California Neighbor

I've decided that the second best thing about Paragauy is how much soccer is played here. This is based on the fact that the past two weekends I have spent no less than 3 hours watching games Saturday and Sunday. No matter where you are, what day of the week it is, or what the weather is like, you can find a game to watch. There are neighborhood leagues, local leagues, regional leagues and, of course, the national league. I really appreciate, not only the enthusiasm, but the dedication to the sport. For example, there are entire neighborhoods here that are known for which soccer team they support....I have yet to think of a similar situation at home, except maybe Oakland's very own "Raider Nation" although I hate to compare these amazing soccer fans to something so ridiculous. This is futbol, after all....not football. This past weekend, I went to visit a volunteer and we went to one of the local soccer games on Sunday, where there were fireworks, a marching band, painted faces and a guy screaming at the players on the field while holding a portable radio up to his ear listening to the play by play commentary of the regional soccer game. Now that's commitment.

Based on a few of my other observations so far, I've decided that the first best thing about Paraguay is, hands down, the people. While there continues to be a lot of blatant staring, I have observed in the (almost month) that I've been here, that there is a very effective method of putting an end to the stare down that takes place while walking down the street. I picked up a new method of handling these very awkward situations from my host sisters and the volunteer I went to visit last weekend. It goes like this: just as I pass someone, I make eye contact for just a brief second and then say "adios." I realize it sounds totally weird and I actually have this really strong desire to say "hola," but I have to hold back and stick with the "adios" because the result is amazing! The other person knows to say "adios" back (this is where cultural norms come in handy) and then we both go our separate ways. It lets them know that I'm acknowledging their presence so they can't be offended and talk about me behind my back at a later date, AND it seems to be particularly effective in warding off the cat calls that seem to be ever present for women in this country. I think I'll stick with this the two years I'm here, as it seems to be working well.

As promised, a little info. about the volunteer visit...I took the bus six hours last Saturday to the southeastern part of the country to visit a volunteer who has been here for just under a year now in the same kind of position that I'll be doing. She lives in a relatively small town, right off one of the three main highways near the city of Encarnacion. This is where we spent the better half of Saturday afternoon. We walked down to the water where you can see Posadas, Argentina right across the river- it's really quite amazing as on the Paraguayan side there is not much to see except a few run down houses and boats, young people parked along the river playing their music as loud as possible and, and garbage, and on the Argentinean side, while you can't see details of, you can see that Posadas is much more developed and has an amazing skyline complete with skyscrapers, restaurants, and dance clubs along the water. Needless to say, it is quite a contrast....

I think I got really lucky on my volunteer visit because the girl I stayed with was also from California (southern California, but California nonetheless), she's a vegetarian and she was super sarcastic, which, as you all know, I always appreciate. Clearly the training facilitators put some thought into matching trainees with volunteers......Sunday we went to the local soccer game, as I mentioned above, and then Monday began the rain. It rained all day, which I've come to find out means that nothing actually happens in real life because everyone is suddenly paralyzed. Students don't go to school and people don't come to work- this is a result of the fact that most of the roads aren't paved, and therefore busses aren't able to make their normal routes. Life just kind of gets put on hold until the rain stops. I can only imagine what the boss might say in the U.S. when I come in Wednesday because it's been raining Monday and Tuesday and my excuse is that it was raining...I have a feeling that's not going to fly so I'll take advantage of it here. Long story short, we spent Monday trapped in the house and found ourselves just hanging around and cooking a delicious vegetarian soup, which was great until the electricity went out. This is when we resorted to reading in bed with our headlamps- thank god for REI! Tuesday I went with her to the local high school where I was taken around and introduced to all the classrooms and the introduction consisted of my name, that I was a new Peace Corps volunteer, that I was also from California but that i was not the neighbor of the other volunteer (surprising, i know considering the size of California), and also a vegetarian- i can understand the first two pieces of information being relevant, but really, the last two? Only in paraguay....We then headed over to the municipality building, where i was introduced and then promptly ignored by all seven of the men who work there.....and then I got back on the bus to come back to my training community for some more ice breakers and language learning. Good times!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods! Besos!