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