Home Sweet Home

Almost exactly as I remember it...

November 21st, 2009

I recently went home...





Where’s home you may ask. Well they say home is where the heart is, and I left my heart back in Paso de Oro. It was right where I left it 3 months ago, and I picked it up and dusted it off when Fabiola came running towards me as I stepped off the rattling bus and onto the dusty, dirt road in front of my house...my home.



John Howard Payne beautifully captured the essence of what I have been feeling and coined the phrase when he wrote the song, “Home Sweet Home” in 1822 as part of the opera, "Clari, the Maid of Milan.”

“Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there 's no place like home;
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which sought through the world is ne'er met with elsewhere.
An exile from home splendour dazzles in vain,
Oh give me my lowly thatched cottage again;
The birds singing gayly, that came at my call,
Give me them, and that peace of mind dearer than all.”

Over three months ago I promised I would come back for a visit if Paso de Oro made it to the final. After a long, successful season, and several disputes, rematches, and postponings later they finally made it to the final series, the first game of which was played on Saturday, November 21st, 2009 in Ipane. The date actually perfectly corresponded with my 3 month In Service Training I had to come in for by Tuesday anyway. The second game would be played the following Saturday, November 28th, 2009. Unfortunately I won’t be able to see this game, as I’ll be in Encarnación celebrating Thanksgiving with a ton of volunteers.

It was hot...really hot. Mary and Fabiola have a little kiddie pool in front of the house, to which I relented and agreed to enter after much begging and pleading. We cooled off and played with each other. I was a vicious shark trying to capture and eat the unsuspecting prey (Mary, Fabiola, and Jacqueline). Fabiola really got a kick out that. Most of time though I just stood outside the pool squirting them with water by positioning my thumb just right in the end of a garden hose.



The time came for us all to get ready to go to the cancha. I was pretty much dried off and was very dirty. I was also really hot. A cold shower was calling my name. Cold showers here in the summer are amazing. You don’t even want to think about a hot shower. In the winter, a cold shower (sometimes necessary when the power goes out) is torture, but in the summer it’s lovely. I made it to the shower, turned on the water...

Trickle....trickle.......trickle........(silence)

“Ok, maybe the water’s just turned off or something. A quick shout to my sister, whose now living in my old room because she has separated from her husband, supposedly because of rumors that she cheated on him, should cure the problem. She and my Dad worked on it but to no avail. The running water is out and the backup tank above the house has emptied.

These are the small inconveniences of life in the third world...Frequent, unexplainable power and water outages. If I turned on the sink ever so often I could get a few trickles so I got the bulk of the main dirt off and considered it bastante (enough) and headed to put my clothes on. Just as I had done that, the running water came back on. Haha. “And isn’t it ironic. Don’t you think? A little too ironic. And yeah I really do think...”



So I unclothed, jumped back in the cold shower, which was refreshing, and rushed to be ready before Hector.

I finished getting ready as Hector pulled his truck up to the front of the house. We all piled in the back of the truck and headed off to Ipane, a nearby town where the match was being held. It felt so right...so comfortable being back in the back of that truck with my family and friends. I remember the day when it felt odd and awkward. Those days are long gone...I’m completely integrated and comfortable now, and I actually feel like part of the family.





The match was a long defensive battle until towards the end of the game when the opposing team snuck one past our goalkeeper. It was very upsetting to say the least. To make matters worst in the final minutes they scored again ensuring our defeat.



Despite the loss I had a good time just being back at the cancha with my family. I split my time evenly among all the different clicks within the family who were sitting close to each other but not all together.



Nothing has changed...well nothing at the cancha at least.

My sister Mirian still yelled at the players and referees in guaraní in between gossipping and commentating to her friends. “Did you hear that such and such walked down the street the other day with such and such? Oh David has the ball. He needs pass it. FUERZA DAVID! (David gets fouled but it doesn’t get called)…Son of a Blaaaaaaaank referee.” My sister-in-law still yelled out obscenities and rushed over behind the goalkeeper during pivotal moments and got all heated. “Hey you bald referee! Go jerk off on a cactus!” Fabiola still pestered my sister for every snack available at the cancha including donuts, ice cream, soda, and popcorn, and Mary still observed the game patiently and silently.



