Long Weekend Getaway

Once I found out I was coming to Paraguay, Chile immediately jumped to the top of my vacation wish-list. I went to Santiago 5 years ago for my cousin Peter and Sandra’s wedding, and haven’t really seen or stayed in touch with them since. This weekend became a great opportunity to get to know Peter and Sandra better, and meet their kid, Michael!

I arrived in Chile last Thursday (after an overnight in the airport, my favorite, of course). I got in around noon, headed to their place, cleaned up, and then we were off! First stop was a delicious lunch at a Peruvian restaurant, where I tried ceviche (and liked it!) for the first time! Then I headed with Peter to Michael’s day care to pick him up. Not gonna lie, that is one cute kid! It took a while for him to warm up to me, but by the end we were high fiving maniacs!

Michael looking sharp is his new Ao Po'i!

Friday we had a lazy morning, and then headed out for a tour of the Chilean markets. One of Peter and Sandra’s friends is a tour guide there (www.foodychile.com), and we went with him. We saw a flower market, veggie market, fish market, and tried some local cuisine and drinks along the way. That night, I went with Peter to a MICROBREWERY! It had been a loooooong time since I enjoyed delicious beer, and we ran into a guy there who lived in Paraguay for a while and spoke a little Guarani!

Sandra, Peter and I

Terremoto. Why Chileans thought combining Fernet and ice cream would be a good idea baffles me...

Saturday and Sunday were more relaxed days. Highlights include WASHING MY CLOTHES WITH A WASHER, a fun and yummy lunch with Peter and Michael, enjoying delicious red wine, escaping a small mall fire (yea, that happened), drinking coffee & eating too much dessert, and lots of laughs.

Happiness in a machine.

In all honesty, it felt like it was the same as a long weekend getaway in the States. We kept the tourism low key, and it was the company I surrounded myself with that made the trip. Some friends asked me if it was awkward that I didn’t know them very well beforehand, and I thought about it… For many people the trip could have been really awkward! I grew up far away from Peter in the states and we are over 10 years apart, so had nothing in common with each other growing up. I am extremely lucky, however, to have amazing cousins who live interesting lives and are simply easy to be around. Hopefully they felt the same about having me visit!

I will leave you with this quote from Sunday just before leaving:

Me: Michael is being such a good boy right now!

Peter: Yeah, that’s because he’s busy sticking play-doh in his ears…

Little troublemaker...

Ahecha Paraguay

In Guarani, ahecha means I see. As a part of Peace Corps Paraguay, there is a volunteer organized club that lends out cameras for two months at a time to a community. In the kit there are 5 digital cameras and a training manual with how to use it in your site. I signed up months ago, and wrapped up the project last week! I had 12 kids sign up, 10 showed up to the first meeting, and I had 5 who came on a regular basis. At first I was disappointed by the number drop, but it actually worked out better this way since no one had to share their camera.

We had class once a week and an additional one-on-one session every other week where I reviewed the photos with the students. I planned each week with a general theme such as landscapes, portraits, lighting, Paraguayan culture, etc. Sometimes the kids came back with exactly what I wanted, while other times I got pictures of pigs when I asked for landscapes… but hey, better than nothing, I guess! It was great to see the kids get creative, and I think that the regulars really enjoyed the class.

At the end of the 8-week course, we selected the 25 best pictures (5 from each student) to be submitted to Asuncion, where there is an exhibition amongst all the volunteers’ photos. Also, I got those 25 photos printed so I was able to put on a smaller exhibition here in site. We invited family and friends of the students, and I talked about the class and then each student presented their photos, picked their favorite, and said why they liked it. The family and friends liked the pics, and not gonna lie, I was pretty proud of my kids!

Here are my favorite pictures taken by each student:

'Atardecer' by Silvia (16)

'Chulina' by Ramona (16)

'El Rayo del Sol' by Dulcina (12)

'La Rosa Rosada' by Auxi (12)

'Sandra' by Mica (12)

4 of my students after the exhibition with their favorite pictures

1.5 years and 15 countries later...

My brother and I reunited!

Just got back from a quick week-long break, thus, time for an update!

My brother has been in South America for the past 6 months or so, and finally we figured out a time to meet up. It had been over a year and half since we saw each other last -- crazy!! I left Sunday the 28th to head to Asuncion, and then left Monday aiming to arrive at Puerto Iguazu Monday night. I ran into a little hiccup, however, when I missed the last bus to Argentina, and ended up stranded in Ciudad del Este. I ended up sleeping on the floor of the bus terminal... Good times!

Anywho... Tuesday morning I made it to Iguazu easily, and the adventure began. I met up with Doug at the Hostel, and we left pretty quickly to see the falls. We hiked for about 4 hours that day, seeing some of the National Parks' best waterfalls. All were impressive, but definitely the most amazing was the Devil's Throat. Seriously incredible stuff! After the hike we went out for a nice dinner and drank some Argentinian wine (thanks M&D!), and passed out fairly early.

Taking in the view

'Garganta del Diablo' or 'Devil's Throat'

Wednesday, we left Iguazu and headed towards Paraguay. We had a couple more travel woes due to Labor Day (no ferry's were running, buses cancelled, long waits in terminals), and eventually at 2:30am arrived in my site. A looooooong day, but we were both glad to have made it home as opposed to been stuck somewhere else for the night.

Paraguay was very tranquilo, as always. We drank terere with my friends and favorite families, visited the high school and elementary school, made chipa and sopa with a family, relaxed in the hammock, and genuinely enjoyed the campo. He could only stay for 2 days, so it was a quick trip! Saturday morning he was off to Brazil again, and that was that.

Making Chipa

Overall a good break! This month is pretty crazy with coming and goings... After Iguazu, I headed into Asuncion for 2 days for G38's Mid-Service Training, and at the end of May I am off to Chile to visit Peter and Sandra. Busy but fun month!

G38!

Until next time...