Yet Another Awesome Paraguayan Holiday

September 21st, 2009

Dia de Juventud Festival (Parade, Beauty Pageant, and Concert)

So I was totally caught off guard by what took place on this holiday.

It was Dia de Juventud (Youth Day) and all day people had been wishing me “Felicidades.” The closest translation I can come up with for what they were saying is, “Happy Youth Day.” On this day, Paraguay celebrates its Youth and parents buy their kids gifts. Depending on where you live, there could also be a whole host of festivities associated with the holiday.

I was plugging away at my laptop in my office at the cooperative at about 3:00 PM in the afternoon when I started hearing bombs and tons of people gathering outside. Then some of my coworkers told me to come to the window to watch the parade. “Oh, another parade,” I thought to myself. Having seen many “parades” before, I thought this would be your typical line of cars and motos (mopeds) driving down the street honking horns and playing music. Much to my surprise when I went to the window I saw decorated floats full of smiling youth. The floats represented different schools and organizations and each featured a Queen, who had apparently been elected to represent their organization for the day’s festivities.

At around 4:00 PM, I left the Cooperative, and rushed home to get my camera. I quickly returned and managed to snap a few shots before the parade was over.







By this point, everyone was gathering in the plaza, and I noticed a big stage in the middle of the plaza. I walked around talking to people I knew and snapping photos. Then I went home to change out of my work clothes and returned for the rest of the festivities, which included a beauty pageant and a concert by the hottest band in Paraguay at the moment.







The beauty pageant featured around 16 or so girls who each answered 2 questions and walked down the runway. Hearing their answers to the questions raises both an educational and cultural point. Each girl was asked to give a brief speech to the youth. Every girl said almost the exact same thing in almost the exact same way. Culturally, this is totally acceptable. In one of my earlier blogs I mentioned the lack of individuality, creativity, and critical thinking within the educational system. I also mentioned how Paraguayans always copy each other. Every dispensa is almost exactly like every other dispensa. They all serve the same things, prepared in the same way. There is a real lack of creativity and individuality. I’m not judging whether that is good or bad but rather stating an observation, though if I were to judge it from my US perspective, it is less than desirable.

So the first girl started with warning about doing drugs, respecting parents, and the importance of enjoying your youth, and each girl in turn gave the exact same response. In the US, even if the next girl had prepared the exact same response, that is the last thing she would say because we have such a strong culture of individuality and would judge her poorly for saying the same thing the other girl said. Not here. All 16 said the same thing, and the crowd clapped all the same for each one of them in turn.



They were judged by a panel of 3 judges, which included Miss Paraguay, who is actually from San Juan. Her speech was much more honed, and she had a polished stage presence. I heard it was her dream to become Miss Paraguay and she worked her whole life up to that point to achieve that goal. I’m glad she set a lofty goal and worked hard to achieve it, but in my mind some of the means did not justify the end. She had a tone of plastic surgery, altering her entire body and face, and I also heard she never played or had friends growing up, and was always well dressed and very superficial in interactions. Hopefully she’s able to leverage her position to accomplish something good for Paraguay.



Eventually, the tallest and most popular (judging from the chanting teenage girls up front) won and 2 others were given lesser titles.

I don’t know how the girls were judged really because all 16 had roughly the same responses, and the 3 chosen were definitely not the prettiest, but winners were selected and that was that.

Later, they announced scholarship winners. Each year, the Gobernación, like our State Government, gives out scholarships, and they announce the winners during the Día de Juventud festivities. I was really impressed with both the fact that they were giving out scholarships and the number of scholarships that were granted.

Access to education is, in my opinion, one of the most serious detriments to economic development in Paraguay, so it’s good to see that at least some scholarships are available. Paraguay still has a long way to go in this regard in that there aren’t student loans and there are a very small number of scholarships available, but it’s at least a start. I’m thinking of pitching a project to my cooperative to give out scholarships and offer student loans, which with any luck will start a trend among cooperatives of offering scholarships and student loans. This could go a long way in giving more students the opportunity to get an education and could have a big impact if it caught on in the right way. That’s pie in the sky thinking, but hey, shoot for the stars right? I’ll let you know if it works out.

Next came the concert, which featured several bands including one of the most popular bands in Paraguay at the moment. Everyone crowded around the stage and celebrated youth in true young fashion...listening to music, drinking, and dancing the night away.








