a finished book, a famous fulbrighter, an historic election, what more could you ask for?

That's right! After the more than 6 1/2 months that I've spent tParaguayan heat, bugs, and horny unfaithful teenage Paraguayan boy population, I am actually seeing some concrete results for my troubles :)!! I will have to admit that my methodology went out the window a while ago when I found that fieldnotes just made me complain more and so when I found an outlet in working on this book project, I think it was a direct answer to prayer. Just this afternoon, I turned in "my life" as I called it, to the son of the printer so that we could actually look towards getting the thing printed.

So, I'm sorry to have stopped writing for a while--I personally apologize to all my faithful readers out there--Thanks Suzanne, Laura, and Bryn!! Truth is, things have really cooled down here and with the constant rain, the cooler temperatures, and the happier American surrounded by a sea of bundled-up Paraguayans, I've had a lot more time to stick inside and work on the text, formatting, and finishing touches of the book. Oh, that and another parasite but, minor detail really. Bottom line that means I have a lot to talk about!

Oh, I don't know if I really described the book but I've been working with a very well-known local weaver who has been winning prizes in UNESCO competitions and getting her picture taken for any number of international publications and then another woman from the community that is a professor of literature to help with the poetic and grammatical part of the work. But, as neither of them have touched a computer in their life, it's been a completely different group dynamic than I have ever encountered before. I would work up a storm and then not find a way to share with them because we couldn't afford the outrageous 20 cents a page to print things out just to have to change them and work it all over again. And, on their side, they would work up a storm--all written by hand--and then complain that they would have to pay for someone to type it up for them. Fortunately, things leaned toward the necessity to have things digitally done so they shelled out every once in a while to get things to me typed up so that we could use it in the book. That's another thing I hadn't seen before--the amount of signs for "work done by computer" which basically means that you pay someone to type, research, design, or correct anything that you need printed up. Most people that are looking for jobs and have to have a resume don't know how to type let alone use a computer so they just pay for one to be drafted for them. that is most understandable...but then you find the advertisement for "thesis" and you realize that you're not in Kansas anymore. yes, people that are graduating from accredited universities actually attain a university education without ever learning how to type their name and have their senior thesis projects typed up (and in many cases designed and carried out) for them. So, knowing all this, it must not surprise you that the arrival of an academic demanding the citation of every source, the proper formatting of that citation etc. is a little out of the ordinary. As we were finishing today, I had included a section recognizing that I had taken all the photos but...and then listed the people that had contributed photos to my list. They asked me "is that really necessary?" I just said yes and tried to leave it be. Then, they wanted to take a picture of the three of us together to put on the inner cover as a sort of biography. So, Chiquita asked her live-in maid (another Paraguayan staple for anyone that has enough money to pay the $100 or so a month that they earn) to take the picture for us. As we finished, I heard Maria Angela mumble something about a name to Chiquita in Guarani, and as I thanked her maid for taking the picture, I asked her for her name so that i could credit her, and Maria Angela about broke a rib with her "I TOLD YOU SO!!" knowing that I would want to put her name there for the picture. I guess at least I'm consistent.

So, long story short we should be in print within 2 weeks!! It's nothing like in the States where you get a contract from the publisher and they pay you to write so that they get the profits from the sale of the books--mainly because Paraguayans don't really read so there's not a lot of profit in it but also because printing is disgustingly expensive since there isn't a lot of demand. So, instead, you basically just come up with the money that your printing will cost, hold a party with all your friends and community leaders to try and get them to buy it, and call it good. In doing so, it doesn't matter what you write or how you write it, just as long as you have the money to hand over to the printers. A lot easier than the whole academic rigor and professional critiquing system right?

In other news, Alba turned 16 and we had a fabulous time on her roof with a pizza and a peach tart cake with her family and two of her neighbors. As i started making mariachi screams at the end of the happy birthday song it soon turned into a let-see-how-much-attention-we-can-get-from-passersby game. It was fun as we tried to get people's attention without revealing our position in the darkness of her balcony. Good times.

