cooking with poop!

Hullo! I've been posting on my facebook account random updates here and there, and kind of forgotten about this blog! One thing I realized would be a perfect blog post is about a recent project and workshop we hosted in my community on how to build and start a biodigester. A biodigester is a tool to foster the anaerobic decomposition of organic matter. The resulting product is a biogas (methane) that one can utilize for cooking fuel. It's simple, but it requires training and practice to know how to put together a biodigester. There are many different models and technologies for producing biogas out there. The one that Peace Corps promotes in Paraguay is about 21-feet of tubular plastic, which is filled with water; the organic matter comes from either cow or pig manure, and is added daily.

I am not actually a trained biodigester technician, but I did help organize a one-day workshop at my neighbor's house last month, and invited four trained and fantastic Peace Corps volunteers to my site to show us how it's done. I presented on the nutrient cycle of a farm with my amazing friend Lydia (her website Pedal and Plow, I recommend checking out!) and coordinated logistics of the workshop. Thanks to the help, know-how, and skills of these volunteers, we successfully carried out a 30+ participant workshop, and installed the first (hopefully not last!) biodigester in my community, La Novia.

The need and utility of a biodigester is very important, especially in the developing world where cooking fuel is a major priority. Most people in my community still cook "tata yvype" - over a wood-fire on the ground. Some families have a cook-stove that uses a chimney to funnel out the smoke, but not many. The process for collecting firewood can take up hours of the day since people must go farther and farther away for usable wood. There are many other issues here, too - it is mainly a woman's job, it increases deforestation on already disappearing forests in PY, and the smoke created from the fires is a serious respiratory and health problem. Needless to say, an alternative to collecting firewood can be a huge change to the way a family prepares their food.

There are also families who use a gas stove, but the propane is super expensive and those who have them use them selectively and never to cook main meals or anything takes a long time to prepare. An alternative to buying expensive gas tanks is using charcoal, which is also widely used. The charcoal is pretty cheap, but this still has the same health and environmental risks as firewood. Making gas from a resource that is abundant, smoke-less, and free (ANIMAL POOP!) can have a significant impact.

I thought I'd show some photos of the finished product, and hopefully this sheds some light on what it is, and how it's used!

You start with a mix of fresh cow manure and mix it with water in a 20-liter bucket. The ratio is about 1/4 poop to 3/4 water. 

Note: it can be pig manure too, it's actually better, but because families who own pigs generally kill them to sell the meat, it's not a consistent source of manure. Cow manure is more of a sure-thing, since cows are kept for milking. 

You stir this mixture very well, and then add it to the 'entrance' of the biodigester. 

This is the other side of the biodigester, the 'exit', which has a bio-product of organic liquid fertilizer! You collect this liquid in a bucket, as shown, and then dilute it and apply it to the garden to help crops grow! 

The view of the back of the house, the biodigester is right behind it, which it's own fancy roof and fence to keep out animals and protect it from the sun. 

Side angle of the biodigester, with plenty of room to walk around inside. 

The security valve, which connects the tube from the biodigester, to the tube that will connect to the stove-top.  

The biodigester! To understand better, those are two 200-liter barrels at each end, with both ends cut out. The plastic tube is made up of 3 layers of heavy-duty plastic, and is connected by that green hosing to the security valve on the wall. 

Hope that explains things better! At the end of August we will try and see if the gas is sufficient enough to light a flame. It makes about a month for the microorganisms to full decompose the organic matter that is there, and create enough biogas to start a fire. I'll keep you updated on the progress :)

All my love,
Meagan

dreaming of patagonia

Hello lovelies. I write from a quite warm computer in my giant wood oven (i mean bedroom of course) where i have a poor person's air conditioning going (standing fan in front of a big bowl of now melted ice water) and am sipping on some cold terere. I left the oasis of my friend's air-conditioned apartment in the capital to return back to my community today, and I'm already wondering why.  I just decided that I wanted to finally blog about my travels through Patagonia, mostly because it was so cold there and hopefully it will help take my mind off the oppressive heat today :)

Here is a summary of sorts of travels down south:

- I traveled with another PCV Chris to El Calafate, AR by plane from Asuncion to meet two other PCVs, Hunter and Brook who had traveled down 10 days earlier by bus (something like 70 hours travel time). The one downside to flying was spending the night in the Buenos Aires (BA) airport because there are only early morning flights out to El Calafate, none direct from PY.