Again, I couldn’t help but think of how unexpected this all was. I expected to be living in a little shack in the country, and for sure never, ever envisioned being at a really great concert among thousands of people in my own site as a Peace Corps Volunteer. At one point I looked at Anne, and said, “Can you imagine what the Campo Volunteers would think of this? We have such a good life. Haha”

All in all, I really love Youth Day. Everyone celebrates and embraces youth, both in age and spirit. The day is very friendly and festive. Paraguayans may not be one of the more wealthy countries, but boy do they know how to enjoy life!

Future Site Visit

August 4th, 2009

I spent the last 6 days in San Juan Bautista. It’s called Future Site Visit. The idea is to check out your future site, find a family with which you can stay if you come back, meet some people, and fill out a few forms to bring back to Peace Corps with information about your site. Ultimately, it allows you to see your future life for 2 years, so you can make the decision of whether or not you want to swear in as a volunteer.

Avelino, the representative from the Coop who was sent to accompany me, and I arrived to San Juan Bautista on Tuesday in the early afternoon. Avelino was hungry so we went to a restaurant about a block down from the cooperative. I had recently eaten while on the bus so I just got a piece of cake. It was delicious. We went to the cooperative, where I met a few of my future co-workers. They were all very cordial.

The cooperative is super-nice. It has glass door entrances, looks like a modern bank and has modern style offices. There is a guard with a bulletproof vest and gun posted out front. There are two police officers close by holding what looks like sawed-off shotguns. Everyone has their own computer, the people dress in formal business attire, and almost everyone has a University degree. There is a store in the cooperative in which they sell appliances, shoes, electronics, etc... There is a big screen TV in the entrance for goodness sakes! Wait. I did sign up for Peace Corps right? Haha. That just goes to show you that Peace Corps isn’t just living in villages, playing with poor kids, and teaching AIDS awareness and prevention to the local villagers.



Around 4:00 PM, one of the managers, Mariño and Avelino drove me to a “hotel,” which was basically a long house, but there was no vacancy. Then they took me to this pension-like place. There are like 6 dormitories, which the Señora of the house rents out to students who are studying at the local university.



They just kind of dropped me off so I was a little depressed. It didn’t quite work out how Peace Corps says it is supposed to. I was supposed to stay with a local family. Nonetheless it ended up working out, and my depression lasted less than an hour because around 6:00 PM, Mariño, who had dropped me off earlier, picked me up and took me to an urban style soccer field at a local school beside the park. I watched the guys play soccer for a little while. It was like an And 1 commercial but in soccer.




I just remember having this feeling of how nice everything was when compared with Paso de Oro and many other places I’ve seen in Paraguay. It’s like a completely different country. The people are educated, the streets are clean, there are parks, recreational activities, nice restaurants, etc... The large towns and cities in Paraguay are very different from the countryside.




When they finished playing soccer, we sat in the park and drank Brahma, the local beer. On the way home, Marino stopped at this local burger stand and bought us some delicious burgers.

The next day I felt like I was a consultant or executive on an international business trip. Shortly after arriving at the cooperative, two of the managers gave me a tour of San Juan by car. Upon arrival back at the cooperative, a few of the managers and the general managers all went out to lunch at this really nice restaurant. We all walked the two blocks to the restaurant. Imagine this...the managers are all dressed in power suits, and we’re all walking down the road together. The cooperative is by far the largest and most important institution in San Juan. Many people greeted them as we passed. It kind of felt like I was walking down the street with either important political officials or the mafia. You may think that’s a big jump between mafia and officials but in many countries the lines are blurry and sometimes they are one and the same.

It was the kind of restaurant where the waiters are dressed in nice suits and hold the wine bottle with a towel while gently pouring your glass. It was the kind of restaurant where the chef drizzles a cream on the plate and strategically place parsley for decoration. I had really good pasta and a strawberry dessert. It was a wine glass filled with finely chopped strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate shavings, and this other sweet creamy stuff. AMAZING!!!

Dia de Amistad

July 30th, 2009 was Dia de Amistad (Friendship Day) in Paraguay. This is one of many really cool holidays Paraguay has. Throughout the day everyone was wishing each other Felicidades, or Happy Friendship Day. Certain people exchanged gifts. Someone brought in a few delicious pizzas. I noticed a few people standing around in one of the offices eating something. Then Avelino said, “Brad, eju,” meaning come in here. I did and was invited to partake. I had three slices. You have to keep in mind, things like cake, ice cream, good pizza, desserts, etc... have been very rare events for me up to this point. Most of my food is simple, bland, and I eat the same kinds of things day in and day out. So when I get things like really good pizza, it is an extra special treat for me.

Later, around 3:00 PM, everyone headed to a building out back. I didn’t really know what was going on or what was about to happen, until I saw people carrying food and drinks. At first, I thought it was like a company meeting, but it turned out to be a company party.

