Last weekend, a group of 13 of us rented some mini vans and drove across Paraguay to the "Triple Frontera," the place where Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina meet. At the Argentina/Brazil border is this national park, one of the "new" 7 wonders of the world. Most of us participated in the 2nd annual half marathon or 10k run and then spent the rest of the weekend viewing the waterfalls. We had our first successful driving adventure in Paraguay without any major mishaps. The photos can't capture the roar of the falls or the mist on your face or the amazing site of thousands of gallons of water flowing over the rocks, but here they are!
Spider monkey
Our new teacher group at the entrance to "The Devils Throat"
At the Devils Throat viewing platform
This was a sign warning you not to feed the coatis or other animals. We're not really sure what this picture was all about.
A river beach near the town of Villa Floridia, a popular vacation destination on the banks of the Tebicuary River.
A more remote estuary near the town of Paso de Patria and the confluence of the Paraguay and Parana rivers.
The cemetery in Paso de Patria. Small towns in Paraguay often feature an impressive cemetery, park, war museum and little else. Cows and chickens are abundant.
The bridge to Villa Florida. Burning of trash and ag waste,while quite unpleasant often enhances the sunsets and can create an "Apocalypse Now" sort of ambiance.
We enjoyed our first live soccer experience at the Defensadores Del Chaco stadium in Asuncion. Paraguay played Argentina, our long time rival. They have already beaten PY in a World Cup qualifier and pretty much dashed our hopes of seeing PY in the World Cup. Soccer fans here do not waver in their support of their teams, even when they lose. The stadium was packed with over 30,000 people dressed in red and white stripes to support our National Team.
Looking out across the field during the national anthem. Sorry for the bad picture!
Our new teacher friends Ali, Adrianne, and Beau
We began our evening at a delicious lomito (meat sandwich or wrap) stand and hung around drinking beers for while. You cannot take beer or other bottles of anything into the stadium, nor can you buy beer there, in an attempt to not add fuel to an already fired up crowd.
We lost 5-2, but it was a fun experience to be a part of. And we got to see the very famous Messi play for Argentina!
One of the the things I'm loving about my new job is how much attention is given to "fun" things. I can see some problematic things with this approach, but I have to say that I'm enjoying the amount of "levity." (as my previous principal would say). There are no attendance problems due to lack of motivation here-kids want to come to school.
One of these fun things includes a "Lock In." All the students and teachers sleep at the school and the 24 hour period is filled with team building, competition, entertainment, and sports. Students are broken into teams of advisories, each team have a group of 6th, 7th and 8th graders. I'm an 8th grade adviser. I was the blue team, or "Azul Fuera." We hired a company to do the evening team building activities, then the teachers took over. Here's some of the team building activities:
Next, each advisory class had to create a skit and a song/dance routine to perform for the school. We had been practicing these for over two weeks. Our skit was called "Helping Hands," which essentially was a way to embarrass Ms. Fowler. The skit goes like this: 4 of us (3 students and myself) sat in chairs and put on a long sleeve, button up shirt backwards. Two students then put one arm each through the arms of the shirt. They become the "helping hands." Our plot was that we were getting ready for a "Quince," a 15th birthday party. Our stylist then told each of us what we needed to do to look great for the Quince. Our "Hands" then helped us do this thing. My beauty rituals included getting my hair brushed, brushing my teeth, and putting on lipstick. The other three participants were boys and their beauty routine included shaving. My "hands" at the last minute decided maybe I should get a shave as well. Here's the results:
Of course, it was hilarious and we won the competition.
We also danced, to a Guarani (Paraguayan indigenous language) version of Gangham style. And yes, I looked like a fool.
We watched "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," then went to bed around 2 am. Well, some people went to bed. Most of the kids were up all night. This resulted in some pretty unmotivated kids the next day.
The next day was spent working on service learning projects, eating asado (barbeque) and having a sports competition. Blue team captured the trophy in the end and we all went home and slept!
