Jaha!

This week at work it was back to the office. I spent some time processing evaluations from the past two Global Village volunteer teams, some time translating some materials and some time shadowing different people on staff; an architect and Pepa, the Coordinator of the project ‘Sirviendo a Colaboradores’, a program that collaborates with businesses and companies to provide new homes, additions or home repairs for their employees.

I continue to not entirely understand how things get scheduled at the office, whether an official outlook calendar situation does not exist or if I am just not included it. It results in a lot of “okay, Nicole you’re going to go with this person to this place for this amount of time and you leave now”. Sometimes one or more of those items is left out or I miss it in translation. There are also times I don’t know what we’re doing until after we get there. I’ve found it helps to have a “Jaha” attitude. Jaha is one of the few Guaraní words I’ve learned. It basically means “let’s go” and has been the attitude I’ve tried adopt in relation new things, different experiences or lack of a comprehensible schedule.

Friday, December 5^th was the International Day of Volunteers. Habitat threw an event at a bar downtown. It was my first time seeing much of the nightlife downtown. The event started at 8, but no one showed up until almost 10, so I brought out my deck of cards out and taught Laura, Milena and Pepa how to play ‘Asshole’. Explaining it in Spanish I’m pretty sure they were convinced I was making up rules the first couple rounds but then got the hang of it. The event was nice, but incredibly difficult with loud music in a crowded bar, to understand people. I think I had a full conversation with someone in which they asked a question, I responded with an answer to a completely different question, they said something I didn’t understand and I just continued to talk about whatever I had been saying before, repeat. Other than loud bars I am have more significant conversations and pick up on at least the topic of conversations happening around me.

Laura, Milena, Pepa and me before any volunteers showed up. 

December 8^th is a National Holiday, the Día del Virgen de Caacupe. Luckily this year it fell on a Monday, making it a 3-day weekend. I went with Mary, Basilio and Yohanna to visit some of their family in Encarnacion, a city in the south of Paraguay, about 5 hours from Asuncion, because Jaha. Basilio’s parents and two brothers all live in Encarnacion or the campo surrounding it.

We left super early Saturday and arrived in time to have lunch with his parents. They have a modest house on a large plot of land with a stream that runs through it. 

"Nicole, want to take a stroll down this stream?" "Jaha!"

Basilio’s older brother lives “next door” which is more like “the next farm over”. He owns about 16,000 chickens and sell eggs and chickens for a living. They also grow the majority of their own vegetables and have a fishpond in the back, where I caught my first real fish! A tilapia that we had for dinner the next night. 

That time I caught a tilapia, grilled it and ate it! Jaha. 

Saturday night we all went to Basilio’s younger brother’s house in the city, he owns a business and was having a holiday party for all of his employees. Dinner wasn’t served until about 11:30pm but the meat there was some of the best I’d had since I’d been in Paraguay, specifically the lamb. The whole family was incredibly warm and welcoming. They made me feel truly comfortable, like I was part of their family.

Also beers in Paraguay are as big as my head. Yes, of course I have my cuse koozie. Jaha.

On Sunday I went to visit some of the Jesuit Ruins of the area and then went to the “beach” along the Río Paraná. 

Me, cousin Nadia and Yohanna at the ruins. 

Beachin. 

For dinner we had my tilapia (along with three others and an 8-kilo fish that was actually what most people ate). After dinner I went with Yohanna and two of her cousins to Encarnacion’s version of the Virgen De Caacupe. We walked about 12 kilometers along the Camino a Itacúa to the sanctuary of the Virgin of Itacúa…starting at midnight. Jaha. The whole experience was so interesting and I am still trying to digest it. It started out with a couple other groups of people along the route, to Mardi Gras sized crowds so heavy that cars couldn’t get by. Upon arrival in Itacúa there were venders almost like a carnival or a fair. We arrived at about 2:30am and there had to have been tens of thousands of people there. We waited about 45 minutes in a line that barely moved to see the Sanctuary, spoiler alert: it’s a small statue of the Virgin Mary in a cave-like rock formation along the river. There were thousands of people sleeping on the lawn waiting to see it in the morning, for this it almost seemed like a music festival…without the tents. And this isn’t even the main destination for the Día del Virgen, I kept thinking, “Caacupe must be insane. THIS is insane!”. For some it is a truly religious experience, for others it’s something to do because other people are doing it. For me, as someone who likes to be a part of things, I was certainly right in the middle of one of the most significant parts of Paraguayan culture. I was incredibly glad that I had jaha’d when asked if I wanted to go for an 8 km walk that started at midnight, despite the fact that we didn’t get back until 4:30am. Words and pictures can’t describe this phenomenon, but here’s an attempt:

Cousin Cesar, Yohanna, cousin Marcia and friend walking with a mission. 

And walking…

Entrance of Itacúa. 

People sleeping, people waiting. 

Part of the waiting, at least the view was nice. Hard to tell from this photo but the moon was almost full, and those lights are Argentina. 

