Paraguay 2009

Opa! Se acabo! Thats all folks!

2010-01-14T22:38:00.001-08:00

Well, I know I didn't write much in the last months of my exchange and that's because I was just too busy. I went to Peru and came back. Then it was time for Christmas and New Years and then I was already packing to go home. Now I am typing from Corvallis, Oregon of The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and that means that Paraguay was and is no more and I miss it already.

It was great and I wouldn't change a thing. I got the best family in Paraguay and made some really great friends. 2009 was the year of my life that I will never ever forget.

Cada aventura tiene su fin,

deVo

Adios Paraguay nunca te olvidara.

Fuerte Olimpo

2009-11-22T16:51:00.000-08:00

Today, I got back from Fuerte Olimpo. I finally saw the part of Paraguay that makes the country special.
(History) Fuerte Olimpo (origenely called Fuerte de Borbon after spanish royalty) is a small town of five thousand people in the upper part of Paraguay on the boarder of Brazil. One half of the town is populated by true blood native americans and the other half mixed blooded Paraguayos. Every Paraguayan in the town speaks Spanish, Guaraní and Portugues (and the latter because the T.V comes from Brazil) the Native Americans also have a language of their own that is apart from the already native language of Guaraní. Fresh fruits and vegitables are hard to get ahold of in the town because of it´s isolation. It takes 18 hours to get there in bus because its all dirt roads throug the desert Chaco. It takes varias days to arrive by boat if you leave from Concepción and because of that the town is very isolated and outside goods are very expensive. Olimpo sits right next to the river Paraguay and its name was changed to Olimpo after the independence of Paraguay because of its clustur of three small moutains that surround the city. Water and electricity are off and on, but fairly relyable and the only real substancial work in the town is ranching.

So Juan and I got on this horrible bus to start our journey to Fuerte Olimpo (home town of Juan) last friday. We didn´t even get out of Asuncion before the bus had its first break down. Nevertheless, we managed to drive all through the night and the next day we arrived in the Chaco were the road ends and the dirt path begins. It would be a fast bus if it wern´t for that. I spent the whole 18 hours in a kind of heat stroke induced meditation counting cows and watching my sweat sweat. When we finally arrived in Fuerte Olimpo we were so covered in dust/dirt/sand that the only thing we could think about was showering. Just our luck the water was out so we ended up taking bucket showers. Anyways, I met Juans wonderful mother, drank fresh milk, and had just enough time to take my bucket shower before it was time for mass. Juan had his confirmation that same day.

The next few days I spent getting to know Juan´s family and his old compañeras and exploring the town. Everyone goes around by motorcycle. We climbed all three of the small moutains, went to the cemetery, scooted around on his motorcycle, went swimming in the river and went out to the campo to ride horses.

The horse ridding incident was one of the best parts of the trip. When Juan told his stepdad that we wanted to go for a ride he went out and rounded up two fine looking Caballos. I´m pretty sure he picked his smallest horse for me, thinking that I would feel more comfortable on a small horse being a yankee and all, and then the other one he called ¨not tame¨. I said there was no way I was going to ride that little ponyexcuseforacaballo because my feet would drag across the ground (not to mention I had to make a good impression and taking the little horse is obvioulsy going to hurt my macho-man look) and Juan ended up riding the Caballito even though it probably should have been riding him. I got on the bigger horse and the ¨more wild horse¨and we took off making jokes about how stupid Juan looked on his little horse (what a sissy man right?) We had a nice ride out through the campo, but on our way back Juan started getting sick of my little horse jokes and started poking me/my horse with a stick. By the way, it should be mentioned that Juan (like me) is not a horse person and does not know how to ride a horse no matter how small:) Anyways I didn´t like that idea so I kicked my horse into a gallop to get away from him and it turned into a bit of a horse race. The thing is it was a horse race between horses. Juan and I were scared shitless and had absolutly no control over Caballito or ¨not so tame.¨ Luckly, my farm days left me with the saying- if your horse gets out of control turn it in circles because it will have no where to go-, but aparently no one ever told Juan that. After circling my horse into a trot, I remember seeing Juan coming back, on that pitiful excuse for a horse, with blood all over his face and cuts all over his arms. I was laughing so hard when he tried to explain how his horse ran him through a thorn patch and when we found his hat and sunglasses and went back his family wasn´t anymore simpathetic. The whole experience was priceless and I don´t think I will ever forget Juan´s stunned face and that little caballito.