After the game we all rushed back to Hector’s truck and quickly got out of town, probably for fear of fights and other forms of game associated violence, which are pretty frequent.

Of course my mom and sister made empanadas that night and a crowd of people gathered at my house to watch soccer on TV and socialize. The empanadas weren’t as great this time because they were made with prepackaged flour tortillas instead of made from scratch mandioca tortillas. Apparently, there is a big shortage of mandioca, which is ridiculous considering it is the most important food in Paraguay. I mean my Dad even said once that without mandioca, it’s really not a meal.



That night was also the Quinceañera of Carlos’, one of my fellow volunteers, host sister. My family was invited. I took a nap because it had been a long day and I knew it would be a long night. I told Paulo to come get me at 11:30 PM so we could head out. I set my alarm on my phone and dozed off for a nap in preparation for the long night ahead. I woke up at 1:00 AM. The alarm never went off. Must have been set for 11:00 AM. By the time I showered, my Sister and Mom had already gone and returned from the party. The music was still going so I went regardless. At the very least I could hang out with Carlos for a bit. I got there around 2:00 AM and the party was still hopping.

It’s the funniest thing to watch Paraguayans dancing sometimes. They dance in no particular uniform way but they do form a uniform straight line rather than just one big blob of dancers like we do in the states. Maybe it’s logical. Maybe it prevents bump-ins and the like. Carlos, Arelio, my sister-in-law, and my two nieces danced like it was 1999 until about 4 AM, when we heard Paraguay’s infamous party’s over song. It’s a specific Paraguayan polka song that they always play last. I say it’s cool they have a song to signify the end of the party. Mary says the Paraguayans are too dumb to know when to go home so that’s why they have to have a recognized last song. Haha. She said it...not me.

The next night I received a call from Liz, a fellow volunteer who had also arrived early, saying I should come to the cancha. It was great fun catching up with Liz and dancing with everyone until David’s brother (David is Liz’s Paraguayan boyfriend who she’s absolutely smitten with), got into a fight in which a bottle was broken on his face. After a few pretty rough blows, David and his other brothers managed to rescue him from the fight, but just seconds later someone starting shooting. They fired off a few rounds. I looked at Paulo and said, “Vamos rapido” (Let’s go quickly). I just so happened to be with the group that the gunmen wanted to shoot out so I was trying to get out of dodge as quickly as possible. Paulo and I got out really quickly and were briskly walking down the sandy, dark path to the sound of more gunfire. That should be enough to end a party right? Well I guess Mary might have been right. Paraguayans might be too dumb to know when to go home after all, because Paulo and I didn’t get a quarter mile from the cancha when we heard the DJ try to hype up the crowd and started playing music again. Gunfire won’t clear the party but the Paraguayan polka song will. Que bárbaro!

I was home for a total of six days. Much was the same as I remembered it the last time, and I imagine it will be for some time. My Mom has said she wants to die in that house. “Si Dios quiere” (God willing). The family carried on with the same routines and rituals. Mom still made empanadas Saturday and Sunday night. Dad still drank terere under the shade tree in the mid-morning and late afternoon. Hector still drank caña late into the night on the benches near the work shed. But there were some fairly major changes that had happened in the 3 months since I left.

My Sister, who was living in Ipane with her boyfriend of 14 years with whom she has a child, had very recently separated and moved all her stuff back home and into my old room. Of course I didn’t mind. She is the real daughter after all. She brought some lindo stuff with her...a new refrigerator, which she keeps stocked better than my Mom does, automatic washing machine, Playstation 2, a broken down computer, a nice bed and an armoire. Darwen, my nephew, is sharing the room and bed with his mother, which I bet makes for a better, more intimate mother-son relationship.

They take naps together, watch movies together, play games together, etc... She’s getting to spend so much quality time with him.

Also we have, or should I say had, a new pet monkey. The monkey was found hanging out in some nearby trees. My sister-in-law snagged it with a t-shirt after luring it in with chipa, the very traditional bread-like Paraguayan food. While I was there the monkey escaped. My Dad tried for an hour or so to lure the monkey back in but to no avail this time. You see monkeys are smart and this one had learned its lesson. While I was there, they didn’t recapture it so it’s likely we no longer have the pet monkey.



