When I played MASH as kid, I never thought I would actually end up living in a shack

Long absence from the blog, I know. But here I am, back in action. Usually, when I´m able to get to get to the big city where I can use the internet, it´s only for a night. And I hate spending that free time in front of a computer. Lucky for you, I am now on my 5th day in Encarnacion and actually bored to the point of internetting (yes, that is a verb). I came down for the weekend to experience the last weekend of Carnaval and then it started to rain....and rain....and rain. And when there´s rain, there are no buses to good ol´ Libertad del Sur, leaving me to enjoy the city life for a bit until the roads are once again passable. Who knows when that may be.

As for Carnaval, it was an experience. Imagine listening to really loud Spanish pop music (but only 6 songs that are stuck on repeat allllllll night) while watching beautiful latina girls covered in glitter and feathers dancing on giant floats being pushed by alright looking latino guys (not wearing glitter or feathers, of course), crammed onto bleachers with lots of drunk, spray-happy Carnaval-goers armed with an endless supply of spray foam. Yes, that´s right, spray foam. And lots of it. First warning on the label: Avoid all contact with eyes. Where is the first place people like to spray? In your eyeballs. Especially if you´re American. We were also armed with our own spray foam, but we failed to see the importance of all the safety goggles being sold in the street before walking into the parade area. Now I know, trust me. Within 15 minutes, I was in the first aid tent having my eye flushed out. Those warnings are there for a reason, apparently. But then I bought the appropriate personal protective equipment and enjoyed the rest of the night injury-free. There were a ton of people with tons of energy (and foam) and the parade just would not stop. We were there for about 4 hours and it was still going strong when we left. Almost too much excitement for the typical peace corps volunteer who spends a majority of their days drinking terere and staring at the only road in town to see who´s driving which direction......

As for news from my site, well, there´s not a whole lot. I continue to struggle with Guarani, but am determined to up my language level to that of a 5 year old in a couple months. Maybe. And I think my current 3 yr old language status has manifested itself physically, as well. I didn´t think I was too clumsy back in the states, might even go so far as to say pretty stable and balanced and able to walk and sit like a normal person. Not so in Paraguay. First few weeks in site, my nose made direct contact with the thick-ass wire laundry line in the ¨backyard¨ as I ran, full-speed, inside to grab something. That took me to the ground. More recently, I spilled arroz con leche (that´s rice with milk for you non-Spanish speakers) on a girl´s head as I was serving at a party. That was the one and only time I´ve been given the serving responsibility. Now I´m back to sitting and looking confused. Then, just last week, I quickly cleaned off a chair as I was preparing to sit in it but somewhere between the cleaning process and the me-sitting-down process, the chair fell over backwards. But I was already on my way into the chair so I went crashing to the ground instead. Oh yes, I am a constant source of laughs for my community because these things don´t happen when I´m alone (maybe because I´m never alone), but only when there is an audience. To them, I think I really must be 29 going on 3, maybe 4.

I can only hope that when I move into my own house and am able to cook and clean for myself, that maybe I´ll appear a bit more adult-ish. And when will this be, you ask? I wish it would be soon, like tomorrow, but I think it´s going to be at least another month. The host family I´m with right now has a little casita (that´s spanish code word for shack) right next to them and I´ve decided that it will be my future living abode. But first, a lot of ¨home improvements¨ must be made. Like killing all the rats that live in and around the place (my host dad has already killed 8: 4 with a machete and 4 with a slingshot.....he thinks we´ve almost got them all). We need to build another door and window, run electricity and water over to it, paint the place, build an outdoor shower --- you know, the usual kinds of home improvements that must be made on a wooden structure in Paraguay that hasn´t been lived in for 10 years. The big hold-up for getting this done is a lack of wood. Imagine that: living in one of the most deforested areas on the planet and there´s no wood to build anything. Could my argument for planting more trees get any stronger? Anyway, hoping to get some wood soon if we can find someone to deliver it from somewhere. Sounds promising, right? Right, that´s Paraguay. I also really really want the wood to build a fence around my garden that I will hopefully be able to plant in the next month or so. I need the fence to keep out the pigs and chickens who are always walking around ¨my¨ place and just happen to live adjacent to my future shack. That´s right, I will soon be living with the animals and couldn´t be more excited to finally be on my own. Six months is a long time to live with a family when you´ve lived on your own for the last 11 years. I´ll keep you posted on the progress.

Hope everyone is doing well back home. Happy Fat Tuesday. Happy Valentine´s Day. Happy President´s Day. Miss you all. Come visit. Write me letters. Ciao.