¡Todo Apodo!

Mbaeteikopio?  aka. What it is?

that isn´t a literal translation btw.

Well, i have kind of been absent from blogland for a little while now, but i´ve made it back.  I thought that i would share with everyone the joy of nicknames in paraguay. 

EVERYONE, and their mom, really though, has a nickname it py.  it is pretty fun, but it makes it really hard sometimes to figure out who you are talking about.  and sometimes when you meet someone they tell you their real name, but that is probably the only time you will ever here that name b-c everyone in the whole world calls them another name.

During my time here in paraguay i have manage to pick up a few apodos myself, which we will now review.

1.  Yankee - i know it, you know it.  i am not a yankee!  but my neigbors don´t know it haha. This nickname was coinged by a 2 year old that i know, whose dad is also Carlos.  He didn´t want to call this big american man the same name as his dad, so he picked out yankee...haha.  When i was living with them a common sentence from the 2 year old was "Epu´a Epu´a Yankee!  Oíma la comida!" which is to say, Get up Get up Yankee!  The food is ready!  it was really cute.
2. Carlos Paraguayo - This is perhaps the more endearing nickname i have picked up.  It was arrived at after sitting in a wine circle (circles are how you drink things here, terere, beer, wine, water, mate, anything liquid) most of the other sitters in this circle had already had a little too much to drink, haha, but after i spoke a good amount of guarani and knew the verses to one of the polkas (Che paraguay) they were like you are paraguayo, CARLOS PARAGUAYO! haha...i like this one.
3. Carlos Jety - This means Charles Sweet Potato.  haha...i´ve actually only heard this one once, but after me and some peeps had dug up like 20 lines of sweet potatoes, they were like you are pretty good at that, you are Carlos Jety.  haha.  

Amidst all of this i get the typicaly, Americano, Chawz (what it sounds like when spanish speaking people say Charles) or just stares. haha. 

Everything is pretty tranquilopa here though.  still trying to figure out how exactly i fit into my community and what sort of work we are going to get going for my time there, but we´ll see. 

i miss and love you all so much!

Charles/Yankee/Carlos Paraguayo/Jety D. Helms

A little bit of chicken fried... wait a second...that ain´t chicken.

Throw own your blue jeans and ball cap and grab your cane pole...we´re going fishin!

ok...that isn´t exactly what my host father sait to me the other evening, but it is as close as i can get in translation...haha.  I have a fish story to share...well, i guess that isn´t technically accurate.

One of the more populare past times in my community is heading out to a small fishing hole and catching an animal, which in guarani, is call mbusu.  In english, well, the closest i can get is eel.  I don´t know the species, but it is indeed a freshwater eel.  at any rate, jaha mbusu hapé!

I feel as if this activity would be a hit in the rural parts of north carolina, i mean, it is really even better than regular fishing. What you do is take the hoe you brought a long with you, hack at some aquatic vegetation until you´ve cleareda out a hole maybe about 2 feet in width, the depth of the water being a little more shallow than that.  Then you bait your hook with chicken meat, beat the water vigorously with your pole, and wait.  and wait. and wait.  I was never much for fishing when i was a kid, but this is really growing on me.  because next comes the rush.  you feel the bite, you yank up, and there it is...a black eel hanging off your chicken meat!!!  You try and get if away from the water asap, bc the mbsusu are valeterei, super smart, and will let you.   mine always fell off, but not to worry.  next you grab up your haul and beat it to death, you can use a stick, or just the ground....ha!  then you grab another stick and feed it through the little things mouth until it erupts through the back of its skull.  and there you have it my friends...dinner is almost ready!

Well...i didn´t know if i knew how to eat eel or not, but i actually took down a whole plate of it...we made a soup with onions, peppers, garlic, and oregano...heterei! (yummy!)

As i was sitting with my cane pole, watching the sun go down, being bit by mosquitos, i could have sworn i was in north carolina...as i needed was a pack a nabs, a can of vienna sausages, and a mountain dew...aaaah. Well...then i saw some parrots, remembered the heard of cows behind me, and realized those trees weren´t pines, they were palms...haha.

mmm....eels.

We Were Kings

Storytime!

So here in paraguay there is another holiday celebration after the official christmas and new years that we are used to in the united states.  It is called the day of the kings, which i am pretty sure is supposed to be when the three wise men came to visit baby Jesus.  Here it is celebrated by people putting shoes outside their windows and the kings bring by gifts for them!  pretty fun, but this year, i had a fun adventure with my host father.  I am working as a crop extensionist, and those crops sure do stretch; they usually go from seed, to field, to a home to be processed and cleaned, and then finally to market!  I was lucky enough to go to the market in a city near my site where members of my community sell their produce.

The product - Melón - think cantaloupe...ish. sweeter. better. maybe more honeydew....anyhow.

The goal - bring in the dough at market.

The ride - pick up truck

The time - 1 AM.

