104 Degrees and Loving It

It was 104 humid degrees today. I love it, even though I had sweat pooling in my sandals. 🙂

Everyday brings new learnings. Today’s highlights: I’ve learned a lot from the 20-somethings in this cohort and their fresh, inquisite approach to this adventure; I learned I am not alone in some of my frustrations and feelings of being overwhelmed; I discovered there are 2 sugar factories near our training center which process the sugarcane from the many plantations here (one is organic and sells to the US); I made my first purchase using paraguayan “guaranies” (gwa-rahn-ee-ays) – I was desperate and bought Coca cola and ‘potato chips’ to get change for the bus (which my group was supposed to ride for the first time tonight but didn’t…long story…instead we took the Peace Corps bus to our village bus stop and had to walk the remaining way home after dark – yikes, not cool especially after our bus safety lesson- but fortunately it was a quick trot to mi casa); I learned how to make newspaper plant pots and start swiss chard seeds in them; I learned LOTS and LOTS of new words in Spanish and guarani especially concerning food and laundry (‘Hee, chegustaiterei’ [hay, shay-GOOS-ta-ee-ter-ay-EE] is guarani for ‘Yes, I like it very much’ and ‘graciamante’ means ‘Thank you very much’); I saw my first Paraguayan frog… yeah, it was in the house hopping around and gigantic… as long as my size 8 foot and the size of a small grapefruit (brother Ramon tells me it is not poisonous though it does inflate itself when threatened, unlike the butterfly my fellow trainee saw over the weekend which bites and WAS poisonous!); I realized I might go out of my mind if I don’t start getting some regular exercise (nothing but 3 minor yoga sessions since last Monday…all non-cardio); I discovered that mosquito nets are perfect for drying laundry and that braids are great for curly hair in humid weather (not my best look but it’s very functional here). Overall, Paraguay is great so far.

Jajotopata (ja-jo-to-PA-ta, guarani for “until next time”)