Ladies and gentlemen and cellulites (as one Paraguayan I know says it). I will be in touch again in a few weeks. For now, I'm about to head off to site, Kaundygue, and the campo for summer fun and winter holiday parties (Christmas and New Year's). This season's activities will include hoeing fields, managing the garden, meeting the community, and learning Guarani. I've got a machete for each hand (currently that count is two) and can't wait to go.
I officially swore in on Friday, met the group swearing out and many of those who are in the middle. This included my nearest neighbor near my site and some other generally close neighbors (within a couple hours). One noteworthy point is that I have a cell phone. I won't be putting the number up here, but Facebook is always a good potential place to check. I could sit here and write a description of my site but really I've seen so little and know so few that it wouldn't do a service to anyone. I will go as so far to say that I'm excited, as ready as I'll ever be, and am ready to the urban setting of Asuncion. That said, I'll be happy to return in three months for a hot shower and some climate controlled environment. Well so technically my environment will be extremely controlled by the environment, where weather predictions are hot with continued hotness spreading into the hotter regions of the hot zones. 40+ centigrade with patches of shade and breaks with ice water are gaurenteed to pass through at least twice daily.
I'll be checking e-mail once every couple of weeks as I go into the nearer pueblo for food if you are hoping to reach me. True, I did say I'll have a cell phone, but I have to walk 15 min to get to a reception area, so I'll be checking voicemails there every few days. We'll see how this goes, given that the options menu is in Spanish. I hope you all have happy and safe holidays, and may you to get the opportunity to slaughter animal for Christmas.
Two bloody thumbs up,
Michael
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Saturday, November 3, 2007
A real post...
End of week five here in Paraguay and it´s been a bit of a rush.
So much has been going on it´s hard to even know where to begin, so best as possible here´s sort of a day to day.
I get up around 6:30, go through the normal routine of life (dress, breakfast, kick the chickens out of the way). Breakfast, aka arombosa in Guarani, is just a cup of milk (fresh off the cows at abuala´s down the street) and some golf-ball sized bread rolls that you could probably drive about 150yds (that´s about 150 meters if you prefer). Class starts at 7:45 and goes till 11:30 and is totally in Guarani (with the occassional explanation in Spanish and word written in English). We get two 20 min breaks (we being myself and the 8 other Agroforesters) where we normally visit the despensa and buy somethig cheap (fruit is a good choice). Then we get a break till 1pm for lunch, typically some sort of meet chunk in a carb (rice or pasta) and maybe some salad (Paraguayians aren´t big on the concept of vegetables or fresh fruit). At the end of the meal they serve up some juice normally, which is freshly squeezed but then ruined with sugar...sad.
Afternoons are the technical sections and happen in English, or are sometimes sessions with our whole group (40 people) in the local town of Guambare. These tend to be common area sessions, safety health, etc. Speaking of health, I´ve gotten hep A, and Rabies 1 and 2 with one more to go, and my last shot will be typhoid. I´ve recovered from the head cold, and a nasty round of food poisoning, and am now back to peak health (mas or menos today´s bee stings :)
After class, it´s pretty much visit the fam, practice speaking the Guarani-Spanish mix, not understanding a whole lot, having a small dinner if any at all, and then bed.
Mixed in have been field trips out to the campo. Campo is a word that translates litterally to countryside but in vernacular should be translated as the middle of nowhere Paraguay, there´s a lot of that and come December I´ll be moving there, so it´s good to get field trips there. In these past two-three weeks especially we´ve been looking at a number of agroforestry and agricultural systems that range from nearly pristine forest where a few select species are encouraged for harvest, to a poor soil slash and burn disaster site where nothing grows but the miracle plant, pigeon pea, or kumanda yvyraí (in Guarani - translation, little bean tree). It´s not only wild to learn how to take an eroding slope with trashed soil to a productive crop field mixed with trees, but then to take trips out and see the progression in various stages in very cool. Also very difficult to describe...particularly in Guarani...or Spanish, but I´m not speaking much of that right now.
Honestly, I´d love to have questions thrown at me to be answered about day to day life if you have them because to me it´s all just another day in Paraguay.
It takes mail about 17 days to get to me at present, that may get longer in December.
Oh, one of the projects we are working on in tech is to start a small agroforestry project in our host community before we leave. Basically, we were given a day and told to spread out and walk up to strangers and introduce and chat and visit...much like December will be. I finally came across this one family that was receptive to let me sit there and talk in choppy 3 word sentences a couple weeks ago, and in two weeks I hope to present a short demonstration on how to properly plant, prune, and care for citrus, specifically oranges and grapefruit. I may also throw in mango since they have a couple trees. I could go as far as to show them how to graft, but it´s a tricky science-art and there´s no need.
