Por fin, an update...
This last weekend (and then some) I finally took a trip out to visit my good friend and second closest neighbor (1 hour by bus), Caleb. He lives in community 8km outside the town of Cerrito. If you don't already know cerrito means "little hill" in spanish. Down here in the departmento de Ñeembucu the landscape is as flat as can be, so the existence of a hill (even a small one) is somthing worth naming a town after. At the same time Caleb's friend from college, Sam, was also visiting.
Things we did -
1. Tapezua* hive capture : I've been dying to do some work with stingless bees since I've been here. They don't have back home so this really my only chance to get to experience them and I want to take advantage of that. Unfortunately Ñeembucu is a little bit cold for the main stingless bee which people keep, Jate'i. But the slightly hardier tapezua does. Caleb's host family knew were a couple of hives were located. Caleb had already constructed the hive to put them in. We stopped by his host family's house to see who wanted to come with us (only one guapa teenager (ps guapa/o means hard working here in Paraguay)), and then we headed out the the hive. The hive was located in an old Karupa'y stump, which is very very hard wood. After alot of axing we finally were able to get our hands into the hive, which we manhandled in a bad way. We never found the queen, but after moving all their brood into our hive and bunch of their pollen and honey pots, and back filling the hole in the stump with wood chips we seems to have induced them to move into our box. Only time will tell if the queen somehow moved in, or if they can make a new one or what. Tapezua keeps their honey in little wax 'pots', which are quite fragile and broke open quite a few of them. By the end there was a lake of tapezua honey in the bottom of the stump, which Sam diligently spooned out for our consumption. By the way, tapezua honey is delicious, much more viscus than honey bee honey and kinda sour.
*This page is not actually tapezua, but its close enough (although the hives look way different)
2. Soccer:
We played a little game called "25" with the kids of Caleb's host family and I enjoyed it so much I thought I'd pass along the rules to ya'll. The basic set up is one goalie and everybody else trying to score on him/her. Those in the feild can only touch the ball once consecutively (eg. if I kick the ball I have to wait untill somebody else touches it before I can touch it again) {It would be an interesting variation to have it where everybody could only touch the ball once and if you don't make a goal by the time everybody had touched it the last to touch it would become goalie}.If the ball ever goes out of bounds, or if somebody touches the ball twice then they (the toucher or kicker) become the goalie. When the fielders make a goal they (as a collective whole) get points according to how they scored the goal. A simple kick is 5 pts. A head or knee is 10 pts. A backwards kick is 15 pts. And last but not least a "bicycle kick" is the full 25 pts. If the fielders manage to score 25, then the goalie has lost and has to stand backwards against the goal post while everybody gets a chance to kick the ball at him/her. Whenever the goalie changes (eg somebody took a shot on goal, missed and the ball when out of bounds) all points so far earned go away. One final twist to the game. When the fielders have 15 points (and only 15 points) the goalie has the power to yell stop after he catches or picks up the ball to yell Stop! and everybody must freeze. Then without moving himself he can attempt to hit any of the players with the ball. If he secedes than that player must either remove one article of clothing or they become goalie. If he misses play continues (the goalie has this power the whole time that the fielders have 15 points). Its super fun you guys should go out and play once the weather gets nice.
Oh also if you're interested in this sort of thing, when we played this at Caleb's site, I was the losing goalie.
There's plenty more that we did, but I can't write anymore right now... Untill later..
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving
Stopping by Pilar on my way to celibrate Dia de Gracias with the other nortes in Encarnation. Here´s three images I want to share with you.
1)Owl vs. Lizard - This morning walking out to the routa to catch my bus to Pilar I looked up just in time to see a burrowing owl taking off, following its flight path I saw that it got up to chase a teju guasu off, which one could assume would be all to happy to head into the owl´s burrow and gorge on eggs or fledglings. Not a particually good story, but it made me happy to see it (Its only the 2nd teju guasu I´ve seen)
2)Karaja at our house - Yesterday a karaja (note the scientific name, Alouatta caraya, keeping in mind the spanish pronounce their y´s as j´s. I´ve heard that Guarani is the second most used language in scientific names, after latin of course. I´d don´t know if this is true, but here´s one example) moved into the trees in my host families yard. It was still there this morning. I´ve been watching it with the kids. The highlights have been, a)He pooped (the kids really liked that) b)He scrached his butt (kids also really liked that) c)He´s been eating mbokaja fruits. Once again nothing too exciting, but still I´ve never lived around monkeys before.
3)Kupi´i - Yesterday I helped my host mom take some cattle out to woods/feild and on the way back we were totally enswarmed with kupi´i, which I belive are some type of termite. I got a pic I´ll post when I get the chance.
