Pictures? Check post below as well.

Sunsets in Paraguay are beautiful. Sadly I couldnt capture them well... but EVERYnight, unless it is cloudy, there is a gorgeous sunset. The sky is painted every shade of pink, orange, yellow, purple, a great way to end the day.





This is what I walk through to class every day. This first picture is of a ´backy field like back in NC.....Jealous of the view? I never get sick of it. The light is so bright, it is wonderful.






This is my family, from the left is Andres...who is Lurdes boyfriend. Lurdes, in the black is my aunt she is holding Omar. The older woman in the back in the white is one of my grandmothers. The man standing is Crispin, my dad. my mom is hiding behind Hilda, abuela who is holding bro number 2 Bauti, who is 2.





Tatakuaa. this is the outdoor oven where they cook special foods. In the front is Sopa Paraguay, basically really really rich cornbread. in the back is a pan of pork, beef, and chicken for mi mamas bday.

This is Omar...Omar oreko 4 año, Omar likes to scream and cry and touch everything I own. Still, Omar is the man.

Que tallllllll

Yo yo yo,

Finally got internet! ANDDDD I was able to get pics on this computer so lets hope I can blog it.Life is good...always exhausting, sometimes frustrating, never dull. Terere is awesome, it needs to be spread around the US. I voted the other week.....wrote Bush in, SYKE. I hear obama is doing well? Opama in guarani means finished so i dont know if that is good or bad. Guarani is getting better by the day, we are learning all types of agricultural techniques...learned how to keep bees, pigs, have chicks that we will keep and then once they are ready we will give to our family. There are these awesome stingless tiny bees called Jata'î which dont produce a ton of honey but its super rico and expensive. They basically need no help with the colony and are easy to maintain. Still havnt gotten sick. Mangos are getting plump....que riccoooo. Okay, time to try these pics.

Caaguazu

So, Im sitting in a small cyber in the district of Caaguazu. I didnt think I would have time to hit up the internet on my long volunteer stay but i guess I lucked out. To get here I woke up at 3 30am to catch a 415 bus into asuncion and then get a ticket for the 6am to caaguazu, a 6hour bus ride. I met the volunteer, Stepehen, right at the cruce (bus stop) in the pueblo of rutai. It is literally the middle of nowhere but I really enjoy it! He has some electricity but no running water. Honestly, taking a shower and doing everyday things without water aint that bad. It´s good to know I can do a lot of things...like manage my way to the middle of fucking nowhere on my own in a foreign country AND take a dump slash shower without water. The people in his community are super nice and we walked around on a hot hot day and chatted with them all. I was surprised at how much of the convo I could understand. basically I know what they are saying I just have trouble responding in Guarani.
Anyways, today we got some pizza at this place owned by a menenite immigrant, actually pretty damn good. Im pretty gross right now...walking many many kilometers in super hot dusty roads.
Life in the campo is super tranquilo, lots of sitting under shade and terereing.

I finally ate something I could not actually eat....queso paraguay. The only cheese here. Basically it is rotten milk in cheese form, i know i know cheese IS rotten milk but this shit is NASTY. I ate a tiny piece and handed it right over to my sister. Lo siento abuela.

Im in Caaguazu till Tuesday and then it is back to class.

Time to get home and take a shower with cold water.
Jajotopata!

ryguasu chivivi

Mbae teko.
Today I am in Asuncion, about an hour from my little village. We were given different objectives and places to go to in San Lorenzo and Asuncion. I was told to go to the minstry of Agriculture and the University of Asuncion to ask about apiculture (beekeeping). The bus system here is pretty good...cheap and they drop you off anywhere on the road. I didnt get lost and was not pickpocketed. I had extra time in Asuncion so I am able to sit in this tiny cyber cafe. Afterwards ill get some lunch and hit the peace corps office.
Life in the village is good..havnt gotten sick yet. Food is heavy cream sauce, rice, mandio (cassava), spaghetti. When I get meat it is usually chewey beef, vegetables are really good. Excellent tomates ha pakova (nanners). The eggs are amazing, they are usually just found outside left by the neighborhood chickens. The yolk is bright orange and muy muy rico! I went out the other night with my aunt and her bf to Ita, which is a bigger city by my home and got a hamburger: beef burger, fried egg, lettuce, tomate, ham, cheese. Super rico. We got to visit a beekeeping site and I had my first dose of thousands and thousands of angry africanizd bees. Didnt get stung.
Saturday I visit a volunteer about 5 hours away so that should be fun. Paraguay has a big futbol match against Colombia so I expect some serious partying.

I was going to upload some pictures but I wasnt expecting to get to a computer today so maybe next time I can post a few. The weather has be great, a bit chilly at night and around 70s during the day. But they say soon it will get HOT...bring it on. Still havnt gotten sick, I think India made me a hardened traveller. My guarani is getting better by the day, in fact my family is a bit surprised at how quickly I am picking it up. Still, I can barely form sentences. It is very interesting...for instance, if you are asking a question you add Pa to the end of the noun. for instance: Mboy añopa nde rereko = how old are you...literally How many yearsquestion you youhave. Not terribly hard but still tricky.
My family is great, I make them laugh and I usually understand most of what they say. The two little boys are loud and a handful......but I always put on a smile. They call me tio david...thats right....uncle dave! I need to get going . Jajotopata!!

ps. the tittle of this post, yguasu chivivi, is sort of an inside joke in our group of crop extensionists, it literally translates to chicken diarhea. I appologize for my spelling, the more I learn spanish and guarani the worse my english gets.

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.