This past week was Halloween, as you all know, didn´t mean a thing here in py. However, the following day was day of the angels, which if you have children that have died you´d go visit the cementary, and the day after that is day of the spirits where you go visit older family members in the cementary, drink terere (think iced green tea and you are on your way to the flavor, but still far off), and it´s really like a big fiesta with all your friends. I was spotted by some neighbors I didn´t know and invited over to their house that night...which translates as sometime, because I couldn´t go that night, but you don´t say that, you say I´ll see you then, and then go sometime in the future. It was actually my language teacher who had me stop and talk with them and I think it was because she wanted me to meet their daughter...and you could right a paper on the culture in all of that but my internet hour is up.
So there was a weird and disconnected cross-section of things and I´ll close with a public health notice paraguayan style. You need to wait 30min after eating fish before you drink water. They did not say why, only that it would be bad and make you very sick. Don´t ask me, maybe the fish swim back out or something similar?
Suerte!
Michael
So much has been going on it´s hard to even know where to begin, so best as possible here´s sort of a day to day.
I get up around 6:30, go through the normal routine of life (dress, breakfast, kick the chickens out of the way). Breakfast, aka arombosa in Guarani, is just a cup of milk (fresh off the cows at abuala´s down the street) and some golf-ball sized bread rolls that you could probably drive about 150yds (that´s about 150 meters if you prefer). Class starts at 7:45 and goes till 11:30 and is totally in Guarani (with the occassional explanation in Spanish and word written in English). We get two 20 min breaks (we being myself and the 8 other Agroforesters) where we normally visit the despensa and buy somethig cheap (fruit is a good choice). Then we get a break till 1pm for lunch, typically some sort of meet chunk in a carb (rice or pasta) and maybe some salad (Paraguayians aren´t big on the concept of vegetables or fresh fruit). At the end of the meal they serve up some juice normally, which is freshly squeezed but then ruined with sugar...sad.
Afternoons are the technical sections and happen in English, or are sometimes sessions with our whole group (40 people) in the local town of Guambare. These tend to be common area sessions, safety health, etc. Speaking of health, I´ve gotten hep A, and Rabies 1 and 2 with one more to go, and my last shot will be typhoid. I´ve recovered from the head cold, and a nasty round of food poisoning, and am now back to peak health (mas or menos today´s bee stings :)
After class, it´s pretty much visit the fam, practice speaking the Guarani-Spanish mix, not understanding a whole lot, having a small dinner if any at all, and then bed.
Mixed in have been field trips out to the campo. Campo is a word that translates litterally to countryside but in vernacular should be translated as the middle of nowhere Paraguay, there´s a lot of that and come December I´ll be moving there, so it´s good to get field trips there. In these past two-three weeks especially we´ve been looking at a number of agroforestry and agricultural systems that range from nearly pristine forest where a few select species are encouraged for harvest, to a poor soil slash and burn disaster site where nothing grows but the miracle plant, pigeon pea, or kumanda yvyraí (in Guarani - translation, little bean tree). It´s not only wild to learn how to take an eroding slope with trashed soil to a productive crop field mixed with trees, but then to take trips out and see the progression in various stages in very cool. Also very difficult to describe...particularly in Guarani...or Spanish, but I´m not speaking much of that right now.
Honestly, I´d love to have questions thrown at me to be answered about day to day life if you have them because to me it´s all just another day in Paraguay.
It takes mail about 17 days to get to me at present, that may get longer in December.
Oh, one of the projects we are working on in tech is to start a small agroforestry project in our host community before we leave. Basically, we were given a day and told to spread out and walk up to strangers and introduce and chat and visit...much like December will be. I finally came across this one family that was receptive to let me sit there and talk in choppy 3 word sentences a couple weeks ago, and in two weeks I hope to present a short demonstration on how to properly plant, prune, and care for citrus, specifically oranges and grapefruit. I may also throw in mango since they have a couple trees. I could go as far as to show them how to graft, but it´s a tricky science-art and there´s no need.
This past week was Halloween, as you all know, didn´t mean a thing here in py. However, the following day was day of the angels, which if you have children that have died you´d go visit the cementary, and the day after that is day of the spirits where you go visit older family members in the cementary, drink terere (think iced green tea and you are on your way to the flavor, but still far off), and it´s really like a big fiesta with all your friends. I was spotted by some neighbors I didn´t know and invited over to their house that night...which translates as sometime, because I couldn´t go that night, but you don´t say that, you say I´ll see you then, and then go sometime in the future. It was actually my language teacher who had me stop and talk with them and I think it was because she wanted me to meet their daughter...and you could right a paper on the culture in all of that but my internet hour is up.