Paulo had a brand new smile and a fresh summer haircut. Education and adoption of good dental hygiene is severely lacking in Paraguay. Paulo’s teeth were really jacked up when I left but since then his Dad had payed for him to get them fixed. His 12-year-old Sister, Jacqueline, also has really jacked up teeth but refuses to go to the dentist because she’s scared. Almost all her teeth have blacked out spots on them. It’s a pity. Her sister Jesika has great teeth and says Jacqueline’s teeth are the result of not brushing frequently and eating a lot of sweets. I told her family to drag her to the Dentists even if she were kicking, screaming and crying and force her to have them fixed. She would thank them later.

Hector now has fully functional air condition in his room, which he proudly showed off to Carlos and I. That’s a real luxury especially if you consider their living conditions. You may remember pictures of my house, and think that’s not so bad. Though in the same family and just a few hundred yards away, Hector and his family are living in true poverty. He wheeled and dealed a bit and managed to pick up a broken down, yet salvageable American brand old-school window air unit for cheap. My brother fixed and installed it for him. He says the incremental monthly costs aren’t much. He works really hard in the heat all day and deserves a good night’s sleep in the comfort of air conditioning. I’m super happy for him.

Mirian has separated yet again from her husband, Eladio. Their relationship is somewhat like some High School relationships. It’s on and off...breakup, makeup. Right now they’re off and broke up. Eladio has moved back to his Mother’s house at Kilometer 22, which isn’t too far away. Fabiola, 5 years old, doesn’t really care and asked Mary why she cries so much over her father that doesn’t cry over her but instead makes her cry. There’s a thought provoking question posed by a 5 year old. The pattern is something like this. Come back home. All is good for a little bit but inevitably he gets into a fight with Mirian, usually while drunk. Says hurtful things. Everyone minus Fabiola and Eladio cries. Eladio runs back home to his Mom. Stay there a bit. Come back home. Repeat process.

Mirian now has a job selling clothes in Asunción in a store owned by someone in Eladio’s family. She says she likes working but the days are long and her feet hurt from standing up all day without any breaks. I think deep inside though, the feeling of independence and pride from earning money for her family probably trumps the sore feet so she keeps standing, both literally and figuratively.

Mirian working in the city means laundry duty is left to my Mom. Nilda helps when she can but also works selling jewelry. Since she allows people to pay in small monthly installments she spends a lot of time making house visits to collect. You should see her little notepad with chicken scratch she uses to keep track of customer accounts. It’s pathetic but it’s a system that works well for her and which the customers somehow trust. Mom still prefers to wash most the clothes by hand, I guess stuck in her traditional ways, claiming that the automatic washer doesn’t get the clothes as clean.

Augusto is working harder and longer hours. It’s beginning to get hot, which means demand for air condition installations and repairs is way up. He leaves the house around 5:30 and often doesn’t get back until midnight or sometimes later. He finally has his moto back and he also has a work truck to drive.

Jacqueline was forced to quit her English lessons because her Dad didn’t have the money to keep sending her. But she’s been assured she can resume sometime next year.

Other highlights from the week include:

• Playing soccer penalty kicks with Mary, Darwen, and Jacquelin
• Watching a Michael Jackson movie with Darwen
• Going on a long jog with Jesika (I recently found out she spells it that way)
• Hanging out with the family in Hector’s work shed
• Chasing the chickens and ducks around with a broom trying to get them back inside the fenced in area after Mary left the gate open when she was showing me piles of eggs

Although a lot has changed within the family, they are all still the loving, fun people I remember them to be. We picked up right where we left off, and it was a great week.

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened. ~Theodor Seuss Geisel

Monday, August 17th, 2009

The next day was really relaxing. I spent most of the day just hanging out around the house. Most of the family was gone for most of the day. I hung with my Sister while she washed clothes and rearranged her house. Then around 4:00, I went with her to pick the kids up from school.
I’ve had been to their school once before, and Mary has been asking me when I was going to come back to take pictures for a while now. This was my first real chance to do so, and it was a good feeling to pick them up for their school on my last full day in Paso de Oro.