Here is how the tradition goes. 15 days before Dia de Amistad, they draw names out of a hat. Then everyone buys a present for their amigo but they don’t reveal who their friend is. Then during the party, everyone sits in a semicircle to begin the gift exchange. The really weird and funny thing about it is that all the girls sat on one side and the guys on the other side. It was like I was at an elementary school dance or something.





Someone starts it by saying something to the effect of, “My friend is someone who is short, very funny, and likes Olympia.” They continue talking about the person as they walk towards them, and then reveal who it is by calling their name, giving them a hug (between men) or kisses (between women and between men and women), and handing them the gift. Then it’s that person’s turn to reveal who their friend is. The process continues until the last person has gone. The atmosphere is amazing. Some give serious speeches but most joke around. Sometimes, they start chanting, “Kiss Kiss Kiss,” and other times the room explodes in laughter after someone’s comments and someone else.

After all the gifts were exchanged, the ladies brought in the food and drinks, and everyone stood around the table eating finger food and pieces of cake. That’s the Paraguayan way. You don’t get your own little plastic plate and napkin. You just pick up what you want to eat, and eat it. It’s actually less wasteful, and is more conducive to a close, friendly atmosphere.

After the party I went home, and was picked up around 6:00 again to go to the cancha to watch the guys play soccer. Once they finished playing, we celebrated Dia de Amistad together by having some beers in the park. After that, Marino took me to a Dia de Amistad BBQ.
Now is a good time to talk about how a lot of Paraguayan BBQs go down. Everyone basically sits in the Paraguayan equivalent of lawn chairs in a circle. A glass of wine and coke or beer is passed around the circle. One man is designated the cook. He mostly attends to the meat on the grill but also partakes in the drinking circle. There could be one of a few meats on the grill. The most popular items are chorizo, which is sausage, and carne de vaca, which is cow meat. I say cow meat instead of beef or steak, because that’s exactly what it is...cow meat. Most times its still on the bone and is full of fat and slimy stuff. Another popular option is to throw a pig head on the grill, which was the case for this particular occasion, along with chorizo. Once the meat is ready, they put it in a large pan in the center of the table. Then everyone pounces on it like lions on antelope. Everyone has a fork and a knife, and you just proceed to cut off pieces. Usually there is something like bread, mandioca, rice, or lettuce and tomatoes, to accompany the meat. When I didn’t immediately pounce on the meat, they encouraged me to hurry up and get in the circle, or risk missing out on the best meat. The Paraguayans know where all the best meat is. One particular nice fellow, would ever so often, slice off a specially chosen piece, and hand it to me.

After eating the pig head and sausage, we sat continued with the drinking while listening to music. Later, a few of the guys started dancing together. It’s all very relaxed. When you have to pee for example, you just walk a few steps away from everyone else, and let it go. After that, Marino drove me home, but when we got there, he was like, “let’s continue the party.” So we went to a little place that was still open, and some of his friends met us there. We continued the party there late into the night, and then one of his sober friends drove me home.

It is a very cool holiday, and I don’t know why we don’t have something like that in the US.

The next day was pretty uneventful. I slept really late, watched a few movies, read some out of a book I was reading entitled, Ismael, and went to the coop later in the afternoon to play on the internet.

Funny Story- The Carrolin catastrophe

The next day was August 1st, and yet another interesting day in Paraguay. The tradition on this day is to take a shot of a drink called Carrolin, which is caña with Ruda plant leaves. You do this to purify your body, clean your blood, and build up defense in your body in preparation for the month of August, which is a bad month full of sicknesses, etc...

Funny story: Obviously I knew nothing about this tradition or the drink before the day began. They told me it was strong, so I waited until mid morning to take my shot. I prepared some water as a chugger in case it was awful. A few people were waiting in anticipation for this gringo, foreigner, to participate in the tradition and take the shot. I think they were waiting to see my reaction. I chugged down a big gulp, and that was that. It was HORRIBLE. It was very strong and sour, and left a nasty taste in my mouth, so nasty that I ended up walking to the pharmacy, and bought a pack of Winterfresh, to take the taste away. It turns out you aren’t supposed to drink the leaves too. You’re supposed to use your mouth to filter the leaves and only drink the Cana. Obviously, I had no way of knowing, and no one told me. They thought it was hilarious, and said they figured I knew. Of course I didn’t. In the end they said it wasn’t dangerous, and I would just have really clean blood, and be strong for the coming month.

