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