Expect the unexpected! On August 13, I was all packed to go the graduate school in the Netherlands when, after a week of desperate searching, I came to the horrible conclusion that the student loan I had planned to take out for my living expenses in 2011-2012 did not exist! As it turns out, that particular school is not on the US government's list of approved schools for government student loans. And since reputable banks use that list as well, I couldn't even get a private student loan. The decision I had to make was painful, but clear: I cancelled my flight and started planning (AGAIN) to go to graduate school in Davis, California.

After a couple weeks of long-distant grunt work, I had a position teaching Spanish at the university that offset most of my costs, and a signed lease for a home not far from campus. I arrived on the 5th of September (with a nasty case of poison ivy--hello student health services!) and started getting to know my new home.

Now, one month later, I've gotten my California driver's license, my voter's registration, the essential bike to get myself around town, and even a membership at the local food cooperative. As a foodie, I fit right in in Davis. On Saturday mornings you can find me at the infamous famer's market grabbing mark-down fruit and samples of expensive cheeses and desserts. On Sunday afternoons you'll find me at the free food recovery picnic in the park (grocery stores, bakeries, etc donate foods that they legally have to throw away, even though they are still perfectly good). And inevitably once or twice a week my cohort has a potluck dinner party. Yum! I have a great cohort of 22 other new students in my program (titled International Agricultural Development) and 11 students who are in their second year of study. At least 6 of us were Peace Corps volunteers, and there's 15 or so international students. One of the guys was a volunteer with me in Paraguay! Needless to say, we are all pretty like-minded and get along very well. In fact, last weekend the 2nd year students organized a camping trip for us to the beautiful foothills of the Capay Valley, about 1.5 hours from Davis. It was my first time out of Davis since I arrived, and I soaked in the views. Even though Davis is very green, it is also very flat (perfect for biking). Getting out into the country made me realize how much I was missing the mountains. It was also a great chance to relax, get to know my fellow students, and get some good advice from the 2nd year students.

I really enjoy teaching my 26 Spanish I students (especially because they call me Profesora), although the required teaching course I have for 4 hours a week is a bit over the top. Fortunately, even if I continue teaching Spanish (let's hope!) I won't have to take that course ever again. The other 3 classes I attend every week are all for my own major: Soil Science, Vegetable Crop Management, and Agricultural Development. The Veg crop management course is highly interactive: we spent 4 hours a week in the fields growing broccoli! Ag Development is quite philosophical, and soil science is forcing me to dredge up knowledge from high school chem class. While the change of pace has been a challenge for me, I admit that it is pretty nice to give my brain a challenge once again after 3 years vegetating in a South American hammock.

It is hard to be in a bad mood in a place like Davis. It's always sunny, and you're never sitting still for very long; to get from here to there, you strap on your helmet and pedal away! That's enough to get your blood pumping, and to stave off those extra potluck dinner calories.

I spoke with my host mother in Paraguay yesterday, and she told me they are all quite concerned that there will soon be unrest in their country. The president is ill with lymphoma, and has turned over power to his Vice-President, who is of a different political party. Especially given recent events in Ecuador, the Paraguayans are fearing that a change in power will bring some type of uprising or coup d'etat. Please keep them in your thoughts!

That's all for now! Thanks for reading.

WoW! Sorry for the long silence. A lot has happened since my last blog that you really need to be filled in on! I enjoyed a full 2 weeks roaming around Buenos Aires and the surrounding province of Buenos Aires. I enjoyed visiting the provincial capital, La Plata, as well as a small town on the river delta called Tigre. During my third week in Argentina, I took a three-hour boat ride across the La Plata river to Uruguay, where I visited the gorgeous riverside (it feels like it is seaside, the river is huge!) colonial-period village of Colonia, as well as the capital, Montevideo. Surprisingly, Uruguay enjoys a slightly higher quality of life and a much more transparent government than Argentina. Accordingly, I found Uruguay to be a middle ground among all the extremes of Argentina. Whereas Argentina is boycotts and high fashion and extravagent meals, Uruguay is average citzens going to work and spending time with their families. That said, it was also a good bit more expensive for the tourist than Argentina was, and I ended up leaving a day early because of the unexpected expenses.

Returning to Buenos Aires, I still had a week left before my flight to the US and was feeling bored and missing my "family" back in Paraguay immensely. On a whim, I decided to take the 20-hour bus ride back to Asuncion to visit with Enrique and Mirna(his sister) for a few more days. It was an incredibly happy and unexpected reunion. To celebrate, we made (of course) all the typical Paraguayan foods that I knew I'd be missing in the months to come. The days with my near and dear seemed to slip by far too fast. Poignantly, my last day in Paraguay I spent at Enrique and Mirna's house while they were both at work. This just happened to be the day Paraguay faced off with Japan in the world cup, and I watched along with the rest of the country throughout the incredibly suspensful game! After a full game and overtime, both teams were playing excellently and there were still no goals made. Finally, the penalty kicks started, and Paraguay emerged victorious. It was clear that the Japanese were crushed. Yet I agreed deeply with the announcer when he said that this poor little South American country had suffered so many letdowns, setbacks, and wrongs, that they truly deserved and needed a little boost. Paraguay was in the top 8! The post-game commentary was nearly as exciting as the game itself. All around me, I could hear people throughout the city cheering and setting off guns and fireworks--it was like New Year's! On TV, I could see that the downtown area of Asuncion was filled with the largest gathering of Paraguayans in one place in history. Both in South Africa and in Asuncion, Paraguayans were literally dancing, singing, cheering, and hailing their flags in front of the cameras. I've never seen so much Paraguayan emotion at once. From such a humble people, such a huge victory was incredibly moving.

I went back to Buenos Aires just a day before my flight back the Washington DC. There, after nearly 3 years, I finally reunited with my dad, mother, brothers, and of course, the family dog. Again, very appropriately, I arrived just in time to celebrate July 4th in the good ol' US of A!

Since then, I've been busy sifting through the boxes of things I'd left behind, giving away the old and purchasing the new. I have been catching up with old friends, as well as more than 2 years worth of unanswered mail, unattended bank accounts, delayed doctors appointments, and other general management tasks. I've been helping out at the ice cream shop where I held my first job at the age of 15 (lucky for me minimum wage has gone up since then!). I've been spending a lot of quality time with my brothers. And I just got LASIK surgery! (Finally, no more glasses!!!) To top it all off, I've been getting ready for graduate school!

I have been admitted and registered to study International Agricultural Development at the University of California beginning this fall. On top of that, I also found out recently that I have received a full-tuition scholarship to study Agriculture at Wageningen University in the Netherlands! While Wageningen is definitely the better option financially, I am keeping both options open for now since there may be visa issues with the Netherlands. If I do end up going to Europe for school, I will be leaving around August 16!

I will keep you abreast of my final grad school decision.

Thanks again for reading about my adventures in Paraguay. I hope you've taken something valuable away from my attempts at communicating my experiences.

Cheers!

Megan

Filigrina jewelry in the artisans´museum. See the bees?

I love how the conch shell and feathers were worked into this. I would buy this one!

The streets of Retiro, richest neighborhood of BsAs

Display of dry goods storage from one of Evita´s children´s homes. I took this photo thinking of Annalese and her organizational kitchen wayS!

Evita Peron museum included displayes of her famous attire

An inexplicably twisted tree in the botanical garden

The first metro cart in South America, still running in BA.

I´ve found several of these markers around the city honoring where people kidnapped by the corrupt government were taken into hiding

The congress building and plaza

Who knew my little Paraguayan village was a principal street in BA?

The Casa Rosada (literally pink house), the president´s office.

Enrique and Mirna as seen from bus window leaving Asuncion forever...or for now.

Did I mention Enrique stepped through the patio of Mírna´s house with his FOOT...into the sewage tank below....the night before I left? Luckily his injuries were minor. Status of sewage tank: smelly.

The Peace Corps office farwell photos: the barbecue area.

PC Office as seen from parking area

PC office parking area

PC office mail room

PC office library

Enrique at the wheel on the retired war boat on display downtown

The president´s office building/mansion in Asuncion

The retired war boat, from the outside

Pantheon is on guard 24hrs a day

Enrique and his mom inside the pantheon

The remains of paraguay´s great "heroes" inside the pantheon

Ana Paula enjoying the luxurious furniture in the big city at Enrique´s birthday party. Na Pabla and Mirna standing near guests.

Typical Paraguayan spread: corn casserole, meat, more meat, and coke.

Chipa, my special final request, ready to go in the oven.

Hanging out with dear friend Amy at the Alpes hotel 1 week before my departure

View from my doctor´s apartment dowtown: she invited us over for a cooking session!

Vista over Asuncion

Vista over Asuncion

Paraguayan money

One of the main plazas in downtown Asuncion

Another main plaza, with the pantheon in the background

So. I left Paraguay on Thursday as planned. It was pretty traumatic. We all held ourselves together in a fake kind of way right up until I got on the bus to Buenos Aires and was looking out the window at Enrique and Mirna. Enrique put the hood of the sweatshirt I´d given him for his birthday up and started sobbing--which means I let the sobs go myself. Mirna is usually so stiff-upper-lip (she is 7 years older than me, too) but even she had to break down and hug poor sniffly Enrique. So we wave and wave until we are out of sight, and at the embarrasement of all the people around me in the bus I continued to cry noisily until we passed the bridge into Argentina. There was no going back!

I got to BA (Buenos Aires) Friday around 11am. I thought the adventure was over; I was saying goodbye to the world of weird and thought I would be now back in a world more familiar to my instincts. But no! Suddenly, little old ladies and small children were more frightened by my winking atthem than pleased. No body turned around in the street to have a second look at me. Every time I talked to fill in time gaps people gave me a look that said, "Too much information..." And most of all, NO ONE COULD UNDERSTAND WHAT I WAS SAYING!! I could understand me, and I could understand them, yet I could see on their faces that they were struggling to comprehend my words. It started when grabbed a taxi from the station to where I was staying. The driver immediately asked if I was Paraguayan. After some quick calculations I determined that I MUST have gotten a Paraguayan accent because he had no other reason or way of knowing where I was coming from! And he was only the first of many. The worst is when people say, "What a shame to hear an Paraguayan accent from such a pretty girl." (AS you can imagine, Paraguayans are little more than unwanted immigarnts to the Argentines.) I´ve been listening to myself talk ever since, and I still can´t here what is distinctly Paraguayan about my Spanish. Oh well.

Anyway, I arrived uneventfully in the house I´m staying at. I opted for a family home that lets rooms to students and tourists on the long term. I am really happy with it! I feel like Im in the lap of luxury after being in Paraguay; HOT HOT showers, central heat, all the kitchen utensils you could ask for, 4 supermarkets, 10 bus lines and 2 metro stops within 2 blocks of here.

The house is huge; I see and hear other people around but can´t quite figure out where they sleep at night or when they are actually in or out of the house. It has 6 stories! On the ground floor the parents run a store (this is nice because they are out of the hosue and yet "around" all day). The next level is the living room, this computer, a phone, and the kitchen. Then there is my bedroom, two others, and a bathroom we share. Next is a kind of a loft between two actual floors, and it is a bedroom. The next floor up has two more bedrooms, a bathroom, and the laundry room. Finally up on top of the roof is where you hang clothes to dry and they also have a barbe cue for summer. Of course, each story has a balcony to the street as well. That said, it´s not like a mansion, nor is the family rich. They are definitely middle class, and that is probably why I am so comfortable here. It is cheaper than a hostel or hotel, and it has all the comforts of home. I even have my own shelf in the fridge and I can cook here, which makes eating a lot cheaper than it would be in restaurants all the time. Monday I got busy making homemade bread, carrot cake, and toasted granola--now I really feel at home! It took a day for my hosts to warm up to me. Understandably, they´ve seen a lot of people come and go, and my Paraguayan-acquired weird accent and overfriendliness probably threw them as well.. But once I made it clear I would be happy to have a bit of a relationship with them, hear about their lives and talk about mine, share the food I´ve made, etc, they more than opened up and have been very accomodating and helpful to me in every way. They especially seemed to like that I spent a day at home baking.

Oh right, the rest of BA! Well basically I have been trying to take it just a little at a time and not burn myself out on long days tramping around the city. So far, I have visited the Casa Rosada (like the White House) and the surrounding plazas and governments buildings, the Obelisk and 9 de Julio (the widest street in the world), the Congress and surrounding area, the botanical garden, the city park, the Evita Peron museum, an artesan museum, plus many insundry plazas, famous streets, and special spots in town. I´ve also spent a bit of downtime siting in the parks and plazas reading or just watching the people go by. Sometimes I just wander around a particular area, checking out the city life and what there is to be seen. I´ve gone to several supermarkets to try to get a feel for food availability and prices. I´ve also gone to a couple restaurants that my guidebooks recommended. However, not as many as I´d hoped, since prices seem to have gone up significantly since the guide book was written and since I was in Cordoba, Argentina in 2005. The locals tell me food prices have practically doubled since 2005, and even right now you can´t get sugar, even in the supermarkets! Apparently all the sugar factories in the country are on strike.

Lastly, I have been pleasantly surprised by the weather. After being consistendly frozen out in Paraguay, I was less than enthused about heading even closer to the south pole. Its amazing, however, what running between one headed space and the next does for you. It´s been in the 50´s a 60´s the whole time I´ve been here, just like in Paraguay. However, since the house is heated, the buses and metro are headed, and just about every other structure you go into is heated, your body has a chance to recollect heat every once in a while and I never feel uncomfortable wearing just a sweater, scarf, and gloves. Not to mention that the Argentines are no early birds likely to catch a frosty settling of dew! Breakfast is 9-10am, lunch 2-3, dinner after 9 no exceptions! As my host told me, they don´t get up before 3pm on Sundays. I can´t say I´d adapted to this (I kind of like having the morning to myself) but I do try not to get up before 7, since even the supermarkets don´t open before 8.30m.

Well that´s it for now people. Buenos Aires: one more little stepping stone on my path to reverse culture shock, USA. Enjoy the photos!

So I'm leaving Paraguay on Thursday. Maybe forever! Who knows? But this weekend has definitely been the way to go. My host mom (Enrique and Mirna's mom) came into the city with Ana Paula and Esther (their other sister) on Thursday. It is a HUGE event for a housewife to leave her house. This was truly tremendous. And it was also a wonderful way to force this hardworking lady into a little down time! I spent the day with them Friday while Mirna and Enrique were at work. We talked, sipped tea, went to the supermarket, and started getting ready for that evening's fabulous festivities: Enrique's birthday party! We made brownies, cheesy corn casserole, chipa, and of course pork, sausage, and beef on the grill. Fabulous!

The next morning I waved goodbye to my dear Ana Paula and Esther for the last time through several bouts of tears. Enrique and I then took him mom off to downtown, where we showed her the government palaces, the plazas, the markets, the pantheon, and took her to visit Mirna at her job. We took her to a restaurant before heading home. Again, this was a huge thing for her: riding city buses, being in the capital, visiting the river (in a landlocked country), taking pictures, eating a meal out, etc. Whew! That evening, Mirna took her to get her hair done and buy some jewelry. Again, out of this world for her.

Sunday morning I said my goodbyes to my beloved host mom, and after a late lunch Enrique and I went downtown again to meet up with my dear friend Amy. We walked around town for a while, and accidently came across a retired war boat from times past that had been brought up the river and opened to tour. It was fun for Amy and I, but getting on a boat for Enrique was positively monumental. We got a lot of pictures! I only wish it had been there the day before for my host mom to see.

This week, I've been whittling my belonings down to the few that will fit in my suitcase and otherwise closing up shop. In the evenings Enrique and I share as much fun as we can: go jogging or to the supermarket together, or making a special treat like fritters or french fries to share.

In a few minutes I will be turning in my cell phone and saying goodbye to the Peace Corps office forever. Mirna and Enrique are both trying to get off work for my monumental goodbye on Thursday evening, when I'll be taking a bus to Buenos Aires for a vacation before heading home.

I can't believePeace Corps is over. This is Crazy!

So this is what I've been working on for the past couple months. It's going to be a guide for future volunteers, hopefully.

*This work in its entirety and all of its parts are property of Megan MacKenna Mayzelle and may not be reprinted without permission. All rights reserved. When used as an information resource please cite accordingly.*

Creating Permanent Cultures

A guide to sustainable farming for nutritional independence

By Megan MacKenna Mayzelle

Peace Corps Paraguay Volunteer

2007-2010

Table of Contents

Introduction.............................3-11

Extension Work in Permaculture...4

The Conversion Process................6

Knowledge for Success...........13-70

Animals.....................................13-35

Cow: Milk Cow/Steer................16/17

Sheep: Ewe/Ram.......................17/18

Goat: Doe/Billy ........................18/19

Pig: Sow/Boar............................19/20

Chicken: Hen/Rooster................20/21

Duck: Female/Male.......................22

Turkey: Hem/Tom..........................23

Rabbit: Doe/Buck..................... 24/25

Fish.................................................25

Bees................................................27

Quail...............................................33

Worm bed.......................................34

Plants.........................................36-50

Pasture............................................36

Green Manures...............................40

Garden............................................41

Crops..............................................44

Trees...............................................46

Energy.......................................51-62

Biodigestor.....................................51

Compost Latrine.............................55

Solar Oven......................................58

Solar Dryer.....................................58

Hot Box...............................................59

Solar Shower or Bath.........................59

Rainwater Tank..................................60

Parasite Prevention and Treatment.....63

Internal Parasites...............................63

Lice and Mange..................................63

Ticks...................................................63

Burrowing Flies..................................63

Specialty Product Recipes.............64-70

Yogurt..................................................64

Cheese.................................................65

Ricotta.................................................65

Butter..................................................66

Cultured Buttermilk............................66

Ice Cream............................................66

Lip Balm and Skin Cream...................67

Propolis Potion...................................67

Candles...............................................67

Honey Wine.........................................67

Citrus Wine.........................................68

Mango Chutney...................................68

Sauerkraut...........................................68

Ginger Carrots....................................69

Pickles.................................................69

Jelly and Preserves.............................70

Freezing..............................................70

Resources......................................71-72

Introduction

Permacultures are farms that mimic ecosystems. Remember the science-class food chain? Soil nutrients and sun are processed by plant, plant is eaten by animal, and animal remains are decomposed into soil nutrients by microorganisms. That is an ecosystem. And just like that ecosystem, a permaculture is self-reinforcing; it uses its own outputs as inputs all over again.

Until recent history, all farms mimicked ecosystems. Farms featured a variety of plants, trees, and animals that utilized each other’s outputs as inputs. As in natural ecosystems, perennial (long-living) species, like trees, shrubs, and animals, were more prominent than annual (single-season) species, such as field crops. These types of farms provided nearly all the nutritional needs of farm families. Other necessities were acquired by selling or trading products of the farm that exceeded the family’s consumption.

It has only been a matter of decades that farms have become focused on the production of a single product. These are called monoculture farms. As cities developed, more and more people began purchasing their nutritional needs; monoculture farms developed in response to the subsequent large-scale economic market demands for certain farm products, such as sugar, corn, wheat, and soy. These farm systems do not mimic ecosystems since only one plant or animal is encouraged to grow on the farm. This single plant or animal is given excessive inputs to encourage rapid growth, and are harvested as quickly as possible. Because of this, all monoculture species become short-lived species, even those that are naturally long-living ones. Additionally, there are no other plants or animals to provide the inputs or utilize the outputs of the farm. This means that artificial inputs must be purchased regularly, and outputs become garbage. Many times inputs are needed (like soil organic matter, or erosion control) which cannot be easily purchased; the overuse of the inputs already existing in nature results in the degeneration of the environment and lower and lower productivity. Likewise, the outputs (such as manure) and the excess artificial inputs (like fertilizer) often build up in large quantities and contaminate the environment, also resulting in degeneration and lower productivity.

Monoculture farms do not supply the nutritional needs of the farm families. Rather, these farms emphasize the sale of products in order to be able to purchase all needs of the family. This aspect of monoculture farms does not apparently seem difficult. However, these farmers often find themselves at the mercy of market prices, middle men, and the other complications of dealing in economy and capital. For example, a permaculture farm family’s opportunity to consume milk products depends on how well they work their farm. If the cows are well-cared-for, their will be milk, cheese, yogurt, and butter to be enjoyed. This fact will not change based on the national or international economy. On the other hand, the monoculture farm family’s opportunity to consume milk products is dependent on value and demand of their product in the market this year, as well as that of the milk products they wish to buy. No matter how well they have farmed their product, if demand for it on the market is low, or if the economy is weak, their income may simply not allow for the purchasing of milk products that year.

Monoculture farm families around the world are coming across environmental degradation, lower productivity, and economic difficulties more and more frequently. For many of them, converting to permaculture farming would be the best option to ensure their quality of life and nutritional needs. Unfortunately, after generations of monoculture farmers, most farmers today are unaware of the benefits of permacultures, and many lack the skills and knowledge to maintain permacultures.

Fortunately, the skills and knowledge are not difficult to acquire. The process of conversion from a monoculture to a permaculture is more complicated; the financial straits many monoculture farmers find themselves in do not allow for the gap time needed to stop one form of production and get another one going. The conversation process, however, is not so painful when completed step by step over a period of seasons.

In this guide you will find suggestions as to how to begin converting a monoculture to a permaculture. You will find the information needed to care for various plant and animal species typical to permaculture farms. Information about necessary initial investments and what kinds of products and returns to expect will also be provided. Finally, recipes for specialty homemade products will be listed.

Extension Work in Permaculture

When you begin talking to farmers about changing their farming system, it is best not to describe the idealized permaculture goal just yet. Remember, many farmers already feel pressed to keep up with household expenses, and although they may listen to you, they will not be able to seriously consider anything that sounds like it may require an investment. Additionally, as mentioned in the introduction, many farmers are not aware of the improvements in quality of life that come with permaculture farming. Like most of us, they associate most strongly monetary income with well-being. The idea of giving up the sale of their product will not be appealing. Finally, using words like “permaculture” will make the ideas you are presenting sound foreign and intimidating. In reality, most farmers are not unfamiliar with the activities you will be suggesting. Rather, they have misconceptions about the costs and benefits of those activities.

Do not try to explain why a farmer should change. In fact, do not even mention “change”. The most effective way to introduce a farmer to change is to simply suggest an addition to the farm that the farmer ALREADY KNOWS will be helpful. The only news you should bring to the farmer is just how easy that small addition can be.

This first step is the hardest, and it is the most important. Once a farmer takes this first step by adding one more species to the farm, opportunities for additional species will present themselves. Each addition becomes a logical next step which many farmers will begin to take on their own. Just like an ecosystem, permacultures are naturally self-reinforcing and diversifying.

The various species in a permaculture all serve a purpose. Each provides inputs that other species in the permaculture need, and each provides something that the farm family needs. With time and attention, a permaculture farm can also come to have many components which function as part of a complex system; some of these components are mentioned in this guidebook. The complexity that permaculture can take on is why it can be intimidating to find how to begin a permaculture. Nevertheless, permacultures can also be simple, and most certainly will be in their first years of development. The most important features of a permaculture are that it fit in the natural environment of the area, and that it benefits the farm family. Do not worry about installing a greenhouse to grow peach trees or a system of dams to irrigate the fields—better to have a mango tree in the yard and plant trees around the fields. Even if it is only a milk cow and a field of forage crops, if it is a permaculture system that benefits the family and is within their ability to manage well, it is a good permaculture. Do not rush toward developing an infamously model permaculture farm. Start small, and let things happen naturally.

The Conversion Process

Soil is the key to a successful permaculture system. It cannot be emphasized enough that in order for any attempt at permaculture to be successful, the soil of the farm must be ready to produce forage crops and grasses. Do not ask farmers to make major investments in soil recuperation; the soil will improve as the permaculture system develops. However, when preparing to bring any animal to the farm, a farmer should definitely first make sure that the land has or can produce all the food that that animal will need to eat. Using parts of the farm to grow forage crops and pasture grasses will ensure that a permaculture thrives. Having crops and grasses growing alongside crops will improve crop production. A natural, complete diet will maximize the production capabilities of the animals, as well as their health and immunity. And finally, the gains made by the farmer will also be maximized—not one bag of feed will ever need to be purchased.

As mentioned in the previous section, the best addition to the farm to initially suggest to a farmer is something that the farmer already knows will be helpful. For most farmers, this is a cow. Cows are familiar to nearly everyone, and they are easy to find. While full-grown cows are expensive, young ones are not. One year of good care will convert a thin calf into a big, healthy adult ready to provide milk or meat to the family for consumption and sale. If possible, it is best to purchase both a male and female calf, so that they can begin producing manure, calves, and milk by the following year. Purchase them from separate owners, or at least ensure that they are not related. Definitely do not buy calves with the same mother or father. If sufficient monetary resources are not available to purchase the pair, just buy the female. Alternatively, the least expensive option is to just buy a male calf. By about one year of age, a young calf will have become a fattened steer, and will be ready for butcher; profits from the meat sale can be invested in purchasing a young pair of calves.

At any rate, having a female cow is an important part of having a permaculture because a single cow’s milk production is sufficient for the family’s consumption as well as some sales. It is worthwhile to track down a Jersey or Holland female to ensure good milk production. As around; word of mouth is the best way to discover possible purchases.

An alternative to purchasing young cows is purchasing young sheep or goats. Like cows, they can be bought inexpensively at an early age, and once full-grown will provide manure, milk, meat, and young. If the farmer has very little to invest, sheep and goats are more realistic because they are less expensive to purchase than cows. Also, if the farmer as yet does not have enough greenery on the farm to fatten a cow, sheep or goats are an excellent alternative, since they can digest a wider variety of plants. The disadvantages to sheep and goats is that they provide less milk than cows, and that it may be more difficult to find one for sale. Nevertheless, they are more easily managed than larger cows and will definitely provide enough milk for the family’s consumption. Whatever animal is initially purchased, keep in mind the eventual goal of purchasing a good milk-producing breed of cow.

Whether from cow, sheep, or goat, once milk production is established on the farm, the fun can begin! Milk production implicates reproduction; young can be sold or kept on the farm. Additionally, milk can be consumed by humans. It can be drank in its natural state, or processed on the farm to produce cheese, ricotta, yogurt, butter, ice cream, and buttermilk. These products extend the shelf-life of milk and increase the value of the original product. Processing milk products also produces outputs which can become inputs for new additions to the farm.

Once a farmer begins producing cheese, encourage them to buy pigs. The whey left over from cheese production will produce robust, healthy pigs. Like other animals, pigs can be purchased inexpensively at a young age and raised on the farm. Again, when purchasing pairs, make sure they are not related. Within a year, they will be full grown and ready to reproduce or provide meat. As with other animals, the young may be sold or kept on the farm. The meat the family will consume can be set aside, and the remainder sold.

Once a farmer has pigs and cows established on the farm, there should be more room for investment in other ventures. If the farmer does not already have them, suggest the purchase of laying hens. Many farmers already have hens, but do not maintain them properly. Look for ways that their shelter or food can be improved; this will significantly increase egg production and the health and longevity of the chickens.

Other important additions to the farm include rabbits, ducks, a vegetable/herb/ medicinal plant garden, trees, beehives, and a fishpond. All of these ventures will provide products for home consumption as well as sale. Which ones are given priority will depend on the condition of the farm and the preferences and needs of the farmer. For example, a farm with poor soil may most urgently need trees to control erosion, provide organic matter and soil cover, and offer forage for the animals. A farmer with an abundance of hummus who is concerned about the price of fruits and vegetables may be most interested in enriching a plot of ground to start a garden. Another may be in need of the services a fishpond provides: a drinking hole for the animals, a suitable environment for the ducks, a source of meat for the family, and a cooling effect on the microclimate of the farm.

Farmers that are developing and diversifying their permaculture farms should think about distributing the harvest throughout the year. Having a variety of fruit trees with varying harvest times will ensure that fresh fruit is available all year round. Winter as well as summer legumes and green manures will offer soil improvement and forage for animals in all seasons. Even garden harvests can be staggered so that vegetables mature one after the other, providing fresh greens for at least a large part of the year. Farmers should also explore methods of processing and preserving their harvest at home. This is another way to maximize nutritional independence and diversity all year long.

