Tuesday, November 25, 2008

strikes and gutters, ups and downs

strikes and gutters dude, ups and downs. the dude was right.. thats what its all about. high highs, low lows. and everygoshdarnthiniginbetween. woke up friday morning... drinking mate with my new family that i had only just met, and the grandfather comes out of the house carrying a pig by the hind legs. he tells me to come over (at least thats what i think he said) so i get up and come over, hold the legs, and he does the deed. castration. butter knife. the pig seemed fine afterwards. i didnt really know what to do.say.think.

just returning from my future site visit... 5 days in the place that will be my new home. i´m in the middle of the country, probably half way between asuncion and ciudad del este (that probably doesnt mean anything to almost everybody). in the hills of paraguay. topography! i have a beautiful view of the sunset out the back of my future house, a little brick one room, tin roofed house. with an unfinished michi room on the one side, and in the back there is a ´kitchen´that has coco tree walls and a grass roof. i want to take the grass roof off and make a porch on the one side of the house. shade. beautiful view. i also have plans for a nice big garden and a demo plot (for abonos verdes (green manures) and i want to plant them in curves becasue there is a little slope). we´ll see how it happens... i have a lot of time to work on the place, cause we have to live with families for the first 3 months in site.

strike... walking to the new plaza (park) and swinging with all the kids in the community. gutter... getting the chive and feeling like shit for half the time. strikes and gutters. spares too.

language. its still really hard. not understanding anything when there are a group of natives speaking around you and only understanding about half (if that)of what is being said when it is being directed at you. but its coming. you know it is. it has to, doesnt it? beacuse if it doesnt, then what can you hope to do? doesnt the body, the mind have to adapt?

a lot time times it doesnt feel like it.

but i think it is... everyone tells me it does, it will... so i guess i have to put trust in that.... what else is there to do?

strike. eating the most amazaing-godsent-golden-pearl of a mango. strike. playing fútbol with my host brothers last night. strike. stars. beautiful skys. the most beautiful stars ive ever seen. gutter. not knowing anything thats going on... not understanding what people are talking about... thinking, do i even exist here?

2 more weeks of training.. then its time for the move. new home. new life.
día de gracias este jueves. hope everyone has a great time.
peace and love to all those who come across... love you guys

What are you throwing? strikes. gutters. do you even bowl?
keith

Sunday, November 16, 2008

ndaikuaai

ndaikuaai... no se... i dont know

sometimes, when the sun sets on this beautiful world, you find yourself wondering what it is that brought you here, all the little things that fell into place and all the things the fell out of place, and you cant help but smile. good wood. cuts that have been made, choices that were chosen, things not done. all have their place. and we go on. keeping on with the life that we´ve made, the life that´s been made... and smiling is what natually occurs, because you know, deep down and on the surface, that to smile is to live. living, we smile. smiling, we live. the smile of a child that youve come to love. how that can make everything youre thinking and doing come to an abrupt stop, becasue the purity and the innocence are so very real... steeped in love. it is as if your whole body is overcome by the warmness of that breeze you long to feel on your skin, tickling each and every hair, making you feel so very alive. ha nde repensa, ko ha´e vida, ko ha´e amor, ko ha´e la mundo. and you think, this is life, this is love, this is the world. trusting, worlds can seem so intermingled, so immersed, that all you can do, because your body will do no other, is smile. there can be no other option presented because there simply are no other options. obeying the law that your body has accepted, you trust. we were born into bodies and into laws... some we break, some we bend, some we simply disregard beause for us they have no meaning. and some we obey, because being bodies, we must.

ko wednesday we find out were we´re going to be living for the next two years, and then the next day we travel to that very place to spend a few days. its a pretty intense time right now. so many things going on, i have to give a charla on tuesday in guaraní. we´re all pretty excited about the prospect of finding out our site, and at the same time its like ´dios mío man´we´re gonna be out on our freakin own in like dos semanas. crazy times.

we just got back on thursday from our ´long field practice´or a 5 day excursion to the site of a current volunteer. i have this weird feeling of ikatu vertigo right now... strangeness. i was sick for the first 2 days of the long field, so that blew. but then i took some meds and now i feel iporaterei. the community that we went to was beautiful... set in the mountains (or large hills) of paraguay. worked some language, worked some bees, planted some curves de nivel in the kokue of a farmer, worked with a farmers comite in their community garden and gave a charla on venenos caseros... overall it was a good time.

vertigo.trust.smile.obey.shatter.

peace
k

Monday, November 3, 2008

so i´ve been pretty lax on updating my blog... mostly its been becasue when i come into town and get on the internet i end up not feeling like writing anything... but i guess today is a bit different (although i still dont really feel like it, i´m going to write anyway). so i think this is offically our 6th week in paraguay, and overall things are going pretty darn well. training has its ups and downs, and there have been a few days where i felt like shit, but for the most part i´m doing good. the downs for me usually come with something related with the language, becasue learning a new language is really freaking hard. i´ve got a new respect for people who do attept to learn a new language, and being the person that nobody understands and that gets laughed at for their horrific pronunciation has definatley made me so much more aware of how difficult of a process it is.

we went on our ´technical overnight´last weekend, and we got to see a part of paraguay that has mountains! which we were all super excited about. it was such a beautiful part of the country... i am left wondering if that is where i´m going to be living for the next two years, becasue we think that one of us is going to be a follow up volunteer at that site... we´ll find out where our sites are going to be in about 2 weeks.

man i really dont fell like writing much on this blog... part of it i think is that i´ve already been at the internet cafe for 2 hours and i kinda feel like going home. its already past 8 oclock and i´ve got to get a bus back to my town then walk about a half hour to my house. and i´m really hungry. ive been eating way more meat that i would like (which is none in case you were wondering) but over the past few days its been even more because there was a celebration for my little brothers first communion, and we had a good bit of meat after that. also sundays are a day for hanging out with family, relaxing, and having a good time... so my family cooked a big meal on sunday and i had meat... then more meat from the leftovers. it hasnt really bothered me that much until now.. but i´m kinda getting sick of it. i just want to eat some good veggies. or just less meat. anyway.

today was the first time i explored this little town that we come to to use the internet... and its bigger than i thought. apparently there is a lake here with little allegators living in it... so i´m gonna have to go check that out sometime soon.

the election is tomorrow... and we´re all rooting for obama to win. i dont think i know anyone in the peace corps who is hoping that mccain wins. interesting huh??

okay... im tired and i need to go home and eat and work on some guarani homework... peace to all you folks who are reading this...i hope yourre all enjoying life!!!

take care
jajotopata
k