Sorry I haven’t written another blog post for about a month
now; things have just been very busy and crazy lately. This past month though seems like it has been
a transitional time with many different aspects here in Paraguay so I figured
that this post will cover a few different aspects of change.
As the United States is gearing up for Spring and warmer
weather we are preparing for Fall. We
have had an increase in storms and rain as well as a cooling down of the
temperatures which has just been fantastic.
I have really loved the weather with it cooling down nicely most nights
but warming up during the day. Also the
storms here are just fantastic with great amounts of thunder and lightning so
have provided for much entertainment, at least for me, most Paraguayan’s I know
don’t like storms. Unfortunately though
with the storms come a loss of electricity and water which has lasted for just
a couple of hours to a couple of days. Also
with the US springing forward and Paraguay falling back I am now only one hour
difference from home and now on east coast time. This is a lot better than the three hour time
difference that we had before and makes it a lot easier to communicate with
everyone back home.
Also this month I have had even more problems with my housing
situation here in site. So as of right
now I am still trying to get my housing situation taken care of and working
closely with PC and others in my community to try and get this figured out. I have to say by far though since I have been
in Paraguay this housing situation has been my biggest source of stress. I know that it will all work out in the end
but at this point it is all out of my control so I am just trying to take it
day by day. Don’t get me wrong, I love
my host family here in my community but so far I have been living with three
different host families for the last six months and have been living out of a
suitcase, so needless to say it is starting to get old. I am just looking forward to having my own
space and being able to cook for myself and to set my own schedule. I will keep you posted though as I figure
stuff out, which should hopefully be sometime within the next couple of weeks!
As many of you have probably already heard we lost a PCV
down here in Paraguay this past week on the 25th. His name was Porter Knight and he was from
the other environmental group (G-40) that is serving down here in Paraguay and
will be finishing up and leaving Paraguay this Nov-Dec. I visited Porter my first month in country
for PCV visit so I stayed with him and his host family for a week. I encourage you to go back through my blog
post from that week called 3 de Noviembre which was the name of his site. I had a wonderful time at his beautiful site
and met a lot of wonderful people; Porter also had some great projects going on
there and was very passionate about what he was doing.
Porter’s death has been a shock to all of us down here and
around the PC community worldwide. I can
honestly say that this is just not something that I ever imagined having to
deal with when I joined PC and not something that is even common among PCV’s
worldwide. Sadly though it was a very
tragic death and they are still trying to figure out exactly what happened. PCV’s and PC staff, as well as many others
from all over the world have been pouring in letters, posts, and words of
encouragement this week and it is just great to realize that even though I am a
PCV in Paraguay I am part of a much larger family that is spread around the
globe.
This week on April 2nd we will be holding a
memorial service for him in the PC office with volunteers coming in from all
throughout the country. I think this
will be a great time to just remember Porter and all he brought to Paraguay and
his community as well as share stories and just to comfort each other. Some of his friends from his G are also
putting together a wonderful video full of pictures and remembrances from
people down here to send to his family back home. I just can’t even begin to imagine what his
family is going through back home as well as his community here in
Paraguay. He was very well respected and
loved in his community and I know they are also in shock and trying to move on.
So as you can tell March has just been a month
of change from the wonderful change in weather to the tragic death of a
friend. I have decided to share some
picture below from this month, so please enjoy.
These first three pictures show some of the wonderful food
that we have coming in this late summer/fall time. We have just had endless avocados it seems
like just falling from the sky. So one
day I made my family some great guacamole which they loved and had never tried
before. I have learned that they don’t
eat many avocados and when they do they just eat them with sugar. At first they were timid to try the guacamole
but once one person tried it and liked it they all soon followed suit. Also the avocados here are HUGE and about the
size of my hand. Since we have had so
many falling I decided to try and freeze them (recommendation from FB friends)
so I figured I would give it a try. We
just have so many more falling than we could eat so I will try using them as a
butter substitute in cooking.
The sunsets lately have just been outstanding with the
storms coming through and then leaving behind some breathtaking sunsets.
The next pictures is just a flower that has been
blooming recently around my community.
The next two pictures are of some insect larva and insects I
have found around my community for you insect lovers out there.
This
is a picture of one of our many rain storms here in site. I am just amazed at how fast the rain storms
come in and then drop A LOT of rain before quickly heading back out.
I know that it is hard (if not impossible to see this on the
computer) but there was a beautiful rainbow after our big storm that came
through and I was trying to get a picture of it.
This is a picture of one of those cool mornings and after my
mom had made breakfast on the wood stove all of the dogs were fighting over
space underneath the stove to get warm.
I have also included two pictures that I had taken when I
was visiting Porter at his site in October.
The first one is of him after we had picked a bunch of peaches and the
second is a picture of a beautiful sunset from his front porch. Although he isn’t with us anymore I have lots
of wonderful memories of him here in Paraguay and will be remembering him
throughout my service as a constant reminder of how precious and fragile life
is, but at the same time how he did and how I can make a difference here in
Paraguay, no matter how large or small.
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