Tanto Tiempo

Hello!!  Tanto tiempo…I know I know, It’s been a long time since my last update, but to be fair you all are way worse at updating me on your lives…

First things first…I moved.  There were a lot of motivations and conversations behind the move, but I’m going to leave out the politics, the drama and therefore the entire story and just let you all know, I’m in a new site.  I moved this past weekend and I’m LOVING it so far.  I live in a city now.  It’s a big city for Paraguayan standards…about 10,000 people (I think).  I’m renting a little house in a neighborhood very close to the center of the city.  I have a modern bathroom and a super sweet VERY hot water shower that I have fallen in love with…which are both out back behind my house.  I didn’t think I would mind having the bathroom outside until I woke up in the middle of the night my second night here about to pee my pants during a giant rain storm.  I just opened my back door and stared at the rain for about 10 seconds while my urge to urinate kept growing and then I just ran for it, slipped in the mud and almost took a mud bath…luckily my cat like reflexes (that normally don’t exist) saved me.  Anywho, the owner of my house lives right next door to me and we share the backyard; however, she goes to visit and stay with her daughter and grandson for large chunks of time so I haven’t seen her since the day I moved in and she won’t be back until the end of June.  I have a bunch of fruit trees outback; grapefruits, papayas, and I believe a pear tree, and I dug and planted a small garden.  I don’t know too many people yet, but I’ve been meeting more and more every day, and everyone seems super nice so far.  I live about a block away from a bicycle repair shop so I took my bike over there yesterday to introduce myself and to have them fix my tires.  I made friends with the family that owns one of the hardware stores nearby.  It’s a cute old man, his wife, and their son.  I’ve been in a few times already and they have been super nice and super helpful.  I live really close to the best vegetable shop in town (they have the biggest selection)…I’ve already been there three times.  I think I’m going to be good friends with the girl one day soon.  I haven’t met too many of my neighbors yet.  I’ve been trying to drink terere outside during the day and leave my doors and windows open while I’m home with the hopes that people will come over and talk to me; however, the only luck I’ve had so far is have a poor man almost walk into my house last night asking me for money to buy kabure (I’ll explain what that is in a minute).  Luckily, he was very friendly and I had some friends over for dinner so it was not anything scary, but I won’t be keeping my doors open after dark anymore.  My neighbors two doors down from me have a little despensa and sell kabure (I’m probably not spelling that right at all) and asaditos every night.  Kabure is the same thing as chipa (a traditional type of bread made from corn flour, cheese, eggs, mandioca flour and milk here) except for instead of baking it in an oven, you put it on the end of a stick and roast it…like a marshmallow!  And asaditos are basically beef kabobs…just little chunks of meat on a stick grilled on a BBQ.  Last night while I was waiting for my friends to come over for dinner, I walked over and asked if I could make a kabure.  The lady handed me an already made piece…and I clarified again…No, no I want to MAKE one…well if you are okay with that.  She just laughed at me and said of course you can make one.  I’m trying to get to know people, and I knew if I sat down and roasted a kabure I’d have to sit there and talk with them for a good 20 minutes…and what do you know…before I left she said we’d have to cook together sometime soon!  I also got the scoop on the rotisserie chickens that our other neighbor makes…Saturday nights and Sunday days…so I think I now have plans for Saturday night!

                Last night was a very fun, non-traditional night.  My friend, aka my Peace Corps wife, Lyn also lives in the same town as me.  She was hosting a Belgian couch-surfing couple so they all came over for dinner last night.  We made potato and squash soup and played Uno and Hearts for a few hours.

                Annnnd work life.  I’m still getting settled and having a lot of meetings, making plans, making schedules at this point, but here are a few things I’ve got on the books.  I’m going to be doing most of my work with the District Hospital doing educational charlas and workshops for the staff in the hospital as well as charlas and workshops with the staff in schools, high schools, and universities around town.  Everything is super chaotic at this point.  My contact and I were making plans for dental health education, HIV/AIDS workshops, working with the Diabetes patients, working with a Mother’s Club, doing radio shows etc. etc.  But, like I said, I just got here this weekend and at this point my work is all talk, but I’ll be sure to fill you all in on what I actually do!