I guess I decided to tell ya´ll these things just because they are the sort of thing that, while maybe not everyday, aren´t uncommon here, but would never happen back in the USA. or at least they never happened to me.
1)Owl vs. Lizard - This morning walking out to the routa to catch my bus to Pilar I looked up just in time to see a burrowing owl taking off, following its flight path I saw that it got up to chase a teju guasu off, which one could assume would be all to happy to head into the owl´s burrow and gorge on eggs or fledglings. Not a particually good story, but it made me happy to see it (Its only the 2nd teju guasu I´ve seen)
2)Karaja at our house - Yesterday a karaja (note the scientific name, Alouatta caraya, keeping in mind the spanish pronounce their y´s as j´s. I´ve heard that Guarani is the second most used language in scientific names, after latin of course. I´d don´t know if this is true, but here´s one example) moved into the trees in my host families yard. It was still there this morning. I´ve been watching it with the kids. The highlights have been, a)He pooped (the kids really liked that) b)He scrached his butt (kids also really liked that) c)He´s been eating mbokaja fruits. Once again nothing too exciting, but still I´ve never lived around monkeys before.
3)Kupi´i - Yesterday I helped my host mom take some cattle out to woods/feild and on the way back we were totally enswarmed with kupi´i, which I belive are some type of termite. I got a pic I´ll post when I get the chance.
I guess I decided to tell ya´ll these things just because they are the sort of thing that, while maybe not everyday, aren´t uncommon here, but would never happen back in the USA. or at least they never happened to me.
Friday, October 15, 2010
1 Year in Paraguay
As of September 24th I have now been in Paraguay for over one year. I had always imagined that by this time I would be speaking near fluently, Ha. Those dreams died out months ago, but this weekend I will have opportunity to reflect on how far I've come. As the seasons come and go so do new trainee groups (Here in PC Paraguay we refer to them as G's due to the fact that our training community is called Guarambare, for example my group was the 31st to train in Guarambare so we are called G31) This weekend the newest group, our sister G (because we're both ag sector groups) will be taking their first foray out into the 'real world'. All of us that can will be hosting a trainee for the weekend to show them a 'real' peace corps experience. I hope to put mine to work, revising hives with the bee committee and also doing a wild hive capture with an aspiring beekeeper named Carlamino. Other planed highlights include drinking lots of terere and me catching up on the latest American news from a native.
In other news it's the planting season and I've been desperately trying to secure some land of my own, both for demonstration of some of the techniques and plants I try promoting and for my own auto-consumption. It seems I've been able to get two plots one for each of my aims. One will be a smaller plot right next to the road in the centerish area of 'town' (my demo plot) and the other will be much bigger and not so close (my personal watermelon supply plot). Once I actually get something in the ground I'll have a bit more to report.
I think it's the little things which really give life its great flavor; here are a couple of little things which make me happy
1. Humming bird nest: I'm not sure if I've already mentioned that Paraguayans have an extensive knowledge of medicinal plants and from my point of view it seems like every weed here is a 'poha' (medicinal herb), most of which have some sort of vague medicinal property but mostly (to me anyway) are just used to flavor terere. With that out of the way, on to the meat of this little note. Last time I was in Asuncion me and my buddy Caleb stopped by one of the hundred of poha stores to see what was selling and we noticed that they sold humming birds nests. We thought, even hoped, that this was another terere delivered poha, but it turns out that what you're supposed to do is burn it, then take the ashes and put them on a cotton ball, heat this up somehow and then put it in your ear to cure an ear ache. I still want to drink some terere with a humming birds nest in it though.
2. Pique: In Guarani its called Tũ, and its a common problem here in Paraguay. Well generally they're not a problem, sorta like a foot pimple. You take them out with a needle, its fun almost. For some people it becomes a bragging right thing, like "I had 4 pique on one foot all at the same time" "That's nothing, I had 4 pique in just one toe", and in that vein I tell my story. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a pique on my little toe and took it out, thinking that was the end of that, but my toe kept getting more and more sore and was starting to swell a bit and was a nice pink color. I assumed that the pique I had taken out had gotten infected and once that puppy started hurting real bad I was on the verge of going in to Asuncion to get some medical help, when my family asked me why I was hobbling around I showed them my toe and the informed me that its as in fact, not infected but that I had missed a second pique right next to the fist one. They took it out for me amidst much stoic grimacing on my part. For me it was a great bonding moment with my host family and, at least to me, super Paraguayan. And finally, here's what gives me bragging rights for this story, it seems that the reason it hurt so bad was that the swelling was displacing my toenail, which now that the swelling has subsided, will be falling off any day now.
