Ok. ok. i know, i have not written anything in forever. my apologies.
As it currently stands though, i am now an official volunteer of the Cuerpo de Paz in this here country of Paraguay. I have recently, within this week actually, moved out to the rural town that i will be calling home for the next two years. I am currently living with families for the next three months, and then hopefully i will be able to move out on my own!
Everything is going really quite well. My mind and body are slowly adjusting to the new rythym of life that i am in and i feel like things are looking up for the next two years. I think that as you are living in a place it sort of starts to sink down into your heart. I believe that paraguay has started its journey into entering into mine. I realized this just the other day.
You see, my host father is a small time agricultural producer, and he asked me if i wanted to help him with the pepper harvest. I was like, heck yes!, naturally. So at the break of dawn just the other day, I, him, and his son boarded the ox-cart and slowly made our way a few kilometers to his field. We spent all morning picking peppers, pretty much the green bell pepper kind...except skinnier. It was such a peaceful experience. Later we took a break, and had some watermelon, that was picked right out of the field next door. Also great. As we finished up picking he tied the guei back up to the cart and we hauled all 382 kilos of peppers back to the house! At this time, i was pretty much thinking, screw peter piper...charles helms helped pick a peck of pickled peppers! That day for lunch, we had a fish fry because my dad had gone fishing the day before. I also ate some cow tail...not the candy...way more chewy. But still pretty good.
I followed this wonderful morning up with a great siesta, probably my favorite cultural habit of paraguay. I am not sure i will be able to deal with a life without siesta after this. really. And what is more...that evening for dinner we had an asado...which pretty much means a barbeque...lots of meat, lots of goodness, lots of fun.
So yeah. I am livin´ the country life and i think that slowly and surely paraguay is sinking its way into me...and i think that is for the best.
ciaomante
