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 5th 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.
December 8th 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.
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.
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.
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:
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!
Cousin Cesar, Yohanna, cousin Marcia and friend walking with a mission.
And walking…
Entrance of Itacúa.
People sleeping, people waiting.
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