As a farm becomes more diverse, the farmer will begin to enjoy “environmental services.” That is, surrounding ecosystems will begin to interact with the one that is being created on the farm, and the farm and the farmer will benefit. For example, trees and bushes on the farm will provide nesting sites for wild birds; these birds will reduce pest problems on the farm by hunting insects and mice. A water source and melliferous plants and trees will attract swarms of bees; these bees will pollinate crops and can be captured to produce honey for the farmer. Trees and forage crops, especially green manures, will improve soil quality by aerating the soil and capturing nutrients with their deep roots, dropping leaves that will serve as ground cover and organic material, cooling the farm and offering shade, and providing forage to animals that will in turn provide manure to the soil.

Harmony and interaction with the surrounding ecosystems is one of several reasons permaculture farms should be designed based on the area’s climate. Farmers in the tropics will have success with Cameroon, oranges, luecaena, sugar cane, and pineapples. On the other hand, crops foreign to the surrounding ecosystems, such as eucalyptus, apples, clover, and ivy will face a constant uphill battle against heat, pests, soil conditions, sun, rain, and humidity. Reaping a crop will be unlikely, and what is harvested probably will not have been worth the effort.

Efficiency is one of the key ideas of permaculture. The reason for this is to minimize the efforts of the farmer. Efficiency in permaculture implies natural processes. That is, in a permaculture, we want work to happen by its own accord, with the least effort possible made by the farmer. This is accomplished by creating interactions of different species on the farm. For example, garlic, onions, and basil all stimulate tomato growth. Another well-known synergetic relatioship on the farm is that of ducks and fish. Ducks living on the pond forage for their own food. They deposit waste into the water, which provides the nutrients needed to stimulate plant growth in and around the pond. These plants aerate and clean the water. They also serve as food for fish such as tilapia and carp. Thus, by creating the duck-plant-fish interaction within the pond, the farmer is saving the cost of duck food, fish food, fertilizer, water aeration, water purification, and the work involved in all these tasks. In addition to this, the farmer is receiving duck meat, eggs, and feathers; fish meat; pond-plant products (watercress, waterchestnut, waterlily, etc), and an emergency water source.

Another of the important components of efficiency is facilitating the farmer’s own interactions with the species on the farm. This means making access when and where it is needed easy. Gardens and fruit trees should be near the house for easy access during food preparation. Having the chicken house adjacent to the garden will allow us to provide food scraps to the chickens and manure to the garden with a simple toss-over-the-fence. Animal corrals should be near what they eat and their source of water; it could also be near trees or on the shady side of a hill to protect the animals from wind, sun, and rain. Plants and trees also have preferred environmental conditions, such as the type of soil, amount of sunlight, and humidity of the ground, that will maximize their productivity. There should be a natural progression between the corrals, the compost piles, and the worm beds; the biodigestor should be somewhere between the pig corral and the kitchen. As the permaculture farm develops, take care in considering where on the farm to place each new component.

The final aspect of efficiency is multipurposeness. Every component of a farm has many unique characteristics and behaviors that can serve the farm in some way; the more of these the farmer exploits, the more productive the farm will be, and the less work the farmer will have to do. For example, a chicken’s primary purpose is to provide meat and eggs. We may even utilize their manure and feathers. They will become even more important parts of the farm, however, if we release them into the pasture and the orchard occasionally. By their natural scratching and foraging, the chickens will return nutrients to the soil by breaking up ruminant manure; they will eat the pests in the pasture and the orchard; and they will clean up fallen fruit. In addition to physical products, the chickens are now also providing services: raking, pesticide control, fertilization, and waste removal. They are also feeding themselves highly nutritive food in the process, improving their meat and egg production and eliminating the need for chicken feed. The farmer has been saved time, energy, and money.

Multipurposeness means that every component of the permaculture system should serve more than one purpose on the farm. A pond is not just for fish. It is also for ducks, watercress, lilies, and willows. If the pond is placed on the side of the house from which summer winds blow, it will cool the house in summer. Finally, the pond will be an important source of water for the bees, for farm animals, and for irrigating plants. Likewise, a tree is not just for shade. It may also provide windbreak, roosts for chickens, forage for animals, nectar for bees, firewood, fruit or nuts, erosion control, nesting sites for wild birds, water storage, and organic material. Multipurposeness also means that the greatest needs of the farm should be met by one or more components of the system. Manure to replenish soil nutrients is not just provided by the cows, but also by pigs, chickens, sheep, and goats. Leucaena is not the only crop grown to feed to the animals; pigeon pea (kumanda yvyra’i), sweet potato, sunflower, mucuna, mandioca, Cameroon, leftover vegetables, and sugar cane are also available. The biodigestor is not the only source of heat for cooking; there is also a brick oven and firewood. The well is not the only water source; there is also a pond, and rainwater from the roof is piped into an emergency reserve tank behind the house.

As the farm grows, farmers should consider local businesses with which it may be useful to network. For example, any nearby food processing center may have left-overs that they either sell very cheaply or give away. These leftovers are often excellent food sources for farm animals. Other nearby farms can also be great resources; for example, farmers may exchange male animals to widen the gene pool of their herds and avoid interbreeding. Exchange of various types of forage crops or other outputs of the farm which one farmer cannot use may also prove useful to the other.

A prominent byproduct of farm animals (and humans!) is manure. Fortunately, this is also an incredibly important part of the health and sustainability of the permaculture system. Manure is a fertilizer indispensible for good soil quality; good soil quality means excellent production of the plants that animals need to consume in order to continue thriving and producing.

Manure from the farm can be processed into fertilizer for the fields and garden in a variety of ways. The easiest is to simply let the animals do the work: during the day, animals can be allowed to graze in a fallow field or in a pasture; as they move about, they will break up the soil, keep weeds down, and provide nutrients. At night animals must be kept in corrals. The corrals will be an excellent opportunity to gather up a lot of manure. Manure from the corral can be combined with organic matter and water to form a compost pile. Over a period of time, this pile will heat up and decompose back into hummus. Hummus is an excellent natural fertilizer for crops and gardens.

Better than simple compost piling is the utilization of vermiculture. Partially decomposed materials from compost piles can be loaded into beds of worms. The resulting worm hummus is the best fertilizer on earth; the rapidly reproducing worms can also be harvested, dried, and pulverized to be used as a protein supplement in both animal and human foods; it is particularly useful for bird species.

An even more beneficial way of utilizing manure and organic waste is to not only process it into fertilizer, but also to harness the energy expelled during the decomposition the process. This energy can be used to heat water for bathing as well as heat food in the kitchen. These energy sources greatly reduce the need to purchase electric or gas energy from outside the farm, as well as the costs of such services. Energy independence is a final step in nutritional independence.

Instead of being made into compost piles, animal waste can be loaded into a biodigestor. The biodigestor funnels the gases produced during the initial stages of the decomposition process through a hose attached to a kitchen stove burner. As decomposition continues and gas release slows, the partially decomposed material is removed from the biodigestor and loaded into the previously mentioned worm beds, where the decomposition process is completed and worm hummus is produced. Similarly, compost latrines harness the heat energy released by decomposing human waste to heat water within a series of tubes running through the middle of the compost. This water is then directed into the bathroom to provide warm running water.

Compost energy is not the only type that can be harnessed on the farm with minimal investments. Windmills and stationary bikes can be inexpensively built to draw well water. Hot boxes and solar ovens cook food without need of firewood or a gas stove; solar dryers preserve fruits and vegetables for year-round nutritional variety. Solar showers provide hot water for bathing courtesy of the sun. Finally, spouting connected to closed tanks preserves the excess rain from a downpour for dry spells.

The purpose of a permaculture, rather than a monoculture farm, is to drastically reduce the farm family’s dependence on the economy and food market. Implicit to this is less and less need for money. Nevertheless, a farmer who dedicates time, energy, and income to the continual improvement of a permaculture system may find that the farm’s production regularly exceeds home consumption and isolated sales. At this point, the farmer will be able to begin investigating and investing in producing goods which are consistently of competitive market quality. Such investments are completely unnecessary to produce goods for home consumption or localized sales. However, each species and product does have specialized infrastructure, diet supplements, methodology, or technology (all mentioned in the following section) that maximizes the production rate and the quality of the product in an entirely ecological way. Reaching this level of permaculture production is an added bonus for any farm family. However, it should never be presented as a reason for beginning a permaculture farm. Rather, in the first years of conversion toward permaculture farming, it is absolutely essential to highlight and insist upon the importance of the family’s own consumption of the products of their farm. Nutritional education is sorely lacking in many rural areas, and most cultures maintain a deep-seated correlation between money and quality of life. Because of these two factors, some farm families may tend toward selling ALL the products of their farm rather than selling only what remains after home consumption. Obviously, this is not nutritional independence, and largely defeats the purpose of utilizing permaculture methodology.

Knowledge for Success

Animals

The guidelines provided here explain the basic needs of each species typical to permaculture systems and highlight ways to provide these needs ecologically and with little monetary investment. As long as these basic needs are met, animals can thrive in a variety of conditions; thus, use available resources and creativity as much as possible to avoid unnecessary expenses. Also provided here are some of the additional steps that may need to be taken for a more intensive production of goods to be sold.

In all cases, a complete and varied diet in generous quantities ensures maximum production; abundant water should be available to all animals at all times. All animals also need mineral salt in their diet. An additional vitamin and mineral supplement will be beneficial as well. Root vegetables, such as turnips, carrots, sweet potatoes, mandioca, and beets, when fed to animals along with the leaves of the plant, are an important source of vitamins and minerals. Ruminants (animals with 4-part stomachs, such as sheep, goats, and cows) all have similar diets. They experience fewer health issues and produce more milk and meat of high quality on pasture forage. Ruminants should also not be allowed to consume significant amounts of grains, as the acidity of grains upsets the bacterial balance in their digestive systems. Grain consumption does increase milk and meat production to a certain degree in ruminants. The expense of grains, however, largely negates the gains of this increase in production. If leguminous plants make up a prominent part of the pasture forage available to animals, milk and meat production will be less expensive and very comparable to that of animals consuming grain supplements, and the grains will be left for human consumption. These leguminous species are particularly important for dairy producers.

Farm animals are not conditioned for rapid changes in diet. Animals may suffer health issues or be disinclined to eat if they are unexpectedly presented with a totally new platter of foods. If a particular food source is running low, start providing smaller amounts of it and slowing integrating a replacement, rather than using it until it runs out and abruptly changing to something new. Just as for humans, animals benefit more from consuming small amounts of many different types of food on a daily basis than from eating large quantities of one or two foods for a period of time and then switching suddenly to something new (this is one reason why rotational grazing is the preferred feeding method in sustainable farming systems).

The amount of food and water provided here are meant only as approximations. You may vary quantities depending on product demand and the animals’ needs. For example, if the dairy animals are producing more milk than you can use or sell, reducing or eliminating their grain consumption will mean more efficient use of crops and a more manageable amount of milk. If you know that a rabbit sale is coming up, you may want to increase food quantities to help them gain muscle weight more rapidly. Finally, animals will need more water in summer and may need more food during cold winters.

Internal and external parasites are an environmental risk for nearly all animals. Home remedies for parasites are effective for both animals and for humans. Some of the best-known natural anti-parasite treatments are papaya seeds, garlic, parasio leaves, eucalyptus leaves, banana leaves, white can alcohol, and cow urine (most of these also repel pests from gardens and crops). Move animals to a new pasture and clean out their corrals after the initial treatment to prevent contact with infested manure; retreat 3 weeks later to kill any parasites ingested the day of the initial treatment. Pharmaceutical parasite treatment and prevention are also available.

Breeding is an important form of production on any farm. Breeding males should be selected carefully for health, size, and robustness; they may well provide half of all the genes of that species on the farm. Especially as the number of animals in a herd increases, breeding partners should be selected with great care. Animals should always be bred with as distant relatives as possible, and interbreeding should be limited to one generation; for example, a bull is bred with a milk cow he is unrelated to name Bessie, and milk cow Susie is the result. The same bull may also breed with Susie, resulting in milk cow Brownie. The bull should not, however, be allowed to breed with Brownie; the resulting offspring, if it survives, would be immunity-deficient, a poor producer, and possibly malformed. Similarly, a bull may be bred with a half-sibling, but should never be bred with a cow with which he shares both parents. Male cows, goats, sheep, and pigs which are not destined to father offspring can be castrated before reaching sexual maturity. This will make the animals generally calmer and easier to handle. It also speeds weight gain and reduces unwanted breeding.

Castration is a simple procedure which can be done by the farm family. Keeping the animal still will be the most difficult part of the procedure. Clean all instruments well in rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, fire, or other sterilization method before beginning. Wash the testicles with soap and water, and then wipe down with rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide. Slit each testicle sack with a razor blade just enough to be able to pop out the testicle. Cut the tubes connecting the testicles to the body. There should be very little bleeding. If the cut is not large there is no need to sew up the slit. Clean the wound again after castrating. Check the wound every day to make sure that it is healing. Clean and disinfect it as needed.

It is advisable to breed a female several times during her life. This practice will produce more offspring in less time than slaughtering after every pregnancy and waiting for a new female to mature. Animals which give birth to litters (such as pigs) will often have more young in subsequent pregnancies. Additionally, an animal that has proven capable of responsible motherhood is worth keeping around.

Keep track of which females have been bred and when they will give birth. Shortly before the birth is expected, provide the female with her own cage or corral, as well as a nest or bed of wood shavings. Monitor her closely before, during, and after the birth for any complications that may arise. Observe her care of the young. If she seems to be ignoring them, refusing to suckle, or acting aggressively toward the young, they may have to be raised by hand. Keep the babies warm and protected, and feed them as often as they will eat. A hot-water bottle will be useful in winter; wrap it in a blanket to avoid burning the babies. Use a baby bottle (or dropper) and cow’s milk for mammals. If they refuse milk, at least get some water into them. Fowl are semi-independent at birth and will eat well-milled grains on their own as long as they are healthy. Keep them warm and sheltered from weather, predators, and other animals. Provide water at all times.

A balance between exercise and eating is also important for animals. Obviously, we want animals to consume more that they absolutely need; this is the only way they can grow, develop health and immunity, and provide useful products to the farmer. Exercise is also important to ensure that the animals’ develops muscle, and that that muscle remains supple. However, there is a tradeoff: the more the animal moves about, the more energy it will use, and the less energy will go toward its growth and meat and milk production. Many farmers minimize their animals’ movement almost completely by keeping them penned and bringing their food to them. This method does allow rapid weight gain in minimal time. However, much of that weight will be stored as fat. Additionally, a lack of exercise will make the animals’ muscle stiff and weak. The result is fattier, tougher meat.

An excellent answer to this conundrum is to allow animals to graze in a well-stocked pasture. When grazing, animals move about at a leisurely pace nearly all day long. They also have the opportunity to satisfy their cravings—like us, animal seek out foods which contain the particular nutrients their bodies may be lacking on any given day. During the process, the animals fertilize the field with their manure. Finally, the farmer is freed of the task of cutting and hauling food, cleaning the manure out of corrals, and hauling and distributing fertilizer to the pasture. The results are reduced work and cost for the farmer; a well-fertilized pasture for future grazing; healthy animals; high-quality milk; and lean, supple meat.

It is important to note that animals should not have to hunt for food in the pasture. If there is little forage to be had, or it is scattered over a large area, the animals will be working more than they are eating, and the end products will not be desirable. Additionally, do not limit grazing to only cows, sheep, and goats. Rabbits, ducks, chickens, turkeys, and even pigs can also reap the benefits of grazing and provide services to the farmer in the process.

Milk Cow

Price at purchase: full-grown and productive G2,700,000; calves G300,000

Infrastructure needed: Cows need a corral, at least 30% of which should be covered. The corral should allow at least 8m² per cow.

Disease prevention: Anti-parasite medication every six months and the occasional antibiotic in the case of injury. (Total annual cost about G15.000) Examine the cows often for scrapes or cuts, especially on their underside. Ensure that the corral does not become muddy with waste, as it will cause infection of the hooves.

Food consumption/day: Cows consume about 8% of their total body weight per day. Their diet should consist of various greens, proteins, and minerals. A good mix is Cameroon, pigeon pea, leucaena, and moringa. Canavalia, sugar cane, bran, sweet potato leaf, corn husks and mucuna are good additional supplements. Sugar beets, sweet potatoes, and turnips are good sources of vitamins and minerals. Salt supplements are essential; milk producers also benefit from calcium and phosphorus. Grains, such as soy and corn, can be fed to cows in limited quantities—no more than 1% of the animal’s bodyweight per day (about half a kilo per day per cow). Rotational grazing is the preferred feeding method.

Water consumption/day: about 25-40L per cow

Man hours/day: milking and feeding must be done twice a day; a total of about 30 minutes per cow.

Milk production/day: a well-fed milk cow averages about 16 liters per day. Milking must cease shortly before a pregnant cow gives birth, and during the 3 months following birth at least 6 liters per day should be left to the calf to ensure proper growth. The calf may be weaned after 3 months.

Manure production/day: approximately 10 kilograms per cow

Reproduction rate: 1 calf/year after age 1 year. Gestation is 10 months and calf may be weaned at 3 months of age.

Productive lifespan: (young and milk) about 10 years

Meat production at butcher: 190 kilograms. Price varies according to cut of meat, but the value of the cow can be calculated at about G10,000 per kilo of meat.

Steers

Price at purchase: calves G175,000

Infrastructure needed: same as milk cow

Disease prevention: same as milk cow

Food consumption/day: same as milk cow

Water consumption/day: same as milk cow

Man hours/day: 5-10 minutes per animal depending on feeding method

Manure production/day: same as milk cow

Maturity: approximately 1 year; butchering may occur when butcher weight is reached

Meat production at butcher: same as milk cow

Ewe (Sheep)

Price at purchase: 150,000G for lamb, 500,000G for adults

Infrastructure needed: Sheep need a corral with at least 30% covered by roofing. The corral should allow 4meters² per sheep.

Disease prevention: same as milk cow

Food consumption/day: about 5% of the animal’s bodyweight. Recommended diet is the same as for cows. Rotational grazing is an excellent option.

Water consumption/day:5liters per animal

Man hours/day: milking and feeding twice a day totals about 20 minutes per animal

Milk production/day: 2 liters

Manure production/day: 2.5 kilos per animal

Reproduction rate: 1 birth/year. Gestation is 150 days.

Productive lifespan: Ewes may be bred beginning at 1 year of age of until 8 years of age. Milk them completely every day so that they continue to produce milk.

Meat production at butcher: 65 kilos

Ram (Sheep)

Price at purchase: 150,000G for lamb, 500,000 for adult

Infrastructure needed: same as ewe

Disease prevention: same as cow

Food consumption/day: same as ewe

Water consumption/day: same as ewe

Man hours/day:5-10 depending on feeding method

Manure production/day: same as ewe

Maturity: about 1 year

Meat production at butcher: same as ewe

Doe (Goat)

Price at purchase: adult of reproductive age 500,000G, kid 300,000G.

Infrastructure needed: same as sheep

Disease prevention: same as sheep

Food consumption/day: About 4% of the animal’s bodyweight daily. Release goats into recently-harvested fields or poor pasture land to clean out unwanted plant growth and remains. They will also provide fertilizer and aerate the soil. Goats browse more than they graze (that is, they eat from woody plants more than from grasses). They are also more aggressive eaters than cows; watch for overgrazing. Forage crop species, grain consumption limits, and necessary minerals are the same as for cows.

Water consumption/day: same as ewe

Man hours/day: same as ewe

Milk production/day: same as ewe

Manure production/day: same as ewe

Productive lifespan: same as ewe

Meat production at butcher: same as ewe

Billy (Goat)

Price at purchase: 150,000G for uncastrated kid, 250,000G for castrated kid, 500,000G for adult breeding male

Infrastructure needed: same as sheep

Medical care needed/year: same as sheep. Goats are particularly vulnerable to internal parasites but have few other health issues.

Food consumption/day: same as female

Water consumption/day: same as sheep

Man hours/day: same as sheep

Manure production/day: same as sheep

Maturity: Billies reach sexual maturity faster than females; they must be separated from the herd or castrated by 4 months to prevent unwanted breeding or fighting. Males may be bred at 8 months of age, but mature males of 1 year are preferable.

Meat production at butcher: same as sheep

Sow(Pig)

Price at purchase: newly weaned about G50,000, 25 day-old about 80,000; 50 day-old G100,000-140,000

Infrastructure needed: Pigs need a corral; it should allow 2.5meters² per adult pig. All corrals should be at least 30% roofed.

Disease prevention: anti-parasite every 6 months and occasional treatment for injury; total annual cost approximately G6,000

Food consumption/day: The whey left over from milk production is an excellent nutritional source for pigs. They will also enjoy any leftovers from the kitchen. Toasted grains, such as corn and soy, speed weight gain (Schettler). Supplement their diet with salts and about 1-1.5kilograms of forage (such as that recommended for cows) per animal per day. Forage may be provided through rotational pasture grazing.

Water consumption/day: 1.5-2liters (in addition to whey)

Man hours/day: about 10 minutes

Manure production/day:6kilograms

Reproduction rate: 20 per year after age 8 months. Gestation is 114 days. Mother should be placed in an individual pen or corral lined with wood shavings a day or two before giving birth.

Productive lifespan:2.5years

Meat production at butcher:60 kilos. Price varies according to the cut of meat, but the value of the animal can be calculated at about G15,000/kilo

Boar (Pig)

Price at purchase: same as sow

Infrastructure needed: same as sow

Medical care needed/year: same as sow. Food consumption/day: same as sow

Water consumption/day: same as sow

Man hours/day: same as sow

Manure production/day: same as sow

Maturity: 8 months. Males not destined to father young should be castrated. Uncastrated boars produce an odor which affects the taste of their meat.

Meat production at butcher: 80 kilos

Hen

Price at purchase: meat breed chicks G3,500; egg layer chicks G4,500

Infrastructure needed: Chickens ideally should be allowed to graze during the day but should be corralled at night against predators. The pen should provide 2meters² per chicken; at least 30% of the pen should be roofed. If there are no trees in the chicken pen, provide plenty of raised bars or branches under a roof where chickens can roost. Put a wooden ladder or narrow beam leading up to the tree branches or roost. Provide baskets, boxes, or other containers protected from the weather and lined with straw for egg-laying. Gather eggs daily.

Disease prevention: anti-parasite every 3 months; environmental effects preventative medication annually. Total cost per chicken per year: G2,000. Vitamin supplement (such as Vitagold, see section on rabbit) may be administered optionally in inclement conditions, such as during cold, to new chicks, etc.

Food consumption/day: Chickens consume about 100grams each daily. A complete diet consists of green forage and grains. For example, leucaena, corn, soy, Cameroon. Optional additions may include leftover fruits, vegetables, and egg shells from the kitchen. Worm flour (dried ground worms) is an excellent protein source. Chickens can participate in rotational grazing as well. Use them as a follow-up to cows, sheep, or goats; they will consume insects attracted by the animal’s dung, and will break up dung piles, accelerating nutrient release to the soil. It is preferable to put feed in containers, especially raised ones, rather than on the ground. More of the feed will be consumed by the chickens.

Water consumption/day: about 75milliliters per chicken. Suspended water containers are preferable as chickens dirty their water very quickly, making them susceptible to disease transmission

Man hours/day: about 20 minutes for a flock of 60

Manure production/day: about 150grams per animal

Egg production/year: about 280 for meat breeds; about 365 for egg layers

Reproduction rate: Hens older than 9 months may nest, hatching up to 12 chicks after a 22-day gestation period. Nesting can be encouraged by leaving 8-12 eggs in the nesting box. Chicks will be full-grown and independent of their mother about 6 weeks after hatching.

Productive lifespan:1 year

Meat production at butcher: 2kilos for meat breeds; 1kilo for egg breeds. Meat may be sold for an average of 10.000G per kilo.

Rooster

Price at purchase: same as hen

Infrastructure needed: same as hen

Disease prevention: same as hen

Food consumption/day: same as hen

Water consumption/day: same as hen

Man hours/day: same as hen

Manure production/day: same as hen

Maturity: 8 weeks

Meat production at butcher:2.5 kilos for meat breeds; 1.5 kilos for egg breeds. Meat is worth about 10.000G per kilo.

Duck (Female)

Price at purchase: Chicks are worth about 3.500G. An adult female is worth about 25.000G.

Infrastructure needed: Corral requirements for ducks are the same as for chickens, less roosts; ducks may be kept with chickens but watch for aggressiveness. During the day, ducks need access to water, at least deep enough to stick in their heads and necks. Preferably, give ducks access to a pond. Their manure will encourage growth of the algae fish consume.

Disease prevention: same as chicken

Food consumption/day: same as chicken

Water consumption/day: same as chicken

Man hours/day: same as chicken

Manure production/day: same as chicken

Egg production/year: about 75

Reproduction rate: Female ducks reach sexual maturity at about 7 months. They may sit on up to a dozen eggs at a time; incubation is 28 days.

Productive lifespan: Ducks may live as long as 8 years; however, most live around 2 years.

Meat production at butcher: about 2-2.5kilos. Meat may be sold for about G10.000/kilo.

Duck (Male)

Price at purchase: Chicks are worth about 3.500G. An adult male is worth about 30.000G.

Infrastructure needed: same as female

Disease prevention: same as female

Food consumption/day: same as female

Water consumption/day: same as female

Man hours/day: same as female

Manure production/day: same as female

Time until butcher:

Meat production at butcher: about 3 kilos. Meat may be sold for about G13.000/kilo

Hem (Turkey)

Price at purchase: Chicks are worth about 9.000G. An adult hem is worth about 55.000G.

Infrastructure needed: same as chicken, allowing approximately 4meters² per animal

Disease prevention: same as chicken

Food consumption/day: diet same as chicken; approximately 550grams per adult animal

Water consumption/day: about 400mL per adult animal

Man hours/day: same as chicken

Manure production/day: about 500 grams per adult animal

Egg production/year: about 50

Reproduction rate: Hems begin laying eggs at 30 weeks of age. They may incubate 10-15 eggs at a time; incubation lasts 28 days

Productive lifespan: Hems may reach butcher weight as early as 17 weeks; domesticated turkeys usually live about two years, although they may live as long as ten.

Meat production at butcher: An adult hem will reach about 5.5kilos; meat can be sold at about 10.000G per kilo.

Tom (Turkey)

Price at purchase: Chicks are worth about 9.000G. An adult tom is worth about 75.000G.

Infrastructure needed: same as female

Disease prevention: same as female

Food consumption/day: about 750 grams per adult animal

Water consumption/day: about 500mL per adult animal

Man hours/day: same as female

Manure production/day: about 700grams per adult animal

Time until maturity: sexually mature at 30 weeks; may reach butcher weight as early as 14 weeks

Meat production at butcher: about 7.5kilos; the meat is worth about 10.000G per kilo.

Rabbit (Doe)

Price at purchase: G15,000 for young; G60,000 for adults.

Infrastructure needed: Rabbits should be kept in raised hutches with a roof and wire or wood-slatted floors. This provides protection from predators and the elements and allows waste to fall through the floor of the cage; exposure to moisture, especially their own waste, makes rabbits susceptible to infections. Rabbits do not tolerate extreme heat or excess dust, and require good ventilation in summer. In winter, they must be protected from wind and moisture; detachable plastic sheeting makes the hutches versatile for any type of weather. Females may be kept together as long as they are provided about 1/2meter² of space per animal. Males should be kept alone. This prevents fighting and uncontrolled breeding. Put a small board or other flat object in one corner of a wire floor for the rabbit to lie on.

Raised hutches with wire floors are not the only option for rabbits. They can just as easily be kept in one or several pens with attached ground-level hutches. These pens will need to be cleaned often to prevent waste and moisture build-up. Keep in mind that males should be kept apart from all other rabbits. The fencing of the pen should be fine enough that predators cannot enter. Walls of the hutch should be weather-proof and predator-proof. Also remember that rabbits enjoy digging and will escape from under the wall of any enclosure with a dirt floor. Partially bury the walls of the pen to stave off escapes; watch for tunnels in progress.