- The day we arrived in El Calafate we were met with a friend of Brook's - a wonderful Argentine man who took us (speeding the whole way) in his car to the glacier Perito Moreno which was about an hour and half from town in Los Glaciares National Park. You pay an entrance fee (I remember thinking it was expensive, but not terrible), and then can make your way through the walking platforms, vistas, and steps that wind you around the massive and impressive glacier. You could easily spend hours and hours there, many people had mate equipos sipping hot mate and watching giant pieces of ice fall into the glacial water. We ended up meeting our friend after about 2 hours of winding through the manmade pathways and eating one of the BEST alfajores of my life from the gift shop/cafeteria at the park. [These are the best kind of cookie in my opinion, when done right - chewy, slight cookie crunch, sweet, delicious, covered in chocolate...I'm already drooling] We stayed the night at a campground/hostel called El Ovejero where they have a restaurant that does an all-you-can-eat meat buffet that is great for carnivores, and not so great for vegetarians.

- The craziest part (other than the incredible glaciers that stirred within me feelings I've never experienced) of being so far south was how long it stayed light out - I don't think it got dark til close to 10pm! It gave you plenty of time to enjoy the day; many nights camping - I'll get to those - we went to bed when it was still light out.

- We took a 5-hour bus to cross the border into Chile the next day to arrive in Puerto Natales, the jumping off point for the national park Torres del Paine (I heard most commonly pronounced pine-nay, but it's up for debate since it is not a Spanish word..) where we planned to do a 9-day backpacking trek to see glaciers, mountain peaks, and see some of the great expanse that is Patagonia. We arrived in time for the 3pm backpacking talk at Erratic Rock hostel which is incredibly informative and detailed and definitely recommended to go to! The hostel itself has great and experienced staff who are from all over + speak english, it's very popular, and expensive. We much enjoyed our camping/stay at the hostel Josmar II (we stayed at the original Josmar at the end of the trip in comfy warm beds) where the owner, Don Pepe, was spectacular and drove us to and from the bus terminal to get into and back from the park.

- After testing out our tent and camping gear in the comforts of Don Pepe's campground, eating a meal of fresh caught salmon and mashed potatoes, and preparing ourselves the best we could in limited time for 9 days of backpacking meals and snacks, we set out for the park. The loop we were following was the "O" Circuit - which one could possibly do in a week, but because of uncertain and sometimes dangerous weather (think: white-out, trail markers no longer visible, 100mph winds..) it's nice to give yourself the extra cushion of time in case you have to spend an extra night in a campground, which we ended up having to do the day of the mountain pass. You can do a shorter, more manageable especially for first time backpackers (me!) in the park which is the "W" circuit and is more like 4-5 days.

In terms of camping/gear, we had 2 two-person tents and a mishmash of sleeping pads and a yoga mat for sleeping - you definitely need something to keep you off the ground, it's like sleeping on an ice cube! The thing about the Torres is that it is very, very touristy - you can do almost the entire thing with just a day pack and sleep in a bed in these refuges that have dorm style rooms, and cooks to make prepared (expensive) meals. There are also showers at almost every campsite/refuge! Not always hot water, but you can get clean for sure. You can also rent a lot of gear, but it's better to find gear before you get into the park, it's not a guarantee. We rented some gear like rain pants, gloves and a sleeping mat in Puerto Natales the day we did our big food shopping and prep. So, you can build your trip and trek however you want - you can even just do day hikes on the "W" trail and not spend any nights camping. There is at least one hotel close to one of the entrances of the park, with a fancy restaurant and all the accommodations you could think of.

Most days we ended up having incredible weather - cold, but no torrential rain that we had been preparing ourselves for. What I was unprepared for was the freezing rain/snow that we experienced that first mountain pass attempt. If you do the "W" trail, you have nothing to worry about it - you won't go over it. The wind also is brutal - and it changes so quickly. You'll layer on your extra long sleeve, fleece, and rain jacket and within 10 minutes of walking need to stop and take almost all of it off again. I think we got pretty lucky overall on our hikes, the first few days were gorgeous and sunny. The nights got real cold though, and after not having hot water for days in a row we were getting pretty stinky. No way was I going to shower in ice water when it was 30 degrees and windy!