In other news it's the planting season and I've been desperately trying to secure some land of my own, both for demonstration of some of the techniques and plants I try promoting and for my own auto-consumption. It seems I've been able to get two plots one for each of my aims. One will be a smaller plot right next to the road in the centerish area of 'town' (my demo plot) and the other will be much bigger and not so close (my personal watermelon supply plot). Once I actually get something in the ground I'll have a bit more to report.
I think it's the little things which really give life its great flavor; here are a couple of little things which make me happy
1. Humming bird nest: I'm not sure if I've already mentioned that Paraguayans have an extensive knowledge of medicinal plants and from my point of view it seems like every weed here is a 'poha' (medicinal herb), most of which have some sort of vague medicinal property but mostly (to me anyway) are just used to flavor terere. With that out of the way, on to the meat of this little note. Last time I was in Asuncion me and my buddy Caleb stopped by one of the hundred of poha stores to see what was selling and we noticed that they sold humming birds nests. We thought, even hoped, that this was another terere delivered poha, but it turns out that what you're supposed to do is burn it, then take the ashes and put them on a cotton ball, heat this up somehow and then put it in your ear to cure an ear ache. I still want to drink some terere with a humming birds nest in it though.
2. Pique: In Guarani its called Tũ, and its a common problem here in Paraguay. Well generally they're not a problem, sorta like a foot pimple. You take them out with a needle, its fun almost. For some people it becomes a bragging right thing, like "I had 4 pique on one foot all at the same time" "That's nothing, I had 4 pique in just one toe", and in that vein I tell my story. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a pique on my little toe and took it out, thinking that was the end of that, but my toe kept getting more and more sore and was starting to swell a bit and was a nice pink color. I assumed that the pique I had taken out had gotten infected and once that puppy started hurting real bad I was on the verge of going in to Asuncion to get some medical help, when my family asked me why I was hobbling around I showed them my toe and the informed me that its as in fact, not infected but that I had missed a second pique right next to the fist one. They took it out for me amidst much stoic grimacing on my part. For me it was a great bonding moment with my host family and, at least to me, super Paraguayan. And finally, here's what gives me bragging rights for this story, it seems that the reason it hurt so bad was that the swelling was displacing my toenail, which now that the swelling has subsided, will be falling off any day now.
Monday, July 5, 2010
IST
In Service Training. For this we all went up to a little agricultural high school in the chaco about 40km outside of Asucion. We all (at least tried) to bring a contact from our communities to come with us and learn about farm management techniques. My contacts name was Juan de rosa Riveara, and we had a great time. Looks like I´m gonna be planting some abonos verdes (green manueres) with him come spring. Also I think we´re gonna get a plan going to grow some avena negra (black oats) for seed next year. It´s a good winter cow forage, and the government gave them seed for this year, won´t be giving them more seeds for next year, so we need to set up a sustanible system were people grow some for seed.
San Juan
San Juan is a holiday here and i think in other spanish speaking countries too. I don´t know why or what it is celebrating, but I do know what they do. In my commuity we drank much wine and soda, made chipa asasdor, kicked around flaming balls, and got chased by a flaming cow skull. (see pics) Great fun! Other things that are done around Paraguay for San Juan: walking on coals, kids trying to climb a greased pole (with goodies on top), burning an effigy of someone, sack races, ´´lick the skillet´´ (I have no idea), and I´m sure there are other games played as well
Fouth Party
Not to much to say here. There was a party at the embasy (actually on the 2nd, a friday). Mostly I just played Eucher. (a midwestern card game)
- Stuff I´ve seen chickens eat: Soap, Styrafoam
- Animals I¨ve seen: Rhea (Ñandu guasu) from a bus window, but still pretty cool and Apere´a, a tailless rodent that lives in the feilds, sorta like a guinea pig
- Rural sayings we use but don´t really understand that now I do: Pissing match. I watched two dogs pissing on the same spot one right after the other for like 5 minutes. One of them was growling the whole time and the other one would wipe his feet, like dogs are wont to do, right in the other one´s face, real slow like. It was clearly an insulting maneuver.
ALSO NEW PHOTOS ARE AVAIABLE AT http://s632.photobucket.com/home/stevenpy
(should I bother sorting these fotos into albums or not?)
