Pictures and what not

Im back from long field practice. We went to La Colmena again where Joel, the volunteer, is finishing up his two years. Joel is a funny guy and a great volunteer, it was a fun time. Also, La Colmena is a beautiful, beautiful place. I took some pictures from the house I was staying at, breathtaking. I stayed with Don Maximo, his wife who everyone called De la Paz, and their 14 year old son Jorge. We worked out in Joel´s demo plot where he had planted different types of abonos verdes (green manures) as well as worked on this one guys field. We did curvas de nivel, which is countour planting, we made the curves using A frames and then hoed, and planted Pasto Camaroon which is a great forage plant for cows and also Kumanda Yvyra´i which is a nitrogen fixing legume that forms a small tree. Food was good, lots of fresh vegetables. However, Thursday during lunch I got a big bowl of steaming organs...I couldnt figure out WHAT it was until I asked Joel later. Turned out it was a big bowl of Cow livers.......yum. I couldnt finish it because i KNEW it was something from the depths of the cows insides. Didnt taste terrible though. I bathed in a creek a little ways from the house and man was it cold, but very refreshing! This was my first time using a latrine also...its kind of hard getting the squat just right.

This wednesday I will find out where my site will be, where i will spend the next two years! how exciting.

Every now and then I get homesick...I remember chapel hill and what a great city it is. But, I am having a great time here and couldnt imagine being anywhere else. Ive been reading a lot too, I finished three books in two weeks. Though now I think Im going to focus more on Guarani and less pleasure reading.

Mangoes are starting to get ripe, im very excited about that!
Okay, picture time.

Kankles!!!! Ahhh bees! My feet are fine now. How gross is that?




This is the view from my house in the peublo, I would sit here and read. Jealous?


Che familia. Don Maximo, De la paz, ha Jorge. They arent very good with having their pictures taken but are super awesome people!


This is the Kururu(toad) that stayed in my room. I named him Arlo. He was fat, but very tranquilo. People here are afraid of them and I cant understand why. He was a good roommate.

Rainy Sunday

I had some time this morning to head to Ita and use the internet cafe. It´s a rainy day...it always seems to rain on the weekends for some reason. Anyways, I took a picture of my super swollen feet but I cant seem to upload it so you all will just have to wait in suspense....it aint pretty. Tomorrow we leave for long field practice. We will be visiting a volunteer for the week and working with him and his community. My group will be giving a charla on venenos caseros....homemade pesticides. It should be interesting considering that it will be our first in guarani. Anyways, my feet are fine now. I was given some allegra since I had such a strong allergic reaction and that took care of it. I think I jinxed myself about getting sick. This Friday I woke up feeling terrible and realized that I had food poisoning. I wont go into details but it was not pretty. I was laid out the entire day with absolutely no energy and a VERY high fever. I havnt had a fever that high since I was young. Ndaipori problema (no problems) I was back to normal the next day, though my taste for Paraguayan food has diminished even more. Last Thursday we went to this amazing little farm, about 3 hectares in size. The family was practicing more or less a permaculture system. They had crops which they ate as well as feed their animals. Pigs which ate the crops and whose manure they used in a biodigester which fermented their shit into methane which they use to cook with. They had rabbits for food and also manure for their crops. A vermiculture setup so the worms ate the compost and rabbit manure which was then given to the plants. Cows which also ate the crops. Afterwards they gave us some of their products...different jams and yogurt...the yoghurt was amazing! It was very inspiring and interesting to see all these systems working together on such a relatively small plot of land but they made it work. We learned how to make yoghurt...which is actually quite simple as well as cheese. Im going to make yoghurt soon. Ive been reading a lot on my down time. I think my mind has been starved for that type of entertainment because when I read I read fast and nonstop. Ive read 3 books in two weeks. And it´s not like I have a ton of free time either.
Ahatama (im going to go) jajotopata!

Kankles

Hey all. So, week 6...almost done with training. Next week we do a weeklong visit to a volunteer and see what volunteer life is all about. Things are going well...got sick with ghiardia(sp?) but im doing fine now. Guarani is getting better by the day, though I kind of hit a wall for a bit before it started getting better. I have two stories relating to bugs (bichos) and one relates to the title of my post.
1. Two weeks ago it was super hot...like REALLY hot. I was sleeping with the fan full blast on me. Around 1230 the power went out and I woke up, immediately it was 90 degrees and humid..how terrible. But, it gets worse. Slowly I heard a horrible sound......the sound of SWARMS of mosquitoes slowly encroaching on me. Luckily I was under a mosquito net,, but I could NOT sleep. Then, sweet relief....the power came back on. Fucking mosquitoes.

2. Yesterday we were working with bees, we were checking out some hives and just doing some basic beekeeping practices. All of a sudden I got stung on my lower ankle. I had my pants tucked into my socks and it turns out that bees dont like wool socks...that are dark green. They had figured out they could sting through the sock and into my ankle. So on stung me. It hurt. The thing that sucks most about stings is that they let off a pheromone that tells others to come sting that spot. So a mini swarm came to my foot, I tried to smoke them away...the smoke covers up the pheromone. On a side note, we use dried cow shit as our smoking material so it was the best of smells. Anyways, another stung me....then another on the other ankle. I got away and luckily I didnt get anymore but I did start to freak out. Today I woke up and my ankles are HUGE, as well as my feet. So I now have kankles. Super lame. Ill try to take a pic if possible.

Alright, time to get out of here.
Suerte,
David