Disease prevention: vitamin supplement (such as Vitagold) in drinking water (10drops/liter of water) for three consecutive days, 2 times a year. Rabbits suffering from a vitamin deficiency become aggressive and may even eat newborns. If rabbits cannot scratch, their nails will need to be trimmed occasionally; be careful not to cut the quick. Occasional treatment of injury may be necessary. Total cost per animal per year: G5,000.

Food consumption/day: Rabbits consume about 200grams per day. Green forage (Cameroon, sugar cane, sweet potato leaf, corn husks), proteins (leucaena, mucuna, canavalia), and salts are essential. Give rabbits green sticks to nibble; their teeth never stop growing and need constant filing. Rabbits can be left to graze as long as they are not exposed to extreme heat, predators, or damp conditions. Putting the rabbits’ wire-bottomed cages in the grass during the day is one way to maintain greater control while still allowing grazing. Ensure that the rabbits have shade, water, and protection from predators at all times. Rotate the location of the cages on a daily basis to avoid overgrazing and exposure to their own waste.

Water consumption/day: about 500milliliters per day.

Man hours/day: depending on feeding method, about 5 minutes per animal

Manure production/day: about 100 grams per animal. Waste may be used for compost but is not recommended for biodigestor

Productive lifespan: 2.5 years

Reproduction rate: up to 100 young per year after age 5 months; gestation lasts 1 month and young should be weaned at no more than 1 month of age. Young may be sold as pets or to other farmers. Females older than four months which have been exposed to males should have access to a nesting box lined with hay no more than three weeks later. Move the female to the male’s cage when breeding rabbits, never the other way around.

Meat production at butcher: 1.5kilos per animal at G25,000/kilo

Rabbit (Buck)

Price at purchase: G15,000 for young; G50,000 for adult(6 months)

Infrastructure needed: same as female

Disease prevention: same as female

Food consumption/day: same as female

Water consumption/day: same as female

Man hours/day: same as female

Manure production/day: same as female

Time until maturity:4-6 months

Meat production at butcher: same as female

Fish

Price at purchase: Tilapia cost about G500-1,000 per fish; Carp cost about G1,000-2,000. When they are available, it is beneficial to have more than one type of fish in one pond, since diversity contributes to the strength, stability, and production levels of any ecosystem. Make sure one species is not predatory of the other. Tilapia and carp are the most commonly available species; they get along well together, and they are versatile and hardy.

Infrastructure needed: Preparing the pond before the fish arrive. The pond should allow 1/2meter² per fish. The pond must have a constant source of water, such as a stream. It will also need a drainage point; ideally, it should be on a 2-4% incline to allow for a slow, constant flow of water. The pond should be about half a meter deep at the point of water entry and about 1.5meters deep at the exit end; this gives the fish greater control over their environmental preferences. If there is not already such a pond available, one must be dug, or an existing pond may be modified.

Line a newly dug pond with clay so that it retains water. A pile of clay may also be heaped up in the middle of the pond to form an island. The island will be especially important is ducks will be released onto the pond; it will provide a safe place for them to nest out of the reach of predators.

Then dig a ditch between the water source and the pond to divert water to the pond and allow it to fill. Plant grasses, shrubs, or even small tree species on the banks of the pond and on the island to prevent erosion. Large tree species should be avoided; root growth may break up the banks of the pond and aggravate erosion. For the same reason, avoid allowing large hoofed animals around the pond.

Whether natural or man-made, it will be necessary to install an emergency flood drain in the pond. Bury a pipe longer than the pond wall is wide in the wall of the pond just above the natural water level at the lower end of the pond, near the natural water exit. Cover the end of the pipe on the inside of the pond with wire mesh. This will drain sudden influxes of water, such as a rainstorm, thus preventing the pond from overflowing and taking your fish with it.

Disease control: Apply 50-100grams of quicklime (cal viva) per meter squared of water about 20 days before the fish arrive. This will disinfect the pond. Once the disinfection is complete, and as long as there is a continual flow of water (and thus oxygen) in and out of the pond, fish are in little imminent danger. The only other measure that should be taken is the gradual introduction of new fish into the water. Rather than releasing fish directly into the pond, float the bag of water in which they arrive in the pond for 15-30 minutes. Once the temperature of the water in the bag reaches the temperature of the pond water, the bag may be opened and the fish released.

Food consumption/day: About 15 days before the fish arrive, fertilize the pond with manure: 1kg of cow manure per meter², 0.2 kg / m² of chicken manure, or 0.4 kg / m² of pig manure. This will stimulate the growth of the algae which serve as the principal food source of the fish. Algae quantities are excellent when visibility through the water is about 40cm (place a light-colored stick in the water, mark how far down it you can see, and measure it to get a good estimate). If visibility is greater than 40cm, add more manure at 1/10th of the initial dosage. If it is less than 40cm, stop applying the organic material and augment in-flow of stream to renew water. Reevaluate algae levels every 2-3 weeks. Algae consumption can be supplemented with kitchen waste; mango leaves and mandioca skins are excellent. Do not dump more into the water than the fish can eat before it begins to sink; a build-up of food waste lowers the quality of the water.

An excellent high-production combination for the pond is fish with ducks. As mentioned, the duck manure will stimulate growth of the plants in and around the pond which the fish eat. Having both ducks and fish on the pond means both animals will eat with minimal input or effort on the part of the farmer.

Man hours/day:5 minutes

Reproduction rate: For home consumption, buy a mix of male and female fish and allow them to reproduce freely. It will be necessary to remove fish regularly from the pond to prevent overcrowding. Thin out younger fish to allow the remaining ones to reach a larger size.

For sale, it is necessary to separate males and females, since fish that are reproducing will never reach their maximum possible weight. One method for doing this is to have two ponds. In the first pond males and females mix, and reproduction occurs. As fish reach mid-size, they are sexed, and the males are moved to the second pond, where they reach full size for butcher. Unfortunately, sexing fish is extremely difficult. Thus, it is recommended that the novice simply buy a new full stock of all-male fish after every harvest.

Time until maturity: Harvest fish from the pond using a fishing rod or a net. The biggest fish should be harvested from the pond, leaving smaller ones to continue developing. The time it takes fish to reach their maximum weight will vary with temperatures, space, water quality, and food availability; however, 6-8 months is average.

Meat production at butcher:1/2-1kilo for tilapia, 1-2kilos for carp. Fish can be sold at approximately G20,000/kilo depending on species and competing local markets.

Bees

Price at purchase: There is no reason to purchase bees. Bee swarms and established beehives are everywhere and can be easily captured. This can be done at any time of the year, but bees are most easily found and have the best chance for establishment and survival in the bee box if they are captured in spring or summertime. Bees captured in autumn or winter will probably need a continued food source until the following spring, when they can begin gathering food themselves.

Swarms with no established hive are not aggressive. They are often found clinging to a tree branch. Have a clean, dry bee box with all top bars in place near the swarm with a container of honey or sugar water inside. Put a small stick in the liquid to provide a “ramp” up out of the container to help the bees get in and out. Sprinkle the swarm with water—they cannot fly when their wings are wet. If you can find the queen(she is bigger than the other bees, more brightly colored, and is usually in the middle of a mass of bees), put her into a matchbox and close it enough so that she cannot escape. Put the queen—in the matchbox—inside the bee box. Where the queen is, the entire swarm will go. That night, when the entire swarm is inside the box, return and wrap the box well in a white sheet or white paper. Transport to the apiary. Within a couple days the queen should be released from the matchbox. If you think the swarm has not settled into their new home, renew their supply of honey and stop up the entry of the box for a couple days more.

If you cannot find the queen, scoop or shake the bulk of the bees into the box—hopefully the queen will be among them. The bees will appreciate the food and most likely settle in to the bee box. That night, transport the box to the apiary and stop up the entryway for a couple days until the bees have settled in. If you are not able to get the bee box to where the swarm is, you may scoop the bees into a box or bag and transport them to their apiary. Once again, provide a supply or honey or sugar water and close up the box’s entryway until the bees have settled in.

To avoid contact with the bees, you may simply leave the baited bee box—with the lid in place—near the swarm and hope that they are attracted by the food source and available living space. Remember, swarms are bees on the hunt for a place to build a hive.

It is also possible to capture and already-established beehive. The processes are much the same as those described above, except that instead of placing a bait cup of honey or sugar in the bee box, the bee’s own wax combs are transferred to the bee box. Bees which have a hive are much more defensive. Smoke the hive well before opening it to calm the bees. Cut out each comb and tie them

Well my departure from Paraguay is a mere 10 days off, and things are getting eventful! For those of you who manage to trudge through it, below are a couple lists which might give you some idea of the Megan you will soon be encountering, as well as a better idea about PAraguayan lifestyle and culture in general. Enjoy!

What I’ll take home from Paraguay

-freedom to pick my nose, toenails, teeth, and other body parts in public

-a slow walking pace

-a healthy dose of fatalism

-an intolerance of temperatures below 75F

-tendency to measure everything in kilograms and kilometers

-deep-set tendencies to ration out expensive or seasonal products such as strawberries, instant coffee, oatmeal, raisins, walnuts, and chocolate

-inability to speak English without mixing in spanish and guarani

-fear of wearing jeans or polyester in summertime

-greater tolerance of discomfort (heat, cold, hunger, thirst, crowds, need to urinate)

-refined small talk skills

-ability to fell totally comfortable sitting in complete silence, alone or with others

-an operating assumption that processes will take longer than necessary, meeting dates will not be kept, deadlines will not be met, and infastructure will fail (the water will go out, as will the lights and the bus system...)

-the ability to agree with someone while simultaneously letting them know I disagree

-resourcefulness (you mean what CAN’T I do with a dull kitchen knife?)

-aversion to throwing away organic kitchen waste as well as any type of reuseable container

-belief that any unpaved ground is a valid place to urinate, often preferable to the bathromm utilities that may be available

-habit of taking plastic bags, tupperware, and soda bottles to the corner store to bring my groceries home in

-rubber flip flops permanently attached to my feet, and the tan lines to prove it

-feeling of being closed in if the doors and windows are shut

-tendency to treat the front porch as a living room equivalent

-complete comfort with nudity among other women

-indirect communication; not saying anything rather than saying no, or saying yes and then not doing it. Speaking collectively about individual activities or individually owned items (‘let’s wash our clothes’=I’m going to go wash my clothes now)

-desire to buy raw food products: fresh milk, homemade cheese, eggs, whey, milk cream, corn, soybeans, live animals, fresh herbs, etc. from your neighbors to prepare in your own kitchen.

-feeling at liberty to fuss at other people’s kids and pets

What I can’t wait to get my hands on stateside

-snow

-vegetarian food

-ethnic food

-American holiday food

-American desserts

-water available during mealtimes

-non-meat dishes being readily available and considered normal, delicious food, not wussy diet food

-having a completely new set of menu possibilities house to house and holiday to holiday, so much so that no one could EVER predict, “It is Sunday/christmas/new year’s/Joe’s birthday/Easter/Independence Day so we MUST be having meat, noodles, and cornbread. I can hardly wait!”

-reliable infrastructure and services (knowing that the postman won’t throw out your letter and pocket what you paid to send it)

-money-back guarantees

-American clothes!! (who ever realized made-in China cheapies were so awesome?)

-wide music variety

-restaurants and other social centers accessible to the middle class

-restaurants and other social centers being open at night and on weekends

-chocolate

-public transport that runs after 9pm

-affordable public transport

-public transport with a predictable schedule

-the American rituals of sharing and enjoying food: sitting down all together at the table, waiting til everyone has their food to eat, trying new recipes and new versions of old recipes, and talking about the meal while eating

-having more than soda and fried meat pockets available at any given sandwich shop

-tendency to believe that no matter what I’m wearing, how many zits I have, how much I’m sweating, how much I’m scowling, or what’s stuck to my face, I am BLONDE, and thus a gorgeous Hollywood starlet.

- belief that the bus will stop to pick me up whereever I flag it, will accept a few cents short of fare if I don’t have change, and and will stop to let me off whereever I ring the bell.

-illusion that I will get things other people can’t (seats on the bus, rides, free food, free entry to soccer games, changed bus routes to get you closer to your house) just for being a young female

-illusion that I am freed of responsibilities (being solicited to buy raffle tickets, shaking men’s hands, giving up your seat on the bus, lifting heavy things) just for being female.

-assumption that several families in any given neighborhood sell snacks, basic groceries, ice, and fresh milk and eggs out of their home

-assumption that McDonald’s, Burger King, and most restaurants and pastry shops are beyond my budget

-assumption that all supermarkets have a yummy, afforable buffet restaurant attached to them

What I will miss

-dulce de leche

-alfajores, sweet peanut bars

-CHIPA

-cocido, terere, mate, and all other products of yerba mate

-tortillas and beju

-Enrique, AnaPaula, and their family

-living on my own schedule: working, staying home, traveling, etc when I want

-being part of a culture that considers 7am sleeping in

-lunch being the main meal of the day, and the consequent need for long lunch breaks and to have someone at home to prepare this meal.

-perfume and talc being part of every bath, anytime, anyplace; freshly bathed children offering you the opportunity to smell their perfume.

-strong social network of people that I know like siblings and feel comfortable conversing with about bowel movements, being home alone on Friday night, annoying neighbors, and other insignificant instances in life (that’s my other PC volunteers)

-not ever getting junk mail or telemarketing calls

-never having to drive

-the rituals of mate and terere; its like required rest and socialization time

-the times when corruption and infastructure inefficiency runs in my favor(my bedframe and mattress taking a 5 hour bus ride free of charge, my projects getting funding from the municipality, etc)

-being identifiable within large communities by only my first name, my hair color, or my nationality

-getting fabulous care packages and cards from my parents, Annalese, and several others (you know who you are!)

-speaking three different languages on a daily basis

-straddling two cultures: Peace Corps American and Paraguayan

-hanging with other worldly, culturally sensitive, multi-lingual, volunteering Americans

-in summertime, never having to think twice about extra clothes. Whether its two am and pouring rain, or two pm and sunny, you’ll want to wear the least possible.

-living where I work.

-having enough time AND enough money

-the countryside and near constant contact with nature.

-laidback work ethics and an emphasis on socialization and relaxation.

-enough free time to read, study, play guitar, jog, and cook, and pursue other hobbies every single day

-knowing my neighbors, and feeling free to go sit on their porch with them for indefinite periods of time, knowing they have nothing better to do either

-natural hair (any one with a blowdryer is living good, and I haven’t seen a hair iron or spray since I left the USA)

-receiving calls from my peers asking for advice, as if I were a cooking/Spanish/health and nutrition expert extrodinare

-comprehensive medical care, in which you receive unlimited quantities of even over the counter drugs free, no appointments to see the doctor are required, your doctor reimburses you travel and hotel costs to come see him, and makes all the monetary exchanges with specialist he may refer you to. No copayments, deadlines, networks, waitlists, or insurance required. Ahhhh...! This is what medicine should be.

-a universal training system for dogs/pigs/cats/horses/cows, so that you can communicate even with animals you’ve never seen before and don’t know. Almost like English!

-knowing that you can hitchhike, leave your front door open, pay your ticket and not get a receipt, set your bags down in the street, and buy bags of fruit from the bus windows. Barely anyone ever tries to cheat.

-Having a highly efficient network of people willing to help you find a book, get an ID card, buy a lamp, take a bus, learn a new work skill, deal with a personal issue, communicate with Washington, make photocopies, be reimbursed for the money you lost, understand a cultural idiosyncrisy, or anything else in life: the Peace Corps office staff.

-local, family run stores and sandwich shops all over just about every neighborhood in the country. No chain restaurants, no gas stations, no fast food, no need to drive to get there.

Hello faithful readers! This may well be my last blog from Paraguayan soil. I changed my close of service date a little bit, and I will be leaving the country June 3. After about a month in Buenos Aires, Montevideo, and surrounding areas, I'll be heading back stateside! Crazy huh? And I'm already being bombarded with the harsh realities of paperwork and making your way in the American world. For one, I am trying to finish up my permaculture project and make it AWESOME to turn in (proofreading, anyone?). Then, I am also trying to spend lots of time with my friends and loved ones before I leave. Next, Peace corps is checking me up and down and having me fill out tons of forms and evaluations, and check in with just about every employee in the office. On top of that, I'm trying to get things arranged for my trip to Argentina. And finally, I'm setting stuff up, like insurance and housing at college, for when I arrive stateside. Whew! So basically that is my life right now. Not too exciting, and no fun stories to tell. But I will keep you updated on my progress! Best to you all.

the new house where I'm living in Asuncion

the rabbit cages on the farm

Enrique and Mirna moved too! Their new yellow house is so much better suited for them, with a cute little patio in front.

Enrique and Mirna's living room

Their bedroom--complete with my old furniture!

My new cottage, situated behind the family's house on the farm.

Holy Week, making chipa with Don Sebastian (Enrique's dad), Rachel (another volunteer, Mario's girlfriend), and Esther (Enrique's sister)

Chipa ready to be put in the outdoor brick oven

Dona Pabla and I working hard on mixing chipa dough. Ana Paula is getting so big! She's 4 and recently started preschool

The chipa ingredients. In that green sheet are 12 kilos of corn flour that we milled by hand straight out of the field. Eggs, cheese, butter, and anise in abundance.

Photos out the window of the bus heading back to Cerrito for Holy Week

more bus vistas

bus vistas

the INSIDE of the bus. Hot, overcrowded, and cranky: typical of holiday seasons

My apartment in Piribebuy. Goodbye! I lived on the bottom floor, and yes, I planted all the flowers, but not the tree.

I moved into my new extension site, a permaculture farm squeezed into just a quarter acre of land in a residential section of Asuncion, on the 29th of March. The next day I left on vacation to head back to Tebicuary-mi for Semana Santa (Holy Week). This is a much more important holiday here than it is in the US. It is probably equivalent to our Thanksgiving: businesses and the government close down, everyone head’s back to the homestead, and major food preparation and consumption are undertaken. Delicious!

I came back to the farm Saturday, just in time to share Easter with my new “family”. Trying to be part of a household totally foreign to you is always bewildering. During the holidays, with tons of people you don’t know who have long-standing ties chattering and laughing all around you about tons of things you can’t relate to, its easy to feel bored, lonely, useless, and a little depressed. Fortunately, this was not the first time I’ve gone through the adjustment, and I’ve developed my methods (when it doubt, start sweeping or washing dishes!). Additionally, this family is incredibly easy to integrate into. For one, they only speak Spanish. That means that I’m always part of the conversation (my former host family, for example, spoke Guarani among them and Spanish to me, leaving glaringly obvious what parts of the conversation I was to be a part of and which were not meant for me) and can follow the most intricate parts of the language, including jokes and stories. More important than their native tongue, however, is their inclusive spirit. Everyone of them asks questions about my preferences, experiences, education, friends, relatives, goals, plants, etc. They are also willing to answer my questions and patiently help me get in on the farm work, cooking, house cleaning, family activities, and visits to THEIR friends and family. Perhaps best of all, they never fail to offer a beverage, snack, dessert, or yummy plate of food. There’s no place like home!

I really started in on my project assignment this week. I help the mom of the house (she has 8 full grown children and can still work as hard as me) take care of the farm animals in the mornings: I feed and water 20 rabbits, 60 chicken, 25 pheasants, and 4 baby cows. I am also learning to milk the dairy cows and put them to pasture in the empty lot across the street. I also help clean the corrals and direct the sewage into the biodigestor, which is hooked up to a gas stove for cooking. I haven’t quite gotten into feeding the pigs yet (they look and act frighteningly human to me). Future goals include getting the compost piles and worm beds running again. All this takes about 2 hours, twice a day (I only help in the mornings, though). While we work, I gather all the info I can about the animals. I ask how much milk a cow produces per day, how much rabbits cost and how much meat they produce, how many eggs the chickens lay as compared to how much feed they consume, how much space pigs need to live comfortably, etc etc. Afterward I help around the house until just about noon, and then wash up and sit down at my computer to record all the information I’ve gathered. The eventual product of this project will be a guide for PC Volunteers to help them help farmers begin diversifying their farms, despite the few investment resources they have, by exploring inexpensive ways to adopt animal species, trees, and perennial plants. Diverse farms (permacultures) mean that farm families can literally eat off their own farm without having to go out and buy what they need (unlike monoculture farms which just produce a single produce to be sold, like sugar, corn, wheat, or soy). Given unstable market prices, distant points of product sales, and isolation from places where food goods can then be purchased, permacultures would be a huge improvement in farming, both in Paraguay and most of the developing world.

In addition to the permaculture guide for volunteers, I’m also hoping to gather some hard data that I can analyze and use to develop a thesis paper in grad school (if and when I start studying!) Please enjoy the photos, and thanks for reading.

It’s looking pretty official: I’m moving work sites again. As you may have read in my blogs of late, my work with the National University at their agriculture education center has been a total bust. Since my arrival in December, they have given me zero hours of work to do. In fact, I didn’t even see the engineers I was supposed to be working with until my PCorps coordinator heard my concerns and went to the university to see why they were leaving me hanging. Even then, though, the “work” they offered me for the next 3 months (“get to know the neighbors”, and try to convince them that they need the running water project the engineers want to start) was absolutely incomparable to the incredibly detailed, day-by-day calendar of classes, visits, planting, harvesting, and investigating that they had sent to PCorps back in November. So PCorps’ visibly irritated decision was clear: get me out of there.

It was also clear that we needed to either find me new work in my current location, or move me to the capital (just about the only place you could expect to find a furnished apt) given the expense of towing all my furniture and appliances in the name of a mere 3-month sojourn. Piribebuy, where I am now, is commercial and touristic; it was clear right from the start there were no other serious agriculture project happening here. So we started searching the capital. Fernando, the new ag sector assistant in the PCorps office, was super attentive to my situation. Still, lead after lead on an ag organization that needed a volunteer worker turned up fruitless. Meanwhile, I was wasting away day after day alone in my 2-room apt, counting the hours til I could legitimately prepare another meal and dying for some project to dedicate my energy toward. Things weren’t looking too good.

Then an idea struck me. The PCorps director had at one point suggested me doing a study on big-money development projects (like the university’s education center) and their actual effectiveness. He had mentioned that it might be a basis for my grad thesis later on. And while that particular subject wasn’t interesting to me, the idea of using a thesis study to fill my last 3 months in Paraguay was not a bad idea at all. And it turns out I still remembered SOMETHING from training: the permaculture farm we visited in the outskirts of Asuncion. 1/4hectare intensive farming system with very few inputs and enough outputs to provide most of the needs of the 10-person Paraguayan family that runs it. And my proposed thesis research? Design a permaculture system that subsistence Paraguayan farmers can implement using the resources available to them to improve their quality of life. BINGO!

Pretty much everybody loved the idea. Peace Corps, as it turns out, has been wanting to make permaculture and animal husbandry a bigger part of training, and needs an information manual on the subject to give to volunteers. The family, when we got in touch with them, reported back that they have been wanting hard data on their farm’s operation for years, and on top of that are particularly in need of an extra pair of hands right now. And Megan, of course, just wanted to do something positive work in Paraguay, and maybe start her grad thesis to boot.

As I write, I am surrounded by 2.5 years of life packed up and stowed away. Enrique and his sister (Mirna) will come with a truck from Asuncion this weekend to take my bed, wardrobe, tables and chairs, stove, fridge, and dishes. They will, no doubt, put them to excellent use. Many of my clothes and knickknacks will go to the neighbors. And then on Monday, my suitcase and I will head to the big city. And though this time there’ll be bus lines running nearby, I’ll be once again living in a small room surrounded by farm animals near the home of a family I don’t yet know, sharing their table and waltzing through their house in a bathrobe. I wonder if any of them are vegetarians (haha). Imagine that! By the time I leave, I will have lived in more parts of Paraguay than most Paraguayans, now 4 cities in 3 different provinces.

For those of you who take an interest in the doings of my Paraguayan family, I’m not the only one on the move! After 5 years of residency, Mirna’s landlady unexpectedly asked her to be out by April 15 (no rental contracts in Paraguay, people. This is actually a very common event and happens to PC volunteers ALL the time! Relatives of landlord come back from working in Argentina or Spain, need a place to live and BOOM you’re on the street.) so she is moving this weekend to a spare room in a family home. This will be an excellent situation for a young lady living alone in Paraguay, and it will also shorten her commute. Positive change!

As for Enrique, Mirna moving to a single room meant his jig of searching for work in Asuncion was up. In fact, he was about to take a bus back to his parent’s house in the country this past Monday when suddenly he got a call: finally, finally, he got a JOB.

You or I would see commuting 45minutes each way to work 40 hours a week for minimum wage on the packaging line of a large medical laboratory as a miserable, dead-end, fruitless life. But in a country where many people NEVER earn an income, and most earn less than minimum wage, that kind of opportunity opens new horizons. It’s enough to eat good food and buy attractice clothes. It’s enough to go out with friends. If you’re careful, it’s enough to start a savings account. Take English or computer courses. Pay for an a university degree. Eventually, pay for a passport and a plane ticket. It’s enough to start changing your life. It is HUGE.

Everything is changing.

I only have 4 months of Peace Corps service left, and a lot of people are asking me what will become of Enrique and I. Paraguay has the highest volunteer/country national marriage rate in the Peace Corps world, so I would be far from the first to take home to the US a “souvenir.” And when they ask, I have to be honest: I’m not thinking that far ahead yet! I don’t even know where I’m going to be living next week.

Since I let Peace Corps in on the fact that my extension assignment has been ka-put, we’ve been looking for other agriculture service organizations with which I could work. So far, there hasn’t been much success. It’s difficult to find a well-organized program that is already up and running, and that has a need for my services on such a short term. To place even more limitations, the possible location is essentially limited to the capital city or my current town; it just wouldn’t be worth paying to move all my furniture again for only a few months stay, and the capital is the only place where you’ll find furnished apartments for rent. Nevertheless, we have some excellent, well-connected Peace Corps staff members on the hunt, so I feel like it could go either way at this point: stay in Piribebuy with a research project assignment from Peace Corps, or delve into the jungle of the capital city to work as part of an already functioning team.

Likewise, Enrique’s job situation continues to be uncertain; time and again we have found that qualifications don’t get you a job. Rather, who you know and who owes you a favor get you a job (even if they have to make one up to give it to you!) This past week we had a stroke of luck with a free training and employment resource center. They enrolled Enrique in a month-long, 30-hour computer technician course, as well as a 12-hour workshop in successful job hunting (how to write a resume, present yourself to employers, etc.). In addition, they took him on as a volunteer receptionist at the center, and will reimburse his bus fares and food expenses in exchange for 4 hours of work per day. This volunteer position has a dual purpose: 1) the chance to learn office job skills and 2) unlimited access to the internet, phone, and the employment center staff to help him in his job hunt. Part of the volunteer contract is that he contact 10 potential employers per day, for example. This second aspect, I am hoping, will be the key; buying newspapers, paying for internet access, paying for phone calls, and traveling by bus to potential employer locations are expenses that add up quickly when you are out a job, and there were many ads which we did not pursue because the costs outweighed the chances of the visit actually paying off.

I also recently found out that I am among the “top candidates” for admission at Cornell—I have a phone interview on Thursday as part of the final decision-making process. Unfortunately, I was not accepted to the Agris Mundus program in Europe.

So as you can see, I don’t even know where I’ll be living and what I’ll be doing next week, much less at the end of the year. One thing is for sure, though: it’s about to get interesting!

Mirna and Sami

Enrique and I

Paraguay gas station

Paraguay church/plaza

Paraguayans have motorbikes like we have cars. I've seen up to 6 people on one of these little motor bikes!

store

the countryside

I don't get to ride in a car very often, so when I went cruisin with Enrique's sister (Mirna) and her partner, I decided to take advantage to snap a few shots of typical Paraguay. Mirna and her man are in the first photo. Enjoy!

I never understood the working should be called a right. Who wants to work? I guess those were the days I still had mom and dad’s debit card in my pocket. Since, I’ve come to realize that work is the way to improve your quality of life. That said, can I mention that I think Americans take work too far? Anyway...