- I ended up injuring my knee from falling, I think, the first day we attempted the mountain pass in conditions not far from what I described above - we were digging our legs and sticks (no poles for us) into the ice-crusted snow to keep from falling down the mountain. I unfortunately did not get to complete the whole "O" loop, but I made it 7 days on the trail and was proud of myself! It was the most difficult and challenging physical thing I have ever done in my life thus far (bathing in PY in the wintertime comes in second). The upside of not walking out of the park was taking this beautiful boat ride to leave the last campground we stayed at and this was the view:

- Torres del Paine was incredible, and also highly recommended is El Chalten and Fitz Roy in AR. I did not get to go to (Fitz Roy are the mountain peaks are the inspiration for the clothing label Patagonia) but Hunter and Brook did, and absolutely loved it. It was FREE and had well-maintained trails and was stunning, they say. In hindsight, I wish we had spent less time in Torres/Chile and more in Argentina, but hey - I was in one of the most remote and beautiful natural places of the world. I can't really complain. Chile is SO expensive though, so just make sure that's on your mind if you are traveling there!

- It all seems like a dream, I felt like I had transported to a completely new and foreign world. Drinking from glacial streams and rivers, almost crossing a mountain pass in a snow storm, the sun setting after 10pm, spending Thanksgiving with amazing people after actually making it across the mountain pass alive, pushing myself to limits I never thought I could - it was an adventure of a lifetime. We met some great people along the way, and travelers from all over the globe. I feel incredibly lucky to have made one of my dreams a reality :)

Garden Project: Produce all year!

Part of my job involves work with a women's group made up of 24 female small-scale producers of subsistence crops like mandioca (also known as manioc or cassava) and corn. I am learning an incredible amount from these farmers in terms of agriculture, and some of them are the most hard-working and generous people I have met thus far in my life. Abundance from the fields (chacras) abounds here in the 200-person community of La Novia, yet nutrition is severely lacking and is apparent from various illnesses ranging from diabetes and high blood pressure to gastrointestinal diseases and afflictions. 

Many families have started home gardens to supplement the grains and starches grown in the chacra, but lack the means to actually maintain them and produce vegetables throughout the whole year. A couple problems that hinder maintenance are: the destruction of garden fences from animals like cows or pigs, and harsh weather that includes crop burning from the sun, torrential downpours, and strong winds. The aim is to begin to tackle some of these problems through the eventual purchase of shade cloth to protect existing crops, and metal fencing to prevent wooden structures from breaking and animals from entering.

Current projects underway include comprehensive bio-intensive gardening and permaculture workshops to improve soil, better manage water usage, and utilize organic pest control in conjunction with a local Department of Agriculture extension agent. In addition, nutrition workshops and cooking classes will continue to introduce different ways of food preparation that do not involve excessive meat, fried food, or animal fat - as is typical in a South American diet. Finally, the women's commission has started a savings group that will allow for them to contribute close to 40% of the project cost. 


If you are interesting in supporting this project I would be eternally grateful! Follow the link here: Donate

musings on one year in La Novia

It’s been harder for me to keep a schedule to blog lately. Maybe it’s the unpredictable and dubious weather, maybe that I seem to be juggling a lot of different projects and tasks and I’m busier. Either way, I decided to take advantage of being cooped up in a thunderstorm (with the power back on, yea!) and update this thing J

October came and went, and the legend of “Mr. October” in Paraguay didn’t seem to show his face. Apparently because October is one of the longer months and in between winter and spring it is considered one of the harsher times of the year here. People commemorate this by eating beans and locro (corn) for lunch on October 1^st, and that meant at least three families invited me to eat with them. The vegetarian oddity I represent in PY has been working to my advantage lately – it means lots of yummy meat-free meals with families that are happy to share their “ultimo recurso” or ‘last resort’ food with me.  

