oh yeah... i forgot. the day after we swore in we made the nations largest newspaper, ABC Color. check out the link for the article, in spanish. note... los hombres are sporting mustaches and other wonderful asortments of manly facial hair. enjoy.
http://www.abc.com.py/2008-12-06/articulos/476047/nuevos-voluntarios-en-el-cuerpo-de-paz
Friday, December 26, 2008
hola... and Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. Peace to you and yours.
so ive just had the strangest christmas that ive ever experienced. first of all its hot. really hot. and i had no idea what was going on. christmas eve came by and i sat around for most of the day. then i figured out that the big celebration is a christmas eve dinner (traditionally held at midnight, but we ate at around 10). so we had a bunch of overly salted meat, mandio, chipa guasu and potato salad. it was a pretty good meal, but not like i´m used to. not like home.
things just didnt seem right. being here where i had no idea what was happening, not really feeling part of the family or the community. but christmas is over, and it wasnt that bad. my friend doug and i both traveled to a third volunteers site yesterday (christmas) and stayed the evening with him, and had another dinner with the host familiy that he lived with for the first 4 months when he was in country. then we woke up at 4 o´clock this morning in order to catch a bus into one of the closer larger towns where we are meeting up with 2 other volunteers to spend some time hanging out, bank, lunch, maybe buy a few things... i´m in need of a fan.
anyway, so we´ve been in site for just over 2 weeks, and overall things are going well. tranquillopa. basically everyone i´ve met in my new community has been more than willing to offer me a seat in their terere circle and offer food, beer, and conversation. i´m at the point where i´m ready to move on to living with another family, all i need to do is ask one of the other families in the community if i can stay with them for a few weeks, which i´m assuming wont be much of a problem. i´m looking foward to continuing to meet the people in my community and also to begin working with them. i havent been doing much ´work´for the first 2 weeks, and i´m anxious to get out and work with the farmers out in their fields. another reason i would like to move with another family, bc the host father im staying with now has a tractor, and hasnt done much manual labor out in the fields, and i dont feel like im getting an accurate representation of what kind of work people in my community are doing.
still looking into my housing options. we´ll see how this works out, but right now there are 2 possible casitas that i could rent, i just need to do some more work communicating my interest in renting one of them and talking with the people who own them.
i´m sure there is much more that i´m leaving out (like everything that ive been experiencing-feeling-thinking-doing-learning-speaking-drinking-eating...) which is basically my life for the first 2 and 1-2 weeks in my new home. but i dont know how to put them into words. what do i say to explain it... and whatever i say will most likely have little meaning. little context. little understanding because i dont understand what is happening myself. when you understand 10 percent of the words being spoken to you, you tend to be lost.. trying to follow along, but eventually you stop trying, resort back to thinking ´what the hell is going on´(inglespe). its hard. but its also very rewarding and wonderful when you meet those people who are willing to sit and speak with you, trying to help you learn and understand them. offering you food. sipping the wonderfully cold terere on a day that is hakuterei. so once again, ups and downs, strikes and gutters.
it is nice to speak with the friends i have made, ambue volunteriokuera, who are going through similar experiences. even when you think youre the only one whos going through it, you realize that your not, becasue there are 29 other people having the same struggles, same hardships, same joys and difficulites and feelings and emotions. wonderful people really.
The man arises from unsatisfaction
The little ones having gotten the best of him
When the sun decided enough was enough.
He doesn´t understand much these days,
These long and lonely days
He sits. Listens. Hears the words
Yet the meaning excapes him. It tires him.
He planted a tree in the rind of a pineapple
To pass the time.
Waiting to see if his life will spring up
Or rot in this very same earth.
Outside the mango tree is swollen with its passion.
One by one they drop, like the dreams of children.
The red dust can blind you. It disperses in the air
With each passing moto, each shoeless child
Who runs up the street to buy more cana
Sends it flying. To blind someone. Maybe themselves.
The world can be a very lonely place,
As the trees know. He takes comfort in them.
Knowing that even the lonliest tree is holding on,
Tightly to others, unseen, but grasping.
The old senoras sweep the same dust.
What are they sweeping if not memories.
Gathering them in this sand that has been their life´s work,
Has kept them occupied, and shown them that
Even as the dust is swept away, their memories remain.
They linger here, for all to see.