                And a random Paraguay story…A couple weekends ago I randomly started feeling stomach sick.  I didn’t really think anything of it because I usually get random vomiting or diarrhea about every 2 weeks…it’s proven as a very effective weight loss method.  Healthy? Not so much.  Effective? Yes.  Very .  Anyway one night the random vomiting started and so did the diarrhea…and I just thought FML.   Then the next morning the owner of my house (when I was still living in the campo) knocks on my door and wakes me up and exclaims we came to work on your house.  FML squared.  So I went and slept at my neighbor’s house all day.  A few days later I’m feeling better, and I went to Villa Florida for a meeting with the other volunteers close by.  My friend asked me to share a pizza, and I was so hungry from not eating hardly anything for several days, I said sure, why not.  I ate a piece and a half of pizza and my stomach bloated out like a pregnant woman and I started cramping real bad almost immediately.  Well this is fun.  So we finished the meeting and Lyn and I went to catch a bus back to her house.  We had an hour long bus ride back to town, and I was having intense waves of pain every 2-3 minutes.  I was just sitting on the bus sweating, hoping to make it back to Lyn’s so I could just crash.  And then the waves of nausea started accompanying the waves of pain.  Ohhh Lord.  So I stuck my head out the window to try to get some fresh air and a few minutes later I started puking out the bus window while we’re driving along the high way.  Love my life. So we finally get to town and some girl gets in between Lyn and I when we start making our way to the front of the bus.  Lyn gets off and the stupid girl won’t get out of my way so the bus starts driving again and I’m yelling at the bus driver to stop and let me off all while I’m hunched over because I can’t stand up straight and I’m just trying not to vomit on people.  So he finally stops and I hopped off.  We had a good 30 minute walk to Lyn’s house and I knew I was not up for that so we called our friend Luis to drive us home.  I’m sitting in the back of the truck and he’s driving in the middle of the road with all these motos on the side of us.  I could feel the vomit coming again, and I just remember thinking…you gotta make it passed the motos Casey, you can’t puke on the people who are riding motos.  And I also kept thinking…and you can’t diarrhea in your pants because you have to wear these in your meeting with your boss tomorrow.  And luckily, for them, I just made it past them and started projectile vomiting and yelling at Luis to pull over.  I was child locked inside the back of the truck hanging out the window puking in front of a local university while ALL the students were arriving to class.  When I was finally able to manage a few words I just grumbled “Que Verguenza” (how embarrassing) and Luis just said…No, don’t worry this happens to all of us.  Rightttt, Luis. Anyway, we finally made it back to Lyn’s and I called into the medical office and immediately started taking medications, and the puking and diarrhea are gone…for now.

                I also had a potential Sugar Daddy for a tiempito.  I gifted him with my presence for one dinner. But I just couldn’t do it.

Texts From Paraguay!

I don’t have that many this time, but the ones I do have are worth noting I believe…I will keep them all anonymous.

           1)      “I’m getting a bit tired of this guy insulting me.  At least he is cooking lunch.”

           2)      “Couch surfer is in my bathroom.  I had to take an emergency dump in my front yard.”

           3)      “Made a kid cry big time 2day. I rock!  He was being a total shit.  I feel no guilt”

My address is the same…I do ask that you advise me if you send me a package because sometimes the packages get stuck in package jail in the capital and in order to get it out I have to take the package code to the mail man here in town and he tracks it down and gets it sent here.  A major headache, yes, but worth the American goodies!  Oh and also, the last package I received from my mother had a random jacket stuffed inside that she swears she didn’t send me.  Weird.

Casey Carney PCV
Cuerpo de Paz
San Roque Gonzalez 1164
San Ignacio, Misiones-Paraguay
C.P. 4750

And since my birthday is approaching (August 4) I’m sure some of you want to send me packages so here is my birthday list…

Bare Minerals make-up foundation (whatever it’s called)  Color: Fair

Mascara. Black.

Swedish red fish

Deodorant (Secret shower fresh)

Lotion (Olay)

Bath & Body works spray: black amethyst

Flavor blasted goldfish: Xtra Cheddar

Peanut Butter

Ranch

Surprises are always good.

And for those of you who made it all the way to the bottom…Don’t worry I’ve been chronicling the un-censored version of all my stories in my journal J.