My work: After a long debate on whether I should just wait out my time in Paraguay with this disappointing extension, or try to change things, I finally came to the conviction that, darn it, I’d really like to do SOME good before I leave the continent. Secondarily, I realized that if I waited until someone asked how my extension went (ie the last minute), it would likely be so late that some other poor soul would already be on their way to being assigned as my follow-up volunteer. That wouldn’t be fair! So I finally decided to say something.

Peace Corps had obviously failed as badly as the university had in keeping in touch with me, so when I finally called two months later and said, “Hey, I’m fed up,” people seemed to notice. My boss immediately organized a meeting with the agronomy faculty at the university and called me to let me know how things went. Apparently, they admitted their lack of communication and commited to improving from here out. They told her they would come to meet with me next Thursday to lay out a clearer project plan. After that meeting, my boss and I will talk again to decide if that project plan is impressive enough to warrant a second chance or not.

This is kind of a tough situation. Personally, I find it unlikely that the faculty will repent and do an about-face; my boss didn’t tell them anything they didn’t already know, after all. On the other hand, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to find another project that I could contribute to in a meaningful way in the little time I have left. Piribebuy is not an agricultural town, so a new project would almost necessitate my moving again. And given the short time I can offer, the project would HAVE to be something already organized and in the works; it would take time to find an agricultural nonprofit organization that could use me, and if we did find one, it would probably mean my moving to Asuncion. So the most likely is that I stay with the education center and supplement my time there with some small education projects in the local schools.

Enrique’s work: Enrique’s awesome opportunity to be trained and employed as a beekeeper was a horrible bust. The guy who was training him (a well-known, wealthy member of the national beekeeping society and associate of Peace Corps) kept him on for a whole extra week of training. All the while, Enrique was buying his own food on borrowed money. Finally, the guy finished “training” him. That is, he sent him off to Asuncion without even offering him money for the bus line, much less the 150.000G/week he had promised him, to his beekeeper friend in Asuncion, Mr. Maas.

That’s when things got bad! As it turns out, the whole thing was a lie. Mr. Maas was not expecting Enrique, had not spoken to the guy who had trained Enrique, had no positions available, and certainly was not in any position to pay minimum wage (1.450.000G/month) to anyone. And the worst part was, the deadline for applying to study in the university for this year had just passed. Disaster! Fortunately, Mr. Maas is an acquaintance of mine and knew Enrique from having visited my site in Tebicuary-mi. After hearing the whole story, he offered Enrique a couple one-time jobs to at least help him pay back all the money he had lent to pay his expenses while being trained. He got Enrique in touch with several well-to-do people around Asuncion with bee infestations. After just a week of work Enrique had paid back all he had borrowed and had a little cash in his pocket.

However, the desperate search for a job continued. I was asking high and low around Piribebuy. In Asuncion, Enrique was living with his sister, poring over newspapers, going to interviews, and sending his resume to potentional employers. One ad we saw in the newspaper mysteriously solicited youth ages 18-23 to work in pharmacy sales; it provided no address or phone number, and requested the resume only by email. Since I alraedy had an email account and an electronic copy of E’s resume and, he asked me to send it. At this point, I was doubting if it was worth paying for time at the cyber cafe, but I sent it, just in case, noting that I was sending it only on his behalf and that they please contact him by phone. Nothing. Two weeks passed, his money was running out, and things were looking desperate. Time and again, we came face-to-face with the fact that jobs are not given based on aptitude. Rather, it is who you know and who is willing to do you a favor.

Then the winds changed. The following week, I was in Asuncion visiting Enrique and went to check my email. There it was! A reply from the mysterious pharmacy employer requesting that Enrique come for an interview TWO DAYS PREVIOUS! A job seemed so close and yet heartbreakingly unattainable. Enrique was understandably upset and frustrated. Knowing the tranquilo of Paraguayans, however, I had a hunch that if he showed the following day, the interviewer would not even ruffle her feathers. So we pronto printed out a copy of his resume, borrowed some dress clothes from a friend, and went to hunt down this pharmacy to make sure he’d get there on time the following day. SUCCESS! The mystery employer, as it turns out, imports and sells natural pharmeceutical products. And they were thrilled with Enrique’s knowledge of the hive: they actually sell Mr. Maas’s honey, pollen, wax, and other bee products! They even asked Enrique to teach the section on hive products in this week’s training on product knowledge. Enrique and the other 4 young people that he is training with will take a product knowledge test on Monday, and starting Tuesday, they will be going out to Asuncion pharmacies to show and sell. To start, they will be earning 1,200,000G/month plus commission. Yea! This will be enough for Enrique to pay his living expenses, begin studying English, and have a little bit extra to put away as savings.

The saga is not over: knowing job security in Paraguay, I won’t be convinced and relaxed until that first paycheck reaches his hand. Plus, the job location is 1.5hours by so-slow city bus from E’s sister’s house, where he is currently staying; he will have to try to find a rather humble living space that he can afford in the expensive downtown area, where a nice single apartment is 700.000G/month or more. Nevertheless, things are looking VERY up. It seems that beekeeping training paid off after all.

(P.S. We recently got wind that Enrique’s “beekeeping trainer”/slave owner was accosted on the street and robbed of all his valuables. Such confrontational, violent robberies rarely occur among the timid Paraguayans! Karma, perhaps?)

Did I ever mention the wolf-like senses of Paraguayans? On a quiet morning they can hear a vehicle coming at several kilometers off and correctly identify it as a bus. With one good eyeballing they’ll notice that you’ve gained a couple kilos, you plucked your eyebrows yesterday, you haven’t been out in the sun as much lately, and you got some mosquito bites last night. They will spit out parts of the fruit salad because they can taste that that particular piece of fruit was sprayed with pesticides. But most of all, they can smell. When I proudly serve up some new baked good to Enrique to try, spices that he had never even tasted before I brought them along come to his mind with a single whiff and he correctly says, “This has pineapple, right? Clove. And some molasses....”. While passing a smelly factory or cow pen while traveling, everybody on the bus will start plugging their noses, gagging, moaning, and sometimes even vomiting. And nothing makes Paraguayans happier than a good overdose of perfume.

Imagine my unrestrained fear, then, when I found that Michi, who is perfectly housetrained, had gone and gotten jealous. Over a period of days, whenever I was in the shower, asleep, or out jogging, he would dig into Enrique’s suitcase sitting on my floor and find a new piece of clothing to pee on. He even picked ideal locations: the crotch of jeans, the collars of button-downs, the armpits of T-shirts. When I finally whiffed the disaster myself, I knew Michi and I were in for it. Expecting Enrique to show up any day to take his luggage, I quickly told Michi to beat it until the coast was clear and began the long process of washing Enrique’s clothes and suitcase by hand. Now I’m no whimp about washing by hand. After all, I’ve been doing it weekly for 2 years. But this ammonia-ridden situation was going to require some extra effort. First the stain remover. Then coconut soap, followed by a 24-hour soak. Scrubbing with a brush, and various rinses. Two hours in aromatic fabric softener and lavendar essence. Finally, a good drying in the sun. Two days later, it smelled clean to me. But there remained a haunting knowledge in the back of my mind: Paraguayans smell more and better than I do. It smelled completely great to me. But maybe Enrique would be knocked back by the stench before he even opened the bag! I didn’t know what to do. Pay a Paraguayan wash woman to knock the dirt out of it as only they can? Beg for mercy? Sell Michi to the gypsies?? In the end it was pretty anticlimactic. I confessed Michi’s knivving and my efforts to correct, and Enrique wore said clothes without further comment. It seems I have survived my brush with the Paraguayan nose.

As a reward for making it through this off-the-wall blog entry, you will be privy to my latest good news: I have been accepted to the International Agricultural Development Graduate Group at University of California at Davis! I'm not getting too excited until I get an idea of what the financial landscape will be like, but we've definitely taken a major step in the right direction. A special thanks is owed to my mom, who held me up on the homefront in getting all the right documents to and from the right people well before the deadlines. Yay mom!

Well I’m 2 months into my extension of service. It’s hard to believe my friends have been home readjusting to the American life for almost two months now! It’s also hard to believe I haven’t seen the people I’m supposed to be working with for nearly two months, and they still have not given me time to sit down with them and discuss some type of project that I should be working on.

I’m disappointed with my work with the National University. Right from the first meeting, I was clear with everyone that I only wanted to stay in Paraguay if it meant taking on a challenging position with a clear work plan; I emphasized that I wanted to work that would require me to learn, be creative, stick to a work plan, and that would help me advance in the field of sustainable agricultural development. I was promised and assured all of these things. So far, I have spoken with no one and worked with no one. And I’m 1/3 of the way through the time I dedicated to their project! Granted, I arrived just ahead of the Paraguayan holiday season; the entire month of January practically a national holiday. Nevertheless, I pleaded for work that I could begin on during this time, and was given nothing more than “getting to know the neighborhood.”

To top it all off: the university education center where I’m assigned to work and the surrounding neighborhood has problems with lack of water from the town system in summertime. This has been a problem for them in maintaining agricultural plots in the past. Peace Corps made a stipulation that in order for my extension with the university to be approved, they must acquire and install a 1,000liter water tank to ensure that my work would not be impeded by this issue. Peace Corps placed mid-November as the deadline. Around the end of November, the university finally contacted us and reported that they tank and been purchased and would be installed the following week. As of today, February 1, the tank is sitting complacently next at the building entrance surrounded by all of its accompanying parts. Meanwhile, as we receive less and less rain, the water pipes are running dry.

This kind of lack of work is expected in rural volunteer service. Rural people are wary of outsiders; work is highly dependent on good weather; and resources are few. Commiting myself to the most respected Paraguayan institution, however, I was expecting something apart from the lack of work I had learned to accept over the past two years. The university has been in this neighborhood for 15 years; they have resources galore; they are unwary of outsiders; their work schedules are independent of the weather; and they commited to a short-term project (6 months) with a partner organization (Peace Corps); and they received a worker (me) with excellent cultural, national, tecnical, and linguistic background. All of these factors should have meant that I step into a situation where there is already a clear understanding of community needs; projects in-progress; a written set of tasks; a timetable; and various contacts and resources available to me. This has not been the case.

In December, as I first began to get the feeling that this wasn’t going to be everything I had been promised, I was agitated, distraught, and disappointed. As I mentioned, these were situations and feelings that I have been all too familiar with during my service in Paraguay, but they were something that, joining on with the university, I thought I had left behind for good. I made various attempts to get in touch with the managers of the city with little success. As I began talking more with people in the area, however, I realized from what they were saying that the center is not managed like it used to be; largely, the many resources and learning opportunities it offers now go unused. Even the engineers in charge only come around once every week or two to check in on things—not enough to maintain gardens and crops! This helped me understand that my lack of work would not be my fault. I also resolved to be different from the other people working in the center: I was going to utilize all the resources available to me to maximize my experience here.

Since then, I have developed and maintained a large garden on the grounds of the center. This may sound simple, but Paraguayan summers are typically considered too hot to grow vegetables. I’ve had to make some methodology modifications (like placing the garden in near-full shade) and time dedications (hauling 3 watering cans of water per day) to get things to grow, but the results are definitely worth it! I also built a compost pile and have developed a California Red Worm farm in the worm bed at the education center. Finally, I planted some peanuts (homemade peanut butter!) that are already in flower. (I wanted to buy chickens too, given the unused coop and run at the center, but realized they would just be starting to lay eggs when I was getting ready to leave.) When I have extra time, I clean up a garden-run-amuck that was planted and never cared for, and harvest seeds from green manures that were planted and left. And I spend time observing the crops, green manures, and other plants and trees in the area to learn as much as I can about their life cycles and characteristics. I’ve also done a great job fulfilling the other goal of Peace Corps service: cultural exchange. I enjoy time with my neighbors almost daily, and Paraguay and the USA are definitely two of our favorite subjects.

Sometimes I wish I were doing more development work. After all, its pretty unlikely that anyone’s quality of life will be improved by the work I’ve been doing over the past two months. I try to remember, however, that I am fully dedicated to the center, and when the opportunity for work is permitted me, I will give it my all. Otherwise, I enjoy my retirement-like lifestyle. I have time every day to work in my garden, go jogging, get a full night’s sleep, read and study, practice the guitar, write letters home, spend time with friends and neighbors, and cook wonderful meals. It is truly a rare pleasure, and I strive to remember this instead of longing for the high-pressure, high-pace lifestyle of America that all my friends are jumping back into. I am happy.

If you were wondering, our running water project back in Cerrito has, ironically, come to a horrible halt. Most running water projects fall through on the government side: the community is put on a 5-year waiting list, legal processes are drawn out and expensive, and the community members are not educated in the maintenance of the well system they eventually receive. Our situation was just the opposite: from the time I made the request until the day the legalities were completely in place was a matter of five months; we received excellent education on every step of the process; and the community of 45 homes was asked to pay nothing more than 300,000Guaranies per household in two installments of 150,000G. This would be comparable to each member of a similar American community without running water being asked to pay a total of 300 dollars to have a well, pump system, and pipe network installed in their community. Totally worth it right? I brought this news to the community last June, meaning they had 7 months to get their first payment of 150,000G together. We also worked with the mayor and got a pledge from the municipality to pay on the part of 7 households which we determined would be unable to put up this amount (mostly elderly people without relatives). All we had to do to get this cash from the municipality was register our water commission as a legal entity; I took up this task. In the days before I left Cerrito, we went house to house reminding people about the upcoming deadline. At the end of December, Enrique called me with the bad news: only 9 households had paid the 150,000G. The president and treasurer of the comission were among those who had not paid. Now it was even more urgent that I get the commission approved as a legal entity. Legal processes in Paraguay are never clear, and so I finally sought out the help of a legal administrator here in my new community (Pirebebuy) to help me. She did the work probono, and got all the files together that we needed. The only thing missing were photocopies of the ID cards of the president and treasurer of the commission. I passed the word back on to Enrique in Cerrito, and he got in touch with these people with this small request. He even offered to go make the photocopies himself! (No small task: the nearest copier is several kilometers’ walk away and notoriously expensive.) The second week in January, he called me back and said, “They never return my phone calls, and they ignore my messages. They don’t care. We can’t do anymore for them.”

Shocking, yes. But all things considered, I’m completely ok with this. We did everything we possibly could to bring dependable water access to a poor community. They were unwilling to make even small investments for their own benefit. Until they decide to help themselves, we can’t do anymore for them. I am very curious, however, to see what happens with the National Water Service shows up to break ground—slated for February—and finds that the tiny deposit they requested in return for this picture-perfect project was asking too much.

Again, I hope I am not casting a gloomy shadow on these sad facts. I am healthly, happy, and loving my life. As I said, after two years of disappointing work conditions I have become very confident in doing my part, and expecting others to do the same. If the others fail to commit, I am left with the satisfaction that I did my best, and that they had the opportunity to live better, whether they took it or not. I report these situations to you only to help people at home get a better idea what life is like for the typical Peace Corps volunteer: a detail-oriented, self-motivated, idealistic member of a workaholic society, who hopes to work with people who are fatalistic, are slow to change, expect to get the bad end of the detail, feel powerless, are subject to inefficient beauracracy and legal systems, and are cultured to value relaxation over achievement. It’s a pretty big gap to jump, and you have to be lucky enough to find people who have recognized their own need, are fed up with it, and are ready to make sacrafices to change it, in order to get what you want out of the experience. Ahhh, the developing world!

Jeremy (aka Harem), one of my best Paraguay-side buds

My new apartment in Pirebebuy. Bad paint job. Great location, great shower. TWO rooms!!!

Our goodbye party: these are 23 of my 40 family members

Cake and juice Rachel and I made for Mario's birthday on January 2

Enrique being too-cute with his niece and nephew

All the ladies: Teresa, Esther with her daughter, Rachel, me, Mirna with her nephew, and Doli (Toni's wife)

The whole gang on New Years

Teresa with her son (behind the sofa), neice, and nephews

Nelson workin' the grill

My host mom workin' the watermelon

Esther making Clerico, a typical holiday drink composed of finely chopped fruit salad, wine, and soda

Tatakue, the traditional Paraguayan brick oven, workin' hard baking the sopa (that's corn bread Paraguayan style, a holiday staple)

Sopa fresh and warm out of the Tatakua

Toni and Doli celebrating their wedding with their boys

at the church right after the wedding/Christmas eve ceremony. It was pitch black--a shot in the dark!

The last month of my life has been full of changes. I started off the month of December with my long-awaited move to my new town, Pirebebuy, and my new job with the National University of Paraguay. Just days afterward, I said goodbye to most of the people that have been my nearest, dearest, most trusted “family members” in one of the most memorable times of my life—my fellow volunteers of group Peace Corps Paraguay Group G-25. Then, when I was just getting settled in and adjusted to not having my extensive network of friends within phone’s reach, it came time to make the extensive journey home to Cerrito de Tebicuary-mi for Christmas, and then again for New Years. And now, as I continue to establish roots and friendships here in Pirebebuy, I’ve also been helping Enrique in what is turning out to be a huge change in his life, as well. First of all, let me say I LOVE my new town. It’s a tourist destination, and is super clean and asthetically pleasing because of that. I also have enjoyed immensely having 2 blocks from my apartment conveniences which I previously had to make a day’s trip to access—a supermarket, farmer’s market, salon, clothing stores, ice cream shop, etc. Even basics like eggs and milk, which were, at a minimum, 2kilometers away from me in Cerrito, are not more than two doors down here in downtown Pirebebuy(Pbb). And while Pbb is a town of 40,000 with all the luxuries of the big city, it has the familiarity and safety of a tiny village. Even though my front door opens right onto the street, I leave it open any time I’m home to let the breeze through. All the neighbors know each other and share time out in their lawn chairs when its too hot to do anything else. I also got really fortunate with my neighbors: they have all been wonderful in keeping me company, dispensing advice, and inviting me over for meals! My mother may be interested to know that Michi, my cat, seems to have fully adjusted to the city. He’s fattened up considerably and clean up, as well. All the neighbors admire how white is coat is. He also seems to have formed a few neighborly relations, as well—he loves to go carousing all night. It’s kind of like living with a teenager: he comes home with the first light of the day, demands food, and then sleeps on the rug with his paw over eyes all day long. And now, about the holidays. Pbb is a great place most probably because, unlike most cities in Paraguay, it is not on a principal highway, but rather falls between Route 1 and Route 2. This, however, also makes traveling really difficult, since most bus lines stick to the same route; I have to change buses between 2 and 4 times, for example, to get from here back to my old site, and that means waiting up to 2 hours for a bus at times, when by car the trip takes a mere 1.5hours. Add to the that outrageous chaos that all bus lines are during any holiday season, and the unrelenting tropical heat of summer, and you can perhaps imagine the price I paid to get back to Cerrito for Christmas—and then again for New Years! Hours of waiting for buses that don’t stop to pick you up because they are already packed full; jacked up fees (because they know you feel lucky to even get close to the door); and then standing 3 across IN THE AISLE for the duration of the ride with all your bags and everyone else’s smashed in around you in suffocating heat. And then the irony of hearing Jingle Bells come on the radio.... Aside from that, though, the holidays were fun and enjoyable. Enrique’s brother Toni and his “wife” (poorer people often live as if married here without enjoying the legal status for many years because the process is financially out of reach) got married on Christmas Eve. Preparation for the service and the subsequent dinner took up most of our time and energy during Christmas; my host mom and I prepared over 17kilos of sopa Paraguaya (see photo), aside from the other foods! The marriage was to be performed during the Christmas Eve service at 8.30pm. And, as often happens on major holidays, when the pathetic electricity grid of Paraguay just can’t take all the activity, the lights went out. So the service was performed by the light of a single candle and without the merciful breeze of the ceiling fans on that hot, humid Christmas Eve. For the same reason, most of my photos didn’t turn out; even the ones I took of the group afterward look a little strange (see photos) since my subjects and I couldn’t see each other except in the moment of the camera flash. It might be worth noting that Paraguayans love getting married on Christmas Eve. I know several couples that have, and I never understood why; it always seemed to me like the holiday celebration would rob your anniversary of attention. Well now I understand. As it turns out, (I don’t know if this is a Catholic custom or a Paraguayan custom) the marriage is performed simply as a detail of a regularly scheduled service. By getting in on the Christmas Even service, the couple enjoys a ceremony that is a little bit more remarkable, and certainly more widely attended, than the average Sunday morning service. Ahh, culture! New Years was less work and more fun. As you might remember, this holiday is more important for Paraguayans than Christmas is, and EVERYONE goes home for New Year’s, which is not the case for Christmas. Since nearly all of my host mom’s kids were around, the barbecue was bigger, the fireworks louder, the parties longer, and the cider more plentiful than at Christmas. As holds tradition, we got in plenty of afternoon naps, toasted at midnight over a large dinner, and then visited all the neighbors to toast them as well. Once the adults started to drop one by one into their beds, us young’uns walked to town to dance the night away at the New Years party. 5am (that’s my usual wake-up time in Paraguay) was my bedtime that night (day?). Whew! I haven’t done that since New Years 2009! The next day or so we spent time swimming, finishing off leftovers, and visiting neighbors and friends also home for the holidays. I made sure to pick up a couple kilos of my favorite cheese from my beloved milk lady while I was at it. Pbb is great, but the milk products just don’t hold par! After all that excitement, it was wonderful to finally get home to Pbb, where my wonderful running water; my quiet, private apartment; and my full nights of sleep, complete with fan, were waiting for me. Michi also seemed pleased to find me back again. He’s stopped carousing for several nights just to keep me company around the home front. And now, most lately, I am proud to tentatively announce that Enrique is heading toward a wonderful job. Its hard to explain the coincedence of this crazy series of events to someone who isn’t familiar with Paraguayan culture. Let me note, however, that Paraguayans love telling you nice things (like that they will hire your friend who desperately needs work) and will without hesitation say things that are untrue to do it. Also important here is the absolute scarcity of steady jobs in Paraguay, and, to top it all off, the fact that the existing positions are not filled by fair competition (like filling out a job application and impressing the employer in an interview) but rather by who you know and who owes you a good turn. So given that Enrique had no job experience, no money, no social influence, and no connections outside Cerrito, he basically had zero chance of getting any job, whether it be in a factory, a law firm, or a farm. And now for the coincedences: a friend (Bernardo) of our Peace Corps boss randomly offers a volunteer friend of mine his time to go to another volunteer’s site to pick up some furniture that she was buying from the other volunteer; at the last minute she can’t go; I offer to go along for the ride in her place; during the ride I tell Bernardo about Enrique’s plight for a job; Bernardo turns out to be a beekeeper who has worked with Peace Corps in my old site; Bernardo says he’d like to meet Enrique! Next time Enrique comes to visit I let Berni know, and he ACTUALLY drives to me house to meet E! And tells him to get in touch after the holidays. E calls B after holidays and B tells E to come to Pbb in the second week of January (PS we still don’t know what is up his sleeve, much less what kind of work it might be, pay level, etc etc). Enrique packs all his belongings, says goodbye to his weeping parents, and leaves his home for the first time to come to Pbb on blind faith, and then calls B. B tells E to be at his house (45minute bus ride from Pbb) the next days at 8am!!! So to top off that huge series of unlikely events, Berni then ells us that he has a beekeeper friend in Asuncion who is looking for beekeepers. Berni is going to train Enrique as a beekeeper for 2 weeks, making him eligible to earn minimum wage (this is a misnomer, considering most people, including teachers, don’t actually make minimum wage; it is legally applicable just to government workers, and is salary sufficient to support a worker and 1-2 dependents depending on where you’re living). He will then turn him over for hire to this friend in Asuncion. Who is this friend I ask? It is a Mr. E. Maas, the BIGGEST producer of bee products in Paraguay! And here the coincedences come full circle: Over a year ago I met Mr. Maas and actually visited his home and production center; he then came out to my previous site to meet with local beekeepers and look into possible honey purchase deals. Oddly enough, even at that time I brought up to Mr. Maas a particularly hardworking, intelligent young man that I knew who was hoping to get into beekeeping. With my meager influence nothing ever came of it, but it looks like Enrique’s work with the Maas dynasty was destined to be. Today is the 3rd day of Enrique’s training, and from what he tells me by phone it has been very exerting: 14hour days in a bee suit in tropical heat. He is also suffering the discomfort of being away from all things familiar for the first time and living in an oversized bachelor pad to boot, with few of the comforts of home. However, there is talk of him being sent to Mr. Maas already this weekend; apparently he is catching on quicker than they expected. And if things happen that fast, he will have a decent chance of being able to enroll at the National University in Asuncion (this is the university I work for, and the BEST in the country) before the January 31 deadline to start on his coveted agronomy degree while working. It is also wonderful, because while he could have ended up with ANY job and would have taken it, given his choice this is just what he would ask for. He also would have taken probably half the pay that he is going to be receiving. Basically, this is an opportunity he could have expected to get AFTER receiving his agronomy degree, and by pure chance (or divine intervention) he has gotten it straight off. I am trying very much not to get excited by all this. As I’ve described, Paraguayan job security is non-existent, and job opportunities involve complete dependence on the whims of generosity that your acquantinces may experience in your presence. Up until now, however, fate has pulled through for him, and I’m hoping Enrique’s luck will hold to the end. Thanks for reading, and enjoy the photos!

I'm all set up in my new apartment. I find the location incredibly comfortable: rather than compiling a shopping list over a period of weeks for a once-a-month trip to the store, I can literally go no farther than half a block to get just about anything I could possibly need whenever I want to. It's a strange feeling, and every time I walk by one of the many stores in town I feel a complusion to go buy stuff. It's been so long since I've had that kind of access!

I also have more than double the space I had in my tiny cottage. It is really nice to be able to access my oven without moving the fan, get in bed without closing the wardrobe, leave my kitchen chairs unstacked and my rocking chair out all the time. AND having floor space to move around freely even when hosting guests! But I desperately miss dragging the mattress out to the front porch when it gets hot, sleeping in the hammock in the afternoon, brushing my teeth while looking at a fabulous vista, and wiggling my toes in the grass.

The other thing I LOVE about my apartment is that it has a shower with HOT water!! The idea of an indoor shower was a little intimidating: it can go either way. If the shower heats water well, it's AMAZING, but if it doesn't, then you are stuck having cold water dumped all over you. If that's the option, I'll take a bucket bath any day! But I was incredibly fortunate. So now, no matter what else has happened, my shower brings an indescribable joy to me life!

On the flip side, suddenly having my bathroom (not to mention Kitty's) INSIDE my living space has been an adjustment. I can't seem to escape the smells of a space not exposed to the natural cleansing of the open air.

In two hours our goodbye ceremony starts. If I hadn't extended my service, I would be here in the PC office with loads of luggage, passport in hand, and getting ready to fly out of the country in the next day or two. As it is, I'll just be accompanying some of my dearest friends in this process. Of course, my extended stay won't stop me from fully participating in the festivities of the goodbye party tonight at a beautiful tourist destination just outside of Asuncion! Woot!

I have an apartment!

As you may know, my Peace Corps Close of Service date is coming right up: December 11, 2009! As a recent Bethany grad back in 2007, this time and the person I have become seemed so far away. It hard to believe it is upon me, but I do see and feel the personal changes and developments I expected in myself, my habits, and my worldview.

