I have discovered that I would much prefer to write these entries out before then have to think them up on the spot...so Ill leave you with only a couple of observations.

Christmas - involves everyone just staying up until midnight on the 24th while waiting for the asado to finish (bbq)...possibly drinking this fruit salad mixture with wine except not my family b/c they are evangelical christians. Also if you are Catholic you go to other peoples houses and look at there creches and drink more of that Clerico...(the fruit salad stuff). And at midnight, which caught me off guard, everyone goes around and hugs each other wishing people a merry christmas. And thats nice and all but I didnt know half the people so it was a bit strange for me. Another note - the only thing that they eat is the asado...with maybe some mandioca but really just meat so my diet has been heavy on the protein every since because at this time of year they eat asado a lot.

Second I have a joke which was told to me by one of the language teachers right after the election and its in Guarani and then the translation.

Petei kuimba’e Paraguayo onemongetase Presidente de los Estados Unidosndive. Upeicharo Ollama La Roga Moroti ha oporandu ane’e Presidente George W. Bushndive. Katy la secretario one’e, “Nahaniri, Ovama.” (in spanish and guarani the sound of the 'v' is very close to a 'b' sound....

A Paraguayan man wants to have a conversation with the President of the US. So he calls the White House and asks to speak to President George W. Bush. But the secretary there says, “No, he left.”

I am trying to upload some photos and am getting frustrated so I might stop and find a better internet connection...sometime but here is the link to the album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Marcy.ASL/Paraguay?authkey=QwY5_LzqylU&feat=directlink

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Just a quick note - I hope everyone has a nice cold and white holiday season far far away from the mid 90 temp. that I am at...I am sure to be boiling away on Christmas Day and also super hungery because apparently we wait until midnight of the 24th to eat dinner...I dont really understand. Note the change in address for letters - my mother and I are testing it out to see if I can get packages that way as well...but I am sure to get mail much faster at this address...

Seasons Greetings!

Swearing In...take 2

I just wrote a whole post and then lost it....sad.


A brief description of swearing in - I am now officially a Peace Corp Volunteer, as of December 5th. We had the ceremony at the US Embassy in Asuncion and like all of the US Embassies I have seen it was manicured to perfection - also has a pool that as a Volunteer I can use! The ambassador could not attend due to a meeting in DC apparently but we had a replacement - I am not actually sure of his title. He and our country director spoke both of which were bland and forgettable but a message of, 'this is a great oppurtunity and a great place to be.' Both of which are true but not going to keep us awake in the summer heat. We also had voted for one of the other volunteers to speak, who did keep us awake and amused (Steve is a farmer boy from Ohio with a booming voice.) Then we were let free, not really because we had to get bank cards and phones for PC as well as other errands - but this weekend was the first oppurtunity to really get to know Asuncion. My phone number...country code 595 and then my domestic number 0982600006 - I dont know if you leave the first 0 or take it off when calling but once I find out Ill be sure to tell you...skype you can call me for about 6 cents a minute. 01159598260006 - correct number 0- that is what you need to dial...


We had an article in the local Asuncion paper as well - http://www.abc.com.py/2008-12-06/articulos/476047/nuevos-voluntarios-en-el-cuerp- and make sure to check out the related articles b/c they interviewed two of the beekeepers (yes all in spanish, sorry)


Here is also a picture of the bees - bottom left to right - Lara, Nina, Adam, Mitra and I - top l to r - Justin and our trainer, Jonathan.



I leave for site tomorrow so I am excited for that and ready to get to work or get to start trying to ackwardly socialize and drink terere with hundreds of people.



Merry Christmas - Marcy

Another way to say ´Hello!´

As Justin (one of the bees) always says the Guarani language is really deep - the example is their combinations of words that then later mean another thing. For example - nothing - mba´ve - when broken down means -mba - things - ve - more, so nothing literally means more things. The other words - no where - moo´ve - moo - where + ve ie - more where - and the last example no one - mava´ve - more who...the ancient Guaranis must have been very philosphical. I think it strikes a chord in the PC where having nothing might be very similar to have more. My final language class and interview approach on Wed, and I am amazed at the speed of my language comprehension. I definitely, with a month or two, will speak better Guarani then Spanish, though I will have to improve my Spanish as well. There are very few people in Paraguay that do not understand or speak Guarani. In Asunción, Spanish is more prevalent but since most of the population has moved there from the campo they understand Guarani. In the campo, generally Guarani is spoken but Spanish is widely understood either from school or more likely watching TV. I actually have to at least improve my Spanish as well because one of the beekeepers in my site only speaks Spanish.

Like many languages Guarani is not a written language and has taken many advanced and modern words from Spanish. The ease that Paraguayans can transition between the languages is amazing. At a meeting for example, the conversation is conducted in Guarani but the minutes are written in Spanish without hesitation or thought - in the end with all of my classes - I will write better Guarani then most of the population. Note - I will never speak pure Guarani, since my site is pretty large and semi-urban - my language will be Jópara- the mix of Spanish and Guarani.

I will try to get out an email about my site but I am running out of time right now.

MISS YOU ALL!!!
Marcy

!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