I’ve already mentioned the education system in Paraguay in one of my earlier blogs so I’ll just make one comment about it now. You know that feeling in the atmosphere after a summer afternoon shower? The air is kind of moist and the ground is just a bit damp, but everything is starting to dry up? That is what the weather was like that day. Only 5 kids showed up out of Fabiola’s class of 14. The situation was even worse in Mary’s class. It wasn’t even raining, but because it wasn’t 100% ideal conditions outside, kids just didn’t come to school that day. That just shows the overall commitment to education in Paraguay. Not only do they only attend school for about 4 hours a day, but they also don’t show up at the slightest indication of bad weather. So even if the teachers were on point and the facilities sufficient, which they’re not, they would still be at a huge disadvantage.





Anyway, all of the kids in my family went, so I was super proud of that.

Fabiola was so excited to see me, and she got out of class a little early. She showed me around her school a bit and we played chase. She showed me where Mary’s class was, and when we walked up Mary was looking out the window at us. Shortly, Mary got out of class, and we headed for home.





On the way back from their school we stopped by a little store that is half internet café, half small clothes store to buy a few things for Mary and Fabiola, who are in desperate need of clothes. You should see how excited and grateful they were to receive a pair of jeans and some sandals. The sad thing is that my Sister didn’t even pay outright for those. She has a credit account with the owner of the store. She pays in small payments over a long period of time. That’s why she shops there instead of lots of other places. If that lady wouldn’t extend her credit, the kids would simply go without decent clothes. If Mary gets straight A’s on her report card, she’s going to get some boots. She’s working really hard to earn those boots. She’s waited a while for these jeans and she says once she has the boots, she’ll have a complete outfit. When she got home, she did exactly what most kids, around the world, do after buying new clothes...tried them on and showed them off. She was so proud of her new jeans and it made her day. It made me think of when Churches, non-profits, and other groups send packages filled with basic items and maybe a few toys overseas to those who won’t receive anything else for Christmas. When we were filling the boxes, I used to think how the kids were probably upset to find toiletries, underwear, etc... in their boxes. Now, I don’t think that at all. I bet those kids light up.

How spoiled we are in the States right? I used to get money and clothes were a given...a necessity. In my opinion something that I needed anyway didn’t count as a special prize for making good grades...the ways my perspective is changing... Here parents have to use things that they know they have to buy anyway as incentives, because there isn’t enough money for luxuries.

That night we had my despidida (going away party). Before eating, Fabiola and Mary danced traditional Paraguayan dances for me.






My family went all out for me. My brother bought a chicken, my Mom killed one, and I threw in to buy another chicken, and added in the meat I had purchased from Mary. We also had rice, salad, and of course there was mandioca. Papá even drank wine, and he hardly ever drinks.



I was kind of out of it during the dinner because I knew this was the last time we would all be together for a while. It was a lovely dinner, and afterwards people made a few toasts/chants for me.

I sat back and looked at the family, and in my mind it was like a scene from a movie or TV show. You know...the drama has built up for a while and the conflict finally solved. Everyone gets together at a Christmas or a Thanksgiving meal. Some witty comments are thrown around between family members, and then the camera starts panning out. You can hear all sorts of conversations going on, and the clanking of dishes. People are reaching across the table, and it’s such a nice, warm family scene. Music starts playing and the picture pauses in that moment and then fades away into the black screen with the rolling white credits. Happily Ever After...



Well my story didn’t exactly end that way, because I’m one of the characters. It’s the camera that stops filming, but the characters go on living.

The kids finished eating and went to the front of the hosue to play. I stayed at the table chatting with the adults a bit, and then went to join the kids. I saw Fabiola sitting along with the saddest look on her face. It broke my heart. I sat down next to her and gave her a big hug and consoled her. Later, I came back into the living room, and she had fallen asleep there. I sat down beside her, and just watched her sleep for a bit. I started having memories of us together, and thought about how much she likes me and how much I like her. It broke my heart, and I began to cry. In fact as I type this I’m overwhelmed with emotion and tears are welling up in my eyes. I love that little girl.