Because of timing and circumstances, I’ve decided to extend my PC service rather than head home to look for a temporary position until grad school next fall. I was able to land a position as the volunteer technical coordinator of CETA of the National University, located in Pirebebuy (pee-ray-bay-buy). (By the way, in Paraguay, I am a very respectable Technician of Human Ecology. Some people would even call me an Engineer! I could probably get a position as a professor at the highly regarded National University if I wanted.) CETA means Centro Educativo de Tecnologia Apropriada, ie. Appropriate Technology Education Center. (Appropriate technology refers to farming methods that can be adopted by local farmers given the resources they already have available to them. That means, for example, methods for making insect repellants at home rather than buying expensive and dangerous chemicals.) With my time in Cerrito coming so rapidly to an end, it was high time to look for a place to land in my future home,

Last Monday afternoon, Enrique and I hopped a bus northwest up Route 1 (there are 6 in Paraguay) toward Asuncion and got off about 2 hours short of the city. There, Oscar, the caretaker of CETA, kindly picked us up and drove us about half an hour northeast to Pirebebuy(PBB). We discovered PBB to be extremely asthetic, clean, and green alongside most Paraguayan towns. The sidewalks are wide, and the downtown area is filled with Spanish-style architecture, gorgeous plazas, and ancient trees. My previous estimate of the population at 5,000 was WAY off—turns out I had only seen one neighborhood! It’s actually a town of 30,000, although nearly all the activity and commerce fall within an 8-block area. The forested hills were in stark contrast to the flat grassland that most of Paraguay features; I almost felt I was back in West Virginia. As we learned from Oscar, the area receives more tourists than anywhere else in Paraguay, and features over 60 hotel/swimming pool complexes. Since it was already late, Oscar dropped us off at CETA. CETA was built by the Kellogg Foundation, and it is evident in the beautiful stained wood structure and abundant floor space. We spent the night in the comfort of the students’ dorm-style accomodations: great mattresses, modern bathrooms complete with toilets, mirrors, showers, and running water, and even ceiling fans!

The next day we walked up to the town center, 4 blocks away. After breakfast in a local eatery we explored a bit. Then it was time to get down to business. We headed back to CETA and started Oscar thinking about where I could live for the next 6 months. We looked at house after house. One had no bathroom. Another had a leaky roof. Another was simply a room in a family’s home. Another was no longer up for rent. We were getting no where fast, and thought about heading home for the time being. That got Oscar and the rest of the CETA staff talking, and after a while he retreated to the office phone and emerged with a hot lead: there’s an apartment in downtown, and the renters are moving out tomorrow! Oscar couldn’t believe our luck; he said people are always wanting to rent the place, and if it weren’t for our fateful timing I would never stand a chance at getting it. One catch: the owner was in Asuncion, and we couldn’t see the apartment until that night or the next day. It was not yet noon, and we were not too keen on sitting around until the next morning. Finally, we decided to just walk up to see the place, 5 blocks away, if only from the outside.

As we crossed the main street of town, where we had eaten breakfast, we found ourselves in a prosperous neighborhood in front of a two-story building. We weren’t sure if it was the right place, and I asked a man on the street if this was the apartment a Mr. Gonzales rents out. He said yes, and remarked that the guy had just gotten home and lived right around the corner. We wandered up to his gorgeous home, and it almost seemed as if they had been expecting us. He immediately took us over to see the apartment. It was easily double the size of my house, divided into two rooms plus a small bathroom. The front door faced east and opened directly onto the sidewalk, as did the three sets of paneglass windows (remember we are opposite down here; the south is the shady side of the house). Out the back door there was just a large sink where one would wash clothes. The floors were tiled, typical of city homes, and the walls plastered. As it turned out, the previous renters were also American, and had already moved out; in the upstairs apartment live two American Mormon Evangelicals (These neck-tied missionaries are ubiquitous in Paraguay and not usually great for conversation, but I bet they’ll be quiet neighbors!). The location was to die for: an affluent neighborhood,1 block from commerical downtown, and 5 blocks from my workplace. The space was far more than I was ever used to having, it had running water, and there were tons of electrical outlets. Given all that, the price was excellent: 250 thousand Guaranies a month, which includes water, electricity, and trash service. The only thing I did not like about the apartment was its complete lack of outdoor access. At the time I was dismayed about not being able to sleep outside in my hammock or have a garden. Later, as I began thinking more practically, I realized the most urgent challenge will be hanging my clothes to dry. Nevertheless, given the series of failures we had already been through, Oscar’s eager endorsements, and Enrique’s nods of approval, I decided to sign the deal

With the pressure of the house-search off our shoulders, Enrique and I walked down the street in search of a well-deserved lunch. I was nervous. Where would I hang my hammock? What about my herb garden? Where would I put my bike? Where would Michi go to the bathroom?? I even wondered what in the world I would do with trash if there hadn’t been trash service included. I would have no place to burn or bury it like we do in the countryside! I realized how great of a role nature has come to play in my day to day life. Enrique correctly pointed out, however, that I would get my daily dose of nature working at the center everyday. I could have a plot of land there for my garden. My bike would fit nicely under the stairs to the upstairs apartment. Michi would learn to use a litter box. I would get over my American need for privacy and learn use the front sidewalk as a space to lounge in my rocking chair or hammock, as Paraguayans do. And, he pointed out, since they live right next door, bets are that the owner’s sweet little wife would let me know where I could hang my clothes if I only ask. In short, I would adapt. Isn’t that what Peace Corps is all about?

Just a quick entry to let those of you who are wondering know how my birthday went.

After last year’s festivities, I decided to take a low profile this year, and didn’t mention my birthday to anyone in my community. (In Paraguay the birthday girl (or boy) treats their friends and family to a party rather than the other way around. Since foreigners, including voluteers, are seen as having a lot of money, most people that knew would have pressured me to have a bash.) I had to convince Enrique that no celebration was necessary, and that his mother needn’t cook an elborate meal. In the end, however, it certainly paid off--my day was altogether normal and leisurely, with just a few sprinklings of kindness from my closest friends. I felt no pressure to make the day special, but somehow it seemed so anyway. Harem was the first to give his well-wishes with a phone call at 7am. Soon after I had a couple text messages. Even my host mother remembered, and sent me a plate of warm, fresh-made corn casserole (This is a wonderful Paraguayan baked dish made with onions, cheese, and cream; typical to this time of year, when sweet corn is harvested). I went for an early-morning jog, read, played my guitar, wrote, studied, performed the usual chores, and spoke with friends on the phone. The afternoon brought a lovely, refreshing rain that seemed like the perfect gift. And then, oh, to my surprise, Annalese called in the evening! It was a sweet, soft ending to my appropriately “tranquilo” Paraguayan 25th birthday. I hope your November 22 was as good as mine.

In just a few hours I’ll be leaving to go steak out a claim on my “new home” in Pirebebuy, the town where my extension work will be based. (For you history buffs, Pirebebuy was, many moons ago, the capital of Paraguay!) It is not a large city; I would guess no more than 5,000 people live there. Still, living in a more urbanized area will offer me conveniences (like running water, and buying groceries without making a day trip to the next town over) that I have easily lived without here in the countryside. It is in one of the most beautiful parts of the country, as well: rolling, green, rocky hills well-covered by forest. There are several ecological adventure parks and luxurious get-aways in that area. It’s also not far from Asuncion; only 1.5 hours on a local bus line. This is exciting for me, since several girls from my group are extending their service and will be living in Asuncion. It will also be nice to be able to go into Asuncion for just a day to get work done in the capital or visit the office.

The maintenance guy at the agricultural education center I will be managing has been extremely helpful. He has been inquiring into houses for rent in the area around the center, and he even offered to pick us up in a nearby town this evening when we arrive so we don’t have to change buses. Enrique is going with me to aide in the house selection; things like bad pipes or low-quality roofing, which I wouldn’t know if I saw it, will catch his eye and help ensure that I get a good rental. Also, although the center will be sending a pickup truck to move most of my things, I am going to take advantage of having a pair of strong arms along for the ride to take my winter clothes and blankets along to leave at storage in the center. Finally, since the education center has dormitory housing for when the university students come out to do practice sessions, we’ll be able to stay over a couple nights if need be without breaking the bank.

I’ll let you know how the house hunt turns out. Thanks for reading!

Good news! It looks like my extension for service with the National University has been approved. It was really getting down to the wire. My boss was calling them every day to get some final word, and I was calling her every day with the same idea. In typical Paraguayan fashion, they avoided responding until they could give the desired response (going with the flow is preferred more important than truthful and informative). They finally asked for one more day, and the following reported back saying that they had gotten the money from the university president to buy a water tank, as well as all the supplies I’ll be needing (seeds, hose, etc.) and that the purchases and installation will begin the week of November 16.

By the time I heard this news, I have to admit, I was trying to get used to the idea of either accepting another position without knowing how serious the work would be, or going back to the United States. I was looking for stateside jobs online and applying for them. Quite honestly, I’m still not celebrating: I’ve learned in Paraguay that nothing is ever sure until it actually happens. I asked my boss to call again this week to reconfirm that the purchases and installation have been completed. With that grain of salt, however, I am taking my extension as pretty much set. I’m planning on getting in touch with the education center coordinators this week; they apparently have been scouting out a couple houses in the area that are up for rent. Next week I will probably go and look at them, and hopefully settle a deal with a landlord. The university will be sending a pickup truck to haul my things in the first part of December. (This is such a Godsend! Many volunteers who relocate spend huge amounts of money hauling their stuff, or selling it and purchasing again in their new location). Fortunately, the center itself has housing should it take me longer than expected to track down a home. While it’s not fit for permanent residence, it would certainly work for a week or two.

In the meantime, we have been experiencing an exaggerated version of typical spring weather thanks to El Niño. Like many areas, spring here has a tendency of being rainy and swinging between hot and cool. This year, however, has carried those tendencies to an extreme! In all my time here I’ve never seen so much rain. It’s wonderful, too, because when its not raining the temperatures are in the summery 90’s and 100’s, and extremely humid. This is not comfortable even when you do have air conditioned buildings and cars to escape to; when it is your environment throughout the day, whether biking, baking, traveling on crowded buses, shopping in outdoor markets, cleaning your house, eating meals, visiting neighbors, sleeping, or even reading, it becomes very stressful to the body and the mind. The most ecstatic part of the day becomes a cold bucket bath! This extreme heat makes the cooling brought on by the rains seem extreme as well. I know its not that cold, and yet I find myself pulling on thermals and thick socks. While that 30-40degree temperature drop in a matter of 5 hours is certainly good for the mind, I bet it is not a little stressful to the body.

Yesterday was a particularly good example. At 5.30 I left the house to go jogging, and the air was not cool nor fresh, but rather hot and cumbersomely heavy. Even after a cold bath at 6am, standing in front of a fan, I couldn’t stop sweating long enough to put talcum powder on my face! (Makes sweating less of an annoyance in the heat.) By 7am it was too hot to step out of the shade comfortably. At 11am I was beaded with sweat even sitting perfectly still in front of a fan drinking ice water. I was dreading the afternoon scorch. Then, around 1.30pm, dark clouds appeared on the horizon, and a wind that felt icy ripped out of the southwest and didn’t stop coming. We had to take cover from the tree that had been shading us as its hard nascent mango fruits were hurled toward the ground in hoards. At 5pm, I could barely summon the courage to take a bath without heating water, and afterward retreated into the comfort of a warm sweater, a closed house, and a delicious round of boiling-hot tea. Go figure.

Most of my group of volunteers also marked their last month in site this week; December 11 is the official go-home date. I spent this particular day with Harem (ok, his real name is Jeremy, but that translates into Haremias in Spanish, and given that he was the only guy in our group of 10 beekeepers, we couldn’t resist the play on words.). I hadn’t planned on it, actually. Saturday the 7 was to be his birthday party, and while he was just planning a dinner with people from his community, he invited Enrique and I to go. I made my famous brownies and bought homemade ice cream as a gift. And then the party got rained out by a massive two-day storm. So we rescheduled for Tuesday the 10th. Once again, the day brought a tremendous rain (the tree in front of my house blew down!). Buy by noon things had cleared off, so with brownies in tow we took the 1pm bus to Harem’s house. It was a great evening and a delicious meal; perhaps that’s why we woke up 10 minutes too late to catch the 6am bus! Then it started raining again, hard. We waited and waited for a bus to pass, and finally got onboard around 10.30. Unfortunately, it would only take us to the end of the asphalt; the 17km of dirt road leading up to my house was impassable. We waited, shopped around the town we were stuck in. I bought coveted peaches and a cucumber; Enrique got a haircut. The rain cleared, and we were told the afternoon bus might make a go of it. Right around 1.30, it started raining again, and the 2pm bus pulled in and stopped. We didn’t have many more choices. Enrique could call a friend to come pick him up, but since most people drive motorcycles rather than expensive cars (Peace Corps absolutely forbids riding motorcycles), that counted me out. In the end, we parted ways. He got home by 3.30, and I caught a bus BACK up the asphalt and arrived soaked, defeated, and with an emerging case of trenchfoot, back at Harem’s house. Just in time to eat the leftover brownies! Having been soaked since 6am, it was so nice to dry off and put on warm clothes. We enjoyed a good chat before Harem’s departure, and I cooked the lone bachelor a meal that he seemed to enjoy pretty well. And luckily, the rain held off, and I was able to catch a bus home the next morning.

I recount this tale not for its trauma, but because it is a pretty common experience of Peace Corps volunteers. It is one of the many day-to-day events that require us to learn levels of flexibility and patience that are unneccesary in a USA lifestyle. It is, however, becoming less common with the increasing network of hard surface roads, not to mention the ease of communication afforded by cell phones. And fortunately for us, there’s so many volunteers to be found in the small country of Paraguay that a familiar face is never too far off.

Faithful readers:

I’ve nearly completed all the processes of applying to grad school and various fellowships. I have no news as to what I will be doing as of December 11, my Close of Service date. I would like to take advantage of the lack of personal news to fill you in just a little bit more on Paraguay.

Rural paraguayans are very immobile, especially women, who being the sole charge of the house and its upkeep, may not leave their property for literally weeks or months at a time. At the same time, the most affordable goods, both local and imported, can be found at city centers. These cities, averaging perhaps about 20-50,000 people, can be found every 60km or so. Buses might pass going toward one of these cities every couple hours. So, for those of us who live in the countryside, a trip to one of these cities takes half the day if you hurry. If you have a lot to do, which is more likely since you don’t go that often, you can expect to leave at 7am and return home at about 5pm. If you are out of soap or toilet paper, that is quite a long ways to go!

It didn’t take long to figure out that some local stores were needed, and it has become quite the rage to set up a store. Anyone who has enough money to invest in it can make quite a nice living by maintaining a store; this means that it often ends up being a hobby for bored rich people. Unlike in the United States, there are no liscences or agreements necessary to establish a store. You just stock some empty part of your house with basic goods, and people come to buy them! It is also unneccessary to get in touch with suppliers; you just have to travel occasionally to city centers, where you make purchases from the supermarket. Bring these home, raise the price a bit, and you’re all set. If you’re not the traveling type, there are also supply trucks which come around occasionally. These are guys that buy stuff from those same supermarkets and them cruise through small communities, keeping their eyes peeled for home stores that need stocked. After a while they’ll get to know you, and you can expect fairly regular resupplies.

Within my neighborhood of 42 houses there are 4 of these stores, with product availability and prices varying widely. If I bike 2km to town, where the population might reach 1,000, I have a lot more choice: there are 5 stores that I personally frequent, plus a bookstore, 2 pharmacies, and any number of food stands and small places in crannies that I’ve never noticed. That’s not to say there’s a wide selection! Most store owners stock with only the products that they will dependably sell, and that includes the pharmacies. Anything out of the ordinary, and you might as well plan to make a trip into the city. It’s also not to say you’ll get a good price; after all, you are paying the cost of the product in the city center, plus whatever the store owner thinks you’ll be willing to pay at the lack of another option.

Clearly the best idea is to plan ahead and buy everything that you can’t get around town, and everything that is significantly more expensive around town, when you visit the city. Clothes, medicines, hygiene products, shoes, electronics, cooking utensils, and other luxuries are particularly important to grab while you’re treading concrete. I also hone in on some hard-to-find items: whole wheat flour, brown rice, peanut butter, spices, raisins, oatmeal, kitty food, brown sugar, and the like. It’s also very worthwhile to buy fruits and vegetables while in the city; local stores may charge you nearly double!

It’s also worth noting that supermarkets are a very new thing in Paraguay; I wouldn’t think they’ve been around for more than 25 years. Thus, it is still considered a mark of wealth and sophistication to “shop big” rather than head for the local farmer’s market. This means that unlike in the United States, supermarket prices are much higher than the prices of locally owned stores (that’s locally owned stores in the CITY, not the countryside stores I spoke of earlier). Any national or local products will typically be available in both locations, and will typically be cheaper in the small store. Small markets also have the added bonus of being able to haggle, pick among salesman, and get special prices. For example, flour, corn, peanuts, rice, sugar, and noodles are sold cheaper “in bulk”--5kilos or more—than per kilo. But only in the small stores and markets! That said, a lot of the products not widely known or used by Paraguayans (like whole wheat flour and peanut butter) will only be available in the supermarket, so you take the price you can get.

Capitalism is not at its height quite yet in Paraguay; even in the capital, you’ll be sure to find all major competitors (all glasses shops, for example, or all food stands on the highway, or all clothing shops, or anything else) grouped up together on one little street. Apparently the thinking is, “Well she’s selling x and I’m selling x. She’s selling right there, so I guess I should too!

Another interesting quirk of Paraguayan commerce is that, on the whole, the variety of products you can get is extremely limited. If you want to buy a shirt, for example, you might walk into the first clothes shop you see on the city street. Nothing strikes you, so you leave and go to the next one. There you will find, to your surprise, virtually the same options! You ask a price, and it seems a bit high(luxuries like clothes and hygiene products are still quite expensive here); you decide to shop around. At the next store (which is next door, as I mentioned) you realize the prices are precisely the same. You ask if they don’t have this shirt in green, and the sales clerk asks you to wait just a moment while she checks. You see her leave the store and duck into the last two places you just visited to see if they have a green shirt for which they will make a trade. If they don’t, she’ll probably come back with something, oh, let’s say, neon orange and three sizes too big to offer to you. Barely resisting the urge to say, “DID I ASK FOR THAT??” you make your exit. If and when you do buy that shirt you needed, assume that the store will have no change on hand; either the clerk will pull some out of their pocket to give you, or they will visit next door once again to change bills.

It’s not just shirts—shoes, fruits and vegetables, pharmeceuticals, pet care products—you name it and its probably the same everywhere around town. This may be the bane to the shopaholic’s existence. What?? No more “shopping around?” No more SALES? No more quests for that PERFECT FIT?? That’s how I felt at first. Then, I realized that when I am in the city, I am more than likely overheated, carrying loads of all the stuff I can’t get at home, and in a hurry to get more of it before the bus leaves. Knowing that I can walk into one store and know exactly what is available in the entire city suddenly became very comforting to me. It’s low-risk shopping! So what if 10 percent of women in Paraguay on any given day are wearing those very same sandals? They’re a hit!

A mantis among my flower on a goregous spring day.

My family´s new oxen. This is a huge investment for them, but reaps rewards in the time saved in plowing the fields. They use a traditional drawn plow. By hand, it would take them days to do what they do in a couple hours with these big guys. Plus, they mow the lawn for free! They are in the process of training them now. On the left is Velo (Candle), on the right Lustre (Luster). These are super-typical names for oxen in Paraguay.

A storm was a-brewin´during my volunteer visit. We got rain, but fortunately this bad boy swept off to the east of us.

Me wearing my Indian wrap for the big spring dance. You can barely tell I destroyed the gorgeous light blue that it was by washing it without separating the reversible scarlet side from the sky blue. I´m SO Paraguayan, you can totally see my cell phone inside my dress. Oh geez.

My trainees! Rachel, on the left, is a rosy farm girl from the midwest. She´s going to be an ag volunteer and was visiting Lara (not in photo--she was already asleep!). Amy is that ravishing strawberry blonde on the right, she´s going to be a beekeeper and was my beloved visitor.

For mom: This is Michi being cute again in the compost pile. Gotta love that little guy.

Again, sorry for the long silence! I will make up for it with this extra-long entry.

Since the beginning of September, I’ve been dedicating most of my time to graduate school and graduate fellowship applications. This arrangement has been possible thanks to a series of unusual events. First, thanks to the mad skills of my parents and several neighboring volunteers, I am now in possession of my laptop computer. This has been indispensable in allowing me the long hours of silence in the comfort of my own home that have been necessary for me to write the application essays. Actually, I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have even tried applying if I hadn’t had home computer access. And if I had applied via essays-written-in-cyber-cafes, my essays probably wouldn’t have been good enough for me to be accepted. Also, luckily enough, the municipality’s computer room reopened recently, and no longer as a cyber cafe but for computer courses only. Even luckier, the computer professor seems to like my company enough to let me come whenever and use the computers for free. Granted, this is only two mornings a week (and thats if it doesn’t rain and if there’s electricity), but it is enough to download, upload, and ask my mom for “one more thing”, and it saves me a LOAD of hassle; the other option would be paying to ride the bus 1 hour each way to the next town over (where I could be trapped by a random rainstorm closing the dirt road) and paying by the hour to use the internet. When I’m happlessly looking for graduate scholarships, I just can’t take that kind of pressure!

So while the application process has not been without its difficulties (begging people by email to please proofread my essays, and having my mom sort through my mess of papers and mail transcripts hither and yon), they by no means surpass what I am able to do from here.

Our water project continues to move along at a Paraguayan pace. As always, there is relatively no participation from community members. I and three of the officers perform all the grunt work, and there’s been no indication from anyone that they will be prepared to pay the 150thousand Guarani deposit that is coming up at any moment (even though they have known since June!) except for one SUPER hardworking lady who turned in her entire deposit at once at the last meeting. (Not only on time, but head of schedule! Very unParaguayan—I was super impressed.)

The officers and I have been seeking outside financial support to ensure that the project is not cancelled entirely because some people (or no one) don’t ante up on the 150. We recently traveled to the next town over, Tebicuary, where the international sugar cane factory Azucarera Paraguaya is located (this factory makes all kinds of stuff, but among them is 95% of the organic sugar consumed by the USA. They are the only Paraguayan company certified organic and fair trade by the USDA; even Whole Foods sells their sugar! But beware—that certification doesn’t mean much, as I’ve seen first hand.). We were finally allowed into the factory and made a request for financial assistance. I was prepared to bust out the fancy persuasive speaking, but it was all pretty anticlimactic. They seem to get a lot of these requests, because they just took my number and said they would be in touch. Home again, home again.

The municipality also agreed to donate an amount to cover those households that have been determined to be incapable of paying the deposit (basically just old ladies that live alone). However, in order to receive a donation from them, we have to have a tax registration number. SOOO I have been desperately trying to figure out from Paraguayans who should know as well as other volunteers that have done it how a group goes about getting one of these numbers. Of course, no where is there a clear-cut step-by-step, and every one tells you something a little different. But I think I have most of the paperwork done, and I’m going to take it into Asuncion next week to see if I can get the registration to go through.

If you’re wondering, anyone who doesn’t pay the deposit on time who later wishes to be hooked up to the water system will be paying a huge sum to do it (1million Guarani) for all the trouble they’ll be causing to everyone else in not paying the deposit. This was a major decision that the officers of the committee made with me and the mayor. It even kind of runs against Paraguayan culture in its insistent enforcement of a rule; hopefully they actually enforce it to some degree! It’ll be a huge help to their emergency fund, for when something in the system needs repair.

If you remember, back in August it was SUPER hot here, even though it was still the US equivalent of February/March, and we were all worried about a blow-out summer heat. Well, since the first day of spring (Sept 22) we’ve had almost no excessive heat; maybe 5 days max. Sometimes it been downright winter-coat cold! Mostly, though, its been remarkably temperate, with rain every 3 or 4 days. And unlike last year’s rains, these actually keep the temperature down, rather than just making it hot AND humid. It’s also been nice to see a sky broken up by fluffy white clouds; last summer, those were a stranger to me. The downside has been plenty of bug reproduction; the mosquitos are particularly bad. However, just like multiple baths per day was my goal for last summer, faithful use of bug spray has become my resolution for this year. Rather than close myself inside as soon as it gets dark, I soak up some of the awesome all-natural bug repellant Annalese sent me from home and keep enjoying the cool night air.

The time change (we just sprung forward last Sunday) has also been an immense help. I’ve become so attuned to the sun cycles that I was waking up before 5am and having trouble holding out past 8.30 in the evenings. Now, it starts getting light around 5.30 and gets dark a little after 7pm, which makes it easy for me to follow a more normal 6am-10pm type schedule.

I still have no definitive news on my extension of service possibilities. It would be weirdly unParaguayan for the university to have anything done about the water issue BEFORE the mid-November deadline my boss placed. In the meantime, I am working to open up other possibilities just in case. Someone told me that the Rural Economic Development Coordinator (same position as my boss, but of another sector of volunteers) is super awesome and willing to help looking for meaningful, challenging work positions for people that want to extend. And they were right! I called her, and she didn’t even question that I’m an Ag volunteer asking for her time. Rather, she wanted to know what my degree was in, what my experiences are, what type of work I’m looking for, what kind of career I want to go into, and even whether I want to be in a rural or more urban part of the country! She asked me to email her my resume and a summary of what kind of work I want. She told me she would be getting back to me this week with some openings that seem to fit; the outlook seemed quite positive, as well, from her manner of speech. So perhaps if my position with the university doesn’t go through, I will have the option of another job placement that will provide some awesome challenges and learning experiences in working in 3rd world agricultural development.

At the same time, several of my favorite members of my volunteer group are also settling into extensions, while the rest are saying their goodbyes and facing the looming reverse culture shock. Unusually, two members of my group have actually already completed “close of service” and gone home early due to family deaths or illnesses. Its been a little shocking to have them go unexpectedly; however, Peace Corps is very understanding and helpful. Also, if it has to happen that they make the decision to go home, how much better now than 1 year ago! They earn their coveted title of “Returned PC Volunteer” (rather than an early termination of service) and only miss out on the last 50 days or so of their time in Paraguay.

Trainee visits! So assuming you’re not as familiar with the system as I am, a new group of agriculture/beekeeping/environmental education/agroforestry volunteers arrives in Paraguay at the end of every September to begin their three months of training before moving to site in December. (Health and rural economic development volunteers arrive in February, municipality and urban youth volunteers in June.) About 2 weeks into training, those trainees are sent out ALONE on visits to select volunteers who are already living and working in site. These lucky volunteers are selected based on forms we receive in our mailboxes sometime in August, asking if we want a visitor and what they need to do to get to our house. WELL, last year, when the 2008 group arrived, I was the FIRST person to turn in my form, and I was SOOOO excited about getting a visitor. But, unfortunately, I was not selected! I was not a little sad about this, and I think I mentioned it enough times to enough people that when this year’s new group arrived, my visit was a pretty sure bet.

As it turns out, to make it up to me, they even sent me the AWESOMEST trainee in the bee group, Amy Black! Despite the fuzzy directions she received, she arrived successfully on Saturday October 10 for a three-day weekend of funness! Coincidentally, another beekeeping volunteer was visiting me the same weekend to meet a beekeeping professor in my site, and she ALSO had a trainee visit. So Lara and Rachel (an agriculture trainee) arrived Saturday afternoon. Imagine 4 giggly girls, giddy over being with other Americans and being able to joke in English, in a 12x15foot space crammed with furniture! There were plenty of opportunities to rub elbows. Fortunately, though, we had somewhere to go, as well, because that evening was the huge Spring Dance in town! So we all got gussied up (with PLENTY of perfume, one thing that is TOTALLY acceptable in all aspects of Paraguayan culture) and Enrique escorted us to the rockin dance party (well I thought it was rockin. My fresh-from-America guests compared it to a high school dance. Haha!).

The next day, I took the other three girls to the professor’s house, and I came home to get lunch ready and have a little Time-Out alone in my 12x15 foot space. They all came back just in time to eat, and shortly thereafter, Lara and Amy left to head back to Lara’s house. Amy and I hung out and hit it off for the rest of Sunday and Monday; we made delicious food, went to use aforementioned internet in town, stopped to buy milk from my milk lady, had a mini-tour of my family’s fields, and chatted. She even got to get in touch with her family via my cell phone (we don’t have cell phones until we are sworn in as volunteers).