I didn’t celebrate Halloween this year, and I was just fine with that since it’s not my favorite holiday. I did however celebrate All Saints Day in Paraguay with a family in another community, and we lit candles in honor of their loved ones that passed away. Essentially kids do trick or treat here, they just go to the cemetery for candy and snacks that families bring along to hand out to kids. They also tote fresh flowers, adornments, a new coat of paint, candles, etc. to decorate and fix-up tombstones and gravesites. It was an interesting experience, and the cultural practices around death and remembrance have given me a lot to think about here. 

This year I generally feel like I clumsily found a place here, and I’m still figuring it out. I also realize there are families who are still confused what is it is exactly I do here. There’s no easy way to do development – and it’s not any easier to convince the subsistence farmers I live with and work with that they can live better if they actively participate in the development process.  I’m trying though! I started a couple major projects that will carry me through this next year of service.

One is a gardening project with the women’s committee I work the most with – which is made up of some quite hardworking and impressive women. Hopefully soon you will find on the Peace Corps website a Partnership Grant for a garden shade cloth and metal fencing funding proposal. These are expensive items that most people I work with cannot afford on their own. We are in the middle of a 6-part bio-intensive gardening workshop series and committee fundraising projects. Families will not receive materials unless they already have a garden, and have put into practice at least three different organic gardening techniques. My last two attempts at holding a workshop (on water management) this past week failed, however, due to a death in the community and then the threat of what turned out to be an intense thunderstorm and torrential downpours. I wont be meeting with these women until after I get back from vacation, but I guess that is how it goes.

(Oh yeah! Side note: In the next three weeks you will find me wandering the vastness of the south as I set off for an 8-day trek in Patagonia, adventures in Chile and Argentina, 5 days to relax on the beach in Uruguay, and a couple days in Buenos Aires before heading back to PY.)

This garden project ideally will have a 30% community contribution both financially and through labor and natural resources. We have started a small savings group within the women’s committee, and at every meeting each member gives about $1 to our fund. Once we have 400 mil guaranies (or about $90) we can open a savings account in a local bank. A current fundraising venture is selling dish detergent we made after the last garden workshop. It’s slow going - but I am hopeful that this will be successful. One thing that has been rewarding so far is seeing the brand-new garden of a committee member in Nueva Londres that utilized almost all of the practices we’ve covered in previous garden workshops. She is excited about starting a worm bin after the last workshop on worm compost, and I was blown away by how much the whole family was involved in the garden construction.

The other project is community-wide tree planting, but unfortunately I will miss out on a major part of the process this time around. I have learned my lesson – don’t rush projects before taking vacation! I have been trying for the past month or so to get tree seedlings donated from a local nursery and because of a number of things, the trees won’t be getting delivered until the earliest this Thursday. I will not be around to help facilitate the distribution and planting of the native trees, which is a bummer. However, I organized a workshop the other week with forestry specialists from the national forestry institute and they are interested in working with La Novia and Nueva Londres in a major reforestation project that we will work on in March, after the summer has well-passed. There are a handful of families very interested in planting large plots of trees. One family I work with and love is already doing a ton of agro-forestry on their land, but they want to do more.

There’s constant movement in my life right now, and I’ve been struggling to make time for stillness, in many sense of the word. I think the summer (after getting back from the coldest parts of Argentina/Chile) will bring any excessive activities to a halt. It is far too hot in this country between December-February and from 11am to 4pm to do anything but practice stillness. And of course drink the ubiquitous, cold, herb-infused terere.  Oh, and shower at least 3 or 4 times a day in cold water.

Exactly a year ago I was visiting La Novia for the first time, during my ‘future site visit’ and I remember being bewildered by it all – the food, the bugs, the families, names, the cultural practices. Now, this place is my second home where I find my friends and family. I get choked up thinking about saying goodbye to this place I have carved out for myself here – and goodbye to the people that have loved me fiercely and unconditionally. The love I experience (both in giving and receiving) in this country is something I didn’t quite expect, and will stay in my heart forever. For now, I will focus on living in the moment, continuing to fall in love, and soak it up as much as humanly possible. 

well, winter is over...but spring is a BEAST

Spring seems to be even more harsh here in Paraguay. The first day of Spring (Sept 21) brought on one of the worst storms that I have experienced in my life. There were hailstones coming into my bed from the spaces between the wall and ceiling, and they were bigger than golf balls! Dios mio. Here is what my neighbor's kitchen ceiling looked like:

