Habitat for Humanity

Now that we're settled, we have started working on ways to be involved in the place that we now call home.  We decided to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity for a day to see if it might be something we can do on a more long term basis as well.  Housing is far from adequate for most people in this country and this seemed like a perfect place to share our time and energy.

Some facts about housing in PY:

In Asunción and other large cities, one out of every three families rents or lives in a borrowed home. Fifty percent of the homes in Paraguay suffer from inadequate conditions, such as:

• 23% of homes are overcrowded.
• 24% have no floor.
• 20% are living in areas such as street curbs, parks, private property or along rivers
• Only 50% of the urban population, and less than 40% of the rural, has access to public water services.
• Only 34% of the population has access to waste collection services, resulting in a severe sanitation crisis and high infant mortality rate

In Latin America and the Caribbean, Paraguay  ranks second in unequal distribution of wealth. While the country has had positive economic growth in recent years, this growth has not diminished the extreme poverty suffered by much of its population.  Most people here live on less than $1 a day.  We are definitely in the privileged class here, although far from the extravagant wealth of some of the families associated with my school.  The economic disparity here is pretty obvious.

after

Before

Matt working on his "ladder."  Definitely not OHSA approved.

 The program builds the house with the help of volunteers and the owners of the future home.  The organization essentially offers a loan (but with far more favorable conditions than a bank) that the owners pay back in the future.   The owner of the home we worked on was named Sonya and she has two teenage sons who will live with her.  She is currently living in a cramped apartment with 5 other people in downtown.  She was incredibly gracious and kind, and made us a fantastic lunch while we worked. Working alongside her and my friends made me incredibly grateful for the opportunities I have been given and thankful I have a chance to do some small thing to give back.  

Rio De Janerio, Brazil

I traveled to Rio for a Google Apps in Education conference.  I went with two other teachers from my school and learned so many new exciting things I came home exhausted.  I'm already getting to implement many of the things I picked up and am excited to experiment with technology in new and exciting ways..stay tuned for a Google Site with my student's writing from the semester!  I met a lot of other international teachers, something I haven't had the opportunity to do yet and I made some great connections.  I have a date next week with a teacher in Sao Paolo to do a "mystery Skpe" call with our students and might get to meet up with another while we are traveling in Santiago next month.  I also go to explore Rio a bit, although not as much as I had hoped for.  I am looking forward to the opportunity to go back for sure, and next time with Matt! Swimming in the ocean, however chilly, was definitely the high point after 5 months of not seeing the ocean.  I was also humbled immediately when I realized that however good my Spanish is becoming, I cannot speak nor understand a word of Portuguese!

We stayed in Copacabana, very close to the beach.  It rained the first two days, but it was fun anyway!

People were building sand castles all along the beach.  I saw some pretty amazing sculptures.

 

I never thought I would be this excited to see a Starbucks, but after months of sub par coffee, it made my day.

This is the view from the top floor at the Escola Americano de Rio de Janerio, where the conference was.  The favela is called Rosario and is one where they have placed a lot of police presence to clear out drugs in anticipation of the World Cup and the Olympics.  They call this action "pacification." As expected, the reactions to this police action are mixed.

Another picture from the school. You can see the tiny Christ Redeemer on the left. I was definitely jealous of this place!  I would love to go to work here every day.

This is a Caipirinha, the Brazilian national cocktail.  It's made with cachaca (sugar can liquor), sugar and lime.  Not my thing, but I had to try at least one.

We went out one evening to Lapa, a popular neighborhood for dancing and night life.  We watched the samba partner dancers for hours, mesmerized.  The women here dance in 4 inch heels and twirl around at speeds that made me dizzy watching.  This particular club had men that you could learn to dance with, but I was too shy.

View from The Christ Redeemer statue on the hill, overlooking Ipanema.  We stayed up there for over 2 hours, amazed by the view and how it changed as the light changed.  It was fun to see such a big city from up high, especially after the general flatness of Paraguay.

