Mbaracayu

Last week we had about 20 girls come and visit our school from an all's girl school in the forest region of Paraguay. The school is run by a foundation called Mbaracayu. What they have done is created a secondary boarding school for girls who live in a remote region in the hopes that they will with education they will help their communities develop, and that it will aid them in stopping the cycle of becoming mothers themselves around the age of 14. It was interesting to talk to a few of the girls (somewhat of a challenge with my limited Spanish and their limited Spanish - they are much more comfortable with Guarani) and hear them share what sort of opportunities the choice they made to continue to school has provided. This video shares a bit of a glimpse of the school for those of you interested.

sidewalks

I can't believe I'm really sitting here thinking I'm going to write about sidewalks. Have I become that desperate for a topic? No, really, I'm sure there are plenty of other things I could share, but I have to admit I spend a surprising amount of time thinking about sidewalks. This is probably because I get most places by walking, and due to the sometimes rough nature of the sidewalks here I spend the majority of that time looking down at the ground to try to save my ankles. So at least 40 minutes of my day is spent starting down at the sidewalks of this city. Put that way, perhaps it makes sense I'm going to share some of my observations from all of that time. What is interesting to me is that while almost every road has a sidewalk on each side, the sidewalks clearly belong to a house and not to the city or whoever deals with roads. Why do I say clearly? You only have to look down one block and see 4 or 5 different sidewalk styles to realize that they must belong to the house. Which explains why you can get a nice smooth sidewalk for 20 steps and then step onto a section which is broken, uneven and almost a pile of rubble. It explains why there are some sidewalks with fancy designs, others done in tile, and some with constant patterns that catch your eye. Since the sidewalk must go with the house, then it also makes sense that the owners of the house are responsible for their sidewalk getting/staying clean. Which is why most of them are free of leaves, flowers and other trash while there are occasional areas where it seems as if nothing has been cleared off in weeks. (It is very common for me to see women out sweeping the sidewalks as I walk to school in the morning.)I wonder what else I'll notice as I continue to walk?

Happy Birthday Paraguay

On Sunday, May 15, Paraguay turned 200 years old. The entire weekend, or perhaps I need to say extended weekend as the government passed a movement to make Monday a national holiday for the bicentennial, was dedicated to celebrating this mile marker. The past month or so I noticed that Asuncion was starting to get dressed up for the bicentennial. Red, white and blue were getting hung on buildings all over the place (although perhaps not with quite the enthusiasm as last year for the world cup), flags were on sale on the street corners, stickers could be noticed on windows of buildings and cars alike. An entire program was set to go on over the weekend including numerous parades, music, ballet and such. I have to admit that I only managed to get myself downtown for a small portion of the going ons - namely the military parade. But what fun it was to watch the military procession and listen to those watchers cheer and comment on the groups that passed. You could feel the pride everyone had to be part of the country. The exclaimed over the groups that had their faces painted for camouflage or were wearing bush stealth outfits. Claps whenever a group of all women passed (one set of nurses with a red cross on their sleeve, one group from the navy, and finally a group of women carrying guns). Loud cheers when the reservists, any person who had previously served in the military (and by definition here could still be called up if the need arose), entered the street. Especially for the 102 year old man holding on while standing in the back of truck. Curiosity when a group from a different country marched by (Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil and others). Excitement to see the tanks and heavy equipment. Distraction when the planes and helicopters flew overhead. Bouncing to the music when a band passed by. And of course, ohhing and awing over the mounted groups and the decorated horses. Despite the rain delay everyone was thoroughly enjoying themselves. I have to admit that my favorite memory of the weekend happened because of the 30 minute rain delay. Some of the big wigs from the military where standing in trucks when the rain started to pour down. They didn't stay there long, but instead climbed down to escape someplace a little drier. Which is how I found myself sharing my umbrella with a 3 star colonel. (Ummm...this is a bit unreal!)What to do, but hold the umbrella a little bit higher? I had a nice 35 minute chat with Jorge, and then everyone was lead back out to the street for the start of the parade (which of course took at least another 10-15 minutes).

Congratulations Paraguay on 200 years! Happy Bicentennial!

