So the traveling has begun and it is great to be back out there. I just got back to Buenos Aires from an amazing and relaxing week in the crazy city of Lima Peru. The plan was to go there find Jaron, a friend of mine from LC, and then head off and see other things. But in the end the week flew by and I did not leave the big city for even a moment. Being in Lima was totally crazy because it is the polar opposite of Paraguay. The city of Lima has a population of 7 million people and the country of Paraguay only has 6 million so I was a little overwhelmed at first. I also stayed in a really ritzy part of Lima called Miraflores which was full of American fast food restaurants and had an overall western feel. It was really crazy at first but a really nice break from heat and differences in Paraguay.
I spent most of my week doing nothing at all which was really nice. I ended up meeting up with Jaron which lead to a lot of hours just sitting and catching up and also finding a coffee shop with Scrabble which occupied the majority of our time. I was also able to meet up with a couple of other connections which lead to a lot of time just relaxing wathcing pirated movies, wandering the streets and talking about life and other things. It was the perfect way to spend a week. I did get an opportunity to see some of the sites such as the historic downtown with beautiful old churches, the cool hip neighborhood of Barranco, the art museum and the beautiful beach front cliffs of Miraflores. A lot of people have bad things to say about Lima but I loved it. It is a big city but full of parks, friendly cab drivers and a lot of cool history. Lima reminded me more than anything of how much I love and crave the comforts of home. I found myself with amazing people with whom I felt totally comfortable and it was such a nice feeling.
While discussing home I have big news... I got a job in Portland so I know where I am going to be for at least the next year. I am going to be working with an organization called Adelante Mujeres which works with women Latina immigrants on econoic empowerment and education. I am really excited about the opportunity to work with a small nonprofit in Portland and to use my spanish. So for those of you in Portland I will be back around the 20th of January. For those of you in MN I am going to be back there from the 7th until about the 20th so please be around because I would love to catch up and for those of you in other places come to one of those places so I can see you!!!!
Right now I am awaiting the arrival of the whole Brown clan. They are all somewhere in the air en route to Buenos Aires. We are going to spend a week in Patagonia seeing the sites and then a couple weeks cheering on Zac in an international soccer tournament here in Buenos Aires. It is going to be a wonderful couple of weeks. Happy holidays to everyone and I hope to hear from you soon.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
So in general I have been bad about writing about my experiences here in Paraguay. I find when you live in a place and the majority of your actives are day to day and relatively boring it is hard to write in the blog so I decided that I am going to do a recap through my top moments. Hopefully it will give you an insight as to what it is to live in this hot hot hot country. There is not real order to these they are just things that popped into my head when I was looking back over my experince.
1. When I was returning back from Villa Ygatimi I watched the sun set over the fields with my boss Hugo and it was amazing. The sun was huge and it was one of the most dramatic sunsets I have ever seen. Also it reminds me of spending time with my boss, he is amazing. We could spend hours talking about everyone from same-sex marriage to Sex and City. He also has the lowest voice I have ever heard in my whole life, remind me and I can do an impression for you.
2. Going dancing in Villa Ygatimi. I already talked about this in the entry on the Red Cross but it was simply amazing. To get inside a culture like that and to just dance the night away with my new best friends that I had just met that day.
3. Having lunch spaghetti lunch with Alicia's whole extended family. As with many south American countries family is the cornerstone to life here in Paraguay. Alicia is a friend from Minnesota whose family lives in Asuncion so I have spent a lot of time with them. This day in particular was amazing because I got to just spend the whole afternoon relaxing with her family and talking about this and that and everything else. The people in Paraguay are amazingly friendly and have kept me happy when the 100 degree heat tries to bring me down.
4. Traveling with the Swedish journalist to help them write a story about charcoal on the Brazilian Border in Villa Ygatimi. The production of Charcoal which goes hand in hand with deforestation is a huge deal here in Paraguay. The price of agricultural crops is dropping and there is a great market for charcoal in Brazil so a lot of producers are focusing their energy on charcoal production. In order to make charcoal you need to chop down trees and then burn them in these special ovens for about 8 days. We visited two types of production facilities. The first was an industrial complex where they had 20 ovens and it was run by a Brazilian company. People would simply come and work for the company. As you can imagine the conditions are really bad and they get paid minimally for the work they are doing, but it is the only way they have to make money so they do it. After this we went to a local producer's home that produces charcoal. They simply have one oven back out in their fields and they started to do it because the dad got sick and they needed the extra money to pay medical bills. We spent almost the whole morning just sitting around their house talking and taking pictures and seeing what they life is like. It is amazing how hard people are willing to fight even when everything in the world is against them. Overall this was amazing an experience because it was totally different and also opened my eyes to a very real and important issue here in Paraguay.
5. Spending a weekend with Stephi in Reserva Mbaracayu- this is the second largest nature reserve in Paraguay and it is located right outside of Villa Ygatimi. We decided to head out there for the weekend and it was great. We stayed in a guest house made for a king and got to explore the beautiful untouched wilderness. I thought that Ygatimi.
6. Working the Front Desk at the first annual Conference on self-sustaining agricultural schools. The Fundacion put on an international conference and I got to run around working out the details for the whole week, but I also got to meet amazing people. This includes Anthony from Kenya who works with bees and is really passionate about economic development, Warren from Utah who is teaching his students about the non-profit world and how they can make a difference. Mary from Chile who runs a holistic school for children outside of Santiago and oh so many more. It was great to be able to spend a week talking to people who stimulate me so much academically and who have done such amazing things in their lives. It was a great way to end my time here in Paraguay and be able to start dreaming about the future and all the differences that I can make all over the world, really exciting.