Birthday Party at Ranch

That night my soon to be new family, which I found through a co-worker, took me to a birthday party a few miles outside San Juan. It was held at the birthday boy’s ranch. This birthday party was super nice. There were tables set up, waiters, a live band, an open bar, and a spread of food like I hadn’t seen since arriving in Paraguay. Out back, the men were grilling. This consisted of gigantic pieces of lamb, pig, and cow meat on big wooden sticks stuck in the ground in a circle around a big fire. Ever so often they would rotate the sticks so as to grill all sides of the meat.

Inside the ladies were cooking. There was a fish soup, which took me forever to eat, because I had to carefully chew each piece and pick out the tiny little bones. I regretted accepting the invitation to the fish soup, even though it was really good, because it took me so long to eat it that it was awkward because everyone else had finished and all but my new host sister had abandoned me.

When the meat was ready, we all took our plates to where the meat was, and the guys sliced off portions of our choice of meats. I ate every meat available including lamb, which was the most delicious. It was so tender and juicy. You sprinkle a little lemon on top of freshly slaughtered and cooked lamb and whaala, you have yourself a delicious meal.

Speaking of food, I want to give a shout out to Joe McGinnis! There is no way you’re eating more organic than me. Many times, I can literally see my food walking around or growing. Most of my veggies come fresh from home gardens; fruits come from backyards, and meats from local ranches. I’ve talked with a lot of farmers and ranchers, and I know most of what I’m eating is truly organic because they can’t afford the chemicals, and preservatives aren’t used.

Anyway, the birthday party was a blast. I was introduced to a lot of people, listened to good music, ate good food, and even danced a bit. Just another day in Paradise...
All in all, my future site visit was really good. I read a book, watched a few movies, went to several parties, played on the Internet, met my future family and co-workers and began a few friendships.

My general thoughts on the town:

San Juan Bautista is a very nice town in comparison with many places I’ve seen elsewhere in Paraguay. It is almost too nice...I am in the Peace Corps after all, and part of me craves that living poor experience. I mean while on my future site visit I ate delicious desserts, pizza, pasta, and hamburgers. I went to a rich man’s birthday party, was treated to a fancy lunch, and spent a good amount of time in the comfort of a modern air-conditioned office.

It’s not like a huge city and it’s not like a really small town either. I really like the size. There are plenty of people and businesses, but it’s not overwhelming. It’s really clean; there are some paved streets. The people are nice and very welcoming. They are more educated and a bit more sophisticated. There is a pretty rich culture, and I’m told it is very safe.

I don’t think I’ll be able to help the Cooperative too much in the way of their administration, but instead hope to be able to leverage coop resources to reach more humble people surrounding San Juan.

I Killed A Chicken

The last few days have been pretty exciting and fun.

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 – I killed my first chicken!

It was just another normal Thursday until my Mom announced that she was going to kill a chicken and wanted to know if I would do it, since my Dad wasn’t home and she won’t do it. She knew I was down for it because I viewed the killing and preparation of the last chicken, and let them know that I wanted to kill one sometime. Mike had already told me he wanted to see a killing, so the next time we killed a chicken to let him know. I ran down to Mike’s house to tell him that I was about to “matar.” He was actually next-door at Liz’s having a drink. I show up at Liz’s to let him know, and Liz, Carlos, and Mary were also there. They finished up their drinks; we played a few songs by System of a Down to get me pumped, and we headed out.

We arrived and by this time my Dad was back. I changed clothes, so I wouldn’t dirty up the pants that Mike was going to borrow the next day, and then headed out back to do the deed. Much to my surprise, my Mom reached into a bag and handed me a chicken and then reached in a pulled out another. Then she turned to Carlos and invited him to kill one too. He was said, “No Gracias,” but Mike said, “Podria Yo (Could I).” He was soo excited.

I’ll save you the gory details, but suffice it to say that Mike and I loss our chicken killing virginity together in Paraguay on July 2nd, 2009.

Friday, July 3rd, 2009 – Mercado Abasto, Incoop, and Embassy Visit

We woke up early on Friday morning to go to Asunción for the day. We arrived to Mercado Abasto, Paraguay’s largest produce market, by about 7:00. We spoke with someone there about the operations of the market, and then explored for a while.

After that we went to INCOOP. Think of INCOOP as the SEC of Cooperatives in Paraguay. We were supposed to speak with the President, but in true Paraguayan fashion, he didn’t show up, so we spoke with the Head Project Coordinator. We had a really interesting conversation, which was followed by a tour of every floor and almost every office in the building, including the President’s. I snapped some good photos and we were off to the Embassy for a 4th of July party.