In Service Training. For this we all went up to a little agricultural high school in the chaco about 40km outside of Asucion. We all (at least tried) to bring a contact from our communities to come with us and learn about farm management techniques. My contacts name was Juan de rosa Riveara, and we had a great time. Looks like I´m gonna be planting some abonos verdes (green manueres) with him come spring. Also I think we´re gonna get a plan going to grow some avena negra (black oats) for seed next year. It´s a good winter cow forage, and the government gave them seed for this year, won´t be giving them more seeds for next year, so we need to set up a sustanible system were people grow some for seed.
San Juan
San Juan is a holiday here and i think in other spanish speaking countries too. I don´t know why or what it is celebrating, but I do know what they do. In my commuity we drank much wine and soda, made chipa asasdor, kicked around flaming balls, and got chased by a flaming cow skull. (see pics) Great fun! Other things that are done around Paraguay for San Juan: walking on coals, kids trying to climb a greased pole (with goodies on top), burning an effigy of someone, sack races, ´´lick the skillet´´ (I have no idea), and I´m sure there are other games played as well
Fouth Party
Not to much to say here. There was a party at the embasy (actually on the 2nd, a friday). Mostly I just played Eucher. (a midwestern card game)
- Stuff I´ve seen chickens eat: Soap, Styrafoam
- Animals I¨ve seen: Rhea (Ñandu guasu) from a bus window, but still pretty cool and Apere´a, a tailless rodent that lives in the feilds, sorta like a guinea pig
- Rural sayings we use but don´t really understand that now I do: Pissing match. I watched two dogs pissing on the same spot one right after the other for like 5 minutes. One of them was growling the whole time and the other one would wipe his feet, like dogs are wont to do, right in the other one´s face, real slow like. It was clearly an insulting maneuver.
ALSO NEW PHOTOS ARE AVAIABLE AT http://s632.photobucket.com/home/stevenpy
(should I bother sorting these fotos into albums or not?)
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Been a long time coming
Some things I´ve been up to the last long while...
Semana Santa: This is the weeklong catholic celebration of jesus´ dead. For Paraguayans this means lots of chipa and sopa. I guess for some there´s plenty of churchyness going on, but at my house we feel the religious movies, which play round the clock on TV during Semana Santa, do the job just fine.
Waterfalls: Went to a waterfall near La Colmina. There were about 15ish of us (PCVs) and we all pliled into the bed of an old truck and rode for about 30mins, untill we could go no further. Then we had to cross some man´s property which he charges 10,000 gs a head for (about 2 bucks). After that its a steep climb down to the ´river´ (large creek) and another 10 min to a very nice waterfall. You can jump off at about 10 feet (the whole waterfall´s probably like 30 - 40 feet) into a very deep pool at the base of the waterfall. Unfortuanlly it was a little late in the season when we were there, and the water was COLD. Afterwords some of us stayed in a Japanese hotel in La Colmina (a Japanese settlement) and had some delious Japanese food. I have some pics up from the waterfall.
Garden: Finally got my garden going. Gonna have me some tomatoes, cabbage, beets, chard, basil, cilantro, hot peppers, oregano, garlic, green onions, cucumbers and radishs. If everything works out.
Current fruits I´m eating off the trees: Oranges, Mandarins and Grapefruit. Its citrus season ya´ll!
Semana Santa: This is the weeklong catholic celebration of jesus´ dead. For Paraguayans this means lots of chipa and sopa. I guess for some there´s plenty of churchyness going on, but at my house we feel the religious movies, which play round the clock on TV during Semana Santa, do the job just fine.
Waterfalls: Went to a waterfall near La Colmina. There were about 15ish of us (PCVs) and we all pliled into the bed of an old truck and rode for about 30mins, untill we could go no further. Then we had to cross some man´s property which he charges 10,000 gs a head for (about 2 bucks). After that its a steep climb down to the ´river´ (large creek) and another 10 min to a very nice waterfall. You can jump off at about 10 feet (the whole waterfall´s probably like 30 - 40 feet) into a very deep pool at the base of the waterfall. Unfortuanlly it was a little late in the season when we were there, and the water was COLD. Afterwords some of us stayed in a Japanese hotel in La Colmina (a Japanese settlement) and had some delious Japanese food. I have some pics up from the waterfall.
Garden: Finally got my garden going. Gonna have me some tomatoes, cabbage, beets, chard, basil, cilantro, hot peppers, oregano, garlic, green onions, cucumbers and radishs. If everything works out.
Current fruits I´m eating off the trees: Oranges, Mandarins and Grapefruit. Its citrus season ya´ll!
Thursday, April 8, 2010
If you didn´t already know...
Just wanted to let ya´ll know the pope gave his shout out to Guarani during easter, and, if I´m not mistaken, it was 64th out of 65. IN YOUR FACE ESPERANTO! More pics to be coming soon...
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