its been a interesting couple of days, hanging out in Asunción with some other volunteers for some 4th of july festivities... camping out in a park in the city and going to the U.S. embassy for a cookout. trying to get back to site, couldn´t get back yesterday, so hopefully today the afternoon bus will be running.
Things have been going good out at site. I have too friends living with me now, my cat moñai and my dog stout. stout is almost 2 months old now, and growing at a pretty quick rate... i havent seen here since i was in site last wednesday, so im excited to see how much she´s grown in the past week. i finally got my garden fence finished, planted some winter abonos verdes, dug some tablones and have some small vegetable plantitas growing... in a few months it should be bountiful...
i´m currently reading ¨jitterbug perfume¨by tom robbins, which i highly recommend. this is my second tom robbins book im reading, i just read ¨half asleep in frog pajamas¨which was a great book as well. i would say to read a book by him... really gets you thinking... and the dude writes some crazy stuff.
i wonder what else you are interested in hearing about...
the lives we live down here, what our days are like...
and i wonder what its like to be living back stateside... a world of difference
10 months already... its going to be such a shock to come back home, but then again, i didnt think the shock of coming here was all that much...
times up..
much peace, and much love
Monday, July 6, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
what have i been doing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZA78xUzwTA
apparently i thought i would be blogging much more than i actually am, but regardless, check out this sweet video on utube put together by some fellow voluntari@kuera here in paraguay. its good, and you´ll be able to get a pretty good idea of the lives we lead down here en la corázon de sur america. this is my first attempt to upload some pictures on my blog, after 7 months, one lost camera on a fateful night in asuncion, a new camera purchased in the streets of the aforementioned city a subsequent loss of the connecting cable which allows one to upload fotos, here they are (if they upload before i have to catch a bus). if not, well, i dont know what to tell ya.
im here in villarica, on my way out to another volunteers site in order to help him with a día de la huerta at his school, so i´m pretty excited about that. And as for updates on my situation, i moved into my house about a month ago, and it is wonderful, minus the swarms of mita´i at my house everyday due to the close (10 yards..) proximity of my house to the school. but things are getting better now that most of the children are accustomed to a large bearded norte living at the place where they go to school. my garden fence, which has taken more than a month, on and off,, should be done in the next week or two... then it´ll be time to dig and plant! perhaps you´ll be able to see it...
or perhaps not...
peace
apparently i thought i would be blogging much more than i actually am, but regardless, check out this sweet video on utube put together by some fellow voluntari@kuera here in paraguay. its good, and you´ll be able to get a pretty good idea of the lives we lead down here en la corázon de sur america. this is my first attempt to upload some pictures on my blog, after 7 months, one lost camera on a fateful night in asuncion, a new camera purchased in the streets of the aforementioned city a subsequent loss of the connecting cable which allows one to upload fotos, here they are (if they upload before i have to catch a bus). if not, well, i dont know what to tell ya.
im here in villarica, on my way out to another volunteers site in order to help him with a día de la huerta at his school, so i´m pretty excited about that. And as for updates on my situation, i moved into my house about a month ago, and it is wonderful, minus the swarms of mita´i at my house everyday due to the close (10 yards..) proximity of my house to the school. but things are getting better now that most of the children are accustomed to a large bearded norte living at the place where they go to school. my garden fence, which has taken more than a month, on and off,, should be done in the next week or two... then it´ll be time to dig and plant! perhaps you´ll be able to see it...
or perhaps not...
peace
Thursday, February 19, 2009
its been quite a while since i last posted, and i´m sure much has happened here and elsewhere... currently i´m trying to get some music to play on this computer, as i simply want to listen to some good music, something that is muy falta here in paraguay. so where do i begin. i´ve been sick now for about one month... not about, it was exactly 4 thursdays ago that i started with my sickness. it began as a case of diarriah and general stomach pain, zero appitite... which lasted for about 5 days, then it moved into muscle and joint pain that lasted the better part of 2 weeks. then the virus (which im told it was, some tropical virus i probably got from a damn mosquito) seemed to want to appear on my skin in the form of a rash, which ive had now for a little over a week. the good news is that its starting to go away, i think, and over the past 3 or 4 days ive had much more energy than ive had in quite some time. so i´m hopefull that this thing is getting ready to exit my body, which i would be greatly thankful for... its all getting better i think..
in other news, i was rejected by the people who own the little casita i wanted to move into, saying that the guy who owned it (who went to argentina and isnt coming back in the foreseable future) wants to use the house when he does come back at the end of the year. so they didnt want to rent it out to me for 2 years, which is a bit of a bummer becasue i was looking forward to fixing up the house, making my garden, and enjoying the beautiful sunsets on my lonely paraguayan nights...
