A typical (?) day in Paraguay

So what does a typical day in site look like? Well everyday definitely brings its own adventure but as time goes on, things are beginning to fall into a general structure (which of course will change beginning on the ives of March when I move out from my final host family).

                I wake up between 6:00 and 6:30am every day. By this point, my host-dad has already gone off to work (he is a farmer and is currently working on a cotton crop at a nearby agricultural school). As I stumble out into the light, I usually run into my host-mom sitting in the ogaguy (essentially a roofed porch between the room for the kitchen and the bedrooms/overhang?). She greets me with the traditional morning salutation mba’eichapa neko’e (how did you dawn?). After this little guarani quiz, we sit together and drink mate.

Though most of my host families don’t eat breakfast until a couple hours later, my defiantly American stomach starts grumbling for breakfast around seven. The most common Paraguayan breakfast that I’ve seen in my site is the infamous tortilla—essentially a savory fried dough made with home-made Paraguayan cheese and home-grown scallions. Unfortunately I have discovered that the aforementioned defiantly American stomach and the tortilla do not get along. So, following in the footsteps of many other PCVs in Paraguay, I have introduced my host-mother to oatmeal. She was both somewhat frightened and amused as she watched me the first time I attempted to make (non-instant) oatmeal in a soup-pot on a wood fire. Unfortunately the oatmeal box only offers microwave instructions. Hmmm.

As I make sure that my oatmeal does not boil-over while hoping that a little more of the water will boil off, the children begin to wake up and my host mom goes to milk the cow. By the time the cow is re-tethered, I’ve eaten breakfast, and the kids have started their first round of soccer for the day, it’s usually around 8:15. 8:15-11:00am has become my “work time.” While the sun hasn’t yet reached its full strength, I take the opportunity to visit neighbors (sometimes visiting neighbors can involve an hour walk to get to them, other days I just go next door), dig my mini-field/demo-plot, monitor and turn the two composts that I helped build, or whatever else needs to be done. During my visits with neighbors, in addition to terere-ing, I am attempting to learn the agricultural practices in my community and community needs. I have been learning what crops are most common, what pests are most common (currently the bean crops are being attacked by a bug called purgon), what people feed their animals, etc.

Generally, I get another round of terere-time with my host family around 11am. While at first, I sometimes found the amount of terere overwhelming, now that the sun has reached its full power , I’ve found myself asking for an extra pitcher after my host family has had enough. January and February are the hottest months here and it can be over 100 degrees farenheit for days at a time with no AC. Lunch is usually at noon and the most common dish is hot stew (either beef, chicken, or beans) with either rice or noodles mixed in.  And then siesta (yay!!). Coming from a siesta-less culture, it’s always a little funny/surprising to see my entire host family all asleep at the same time in the middle of the day. Siesta is only about 2 hours (everyone is awake by 2:30) but it is generally too hot to really get moving until 3:30 or 4:00.

During this siesta/hiding out from the heat time, sometimes I get some sleep in, but when it’s too hot, I read about gardening and work on my ao poi—Paraguayan needlepoint. Right now I am copying patterns from another woman in the community (she has hundreds and copying them will probably serve as my down-time entertainment for the rest of my time in Paraguay). On Fridays at 5:00pm, I attend the meeting for the women’s commission who requested me. Right now I am still observing and learning, and they are working on fund-raising and organizing a project to get modern bathrooms sponsored by the local government. On other afternoons, I generally go on a visit to next door neighbors or help out with some of the agricultural chores around the house (which currently includes harvesting, husking, and pulling kernels off of corn). It’s always much easier to ask people questions about their agricultural practices while I’ve got an ear of corn in my hands (and am sharing the work).

8pm is dinner—usually something light (I make salad or have a little bit of leftovers). Similar to my experiences in Israel, lunch is the heaviest meal, with a light breakfast and dinner. And shortly after dinner comes the bucket bath. Attempting to get water from a bucket onto me and soap/shampoo from me back into the bucket without flooding my bedroom (where I take said bucket bath) is always a bit of a challenge. By 9pm, after a quick glance at the stars (the constellations are different here and I can see the milkway!!) I am off to bed.