One day we all went hiking and Juan´s compañeras spent the whole hiking trip talking about me in Guaraní (so I wouldn´t understand) and Juan laughing his ass off. You definitly see a big differnce between the country girls and the city girls though. I like the way Juan put it: I just can´t punch my Asuncion amigas like I can with you guys! We hiked all through the woods and over the Cerro (hill or small mountain) and lets just say if there were trails we didn´t use them and the reason I have a long sleeve shirt on when its 100 odd degrees outside: MOSKITOS!!! I literly have bit scars all over my arms and legs.It was really amazing to see what it would have been like to grow up in that town. They are just so excluded from the world! For example on the boat back I was talking to a man from Olimpo and he asked me from where I was. I told him that I was from the United States and he said ¨Oh yeah, up north right?¨ I mean thats not true for all Olimpeños because Juan and his Compañeras are all very up to date, but it is one of the few still existing places in the world where you can find people who have never left their town in their life and have never heard of a USB drive. I still don´t know if they live in paradise or in hell. Pueblo pequeño, Infierno grande as they say.
We decided to take a boat back and that was one of the best parts of the trip as well. It was really a horrible commute in a smelling old river boat over packed with people, animals and goods. Juan and I didn´t want to pay the cabin fee so we were sleeping where ever there was enough room to sit. We had to take turns though because someone always had to keep an eye on the stuff. It was amazing to sit out under the stars passing down the river in such a humble setting. We also ran into some european backpackers that were also making their way back from Fuerte Olimpo and we had a good time with them. There was a Swiss, a Frenchman, a Colombian/Britan with his Swedish girlfriend and me the United States American. They just happend to meet up on their way up the river so no one knew anyone and with that kind of mix of nacionalities it was great fun. After listening to all their stories I got a better idea of how to be a Mochilero and by the time I got off that boat my dream of backpacking the world was firm set.
Now I´m back in Asunción and the weirdest thing about coming home was exactly that.

Byron

This weekend Encarnacion
Then Peru

¿Qué pio querés huh?

2009-11-05T16:54:00.000-08:00

Graduation, field trips, icecream, demasiada sangria, 125.6 degrees of hot and terere! Así es la vida Paraguaya. I only go to school from 7 to 9 now and that´s when I go. We arn´t doing anything in school ahora porque we are unmotivated senors. Estamos yendo al pedo no mas. My spanish is getting really good now and today when I met up with the icelandic chico, who can sovle a rubix cube with one hand and explain why Iceland isn´t a socialistic government at the same time, I noted that my spoken english is really out of practice and is starting to sound like a Californian five year old´s spanglish.

This weekend I want to go hiking with my friend Dante and some AFSeros y por supuesto Juan. Although, Paraguay does not have moutains it does have cerros (hills) and we´re going to go hill climbing. I´ve done this just me and Dante no mas a lot but now I want to include some other AFSeros.

Last week my class had its graduation party and a field trip to the campo. It was a cool field trip. It´s weird though to see them graduating. I don´t know how to feel, because I´m kind of caught in the middle. After the Colación (prom) who knows what I´m going to do. I would like to go visit Juan´s family in the town of Fuerte Olimpo in the upper part of Paraguay. It would be a great experience because allí es where you´re gonna find the true culture. I´m still workin on my Guaraní. I seem to know everything I should never say and nothing mas. Nde ra kore! shera´a Japiro luego! Or I could work on my Portugues because they speak that too. As Juan says he learned Portugues because the only television came from Brasil and he had to learn to understand his saturday toons. A la puta! I say. Why weren´t my saturday toons in Portugues?

It´s going good. I decided to write this blog in the way that I was speaking english hoy.

Heres an old foto de mis amigos AFSeros.

I WANNA TRICKER TREAT!!!