It was pretty exciting to have someone around who thinks every aspect of your life (like how you wash your clothes) is new and exciting. And hearing myself answer all her questions made me realize just how many learning and growing experiences I’ve had while in PC service. What most impressed me about Amy was how aware she was of her surroundings and how quickly she adapted. Even other volunteers that visit me sometimes can’t deal with bucket bathing, hauling water from the well, sharing the bed, having the electricity go out, not having a bathroom, washing dishes with cold water, or learning to use water judiciously around the house. But she was up on all of that; I didn’t have to babysit her at all. She was confidently independent and even able to help me out with chores around the house. Oh yeah, and she totally biked to town in the mud with me sitting on the back of the bike! Her sorrowful departure was Tuesday morning, but we both crossed our fingers that my extension of service would go through so that we could hang out again.

If you’re still reading after all that, I want to end with a brief description of an interesting cultural phenomenon: how we deal with money. This, the most sensitive of issues even among people of the same culture, has probably been one of my greatest difficulties in sharing my life with a Paraguayan family. Americans strongly hold to the idea of each one paying his own way: I pay for my food, and you pay for yours; or, at the very least, I pay for this meal, and you’ll pay for the next one. If you’ve ever come across someone of another culture who seemed overfriendly, you’ll probably remember that many other cultures (Paraguayan included) show friendliness through a willingness to spend money on your behalf. It gives us Americans a creepy, suspicious feeling when someone keeps offering to pay for everything; we become convinced they have ulteriour motives. This, however, is a common practice outside the US, and our tendencies otherwise, I have discovered, make us look like cheap-os, especially when (like us volunteers are) we are seen as some of the richest people around (light skin means you’re rich, right?). So in the case of Paraguay, even if YOU personally aren’t drinking any beer at the soccer game, for example, you are looked well upon if you chip in on the cost. And even though the computer professor always tells me that I can come to use the computers whenever I need to at no cost, it is to my GREAT advantage to pass him a twenty occassionally—he’ll be far more likely to actually show up the days that he’s supposed to, and might even assign me a computer that doesn’t have viruses or a bad internet connection. These things are so hard to pick up on because, for Paraguayans, it is second nature to win friends and favors by way of your wallet; not something that anyone thinks you’ll need explained to you. At the same time, it goes against American logic, culture, and even (in the case of paying off the prof) legality.

That’s part of the money issue. The other part is more uniquely Paraguayan, I believe, and also more difficult to explain and understand. This is the belief that whoever has more should give to whoever has less, and that whoever has less should not hesitate in asking. Again, the idea of “to each his own wallet” does not apply. People have no problem asking or supposing how much you make, and making spending suggestions accordingly. Having a neighbor turn to you in a group of people and say, “You have money, buy some meat so we can have a barbecue,” flies in the face of everything polite for us. And if you make the mistake of promising a gift in the future, you’ll be sure to be bombarded with regular reminders and additional requests that may be enough for you to come out and say, “Forget about it!” People will even make bold suggestions as to what purchases you should make for yourself.

Honestly, for an American at least, this bold confrontation of others’ finances is uncomfortable and even hurtful. Sometimes I have believed I had a real, caring relationship with someone, to the point that in spite of being aware of this cultural norm, I would gift them things as friends do occassionally, felling confident that our relationship was certainly more than a financial arrangement. Later, I discover otherwise, when they distance themselves from me as soon as the generosity tapers off. (OR, it occurs to me, maybe they distanced themselves because the generosity gap indicated that I wanted to end the friendship? There’s so much I will never understand.) Perhaps the most frustrating part of this is that savings never occurs to anyone. If you make money, there’s no reason to think you shouldn’t be the owner of a wide array of material possessions. And if you don’t spend it yourself, then there’s no reason you shouldn’t be willing to give it to others (almost as if the money will go bad if its not used). So again, if you make more money than me, I will be offended that you did not offer to pay for my beer, even if you weren’t drinking.

I am not so sure that’s a great note to end on, but please don’t think I’m complaining! Just sharing my hard-won cultural understand. I’d love to hear your news, as well! Please feel free to drop me an email any time. Cheers!

Sorry for the long silence. I have been pounding away at graduate school applications, as well as desperately seeking fellowships to fund my studies. At the same time, I am performing all the Peace Corps rituals of end of service--including medical exams, official paperwork, writing reports, and goodbye parties. And finally, I've been attempting to orchestrate my extension of service (or possibly, return home at the end of this year).

Before my meeting today with my boss and the university I would be working for, my extension of service seemed like a sure thing. We visited the center, which is about 1.5hours outside the capital city. It's a gorgeous, green area with rocky, rolling hills. The center itself is a whole hectare (100metersx100meters) just waiting to host all kind of animals, vegetable plants, and crop demonstrations. The center is even in the middle of a small town, so there were plenty of neighbors at the permeter of the fence, and even a couple houses for rent (with running water!!). The sole problem (but its a doozy) is that there is no water at the center. This was frustrating and annoying to me every time I heard someone say it, because the area is so lush and green, and I KNOW there's tons of water underground. But there's no wells, like I have at my house; rather, there is a town water system. Unfortunately, given the recent climate changes and droughts during the hottest (and formerly rainiest) parts of the year, the center, which is up on a hill, does not often get any water out of the system in summer time. In fact, most people in the neighborhood survive thanks to the fireman, who come around and fill their buckets every day with enough water for them to cook, drink, and bathe. And while I could easily rent a house just a block away, down the hill, where the public water system reaches with no problem even during summer, the fact that the center doesn't get water destroys my chances of work. No amount of magic will get chickens or tomato plants through the scorching summer with no rain and no watering system. So neither I nor my boss were willing to commit to the agreement unless a water collection system is set up. We set a mid-november deadline for the university to have a water collection system in place. If this were any other Paraguayan institution, I'd say there's no chance at all that they get anything done by mid November. But since its a pretigious university with funding and a certain amount of will to get things done, I am giving it a 50/50 chance. Apparently they have a tank they don't use at the university that they are going to take out there and hook up to the running water system. That way, when the water does come through (typically at night, when no one else is using it) then it will collect in the tank. Also, they are going to set up a piping system to collect rain off the roof.

So I'm up in the air: you may be seeing me before 2010! But I do feel pretty good about them getting something done, just because they really want me at the center. I'm qualified, they can see I'm serious about getting something accomplished, it'll make them look good and get them in with Peace Corps, plus they get me for free. But we'll see.

My sister group is in (the volunteers replacing my group) and this weekend is volunteer visit. I'm so EXCITED because I'm getting a visit from a trainee!! Plus this weekend is the big spring dance in my town, so she'll have an interesting taste of walking 2km on dirt roads in heels (in nighttime 95degree temperatures) to dance polka in a factory-style metal building. Haha! It'll be good times: welcome to Paraguay!

Anyway, I'm going to get back to looking for scholarships online, but please know all is well in Peace Corps Paraguay. Over and out.

Isn't this an awesome picture? Erin Hogeboom took it during our trip to Itaipu at Monday Falls. I feel like I'm in a travel brochure or something.

Well, I am currently at my Close of Service Conference. It's a real mind bender to realize that two years now stand between me and these 39 other people that I became so close to during training. In my head, I would estimate that I've been in Paraguay about 6months, that I'm a recent college grad, and that my service is far from over. And yet, 2 years have past!

We're wrapping up two years of no junk mail, no red tape, no paperwork, no beauracracy with lost of, well, all that. We're discussing insurance plans available to us; deadlines for turning in all the paperwork we're required to complete about our years of service; options for receiving the readjustment allowance; whether we want a ticket home or the monetary equivalent; getting medically cleared to leave; workman's comp and medical vouchers for getting treatment at home for problems that arose during service; grad school options, government work options, and how to put peace corps on a resume; and on and on and on...! It's very nervewracking and intimidating, especially after having literally all my needs and most of my comforts assuredly met (even if I've spent all my living allowance on less important matters) simply because I've requested it.

Personally, I feel a little distance from all that as of yet, since I am probably extending my service. At the same time, however, there is some nervousness in my head because there always exists the possibility that my extension fall through and I have to hurry through all these processes to catch up with my groupmates and make the trip home in December to face the real world once again. And while several people in my group are extending, most of my closest friends for the past 2 years are heading back to their respective parts of the US, probably never to be seen again. Not too far in my future, I will be the only person I know that speaks Spanish, that speaks Guarani, that knows Paraguay. I will have no one that understands anything about what has been my entire life for the past two years.

So I'll be here until Friday, and then back to my beloved, if not transient, reality in the countryside of Paraguay. And all the while, I'll be frantically working on my grad school applications to Davis and Cornell, always with the dependable home-side collaboration of my mother! Thanks mom.

Cuddly.

This place, by the way, straddles Paraguay and Brazil and is governed by two directors, one from each country, and apart from either government. But Brazil pretty much gets all the goods. We still pay for our electricity!

That´s Monday falls again.

Is this not hilarious? Maybe I just think so.

Monday Falls (pronounced Mon-da-uh) about 20km from Itaipu

What´s left of the natural world that was abruptly flooded by this massive dam

The happy group

This place is just way too big to fit in one photo!

These floodgates open when the water behind the dam gets up to a certain level. I suggested watersliding.

I want to start this entry with some awesome photos! Erin Hogeboom, the volunteer that I went to Ecuador with last year, invited Enrique and I on her women´s group to Itaipu in the east of Paraguay (If you don´t know what it is, look it up online. It´s the largest energy production plant in the world, and took 17 years of 24-hour contstruction to build. Also, they destroyed one of the 7 natural wonders of the world to build it. But try not to think about that...). The group had worked and worked to raise the money to rent the bus for the day. While the sites were incredible, what was even more amazing was seeing the national identity and pride arise in these people as some of them left their community for the first time in their entire lives. The saw huge bodies of water, rode horses and hay wagons, visited a national reserve, and of course saw the pride of Paraguay for the first time all in once day. It was truly touching to see how grateful and excited they all were for having made it happen.For those of you that know me personally, I thought it might be interesting to know a little more about who in the world “Megan” is for most people in Peace Corps Paraguay. First of all, quite unknowingly, I've risen to become a “senior member”; our group (titled G25) is the oldest group still in country! So there's a lot of expert advice requests on “where's the best place to get...?” Craziness. Aside from that, however, I get the most calls from other volunteers about cooking. I find this a little funny, since a mere 6 years ago I had to be taught how to boil water in the microwave to make instant rice. Nevertheless, people feel I'm trustworthy on things such as homemade yogurt, breads, desserts, what is less or more healthy, and “what can I do with...?” (That's being in a country where suddenly groceries you were used to having are not available, and ones you don't know what to do with are.) I've also somehow become known for my brownie and carrot cake recipes. Even ladies in my site call to ask for me help! Moving on... Secondly, I get fairly frequent calls about the schedules of the two bus companies whose routes go by my house. I also occasionally get people calling to ask how in the world I got a water project up and running so fast (answer: who you know, and the fact that the Paraguayan government isn't fair.). But my FAVORITE subject of all is Paraguayan boyfriends! Everything from “I met this wonderful guy” to “I need a restraining order!” to “What kind of paperwork does he need to go to the US?” to “What did you do...” Such an expert, that Megan. I imagine I'm also known as being a little TOO integrated; unlike a lot of volunteers, I don't participate in the many groups and social events within Peace Corps, mostly because they require traveling to Asuncion for meetings. I'm not outrageously far from the city, but the more I can avoid that bus trip, the better! So where volunteers that have been here much less time than I have know all the shopping malls and American restaurants in the capital (McDonalds, TGIFridays, Hooters...), I have yet to to be one of them, Not to mention that whereas most people get multiple visits from friends and family from the states during their time here, or at least go home themselves once or twice, I've only left the country once, over a year ago, and have had no visits. Additionally, I've heard through the grapevine that I'm too cheap to pay for the hotel stay in Asuncion, but that's just hearsay.... Most recently, I've also become the proud owner of a guitar and my LAPTOP from home. A lot of volunteers sport DVD players, Tvs, computers, wireless internet, and even nice cell phones from the US (I prefer the PC standard issue; its so disposible!). However, I never really found a need for the computer until grad school applications loomed in my future. So through a series of fortunate events (propelled by several promises of brownies) I managed to get my precious machine into my own little vacation home in Paraguay. I NEVER expected the culture shock that came along with it! Looking at the pictures of myself in many different destinations of the US and the world, I was flabbergasted. My hair is so blonde. My eyes so blue. My skin is SO white. Do I own all those beautiful clothes? Have all those friends? Those experiences? Is this a lifestyle that is available to me, that I can CHOOSE to live if I want? It was alarming. Additionally, just having technology around I can feel my pace of life speeding up. Suddenly, there's push to get music downloaded, get DVDs to watch, sort my pictures into neat folders, write my blog entries and emails beforehand, go to the internet every week, create backup copies of my documents...all things I lived just fine without for 2 years. If nothing else, I have come to understand to a much greater degree how Americans seem to Paraguayans at first, and probably second-through-tenth. glance. Speaking of Paraguayan, I can see the kind of opportunities this computer opens up to Enrique, as well. For the first time, he's seeing the life and the people of “Megan, before being born into Paraguay at the age of 22”. I can see this is surprising to him, and also perhaps a little frightening. Naturally, for them I am and always have been as I am now, a little dumb and clumsy and completely alone. Seeing me earning a degree, posing in front of major monuments, driving down 6lane highways, performing in the college choir and fashion show...none of it fits the person I have been taken to be. More importantly than understanding me, however, he's quickly, QUICKLY learning how to operate the computer. It just so happened that I was able to get him an inexpensive computer course once a week, and while it was going fine before the laptop arrived, since he's been able to practice everyday his handling of the system has absolutely taken off. I've always known he was smart: he picks up English just from hearing me talk on the phone, knows more of my (American) friends last names than I do, and can do math in his head that I have to pull out my calculator for. But to see someone go from not knowing how to turn on the machine to easily handling the basic hardware and software functions of the computer (and even identifying folders and their locations IN ENGLISH) in a matter of 2 weeks has blown me over. He is even learning to type at a decent speed! And while none of this is any big deal even for our grandma's stateside, here handling a computer is a hot new skill, and immediately opens up job opportunities that one would of never have otherwise. (As an example, Enrique's older brother Mario is about to graduate with a degree in administration, and does not know how to use a computer. Imaginable? Not really.) My guitar purchase came on quite suddenly, because it has been only very recently that I have found some type of acceptable balance between my own personal preferences and the lifestyle that is considered normal in the culture I'm living in. For the longest time, I suffered extreme guilt for earning more and working less than the people around me. I strived to rest only when they rested, and looked for physical work in the times of day that they were working. I don't know what brought on the change, but somehow, one day, I finally felt totally fine about in what things I fall in line with Paraguayan culture, and in what things I don't. Perhaps I came to realize that the people around me were accepting of the differences they saw between themselves and me. Perhaps I realized that having a problem doesn't make you a bad person or an friend to be disposed of. Rather, it just makes you a more real, more knowable. And until someone feels they can know you, they will never be able to accept or love you. In reality, our faults are precisely what makes us lovable. Well, I don't know if that's why I had a change of mentality, but it sure is philisophical! What I do know is that once I was comfortable with being different, I was no longer afraid to be heard playing the guitar. Since I've gotten it, I've done just that, and with gusto! I feel like in the past month I've made up for all those years of unprogressive lessons I took. Right now, I can play Rocky Raccoon and Let it Be by the Beatles, Blowing in the Wind, and I'm working on Acoustic N3 by the Goo Goo Dolls. And I'm definitely taking my guitar to our Close of Service Conference to jam with the rest of my group. Rock on, baby. SPEAKING of close of service, it's coming up! Some of my best friends and most essential touch stones for the past two years will be moving on up stateside, leaving me to ANOTHER blasted Paraguayan summer season. (WHY?? NOOO!) Our conference, to get everything orgainzed, is in just over a week at a vacation spot on a lake outside of Asuncion. And as you may know, out actual COS date is mid-December, just in time for a holly jolly Christmas. Fortunately, a lot of my near and dear ones ARE staying as extendees, as well. Some of them I'm particularly pleased about because, due to distance between our communities, we've never had much chance to get to know each other during the past two years. Paring down the group to a precious 10 or so will give higher priority to developing these nascent relationships, not to mention that most extension assignments are with an NGO, and thus end up being in closer to Asuncion or some other large city, so travelling to meet up is easier.

I´m just warning you, my parents sent me my computer, so now I can write up entries in my free evenings at home. Much more informative, and much longer they shall be! Can you handle it? Here we go...

Imagine 90 degree temperatures in February. That would be a bit odd, no? But that is what is happening here in the subtropics! We have spent the last and sometimes harshest month of winter (August) in as summery a state as you folks up north! I always knew, in theory, that climate change is most visible in some of the poorest parts of the world, like the tropics. Witnessing it, however, is a whole new ball game. Even people who have never heard of the modern catch phrase, “climate change,” will talk about how the weather patterns have changed visibly over the past 10 years. The librarian at the Peace Corps office in says 20 years ago she wore a winter coat equivalent to those we need stateside every day all winter long in Paraguay. This year, I used my winter coat for maybe 2 weeks total out of the whole 3 months, and the temperatures only dropped below freezing once. At first glance this is hardly something to complain about, but an average temperature increase of 17F in ten years is impossible for the environment (particularly, the crops people depend on to eat and earn money) to adjust to. Not to mention what that increase means in summer! Another apparent weather problem is precipitation. Supposedly, summer is the rainy season and winter the dry season in the subtropics. I assumed my first summer drought and wet winter was a fluke; however, when the same thing happened again this year, I started asking. The responses were always about the same: “I don't know, it never used to be this way....it really started changing about 7 years ago....they say the climate is changing....” This is also big trouble for the crops. They get no water during their growth season, and then when the game is up the skies open up. Although this is less talked about, I also see another problem becoming apparent: because the winters have always been dry, most viruses which flourish in wet, cool places (such as the influenzas and pnuemonias we are all so accostumed to up north) have never been major issues here. Now, however, there all kinds of epidemics which the weak public health system is by no means willing or able to handle. Bueno, enough distressing news. I feel like I have in many senses failed during my time abroad to impart upon my readers a true sense of the culture of Paraguay. I have talked about the 5 universal recipe ingredients, yes, the terere, the clean-feet obsession, the clothes-washing process, and the opressive temperatures. But are you aware of the vast array of grunts and whistles we use to communicate between ourselves and with animals? Do you know of the recent motocycle and cell phone fads? The universal obsession with perfumes? How to have a child's birthday party? How to always agree while actually being in disagreement? The mix and match clothing options? THE POLKA? I have truly shammed you. Let's begin with some hilarious non-human comunication. If you wish to express dissatisfaction, or in general feel that some time of line has been crossed, you will address the offender with a loud grunt of, “EEESH!” This is most often directed at dogs, children, and close family members. Agreement (like saying, “yes, exactly.”) is an emphatic, very nasal “HHEEEEH.” If you really don't know but don't want to admit it, however, that same affirmative can be reduced to a puny, “huuh.” Or if you are just plain uninterested or don't want to say, that yes can even get down to an “hmmm.” (Useful when you don't want to give out your phone number.) Dogs which intrude on human space will be put in their place with a near-shout of, “FUERA!” or “OKAPE!” (that's “OUT!” in Spanish and Guarani, respectively. Another option for this offender is to confront him with the Guarani, “NEPUH!!” My personal favorite for dogs, however, and certainly the most universal, is the “kissy noise” as volunteers call it. I can't seem to write this in phonetic English, for it is merely the sucking in of air through extremely pursed lips (think Aunt Betsy coming in for a big wet smooch). The louder and longer the kiss, the farther that dog will go! I will note that I frequently and successfully use the kissy noise while jogging to ward of strange dogs. Its also worth noting that, if ever in Paraguay and confronted with an agressive dog that ignores EVEN the kissy noise, simply bend down as if picking up a big rock to heave at the creature. You will deceive a satisfied smirk when he literally runs in the opposite direction, yelping all the way. Chickens are a whole other ball game. I have to repeat this communication so often, sometimes I even accidently use it on other other animals, much to the amusement of the Paraguayans. To shoo chickens, one must actually “shush” them, that is, emit the sound, “Shhhhhh”. This can be altered in any number of ways (ShShShShhhShhhSh) and is most effective when accompanied by emphatic arm waving, throwing something in the general direction of the offending chicken, or even chasing it. It's impressive how these bird brains can learn! Oftentimes one that has jumped up on the table will get down obediently upon hearing this from afar. Remarkable. Finally, there is the much-loathed pigs. To them you can only say, “KU-RE! (pig in Guarani) in the loudest, lowest, manliest voice possible and hope they might get scared and run. Awful, horribly intelligent creatures. Yuck. There are of course ways to call animals, as well. Dogs get called by their names; if they are to chase cows or other unwanted creatures out of the yard, all you have to do is whistle or say, “vaca, vaca” (cow) in a low, excited voice to see them run off like a shot. Cats are called with “Miii-chi, mi mi mi...” not unlike kitties in the US. Ducks get a, “pa-ti, pa-ti, pa-ti” and chickens a high pitched, lip waggling “bbrrrrrr!”. I might note, this is the same noise used to make cows get out of the way. There are more animals, of course, but I'll stop for there. If you are wondering about my doings, it is looking like my request to extend my service in order to take that job with the National University is going to be approved no problem! So feel free to send one more package...just kidding. Here in Cerrito, though, I quickly feel things coming to a close. My water committee has been asking if I'll still help them after December (right now they are trying to raise 2,500 dollars for the running water system) and I'll be giving the final exam in my ecological agriculture course next week. After much a-do it seems Peace Corps will not be placing another volunteer in this community, which is a decision I heartily agree with; never have I known a 4th+ volunteer that was happy and successful, and since I as the 3rd already had trouble uniting people behind some common interest, I doubt yet another volunteer could do any better. PS, my address and phone number will not be changing at any point in time: +595983199181 Megan Mayzelle Voluntario de Cuerpo de Paz 162 Chaco Boreal c/ Mariscal Lopez Asuncion, 1580 Paraguay Feel free to give me your number, I can usually text to the US at low cost. Or try dropping me an SMS! It would be a great thrill of mine. Thanks for reading.

Gloria (Alfredo's sister, see previous pictures) home from her job as a maid in Ciudad del Este, and I at a soccer game. She's wearing the first scarf I have ever knitted!

My kitty, Michi, sleeping precariously on the windowsill. Evidence of orange juice making below.

Ana Paula, Teresa, me, and Mirna (Teresa and Mirna are sisters, my host mom's daughters; Ana is their neice) one frosty evening with the whole family at home.

Enrique and Mario planting suger cane

More sugar cane planting

The kids perform a traditional dance at the San Juan party

One of my neighbor kids, Junior, in traditional dress for the dance

View from the bleachers at a soccer game

My host mom's ducks. I get exercise by chasing them away from my flower bed. That big one is scheduled to be butchered for the next family gathering. No kidding.

I kept telling Michi that, as an outside cat, he must provide part of his own food by hunting. To taunt me, he began hiding dead animals into my house which he obviously never planned on consuming. Last time I came home from Asuncion it was a decapitated bat. If you're wondering, that bucket with cloth over it is my worm farm. I can't leave it outside or the red ants will eat my poor little worms.

San Juan--the winter party of Paraguay the first week of July, seems like it happened so long ago! My ag course at the school got nixed in the name of San Juan planning, and immediately following was the kids' 2 week winter vacation. That got extended by a week because of widespread flu instances. And so it was only yesterday (the 30th of July) that I finally returned to my students. It was a very long, long break from my usual un-demanding schedule. Honestly, I woke up with absolutely nothing to do most days. And to make matters more dismal, the weather was not only very cold (we had our first frost of the year) but also unendingly cloudy. Imagine washing your hands, washing dishes, washing clothes by hand, cooking, bathing, going to the bathroom, taking out your contacts, getting dressed and undressed, etc etc in 45 degree weather. Imagine having a fridge that reacts to its 45 degree environment by freezing everything inside of it (including your yogurt cultures!), which you then have to TOUCH and thaw out in 45 degree weather to cook. Its pretty depressing, sometimes even hard to get out of bed. Especially when you have no demands on your time and have to be self-initiating. I think I might have Seasonal Affective Disorder! Its also been raining a lot, and after one storm we went 2 days without electricity. 45 degree weather plus 13 hours of darkness per day= LOOOOTS of sleep. Even my usual evening knitting and reading were out at that point. On the bright side, I mastered bread baking and yogurt, butter, cottage cheese, buttermilk, whipped cream, and cream cheese production. I was my soccer team's most faithful fan (they were finally eliminated in the final round...sad.). And I even starting going to work with the men in the fields! I do everything with my left hand, and on the first day I developed and burst a blister cutting sugar cane with a machete. The second day, I broke open the open skin inside the blister with the hoe. The third day, they let me start carrying loads of suger cane so that my hand would stop suffering open rub wounds. Although I could keep up with the men in speed, obviously I got no where close to them in weight capacity and endurance. I hoed 2 350 meter rows in 1.5 hours, and I was DONE. They hoed 6 each over the period of a day's work. I REALLY enjoyed working in the field. It kicks off the cold, and gets you out in the open air. Not to mention that I felt NO obligation to go on my daily 4k jog after tat kind of work! Its also extremely relaxing, a great stress reliever. And they are on their own schedule: if they are tired or sick, or a friend calls to go out, they can take a break or abandon the job completely until tomorrow. Now if only this job had a reliable form of pay sufficient to meet basic life needs! Well, nothing's perfect. For those of you who are wondering, though I've stayed in touch with the university (ie stalked them) about that position they offered me, they have yet to complete and send to me a detailed work proposal that I could submit to Peace corps. This is typical Paraguayan timing, so I'm not surprised. I'm also not too much in a hurry, since I don't need to have anything set until mid-October. However, I'm also being realisitic, and keeping in mind that the whole thing might fall through and leave me going back to the US at the end of 2009. As Enrique said, if that happens, it will happen for a reason; there will be something else better in store.

Hello ladies and gentleman! I'm happy to let you all know that I had a WONDERFUL interview today at the top university in Paraguay, the Universidad Nacional. As you may know from my previous entry, I've been looking for a job opportunity to extend my service with Peace Corps through next June in order to tide over the lag time between what would be the end of my service and the beginning of grad school (if I get in) without surfing the wiley waves the of United States economy (what a flounder! Hehe.)

Well, my boss told me the university had been interested in placing some volunteers, so I called them and (weirdly) got through immediately, and they immediately made time for me to head out there for an interview. As we talked, it became more and more apparent that I am what they were looking for, and the situation they have to offer is just what I was looking for:

The university has a center about 70km outside Asuncion in a small urban area. It's 3hectares, and it is meant to be a demo plot for all kind of "new ideas" in agriculture, including natural remedies, organic gardening, urban agriculture, green mulches, animal raising, etc etc. The center has accomodations for a technician to live on site, but since the Kellogg Fund that built the center ran out, they haven't been able to place anyone there (and all the animals got stolen). The purpose of the center is an area of practice for their students to go to, as well as a resource center for 4 neighboring communities and a local school. So basically I get to be that technician!!

I'm SOOO excited: I was wanting a more urban area, but longed to keep my garden and maybe even get animals, as well as continue my physically active work. I was also wanting a more demanding job description that would challenge me, teach me things, and be a good addition to my professional resume.

And the more they learned about me, the more they were, too. I know I might be unconvincing at first (skinny pale blonde looking comfortable in black slacks), but the conversation went something like this:

"I want to let you know, the center does not have a computer."

"That's ok. I don't have running water. Or a bathroom. I walk across the lawn to the neighbor's house in a bathrobe daily."

"Have you ever heard of herbal remedies, such as rosemary?"

"Yes, I taught a class on them last week. Did you know calendula planted throughout the garden is one of the best natural pest deterrants?"

"We don't have any private vehicles, so you'll have to take local buses out to the communities."

"That's ok, I have a bike."

They asked me to start right away, but I told them I have a contract in the community where I am until the end of the year. The only other thing they were worried about was the excitement dying down when I left. I told them if it went well for me, they'd have other volunteers wanting to take the position in the future. IN! The only special request I made: (this one's for you, dad) Can we please have milk goats? I'd like to try working with goats milk products. There was a little contest on that one, but in the end they said, "If you're willing to work with a goat, we'll get one for you." YEA!

