The daily grind

A million apologies to all my loyal blog followers out there for the lack of updates over the last two months. It’s not that I don’t want to fill you in on my exciting life here, it’s more that there’s been an extreme lack of excitement. After 5 months in site, the adventure aspect of this Peace Corps stint has officially worn off and in its place is the reality of life in Paraguay. So I guess that’s what I’ll tell you about now, the daily doings of Leah. I apologize in advance if it bores you. Sometimes it bores me, too, but there’s still always challenges and confusion which makes things fun.

Mornings: If I’m in the mood to exercise, I’ll get up and out by about 6:30 am. I like to run (jog) for about an hour but that’s been put on hold lately due to the massive amounts of rain we’ve been getting. A week and half ago it rained for 6 days straight and in the land of tierra roja (that’s what people call the soil around here), that means serious mud. Mud that sticks to absolutely everything. If you try to walk around in it, your shoes will immediately pick up at least an extra 5 pounds, and that’s only if you can actually walk, which often times you can’t because it also gets as slick as ice. And the mud stays mud for days after the rains. So in muddy times, the favored mode of transportation is barefoot. I haven’t yet tried the morning barefoot runs. Instead, I opt for the jump rope/sit up/ push up workout, yoga or just sleeping in. After working out or sleeping in, I make some coffee (thank you so much to all who’ve sent the Starbucks instant packs—it’s so much better than Nescafe!) and breakfast, usually oatmeal or granola and yogurt. I sit outside on my porchy area eating and drinking for a while, usually listening to a Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me or Cartalk podcast and constantly yelling or throwing things at the chickens which, unfortunately, never leave my sight. This is also the time when Tati, the 4 yr old from next door, like to come over and see what I’m doing. She often brings her new Super Champ bicycle (training wheels are already off after only a few weeks—she amazes me) and rides it in circles on my little cement patio. We chat (she totally understands me) and sometimes she’ll actually try whatever I’m eating (a rarity for the taste-deprived Paraguayans). Mid-morning until lunchtime is probably my favorite time of day. It’s the perfect temperature for gardening, which I do a lot in the garden I’m sharing with the family next door. This past week, there’s been a few meetings in town that I’ve wanted/been invited to be a part of around this time, so I go to those and try to decipher as much of the Guarani as possible. Sometimes I do laundry. You may think that sounds like a simple task, but trust me, it is no small feat to handwash sheets, towels and clothes in a place where very red dirt/dust gets absolutely everywhere. When I’m feeling ambitious, I go visit neighbors, chatting and drinking tereré with them. Soon, I’ll be spending a lot of this time at the local elementary school, helping with the school garden and teaching English to some of the older grades.

Afternoons: Paraguayans eat their biggest meal of the day for lunch and the women generally spend all morning preparing it. I, on the other hand, usually just make something small or eat leftovers from the night before. I try not to be at someone else’s house around lunchtime for fear of what they’ll want to feed me. My family next door recently slaughtered a pig and they really wanted me to eat some of the head. I refused. Apparently it’s somewhat of a delicacy. I disagree. After lunch is my other favorite time of day—siesta. It’s just what I need to continue working on the garden, visiting neighbors, chatting with whoever drops by and/or studying Guarani for the rest of the afternoon. Kids get out of school around 4:30 and some of the neighbor kids like to come by and see what I’m up to until it gets dark. I’ve also been learning to crochet with a neighbor and spend some of this time with her. I have hopes to crochet bags out of plastic bags as a means of creative recycling. I’ll let you know if that works out. Another new project I’m starting is to distribute the trees that are stored in the community tree nursery to the actual community. No one really knows or understands that they can go and get these trees to plant on their own land anytime they want, for free, so I’m taking it on myself to get the word out. And then I’ll hopefully be able to help them plant the trees, as well. So a lot of my afternoons are going to be dedicated to this.

Evenings: It’s getting dark pretty early these days, like around 5:30 pm which leaves A LOT of down time at night. Paraguayans are in the habit of bathing/showering towards the end of the day and I’ve picked this up as well. So right before or after it gets dark, I brave the cold air and cold water for a brief shower. During the summer, this was an activity I looked forward to all day to finally cool off, if only for a few minutes. Now, however, in late Fall, showering at night is no fun. But it must be done to minimize the sheet washing which I probably despise even more. I just recently spent a night at Procosara (an NGO in the San Rafael Reserve about a 2 ½ hour walk away from my place) and the thing I enjoyed the most was the hot shower. What a luxury. So anyway, after I recover from the chill of bathing, I spend the rest of the night doing whatever I feel like. Sometimes I’ll cook a big dinner (favorite dinners so far: falafel with homemade tortillas, eggplant parmesan and lentil stew), other times it’ll just be popcorn or grilled cheese. I read a lot, 20 books so far. I’ve also recently brought my computer to site with some movies and tv shows taken from other volunteers, so there’s been quite a bit of nightly Seinfeld or Weeds episodes. (By the way, if anyone out there wants to make some DVD’s of some tv series’ and send them to me, I would LOVE it). Sleep comes early, usually around 9:00 or 9:30 pm, and is often interrupted by the chickens who share a wall with me, and the dogs who like to bark for hours on end for no reason at all. The next morning, it starts all over again, but I’m never sure what the “it” is going to entail. That’s what continues to make this interesting and stimulating, the unpredictableness of every hour of every day. What I’ve described here is how a day may go, but there’s no guaranteeing anything.