I forgot my Peace Corps ID at home, and to make matters worse had no form of identification at all so I thought they wouldn’t let me in. Much to my surprise, they let me just walk right through. All I had to do was tell them I was a Peace Corps trainee, and write my name on a piece of paper.

The party was really fun. I definitely overindulged. I had 2 hamburgers, 1 hotdog, Ice cream, 4 brownies, 3 cookies, this other chocolate treat, and several drinks. After stuffing our faces with delicious American-like food, we pretty much just walked around meeting different people, mostly volunteers and some embassy workers. Some people played volleyball, others played a bit of soccer, but most people just sat at tables and talked.

Around 5, we walked back to the old blue van, piled in, and headed home.

Saturday, July 4th, 2009- Happy 4th of July!!!

I woke up on the morning of July 4th thinking about what I would likely being doing if I were at home and with whom. I thought about how I usually meet up with Clint Shelton to go to the same party every year on the lake. We eat amazing food (like these incredible spicy meatballs), and then shoot off a ton of fireworks that night. I remember one 4th of July, I was on the road back home from Arizona, and I could see fireworks in the sky as I drove down the interstate. I stopped off in Tennessee to spend the rest of the night of the 4th with Jeff. I was thinking of my friends back home and what they probably were doing, and I wondered if by chance my empty space was noticed. So if you’re reading this Clint Shelton, I miss you man, and I hope you ate enough for the both of us, and shot off my portion of the fireworks.

I had a pretty fun July 4th nevertheless. For most of the day, I played with the kids in the family. We created a basketball court beside the house, and I taught them how to play. We drew lines in the dirt to make the perimeter of the court, and then we set up a barrel at each end of the court. Paulo, Jessica, Jacquelin, Mary, Junior, and I played. We had a ton of fun. Later on, I started hanging out with all the guys near where my brothers work. We started drinking. Mike and Carlos came over, and all of us played volleyball in the pouring rain and then took refuge in the shed where we drank, joked, and made beats on the bottoms of barrels.

Dia de San Juan

Dia de San Juan is a big holiday in Paraguay, and as far as I know, every other predominantly Catholic country.

I think the premise is something like San Juan can’t see anything you do on this day, and San Juan liked games and fire. So all over the country, people throw parties to honor this saint. Even though there is a specific day, the festivities start shortly before the actual day and continue for a week or so afterwards. They have a ton of traditional games and food to go along with the holiday. The kids celebrate at school during the day with games like draw the tail on the pig (a variant of pin the tail on the donkey), piñata but with ceramic pots instead of piñatas, and some of the pots contain water, others flour, and some candy. Another game is like a sac race.

At night the adults celebrate. In one game, they wrap a soccer ball in pantyhose, set it on fire, and then play a game of soccer with the ball of fire. This is crazy to see especially when three or four balls are going at once. Balls of Fire are flying all over the place. One ball came flying towards me but missed by about a foot or so. Another game is to grease up a long pole and put prizes at the top. People have to try to climb to the top to get the prizes, but they can’t get a grip so they keep falling down. I hear a common strategy used is to create a human staircase. They couldn’t manage to get to the top of the pole during the one I saw, so they just shook it until it fell down. While the activities are going on there is a designated person dressed as a bull, whose horns are set afire. The bull then runs through the crowd and tries to cause chaos. But his whole mission is to get Caña and cigarettes, which are guarded by someone with a stick. Anytime the bull gets close, the guard pelts him with the stick. The bull has to try to wait until the guard is distracted to have a chance to go grab his Caña and cigarettes, which are usually located in a hole. These are but a few of the fun and totally safe games played during San Juan. The Kambá are a designated group of people who participate in all the games. They come to the party dressed either as a woman or in costumes that are like a cross between Tacky Day and Halloween. Then they proceed to dance and grope all over each other and just generally run amok. They play fight, fall down, scare kids and girls, and harass adults for coins, cigarettes, and Caña. After dancing a while, they go out and play the games I was talking about before. There are also foods typical to the holiday. I don’t remember much about them except for the fact that they are, like most foods in Paraguay, fried and consist mostly of carb-based ingredients.

Parties are held at parks, houses, schools, and even Churches. The schools will organize a San Juan party in which the children will start the night off by dancing traditional Paraguayan dances while dressed in traditional Paraguayan outfits. Then the Kambá will come out and dance, play the games, and run amok. All this is followed by a normal dance. During all the activities, refreshments (popcorn, beer, sodas, empanadas, mbeju, sticks with meat on them, etc...) are sold.