I walked outside to get myself together, where I was met by my good brother, Agusto. This made me break down even more. He tried to tell me that we would talk on the phone, I could come back to visit, and that I would meet new people in San Juan, and that everything was going to work out. I told him it would never be the same, which is true. It never will be the same as it was. We had a good conversation about how crazy it is that complete strangers from two different parts of the world can become so close so quickly, how happy and comfortable I was there, and how I could have not found a better family with which to live for my first 3 months in Paraguay.

After our conversation he went to bed because he had a long day of work and another long one ahead of him the next day. We were going to say our goodbyes then but I told him to wake me up in the morning before he left for work.

I talked to my niece for a while and then went inside and played Go Fish with the kids.





Before too long, people started heading to bed, and I did the same.

Tuesday, August 18th, 2009

The next day I woke up and played Crazy 8s with Mary and Fabiola. I played a while with the kids and then began to pack. Fabiola was my little helper. She wanted to put things in my suitcase, so I just let her as I was arranging everything else, and then redid it later. As I was packing I gave Fabiola the Crazy 8 cards, because she still needs to learn her colors and numbers, and this would make for a fun and educational gift for her. I gave Mary and Fabiola toothbrushes, and gave them each a spiral notebook I had bought and not used. I also gave them a few pencils. These gifts basically represent what I hope for them. I hope that they maintain their hygene and health (toothbrushes), study hard so that maybe one day they can go to University (pencils and notebooks), and also that they play and enjoy each other(crazy 8 cards).

Mary, Jessica, and Jacquelin all went to school so I had to wish them goodbye. I know I’m coming back so it wasn’t so bad. Once I finished packing everything, my Dad helped me take my stuff outside to the road. Then we took some pictures and waited on the bus, which came all of a sudden and kind of rushed my goodbyes.







This whole process has been full of goodbyes. First I told my friends goodbye in Columbia, then I told my family goodbye, then more friends in Spartanburg, my parents at the airport, my Peace Corps friends after the swearing in weekend, and now my training host family. I guess I’m getting training in goodbyes for a reason. I’ve gone away before, and moved around a little, but this is on a completely different level.

I hugged my Mom and sister and told them I would see them later. I gave Fabiola a big hug and told her how much I loved her, and that I would see her later.

My Dad and I loaded my stuff up on the bus and boarded. As the bus drove down the long dirt road, I stuck my head out the window and waved at the family I had grown to love in such a short time, and then I just watched Fabiola get farther and farther away from me until eventually I couldn’t see her any longer. Then I turned around in my seat and looked out towards my future while nostalgically remembering my past.

It was an hour and half to Asunción, and a few hours waiting at the bus station. My kind Dad didn’t have to but insisted on waiting with me until my bus departed. Within a few hours the bus arrived. We walked over and put my luggage on the bus. I told him how appreciative I was for having me in his house and how much I enjoyed my time there. I told him to tell me if Paso de Oro plays in the championship because I’ll come back for it. He wished me luck, we shook hands and said goodbye.

And with that I boarded the bus, which was empty, put my backpack in the overhead compartment, sat down, started a playlist on my ipod, and started the next phase of my Peace Corps Adventure.

Zoo and Cancha

July 27th, 2009

Yesterday almost my entire family went to the Zoo in Asunción. My brother, Hector, drove everyone in his truck. He used a tarp to make a tent-like structure in the back of the truck, which everyone sat under. I had to sit in the front with my brother and his wife since it is prohibited for me to ride on main roads in the backs of trucks.



On the way to the zoo, we passed some interesting sites. One of those sites was the former house of Alfredo Stroessner, who was dictator in Paraguay from 1954 until 1989.




The other site was the location where 400 people were burned alive inside a supermarket because the owners ordered the doors locked so that the customers would not leave without paying. There was a massive public outcry, but in the end no one was held responsible for any substantial amount of time. I’ll talk about it later, but that’s a good example of how justice is hard to come by in Paraguay.



When we arrived at the zoo, everyone crowded around a pile of meat and bread and made cold meat sandwiches for brunch. I think this was to avoid paying the high zoo prices, and fill the kids up so they wouldn’t beg for snacks in the zoo.

