December 26, 2009

December 26, 2009

I’m sure you are curious about Christmas in Paraguay. The big celebration is held on Christmas Eve. I helped the women cook. I was disappointed that the food was not any different than typical Paraguayan fair, but I guess I really shouldn’t have been expecting any different. We shelled corn for the chipaguasu and chipa, ground up beef to fill the empanadas and chopped up fruit as small as we could for the delicious fruit salad.

Although I have seen a few Christmas trees around here, it’s not uncommon to find a evergreen display. I’m not sure the actual term for it and it’s not made out of evergreen bows, but it’s basically a nativity with any trinket they have to add to the scene. I can’t do it justice with words so I’ve included a picture for you. Notice the chipa hanging from the greenery.

I missed all of you greatly as the music blasted from oversized music system installed in the trunks of ordinary cars. Fireworks here are all about the noise--the louder the explosion the better. At quarter till midnight everyone surrounded the nativity while Ña Vinda led us in a prayer and then the countdown ended with more fireworks, felizidades, and kisses on the cheeks.

Christmas day was a blast. After a quick breakfast of cocido and oatmeal with homemade plum marmalade I walked down the street to the Dominquez family. They had family in from Asunción and the oldest nephew could speak English well, having studied it for 4 years. We sat around drinking terere while exchanging differences in Paraguayan and American culture. The entire family came together for lunch—cucumber, onion, tomato salad, pork off the bone, and of course mandi’o. After figuring out where there was signal I connected with Jeremy’s family and sent some text messages to mine.

Normally when it’s been raining or is seriously threatening rain everything gets put on hold. No so with Christmas day. The boys and I walked the few kilometers to Rio Monday for some 500 and 3 on 3 ultimate Frisbee. The boys learned quickly and we’re laying out in the sand and water for the disk. I won a few times in 500, but preferred to hang back because I didn’t want to get tackled like the guys were in a habit of doing to each other. The ultimate girls know how much I love 500 and I am sure they’re surprised to find that I didn’t do any tackling of my own. Technically, the game should be called po (5) because we count up to 5 in Guarani for the game (carry over from training and it certainly worked for learning my numbers).

December 28, 2009

Yesterday I went fishing. I was laying in my hammock (thank you Grandma Graham) reading when I noticed a bunch of my neighbors traipsing through the pasture with fishing poles. They asked if I would like to go fishing. Of course I did! That was until I realized we would be fishing for minnows. Our system wasn’t designed to try for bigger fish. I pulled earthworms from an 8oz Piri soda bottle and fed them onto my fish hook attached to a thin bamboo pole. Most of the time I stood in the water just off shore and watched as little minnows devoured my bait. I caught about 4 fish that would nicely fit in a fish tank they were that small. It didn’t matter, they were added to the line of fish. Tired of sticking my fingers in the slimy ball of worms I sat on the row boat and helped bail water. It was patched with pits of rag and had a half dozen little minnows swimming or floating in the bottom (the days catch). One poor victim had been caught through the eye and was swimming with its eye completely hanging outside of its head. We caught quit a few fish in the many hours we were there.

Of course I knew what was for dinner I just didn’t know how we were going to be eating these tiny fishes. I soon found out. We had lost power earlier that morning and by dinner time it still wasn’t on. Ña Vinda gutted all 22 of her little fishes in the waning light. I decided to pull out my headlamp and that sped things along. Next, I helped squeeze limes into a dish with salt. Ña Vinda added some water and let the fish soak in the liquid while heating the oil in the frying pan over the open fire. She tossed those little puppies in and waited until the popping sounds slowed and we had ourselves a fish dinner. Yep, heads and fins still attached. I was skeptical at first, but after tasting the crispy white flesh I agreed that they were indeed rico (delicious in Spanish) and proceeded to eat 9 or 10 of them along with mandi’o of course. I even ate the fin of one because I thought Kai Andres told me it was delicious too. It actually tasted pretty good and I’m sure you think I’m crazy. I took a picture of the remains just to prove that I did indeed eat them.

Today, I spent over an hour teaching English to Ña Asunción’s family. Armando and Anna are very bright and eager to learn and are great at helping me with my Spanish and Guaraní so it’s a win-win situation.

Time to go see if I can get my garden started in the next few days. I have the seeds I just don’t have the place…yet.