There she is!

The Rest of Thanksgiving Week

A little behind here, internet wasn’t working at the house on my laptop, and the wifi a the office was down.

Thanksgiving week we had a group of wonderful Global Village volunteers who gave up Thanksgiving with their families and loved ones to spend the week in Paraguay building a new home for Señor Victor, his wife Edith and their three children. I got to spend the entire week with them starting from their first meeting at the Hotel Sunday night, the entire week at the worksite to a City Tour on Saturday and on my day off went Zip-lining with them on Sunday. It was an “open” Global Village trip, which meant the volunteers were from all over the US, ages 20 to 70+ with a mix of first-time Habitaters to some who had been on 20+ Global Village builds.

Several volunteers in the group spoke some Spanish so I wasn’t as needed on site, and wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself the first day. I didn’t want to take anything away from the volunteers, but after about 30 minutes of waiting around in case anything needed to be translated between the masons and the volunteers, I got bored and picked up a shovel. I was probably equally as useful as a translator as I was for being young(er) and strong(er) and able to help with some of the heavier tasks. That being said, it definitely made for an exhausting week.

End of the week. Global Village volunteers and masons with Señor Victor, Edith and their children in front. This was barely a hole in the dirt when they started on Monday. 

Hand turkeys and thank you notes I helped the kids make for the volunteers during lunch on Thanksgiving. 

I accompanied the group to dinner Wednesday night at a harp school (something that started when the group from the St. Vrain Habitat affiliate came to Paraguay last October, and has been done with every volunteer group since!). It was a lovely evening with the owner of the school, his son the teacher, and three of their top students who were all in their early to mid-teens. They played beautifully, everything from traditional Guaraní songs to Coldplay to Billy Joel. The owner’s wife made a delicious spread of Parguayan food: Sopa Paraguaya, chipa, yuka, potato salads and carne asada on the BBQ. His daughter also performed a traditional Paraguay dance in which she balanced a glass bottle on her head while wearing a gorgeous ñandutí (Paraguayan embroidered lace) dress. After eating the volunteers had an opportunity to take their turn trying the harp. I think the best I heard from one of them was twinkle twinkle little star.

Arpa Róga.

Bottle dancing in ñandutí dress.

Thursday night was the birthday of one of the women who works at Habitat so I went out and enjoyed my Thanksgiving dinner at TGI Fridays, famous also in Paraguay for their 2 for 1 Happy Hour drink special. There were about 8 people at dinner and keeping up with their conversation in a loud restaurant was nearly impossible. Afterwards we walked to a bar in the cute neighborhood called Carmelitas that had salsa dancing and live music, but didn’t start until 11. When we got there at 9:30 it was dead, and unbelievable how many people showed up between 11 and midnight, which is when I left. Two of the volunteers from the group came out too, and as one of them put it, “it’s always fun to see how the locals shake it” literally. I was under the impression that we were going to be dancing but going to a salsa bar in Paraguay, it turns out, is for watching. I think more people may have started dancing after we left since it was so “early”.

Music at the salsa bar. 

On Saturday I accompanied the group on their city tour and to the market downtown. Some of it I had been to before and but I was able to learn more about the history of the city and had the opportunity to watch the changing of the guards at 10am on Saturday in the main plaza of the downtown area. Saturday afternoon/evening I prepared Thanksgiving dinner (see previous post). Sunday I went with some of the volunteers on an adventure tour they had scheduled (separate from the actual Habitat portion of their trip) and invited me to come along. Most of the volunteers who spoke Spanish had left by that point and it was actually great that I went because the driver didn’t speak any English, nor did the staff at the Adventure company, so I found myself thrown on the spot translating the history of zip-lining and general safety information. Afterwards we went on a short boat-ride and had lunch at a German restaurant called Alemana, famous for their pastries, bollo, which greatly resemble powdered jelly donuts.

Changing of the guards outside the Monumento a Los Heroes. 

German pastries. This one's for you, Mom. Enjoying some bollo at Alemana! 

Overall it was a great week, I don’t know that my Spanish improved a ton but I proved to be somewhat useful throughout the week and especially on Saturday and Sunday when Laura and Milena were not around. It was a busy week with tiring work during the day and events at night, which, after 3 weeks of being away from my busy life at home, I can say is just how I like to live life. There are times when I can appreciate a routine but overall I really enjoy having a plan with a plethora of things to do. #todaslascosas #allthethings