I went to my first Paraguayan Quincenera (15th birthday party). I've seen about a million picture albums showing everyone's party but I finally got invited to one. It was an amazing cultural blend as the birthday girl was dressed in a fancy wedding-worthy gown as the entrance was dressed with draping clothes and the obligatory repository for gifts and then a gigantic 8-layer cake (I was half-expecting a groom to show up any minute!) and then the arrival of a Mariachi band that took the birthday girl swirling around the guests and taking pictures at each table adorned in a giant red-velvet sombrero, the singing of Happy Birthday first by all girls and then all boys, complete with a ribbon-pulling tradition to give the girls good luck (I pulled out the ring which is supposedly meant to signify the next person to get married and therefore the most coveted ribbon to pull...don't read too much into that Mom!!) and the final touch the "traditional" waltz with her father and then any other person at the party. After the waltz and the constant flow of champaign and beer (regardless of being severely underage, all the guests enjoyed a tall glass of bubbly or otherwise an up-scale beer with their barbecue and potato salad) the night ended with blaring Raggaeton (Spanish Rap basically) and Paraguayan Chachaca music while the crowds bounced the night away. It was a great party I must say, even if lacking good electronic or rock music to dance to. We grabbed a bus home as we tried not to call any attention to ourselves due to the fact that we were across the street from a whorehouse...conveniently located in front of the bus stop!

The next day was the famous Election Day, April 20...a date for the history books. I was super doubtful of just how the elections would turn out, and people as usual were completely negative in talking about the reality of getting any changes in the government that could root out the decades-old corruption and exploitation. But, after more than 60 years in power (inlcuding a 35-year dictatorship!), the Colorados finally lost a presidential election. The whole country is kind of holding its breath so see if "the change" as the campaign set itself up to be, will actually come to fruition. I can honeslty say that as I watched the election results roll in on the TV, I felt I was part of an important moment in Paraguayan history and hopefully the turning point to turning the country into a functional democracy and more than just a constitutional hypocrisy.

Next...I went to a 'forum' with a good friend Laura--in reality she's Alba's cousin. It was the most academic thing I've found access to in all my time in Paraguay, but still incredibly disappointing. It was held at a 'terciarcy school' (because it's not officially a university but more of a technical training school) for bilingual and multilingual teachers. dripping with formalities, the students had hardly no idea what the point of it was other than that they were taking roll. They talked about the proposition of a new Language Law that would recognize more than just the Spanish and Guarani languages but reach some sort of compromise with the 17 indigenous groups (not to mention the non-recognized Mennonite, German, Korean, Japanese, and Australian populations) that are supposedly to start receiving linguistic recognition. I hate to be a cynic, but the country is barely starting to recognize them as people and I think there is some other land and human rights legislation that should take priority over the language issues, but hopefully it's a step in the right direction. There were a couple other interesting presentations talking about the difficulties of translating music lyrics between Guarani and Spanish, and a famous television personality talking about how he was the first to try and run a Guarani-speaking professional television program that wasn't purely dedicated to just folklore stuff but actually run news stories. After 15 years, he's still not on prime air-time and is constantly fighting with the linguistic academics that tell him he is wrong to speak the colloquial Guarani and should work to integrate the neologisms and 'pure' Guarani into his show even though the majority of Paraguay refuses to use it in their homes.

OK, I should end this long-windedness. I'll end on a high note. Both of the local magazines--well one claims to be a "newspaper" but it only comes out once a month or every other month and is printed in color in a magazine-size format and full of advertisements--anyway both of them featured me in their magazines! And, after a few drafts I was actually successful in getting them to not only spell MY name right, but also that of Fulbright and Brigham Young University--a huge achievement if you have any idea what is like trying to get those into Spanish....even in writing it out for them it just doesn't make sense in Spanish so things eventually get Spanish-ified. But, I really like both sets of groups working on these magazines and it was a real honor that they would take time and effort to include me in their issues. the Folklore magazine didn't even edit what i turned into him but did a full-page spread complete with pictgures of me in his office posingly reading his magazine and then hunched over working on my nanduti. One had asked me a while ago to do a write-up on what the socio-cultural atmosphere of Itaugua was, according to an anthropologist. I wrote up a pretty open commentary based on quotes from the residents and left the end saying I would leave it up to the itauguenos analyze their community. The other "newspaper" did an informal interview with me and asked about why I was here and what I was doing. I had to laugh in a way because I've known the guys since January and they never asked me to do anything until now and just as I am finishing my time they are highlighting me as "person of the month." But, at least it was a good chance to put a plug in for the book!

so, there you have the full circle. I hope everyone is enjoying the last snow of the season and the strenghtening of the spring weather. Lots of love to everyone!!