to translate every 5 minutes and I refused...I would translate every once in a while when they were doing activities and working alone but I refused to waste everyone's time translating all the dialogue when he wasn't the one that was actually taking the workshop...frustrating. I also had a surprise visit from the son of my Guarani professor who just got back from his mission in Missouri, USA. He's a pretty nerdy, presumptious type that drives me nuts but seems to be oblivious to my sarcasm and thinks that he has a shot at courting me...we had a pretty brutal discussion with me telling him that I thought he was presumido and arrogant and that I didn't want anything to do with him...and he still continued to text message me and act like we were best friends because he was so marvelously understanding of my honesty. grrr. In the middle of the workshop, though, Sinthia came in and saved me by having him go interview for a position that a farmacy wanted to fill right then and he got a job before we even finished the workshop! So I didn't have to deal with him the last day of class.
On Tuesday, I went to a birthday party for David and Iris, the twins of the Rodriguez family that has officially become my second family here in Paraguay. The oldest sister Sinthia repeatedly tells me that she wants me to be her sister-in-law but unfortunately there is only one brother who previously mentioned doesn't exactly have his act together just yet... So I'm an adopted sister. At the birthday party, they had their entire extended family plus Iris's "friend" that isn't quite more than a friend, Nancy (the youngest sister) brought her fiance, and then me...otherwise nobody that wasn't family was invited to eat at the table. There were some childhood friends that ate at on the patio apart from everyone else, but I felt conspicuously non-family at the table with everyone. It was great though because one of the in-laws is Uruguayan and served his mission here in Paraguay and then moved here with his parents and really identified with me saying that my accent reminded him of Uruguay and we started talking about the unique things of Paraguay and how he has been able to adapt...and he's LATIN!! lol...
The main dish was...Cow HEAD!! I mean an entire cow head....nothing left out and nothing left over. They had cooked the thing in a big pit in the backyard for more than 8 hours and then brought it entire to the table and untied the bag as the family dashed in with fork and knife in hand...no waiting for the ceremonial first cut or servings to be passed around. You fight or you don't eat! They made sure to pass me a bite of everything so that I could try it out and to be fair I had to try it before rejecting it. In all honesty, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had envisioned. I had brains, tongue, cheek, and jaw meat and I actually liked the brains the best. I thought tongue was really rubbery and the cheek meat had a lot of fat, but I swallowed it all down like a good girl and didn't throw any back up :) It was a great replacement for my normal Halloween treats! Enjoy the photos!
In other news, I'm going forward with learning ñandutí and going forward with my guaraní as well. I've finished my first rounds of ñandutí with a design called mbokaja poty which means coconut flower. I have to put the mandioca starch on it so that it goes stiff and then I'll have my very own creation! I feel really accomplished to be honest. I met with the local municipal director of culture and she had a book in Spanish that is literally what I had in mind to do...so hopefully I can add to what they already have published or possibly combine efforts to translate what she has and publish in English. I want to put together a log of the different designs and their names and meanings in Guaraní and the book had about 80 but there are an estimated 300 traditional designs. I am glad to have her work in hand though and hopefully can use some of the same contacts she lists to get things going.
Otherwise I have been trying to get my apartment put together too...I had to wait 5 days to get a refridgerator from a friend and now am waiting for the guy to fix the rubber seal so that it will work...people tell me that the professional service people in the country are the worst when it comes to following through with their promises. Everyone works at a different pace outside of Asuncion...things are just more laid back, less on time and in general less productive. The one exception has been church meetings which start promptly at 8:30 so that we can get home before the height of the afternoon heat. Stores open early and close early for the afternoon siesta, then reopen in the late afternoon for 2 or 3 hours and close at sundown. You would think that would mean that everything is silent at night...but you would be wrong. Weekends are insane with the entire town coming alive at 10:30 and the discotecas open at 12 or 1 and close at 6 the following morning. I'm blessed to be a block away from the largest club in town where they have weekly parties Saturday nights. While I would love the music in any decent hour of the day, somehow it loses its appeal at 3 in the morning.
I went to a youth dance after singing the night away at a karaoke bar in Asuncion and the next morning got a cultural tour of Asuncion including the famous Panteon de los heroes where they have past presidents and dictators entombed in medalled glory, draped in the Paraguayan flag and other statues of other dictators didn't make the cut for the central display. Unfortunately, the builders weren't far-sighted enough to make enough space for ALL the dictators so they'll probably have to do something about that in the future. I then went to the Museo de barro which has a lot of the "anthropological" displays of the country displaying the "wild tribes" of the Chaco and old textile displays. Despite being within the shadow of the pride of Paraguayan history, 3 blocks down the embankment I looked out over a widesprawling slum...the infamous Chacarita reserved for the poorest of Asuncion's poor.
Well, I have to get going but I hope you all had a fabulous Halloween and are having fun getting ready for Thanksgiving!
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