2009-10-13T18:24:00.000-07:00

It´s Tuesday the thirteenth, which is the equivalent of Friday the thirteenth in Yankeelandia, and it´s been eight months since I stepped foot here in Paraguay.
I finished my Spanish classes at last, but continue studying on my own. I´m really frustrated that my Spanish isn´t better. Sometimes I surprise myself with what I know and sometimes I feel like I´m still the babbling baby I was when I arrived. I´m starting to write compositions during my classes and making vocab lists and it helps. I should have started doing that the first month. My friend Juan reads my work, corrects it and hands it back with his corrections. He´s my personal profe. It’s amazing how much he actually knows about his native language. If you´ve ever tried to explain English to someone who can´t speak it you know what I mean. Native speakers never study their own language and thus don´t know anything about it. We study a bit of grammar, spelling and a bunch of stuff like literature, but if you already know the language you never really touch the tenses or verb conjugations because it’s just known. I´ve run into that a lot here. I ask ¨¿hey, why do you guys say vamonos instead of vamosnos?¨ and they try to explain to you, but have no blood clue. So you really have to find a trained professional or Juan if you want an explanation of the use of haber or the conjugation of caber. My theory: being from the Chaco Juan grew up speaking Portuguese and Guaraní and learned Spanish almost like a third language. He did tell me he thinks and cusses in Guaraní. ¡Nde´ra Kore! Anyways, my original point was he´s an incredible help and way more patient than I ever was or will ever be.
I´ve come to a conclusion about the discotecas. Their really fun, super loud and probably make a fortune, but I wouldn´t give up skiing on Mt. Bachelor, mountain biking down Dan´s Trail or camping at ten mile lake for them. I´ve come to realize that I´m not and could never be a city boy. Oh, and I really miss the security of Oregon.
Funny story. I have this sweet AFS Id that doesn´t have my age on it and combined with the classic yo no hablar espanolo... (it sucks girls get into discos for free and no one checks their IDs, but if your just one year too young and a guy forget it!). Anyways, the other night my friend wanted me to loan it to her German boyfriend because he couldn´t use his Paraguayan ID. So I lent her mine because hey what’s the difference between one blond and another right? Well his plan was to be a fake AFS student from Germany ( when really he´s a paraguayo by birth), but when he started doing the Yo no hablo espanolo thing with the front bouncer it turned out he was a fluent German speaker! So he just started speaking in German and left the kid stunned. I don´t know what the kid said but he ended up convincing him to let him in, but it was just really funny.
So this is my last month of official school, plus one more of ¨project¨ and then its summer!
I know I mention this a lot, but I just want to make sure that everyone knows how flipping hot it is here! IT’S HOT!!! When I get back and people are like ¨Hey, Byron they say its going to be a hundred degrees tomorrow ¿can you believe that?¨ I´m going to be like ¨¿What a hundred? ¡pssshh!¨ I remember asking Glen, from down the road, how he could weld hay equipment in mid July with three sweaters on and he told me that he got used to the heat in Africa. I get it now.

Chaucitos Byron

Seven Months!!!

2009-09-19T13:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been a while and I guess thats a good thing. I´ve been so busy I haven´t had time to update my blog. Éver since my english speaking AFS friends left my spanish has gotten a lot better and Í´ve gotten to be much closer with my Paraguayan friends. These are the fotos of some of my adventures in San Ber and a crazy lunch at Aidas house.

The city is really pretty now because its spring and all the trees are flouring. Its so colorful.

On this trip with Dante and Juan to explore the cerro we ran into some Menonitas Exploradores (Germans) and they asked where we were from. I didnt know they were Menonitas then, and so just to be funny I said I was a Menonita from the North Chaco knowing that I could pass for as that with my blond hair and blue eyes. They got all excited though when I told them that and started talking to me in german and well it was just really funny.

The school year here is starting to come to its end. The final exams are in October then its another month of I have not idea what and SUMMER BREAK. Im working on applications to college and trying to get my trip to Brazil organized.

My life now is school and spanish class during the week and crazy weekends of small trips, discotecas and whatever weird thing I get invited to do.

Chau

Byron

Ha llegado la primavera!?

2009-08-13T12:05:00.000-07:00

Well its been about two weeks that I haven´t had any yankee contact and I can already feel it in my Paraguayzation. Theres a new girl in my colegio and she´s german. I´m having flashbacks from my first few months, watching her look confused and tired. I don´t know why, but it makes me feel really great to not be the bobo anymore.
Last night I went to a futbol game between La Paz, Bolivia and our very own Cerro Porteño from Asuncion. Of course it was obvious that Bolivia was going to lose, but I went to check it out anyways. Suprisingly it was my first futbol game here in Paraguay, a nation that lives for three things Brahma, Futbol y El Espiritu Santo. Sometimes the first two kinda shadow the third but we dont say anything.) The game itself was great. It should be said that Paraguayans can rock a stadium way better than any Beaver fan. The Bolivian cheer squad consisted of four tired looking young men and a sad looking flag protected by a whole swat team complete with crowd tumping nightsticks and bullet shields. Actually security was the most impresive theme of the game. I have never felt more insecure in Paraguay than trying to buy tickets for that game. To get into the stadium you first have to walk by every Cuchillero in the whole dang country with your head down and your mouth shut ( that last part only applies to those who speak with strong yankee accents.) I was truely suprised I made it out of there with out getting mugged and I think my sister was a little suprised too. Nevertheless it was fun and a necesary part of my AFS exchange.