7. Counting down the hours with Marcos at Cacupe!!! Every year on the 8th of December Catholics from all over Paraguay come to the town of Cacupe to celebrate a saint and this year I went and worked the Cruz Roja to see the event. I spent the night sitting around with a bunch of Paraguayans and Keith talking about everything and anything and helping people with their exhaustion and blisters. One time there was a woman who felt really weak and couldn't walk to the tent so we went and got here on a stretcher and brought her back. The crowds were totally intense, imagine Grand ole Days times three. So on the way to get her I had to grab onto someone's shirt in order to not loose them and then on the way back they put me in front so I dropped my shoulder and literally had to push people out of the way and people were blowing whistles and the whole deal. It was a really unique experience. Overall it was just amazing the lengths that people went through to participate in this event. People slept on the concrete and cried during the masses, religion is a really powerful thing that I am not sure i will ever understand.
This is just a snapshot of the things that I had the opportunity to do while living in the Heart of South America. This country has taught me how there are a lot of amazing things to see and do even in a place that is pretty boring at first. So now I am heading out of the oven and back to the traveling thing for a while!!!!
1. When I was returning back from Villa Ygatimi I watched the sun set over the fields with my boss Hugo and it was amazing. The sun was huge and it was one of the most dramatic sunsets I have ever seen. Also it reminds me of spending time with my boss, he is amazing. We could spend hours talking about everyone from same-sex marriage to Sex and City. He also has the lowest voice I have ever heard in my whole life, remind me and I can do an impression for you.
2. Going dancing in Villa Ygatimi. I already talked about this in the entry on the Red Cross but it was simply amazing. To get inside a culture like that and to just dance the night away with my new best friends that I had just met that day.
3. Having lunch spaghetti lunch with Alicia's whole extended family. As with many south American countries family is the cornerstone to life here in Paraguay. Alicia is a friend from Minnesota whose family lives in Asuncion so I have spent a lot of time with them. This day in particular was amazing because I got to just spend the whole afternoon relaxing with her family and talking about this and that and everything else. The people in Paraguay are amazingly friendly and have kept me happy when the 100 degree heat tries to bring me down.
4. Traveling with the Swedish journalist to help them write a story about charcoal on the Brazilian Border in Villa Ygatimi. The production of Charcoal which goes hand in hand with deforestation is a huge deal here in Paraguay. The price of agricultural crops is dropping and there is a great market for charcoal in Brazil so a lot of producers are focusing their energy on charcoal production. In order to make charcoal you need to chop down trees and then burn them in these special ovens for about 8 days. We visited two types of production facilities. The first was an industrial complex where they had 20 ovens and it was run by a Brazilian company. People would simply come and work for the company. As you can imagine the conditions are really bad and they get paid minimally for the work they are doing, but it is the only way they have to make money so they do it. After this we went to a local producer's home that produces charcoal. They simply have one oven back out in their fields and they started to do it because the dad got sick and they needed the extra money to pay medical bills. We spent almost the whole morning just sitting around their house talking and taking pictures and seeing what they life is like. It is amazing how hard people are willing to fight even when everything in the world is against them. Overall this was amazing an experience because it was totally different and also opened my eyes to a very real and important issue here in Paraguay.
5. Spending a weekend with Stephi in Reserva Mbaracayu- this is the second largest nature reserve in Paraguay and it is located right outside of Villa Ygatimi. We decided to head out there for the weekend and it was great. We stayed in a guest house made for a king and got to explore the beautiful untouched wilderness. I thought that Ygatimi.
6. Working the Front Desk at the first annual Conference on self-sustaining agricultural schools. The Fundacion put on an international conference and I got to run around working out the details for the whole week, but I also got to meet amazing people. This includes Anthony from Kenya who works with bees and is really passionate about economic development, Warren from Utah who is teaching his students about the non-profit world and how they can make a difference. Mary from Chile who runs a holistic school for children outside of Santiago and oh so many more. It was great to be able to spend a week talking to people who stimulate me so much academically and who have done such amazing things in their lives. It was a great way to end my time here in Paraguay and be able to start dreaming about the future and all the differences that I can make all over the world, really exciting.
7. Counting down the hours with Marcos at Cacupe!!! Every year on the 8th of December Catholics from all over Paraguay come to the town of Cacupe to celebrate a saint and this year I went and worked the Cruz Roja to see the event. I spent the night sitting around with a bunch of Paraguayans and Keith talking about everything and anything and helping people with their exhaustion and blisters. One time there was a woman who felt really weak and couldn't walk to the tent so we went and got here on a stretcher and brought her back. The crowds were totally intense, imagine Grand ole Days times three. So on the way to get her I had to grab onto someone's shirt in order to not loose them and then on the way back they put me in front so I dropped my shoulder and literally had to push people out of the way and people were blowing whistles and the whole deal. It was a really unique experience. Overall it was just amazing the lengths that people went through to participate in this event. People slept on the concrete and cried during the masses, religion is a really powerful thing that I am not sure i will ever understand.
This is just a snapshot of the things that I had the opportunity to do while living in the Heart of South America. This country has taught me how there are a lot of amazing things to see and do even in a place that is pretty boring at first. So now I am heading out of the oven and back to the traveling thing for a while!!!!
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