My excitement was reiterated as I arrived in the Peace Corps office and "glowingly," as he put it, recounted the whole event to the new Peace Corps Paraguay Director. My direct boss was a little more hesitant, "Well, we're reforming the extension policy now, and you know, I'm not saying its not a possibility, but we'll have to see." But I was rejuvenated as I sat down to do new hire interviews for the open office admin position with the Director and my boss, and he said, "Did you tell everyone about your new job? Extend! Extend! Extend!" (also glowing, and punching fist into the air.) I've totally got this one. Hehe.

So the next step if for the university to write a detailed project plan with goals and responsibilities and everything and present it to Peace Corps Office. I think I'm on the right track. And to those of you who wanting and expecting to see me BEFORE July, all I can say is,"Come On Down!!" :-)

Happy Father's Day. Over and out.

Hello all.

I'm at my 6-month mark, and the thought on everyone's mind is, "Where will I go, what will I do next??" I am no exception, and have been looking at grad schools to start applying to for fall 2010. Honestly, I have my doubts about being able to apply from Paraguay, as my communication state-side is so scarce and sketchy. However, the biggest question that remains is, "What will I do in the mean time?" With leaving Paraguay in January, I have an awkard 9 months or so to fill in before grad school would begin: too long to crash on mom's sofa, not long enough to sign an apartment contract; too long to not work, but not long enough to get a "real" job. What to do? Right now, I am considering either extending my service in Paraguay for 6 months, or finding some type of research internship in the US that would occupy me and pay my costs in the meantime. The benefits of staying are the awesome job security (I'm in!) and medical care (better than I'll EVER have in the states). Also, I'd be changing roles slightly: probably going to a small city and working with an NGO. So it would also be great experience and a stellar addition to my resume. The downside is going through ANOTHER summer in Paraguay. NOOOOO!!!!!

But back to the present. Right now, I'm really enjoying my two sustainable agriculture and horticulture courses with the high school students. The classes are small, and I've enjoyed creating a cirriculum and adjusting it to the needs of the two different levels (9th and 8th graders). The challenges include adjusting my more stringent American expectations to their lax education experiences; working on my Spanish to be able to present a 1-hour lecture; and also DUMBING DOWN my Spanish, and using tons of visual aides, to make up for the sad fact that these kids often don't understand Spanish (even though it is the official language in schools, many teachers fall back on Guarani) and certainly are not proficient in writing it.

I'm also working with the newly formed town council, and trying to get in with the agriculture committee of that council as consulting member (wouldn't that be a fabulous resume builder?) This is proving difficult, however, as they are all older men, educated, and fairly wealthy land owners. Why would they think a skinny young Norte Americana be of any help? I kind of agree with them, but I want to learn!

For these next couple days, though, I'm in Asuncion. The doctor gave me permission to come in because I had a concern for a tooth and wanted to go to the dentist. I had my appointment on Friday, and was planning on going home Saturday in time for the Father's Day celebrations and out home soccer game today. However, the director of Peace Corps saw me in the office and asked me to stay and help interview for two new administrative positions in the office Monday and Tuesday. He offered reimbursment for the hotel and everything, so I decided to stay and do something I never do in Asuncion, which is work at a normal pace (rather than in a frenzy) and catch up on things like grad school searches and getting in touch at home. (It's been good!)

Unfortunately, I got robbed leaving the hotel on Friday morning; this guy took my makeup bag out of the front pocket of my backpack while I was getting on the bus. Unfortunately for him, it was nothing valuable, but I was suddenly without my glasses, contacts case and solution, toothpaste, creams, medicines, etc etc. So when I found out I was staying, I asked Enrique to come in for a day and bring me back up supplies and extra clothes. Being able to hang out with him outside of Cerrito is quite a treat because he's almost always broke. Even though he works very hard, he's the only one at his house of 6 with any wages, so his hard earned money goes out the door quickly as soon as the light bill, the contracted tractor for the fields, or some celebration that requires meat (like Father's Day) appears on the scene. So that was a bright spot in my otherwise lonely weekend in a deserted, closed down city (typical Asuncion weekend. Paraguayans are such early risers!).

The weather has been typically Paraguayan wintry. I came in on Thursday, and it was sooo cold (as it has been for the last 2 weeks); I was wearing wool socks and closed shoes, a turtleneck, sweater, and my winter coat. By the time I got to the city, though, it was hot and humid, and I was ripping off layers. Yesterday (Saturday), it was downright hot (around 85), and sure enough, it rained today.

I'm going home Wednesday morning, just in time for the San Juan celebrations. I'm not really sure WHY Paraguayans celebrate San Juan, but I know it involves funny competitions like climbing poles and kicking around a flaming soccer ball, as well as traditional Paraguayan foods, and is typically held at night and always this time of year. Fun!

I will close there. Again, thanks for reading. If you hear of any temporary positions that pay pretty well and have something to do with the great outdoors, to become available around February of next year, please please let me know. Cheers!

Soccer team at the Independence Day fiesta, celebrating their victory

Enrique and I bundled up at the party (thanks for sending me that coat mom!!)

Enrique rocking the opponents socks off on the field

Our first game...yay!

The inaugural parade, with judges in the foreground

Enrique and I at the workshop last month looking particularly cute. Sorry, I couldn't resist. (Can I mention that everything I'm wearing in that photo was purchased in Paraguay? See, it's NOT an uninhabitated jungle without toilet paper after all!)

That's right ladies and gentlemen, the humble field workers of Cerrito are SCORING BIG (and I mean BESIDES having a super amazing blonde in their neighborhood, heehee)! "Futbol", ie soccer, is going really well this year. We started out strong, taking second (and therein winning a soccer ball) at the inaugural parade. Then, of the three games we've played, we've won two; the losing game was against the best team in the league and last years champion, so we didn't really expect too much from that one. The best part is, unlike some of the other teams (especially that winning one), we don't recruit any paid players from other parts of the country. All of our boys are Cerrito born-and-bred, and play for the pure joy of it.

Our last game was on Mother's Day, which, in Paraguay, is the 15th, or last Friday, also Independence Day. Also just in time for Mother's Day we had a huge rain. It was a wonderful gift, because we've been without it for two months now, and heading into winter, the dry season, that could be disastrous. After the rain cleared, though, those winter temperatures that we've been evading since the end of March rolled right in. So the Independence Day party Friday night was held in about 40F weather. The party is held in the indoor soccer stadium about 2km from my house, in town, which is basically an uninsulated warehouse. I went, but only under the cozy cover of tights, long johns, wool socks(thanks dad!), sneakers, pants, undershirt, turtle neck, sweater, and ski jacket. I also kept off the chill by dancing away to Paraguayan polka! Good times.

In honor of Mother's Day, I took my host mom to the dentist. Unlike most country Paraguayans, she takes care of her teeth and had kept all of the in her head and white. But last year, her canine broke, and because there was never money to repair it, it has rotted out since then. I finally convinced her to go to town on my wallet, which was quite a big to do; getting a Paraguayan housewife out of the house in the morning (when the dentist is in town) is extremely difficult, because that is when they have the most work to do. The tooth, however, was pulled successfully. I haven't paid yet; the dentist said he found two more he wants to work on, as well. And Enrique is hoping to go, too; he grinds his teeth at night and is wearing them down to a pulp. We'll see how all THAT turns out.

Right now I'm in Asuncion an interview with my boss on work progress/future plans. The weather, strangely enough, warmed up again by Sunday, so we're back to sweating our socks off (sandals are better anyway!) in 75-85F.

By the way, may I remind you all that I will be leaving Paraguay in 7months? (Staying for New Years, mom, sorry...I can't resist just one more 50kilos-of-barbecue event.) Packages are still workable and welcome (dried fruit, chocolate, basic spices, natural peanut butter, homemade granola...I'll take it all!). They average about 2 months to arrive, and the most I've ever had one take was 3, so have no fear. A word of warning, however, to those of you who thought they'd never see me again: BEWARE! Your hour is approaching. Bwahaha!

Me in my hammock...Anna Paula, at 3.5years, is now proficient in taking pictures.

The retreat center where we had our workshop (see explanation below)

Our group of Paraguayan counterparts at the workshop (Enrique is on the right)

My neighbor kids getting ready to go to school

Mario's new puppy, Pott

Abby's birthday party

Hello faithful readers!

Since my last entry, I've eaten approximately 30 pieces of chipa! (see photos from 2007.) That's right, I got through Holy Week surviving (from Wednesday evening until Saturday evening, and every day for breakfast a week after that) only on chipa and sopa Paraguaya. I topped it with tomato slices when I could to make myself feel less guilty, but at the end of the day it was DELICIOUS. Anyone who has ever lived Semana Santa in Paraguay will understand.

Oh and I forgot to mention, at the beginning of the month of April Enrique and I went to hang out with Abby for her birthday. She was broke and wasn't gonna have a party, but turns out all her Paraguayan neighbors pitched in, serenaded her, made a cake, and we had a blast!

I've also gotten official approval to begin my ecological agriculture course; I'll be teaching about 2 hours a week to 7th, 8th, and 9th graders (about 25 students in total). The subject depth varies according to the grade, but we'll be doing theory focusing on soil composition and quality retention, and practical work in a school tree farm and vegetable garden. The professor I'll be working with seems to be better than most and kind of serious about her job, so I have somewhat high hopes!

Also this week, I got the official call from the district capital that our running water project was being funded by Mercosur and will be beginning soon (most projects take 2-5 years to receive funding; we applied in January, but have connections up top. Ahhh, corruption...). We had heard from our friend that we were in, but this was the first official, objective information I've been given. Yea!

My luck continued to hold, and I was able to grab a spot to take another community member to a project design and management workshop sponsored by Peace Corps. (Last year I went with my host brother Mario). This time I took Enrique, and we were planning on simply using the time to refine our running water project. However, as we completed the community needs analysis activities, we found that what we could really do is to work on reforesting our community as a complement to the running water project (drought and soil quality is a continuing problem in the community, and will still affect the crops, even if we have drinking water through the system). We pretty much have all the resources we need, and just need to organize people to do the manual labor. So that's my hope as I return to site tomorrow.

And finally, I was asked to participate in a test-run Spanish course and exam for future volunteers, so I'll be travelling next week, as well. Fun times!

The rocks surrounding the lagoon of Salto Cristal

The falls

Natural springs surrounding the lagoon

Enrique and Megan...

The water is crystal clear, and you stillllll can't see the bottom!

Steve Berk, a new agriculture volunteer and biochem graduate of Washington and Jefferson College, PA (for you Bethanians)

King and Rachel jinga-ing at the Brit Pub (best dinners in Asuncion, and the best music, too. No polka here!)

Me and Abby at the pub for delicious make-your-own salads (with blue cheese)

This is last winter (June) so you can see how my hair has grown out. That's Mary and my wonderful friend and neighbor Jeremy (better known as Harem, for being the only guy in our group of 10 beekeepers)

I never thought I'd say this, (especially after turning down my first Peace Corps invitation to Environmental Education in Jamaica) but Iḿ really enjoying working in the schools. As I mentioned, I started out taking some story books in, and reading for 15 or 20 minutes in a few classrooms a few times a week (I just show up whenever I want, in any classroom, and instantly I have the floor. Thatś tranquilo, guys!). I was surprised at how well the kids responded, especially to the nonfiction books (dinosaurs, stars, ocean, animals, etc) but what really let me know that I was on the right track was the teachers. Initially, most of them were just glad to get out of occupying their classes for a few minutes (no lesson plans here. Sometimes the kids spend their whole 3.5 hours of class time per day cleaning the school and the yard. Not quality education at all...) but several made comments to me about how much the kids liked the books, and sometimes I could see that the teacher was learning something, too. Paraguayans arent known for expressing opinions, so them telling me directly something positive like that was huge and very encouraging! I have to refresh my books when I go into Asuncion, but in the mean time I have another kernel of an idea in my head....!

Ive been reading Our Common Future, which, for those of you who dont know, is the first report made (in 1987) by the UN Environmental Comision after their first Summit on Sustainable Development. One statement stood out to me in particular: it asserts that country schools in developing countries should be teaching what is revelant to the studentś career future, or, more specifically, agriculture. Considering it more carefully, I don know why I never thought of it before. Why should I try to get 60 year old farmers who have been doing what they do for years and years to change their ways, when I can just teach it to future farmers straight off the bat? Plus, teaching basic sustainable farming is totally approachable for me, since not too long ago I was taught it, and I have tons of student matieral on it; the method and layout of the lessons are pretty clear in my head (unlike teaching English--Id have no idea where to start!!) So I'm going to talk to the director and see if she wont give me one class a week, possibly with optional attendance, of an older group. Well see how I do.

My water project remains much the same. Pretty much all I do is write fancy letters to the director of the national water commision on behalf of the water committee in my town asking him to please not forget us and why. Getting what youŕe after here has nothing to do with what you deserve or what is fair or (in the case of a job) if youŕe most capable. Rather, its all about who you know, what you do for them, and how much you ask. When in Rome....

I had one unsuccessful attempt to regroup the youth group. We were going to watch a movie, but most of the youth (in typical paraguayan fashion) showed up 1.25 hours late, and by then the ones whod come on time wanted to leave anyway. The thing got finished off when our TV suddenly stopped working, as well as those of all the neighbors, because of some weird electrical short. It was neverwracking, not so much because of the delays (thatś normal here) but because being a good hostess in Paraguay is soooo different, and although I recognize that, Iḿ neither good nor gracefully bad at it, and wear myself out worrying if Juan said he didn want more juice because he really doesnt or because I am supposed to offer several times before he accepts, and how do you serve popcorn in Paraguay? Ack! It was, however, encouraging that people actually come, so I might try another when thereś some slow Sunday afternoon in sight.

Ive had some fun day trips. A fellow volunteer had a St. Patricks Day party, and we made Irish stew among other delicacies. On my way home, I was *delighted* to learn that I had a 3.5 hour wait between buses, even though it isn that far from my house. I sat down in front of a small store, and as the time passed one of the daughters came out and we talked, talked, drank terere, talked...she invited me some DELICIOUS chipa guasa (thats like corn casserole made out of fresh corn, cheese, and onion) and then, when the bus was looking like it wasnt going to come and I was feeling faint with hunger, an amazing chicken breast in vegetable sauce. Oh my! Vegetarian? Situationally, my friends. Physical necesity and social graces must outdo moral convictions occasionally.

Even more exciting was Enrique and my visit to Salto Cristal, the closest thing to a tourist attraction you can find in Paraguay, and only a matter of miles from my house. We packed lots of warm clothes, sleeping gear, and delicious food (brownies, sopa, and baked chicken, yummy) and left the house at 2am to catch the early bus. By 3 we had begun out 20km walk up and down hills and through miles and miles of sugar cane fields to the falls. We got there by 8.30, not without a few rests, but avoiding the heat of the day. I passed out for a good long nap, and then we descended the brick was to hang out, swim, and eat lunch in this beautiful little tropical paradise. Now I was looking forward to a nice little fire, beautiful stars, and a long night of sleep, but Enrique (being Paraguayan) just couldnt stand the idea of spending the night. "Itś just too lonely here! Iĺl die of sadness. If there were other people, maybe..." Thatś what you get for sharing a 5-room house with 10 other people for the larger portion of your life. SO, at 2.30, luggging the unused tent, sleeping bag, and long johns, we walked BACK out the the road, where we arrived at 6pm (lots of rests) just in time to miss the 6pm bus, which had passed at 5.45 because it was Sunday and not many people travel on Sunday so it was moving particularly quickly. Of course we then had to make calls to try to get a ride home, and when we finally crossed the doorstep, it was 8pm. Iḿ surprised I got in dinner and a bath before passing out. And Iḿ a jogger, but my thighs and feet did not let me forget THAT adventure for quite a few days!

Enjoy the photos of my tropical paradise. Chau!

I just arrived in the Peace Corps office and found in my mailbox a letter titled "The Future-Megan Mayzelle. Do not open until December 2008!" Well it came a little late but I finally got the letter from me that I wrote last year. I think it did a pretty good job, too, of recording all the strange memories of training and the things of Paraguay which seemed strange to me at the time--and that now are commonalities of every day life. I laughed reading it, to say the least!

Speaking of mail, the librarian informs me that we have received no packages since January 27, so anyone who mailed me something, I haven't gotten it yet. And if you're wanting to send something, take a peek a couple entries back at my "to send" list (scratch the Cold-Eeze, thanks Mrs. Lovell!!) Something to look forward to!

Nothing's been too terribly eventful the past month. The horrible heat that we DIDN'T have in Janurary, when we should have had it, has made a March Madness comeback. 42 Celcius yesterday people, no lie. April showers, please??

I've been investing some time in visiting my neighbors again, as well as helping more around my host family's house. My host sister, Esther, finally got a huge break: the chance to ditch her 250.000Guarani/month job for one that pays 1.350.000! (That's more than I make!) She's going on 3 weeks of training in Asuncion, and as you can imagine, her daughter, Ana Paula, and her mom, Pabla, miss her presence a great deal. I've tried to fill in as much as I can with keeping the house clean and such. Mostly, however, I try to take care of Ana Paula. I take her on walks, show her how to do whatever I'm doing (washing clothes, making bread...), comb her hair, give her her Flintstone vitamin (courtesy of Tio Ramon in the US) , teach her letters and numbers, talk to her like an adult, etc etc. Sometimes she asks where my mommy is, or what my daddy is doing...which I'm forced to answer with "I don't know"! She also asks me a lot of words (What is this?) Sometimes she gets so specific that I don't know the word in Spanish, so I just tell her in English! Oh well, she remembers it anyway.

In visiting with the neighbors I've come across a few new project ideas to broach while my running water project sludges through the beauracratic mud of Asuncion. They all, however, require money. The municipality would give us the money (especially given how tight the mayor and I are) but the people are required to form a committee to request it. And no one wants to do that. The mayor says people are traumatized from the days (over 20 years ago) when one could be arrested and killed for forming groups. I say people can't leave their houses and obligations (remember how I said most houses have no lock or key and someone is ALWAYS home?). But either way, my community plaza and my chicken coops are going to be coming any time soon.

So as a way to keep myself occupied, I've become enthused to do something I never thought I would do (remember that first Peace Corps invitation that I turned down??): work in the schools. At first I figured, ok, I'll get some kids books and read them in the classes. That's not too intimidating. But then when I went to say hello to the principal, and the more we talked, the more I realized how in luck I really am! She is, unlike most people who work in schools, very sincerely committed to doing well by the students. She asked me if there is any chance of getting more anti-parasite pills (like I distributed last year). She also asked me if I would pick up classroom posters and garden seeds from the national news paper in Asuncion (a public service) if she writes the request letters. A principal that VOLUNTEERS to write request letters???WHoot!! She already got chain link donated from the municipality, so when I take the seeds back we'll be starting a school garden. This is an immense project: the kids are not only introduced early to an otherwise foreign food group and how to maintain a garden, but also (with some luck) they have products to take home to improve their nutrition TODAY. When I told Enrique about all this he added that he'd like to help them start a tree farm, too, so that in a year they'll have trees to repopulate their community with. Oh, joy. I just hope it goes as well as it could, haha...

Speaking of getting enthused to do something I never thought I'd want to do (again), I've also been training to run a 5k race. I've been running 5k every morning at 6, before the heat gets too bad. My times are terrible, though, so if they don't improve I'm not sure I'll do it. And if the heat doesn't tone down, the idea of a 9am run will make me cringe. We'll see.

For this next month, along with work in the school, I have a lot of trips planned. Enrique and I are hoping to hike to Salto Cristal, the local waterfall, next week. This coming weekend I'll be visiting a soon-to-leave volunteer in Villarrica. A friend of mine is hosting a St. Patty's Day party on the 17th, and the 22nd I'm hoping to come into Asuncion to run that 5k race. The 28 I'll be in the city again for the National Volunteer Council meeting, and the 2nd my best friend in Paraguay, Abby, is having her birthday party at her new house!

That's all from Paraguay, dear friends.

Hello! Yes, that´s a beautiful blonde American, alongside my good friend Alfredo at the San Blas Horse Show/Dance Your Pants Off to Polka Festival in Tebicuary-mi!

If you don´t already know Erin, there she is; she didn´t appear in my photos before, even though I went on vacation to Ecuador with her, because of the stolen camera incident.

It can be a little awkard sometimes having another American in your community; you´re caught between courteously speaking your native language or courteously speaking a language everyone else can understand; caught between including a new guest and including people from your community; rolling with your Paraguayan peeps or hanging American style. But Erin was a GREAT person to have around for this happening party, she fit right in and didn´t need me around to feel comfortable. It was a great time!

The next day, we headed to Asuncion for a fun week of Peace Corps reflective sessions on our service and doctor checks-all-over. That´s right, folks, I´ve hit one year of service. Wow...

I commemorated the event by translating my resume to Spanish and beginning to look for well-pàying, environmentally themed jobs both in the US (California) and in SA (Buenos Aires, Ecuador, and Paraguay). Nothing´s turned up yet, but I´m working on it little by little.

And now I´m back in site, fighting off any attacks and making far too many pans of brownies. It´s still raining regularly, which is an element of Paraguay previously unknown to me. Suddenly its a lush, green, flowery place! And sometimes its even cool enough that I get an inkling to put on pants, or possibly take a rain jacket with me. Amazing...Oh, and I´ve also discovered a fabulous new little shop in my town which sells Marimar ice cream, the best in Paraguay!! This could get dangerous...

My water project is plugging along through the breuacracy of Asuncion, so meanwhile I´ve begun dreaming of a community plaza or maybe getting some chicken houses built in people´s homes so the dogs will stop eating all the eggs the chickens lay randomly around the yard.

And the bad news: Enrique applied for a scholarship for 500 DOLLARS from Peace Corps, and he won!!! It was so exciting, he even went to the city to sign up for Agronomic Engineering. And then, the call came: the judges made a mistake and awarded more money than they had, the scholarship has been revoked! Now as you can imagine, this would SUCK for any American student. But we can get online and reapply for one of the thousands of other scholarships available in our country. Here, that was the only golden ticket out of a life of hoeing fields and depending on the rain to feed his family, and it´s gone. A huge blow, to say the least.

Nevertheless, here in Paraguay we remain as Tranquilo as the setting sun...

Happy New Year! It was definitely a wonderful one here in Cerrito de Tebicuary-mi; there was plenty of company, plenty of food, and the heat topped it off with plenty of reason to do nothing but sit around and enjoy it. The gang started arriving the evening of the 30th, and each family averaged 10 kilos of meat in tow, in addition to the 22 kilos that had come out of the pig that Mario and Enrique had butchered that afternoon. The 31st, meat seasoning and preparation, sopa (that´s the Paraguayan hyped-up cornbread) production, and clerico (the classic holiday drink, finely cut fruits of all types in a wine-Sprite blend) cutting commenced early. Given the presence of 3 host sisters plus Erin, the American sister-in-law, the in the kitchen, I restricted myself to making a apple pie with crumble raisin-nut top, making sure to get plenty of rest in anticipation of the nocturnal celebrations. Another volunteer and friend of my host brother Mario came that afternoon to accompany him during the festivities, rounding out numbers out to 18 (that´s one bathroom, for the record, bring your own water). At nine pm it was finally cool enough that I was able to grab a nap on my mattress out on the front porch, and woke up at 11, just in time to pull on the beautiful dress Erin gifted me and head up to the house for some delicious New Years Fun! It´s a good thing Paraguayans aren´t much on dessert; they forgot that wonderful American treat I´d made in the oven, and I hunted it down to enjoy the first (two) slices. Yum… And as the radio announced midnight, we had a major photo shoot session; with three Americans around, you know there were plenty of cameras to record the happy events of the evening! Around 1am we young’uns made our rounds to the neighbors to wish everyone Felicidades, and then went home to get ready to walk to town for the big FIESTA. It was Latin Music Night, so my wonderful evening became complete when I didn´t have to dance the Paraguayan Polka. Woot! Enrique and I were walking home when my 5.15 get-up-and-jog alarm went off. I kind of slept (it was pretty warm already) until 11 and got up and bathed just in time to jump in the car with Teresa, Marcelo, their son Dani, Mirna, and Enrique to head to “the Beach” (that is, a sandy river bed). There were tons of people there, including many of our neighbors from Cerrito. It´s pretty hilarious how afraid of water Paraguayans are; if you say you can swim, the awe is visible on their faces. We got home thoroughly exhausted around 6pm, but the fun wasn´t done yet! The next day was Mario´s 24th birthday, and those Paraguayans didn´t fail to eat MORE sopa and meat. And the 3rd, the Mayor invited me to make the long bike ride to his house for more food and music. Tough celebrating, man. So then it was calmer. And cooler…it rained! Finally! And then finally on Tuesday, the 6th, Ramon and Enya left, putting a seemingly abrupt end to our party-till-its-2009 fun. We all headed down to Toni´s house on the alsphalt road and waited for the bus to take them away to Asuncion…though not without a few final photos. Now, with only 7 people wanting to use that 1 bathroom, the house seems a little too quiet. And all I have left to take pictures of is the sunset. Well, for now, anyway… What will 2009 bring? Only TIME will tell… Felices Fiestas!! My photos uploaded in reverse chronological order. Poo!From bottom up: My host dad Sebastian, Mario, and Ramon sitting out the heat with terere Mario, Enrique, and Ramon getting the well ready for the guests to come My personal Christmas decor, courtesy of the Amazing Annalese!Teresa, Esther, Mirna, and Erin (host sisters...) in the kitchen with the meat

Enrique and I ready to go to the fiesta Rachel and Mario, plus Dani (Teresa´s son) and Ramon in the background My host mom Pabla with her grandson, Nelson´s son Sebastian Toni with his son Santiago Esther with her daughter, Ana Paula...also practically my daughter, jeje The 8 siblings (missing the oldesta, Tomasa) Nelson (number 2), Mirna (3), Esther(7), Enrique(9), Mario(8), Teresa(4), Ramon(6), and Toni(5) Ramon and ErinTeresa with terere

"The beach" Friends at the beach: Alfredo, Ito, Enrique, Dani, and Gloria (Alfredo´s sister, my neighbor) Enrique and I at the beach Mario´s party Mayor´s New´s Year party continued until the 3rd..I was invited! the whole gang at Toni´s house, including his wife Doli and elder son Lucas the bus the walk home the sunset

Hey guys! I'm having some problems uploading photos, but I have managed to put up a few. The first is Alfredo's 24th birthday party. The second is my host dad (left) and his brother, my uncle. I randomly found them sitting on my front lawn watching the football game occuring down the hill on the football field. They are 78 and 82! How cute. The next two are of Tyler, a fellow volunteer and fish specialist. I probably mentioned that a while back I noticed a lot of people in my site at fish ponds but no fish. I asked the municipality to donate money to buy 200 fish. Instead of doing that, they offered to bring 3000 fish from Brazil, enough for all ten neighborhoods of the town of Tebicuary-mi! So I got busy and asked Tyler to come all the way from the southern border of Paraguay, near Argentina, to educate the people on fish care. We spent the morning going around my community talking one on one with fish pond owners (1st photo), and then we went to town in the afternoon, where Tyler and a member of his community that came with him talked about fish care. It was awesome to have the paraguayan guy there too, it seemed as if my community members felt so much more at ease directing their questions at him than us. Even apart from the language barrier, I got the idea that the possibility of pulling off a project like this seemed much more real to them seeing that a fellow paraguayan had done it. Overall, a success! But the best part of the whole thing was that Tyler is tremendously tall and has blue blue eyes and white-blonde hair. Here they were thinking I was an extreme, and he shows up! It was almost comical sometimes to see him alongside the Paraguayans.I also recently attended an ecological farming workshop a few hours from here. Peace Corps sponsored my trip and that of one member of my community. I picked a young guy who aspires to work and study sustainable agriculture, and he was really inspired by the trip. I enjoyed it too!My dad and brother are coming to visit in August, and I'm also trying to prepare everything for that, although it is really hard with such limited internet access to make reservations and investigate everything as thoroughly as I should. However, I am really hoping to take advantage of the balmy winter weather to visit the Amazon rainforest. How cool would that be?? Happy Father's Day Dad!Otherwise, I've just been loving the cold and taking it a little bit easier. Now that the heat is long gone, we drink mate instead of terere. It's basically the same thing, except with hot water, Argentine style. It's remarkable how this beverage and the company can warm you right up on a frosty, windy evening. (We're hitting 0 degrees Celcius, by the way, and it is dark from 5.30pm to 5.30am). I love the cold though, because unlike the heat, it is entirely escapable! I made an amazing peanut pie recently, its a lot like my beloved pecan pie, and I ate it entirely too fast. :) Last week I took the time to finally visit Jeremy, a fellow beekeeper and good friend who lives only about an hour from me. Soon I'm hoping to visit Abby, another dear amiga. And of course we'll be celebrating 4th of July! But not without our winter longjohns...brrrr!If you're thinking about sending a package, here's some things I'd like to have:one of those Mexican taco kits, or more specifically, taco sauce. My family tried this thanks to the last volunteer and loved it!cinnamonCrest tooth whitening strips--way too much tea!Face lotion with SPFa small Nalgene bottlea quick-dry travel towel. I bought one at Walmart and didn't try it before I left...turns out its basically a useless piece of felt! Ergh....Annalese, those face cleansing pads that you sent me from Whole Foods. Its the only thing that wards off the acne!