[Traveling Tale] Recoleta Cemetery

Semana Santa (Holy Week) was while my mom was here visiting. A week off of school meant, of course, a trip to somewhere. After several failed attempts to sort out a new destination for me, I decided that we would just spend the week in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Even though I had been there twice before, I have to admit that having someone with me, and the amount of time we had, meant I still got to see (and notice) all sorts of new things. One of the things that really stood out to me was when we went to Recoleta to see Evita's grave. Now don't get me wrong, it is kind of interesting to see where important people are buried, but I am much more interested in the strange beauty that a cemetery holds. This time though, I kept getting distracted by the door knockers I saw on mausoleums. Door knockers. On a mausoleum. As if you would want to knock to see if someone is in there. No thank you. I don't want to know if someone would actually answer a knock to the door. Does this not seem like a somewhat strange addition to a family mausoleum? I certainly hope I won't ever experience a spirit answering my knock. But I tell you, there were numerous vaults sporting this graceful addition. Creepy!

Monumento Natural Cerro Koi

For a few months now I've been bugging a friend to take me out to see something she mentioned in passing. Last weekend our schedules finally worked out and we managed to spend a day in Aregua, a lake side town which is know for its pottery and the Strawberry Festival. However neither of those two things were what interested me this trip. No, I was sitting up in anticipation in the back of her off road vehicle as we bumped up the uneven road, following a policeman on his motorcycle (just an extra measure of safety), to the hillside of Cerro Koi (which means two hills in Guarani). Despite everything she had told me I didn't really know what to expect. I just knew that I was going to see an extremely rare geological formation which only exists in three parts of the world (Paraguay, Canada and South Africa). How to put it? After over over an hour on the internet I still can't give you a proper name for the formation, nor could I tell you where in those other two countries the formation is found. There is a definite lack of information out there. So, instead, you'll be stuck with what I learned there, but mind you, I don't have any way of substantiating what was told to me. The natural monument is composed of two hills (hence the name) which are extinct volcanoes. As the lava was cooling just the right conditions were met to produce a sandstone formation of what looks like tiered hexagonally shaped rods all piled on top of each other. The hill that we had access to by foot, was significantly mined. In fact the guard told us that originally pieces of the sandstone were broken off and used to cobblestone the streets in Asunción and Luque. I am a bit confused because I had assumed that the rods would be going up and down, however they were laying on their side. Did the volcano fall over? Or is this the natural lay? We couldn't get close enough to see the rods in the second hill so I don't know if they went a different way. However I was able to get close enough to the exposed hillside to appreciate the precise formations that nature is able to create! After marveling at the seemingly impossible formation we then followed the guard up and around to the top of part of the hill. A great chance to get a feel for just how large Lake Ypacarai is and to look over the countryside around Aregua.

Perhaps one of the most interesting things about going to see this geo-morphological phenomenon is that so few people seem to know about despite it being declared a protected area in 1993. In fact when I went to school on Monday people were curious as to where I had gone to see such a different sight. I find it sad that people who are interested in exploring a country don't know about, and have trouble finding out about, things that are only an hour away. For those of you interested, the entrance to the Monumento Natural Cerro Koi is marked by an sign to your right about 1 km out of Aregua on the branch road to Capiatá. It is well worth a trip to check out!

Bus rides

My mom is here visiting for a while, which means I've been revisiting some of the places that are worth exploring in Paraguay. It also means that we've been taking a lot of bus rides, which reminds me of what I like about riding a bus. While I might not get a good night's sleep while spending the hours between 1 and 6 in the morning on a bus, the daytime rides to provide a great perspective to observe bits of daily Paraguayan life. I'm amused by what you might see while driving by - overfilled motorcycles, trucks filled with logs beyond expectation, the bright colors of sponsored little stores on the side of the road, stretches of green scenery which show the true beauty of the countryside, plenty of pigs and cows...I could keep going. However, my favorite part of riding in a long distance bus is the chipa. Chipa is a Paraguayan bread made out of cornmeal. Oven baked it has a crisp outside and an almost gooey chewy inside. When it is hot it is one of my favorite snacks. After several more trips on the bus I still hold that the best chipa I've had in country is what I've bought from the man who comes on to the bus between Encarnacion and Asuncion. He climbs up to the upper level of the bus with his full basket of warm chipa, chirping "chipa, chipa, chipa"and you can bet that I will be digging in my bag to find some change. He slowly makes his way up the aisle, selling something to almost every row of seats, and once he finishes the bus stops again to let him off 15-10 km down the road, where I suppose he will wait to board a bus headed in the opposite direction. In the meantime I'll keep staring out the window happily chewing on my chipa.

Tourism video

As part of everything else that is going on for the bicentinial (I got invited to march in a parade with teachers, students and their families today) the Paraguayan tourism department has published a new video promoting tourism to Paraguay. I have to admit I haven't seen over half of the things in this video but it will give you some very pretty views of the country.