And the man, he only now is just beginning to see
That it wasn´t the sand after all.
much peace and love
kth
so ive just had the strangest christmas that ive ever experienced. first of all its hot. really hot. and i had no idea what was going on. christmas eve came by and i sat around for most of the day. then i figured out that the big celebration is a christmas eve dinner (traditionally held at midnight, but we ate at around 10). so we had a bunch of overly salted meat, mandio, chipa guasu and potato salad. it was a pretty good meal, but not like i´m used to. not like home.
things just didnt seem right. being here where i had no idea what was happening, not really feeling part of the family or the community. but christmas is over, and it wasnt that bad. my friend doug and i both traveled to a third volunteers site yesterday (christmas) and stayed the evening with him, and had another dinner with the host familiy that he lived with for the first 4 months when he was in country. then we woke up at 4 o´clock this morning in order to catch a bus into one of the closer larger towns where we are meeting up with 2 other volunteers to spend some time hanging out, bank, lunch, maybe buy a few things... i´m in need of a fan.
anyway, so we´ve been in site for just over 2 weeks, and overall things are going well. tranquillopa. basically everyone i´ve met in my new community has been more than willing to offer me a seat in their terere circle and offer food, beer, and conversation. i´m at the point where i´m ready to move on to living with another family, all i need to do is ask one of the other families in the community if i can stay with them for a few weeks, which i´m assuming wont be much of a problem. i´m looking foward to continuing to meet the people in my community and also to begin working with them. i havent been doing much ´work´for the first 2 weeks, and i´m anxious to get out and work with the farmers out in their fields. another reason i would like to move with another family, bc the host father im staying with now has a tractor, and hasnt done much manual labor out in the fields, and i dont feel like im getting an accurate representation of what kind of work people in my community are doing.
still looking into my housing options. we´ll see how this works out, but right now there are 2 possible casitas that i could rent, i just need to do some more work communicating my interest in renting one of them and talking with the people who own them.
i´m sure there is much more that i´m leaving out (like everything that ive been experiencing-feeling-thinking-doing-learning-speaking-drinking-eating...) which is basically my life for the first 2 and 1-2 weeks in my new home. but i dont know how to put them into words. what do i say to explain it... and whatever i say will most likely have little meaning. little context. little understanding because i dont understand what is happening myself. when you understand 10 percent of the words being spoken to you, you tend to be lost.. trying to follow along, but eventually you stop trying, resort back to thinking ´what the hell is going on´(inglespe). its hard. but its also very rewarding and wonderful when you meet those people who are willing to sit and speak with you, trying to help you learn and understand them. offering you food. sipping the wonderfully cold terere on a day that is hakuterei. so once again, ups and downs, strikes and gutters.
it is nice to speak with the friends i have made, ambue volunteriokuera, who are going through similar experiences. even when you think youre the only one whos going through it, you realize that your not, becasue there are 29 other people having the same struggles, same hardships, same joys and difficulites and feelings and emotions. wonderful people really.
The man arises from unsatisfaction
The little ones having gotten the best of him
When the sun decided enough was enough.
He doesn´t understand much these days,
These long and lonely days
He sits. Listens. Hears the words
Yet the meaning excapes him. It tires him.
He planted a tree in the rind of a pineapple
To pass the time.
Waiting to see if his life will spring up
Or rot in this very same earth.
Outside the mango tree is swollen with its passion.
One by one they drop, like the dreams of children.
The red dust can blind you. It disperses in the air
With each passing moto, each shoeless child
Who runs up the street to buy more cana
Sends it flying. To blind someone. Maybe themselves.
The world can be a very lonely place,
As the trees know. He takes comfort in them.
Knowing that even the lonliest tree is holding on,
Tightly to others, unseen, but grasping.
The old senoras sweep the same dust.
What are they sweeping if not memories.
Gathering them in this sand that has been their life´s work,
Has kept them occupied, and shown them that
Even as the dust is swept away, their memories remain.
They linger here, for all to see.
And the man, he only now is just beginning to see
That it wasn´t the sand after all.
much peace and love
kth
Monday, December 8, 2008
pcv
so its offical. we swore in at the embassy on friday. been hanging out in asuncion for the past few days, and tomorrow i'll be heading out to my new home for the next 2 years. a little nervous, excited, dont know what in the world is going to happen in the coming months.
i lost my camera. so that sucks. maybe it will show up somehow someway. but doubtful. so i wont have any photos to of my first 3 months in paraguay (or after that unless i get a new one). but i'm sure i'll be able to get pictures from other volunteers. the wonders of the internet.
thats all i have for now. hope all is going well.
chao chao
k
i lost my camera. so that sucks. maybe it will show up somehow someway. but doubtful. so i wont have any photos to of my first 3 months in paraguay (or after that unless i get a new one). but i'm sure i'll be able to get pictures from other volunteers. the wonders of the internet.
thats all i have for now. hope all is going well.
chao chao
k
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