Byron

Oh and today I completed six months.

Un dia normal en colegio...

2009-07-25T20:22:00.000-07:00

Here are some old pics I found.
This is me playing teacher the second day of school when my english teacher didn´t show up. The lessons were ¨How to woe women in ingles (for begginers)¨ and ¨Insults (for Niños.)¨

This is me shaking it for my school for El Dia del Maestro.

This is me after shaking it for my school with my companeras all looking very elegante.

Winter Break!!!

2009-07-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

Schools out, its cold and I´m loving it! Today the president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, anounced that winter break is being extended another week due to the Gripe Porcina thats rampant in this part of the world. That puts us in line with Argentina and Chile who have also canceled school. In my opinion, this gripe issue (gripe porcina is swine flu) is much a do about nothing, but if they want to cancel school I´m not going to complain.Winter break started slow and sad for me here with the lamest unexplosive fourth of July I´ve ever had, nothing to do, and some homesickness. Its been getting better and better though. In fact, last night I got back from Brazil. My mom, my bro, my friend Tomas and I all bussed our way to the impresive Iguazu Falls and back in less then twenty four hours. It was truly asombroso in every way. They are trying right now to get it on the list as one of the new seven wonders of the world and it could make it. One of the best parts of the trip was listening to portugues and argentinos. One, portugues and spanish are so similar that you can talk spanish and they can talk portugues and no one is confused. Two, Argentinos are rediculous. Their spanish acent is absolutly unforgetable. Aparently, its the Italian acent put to spanish lyrics with an absurd slur on the ll. They sound like they are singing to you and you cant help but laugh. My mom kept chatting up every Argentinan we met so Tomas and I could hear them sing. Speaking of Argentinos is looks like that trip I wanted to take with Tomas to Buenos Aires isn´t going to happen once again due to the gripe. I haven´t lost hope because I still have a lot of time to try to make it there, but its too bad for Tomas because he takes off in August. Our house computer got fried in an electric storm. Right when we were about to get internet back too. Anyways that´s why I havn´t blogged in a while. Tomas would me to point out that Tomas is actually spelled Thomas.

Adios
Byron

Hace Cuatro Meses!!!

2009-06-15T17:52:00.000-07:00

Well this makes four months here in Paraguay! I´m going to hopefully start some auxilitory Spanish lessons soon and working on my Castellano. I´ve been getting to know the folk from the August generation and its going to be to bad when they take off in twenty days. Today for the first time really in Paraguay we all went and played Ultimate Frisbee. By the end of the game there was a small herd of nenes watching us play and I’m sure they´ve never heard of the sport before. It seems like all the other students, apart from a Texan and I, are taking off in August. This means I´m going to be old crop soon and with that comes great power. I believe the first newbees arrive in June.

In the last month not only has my Spanish improved from Quiero comer to Dame eso boludo tengo hambre, but I’ve also come to know the busing system better. It really liberates the students here when they can get themselves around alone.

My Grandma came all the way from Lima to visit us for awhile and when we came home the other day and she told us she was very worried about our computer here in the house. She told us that when she entered into the family room it was full of water so to evoid an explosion she unplugged it. Turns out our screensaver is just a fishbowl ´no mas´. Only in Paraguay.

Fotos de Casa de Monte y Remo!

2009-05-21T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well, here are the latest fotos of my adventures down here in the south. The pictures of the tucan and my AFS buddies were taken on the top of a mountain. (It was really more like a tall hill, but i didn´t say anything.) I took three buses with my AFS friends Thomas, kat and Thomas´s english student and native paraguayan Luchi. It was a wonderful view from the top that shot out over all of Paraguay. We met up with a local tour guide, named Gustavo, who was a personal friend of Luchi´s and who lead us all around the local giving us the histories of the churches and so on. There was also a mini zoo up there and thats where I got the picture of the tucan. It was a great day, but we were all suffering from a late party the night before and were very tired at the end of the day.