We walked around the zoo for a while looking at different animals. Though I like going to the zoo, and think it is very educational, there is a part of me that finds it sad that animals are caged up for our amusement. They lead miserable lives. Tigers weren’t made to be caged up...they were made to roam free, to hunt, to conquer and to mate. I imagine those animals sense something is wrong about their environment Imagine having instincts and not being able to act on them! How frustrating and depressing it must be to lead the life of a zoo animal.




Some of the animals we saw were tigers, various tropical birds such as toucans and parakeets, a hippopotamus, a puma, monkeys, a baby anaconda, an elephant, ostrich, guinea pigs, turkeys, turtles, and bunnies.

The chimpanzees intrigued me the most. I spent a bit of time just observing. I was standing on one side of the cage, facing one of the chimps that was sitting on top of a tire. When I walked over to the other side of the cage, he jumped down, rolled his tire over to the other side of the cage, positioned it perfectly, then climbed on top and continued his observation of me. Sometimes you wonder if maybe they think we’re the strange attraction, instead of the other way around. I talked with my niece about how intelligent and human-like chimps are. They experience emotion, wage wars, make tools, methodically teach their young how to use tools to access food, communicate, have opposable thumbs, and sometimes walk upright. It’s not a big stretch to see how Homo Sapiens evolved from a common descendent as the chimpanzee.



After the zoo, we went to the cancha to watch Paso de Oro play. The previous week the goalkeeper was ejected from the game, and thus suspended for two games. Paulo, my nephew, stepped in to fill the position, so we arrived especially early so that he could dress and then prepare with the team. Poor Paulo...the opposing team scored goal after goal against him. He hadn’t practice in a while and was noticeably nervous. The cancha is always fun regardless, and if the adult team wins, we celebrate in the back of the truck on the way home, and at my house once we get there. When the weather is good, my Mom racks up because people buy a lot of alcohol, other drinks, hamburgers, and empanadas.

Check out these pictures from the Cancha and make sure to watch the video at the bottom.



This is how to celebrate a win at the cancha:

WATCH THIS VIDEO

Technical Excursion to Villa Rica (Rich Town)

The RED group went to Villa Rica, Spanish for Rich Town, for Friday and part of Saturday. We all piled in the van early on Friday morning and set out on a 3-hour road trip. I brought along my portable IPod speakers so I dedicated songs to people and took requests. We even had a brief Michael Jackson tribute by playing a few of his most famous songs. It’s amazing how many people asked me about Michael Jackson’s death. If you think Paraguay is disconnected from the rest of the world...think again.

We went to a small savings and loan cooperative when we arrived. It was great to see a volunteer success story since we had been hearing pretty much failure stories from all the volunteers we had been talking with. Brennan has managed to reduce the cooperative’s default rate pretty significantly and has created some amazing spreadsheets to organize and achieve more efficiency within the operations of the cooperative. He has managed to make his work sustainable by training the one employee the cooperative has on how to create and maintain everything he created in Excel. After the visit we went to Brennan’s house for lunch. Brennan lives in Paradise. His house is one of 4 houses in a compound. There is beautiful landscaping, a giant pool, and just beauty all around him. We ate lunch and then headed for ice cream in the city center. On the way to get ice cream, we stopped by to see these Carpinchos, the world’s largest rodent. They were like giant guinea pigs or hamsters. I had to try to touch one of them. So I went in ever so slowly. I was actually really scared because I didn’t know if it might snap around and attack me when I got to close or touched it. But I managed to gather up enough courage and petted it. I thought it would be soft, but its hair was actually quite coarse. The ice cream was pretty amazing, since we don’t get treats like that too often.

After the ice cream excursion, we were driven to the houses we would stay at for the night. When we arrived, Brennan basically walked me into a house, introduced me and told the old man and woman in the living room I would be staying with them tonight, and then told me I would have a good time, and left. Haha. We exchanged a few words, and then the old man showed me to my room. He told me to sit down, and we began talking. It was kind of awkward at first, and I struggled to keep coming up with questions to ask. We talked for a bit, and then went to the kitchen to get some dinner. We ate and conversed, and then returned to the living room where we watched telenovelas. Then he took me to another room, which had a bigger TV, brought in some chairs, and we sat there watching TV. Something that struck me while we were watching TV was the hesitance to channel surf. We watched the first thing that came on for a while and then he finally changed the channel once. I have noticed this elsewhere as well. Paraguayans don’t channel surf like we do. We rapidly navigate through the channels to find something of interests, surf during commercials, and even watch a few different things at once. This contrasts quite sharply with the TV-watching behavior of Paraguayans.

