pictures from Salto Cristol

Above the falls.

the hike down.

Amanda and Amelia, my cropee girls...the ride out to the falls

The beautiful Salto Cristol, Paraguai, Paraguay. Secluded beauty...best Halloween ever.

Typing class

November 21, 2011

It’s finally raining and I actually get to enjoy it because I am here in my house. Just because I haven’t posted in ages does not mean that nothing is happening. On the contrary so much has happened that I am having a hard time collecting my thoughts so I can report on the most important events.

The past seven Saturday s and Mondays have been devoted to a typing course, supervised by myself and my 15-year-old host sister Noelia. To be honest, at first it proved to be more of a frustration that took me away from my agriculture work than something I was genuinely excited about teaching. But now that the students are getting the right idea and looking at their hands less I have realized just how many good Saturday mornings I have had because of the class. Don’t get me wrong it still has its frustration points. I have had to explain why every key is being typed wrong because Caps Lock was accidentally pressed to nearly every student. I wish I could disable that key now. I also wish I had blank keyboards so looking down would be pointless.

Yesterday was beautiful because I brought my Spanish children’s books from the Peace Corps library with me and by the end of the day a half dozen children or more didn’t have to just sit while their sibling tapped away at the keyboard. It was the sweetest site to see my host grandparents and their granddaughter, Dalilah, enjoying stories together. (The classes are held at their house)

Other Saturday typing class memories include an armadillo that stole the show. Kai Eligio even gave it a bath for its photo op. I always get to enjoy Terere with Kai Eligio. Yesterday, Cynthia brought a whole plate of hot sopa (cheese corn bread) her mother had made and Na Carmen served empanadas for lunch. Na Naty made papaya juice and I got to take the rest home since no one else wanted to drink it.

I didn’t think the day could get any better, but after classes ended around 4:30pm I stopped to visit Na Asuncion. My garden is doing well, but I want to experiment with some homemade pesticides. After talking to Na Asuncion we journeyed out to the fields in search of the plants. We were joined by her niece and by the time we returned a good portion of the community was talking about it. Tomorrow we are going to smash up the plants for the pesticide.

Every day has been a whirlwind of activity between keeping my house clean, my garden watered and weeded, planting green manures, making homemade pesticides and fertilizers, and keeping my compost pile at the optimal temperature there has not been time for relaxing in my hammock. But the temperature has been hovering in the upper 70s and lower 80s and I am not complaining one bit about the unusually cool spring and summer. I have so many other stories I could share, but I would like to hear from my faithful readers what they are curious about? Do you want more detailed stories and less of an overview? Do you want to know about specific work or more about green manures? I would love to hear your thoughts. Just send me an email at chowie86@gmail.com. It’s getting late and since it just rained tomorrow is going to be busy…like always.