Here´s a picture of me in my boat in the Rio Paraguayo that runs next to Asuncion. Thats Centro Asuncion in the background and not far from my school.

Hace Tres Meses!

2009-05-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

I have now been in Paraguay for three months! It seems like such a short while and eternity at the same time. I am just recovering from some really bad food poisioning (I think). It started with my dad, on sunday, laying out his lunch on the bathroom floor. By tuesday my sisters and I were all throwing up, with a passion, and we actually went to the hospital. They gave me and my sister Blanka shots for nausia but I still threw up all through the night. The hospital was free and it was filthy. I couldn´t wait to get out of there because it radiated sickness.
So thats why I didn´t go to school on tuesday. Then wednesday my mom and I decided to head across the river to Argentina for a day of grocery shopping. That was an experience. The Paraguayos cross into Argentina to buy food and the Argentinos cross into Paraguay to buy cloths. As a result, the boarder is a very big messy market of cheap stuff. And that´s why i didn´t go to school on wednesday. Then, that night after our safe return it started to rain. I believe I have mentioned already the difference between rain in Oregon and rain in Paraguay. It poured! We were at a big concert in centro when it started and by the time we got in the car and were heading to pick up my sister from college the streets were rivers. Our porqueria of a car began to fill up with water and there were several moments when i thought we were going to get washed away. Luckly we found refuge in the university and spent the later half of the night watching the firemen save the rafting cars. It was still raining when I got up for school this morning so we decided not to go. Tomorrow is mother´s day here in Paraguay. They celebrate mother´s day on the same day they celebrate their independence from Spain. So naturally I wont be going to school tomorrow as well.

Chau
Byron

Don´t have any pics because i dont have any interenet in my home at the moment.

Globos!

2009-04-24T09:50:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics to give you a better idea of my school. We had a big balloon festival for my graduating class.

We had balloons with our school colors which are rose and blue. They had a nice whorship for the Virgin Maria and then we all let our balloons go out over downtown Asuncion. The picture of all of us on the stairs is my entire graduating class.

Discoteca

2009-04-21T12:41:00.000-07:00

I have some interesting experiences to share. One, I visited my family in Lima (Paraguay not Peru) and lived the small Paraguayan farm life for a couple days. We cooked in a giant dome oven called a tatacua. There are three steps to baking in a tatacua. First you build a fire in it then you push the fire out of it and lastly you put your food in. I wouldn´t suggest it as a replacement to an electric oven. Very time consuming and lacks a timer. The other picture is of my crazy uncle who yells at me in Guarani. Turns out he´s a raging racist as well. My mother told me that she thinks her grandfather might have been a fleeing Nazi.

When we returned, or maybe it was before we left, it rained black. We were all very disturbed. It was the result of a forest fire that past in Argentina. The photo was taken at three in the afternoon.

In other news, I finally got around to going to a discoteco this last weekend and it was fun. Since clubing isn´t really a weekend sport in Philomath, Oregon (expect maybe if your talking about baby seals) it was a new experience for me. The club itself turned out to be just as you see in the movies packed full of people, lights and loud music. And apparently Regatone is where its at.

As a final note I would like to mention that I failed my english exam. Where that puts me in the world I don´t know.

Chau

Byron

April!

2009-04-03T09:13:00.001-07:00

I have to be carefull what I say now because the girls in my class found out about this blog and started translating my posts. Anyways, some interesting things have happened. The other day on my way to crew team I was walkin through centro looking down at my feet and when I looked up. There in front of me were two rows of riot police complete with shields, helmets and those wacker things. Turns out their necesary for controlling the protests that the indiginous folk are having right now in the Asuncion. It was just shocking to see so many armed police moving around in a city. I still haven´t gotten used to the AK-47 weilding guards that stand outside every bank here. You just don´t see that kind of thing outside of the OSU Federal Credit Union back home in Philomath, Oregon.

I have been rowing and swiming every day now after school. Some days its great some days its just too dang hot! A classmate showed me a picture the other day of winter here in Paraguay and I couldn´t belive it. They were wearing sweat shirts! They tell me that somedays no one goes to school because its just too cold (15C). I liked the sound of that.