but, i have been looking into renting the little hoga´i on the property of the escuela, which has its ups and downs. i´ll be surrounded by a lot of little kids when school is in session, which will get very annoying, but it will give me a great opportunity to work in the school and try to get some pretty sweet things started there, perhaps a school garden, composting, recycling... other such things. this little house has neither the privacy or the view of the other house i was interested in living in, but right now my only real option is the house on the property of the school, so im going to try to make that work, and make the best of it.
i´m now living with my third host family, and things are going pretty well. i´ve been living with them for about 3 weeks now, and i dont think im going to switch again before i move into my own house. ive had enough of moving around and getting used to new situations, and i´m feeling pretty comfortable in this house, there are some older kids who i can talk with and do work in the fields with the sons and the father. im super excited when i get my house to set my own schedule, cook my own food, make a garden, establish some stablity in my life. i know that it will help me feel better in every way, as well as have some place of my own where i can do what i need to get done. and i know it will help me do better work, having a physical space where i can live and work.
its still hot in paraguay, as you folks are enjoying the cold days and nights of winter.
been reading some good books lately, which has been nice.
i recently finished A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Hunger by Knut Hamsun, and Hoot by Carl Hiassen... all quality books. i recomend both the dickens and Hamsun books for those of you with some extra time on your hands
and also, the poety of billy collins. i came across a collection of poetry in our libray at the peace corps office, and found it to be really good. i hope to have some more of his writings in my possession in the near future. been writing a good bit too... which has been nice.
it is nice to read and work in your own language when you are surrounded by a language that you still have trouble understanding, a lot of trouble. and although i know that i need to be working on my guarani more, when i have time to site down and study or read or write, which has been frequently lately, i dont want to read or write guarani. i want english. becasue, ive found, we have an amazing language, a language that i can express myself in, a language that is full of all kinds of amazing things. i want english, but i need guarani, so, i must continue if i have any hope of communicating with the people i am living amongst.
in town for a VAC meeting today, then i´ll be back to site later this afternoon after catching the 230 bus. this weekend should be fun. one of the daughters of the family im staying with is getting married on saturday, so the day should be filled with all sorts of things ive never seen before, and im looking foward to seeing how a paraguayan marriage goes down. lots to look foward to.
thats all from here, now.
much peace
keith
in other news, i was rejected by the people who own the little casita i wanted to move into, saying that the guy who owned it (who went to argentina and isnt coming back in the foreseable future) wants to use the house when he does come back at the end of the year. so they didnt want to rent it out to me for 2 years, which is a bit of a bummer becasue i was looking forward to fixing up the house, making my garden, and enjoying the beautiful sunsets on my lonely paraguayan nights...
but, i have been looking into renting the little hoga´i on the property of the escuela, which has its ups and downs. i´ll be surrounded by a lot of little kids when school is in session, which will get very annoying, but it will give me a great opportunity to work in the school and try to get some pretty sweet things started there, perhaps a school garden, composting, recycling... other such things. this little house has neither the privacy or the view of the other house i was interested in living in, but right now my only real option is the house on the property of the school, so im going to try to make that work, and make the best of it.
i´m now living with my third host family, and things are going pretty well. i´ve been living with them for about 3 weeks now, and i dont think im going to switch again before i move into my own house. ive had enough of moving around and getting used to new situations, and i´m feeling pretty comfortable in this house, there are some older kids who i can talk with and do work in the fields with the sons and the father. im super excited when i get my house to set my own schedule, cook my own food, make a garden, establish some stablity in my life. i know that it will help me feel better in every way, as well as have some place of my own where i can do what i need to get done. and i know it will help me do better work, having a physical space where i can live and work.
its still hot in paraguay, as you folks are enjoying the cold days and nights of winter.
been reading some good books lately, which has been nice.
i recently finished A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Hunger by Knut Hamsun, and Hoot by Carl Hiassen... all quality books. i recomend both the dickens and Hamsun books for those of you with some extra time on your hands
and also, the poety of billy collins. i came across a collection of poetry in our libray at the peace corps office, and found it to be really good. i hope to have some more of his writings in my possession in the near future. been writing a good bit too... which has been nice.
it is nice to read and work in your own language when you are surrounded by a language that you still have trouble understanding, a lot of trouble. and although i know that i need to be working on my guarani more, when i have time to site down and study or read or write, which has been frequently lately, i dont want to read or write guarani. i want english. becasue, ive found, we have an amazing language, a language that i can express myself in, a language that is full of all kinds of amazing things. i want english, but i need guarani, so, i must continue if i have any hope of communicating with the people i am living amongst.
in town for a VAC meeting today, then i´ll be back to site later this afternoon after catching the 230 bus. this weekend should be fun. one of the daughters of the family im staying with is getting married on saturday, so the day should be filled with all sorts of things ive never seen before, and im looking foward to seeing how a paraguayan marriage goes down. lots to look foward to.
thats all from here, now.
much peace
keith
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