But before we get in to that, I just wanted to say hello again! I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging - part of it was not having a computer charger for a couple months, and another part of me just stopped being inspired to write here. I got really into journaling, and I couldn't get the motivation to blog or write about the things I was experiencing in a way that I would be able to put into words for the public (you) to read. My apologies! But, I did just get back from 2 weeks in the good ol' USA and I was able to tell stores, updates, and experiences in person and to me was the best way to share my current life! It was a gift to be able to go home, spend quality time with family and some amazing friends, and just step away for a short while from Paraguay and the Peace Corps. It gave me needed perspective, and also made me feel that I am indeed actually doing something worthwhile. [Side note: During the coldest/wettest/rainiest week of the winter where I did not leave my room and only drank hot toddies while watching 'love actually' without really bathing for days, I began to question that (and briefly, my own sanity) so it was good to reaffirm why I joined the PC.]  I realize I am following my own dreams in the process, learning a lot from Paraguayans, and am constantly humbled by the kindness of people. I'm just trying to be the person I want to become, and my OWN person - sorting through all the confusion and craziness that life throws my (and our) way.

Thank you for being in my life (in whatever way that may be) and for making my journey possible! I am excited to continue to share with you the adventures of volunteering and living in Paraguay :)

So, back to this hail storm. It started in the early evening, the youth group in my community was all prepared to have a Fiesta de Primavera (Spring festival) at the social club close to my house. They had a huge music sound system set up, DJs, a cantina stocked with beer, and tons of traditional food prepared to sell. The weather forecast said rain - and when I looked again that night, electrical storms. After the wind tore off all of their tarps they had tied up on the fence, and it began to drizzle, they decided to cancel the party and have it another date. I headed home, excited to have time to myself to lay in my bed with my window open and watch the insane lightning - it was a free light show! I was a little concerned with the ferocity of the wind, but had no idea what destruction it would bring in just a few hours. Skip to a couple hours later, it's almost midnight, I am about to settle in to fall asleep and I get up to turn off my computer - all of a sudden - the lights flicker; power goes out. In a matter of moments it seems, BOOM, it sounded like bombs were being dropped on the tin roof above my head. A few layers of straw (now I realize, straw strong as hell) and corrugated metal separate me from the storm that is spewing huge hailstones onto the roof, and in a few minutes into my bedroom. As I throw the ice balls off my bed and frantically hold a pillow over my head expecting the worst (the roof blowing off or falling in - this happened to most of Nueva Londres, many neighbors and a fellow PCV) I really thought the world was ending. Luckily, my house stayed intact and no damage was done - except scaring me out of my mind! One woman who is part of the women's group I work with had her house left like this:



The worst hit was Nueva Londres  and they are still currently cleaning up and rebuilding homes and social centers. The saddest part for me is that the farmers that I work with lost most of their crops, after some terrible frost this year, it was the last thing they needed. I am working on getting involved on helping farmers re-plant, and may try and include seeds as part of a garden project I will be starting through the Peace Corps Partnership program (more on that next time). I am so thankful that no one I knew was seriously injured! It was a crazy storm. Giant trees were uprooted from the ground and taken down.


As we say a lot here - "poco a poco" - little by little. It will take time, but things will hopefully continue on and families will be able to make their homes homes again, and re-plant their crops. When I was biking back to La Novia from Nueva Londres I was pretty depressed seeing all the destroyed homes and trees - but I turned into the road to my community and was again taken aback as I am frequently, by the sky. I will end with this, and constantly remind myself to be thankful for all of the beauty that does exist - especially after the storm. People coming together, helping their neighbors, the sense of community that I experience and share here is something like I've never known in the US, and I hope to always carry that with me. Lots of love! XO

the bee's knees

It’s been a while, dear friends and family. I’ve been busy, but at the same time, experiencing a whole new level of boredom that I only heard about from other volunteers but I wasn’t able to understand it yet. Now, I can say that general boredom is one of the top things I am struggling with right now. It’s been raining almost nonstop since Sunday, and I can hear another thunderstorm rolling in right now as I type away from my bed in my sleeping bag. I’ve been watching movies from my bed and drinking a ton of mate. I broke up the monotony (of talking to my cat) by having lunch with my neighbors, I brought purple cabbage and carrots for salad that I bought in the Oviedo market, and they served me up a steaming hot plate of rice and chicken. Today is Paraguay’s two-day holiday: Independence Day. Tomorrow is also Mother’s Day, and coincidentally my landlord’s birthday. All the celebrating is a bit dampened though will this persistent rain. I didn't end up in Oviedo yesterday because my bus out of site does not run if it rains this hard, and I missed out on the parade that possibly happened in the plaza there. Next year maybe. 

