Alright. Gotta make this one brief. Im going to a meeting at Plan Paraguay with some volunteers. Plan is a NGO that does the adopt a child type program, but they also have lots of surplus cash which they use for projects like school gardens etc. We are planning on doing some type of Earth Day festival in Santani with Plan. After that Im back to the community to work in the school garden.
Whats new? Well, im eating well. As my act of rebellion against paraguayan food and the last sixish months of eating it, I eat almost all raw vegetables...lots of salads and beans. I also have been cooking soy since it is cheap, abundant and way way better than the grissle. For example, yesterday for lunch I made a salad of cabbage, carrots, beets, avocado (huge tree in the neighbors yard), tomato, and a dressing made of some soy sauce, fresh squeezed lime, coriander seeds, pepper, and a bit of honey. It was a true delight. The paraguayans looked at it in utter disgust. "David, are you really going to eat that?" "You know if you eat those together you might die" "You are crazy" Yes...I am crazy, but let me tell you...that salad was the best thing Ive eaten here in a long time. I fed it to some of my friends and they loved it, their eyes lit up.
So far Ive made yogurt, paneer, and currently I have mead fermenting. For those that dont know, mead is the ancient fermented honey brew. Im really excited. Im always thinking of things to make, it makes those slow days go by faster.
It´s still hot...whats up with that? I keep asking my neighbors "Where is autumn??" Soon it will come. We shall see. Oh, UNC is in the final four...so so awesome. They most certainly will win. Sadly I wont be able to jump over any fires on Franklin street. Maybe I will start one in the middle of my road and jump over it that night? That would certainly seal the deal for the Paraguayans that I AM crazy!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
Ah to live alone
Life is good. I live in my own house, eat my OWN FOOD (best part) and don´t have to hear any crazy Paraguayan woman in the room next to me screaming at the pigs or whatever.
So far I have been living in my house for a week and it has been good. I wake up at around 5:45, make myself a delicious breakfast of oatmeal with freshly harvested honey and a cup of dark Driade coffee. I go outside on my little porch and watch the sun rise while I eat, it is amazing. Prior to this I would be woken up at around 3ish by the screams of the lady I was living with, eat a breakfast of cocido...which is just hot milk with mate and sugar in it with a roll of stale bread. Yea.....I think you could say I´m in a better situation now.
The weather is cooling down, though today is a hot one in the 90s. I have been working a lot in my garden, things are starting to sprout. Im also working with other Paraguayans, mainly the women, in their gardens since the men do the field work and the wives do the garden work.
My body feels good...im not eating all that fried stuff nor grissle, nor the bad rice or pasta. Im slowly getting back into shape but it is slow going. Here is the scary thing.....sometimes I crave those fried tortillas. I dont like that. Now that I can cook I try to share what I make with Paraguayans to open up their palate. Most of the time they are just weirded out by the food. For instance, I made Guacamole the other day and they were totally grossed out by it. They eat Avocados with sugar or make a juice from it with milk and sugar so the idea of a savory dish with Avocados, garlic etc. totally grossed them out. However, some ate it and actually liked it. They love the oatmeal and some are already buying it to eat for breakfast. I consider this a healthy eating victory, since usually they would just eat cocido for breakfast or tortillas and mandio.
I finished Zen and the art of motorcycle maintanance, which was a great book. There were parts that were over my head, but overall it was amazing....definitely gets you thinking. Now I am reading a book on the rainforests of the world. The book is kind of a downer since it talks mainly about the devastation happening to the land and the people living in it, but it is still a good book and makes me want to visit the Amazon even more! By the way, those who are interested in visiting the Amazon rainforest just let me know...I most definitely plan on going on a travel down the river and into the jungle.
So far I have been living in my house for a week and it has been good. I wake up at around 5:45, make myself a delicious breakfast of oatmeal with freshly harvested honey and a cup of dark Driade coffee. I go outside on my little porch and watch the sun rise while I eat, it is amazing. Prior to this I would be woken up at around 3ish by the screams of the lady I was living with, eat a breakfast of cocido...which is just hot milk with mate and sugar in it with a roll of stale bread. Yea.....I think you could say I´m in a better situation now.
The weather is cooling down, though today is a hot one in the 90s. I have been working a lot in my garden, things are starting to sprout. Im also working with other Paraguayans, mainly the women, in their gardens since the men do the field work and the wives do the garden work.
My body feels good...im not eating all that fried stuff nor grissle, nor the bad rice or pasta. Im slowly getting back into shape but it is slow going. Here is the scary thing.....sometimes I crave those fried tortillas. I dont like that. Now that I can cook I try to share what I make with Paraguayans to open up their palate. Most of the time they are just weirded out by the food. For instance, I made Guacamole the other day and they were totally grossed out by it. They eat Avocados with sugar or make a juice from it with milk and sugar so the idea of a savory dish with Avocados, garlic etc. totally grossed them out. However, some ate it and actually liked it. They love the oatmeal and some are already buying it to eat for breakfast. I consider this a healthy eating victory, since usually they would just eat cocido for breakfast or tortillas and mandio.
I finished Zen and the art of motorcycle maintanance, which was a great book. There were parts that were over my head, but overall it was amazing....definitely gets you thinking. Now I am reading a book on the rainforests of the world. The book is kind of a downer since it talks mainly about the devastation happening to the land and the people living in it, but it is still a good book and makes me want to visit the Amazon even more! By the way, those who are interested in visiting the Amazon rainforest just let me know...I most definitely plan on going on a travel down the river and into the jungle.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Little house in the campo
This is it...my little mandarine house. It is awesome
If you open the door you can see my wee little bed, from the bed you can see my fridge and shower.
Hey it´s my own fridge!! Notice that there is nothing in it but who cares. (Yes, I really am that dark)
My shower...kinda creepy.
My Garden.
Sorry it has taken so long to write but Ive been busy FINISHING MY HOUSE! Yes...that is correct, the house is done. Uncle d is living in HIS house, alone, by himself...eating his own food without salt, without sugar and most definitely without grease and grissle. This is the life. I came into Santani today to get stuff for the house such as blankets, cooking stuff etc. Im almost broke but PC will be paying me soon I think. As a side note, im being taxed on my living allowance .....which the government gives me to basically do government work, something doesn´t seem right there but Ill keep my mouth shut because I´m certain they are reading this. Hermano grande esta mirando, or in Guarani Ermano ituichava omañahina.
Anyways, back to the house. It is small but just enough. Sleeping in it is wonderful, there are these ants that sometimes bite me at night but I never have to hear any loud woman screaming, or some guy blasting music at 5am... it really is awesome. Though I will say that the first two days in my house I got a viral infection of...you guessed it, the gut. It was rough....real rough. Uncle d was down for the count. But Im all better now.
Anyways, I bought a new refrigerator, I have a little hotplate stove and a shower. I have hot water. In Paraguay they have these electric shower heads that heat the water when it comes out of the pipe. Definitely dangerous, but oh so good. Im using the neighbors latrine for the time being, my next project will be a latrine of my own, maybe even a composting latrine.
What else happening down here. It is kind of cooling down, days in the lower 90s. You Americans may cringe at that, but to me it is quite nice. Im almost done with Zen and the art of motorcycle maintanence, definitely a good book. Sesame is all about done. Lots and lots of people are striking, making road blocks because they are pissed about the price. Right now it is about 3000G a kilo, last year it was 8000G. They want the government to give them money but it isnt looking too great.
Thats all for now, Ive got a house calling my name. Oh, by the way, for those that dont know...Im actually going to be uncle dave sometime in August.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)