Weird stuff seen in Paraguay part 3

Who knows how many installations of this there may be!

Some things are lost in translation.

Found in a Korean grocery store.  It might be hard to see, but her mascara is smeared from crying!

Psy is everywhere!

In the Paraguayan version of Christmas, Santa is skinny and plays the sax.  

We did not taste this, but I'm not really sure how one would go about eating it.

More Paraguay Photos: Recoleta and Urban Fishing

Wrought Iron exterior of the Eliza Lynch tomb

Remnants of the Paraguayan railroad

Payara from the Lambare neighborhood in Asuncion.  Caught just down stream from one of the larger slum areas in the city.  As you may have noticed, it's not an especially healthy looking fish.

 Ayolas is a medium sized town in southern Paraguay.  It is located on the Parana river near the Yacyretá Dam

Left and below:
 the town dock and beach

Trying unsuccessfully to beat the sunburn while fishing for boga and pira pita on the Parana river. 

Boga

Lunch time.  Just season liberally with salt and use a fork to eat off the grill while kneeling in the forest.

Bike wash in the Parana

Town cemetary:

Villa Florida

Exploring the lagoon in Villa Florida

Life in the PY, or how to not go insane moving to a new country

We've been here going on 4 months.  Time is literally flying. Adjusting to a new culture can be a frustrating (and often rewarding!) experience.  We have had to use a new language every day, figure out how to pay bills, buy things we need, get around (without a car), make new friends, work in a different environment, and generally make a new life in this country.  We had no choice but to jump in head first and make it work for ourselves.  Granted, we've had a lot of help from my colleagues, who have become great friends in a short amount of time.  It has been a relatively easy transition, much easier than I ever expected.   I think that there are a few things about us that make the move to a new culture easier like that we've traveled in Latin America before and seen it's "third world" parts, that we both speak some Spanish (more than we give ourselves credit for sometimes) and that we love adventure.

So far, the idiosyncrasies and frustrations of living in this culture are far outweighed by the cool things we get to do and see.    This doesn't mean that everything has been easy. For me, the challenging things have been mostly emotional, like missing my friends and family, or related to work (I work with 12 year olds, everyday is frustrating).  For Matt, they are related to figuring out how to enjoy his passion of fishing more easily and feeling frustrated at not learning Spanish quickly enough.  One of the most frustrating things overall is not being able to get anything done in a timely manner if it relates to the government or you have to rely on a Paraguayan to do it.  Stuff takes for-ev-er.  This is so different than the US and for me personally, someone who likes to get shit done.  Things that I'm used to taking 10 minutes stretch into 30 minutes or an hour sometimes and I often want to freak out about the waste of time.  Usually,  I look around and I notice that I'm the only one getting frustrated about it and I take that as a hint to cool it.


One thing that is part of "culture shock" that we've been told about is how new arrivals will compare their home to this new place and find the new place lacking.  It's natural and automatic, but can become counter productive if not careful.  I've learned to recognize when it's happening, allow the thought, and then try to figure out how to make the way it works HERE work for me. This is not always easy, especially in a country that has NO GOOD BEER.  Something that has been helping has been trying to find "replacements" for things/places/activities that I miss and being purposeful about recognizing the amazing-ness of those new things.  For example, even though the beer here sucks, you can get it delivered to your house.  (I know, right??!!!) And, there's lots of good wine, which is not a shabby replacement. It's toooo hot to run outside here now, so I've been trying Pilates.   I miss the mountains almost viscerally, but I get to go to Rio de Janerio next week.  It also helps to focus on the small victories, like the fact that I finally found quinoa!

Another strategy that works amazingly well is to laugh-laugh at  Paraguay, laugh at Paraguayans, laugh at ourselves.   A phrase I hear often among my American colleagues new and veteran, is "Welcome to Paraguay!" and it's not even always sarcastic! Seriously, there is some funny shit here.  On that note, please enjoy my mannequin montage.  I'm not sure why, but I find my self obsessed with them and realized I have  A LOT of pictures of weird mannequins.