!MY HOME FOR TWO YEARS!

I got my site - a small town (1000) called Capellania near the larger town of Caraguatay in the province of Cordillera. You definitly can find the larger town on the map - its a new community with very little bees but close to the markets of Asuncion...and they sell lots of fruits and veggies. It sounds like a real chuchi community and I am the closest of my G´s to Asuncion, like 3 hours. I wont be ruffing it either, since my community has running water and electricity. Im off to visit tomorrow and then two more weeks until I am officially a PCV!!

SITES...maybe?

I will try to sum up the past few weeks as I prop my lids open (and probably not accomplish any review of my activities)...I am writing this from my bed, to then enter tomorrow morning maximizing my internet time..., I am under my misquito net listening to the strains of the oh so constant polka music, my family talking and variuos insect noises coming in my window. I was talking to Ariel about the lack of variety in his music tastes and how I dream of cachaca musica and then I wake up and the dream doesn´t end...a cachaca filled nightmare.

Speaking of dreams I had my first one in Guarani...YEAH! Not that it made any sort of sense, I just know Guarani was being spoken. The dream, which occured on our long field practice (a week long visit to a current volunteer, filled with fun and intense...intense is just the word to sum it up, new host families and days filled with Guarani...) Anyway, the dream - included my tech trainer, Jonathan and Danielle, the current volunteer, coming to my host family´s house (the one on long field) in the middle of the night and visiting. I think the Guarani was actually the running commentary in my head about if when they left I would leave the house with them in order to fo to the latrine. It was very much on my mind, I now not that it stemmed from the fact - 1. I had to actually go to the bathroom. 2. I was afraid of to actually leave my room at night because of the guard dogs they have and they might not recognize me. 3. my family had not actually told me the location of the latrine was, I asked earlier where the bathroom was and got a response of ´oh, we dont have one....´ They assumed that I wanted a modern bathroom though that could have been lost in translation...my interest in bathrooms should have jogged them into showing me the latrine because even norteamericanos will eventually have to use the toliet....My inner monologue at one point switched back to English but that could have also occured when I woke up and still had my mind focused on the toliet.

This post has nothing really to do with what I have been up to the last few weeks but one more amusing picture before I sign off - think about what you were doing election day and then visualize me...not having access to news and freaking out...climbing around with my antenna and shortwave trying to pick up even a slight hint of english...I eventually found Voice of America and then BBC, it defintily was BBC Africa and I have even found BBC East Asia but no sign of South America...anyway I got to see part of Obama´s speach on the news in Spanish the next morning

I also have a bunch a pictures and a amazing video what I hope to never see again - you know how I said you would be crazy not to use smoke on Africanized bees well we found someone that crazy and I am very sure that I am not dangerously allergic to bees because I got over 15 stings from that little adventure...

I might write a short message this afternoon with my site!!!

Marcy

Blackberries and Bees....

I am at the PC office in Asuncion today - we got a day off from class today - which is amazing but it was to make up for the extremely long day we had yesterday. It takes about an hour to travel here and two crowded buses, though nothing like Uganda only a little shoving is involved and the likelyhood that you are either getting on or getting off a moving bus. The driver speeds along while blasting his music and drinking his terere...thermos and cup in hand. Terere is the national pasttime here, its mate or a tea but cold with other local medicinal herbs mixed in with ice and poured into a smaller cup and bombilla (a sort of metal straw). The amazing thing is that they don't spill a drop. This will be very important in the future...proper terere'ing because it is the way we are going to integrate with the community. A lot of awkward conversation and overful bladders later...






Yesterday - we visited a former beekeeping training site (one that was in the early 2000s) and a very guapo man (hardworking). He had 8 hives that were in various stages of disrepair, including one that had fallen all the way apart...but this is good practice for what we will see out at site. The hardworking part came from the fact he owned about 14 acres of land and worked it all himself and did a lot of real lindo things like intercropping, rotation and abonos verdes - green manures. Back to the hives - it basically was transfering comb that had been bent and broken to a new hive - trying to avoid killing bees, hurting the brood and totally destroying all their honey. It worked out okay but definitly involved a lot of honey leakage and cutting of comb. I am going to try to upload some pictures - along with one of my sister, an amazing act of acrobatics getting

two people into a bee suit and the cigars that I rolled. The blackberries were the dessert of the day - this farm had a whole hedge of them and just there for the taking - amazing....you'd think that a country that could grow all these amazing fruits and veggies would actually enjoy eating them or somehow make them more available but that is life....








Talk to you soon!

Marcy