Mbae la porte

Hola todos, que tal?¿? Things in paraguay are going well so far. Basically to sum up each day, I wake up at six, eat a pakova (banana in gaurani) drink mate, go to class for four hours and learn guarani, have a mega lunch, go back to school for either guarani or tech training. My brain wants to explode with all this info, it is insane...muy muy loco (tarová) I go to bed at around 9 or 10 because im so exhausted. My family feeds me too much food, I will come back muy gordo. I speak as much guarani with my family as posible and they laugh at my pronounciaton while I laugh at their english....fair trade. Food is good, weather is good, ate my first mystery mammal meat.....tasted fishy but still quite rico. I drink mate all the time and terere...terere is the cold version of mate its fantastico. No digestive problems yet....gracias dio. Guarani is an odd language....Y is pronounced like UGH but in the middle of your throat. any letter with an accent means it should be spoken nasally...so it gets complicated like yryryru...which means trashcan. or Eguapyké which means have a seat. I study all day and think Im getting pretty decent at the basics but still....muy muy hasy (dificil). Okay, it is getting dark and I need to catch the micro (autobus). Hope everyone is having fun in america... I hear the economy is fantastico!!!! chau todos.

David

Mbaechapa!

Hola todos! or should I say Mbaechapa. I made it here safely and had a few seconds in a cyber cafe. Paraguay is amazing, it is spring time and the weather is fantastic. I live with a mother and father, two lil bros, one sister and one grandmother. All are pretty awesome. We have a huge mango tree in the front yard and cows, chickens, dogs etc. This place is great. We have been working hard the past couple days, mainly cultural adjustment classes y a bit of guarani, it is an amazingly beautiufl language and not THAT hard to learn but it has some odd guttural sounds. Honestly, I think that because I can sort of speak hebrew (at least pronounce the words) is helping me out a lot. Presidente Lugo was on my flight from sao paolo to asuncion...pretty baller eh?? A real president takes flights with his people!! I miss america, but am loving every bit of it here. Mate is pretty damn good and gives me the buzz i need yet not quite as crack-ish as the sweet sweet espresso. My fellow voluntarios are pretty damn cool if I may say so, one is from Brevard NC but the rest are from all over.

I wake up every day around 6ish...or 5ish since that is when the roosters crow. We have a light breakfast of pan y mate. I miss working out. Paraguayan women are pretty hot so far...no esposa yet. I must run, but I miss you all and love all. Take care!

chao! (thats how it is written down here)

David

First Blog

So this is my first blog of my Peace Corps adventure. Tomorrow I leave for the Peace Corps - first to Miami for a brief orientation and then to Paraguay. I will use this blog as a pseudo-online journal where I can keep you all updated on my experience and also post pictures. I expect that I wont have a lot of time on a computer so if you do email me I might respond through this blog instead of individual emails. Feel free to comment on the blog whenever you would like and send the link around to those you think would be interested in following my adventure.

Thanks to everyone who came out to my going away party Saturday night, it was a wonderful time and I could not have asked for a better group of friends to be there. What a send off! (For those interested, my mother will be giving private lessons on how to kick ass at beerpong.)

For those of you that may want to send me snail mail the address is:

David Suchoff, PCT (for trainee)

Cuerpo de Paz

162 Chaco Boreal c/Mcal. López

Asunción 1580, Paraguay

South America

Be warned that packages/letters do take a while to get there and that there is the possibility of things being stolen, so don't send anything too valuable.