Intensity.  So the day before we loaded a pick up truck full up of the melóns and it was sent to wait at the drivers house.  We woke up at 1 in the morning to walk to the ruta, hop in the truck and head off to the market.  The city was deserted...not one to be seen, we were the first to arrive.  We unpacked each small, but weighty crate of fruit and placed it on the side of the road.  Then i napped for an hour on one of the vending tables that later that day was to be occupied by a veggie vendress. The the city started waking up, people opening store fronts, bringing in other produce...it was a really cool experience. Fruits of all kinds and more veggies than you could imagine. My host dad actually sells produce to other vendors, so my community is like the primary source of the goods.  It is a really cool system. In the meantime i had some super fresh chipa...the best snack in the universe, and a breakfast of some mystery meat, rolled in pigskin...this dish is really growing on me.  We were done selling by 6 in the morning, having brought in a pretty good haul.  We bought some stuff to take back home to family.  It felt very gratifying, and i can only imagine taking a field from seed to market. Small scale agricutural production is just the best. It felt like we were kings...well, of the market at least.

Sometimes i just sit.

The life of a peace corps volunteer is a an up and down, left and right, ingles y espanol, (ha guarani, ikatu) topsy turvy, vague...lets not go as far as clear...crazy experience.  I do a lot of things now that i didn´t used to do, some because of culture, some because there isn´t anything better to do.  heres a list!

• i wipe my face off with the tablecloth...i´m a fan
• i can put as many tablespoons of salt and or sugar on any food i want...i´m a fan
• watching chickens run around is often a main source of entertainment...i´m becoming a fan
• i have to dodge the biting parrot at my new house...i´m not a fan
• need a lime? go pick it!...i´m a fan
• need a mango? go pick it! it is so great....i´m a fan
• i constantly shew away animals...cows, pigs, chickens, dogs, cats...etc...not a fan
• i send text messages...i´m becoming a fan
• i either walk or take the bus...aka no more gunther...i´m a fan...but i miss gunther
• i still call shorts, shorts...and mountain bikes mountain bikes...in all three languages...it is funny...if you could here it with the accent you´d be a fan
• i put toilet paper in a trash can...i still think it is gross. 
• my office are the homes and fields of my community...i´m a fan.

and sometimes...i just sit.  

Felices Fiestas!

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

Long Field Practice

This past week, myself and the other 41 aspirantes in the envrionmental sector of peace corps filled up our backpacks and water bottles and headed out to the paraguayan countryside for the week.  I was in a group of four trainees who went to visit a volunteer and work with them for a week, to get a taste of campo life and what working and living like a real life peace corps volunteer would be like.  We also practiced our guarani skills...alot.

But anyway, i would like to relay to you a few choice moments of this wonderful week.  Well...first off my host families house was about 1K away from the ruta, so i got to walk through some great fields everyday.  Bitter orange trees, really big cows, and a forest stood in between me and the road...not a bad deal.   While we were in the community we made some soap and shampoo...both of which turned out...well...mas o menos.  But, we had a really good time doing it.   The funnest part of the whole thing was probably bathing.  So at my house i bathed out in this little swampish area.  Surrounded by a little cove of trees, but with an opening looking over a pretty big field with trees.  It was really beautiful....I actually am going to rate it within the top 3 bathing experiences of my enitre life.  It was a bit ironic though....to balance myself on a plank of wood, surrounded my a mud pit, trying to get clean...i mean...if i fell, i guess i could just start over.  While this all sounds quite idyllic...i also had to deal with cows while i was bathing....they just stare at you.  It is a little awkward...i don´t know why, but it just is, haha.  Ecspecially when they try and come and drink out of your bath water!  One other obstacle was the small bee friend that tried to make my acquaintance during one bath.   normally i love bees...really...just not when i am stark naked, balanced on on foot, without my glasses on....haha.

but anyway...i have decided that i am ready to move into the campo.  I can´t wait to be a for real life volunteer, and start getting to know my new community.  We´ll see if i´m singing a different tune in a month when i´m living in my site...i think so. 

peace corps out.

y, yvy, yvyra

Welcome to your guarani introdcution to paraguay...and three of the most important things ever!

y - water - high quality H20!

the water here in paraguay is actually pretty good...so no worries.  my stomach problems were most likely not caused by the fact that i drank some bad water.  I´ve actually had some people tell me that the water here was the sweetest water in the world.  There is even a story that PY exports some of its water to the united states, b-c we don´t have enough.  I´m no so sure about that one, but man do i love some good cool water when it is 40 d´s C outside.  dang it´s hot.

yvy. - soil - down and dirty!

there is a huge diversity of soils here in paraguay...or so they say. they being peace corps.  i have really only experinece one as of yet.  and that is sand.  in so many ways paraguay is the beach without an ocean.  and in the streets, sand in your sheets, sand all up in erewere. But there is supposedly clay too.  One of my biggest jobs will be working with folks to rehab their soil! add some organic material up in that piece and keep it from all washin´away!

yvyra - tree - you should got plant one!

paraguay, like many places, has an ongoing problem with deforestation.  There are lots of cool native species of trees and quite a few introduced ones that peace corps volunteers work with and know.  I got a crash course in agroforestry the other day, and i have to say, it was really cool.  I hope to plant some trees soon after i get to site to that my community and i can see them grow through the whole two years!  My favorite species so far is called Timbo, and has a really cool seed pod that looks like an elephant ear.

btw. "y" is prounounced like euh...in the back of your throat.  it is a fun sound.

peace corps out.