Another day...

Today I had the freaking cutest little girl in my lap. I went to the plaza to buy a new chip for my cell phone so I could be able to afford all my text messages with my community since the majority are with a different phone company, and a little girl was staring at me with wide eyes and she said something in Guarani to her father. He turned to me and said, "She wants you to always stay here." I couldn't help but grab her and put her in my lap and when I asked her what her name was in Spanish, she answered that she was three years old. I asked again in Guarani and she told me her name. She took on to calling me Talia and kept insisting that I had gum in my purse. I was there for less than half an hour but felt so sad to leave that little girl.


Today was a sunny day, and although it wasn't that cool during that day, everyone was bundled up. Paraguayans are worse than Texans when it comes to the cold, I love how everyone seems overly dressed with layers on a cool day, but the majority also drive motos and have to face the breeze.


There's also another thing that everyone does here that may seem strange, but I've taken on the habit, as well. Everyone always has their windows and doors open during the day, no matter the weather. If I have my shutters closed, my house is so dark, so I'd rather have them open and be dressed in layers than be in my dark house. Everyone sits outside and is very community oriented, hence the nature of gossip. However, I'm a huge fan of people watching, so I'm all for sitting in front of my house or staring out the window. I don't have a functioning tv or internet right now...so it's my form of entertainment, at times.


I also love going to the soccer field and watching everyone practice, and yes, I bought my very own soccer ball. The day after I made the big purchase, I rounded up the neighborhood and a huge group of us went to the field and played with an American football left by the previous volunteer and the kids kicked around the soccer ball (which I want to refer to as futbol) before the practice with the older kids started. Earlier that week I had gone to visit the family I had previously stayed with and was sitting outside with two of the kids doing nothing and decided we needed to play some kind of game. We went on a hunt for some kind of bat and ball. At first we were playing with a pipe and lemons we kept picking from a nearby tree. It was the greatest thing ever. I imagined that it was equivalent to a Paraguayan version of playing baseball in the street back in the day in New York City. I cut up my feet on the uneven cobble stone streets trying to catch the lemon, and then I busted the lemon with the pipe as a car drove by. Pulp went everywhere and the aroma of citrus was in the air. Afterwards, Milner, the nine year old I was playing with, successfully found a real bat and then crafted a ball out of his soccer socks. Milner, his 19 year old sister, Paola, and I took off for the field and took turns pitching and batting to one another. This was all very entertaining to the onlookers that were there playing futbol.

I love that family. One day I went to go visit them and I didn't leave until 6 hours later. A lot of my visits are like that...every time I tried to say goodbye, they would bring me something else. "Here, Naty, we're cooking, stay." Meat was brought to me, then beer, how could I leave?


The other day I went to a festival of San Juan. The tradition is to climb up the long pole and get whatever is tied to the top. I was very entertained watching the different methods of trying to reach the top. One person was standing on the chair at the bottom, another was on his shoulders and he was holding up a large reed trying to poke at the prizes on top while holding on the pole. Finally, a little boy with a rope was able to climb his way to the top while holding on, and knocked down the bottle of liquor, and next two bags of candy. I can't remember what else was up there...I want to say meat, which sounds crazy, but ikatu. Puede ser. Maybe.


Today I had two girls come over who will hopefully help me with my English class! I can only have ten to fifteen in the class, so now I need to figure how to advertise for this...the problem is, 50 people will act interested, and then the numbers dwindle every week. I may just base it on first come first serve and see what happens. I have a lot of young adults who are interested in advanced classes, but I'm only focusing on basics right now because that's what I have material for, and it's not really my goal...I'm helping several people on the side with advanced English. Today my friend came over and we dissected Queen lyrics. I was trying to explain the difference of wanting to break free, and wanting to be free. Ha. It was lovely. I did the motions and explained that breaking free just seems a little more dramatic as if you are really caged in, and then she realized the song was about a relationship.



My kitten was missing for almost two weeks, and each time I approached someone, they seemed so puzzled why I was looking for a cat. "There are plenty of cats on the street, we'll find you a really pretty one." I explained that I just wanted my cat. People thought I was crazy. Did I bring her from the states? Was she pure bred? No, I explained, she was from the street in my training site and she was going to hit by a car. Regardless, I decided to make flyers and post them in a few places, and guess what? My neighbor called while I was in Asuncion and I got my kitten back to everybody's surprise. They day she went missing was awful. I came back after being away in the countryside for a meeting with other volunteers in my region, and I started looking frantically outside. A few minutes later I noticed other people looking outside, too. Apparently she had been in the neighbor's yard who had recently passed away, so everyone that was there for the burial was now helping me. I felt awful, but everyone was happy to help. I apologized for disturbing them and continued going to every single house nearby. It's kind of like she went away to summer camp because now she is a lot more affectionate and calmer. Apparently a little boy had taken her home that day. I never did get that story straight and I still owe my neighbors thank you brownies. Yes, I just wrote an entire paragraph about my cat.


There is so much more to say but I wrote this a few days ago...today I really miss everyone a lot.