Tomorrow is the start of Semana Santa, the equivalent of Spring Break back home. My whole family is heading out wednesday to Grandma´s house. Grandma lives in Lima, next to the river, on a small farm. I´m looking forward to leaving Asuncion for a bit, and visiting a small town again. The air here can be hard to breath at times.

The other day I met the first Strossner fan I have heard of here in Paraguay. Strossner was the dictator that lost his power in 89. The fan is the host brother of my friend here from Texas who says his Paraguayan family is related to Strossner in some unrelated way. His host brothers words were ¨yeah he tortured people but Paraguay was a better place with him as president.¨ It was just interesting because my mom here was an activist against Strossner and spent some time running from protest police. My professor of history was teaching us about the Russian revolution and the topic of parinoid dictators came up. He started talking about the time in Paraguay not very long ago (twenty years) when you were risking your life to express a contradictory opinion to the man. Apparently there was a huge system of public spies in classes, stores, streets and everywhere. Who reported the people that spoke badly about Stossner. They would then quickly disapear. They called the street spies ¨pyrahue¨ which means ¨harry foot¨in Guarani, dont ask me why. I´m just glad its not that way here anymore. But it left an imprint on the culture here.

Chau
Byron

The Photos are from: Cumpleaños, AFS camp, Shots from my Island of crew team, My new bed sheets (a gift from my grandma who thought I might be missing home, and some interesting brand names here.

ONE MONTH!

2009-03-16T17:05:00.000-07:00

I just got back from the AFS one month orientation camp that took place this very lindo hotel. Before I left for the camp my mother told me that i would need to take my own sheets for the bed because there wouldn´t be any there and my own towle. I just couldn´t believe that i would be staying in a hotel with a bed that didn´t have any sheets or towls. I kept thinking of the crappy hotels you see in the movies. Turns out my mother was uterly wrong (which dosen´t happen very often) the hotel was very four star. It was just funny because i was a little nervous.
In other news my little brother managed to chip my two front teeth. We were engaged in horseplay when he jumped up and jawed my with his head. First time in my life that my teeth have shattered and i din´t like it. He feels really bad and i keep asking him not to hurt me any more please. just to rub it in. Por favor, no me lastimes. I think I will be experienceing my first Paraguayan dentist this weekend. My mom keeps telling me it will be a lot cheaper if I go to the vets office as long as I don´t mind slightly larger horse teeth. She´s very funny indeed.
I have some pictures here from my campamento which was very different from the camp with AFS. My AFS camp was like returning to the USA for three days. It was hard to leave and turned out to be more of a disorientation.
I met up with my friend from Iceland who can solve a five by five rubix cube in less than two minutes. He says(very slowly)¨It´s very easy really. just a matter of lining up the colors.¨ He has a great time showing off his cube skills and likes to finish by not looking at the cube for the last ten moves for an added darmatic effect. He´s a very funny guy and we all made endless polar bear and iceland jokes.
Tomorrow I will investigate the Paraguayan crew team. My father says they practice every day of the week plus saturaday for three hours, which is very intense for me. He also says though that in Paraguay it is not obligitory to show up for every practice. To finish, today was the first day that I arrived at school early. It was very strange and I told my dad never again.

Looks like i will have to post the pics tomorrow because of internet problems.

Chau
Byron

P.S: Europeans smoke a lot.

Regatone

2009-03-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

I just got back from campamento with my colegio and I´m really tired and sick. They love to dance here in Paraguay and they love their Regatone. Campamento was really fun though and almost my entire curso was able to go to the nun´s mountain hideout. Where we played loud music, futbol, and sang. Plus our leader gave a really out of place sex talk to the whole group. At one point during the talk he realized that the varones ideas about realationships and the chicas ideas did not match. So he made all the boys come forward and sit facing the girls so we could have a ¨two sided¨discourse in which both sides could share their opinions. but because of the outrageous ratio of chicos to chicas it was more like an inquisition than an investigation. One of the guys would say something and the girls would all start in on him. The building would shake with their chattering. It was like walking into the henhouse to gather eggs when I was younger and listening to all six hundred hens get riled up. bacbacbacbacbac! and then one would stand up, pointing at one of the guys and yell something and the whole place would explode. finally the guys caught on and just shut up and I just continued to nodded my head and smile.
In other news, my host dad´s birthday past this wednesday and he decided to celebrate by taking the whole family out to eat. Turns out though, that instead of going out to a restaurant, its much cheaper just to role the dining room table out the kitchen door and eat on the front lawn. My mom thought that was so funny. ¨we are eating out no!¨ jajajaja