Thanks for reading. Write back! And take care...think of me when you see all that green!

Hello hello, my gente! There for a couple days after I got home from Asuncion (when I last wrote) I thought my life was going to slow down. Days arrived for which I had nothing in particular planned, and I even went off on a whim to a birthday party that involved a 7km walk in the heat carrying a platter of veggie tart and a loaf of banana bread (made by yours truly)! Upon my return from the fiesta, however, things got serious again, and well, leave it to Megan to work herself to the max. Basically what happened is two projects that I´ve been trying to do for a long time came to fruit all at once. First, my comite finally got it together and asked for money from the muni to buy trees to plant around our chapel and our futbol field. Then, they got REALLY on it and went all by themselves to ask the mayor for a donation of baby fish for the 7 fishponds that people have built in my town but haven´t been able to pay to populate yet. That was all nice but none too exciting until the muni decided that they were not just going to give us money to buy fish, but actually BRING us fish from the Brazilian border...3000 of them! As you can imagine, our ponds need no more than 300, so I thought fast and made my fishpond project district-wide (that is, the town center and all 10 of its "companias", or surrounding communities, of which my town of Cerrito is one). I called a PC friend of mine who specializes in fish and lives way far away in the south of the country, Pilar. He agreed to come up next week with a Paraguayan who also does fish to do a presentation in town center on care of fish ponds. Then, everyone who participates will get fish for their pond (that´s my thinking, anyway). As luck would have it, I somehow on my way out of the muni I managed to run into the radio producer, who announced all this free of charge! Talk about development work!

The radio guy also offered me a Saturday spot, as well as visiting rights whenever I want during the week. This is perfect, because next week I´m taking a young member of my community, Jorge, who is interested in working in organic agriculture, to a 3 day workshop at a permaculture started by PC volunteers about 2 hours from here. The whole trip is paid for by PC, but we have to somehow share the info with our community upon our return. I´ve been kind of stumped how to do this, but I think a one hour a week slot on the radio would be a great way to do it! Yea. :)

And if all that is not enough to hopelessly confuse you, I also accidently started a 3rd comite. I think I mentioned the group of women interested in learning PC widsom that are too far away from where I meet? Well, we had out soy-making session, and they loved it! The wanted to meet again the next week, so last Friday we met, made the soy "meat" and soy milk out of the beans again, and used those materials to make cake. And the excitement continues: this Friday it´s gonna be pudding! I have fun trying the new recipes (and taking the extra meat and milk home to try MORE recipes) and they love getting together (senoras don´t get out much) and trying new foods. Everybody wins.

Speaking of new recipes, I made cheesecake yesterday out of Paraguayan cheese (the idea that more than one texture, flavor, or type of cheese exists in the world surprises Paraguayans...and my descriptions of France just blow them out of the water!) and it turned out pretty good! That is, my taste tester (guess who, dad...haha) gave it a garbled, full-mouthed approval.

And amidst all this locura, I still make it to every single football (I mean soccer) game that my beloved team plays (over half of the team is composed of my closest peers...by being a 23 year old SINGLE woman with NO children, I get grouped with the guys). Unfortunately they haven´t won yet....ouch. Better luck next time.

The cows in Paraguay sleep on the roads at night. Since the road going by my town is asphalt, the cars, buses, and sugar cane 18-wheelers clip along at a good pace. A long screech and a long honk is almost a guarantee that someone is skidding around a cow. And what I love best is that the cows are always as unsuspecting and surprised by the whole event as they were the night before! Ignorance (and innocence) is bliss....

Again I've failed miserably in keeping up with everyone States-side. My experience with the cyber cafe manager has been reduced to a semi-stalker situation which I rather wish to avoid (when the place is actually open, that is) and I don't travel much to other towns. I have discovered, however, that anyone can email my cell phone for free! As you know, I have two numbers, and they both have an equivalent email address, as follows:

595983199181@tigo.com.py

595972709755@personal.net.py

Send a message!

I'm actually in Asuncion right now for my 3-month work interview. My boss seems to think I've been doing a lot (which is good, I think!) but wants me to slow down and focus more carefully on a few more specific things. I expect that to happen as LIFE in general slows down with the short days and uninviting temperatures of winter set in.

Speaking of uninviting weather, by the way, I love it! Call my crazy, but the unending heat of summer remains seared in my brain, and I never cease to appreciate being cold. How refreshing!

I'm starting a new women's group. There's a side of Cerrito (my town) that's a good 30 minute walk from my house (where my committee holds meetings) and where neither of the other volunteers ever really worked, as far as I can tell. The more I visit with them, the more I see that women there are really interested in learning new recipes and projects they can do at home. However, the short days and long walks kind of cut them out of the loop. So, I'm collaborating with them to meet once a week on THEIR side of the village. This Friday will be our first meeting, and we'll be making soy burgers, starting at the beginning, with the bean! My current group proves difficult in many respects because most of the things I want to teach them they've already done with one of the other girls. This new group is exciting in that respect because pretty much everything I have to offer is new material. Yea!

Otherwise, my work of late has been more at home. I finally bought a dining table, two chairs, a bedside table, and a small "tea table" to go between my porch chairs, and I painting them ALL, as well as two walls of the inside of my house. I've also hoed, weeded, turned, and formed two garden spaces; one beside my house where flowers will be planted, and the other within my host mom's vast garden, where vegetables will be planted. I already have spinach and tomato seedlings growing up in a box, getting ready to be transplanted. And the carrot and onion will just go straight into the ground! I'm hoping to get some cuttings of my host mom's oregano and basil, too. Isn't it odd that winter is the growing season in the sub-tropics?

With fall comes soccer. Each "suburb" of the town of Tebicuary-mi (ti-bee-kuar-yh-mi), of which Cerrito is one, has its own soccer team. Each team plays once a week against another team. Every win earns a team three points, and whoever gets the most points by the end of the season is declared the champion. This is a pretty big deal; everyone has been busily trying to get cleats and uniforms donated from who knows where (we got ours from the national team whose name we bear, Cerro Porteno). Sunday before last there was the inauguration, in which each team parades with its flag and a selected queen, and the town officials award soccer balls to the best queens and best looking teams. This past Sunday was our first game. I rode the sugar cane truck along with most everyone else in Cerrito out to the other field. Our junior team won by just one point, and our "primary team," in a horrible twist of fate, lost 3 to 1!! It was terrible, particularly because 3 of my brothers are on the team and a 4 is a "watcher" (do we have those in the US??). I have to admit, though, it was pretty funny to see how they deal with injuries...a kick in the shins and man down, waterboy on the run, water poured on the point of injury, fellow teammates stretching and massaging the limb, and stretcher out onto the field. I wanted to yell, "In my country, if you get on the strechter, you aren't gonna be walking again that day!" Man, we Americans are tough...yeah right.

You may or may not have known this, but US and Paraguayan customs had a bit of a falling out recently, and for a while there there was no mail sent or received on either side. (If you haven't gotten something from me, or if I haven't gotten something from you, this is why.) Just yesterday it was finally resolved, right in time for me to send a remarkably over-packaged package (thanks, post office man) to my dear friends Annalese, Roberta, and Philip....

And to the rest of you I send my best thoughts and warmest regards, until next time!

Hello beloved readers,

It's been quite a while since I've written, and I apologize for that. Primarily it is because the internet cafe in my town has been down and out, but also because the weather has been super and thus, I have been extremely "guapa" (Hardworking)! I am absolutely in love with the fresh breeziness that has been gracing us of late. I love being able to wear jeans and a jacket and go out in cool wind and not sweat one drop the whole day (even if I forget to put on deoderant!) I've been longing to make pumpkin and apple pies, and the gardens are absolutely coming alive; we spend out quiet times shelling lima beans and toasting peanuts fresh out of the field. Even being in town today, I feel like the relief from the heat has rejuvenated the world. Suddenly there are open-air markets full of hand crafts, cheeses, fresh fruits and vegetables, and animals for sale. Even the super markets are stocked full of products I've never seen them have before! Its incredible.

The cool weather means bees are begining to hibernate, and we{re pretty much done our bee work for the year. My brothers,however, are building a fish pond and apiary in front of our house. As you can imagine, cutting out all the bush and trees and literally digging a pond by hand is a good bit of work. It increases their food security, however, making it a valuable investment. Anyway, all that shoveling didn{t stop them from building four bee boxes, and one swarm already descended on a box all by itself! They are pretty beside themselves with excitment, and I{ve been advising them along, although the real work won{t come till spring. It makes me feel good that I can contribute, though. Otherwise, I continue to work with my two committees and am also starting a parasite prevention program in the school. My extra secret hope is to start doing a one-hour radio show in town every week, but I have yet to find someone to do it with me (everybody knows one DJ is just NEVER funny!)

Also, though, the change in weather has meant a change in day-to-day habits. Midday was just a few months ago a disabling time of day that forced us into the submission of siesta. Now, however, it is prime work time, given that the daylight comes later (about 6am) and leaves us a good 2 hours earlier (6pm). I do not cease to be amused at the changes. Whereas in January I was only just recuperating from the blinding heat and preparing to venture out to visit people at 6, now at that very same hour I am racing the darkness back to the house (it is socially inappropriate for women to be out alone after dark...infuriating for me!) to put on a warm jacket and drink hot tea with bundled-up people who I had only ever known previously sweating under as few clothes as possible.

The weather, however, is not the most exciting subject of my recent life! Sunday was the presidential elections in Paraguay, and boy was it a good one! As some of you may know, the dictator Straussner fell in Paraguay in 1989. His party, the Colorados (or conservatives, coincedentally represented by red...), however, has remained in power since then, bringing their reign to a total of 65 years. While in theory the votes were always democratic, there was still a lot of corruption that allowed this party to hold power. For example, any government workers, (including school teachers and policeman...well, basically anyone with a salary), which did not vote for this party, were promptly removed from their positions. Poor people got paid in medicine, food, and cash to ensure their vote went the proper way. Even the people working the polls changed the numbers, or let people who had already died "vote". You see what I mean.

Well the population has finally had enough. Even though there were two liberal (blue) candidates in this election, a good 42 percent of the country managed to rally itself behind one, bringing him out a good 10 percent ahead of the colorado candidate, and leaving the current government no choice but to accept the popular vote. It was absolutely incredible how excited people were. (When I say people here are tranquilo, I mean it...they don{t even really smile or laugh or shout or get excited at parties!) I didn{t go to the town square until evening (we were forbidden to be near voting areas until polls closed) but by then the results were in and everyone was absolutely esctatic! Well into the night caravans of trucks full of people paraded about the area yelling and shouting and playing victory songs. Even as a doubter of the system, I was inspired and excited and hopefully along with these people; it was like seeing my friends liberated for the first time.

As for the elected candidate? He was a Catholic priest until only last year, when he felt called to try to fix up the hopeless politics of Paraguay. The way he has risen has been extremely impressive, and I have to admit that even I have some hope that this guy has enough morals to finally let the many resources of this country be enjoyed by its people instead of sucking them all up himself. Even if he does nothing good, however, the ability to peacefully allow power to change hands has been (or will be, on August 15) a huge step for this new democracy.

Three Cheers for Paraguay!

Well it looks like I can finally get some photos uploaded. First of all, check out my brothers hauling an ox cart full of wood uphill! Apparently the ox's foot went out halfway home, and they pulled it the rest of the way. I couldn't resist snapping some shots as they pulled into our "driveway". The last four shots come as a result of the combination of living in a communal society where the idea of personal space does not exist, having a space which proves to be a pretty good hang-out spot, and having several attractive males about (I prefer the fuzzy white one...)! I discovered all of these hunks cozied into my casa without my knowing it: in photo one we have Kitty squished between the window screen and the shutter; in photo two Mario "getting ready to go out into the field", in photo three Kitty and Enrrique "trying out" my hammock; and in photo four, Enrrique "fixing my bed". Uh-huh... But what I really wanted to talk about is feet. They are incredibly useful and highly valuable tools here. Nearly everyone works standing up, for one thing, so feet around here tend to be both strong and dirty. People (including myself) wear zapatillas (that is, flip flops) 90% of the time, including around the house, while bathing, while working, and on common errands around town. A good pair of zapatillas is absolutely essential, and the type one wears varies with the climate of the area one lives in--there's rubber ones, plastic ones, foam ones; ones with cloth bands, wide bands, thin bands, rubber bands, round bands, flat bands; thick soles, flat soles, conformed soles...the list goes on. The paraguayan industry may not be anything to speak of on a worldwide level, but they sure do know how to make a good pair of zaps (as they are referred to among American circles). Zaps may be essentials, but when the time comes to make a public appearence, they disappear and those feet get a good scrub-down (Paraguayans are extremely concious of their physical cleanliness--they would never leave the house or receive a visitor without bathing and changing their clothes to assure they don't smell of smoke or sweat.). When one wants to make a good impression, sneakers and jeans are the way to go (these are dress clothes here, even valid for country weddings!!) The zaps don't make it out in public even to do something like go swimming; I guess it would be like wearing your bedroom slippers out in public in the US.... Feet also get a good beating here. Pique, the infamous sand flea of Paraguay, loves to lay its eggs in feet and has to be carefully picked out to avoid infection; most volunteers get their first pique within weeks of arrival. I, strangely enough, did not contract a single one until this very week, 6 months in! Not bad...my feet do, however (thanks to the wearing of zaps rather than shoes) take a regular beating from all types of mosquitos, ants, and flies (there are multiple species of each kind here, including Bot and Horse flies.). Also, I recently got a strange parasite on top of my toe that no one, not even the doctors, can identify. Had this occurred 5 months ago, I'd be fairly disturbed. After 6 months of removing large insects from my body and my house, however, the presence of squiggly wigglies no longer fazes me. We are treating it, and it doesn't hurt, so tranquilopa! Oh and did I mention I also had an allergic reaction to an uknown citrus plant way back in November? It cropped up as large purple splotches on my knees and ankles (everywhere I'd scratched mosquito bites with the oils on my hands, apparently) that stuck around for a good four months. But that's long over.... In other news, this week in language training has been strenuously structured and brain-stretching. It has also, however, greatly improved my language and given me the tools to keep progressing on my own. IT seems like after listening to the language for 3 months I am able to retain things a lot more readily. Yea! I'm definitely ready to get back to Cerrito, however. I miss my casita, my bed, my friends, my family, and making my own yummy food. Hopefully I'll be able to do it all in Guarani now. (Ha!)

This is horribly late, but I wanted to wish my wonderful, dear friend Annalese a very Happy 24th Birthday! And to all of you whom I´ve forgotten (many, I am sure...) please forgive me, I'm in Paraguay....

Wow, I may never eat pig fat again (I WISH!!) This past week we have been celebrating Holy Week, better known as Semana Santa. The celebrations began on Wednesday, when every senora in Paraguay started gathering her cheese, milk, eggs, corn flour, anise, and yes, pig fat, to make the infamous chipa (see photo in previous entry). In my house we made about 20 kilos of this bready delight; ingredients included 2.5 kilos of pig fat, 4.5 kilos of cheese, 10 kilos of flour, and 60 eggs, among other things. Whipping the eggs by hand, mixing the mass of dough, and then forming it into the typical shapes (rings, half moons, alligators, doves, etc.) before baking in the brick oven is an all-day task in which the whole family participates. Afterward, absolutely no work is done on Thursday and Friday, not even cooking (that's where the chipa comes in); my youth group organized a soccer tournament to raise money on Holy Thursday, and that went over extremely well despite early-afternoon rain. Saturaday things get back to normal, and in Cerrito, that means a barbecue and then a dance party starting at midnight to celebrate the official arrival of Easter.

By the way, now that the weather is fabulous (socks, jeans, long sleeves....OH YES!!) and I've eaten all that chipa, I've started jogging in the afternoons, which makes the icy-cool well water bath a little less frigid. Right now, however, I am once again in Asuncion for the week. Our whole training group, in fact, has gathered for a week of in-service training...that is, more language classes and cultural chats. I've actually really been a lot more enthusiastic about Guarani, so I'm kind of looking forward to the extra training. I am NOT, however, excited about being back in a classroom all day, or being back in a group of Americans. It's not that I don't really like them all (I do) but I've gotten a bit spoiled standing out as exotic and exciting just by, well, standing around, and this week suddenly I'm just going to be another face in the crowd. I think you all know what I mean.

I wanted to upload pictures, but there's a problem with the internet, so that will be for another day. Chau gente!

Ahhh...there´s no place like home. Since I´ve gotten back from Asuncion on Saturday, life has been tranquiloPA...Sunday was my host dad´s birthday (we can´t figure out if he´s 78 or 82, but we know he´s the second oldest guy in the community, next to his brother...he´s 23 years older than my host mom.) and my oldest host sister came from Buenos Aires with her Argentine husband and child to celebrate. This poor guy is a rich city dweller, and just can´t take the campo. He´s more American than I am! He poured bleach down the well because he thought it was dirty (and broke the water pump in the process, so no flushing or showering) and now is tastes like a pool. He still won´t drink it (buys bottled water from town) and now no one else will either...they go next door to get water from the neighbor´s well! He can´t take "all the flies" or the pigs and ducks running through the house, and assures me he would be gone already if his bus ticket weren´t set in stone. He butts heads with everyone, even me, and tells tall tales about everyone to everyone else. Fortunately we all know this, and pretty much write him off. I kind of like it...I´m not the weird one anymore! Anyway, it´s also been raining a monton and the temperatures are a pleasant 75 ("cold" for some), and in Paraguay that pretty much means we´re all on vacation. So I´ve been baking a lot, hanging out with the family, and cleaning my wee house from top to bottom (it may even get painted this weekend!). No news is good news.

Photos. Some of these are ridiculously old, but that just goes to show you I've run out of things to do in Asuncion!

1. Chipa, a corn flour and pig fat-based hard-ish roll that people love here. Its sold on the streets, is famously particularly excellent in certain cities, and in made en masse and distributed between families at funerals and Easter week. Corn flour is extremely popular here, its the base of most of the traditional Paraguayan foods, including their versions of tortillas, pancakes, corn casserole, and corn bread.2. Us during training extracting honey from panels using a centerfuge.3. Our beekeeping group at the embassy after swearing in with our trainer, Dan, who is next to me. 4. Again, us 10 beekeepers at the embassy. There was only one male out of the group, Jeramias, and it was a constant joke.5. Us girls with our three language professors and the fans they gave us as going away gifts.6 and 7. The field beyond my house. Walking through it in the evening makes me feel like I'm in Peace Corps.8. My best volunteer friend, Abby, and spelunker/swimmer/politician from Detroit who brought exactly one backpack of worldy possessions to paraguay. (what a description, haha!)9. This is a post in front of my house that houses the electric monitor and also a hive of bees. My brother Mario and I broke out the other side (can't see it in the photo) and tried to capture the hive. We couldn't sweep the bees into the box like one normally would without killing them on the rough brick interiour, so we spent two days kind of picking them out one by one looking for the queen. Evening of day two, Mario had her in his hand...and she flew away! The whole hive followed, and they lighted in a nearby tree. We gave it up.10. Alex, my nearest neighbor and fellow posh-food fanatic (we can talk about avocado, olive oil, wine, dark chocolate, cheeses, and spice for HOURS...) enjoying some bananas and my fuzzy jacket.11. Pablito turned 9 in February. He's Gloria (see next photo) and Alfredo (see New Years photo) 's nephew and lives with his grandparents and Alfredo.12. Me, Gloria, and some kid at the horse show. Gloria is Alfredo (see previous photos)'s older sister. She's a maid in Asuncion for her godmother's daughter. She's been there for 10 years, and is practically family; she has her own room with sofa, double bed, TV...and they love when I stay with them! It's a nice change after a few days of hotel rooms and restaurants, and they take me to the bus terminal in their mercedes when its time to go home. :)

By the way, I just got an email from my dear friend Serena that just sums it all up. She writes:

"...It must be hilarious how you stand out like a Barbie among the short people...."

That's EXACTLY how it is, people, I couldn't have said it better myself!

I've been ordering multiple courses at expensive (ie 6 dollars per meal) oriental restaurants, napping at noon in air conditioning and on a mattress with springs, running around buying electric kettles and boom boxes, and swimming in the american embassy oh-so-blue pool all week. I'm ready to head back to my country casita! Over and out.

Almost forgot--about that package, I don't need anymore lotion, lip balm, or shampoo for the next 2 (or possibly 5, haha) years. Things I CAN use:

cologne/perfume (for me and to gift)

tooth whitening strips (lots of tea here)

a yoga ball

makeup (SUPER expensive!!) that's a cover girl compact in natural beige, maybelline chestnut eyeliner, and maybelline great lash waterproof mascara. Thanks guys. :)

What a week it's been. I returned to Cerrito from the capital city as planned Saturday morning (with a huge package in tow--thanks Vanville!!) only to return again Monday (yesterday) morning to continue my physical therapy. Early this morning (Tuesday) I had to go halfway back to my site to a city where the nat'l organization PLAN was meeting; they are going to begin work in my site, and PC encourages that we collaborate with their powerful money sources as much as possible. I was heading BACK into Asuncion after the meeting this afternoon (with my new hammock in tow) when the sky tore open and the rain began.

First of all, let me say that I feel very differently about rain in Paraguay than I do in the US. Here, everything stops and we relax and reflect in the comfort of our beds, unlike in the US, where we press on and fight mother nature despite our desires to curl up with a good book and a cup of coffee. THIS rain, however, was different because I was in a city which apparently has no drainage system. By the time we got into downtown, the streets were muddy rivers lapping at the floor of the bus (four hefty steps up off the road) and nearly covering the headlights of the drowned-looking cars. People waiting for the buses were struggling not to let the currents around their knees knock them over, and the waves were lapping at the glass front of the car dealerships and hotels that sit too close to the road. Chaos!!!

So here I am in the office, starting to dry off and facing my inevitable doctor's appointment at 5, meaning I have to go back out into the unforgiving world of Hurricane Asuncion to go get my hip heated and then electro-shocked. Oh well....

Well, I've been saying for a long time now that when I got the chance, I would sit down and really write to you all. That time has come! I've been prescribed 10 days of physical therapy in Asuncion for my ever'aching hip joint, and that means lots of hang out time. I feel a little like I'm abandoning my community--I'll be missing several meetings, bee capturing dates, and trips to offices to help them get recognized as a committee. However, I think the physical therapy is necessary, and there's no reason to travel back and forth.

Its finally cooling down here, which is to say that its a good bit like the heat of August in the US. Its not too hot to wear jeans when I get up at 6am, but by noon its about 90 (which we've found to be quite balmy considering the past months of dry, dry, rainless heat) and at night its cool enough to cover up with a sheet or light blanket.

Mango season has come to an end as abruptly as it started--no more frightening squishing underfoot when you walk across the yard. Guava, however, is in full swing, and so as not to lose the fruit, all the ladies my jelly out of it! I prefer the fruit straight off the tree, but that{s just me.

Work in my site has been extremely satisfying. Much of training consisted of motivating a traditionally "stay inside the lines" culture to try something different. My people, however, have time and again proven to be extremely motivated. They seem to be able to recognize what would be useful to them, and they are more than willing to use every resource I can offer them. My beekeeping committee is already working on their own. Today, for example, they decided to have their weekly meeting even knowing I wouldn{t be there. They are also requesting recognition by the local municipality so that they can access donations and special assisstance, and are also in the process of requesting workshops on fishpond projects and soil recuperation from the National Dept of Agriculture. This, of course, means lots of expensive phone calls, trips to other towns, and paperwork for me, which I am absolutely delighted to do! I love that they find me useful and motivating, and I am also inspired by the fact that those type of "skills" (like being able to use a computer, or navigate unknown bus lines and offices) are as foreign to them as harvesting mandioca (google it!) is to me. Its empowering to use my skills, and its refreshing to show them that I, if fact, was not born at the age of 23, and am in fact capable in some aspects of life, though they not be those with which they are familiar.

Most importantly, however, my beekeepers have finally gotten over the hump of "getting their bees." For a few weeks I was hearing "Well Megan, there{s no reason to make a suit and a bee box until I have bees..." and was starting to get worried that we were going to fizzle out on a chicken and egg dilemma. However, thanks to one member who had me out capturing bees since new years, two other families finally got motivated to get started, and it seems like we're off to a decent start. Yea!!

I was discussing my idea of a youth group with the daughter of one of my beekeeping committee members, and she was really interested! So interested, in fact, that I decided to stop putting it off and go ahead and try to have a preliminary meeting. She and two others spearheaded the invitation process (that's house to house, all 45 of them) and I put an anouncement on the local radio. Last evening I nervously went to the appointed place and time. Things were awkward to start off with, and I was afraid the few 13 year olds that were waiting for me there would be the only ones to show. I asked the aforementioned young lady to explain the purpose of the group--I was trying to get them to take the lead to avoid speaking to them in Spanish, which sets a more formal mood. However, she pretty much immediately passed it off to me. We struggled over offices for a while, and I was having my doubts. However, I became absolutely sure that what I was doing was both good and needed when BOTH of my host brothers (who always claim to be too busy for anything, and would never come just to patronize me) came in! Newly motivated, I finally got them to decide on offices, and by the time we adjourned an hour and a half later, they had chosen their officers, planned out the logistics of a fundraising bake sale for TOMORROW (even though I won't be there!!) AND Tuesday, and had set a meeting for the following Wednesday, all without me saying a word. Yea!!! I'm sooo excited to see where this goes.

I'm gonig to close this very long entry by talking a bit about my daily life. With respect to work, I am an odd mix of male and female in Paraguay--that is, I work both in and out of the home. My schedule must also work around the Paraguayan business hours, which are typically 7 to 12am. So, I normally get up around 6am. If I have some type of appointment (with the bus, the municipality, or a beekeeper) it is usually around this time to avoid the inevitable heat that soon follows. I also buy fresh milk from the neighbor in the morning, right after she milks, and put it in the fridge so the creme will separate off by the next morning (at which point, by the way, I boil it all, make half into yogurt, and leave the other half milk. The creme is good for baking or shaking to make butter). I spend the rest of the morning baking, sweeping, washing dishes, etc. Even though my house is small, those tasks take a while since I have to pull water from the well and bring it from there in a bucket. By 10.30 or 1100 the men are back from the field and its terere time (look it up!), which consists of sharing a cold tea that is a refreshing diruetic. 11.30 or 12 is lunchtime, the main meal of the day (very USA-esque, as compared to other hispanohablante countries), and after that most people go to sleep. I sometimes crash, but usually avoid it by reading or, if its not too hot, continuing my house chores. Life resumes around 3pm. This is usually when I go out visiting people, another part of my job. Sometimes there's a reason, like I need to let them know about the next meeting. Usually, though, its just to keep contact and make friends. Twice a week I have committee meetings at 6pm. At 7, I take a half'hour spin on my bike, which is immensely refreshing and makes my icy cold shower pleasant. Dinner is a detail at somepoint between 8 and bedtime, which is, for me, around 10pm. Voila!

If you made it this far, congrats, you deserve a break. See ya lata!!