Okay, but did I mention THE RAIN. My garden is flooded in the corner closest to my house, it has a hole for water collection, but it isn’t enough apparently to hold up to this much rainfall. Yikes! At least most of my veggies I’m growing are loving the water, and I’m loving that I don’t have to water it myself right now. I usually have to take at least 4 trips with my little watering can and it’s a nice break. Right now carrots, beets, kale, swiss chard, onions, and little basil and cilantro plants are coming up. Cukes and tomatoes are flowering! I’ve wanted to try a technique one of my fellow Ag volunteers is using in their garden, which is filling plastic water bottles with water that have holes cut in the lids, and bury them in the seedbeds to have a homemade slow-drip water system. I’ll try it out when it’s drier, definitely not lacking moisture now.

Life has been both interesting and frustrating here in the heart of South America.  In terms of actual work I’m trying to figure out with my women’s committee what project(s) they want to work on, and what they really think the needs are in the community. My first few attempts at using PACA (participatory analysis for community action) tools have gone over mediocrely – I didn’t have the full participation of the committee since not everyone shows up, and then its hard to keep their attention after they have the cooperative representative give a presentation first. I also have been identifying families that are excited about working with me outside of the women’s committee, and some are just so kind and generous to me it’s overwhelming.

I know one family aside from my first host family that cares for bees, and I will hopefully get more comfortable and better at beekeeping. I had a memorable experience the most recent time with my host dad – this photo is before we headed out to the hives, in my astronaut suit (ha!), and before I felt like my arm was going to explode. We started in one hive that has needed new frames for some time, and my host dad had been waiting for me to help him do it, apparently. Well, it had been well overdue and the hive just started making their own comb from the lid of the bee box, and it was a huge mess.  I am still learning beekeeping, and as he asks me (in Guarani) what I think we should do I realize it’s one of those “I have no idea what I’m doing” Peace corps moments – as hundreds of buzzing bees are flying around me, even more crawling on the ground at my feet from the comb we were breaking off. As the sweat drips down my back, I take a deep breath, swallow hard, and say with conviction, “we’ll just do what we can!” We ended up putting in only 3 out of the 5 frames we had prepped, and harvested quite a bit of honey that they had been producing sans frames. (Side note: it was some of the most delicious honey I’ve tasted as of yet.)

At this point, the bees were getting pretty angry, and also were massing near and on the bucket we were putting the honeycomb into. I brought back a wet towel to use as a lid, but there were SO MANY BEES. I started getting nervous, and then when I started to get stung through my crappy yellow dishwashing gloves I started getting panicky. I held myself together until we started harvesting honey from a second hive that already had its frames – that’s when I just started getting stung way too much for me to handle. Most of the stingers I felt didn’t get their way under my skin, but man, they hurt! I got three or four stings on my arm/wrist and two on my fingers, and all of a sudden, I felt like I couldn’t feel my hand. I got a little woozy and then really started to panic that I was having an allergic reaction. I couldn’t remember where my epi-pen was, and I didn’t want to have to use it. So I ended up going back to the house, and completely freaked out my host mom because I was all sweaty and white in the face and saying I couldn’t feel my hands.  After downing some anti-allergy medicine they found in the fridge, and drinking some water, it was clear I wasn’t going into epileptic shock. This just was the first time I’ve received that many bee stings, ever! Now I know what it feels like, and I think the bees could sense that I was on edge. Also, when bees sting it sends out a pheromone that if you don’t cover up with smoke, will attract more bees. Hence why I kept getting stung in the same area. So alas, I live to tell the tale, and my freak out now is a story to laugh at (again, and again, and again) with this family and all of their extended family. Oh, lord. Nothing is a secret here, that’s for sure.

