Summer is coming in Paraguay.
And by summer is coming I mean with daytime temperatures in the 80s and 90s if not 100+, I'd say although December 21st is the first day of summer, nobody told Paraguay.
There's only one way to survive.
Enter: Tereré
I'm a little behind so October highlights are as follows:
- Along with one of my Paraguayan girlfriends, I started a twice weekly Zumba class for women in my community and the project has had tremendous success. We asked the Municipality for permission to use the tinglado, which is a sort of outdoor gym and put up a few flyers, and has 70 people show up for our first day! We have worked our way up to dancing for 45 minutes and now have more than 140 registered participants ranging from 12 years of age up to 67.
-I celebrated my twenty-fourth birthday in my site and passed a very lovely day with friends and students. My Zumba class even sang me Happy Birthday and my contact showed up with fruit salad for everyone.
-I got to visit my site mate Vania for Halloween. It was great so see another site and another part of Paraguay.
November has been about wrapping up my classes as my students prepare for their final exams. I'm also looking forward to Thanksgiving at Clara's site with some of my favorite humans. I even found a pumpkin to make Nana's cookies!
I'll try to do more updating soon!!
And by summer is coming I mean with daytime temperatures in the 80s and 90s if not 100+, I'd say although December 21st is the first day of summer, nobody told Paraguay.
There's only one way to survive.
Enter: Tereré
I have been doing a horrible job blogging about culture in Paraguay so here's the most important tradition in a nutshell. Tereré is yerba, a tea-like plant, with cold water poured over it and consumed through a metal straw (bombilla) out of a cup (guampa). It's just like its cousin mate in other parts of South America, except cold because as I've just explained, it's freaking hot here. Rules: Serve in a circle, don't drink if you're sick, don't touch the bombilla with your hands, and the guampa is not a microphone (aka shut up and pass it already). The sharing seems weird at first, but actually Paraguayans share most drinks. After a meal if we're going to have a drink, soda, wine mixed with coke, or beer, we use one glass and it goes around until it needs to be refilled. You're probably thinking "But Dani, germs! You're a health volunteer!" Be that as it may, I find I like the ritual of tereré and all of it's sharing glory, and there's no better way to spend the afternoon "integrating."
I'm a little behind so October highlights are as follows:
- Along with one of my Paraguayan girlfriends, I started a twice weekly Zumba class for women in my community and the project has had tremendous success. We asked the Municipality for permission to use the tinglado, which is a sort of outdoor gym and put up a few flyers, and has 70 people show up for our first day! We have worked our way up to dancing for 45 minutes and now have more than 140 registered participants ranging from 12 years of age up to 67.
-I celebrated my twenty-fourth birthday in my site and passed a very lovely day with friends and students. My Zumba class even sang me Happy Birthday and my contact showed up with fruit salad for everyone.
-I got to visit my site mate Vania for Halloween. It was great so see another site and another part of Paraguay.
November has been about wrapping up my classes as my students prepare for their final exams. I'm also looking forward to Thanksgiving at Clara's site with some of my favorite humans. I even found a pumpkin to make Nana's cookies!
I'll try to do more updating soon!!
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