After some time, one of his daughters showed up and rescued me by taking me to a volleyball game. We went to this giant gym, owned and operated by the municipality, where we watched a few games, including one the daughter played in. While watching the games, we drank Caña and coke and had general conversation. Volleyball is slightly different in Paraguay too. Each team has six players on the court. They play to 25 points, and then switch sides and play to 25 again. If the team that won the first round doesn’t win the second round, they play another round to 15 to decide the winner. I was watching them play, and was shocked when one of the players kicked the ball. This is one of the major differences between American style and Paraguayan style volleyball.

After the volleyball games, we walked back to the house, where we sat around drinking more Caña and coke and watching telenovelas and movies. Around 1:00 AM, I went to bed.

The next day we had to meet at Brennan’s coop at 8:00 AM. We waited on Adam and Mike for a while and then decided to go get them. As we starting pulling off, we saw them walking up the street through the back window. We told Jonathan, our trainer and driver, to keep going to make them think we left them. He did and we circled the block and came up behind them. It was really hilarious.

We went downtown and had about 20 minutes to wonder around the market. Carlos and I went searching for some breakfast. We go inside the market to this place where these ladies make fresh food for you. I tried explaining to them I wanted to just get two fried eggs to go, while Carlos explained he wanted something to go. After some horrible Spanish on the part of Carlos, a woman walked up with soup in a bag. We looked at each other and laughed. Then they tried to sell him some meat. Flies were landing on it, it looked like it had been sitting there a while and didn’t look nearly as appeasing as this other meat a few feet away. I told Carlos I wouldn’t by that meat, and once he had a chance to process it, he decided to just give up on the whole thing, but didn’t know how to disengage with the women. I was like, “Dude, just say Gracias, and walk away.” He ended up doing something of that sort, and we headed back to the van.

We went to an A poi cooperative and talked to the volunteer who is currently working there. Apo is the traditional style of making clothes in Paraguay. A poi is rooted in Paraguay’s history. One of the previous dictators closed Paraguay’s borders to imports, so the people had to make clothes from materials they had available. They sew very basic designs on the front of the shirts; usually they are two stripes running vertically down the shirt. Making A poi became part of the culture, so the tradition survived even after the borders opened back up. Then we piled back in the van to head back to Paso de Oro. On our way back, we stopped off at an American-style diner. I ate two delicious hamburgers. Paraguayans like to put a fried egg on top of their hamburger patty, and usually eat them with a knife and fork. I went with one of the two cultural traditions....the egg, and now I’m a big fan of fried egg hamburgers.

After we arrived back in Paso de Oro, I went with my family to my sister, Nilda’s, birthday party in Ipane. It had rained on her birthday, which was right after Dia de San Juan, so the party was postponed until this day. We sat around drinking beer and screaming to each other over really loud American classic rock. The kids played games in the front of the house, while the adults sat around and talked. We mostly talked, or rather argued, about soccer. There are two main fútbol clubs in Paraguay, Olympia and Cerro. At this point, Olympia has won 3 international championships and Cerro has none. Olympia also has 10 more National championships than Cerro. Olympia and Cerro recently played each other, and I let the outcome of the game determine which club I would be a fan of. Olympia won, so I’m now an Olympista, and therefore on the winning side of the statistics. Cerro is doing well this year and is positioned well to win the championship, so Augusto, my brother, and I were catching some crap from the Cerro fans, mostly Eladio, my brother-in-law. But since Olympia has won 9 more national championships, beat Cerro this year, and has 3 international championships, we were handing it to them. So we were using logical argument to make our case of how Olympia is a better club, and they resorted to just screaming out Cerro! Cerro! Cerro! Haha.

We all sat around a long table and ate the birthday dinner. After that, we talked some more over loud American music. Then we all piled in Hector’s truck and began the long bumpy ride back to Paso de Oro. On the way, we went through downtown Ipane, which was having a major festival. There were thousands of people everywhere, carnival rides, and a crazy long line for a dance outside the municipality.