I’ve been visiting and working at the local primary school about once a week, but things happens that impede getting actual work done. Right now, it’s the weather. It’s also holidays, a teacher strike, and just general miscommunication that have kept a hold on projects I’ve been trying to do with the kids and teachers there. We started the school garden, and there are now two beds and one of them is planted! So that’s exciting, and it’s a collective effort – every kid will be bringing in compost/manure to use in the garden, and a bunch of the parents helped clear and prepare the space for planting. The only thing is that the work I’ve been doing has been disjointed, and there are over 30 kids in the afternoon. So it’s been a challenge to actually have a “lesson” with the kids in the short time I’m there and I don’t know which classroom out of the five classes to spend the most time in. I will figure it out, I’m sure. Things just happen a lot slower here – everything is “en seguida” which is Spanish for either “in a bit” or really a nicer way of saying (without actually saying) “it’s never gonna happen”. Kids are only in school for about 4 hours at a time each day, and some of that time is recess and snack, it’s crazy! Being here has me thinking differently about our education system in the US and internationally.

The rain and thunder has started back up again since I paused on finishing this blog entry; it’s relentless! I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into my life here in La Novia, Caaguazu, PY.  Things are more interesting when I spend time with the people that want to work with me, and I definitely have the most stories with the first host family I lived with when I first moved here.  More to come, lots of love to everyone at home and wherever you may find yourself! Xox 

the sweet things in life

Hola de nuevo :) Hello again. I hope that wherever you are, this finds you well. Happy (belated) Easter! Felices Pascuas! I hope this finds you well, dear reader, and that life is going swimmingly. Greetings from Paraguay, where the weather is finally cooling down some - and it actually feels like fall may be starting. We had some cold spells, and then for about a week it got hot and HUMID again, and basically it's rained on and off again this whole week. It rained so hard on Monday through the night, that the bus that passes through my community was not running. Which isn't out of the usual after a rainstorm, but I thought that our rainy season had already come to a close. That just meant I pushed back a day my morning trip into Oviedo with a fellow agriculture volunteer. I was able to go in yesterday and I made some relatively big purchases since I just got my monthly stipend for April - a ropero (an armoire - see photo on left), bedsheets, a wheelbarrow, and lots of food/things for my house! I will post pictures next time of the changes in my room and how my garden is coming along :) 

For this post though, I wanted to talk about food. Namely dulce de guayaba and chipa. I experienced my first Semana Santa in site, which is holy week in the Catholic religion here - more on that later. First, let me explain the process of making dulce - which is jam making basically, but campo style. 

1. First, you have to harvest your fruit! This is my neighbor/host sister Mariza shaking down some guayaba fruit - they have a little forest of guayaba trees in their backyard - essentially, my backyard too. There was tree climbing, lots of laughs, and it was raining guayabas. The season for fruiting just ended, and there was so much fruit that a lot of it is fermenting and rotting on the ground. 

2. After harvest, you clean in water the fruit and then cut and scoop out the seeds. If you're just eating a guayaba fresh from the tree, you eat it all - seeds and all, some are small and you just pop the whole thing in your mouth. But, for the dulce making you only want the inner flesh and the outer skin.

3. From here, you add all of your cleaned and gutted guayaba to a pot with some water to boil until very soft. This is the fogone, the wood stove at my neighbors house. 

4. After the fruit is totally cooked and mushy, you let it cool for a bit and then start blending! There were two blenders involved in this endeavor, and I think we had around 6 kilos of fruit. You want the blended fruit to be as smooth as possible for best results. 

 5. Next, comes the actual cooking, with sugar! I think that they may have added 1:1 sugar to fruit. Which, is a bit alarming to me. I saved a blended batch of fruit to make with honey (miel de abeja), and had about the amount that you see above in the blender. I added one cup of honey, and cooked it the same way as you do with sugar. Below, this is the cooking process over a fire outside of the house. It took 3-4 hours to totally cook down, and it turns this gorgeous deep reddish color from the very pink raw fruit. You want to keep stirring, and we added marbles to the honey sweetened version to avoid getting burned by the boiling!

