I moved!

March 6, 2010
I moved into my house February 24th and it was the best day ever. The next day I moved to rest of my furniture and in between trips to neighbor’s houses for cooking demonstrations I got my house cleaned and organized. I no longer take for granted the ease of purchases in the States. If I needed something all I had to do was jump in my car and make a run to the store. This is not the case for me in Paraguay. Even if I could use motos; they wouldn’t be sufficient for getting a bed out to site (well, a Paraguayan might say differently, but I have yet to see a queen size mattress being hauled by moto, but if they can fit an entire family of 6 on a moto with the horsepower of a weed eater then I supposed anything is possible). No, my options for transporting my goods involved busses and taxis. Sadly, my nearest town did not sell any real mattresses and unless I wanted to sleep on a 5 in foam pad for 2 years I was going to have to think beyond O’Leary. I spent over an hour wandering to every business that sells electric ovens before I found one that also had the hot plate range on top. As it was I was on my way to Asuncion and thought to myself why not just by it right before I get on the bus back. I always stop outside of Asuncion and get a connecting bus to the office because it’s much faster than riding all the way to the terminal. I hoped off the bus and began looking at my options. I finally found a real bed and it happened to be near the bus stop and a little farther down the street I found the electric oven I wanted too. The next day I made my purchases. I bought my bed and asked that it be delivered to the bus stop. I bought my oven next and the delivery guy followed me to the bus stop. Sure enough, there was by bed on the sidewalk by the side of the road. I sat down to wait. The bus station men wanted to charge me the price of a ticket to transport my stuff, but I knew this was outrageous. I said no and scowled at them. They kept trying to convince me that this was customary, but I knew others had traveled the same way and not paid but a few mil guarani’s extra. In the end, I still paid too much, but at least I had my purchases. The fun part came with the taxi. Thankfully, I had the number of my favorite taxi driver and I had asked if he would meet me (especially since I thought I was going to miss the last bus to my site). Well, my bed got strapped to the roof and my oven placed in the back seat. I asked if we could make a quick stop at the supermarket and I raced through the aisles grabbing things on my list so I could begin cooking just as soon as I made the move.
All the way down the dusty red road the taxi driver and I drank terere while checking to see that the bed wasn’t suddenly going to fly off. This was the Saturday before my house was finished. Just another skill I never thought I’d obtain through the Peace Corps.