Día de Acción de Gracias

16 Steps to preparing Thanksgiving Dinner in Paraguay

1. Tell host family you would like to cook a large traditional American meal for them
2. Brainstorm with host family if there are any markets that sell Turkey
3. Research Thanksgiving menus and gather old menus from Dad
4. Translate ingredients into Spanish
5. Convert gallons, lbs, and cups into liters and kilograms for shopping purposes
6. Go to the grocery store that is farther away because it has the Turkey
7. Gather ingredients (READ: Make due with what is available) through explaining ingredients to host Mom when translation from google translate didn’t work and come to the conclusion that A) YES said ingredient exists, B) NO it does not exist in this country or C) I am unable to sufficiently explain “celery” any other way than “vegetable” “green” “long and skinny” “no leaves like lettuce”
8. Turkey basically defrosts in the car on the way home because it’s 95 degrees out with 95% humidity
9. Turn oven on. A task that is incredibly painful, see #8.
10. For cooking purposes convert cups, Tbsp, and tsp into small mug, big spoon and small spoon from the kitchen
11. Cook for 4 straight hours, covered in sweat, see #8.
12. Recruit a helper, because maybe starting to cook Thanksgiving dinner at 5pm wasn't the best idea.
13. Explain the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving using a 5-year-old’s language abilities, while trying to remember everything I knew about Thanksgiving when I was 5.
14. Explain I have no idea why Thanksgiving is the last Thursday of November, but after this experience I’d guess it has something to do with #8.
15. Go around the table and share what you are thankful for.
16. Eat (at 9pm - normal dinner time), Drink (wine without the ice and coke for today) and Be Merry! Then eat pie. 

Shopping List

This may have been the first time I'd ever cooked a Turkey

Helper Yohanna

It worked!

I am thankful for this wonderful family who have opened up their home and shared their lives with me. 

SUCCESS!

Three Miracles

Because I am selfish and uncreative, I am stealing this title from my grandmother, who used to use it to tell the story of her and my great grandparents’ escape from Nazi Germany. I realize the blog entry of my second week in Paraguay is not worthy of such a title, but it felt like three miracles.

On Monday, after another monotonous day in the office, it must have seemed like something was wrong, because during our run in the Botanic Gardens Mary asked me if I had been bored at work. I tried to respond respectfully with, it’s not that I’m bored necessarily, just that I don’t talk to anyone during the day. I think she understood immediately and expressed that she wanted me to enjoy my experience, and that if something wasn’t working we could change it. I hope that I effectively communicated that I wanted to help the affiliate wherever their need for me was most but also wanted to understand the affiliate as a whole. The next day Mary, my supervisor, Azucena, and Milena, the Volunteer Coordinator took a look at my work plan and collectively realized that I did not actually need to be in Paraguay to do any of the things on it. She said it was Milena’s idea to have me spend more time with volunteers, so I am spending the entire week of November 23^rd in the field with the Global Village team.

The whole week got better from there. I spent the majority of Wednesday with Milena and Laura getting tools from the worksites the week before and taking them to the worksite for the next week. I got to spend about 6 hours in a truck with them and learned a ton about Habitat Paraguay’s Volunteer Program, their strengths, weaknesses, and goals. It was interesting to compare volunteer programs; they were both very interested in how things work at our affiliate. Milena was especially interested since she will be leading the first ever “reverse” Global Village trip when a group of Paraguayans come to Colorado to help with Flood Recovery builds next summer. I was also able to learn some about each of them. It was great to spend the day practicing speaking Spanish, rather than just reading it.

This week my Spanish has continued to improve but group settings are still incredibly difficult for me to understand. Thursday morning (this is the day of miracles) I overhead a conversation that I was not a part of, understood what was happening, offered a solution and they took it! Miracle number one. Then someone from the family services department asked if I wanted to attend an orientation with her, so I could learn more about that side of the organization as well. I ended up having lunch with her and two other people from that department and kept up with the conversation for at least 15 minutes! Miracle two. After that the lunchroom was completely empty but rather than sitting there depressed and alone I watched the Pitch Perfect 2 trailer (thanks Lara, Laura and Melissa for each sending it to me separately). Yes, my third miracle is the Pitch Perfect 2 trailer and I am okay with that.

This week I also got the opportunity to see a several new towns including Y’pacarai, Guarambare, Limpio, Luque, and J. Agosto Saldivar (all of which I’m still working on pronouncing, specifically the first two, which are in Guaraní) between the errands for the worksites and the two family services meetings I attended. Mariene, the family services employee who took me around with her, was happy to answer my questions and shared tons of information about everything from working with the families, to the cities and towns we went through to government and policy. I had my first experience with a family that spoke almost entirely Guaraní, which still sounds like garbled vocal inflections lacking any actual pronounced syllables to me, but at least I can tell the difference between that and Spanish.

Family services orientations happen in libraries in Paraguay too!

Saturday I went with Katrina to the town of Caacupé, famous for their Basilica with the largest sanctuary in the country. December 8^th is the day of the Virgin of Caacupé in which thousands of Parguayans make the 50-kilometer pilgrimage from Asuncion to the Basilica in Caacupé to touch a statue of the Virgin Mary. The basilica was very impressive with stained glass windows and an observatory deck with a great view of the region.

Basilico de Caacupé from the front. 

Basilico from above. 

Outside the Basilico. 

Sunday I meet the Global Village team and get to start working with them on Monday!

Oh yeah, I also did this. Juegos del Hambre.  

Ciao for now!