6. Finally, after the dulce has thickened and turned this deep color, you let it cool and then enjoy! Paraguayans mostly have their dulce de guayaba on bread with their morning cocido (a burnt mate milky hot beverage) or just as a snack on again, bread. I enjoyed my dulce de guayaba (with honey) on fresh banana bread! I ate it so darn fast, and I want to make more!

It was a long process, but it was totally worth it. The only thing is that sugar is cheap, and honey is not. Paraguayans in the campo are not about to buy honey (it's around $8 per kilo for honey, and a dollar for a kilo of sugar?) So, unless someone has a hive with plenty of honey that they aren't selling, they aren't about to make dulce with honey instead of sugar. They doubted that it would turn out as rico (delicious) but I had some of my neighbors try it and they thought it tasted the same! Success :) There are endless benefits of removing excess sugar from one's diet, and replacing it with a local resource that is full of immunity boosting properties and totally natural. The amount of sugar added to beverages (like juice! fruit is already sweet, but soo much sugar is added every time) and things like dulce de guayaba is staggering, and it's not a surprise that diabetes is a major problem in people's health in my community and all over Paraguay. People are not necessarily overweight, but they are consuming way more sugar than is recommended, that's for sure. I hopefully will be working on nutrition charlas (lessons) in the primary school, and being part of the education process for nutrition and healthy eating. 

Alright, next up in my foodie blog tonight - CHIPA! There is no shortage of chipa in the campo during Semana Santa. Literally every family is making it. Here is Na Digna preparing the masa (the dough) for chipa - which consists of mandioca flour, corn flour, eggs, pig fat, old campo cheese (it has to be old, it has more flavor), salt, and I think that's it. Totally gluten free, but not fat free that's for sure! They make SO MUCH dough it's absurd, to make hundreds of little chipas. 

Here is the chipa making process, you roll out the dough with your hands, and then pull off a chunk and roll it into the desired shape. Some families have their favorite shape, and I just tried making them all! Even a heart :) 

Next, you put your chipa on top of banana leaves (if you can see above, they are on top of cut pieces) and then put them in the blazing hot brick oven that every household has. Some do it one by one, and others on baking sheets of sorts as to save time. Here is me taking out hot chipa from my neighbors oven, and some of the finished product! Delicious hot, not as good when it's days old and rock hard. Although, I have reheated my chipa in the oven, and it still does taste pretty good. 

Chipa is the most important Semana Santa tradition, and I basically went from house to house on my bike, visiting families, making chipa, drinking terere, and getting gifted more chipa then I could ever consume in my lifetime, seriously. Thankfully a family I know took a big bag of it - I think I had more than 30 - because they didn't have any left on Saturday after making it on Wednesday that same week. I still have some in my fridge- and just tonight, my neighbor took 3 home with him! Oh, Paraguay. 

The cultural differences between the Easter holiday celebrated in the US (and in my family) and here are many. This whole week was Semana Santa, or holy week, and almost everyone is off of work or school, and stays home to make hot chipa and spend time with family. There are many different church activities, and for the teenagers who are going to make their confirmation (I think) they have 3 days of “Pasqua Joven” at the church in the town next to me.

So it's been a busy and fun past couple weeks in site, but also Easter made me SUPER homesick. I miss the US and my many different homes, and I especially miss the people I love that are living out their lives and just doing their thang. The hardest part of being here is just not being able to SEE my family and friends from back home (and actually, even new volunteer friends) when I want to. I’ve gotten somewhat used to that living in California, but now I think this is officially the longest I’ve gone without seeing family in my life – it’s been a few days over 6 months now since I’ve moved abroad! However, I was able to “see” a bunch of my family for Easter over skype – which was amazing J I showed them all my house, my yard, my garden, and they met my neighbors – my new family that I live next to.  It was wonderful. Glenn, my brother, played guitar and tried to create a song in Spanish for my neighbors to understand! It was hilarious. We even did joint virtual egg fights! More on easter soon, my internet won't let me put up any more pictures right now. Here is a picture below of me with one of my community contacts, Lucia. We went on a mini adventure in the chacra of one of her uncles in La Pastora, around 25k from my community. Wearing flowers that my mom sent me for Easter! 

The sky was beautiful, and I will leave you with this photo from our walk. Lots of love and hugs! More soon :) XOXO