I’ve been in Paraguay for only a couple of days, and thus far it's a pelo (rad/amazing). The only official class we’ve had began with the instruction on how to make Terere, the cold version of Yerba Mate, which is a-a-amaziiiing. Due to unforeseen changes of plans involving the 14-hour stopover in Brasil, we arrived in Paraguay quite late, arriving at a retiro (retreat) at about 2am.
The following morning we left by 8am to visit the Peace Corps center in Guarambare (about an hour from the capital) in order to go through the initial logistics, immediate need-to-knows, and to get some shots. One of these ‘shots’ included a bee sting required for Bee Keepers and Crop Extension volunteers. It was optional for the Environmental Educators, but I chose to get it for curiosity, since I’ve never had one, and I too would probably be around bees at some point. Initially it was just a pinch, not much harder than my 2-year-old nephew does (pinching is his new addition to his little tantrums) but by 10 seconds, it kind of burned for several minutes, then just felt sore for about an hour.
I later found out I live in Typychaty (pronounced “Tupushatu” with the “u” sounds made from deep in the throat), with the cutest little family, who’s names I probably can’t mention wholly in this blog. Nonetheless, my host father is nearly 90 years old, and my host mother is 52…..yea…. They have a son living at home who is 27 and studying, and three other ‘children’ who are married, working, living on their own with their little families.
I’m still exploring the food, culture, and beautiful landscapes, and hope to be able to upload pictures as well. I think it’s too early to jump to conclusions about what I think about the food and whatnot. I’ve already felt quite adventuresome by having river fish for lunch, and possibly will be as it seems there is an imminent event of making chicken from scratch….like plucking the feathers and all…
On another note, I know I will have to really think differently about money. We’re given 20,000 Gs per day (where G=Guaranies and approximately 5000Gs = $1USD) and I just bought an alarm clock with a battery for 25,000Gs…yea…spending more than a whole day’s worth of allowance on a little plastic clock made me see it in a whole different perspective. I guess beer isn’t as bad… a group of us from the little town bought 40s for about 7500Gs each.
Ciao!
I'm still learning to use my camera. This is from a gorgeous night, and I thought the picture looked cool, but it still does no justice for what it actually looked like. At about 10pm, a full yellowish moon, streaked on all sides by swept clouds, and my camera made the moon look like a planet. jajaja. 
I love that the trees just outside our house become "chicken trees" after sunset. There is no corral for the chickens, so they just plop themselves on the branches of a few trees to spend the night. There's about seven chickens on this tree, and the younger chickens circle that wooden box for the night. It never fails to amuse me.
You can see this bare tree has three or four gallinas, and on the bottom corner, a couple of other gallinas are resting on another tree.