Heres a video of that worm I talked about. I told you it was a worm

Byron

2009-02-27T11:40:00.001-08:00

My Spanish classes have started but its more like AFS support group. All the students are there through AFS so most of the time we end of talking about our host families and then walking down the road for ice cream.I'm finding Paraguay to be very hot and noisy. I love it here because it is exactly what I was looking for in an exchange. It’s completely different from Oregon. Catholic school has been probably the biggest change for me. I went from a 9:30 wake up call in Oregon to a 5:00 wake up shock. Consado is a word I use a lot here and I still get nervous when the teacher breaks into prayer. I keep having to remind myself that this isn't a violation of church and state. The next biggest change is how much more estrogen there is in my life here. Going to a mostly girls school has its draw backs and I happen to be in the course with the worst female to male ratio. I am in the classic course and all the few guys in my school are in the technical course. As for the uniforms, if they weren’t so ridiculous ( I'm talking about the silly skirts the girls have to wear and the pants the boys have to wear in 95 degree weather) I would vote for them. I have noticed one bad aspect of Paraguay. When I walk home from my Spanish classes nobody will smile at me on the street. I don't know if this is race related or just a custom to glare at people on the street. A couple of times people not only glared me, but followed me with their glare. It's creepy, but I'm not the only one who has encountered this, my AFS friends have as well. It is also a custom very unlike the Paraguayan people. Who are wonderful. Our house is full of neighbors who have come to watch the tele or drink terere and I often have no idea who they are. My brother, frusturated with my slow spanish, has begun to greet me like this "hola-byron-como-estas-yo-tambien-muy-bien-chau!"

devo

Profesor deVo?

2009-02-18T14:26:00.001-08:00

I am very proud of myself. Not only am I making some friends here and Paraguay (which is really easy because everyone wants to know the white boy with the ¨baby face¨) but I am also having a lot of fun. Today, my profesora de ingles did not show up for class so I had to get up and teach the class. It was awsome and really fun. I taught them how to woo partners in english with poetry and wit and how to speak the street slang of Philomath Oregon. Our temp profesor was learning so much he went out and pulled the teacher from the next class so she could listen in as well. Then when I finished my lesson I sat down and they all gave me a lesson on Guarani and Spanish insults. My friend Nadia got a part of my lesson on video (which I hope to post soon).

Catholic School!

2009-02-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

I´ve some time to write now because my dad paid the internet bill. I have a lot to say and I have only been here for a total of cinco dias. First my spanish is improving exponentially. Everyday I can understand a little bit more of what the girls say and can understand most of the chicos. My first day of school I actually participated in the discussion and knew the answer that nobody else in my class knew. What invention came about in 1903? Thats probably because my history professor speaks so slowly and with such expression.
An all girls catholic school is not what I expected. First of all the nuns don´t have rulers. In fact there is no dicipline in the school at all. Paraguayos control their schools like they do their traffic. Everyone talks during class and (like in the states) uses their cell phones. For example on my first day while the Guarani teacher was giving her lesson half of the class all got up ran over to me and posed for a giant group foto with the white boy, devo. Thats my nick name here because Byron or viaron in Guarani means "big ugly" so naturally I adopted a nick name fast. If I didn´t have to get up for school at five in the morning and our classroom had airconditioning it would be awsome. I have to say though there is no better stimulant in the morning than a trip through downtown Asuncion in a car without a seat belt while your host dad drinks terere and drives like a maniac. The bumper of our car (a car with some real character) litterally fell off while we were driving home the other day and then we were run off the road by a bus. Coffee is not neccessary here because my family owns a car. Plus, motos the most common form a transportation here, are responsible for five deaths a day here in the city.
This is truly an experience and I am fitting in very well. I made a lot of friends at school yesterday when I told our professor (nice guy) that ¨there is a rule in the united states that homework cannot be assigned on the first day." it was actually quite funny because my spanish is so bad. I am learning though, and everyday I understand a little more. I don´t think I will ever understand my host mom though. She is the typical south american catholic mom always worring and full of advice. I love her though shes great. "viron donde estan tus zapatos" "viron porque no comes mucho no te gusta mi comida, no tienes hambre, estas consado, nececitas dormir, ahora, va va fuera." My second day here we had prayer session and she hands me the book " viron, aqui, read". Shes great.
My first day with my family I kept wondering whose this "vos" character because they all kept talking about "vos". "cuando vos do this" "vos will do that" then I found out vos means you.
I´m overwhelmed with the spanish and lack of sleep, but I´m making progress.