So there was a weird and disconnected cross-section of things and I´ll close with a public health notice paraguayan style. You need to wait 30min after eating fish before you drink water. They did not say why, only that it would be bad and make you very sick. Don´t ask me, maybe the fish swim back out or something similar?
Suerte!
Michael
Thursday, October 11, 2007
New post for REAL
Okay team,
I have T-minus 3 minutes to write this e-mail.
I'm in Asuncion (the capital) today for some training at HQ.
I'm having an awesome time, despite not speaking either of the two languages in the country and fighting off the tail end of a head cold...cough cough.
I have an excellent host family with host siblings ages 1,4,8, and 15 (she is actually a live-in babysitter but she's treated like family).
Where I'm living is nicer than than living at High Rocks, minus the mountains.
Learning lots of new trees, I've sent out 0 letters (irregular times to send and pricey) and I've only gotten to a computer twice now.
All that send, thanks for the e-mails, sorry for the misinformation on the last update (I didn't have a google acct and couldn't sign in).
All the best,
Michael
I have T-minus 3 minutes to write this e-mail.
I'm in Asuncion (the capital) today for some training at HQ.
I'm having an awesome time, despite not speaking either of the two languages in the country and fighting off the tail end of a head cold...cough cough.
I have an excellent host family with host siblings ages 1,4,8, and 15 (she is actually a live-in babysitter but she's treated like family).
Where I'm living is nicer than than living at High Rocks, minus the mountains.
Learning lots of new trees, I've sent out 0 letters (irregular times to send and pricey) and I've only gotten to a computer twice now.
All that send, thanks for the e-mails, sorry for the misinformation on the last update (I didn't have a google acct and couldn't sign in).
All the best,
Michael
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Contact Information
Hola gang,
So it's night before departure and I have everything together...scattered throughout my room. I haven't practiced any true Spanish in about a month and I half a dozen other little notes/e-mails to send off in addition to firing up the iPod. That said, let me get to the critical points here.
In Paraguay, I can be reached at the following:
Michael Bauman, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
162 Chaco Boreal
c/Mcal. Lopez
Asuncion, 1580, Paraguay
South America
After mid-December, the PCT should be changed to PCV, as I will stop being a trainee and be a full fledged volunteer. Assuming I pass my trainee exit tests and if I don't, see you all in December!
Tomorrow and Wednesday night I will be in Miami. Feel free to call the hotel and find my room:
Doubletree Hotel Coconut Grove
2649 South Bayshore Dr
Miami, FL 33133
305-858-2500
I'm very good at replying to letters, so write me and I'll write back (I also don't have many street addresses for people, so you can e-mail those to me and I will go from there).
You can always leave a back-log of mail at my parents, although it would also be great that if I do write you that you give them a call and let them know you've heard from me (I'll leave their number in the letter).
Michael Bauman
5240 Wynterhall Dr
Atlanta, GA 30338
USA, North America
Okay, it's time to pack, seriously.
Quick story first, I went to Wal-mart three times today and have been to three different Wal-marts in the past week. I know the store layout better than most sales associates and I can blink in time with the fluorescent lighting.
Next post from who knows where.
Michael
So it's night before departure and I have everything together...scattered throughout my room. I haven't practiced any true Spanish in about a month and I half a dozen other little notes/e-mails to send off in addition to firing up the iPod. That said, let me get to the critical points here.
In Paraguay, I can be reached at the following:
Michael Bauman, PCT
Cuerpo de Paz
162 Chaco Boreal
c/Mcal. Lopez
Asuncion, 1580, Paraguay
South America
After mid-December, the PCT should be changed to PCV, as I will stop being a trainee and be a full fledged volunteer. Assuming I pass my trainee exit tests and if I don't, see you all in December!
Tomorrow and Wednesday night I will be in Miami. Feel free to call the hotel and find my room:
Doubletree Hotel Coconut Grove
2649 South Bayshore Dr
Miami, FL 33133
305-858-2500
I'm very good at replying to letters, so write me and I'll write back (I also don't have many street addresses for people, so you can e-mail those to me and I will go from there).
You can always leave a back-log of mail at my parents, although it would also be great that if I do write you that you give them a call and let them know you've heard from me (I'll leave their number in the letter).
Michael Bauman
5240 Wynterhall Dr
Atlanta, GA 30338
USA, North America
Okay, it's time to pack, seriously.
Quick story first, I went to Wal-mart three times today and have been to three different Wal-marts in the past week. I know the store layout better than most sales associates and I can blink in time with the fluorescent lighting.
Next post from who knows where.
Michael
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