How to spend your last Saturday in Porterito

Hello again, All of us trainees will be swearing in the coming Friday at the U.S. Embassy. I am excited to see the inside of the compounds and maybe even take a dip in the swimming pool. I’ve heard there is a pet deer and perhaps I’ll catch a glimpse of it as well.
Yesterday, was an ideal day. We had half a day of training. Training was trainee facilitated. Everyone gave about a 10 minute charla on PYan cultural topics (in guarani). I chose music. Although you hear plenty of different music ranging from the ever percussion dominated reggeaton to American country, PY only has 2 traditional types of music. Polka and Guarania. Both use the harp and guitar. Occasionally, the accordion is also used. Polka is fast and danced to, whereas Guarania is enjoyed only by listening to it. There’s your quick cultural lesson and the extent of my guarani language abilities (don’t be too impressed because I’m sure I butchered plenty of the words and I had written them down and practiced ahead of time). One of the funniest charla’s was given by Dan. PYans have a lot of superstitions when it comes to drinking terere or mate. There certain combinations you must not combine in order to avoid serious illness and/or death. For example, don’t eat watermelon after drinking Terere. You’re not supposed to shower after mate. Dan interviewed several Paragauyans and our medical officer. They were very sincere in confirming the dangers and Mary (one of our medical officers) said that they probably would just because they believed it so strongly. It’s amusing, until you’re late because you they won’t let you shower after drinking mate in the morning with them. But that is PY for you.
During merienda (break time), our language professors cooked for us. We had salsa, mandi’o chyryry, and a flat bread (the specific name escapes me). It was the best mandi’o chyryry I have had yet. Basically, you chop up mandi’o, onion and mix it with cheese and egg and fry the whole mess up. It’s kind of like potato casserole.
After class, I walked the half hour into town to the cyber café with Jordan and Miquelito. I was so happy I got to talk to Kami and Jeremy. It was a beautiful walk because the weather has been mild this past week. In addition to purchasing garlic, onions, and green peppers, we bought a kilo and half of tomatoes (2.2 lbs) for our spaghetti dinner.
Most of the group had agreed to meet for a game or two of volleyball, but we have apparently fallen into Paraguayan mode with our Ikatu’s or maybe’s, that most likely mean no. Jordan, Kevin, and I tossed a ball around until I jumped out of my skin and let a scream out to match it when a black dog with stubby legs ran after me when I went after the ball. He completely took me by surprise as he slammed into my leg. Everyone was rolling with laughter, including me, including our audience of children. It was pretty hilarious. It was getting late at this point and I had been hungry since I walked back from town. Besides I love cooking and I wanted to get started.
Food brings people together. Everyone showed up who was able. Although everyone gave Amelia and me credit for the food, it was a joint effort. We cooked at Jordan’s place. I found a pink apron and got to work dicing up tomatoes, onion, and garlic. Kevin provided the music for cooking. Cooking is always better with music. You never know when the right song is going to come on and you’re going to feel like dancing a little—especially as the aroma of onions and garlic begin to fill the air and makes you salivate. Amelia got Jordan’s little host brothers to join in on a song or two. We threw in some fresh oregano and some dried herbs Grandma Graham had given me. While the pot of spaghetti sauce was simmering, Jordan helped me cut up the rest of the tomatoes, peppers, and onions to make a salsa/ bruchetta mixture which would be the topping for the fresh garlic and basil bread. The lime juice and hot peppers really added to the salsa/bruchetta. In the mean time, Amelia headed up the chocolate chip cookie baking. I took a meat tenderizer mallet and broke the solid frozen chuck of chocolate into pieces. The chocolate was from Kami (Jeremy’s mom). The cookies turned out amazing. We shared them with Jordan’s host family for being gracious enough to let us use their kitchen and ended up polishing off the entire batch by the end of the night. While the kilo and a half of pasta was boiling we got the table set for all ten of us and after a toast and a blessing we dined on the most delicious spaghetti dinner! Smiles all around. And that was the best way to spend my last Saturday in Porterito. I love cooking and feeding friends.