This Is Peace Corps

“Showing up is worth it 100% of the time.” – Wendy Ward

June 25, 2014

One afternoon recently I sat on my patio shelling seeds with one of the local girls and reflecting on the events of the prior week, which I would have to classify as one of the best weeks of my two-year service thus far, the memories of which are due in large part to a particular favorite family with whom I’ve spent many days. It wasn’t part of my plan to spend part of nearly every day together; it just worked out that way. Slowly building from a self-invitation for morning maté which would then lead to staying for breakfast and sometimes lunch, I’ve somehow managed to spend the better part of the week there. Among the first days the señora mentioned that her biodigester was no longer working. We spent two days on it until it was functioning once more. These anaerobic biodigesters produce methane gas which is used to cook food, instead of the customary open fires on the ground that fill the room with smoke and cause a number of health and environmental problems.

On the last day of my visits for the week, I went over to buy cheese and also learned she sells milk so I brought home a liter of that too. A half kilo (1.1 lbs) of her cheese is the equivalent of US$2.25 and a liter (a bit more than 1 qt) of milk is $.60 (that’s not a typo, folks). In exchange, I brought her a baked stuffed pepper made the other day at the Women’s Club to reheat and try, as it’s a healthy, easy recipe using all locally available ingredients.

Women’s Club – this day we made stuffed peppers and cut bottles into glasses and wine glasses using wire. These will be used in the women’s homes instead of buying new glasses. See the bottles to the right with tape wrapped around, which acts as a guide for the wire. The wire is moved vigorously back and forth until it scores and heats the glass, then the bottle is plunged into ice water to break the score. Take sandpaper to the edge and Voila! you have a new drinking glass.

Her husband, daughter and I shelled dry corn while the senora made corn bread for lunch. We raced to see who could clean more corn cobs of their hard, dry kernels the fastest. The husband won despite me stealing his cleaned cobs, pretending they were mine for the count. hee hee. While there I also taught her and her two daughters to make roasted squash seeds. Unfortunately, we were so engrossed in our delicious lunch of spaghetti and beans with chipa quazu that we forgot about the seeds in the oven and burned them! Every day I have visited she has sent me home with bags of oranges and mandarins and pleas to take more. Giving away fruit during citrus season is the equivalent of giving away chipa during semana santa. Every household has more citrus than they can eat and will beg you to take as much as you can carry. Mandarines are the size of baseballs, grapefruits (called pommelos here) are so sweet you can make juice and drink it straight with no added sugar (I’ve never been able to eat a grapefruit in the US – too bitter!) Oranges are best made into juice because they are super JUICY! Actually, Paraguayans drink the juice straight from the orange by peeling the orange zest and a thin layer of pith, slicing off an end, gently squeezing the fruit with your hand and drinking from the sliced end. Today I declined another motherload of fruit but received a hunk of squash for soup I’d be making for dinner. Just because she felt like sharing.

While visiting this señora this week, we’ve had the most engaging conversations covering everything from kidney stones, ovarian cysts, menstruation (“Do women in North America menstruate?”), how our cemetaries and funeral proceedings are similar and different, why she leads the prayer for most of the local funerals (rezos) and if she gets paid for it (answer: no), and her asking me how flatulent I will be after eating the lunch of beans she prepared (this followed two days of working on the biodigester and many jokes about gas). This family has a great sense of humor.

I boiled my milk purchase (I’m all for raw, fresh and unpasteurized but due to lack of cattle vaccinations and common diseases here it has the potential to carry harmful pathogens so boiling is a necessity in PY) and made THE most delectable, homemade-from-scratch chocolate pudding I’ve ever eaten. Not bad for my first attempt.

It’s these kinds of days that make this the Peace Corps experience I dreamed of.

****Check out lots of new photos on my “Eye Candy” page!!!****

Fun  Facts: Did You Know?….

Most people are completely unaware of the existence of the Paraguayan Venomous Duck.  Belonging to the genus Dendrocygna, its full scientific name is Dendrocygna peligrosa.  Very few people have seen the Paraguayan Venomous Duck  in the wild, though it is well known to the indigenous peoples of the Paraguayan rainforest who use its venom to coat their arrowheads for hunting and warfare.

The venom of the Paraguayan Venomous Duck (PVD) is a neurotoxin which quickly causes its victim to lose control of its muscles, rendering it powerless to defend itself.  The PVD then swiftly devours its prey, which includes ducklings of other species, frogs, and, ironically, venomous snakes.

There is no known antivenin for the PVD.  It rarely attacks humans, only doing so when startled or threatened.  There have been accounts of humans surviving a bite by a PVD, but most victims die within hours.