Damn you Mosquitos!

Last Thursday we had another day of practice and my friend Stephanie and I went walking around the community again and ended up talking to the same people as the week before. Only this time, the guys that were asking us tons of questions weren’t there… unfortunately those cool guys live in Buenos Aires and are doctors, that explains a lot why they were asking us lots of questions and seemed like very astute guys! But we ended up talking to other people at this house, who were very nice- not as fun as the last time, but we had a good time! Later that day we had class and talked about our mornings, but we got out of class way early so some of my friends and I decided to walk to an ice cream store (which ended up being a lot farther away than we had originally thought) so we stayed there and ate our ice cream in the shade of this persons house for a good hour or so! Lots of people have despensas (small stores) in their houses, so we bought some ice cream and sat in the shade, ate it and just hung out! Later that night we went to the soccer field like we normally do, but Liza and I ended up just hangin out with Wes’s mom, she is an awesome lady and we always like to talk to her, and I think she really enjoys our company! Friday morning we had more language class and we practiced interviewing each other because we were having oral exams 3 days later. Later that day we went on a technical excursion. We went to a really small site to visit two volunteers and build something. The volunteer we visited happened to be from Seattle, and went to UW (boo, gross! Ha!) so we had a lot in common to talk about and its always fun to talk to someone who knows where you’re from! We started working building a fagone (brick oven) but we didn’t get very far the first night. My friend Natalie and I stayed the night with a local Senora, she was very nice but the house was slightly older, made of wood (which always indicated more bugs) and the bed was a little sketchy. But these are just some of the things you have to deal with here! But Natalie and I had an awesome night talking and laughing in bed before we went to sleep. Turns out we are very similar people and have had very similar lifestyles! So it was really fun to learn a lot more about her! Well turns out my thoughts about the sketchy bed were right, I woke up in the morning with my legs COVERED in bug bites, I had put insect repellant on right before I went to bed and I still got eaten alive. I’m not exaggerating when I say I probably have about 75 bites just from my toes to my knees, on both legs… its disgusting! I was a little upset about it, and its highly probable that they aren’t even mosquito bites, but maybe bed bugs or fleas from the probably dirty bed we slept on. Because Natalie had tons of bites on her legs too, not as many as mine, but plenty! But the next morning we went and finished the project, it took us a while to finish it, but I was very proud of us for building it! I was definitely tired by the end of it, and I decided that manual labor is not one of my strengths I have to give to the Peace Corps! Ha! Fagone building goes right along with mowing the lawn- I can do it, I just choose not to! (that was for you dad!) So we got home kinda late Saturday night and I went to the soccer field to watch Jacob and Andy play and hang out with my peeps, but quickly left, just cause I was tired, cranky, had bug bites everywhere and definitely did something to my back, it hurts! I went home to find that my mom had a friend over and there were three more children in my house all under the age of 3… needless to say I did not come home to a quite house. I was going a little bit crazy. The three children visitors were crazy, running around screaming, hitting each other. My brain hurt so I went up to Jacobs house only to find a small party going on and everyone was drinking, so I hung out for a while. But then went back home to eat and shower! Later I went back to the house to hang out more and have a few drinks to relax! Then called it an early night because I was tired! I slept like crap that night, I was up scratching the heck out of my bugs bites all over my legs and I tried so hard not too. I even put on socks to try and help, didn’t work. So I didn’t sleep very well and woke up in the morning with even bigger bug bites! If the damn mosquitos weren’t here I would be completely happy. But I was woken up at 11… which was pretty late, but I didn’t sleep during the night. My friends walked in the door at 11 inviting me to lunch at this guys house. He lives in the states and his brother lives here in Guazu Cora like two seconds from my house. So I woke up got ready and went to that guys house with the rest of my people to have lunch, which was amazing! The best part was they had KETCHUP there! And it was delicious! We talked with them for a while in English and Spanish! Then I went home, hung out with Jacob and some of my uncles for a while, then home and had bonding time with my mom! We sat outside and talked for hours, we watched the two huge storms come and go. (Mom, Cindy- you would love these storms, they are awesome!! I think of you every time there is one and how much you like them!) I finally showed Ana my scrap book and talked about my friends and family, which was great practice for my oral exam tomorrow! I like the rain, its cool and really fun to watch- but only when I’m in my house and not going anywhere, cause this rain soaks you very very quickly. Its like that one time that we were at Coco beach in Florida and just like that it started down pouring and we got all wet! Great day of just hangin out, trying to recuperate, I really did mess up my back a little bit, I’m walking like an old grandma! And trying not to itch my bug bites that cover my body :) Monday morning I went to class early with Jacob because he gets extra practice with our language teachers, but since I was there early I went ahead and did my exam first thing! But when I went in there the tester said, its not an exam its just a conversation! I think I did pretty darn good, so much better than our first interviews! He said I just needed to work on my concordances, like the feminine pronoun with the noun and such, but he thinks I should start in only Guarani now! So that’s pretty cool! I was happy I did well! Later that day I lead another session on cultural challenges, this was something I was asked to do by my technical trainer who recommended me! So it was kinda a privilege to be asked to do another session, so that was cool. It was a more boring subject than nutrition and I didn’t do a sweet dance, but my peeps enjoyed it! That night two of my girlfriends and I made carrot cake, and it was pretty delicious! I brought some home to my ma and pa and they loved it! Tuesday we went to a larger city about 20 min away and made a bunch of different food with other trainees in the urban youth group and with their families! It was fun to do something with the other group that we don’t know very well and don’t see often! We made soy empanadas, soy tortillas (which is a fried dough, kinda like a pancake but way oilier!) and soy apple juice! It was pretty delicious, I ate A LOT at lunch! In the afternoon we were back with our health group and we had current volunteers talk to us about how to teach in schools, it was pretty interesting. And Chaco Fred was there, which was really fun to talk to him. They call him Chaco Fred because he lives in the Chaco- which is no mans land and hardly anyone lives in the west side of the country… except for Chaco Fred! I was expecting him to be hairy and caveman like, not at all, he was actually very good looking! Ha! And he had been a teacher for 4 years in San Francisco and vise principal for 2 years, he gave us tons of really great info on how to teach in schools, it was cool! Very smart guy! If only he knew a secret cure to keeping away mosquitos… later that night I went to the soccer field to hang out. I have been teaching these two adorable girls how to count to ten in English! They are doing really well, only they always forget how to say six and eight! But they love me, and we always have a lot of fun, they teach me words in both castellano (Spanish) and Guarani. It’s a nice little arrangement we have! And I think those girls are so great, we’re going to start learning food and animals names in English when I get back from my long field trip that is all week next week. So I wont be updating for two weeks! I would love to hear from everyone, and I hope y’all are doing amazing! Besitos!