This is the southern hemisphere

For the most part, I don’t really realize that I am in the southern hemisphere now. Sure, sure, I know that the water is suppose to swirl the other way when it goes down the drain, but honestly I can’t say I ever watch the water whirl down the toilet bowl. I did think that I might get to see some of the constellations I learned while living in Australia that aren’t visible from the northern hemisphere (the southern cross being the one I know I could pick out) only I don’t seem to the stars very much. I’m not sure if it is because there are too many lights in the city, because the stars aren’t visible or just because I’m not looking up at night. So it is kind of a relief to get the occasional reminder that this is below the equator. And that reminder has come out in full bloom this week. We are entering spring here in all the color and fragrance that means. If it weren’t for all the plants flowering I’d say we skipped right from winter to summer (it reached 91 degrees today, I’m not sure what that means for the summer to come). As it is I’m fully enjoying the trees covered in pink – the lapacho tree is the Paraguayan national tree, and after they burst into full bloom this week I can understand why. The walk to school has definitely gotten prettier, and I’m hoping all the flowers will stay around a bit longer to keep adding color to my day.

Welcome to Paraguay, have some hand sanitizer

My first real introduction to the swine flu frenzy has been in Paraguay. Sure I’ve read about it other places, but this is the first country I’ve landed in which seems to have numerous cases and the paranoia that goes along with that. Arriving in Asuncion my director met me in the airport carrying a surgical mask while most of those around him were wearing one. It turns out that you couldn’t enter the airport without sporting a mask…just in case someone coming off a plane was contagious with the swine flu. On our first excursions around town the faculty liaison apologized for not putting any hand sanitizer into our welcome packages, explaining that the stores were completely out of it. Around the same time I found out that the Paraguayan national schools were delaying the start of school by two weeks for fear of too many students coming sick and passing on the illness. Not so our school. ASA started right on time, not that any of us were to worried. I was amused to have two boxes of Kleenex delivered to my room the day before classes started along with a jug of hand sanitizer, only to have a bottle three times as large delivered two days later (do they really think my students and I would use that much that quick?). Whatever. I’m willing to play the game, and have put it all out on my desk where my students have easy access to it throughout the day. Perhaps my biggest surprise in all of this was talking with my students the first day of school. I asked them to tell me a few interesting things about themselves, prompting them with “what did you do over the break?” if they got stuck for ideas. Several of them told me they “were in quarantine with their family because my sister/brother was sick.” While another shared that he had “had the swine flu, but don’t worry I’m over it and not contagious anymore.” Huh. I guess that should be enough to make it more real for me. At least it hasn’t turned out to be as fatal as health officials were initially expecting. Welcome to Paraguay, here is your mask and hand sanitizer.

The first day

It might not be my first week in Paraguay, but the first week of classes seems like a much bigger step. All in all I have to say that my week went great, and I think I made a good choice coming here. I have just a few thoughts to share about the start to the school year. I am always interested in how the first day of school plays out in a new place. Ranking my four schools I have to say that this was the second most productive. In Guinea the first day was all about getting someone to scale the flagpole to run a string up it and having the students clean the classrooms. In Turkey we pretty much had an assembly and a picnic lunch before sending the kids home. In Paraguay the only difference from a normal school day came from the opening part. Apparently it is tradition in Paraguay, or at least at my school, for the seniors to party with the freshmen and stay up all night the night before school starts. In order to combat the problem of drunken students on campus the administration this year chose to send home all of the seniors after the opening assembly. An assembly which seemed to celebrate the installation of the class of 2010 as seniors. The theme this year was jailers and prisoners, with all of the seniors dressed up as the jailers and the freshmen dressed up as prisoners in black scrubs with 2013 on the back. I had to take attendance (without a roster) before anything began but as soon as my students heard some fireworks going off they started running out of the door and towards the gym. They didn’t want to miss the seniors coming. The entrance was…interesting. The 60 or so seniors piled in the back of a large truck (think more like a dump truck then a pickup truck), waving flags, blowing whistles and all in all making a ruckus. Parents line the sidewalk snapping pictures. The freshmen congregate on the sidewalk waiting for the seniors to disembark and chase them inside – a noisy and chaotic affair. I slowly made my way into the gym only to be surprised by the amount of noise 120 students can make (the sophomores and juniors are fairly quiet in this whole tradition). The seniors were making laps around the gym blowing on their whistles and popping balloons (activities which continued through most of the assembly) while the freshmen bounced in the stands screaming. Things calmed down a bit and the requisite speeches went on – the director, the principal, the senior class president, and a guest (a former teacher who had returned briefly) – then the seniors handed out a t-shirt to each of the teachers and we were off back to class. Time for me to get introduced to most of my students and give them an idea of my expectations. Now I need to get serious about learning the names of my 90 new students, never mind learning how to pronounce them correctly.

Out for a run

I was pleased when I realized on the flight into Asuncion that there were some organized run in Asuncion, or one at least. Lucky for me the half marathon that took place today also had a 10k option. In an effort to keep myself running and exercising I signed up for it online two days after arriving in country…and so I ran today. Not that that tells the whole story. I must say that I should be used to things not going quite the way I expect them to when I first arrive in a new country (I’m not sure if things actually go the way I expect once I’ve been around longer or if I just change my expectations). I went to collect my number and chip on Friday evening only to find that they had no record of me in the system. That’s funny; the charge has cleared on my credit card so I know I registered. With a bit of help from a friend (my Spanish is still nonexistent) they sorted it out and re-registered me without making me pay. Sadly it meant that I didn’t get my name on my number which meant less cheers. Oh well.

This morning my friends picked me up on the side of the main road at 7am. I have to tell you that Asuncion is pretty much dead on a Sunday morning. In fact, it was still quiet when we had finished our race and tried to go find brunch around 10:30. I guess we started so early though so that they wouldn’t have to close off the streets when traffic was really around…especially as the race pretty much just went straight up one of the main thoroughfares and then turned around and went back down it. At one point I was bit nervous about the fact that I was running down the yellow strip in the middle of the road while cars were driving by on either side of me. Huh. Always a new experience when you run a race in a different country. Happily I finished without any incident, in a time I could be happy with, and pleased to have had a chance to look at some of the neat buildings that line many of the streets here. What a way to spend the morning.