Here´s a photo of all my AFS peers. All very cool people who I got to know pretty well.

devo

Estoy en Paraguay!

2009-02-16T13:48:00.000-08:00

I´m sitting in an internet cafe in Paraguay as I write this. I have only ten minutes to write because i have to be home by 19 hours so my mom can go to her brothers house who crashed on a motorcycle. Motorcycles or MOTOS are very common. My host family is wonderful. We live in Fernando a district of Asuncion and have to ride the bus into Asuncion every day to go to Catholic school. Turns out I am not going to an all boys school like i thought because they wouldn´t accept me there so I have ended up going to an all girls school instead. There are two boys in my class and the teachers switch rooms instead of the kids. My god is it hot here! There is no air conditioning in my school and the degrees are pushing one hundred. Tomarrow I hope my host dad will pay the internet bill so i can write more and get some pics up.

Audio

Estimated Time of Departure: NOW!

2009-02-10T17:06:00.000-08:00

Febuary 10th is today and that means I'm going to Paraguay! (of course I'll have to go to Huston first then spend a day in Miami then stop off in Santiago Chile, but I wouldn't be traveling otherwise.) I'm very nervous about meeting my family and that seems to be it. Traveling to the other side of the planet doesn't seem to bother me, yet, and leaving my family seems like the right thing, not the sad thing. Said goodbye to all my freinds at school today. I guess my biggest concern at this moment (5:10 PST) is whether or not my arm will stop hurting from the typhoid shot I got. Yeah, I know you may be saying "hey, didn't you take the pills so you could avoid the shot!" Well the answer is I got the pills but forgot them all (I went sking instead) and now due to time constraints I had to get the shot. It hurts! My whole arm feels like its been permently slugged by Arnolds athletic trainer.

My bag is packed (I'm only allowed one bag because the plane to Asuncion is muy pequeno) and I'm waiting for 7:00 to roll around so I can officially begin my exchange. I keep wondering to myself when I get to call myself an exchange student. Do I have to wait till I leave my country or what! I also got some great books in spanish to read on the plane and of course some Kurt Vonnegut.

19 Days...

2009-01-22T16:25:00.000-08:00

I have obtained some updates since my last post. One, I know who I will be living with and I know where. I will be living with the family of Gustavo Bordon in the capital city of Paraguay Asuncion. I will have two host sisters Regi 19, Blanka 17, and one host brother Gustavito 14. My mother's name is Rose.

Living in the capital of Paraguay, a city of over 550,000 people, is going to be a change. As of now, my home town of Philomath is pushing 5,ooo and that includes livestock. Another big change will be the school I'll go to with my brother Tavo (short for Gustavo). It's an all boys school and I will have to wear a uniform. The uniform won't bother me (actually I kinda like the idea), its the 'all boys' part that will take getting use to. Plus, according to my resident exchange student Senor Carlito, the South American girls are a lot nicer than the boys (source reliability could be an issue on this one).

Shots! I have to get every vaccine and toxin known to person pumped into my body so that I won't die during my trip and bum my family out. Good news, typhoid shots come in a pill nowadays (apparently I should be grateful for that).

Signing off

Byron deVos

It Begins!

2008-12-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

Here it is, about two months before I leave on a year long exchange to Paraguay. I am having a hard time realizing that this is really going to happen and that I am finally going to get to experience the mind opening culture shock that so many AFS returnees reminisce over. I have been organizing my dreams for this trip since I was a freshman and now being a senior and seeing my dream fast approaching I am ecstatic.

The trip I am about to embark on should really be experienced by everyone in the world. If everyone were to have, as a minimum, the mind opening experience of an AFS exchange the Earth would be a different place. A better place. Unfortunately many people can not afford to travel abroad especially in this current economic recession. That is why I am so grateful to my AFS sponsor for giving me the chance at this valuable opportunity through their scholarship. Education is the only investment with guaranteed returns and someday I will be able to pass this generosity on.