It actually gets cold in Paraguay...

I was kind of dubious about wether it really got as cold in Paraguay as everyone kept telling me, or if people here were just hypersensitive (Some Paraguayans thinks 25 degrees celsius is cold..), and was wondering why I packed so much hardcore swedish winterclothes... But, turns out that Paraguay gets cold aswell, and that I really need those winterclothes... Right now it's more or less 10 degrees Celsius and windy, not so pleasant...

This weekend I was at an AFS camp, with all the other participants on the school program, in a hotel named Villa Colonia Independencia, and I have no idea exactly where that is.
It was very nice meeting other AFS-ers, and also realize that more or less everyone shares some of my thoughts and problems, such as homesickness from time to time...

Every AFS person, wether it's a volouteer or participant, is so nice, it feels like we're one big family sometimes...

Nowadays, since two weeks, we also have a bunch of Italian participants. I really love their language, Italian has such a nice rythm and melody. Also, I'm realizing that my Swedish is getting really bad due to lack of use...

Ah, and sweet techology, it's driving me crazy. So, first my mailaccount, the one I've had from the age of 7, to which all my emails from AFS are sent, has been blocked and I don't seem to be able to open it up again.
And then my phone card (Yes, the one for which I paid 45 dollars just to make it work in Paraguay, not to mention the cost for the phonecard itself...) called in sick last week and now refuses to work. Gosh, life is probably easier without techology sometimes..

Otherwise, things are getting better and better. My spanish is improving (Sometimes my parents think I'm very quiet, but honestly, once I know Spanish, they won't be able to shut me up for one second...) and I've signed up for a gym nearby. I'm going there more or less every day for aerobic and some strenght exercises at the gym, which is really good. It always improved my mood and gives me alot more energy :)


Take care :)

Just a completely unrelated photo of a dead fish...

It's ON :)

Very intresting bird

Sheep!! :) I love sheep...

The art of origami features recycling of candywrappers :)

Alright, so after about a month of doing virtually nothing, Ive finally begun to go to my Paraguayan school, Heavens Kingdom Christian School, and yesterday was my first day. I wish I had photos, but I'm just not taking my camera with me to school, the risk of loosing it is a bit to big... So I'm spamming my blog with photos of the orchids that are now blooming in our garden instead...

So how is a Paraguayan school? Well, as far as I could tell from my One-day-experience, it's quite the same though quite different from our swedish schools. It probably differs between schools, but at my school, the teachers don't do much. The classes have their rooms, and then the teachers move from one room to the other when the lessons change. I'm in an afternoon school, which I really don't like. I'm in school from 12 to 18, so at least I can sleep in the morning, but at the same time, you can't really meet friends or anything before school, and after school it's too dark. But that'll probably get better once it gets lighter and the time changes to summer time.

All the students were really nice to me though. I didn't understand everything they said of course, but at least they spoke slowly to make it easier.

We have school uniforms to. Calling it a uniform may be a bit... strong... since it's just jeans and a t-shirt with the school logotype.

The most confusing lesson was without doubt the guaraní- one. For those who want to know why, this is a text in guaraní:

 Ko'ápe jareko jehaikue aty orekóva heta ñe'ẽpoty, purahéi, mombe'urã, káso, mombe'upyrã, ñomoha'anga ha opamba'erei. Hetavéva oĩ mokõi ñe'ẽme. Ijapytégui heta ojehai ypyrũ kuri avañe'ẽme, hákatu oĩ avei tembihaikue roñe'ẽmbohasa va'ekue karaiñe'ẽgui.

...Enjoy

one of the parrots

Painting a little, but don't have much inspiration...

A beautiful fire-coloured orchid in our garden

So a small orchid is blooming in our garden...

The Swedish KLADDKAKA enters Paraguay :)

Time is flying by, it seems... All of a sudden one of my 11 months has passed me by...  I'm starting to get more used to things here, and in some amazing, halfway magical way, I'm getting into the language more and more every day. It's a really amazing feeling when you suddenly understand what someone says without having to translate the words in your head!
I had a seriously stupid moment yesterday though. I went to the park with my AFS friends, and someone called to Charlene from an unknown number. Since she doesn't like talking on the phone I picked it up, and it turned out to be her mother. So, in a moment of total lack of though, I ask her if she wants to speak to Charlene... Seriously. I haven't felt that stupid in Paraguay before. But in an amusing way...










Wednesday, the 15th, was the day Asuncion was founded, so it was a free day for almost the whole Paraguay. I went to my first latinamerican Asado ( like a barbecue) at an uncle's house, which was very nice :) the meat here is really good and most people are very nice!

Wednesday, I also made a typical Swedish ´Kladdkaka´ 

Later that day I found out that I have a host-half-sister, and we went to her family for the evening. I really enjoyed it there, everyone was so nice, and they had the most adorable little dog. 6 months and constantly playing with her ball. At first she was very shy, but once we started playing she was very social, and then she barely left me alone for a minute. Puppies are amazing. As soon as they belong to someone else...
But damn, I really miss my doggie at home.


Enjoy life, smile and focus on the positive :)

San Bernadino and Aerobic

I've spent about a month on the other side of the globe now, and as I've been writing in previous posts, it has been alot of ups and downs, but I'm beginning to take Paraguay more and more to my heart and enjoy the sometimes completely crazy but mostly very nice life here. Friday is my last Spanish class arranged by the AFS, and Monday I'm going to start school. I'm so looking forward to it. I really hope I'm going to meet some new friends there :)
The last couple of days I've been doing quite alot of things, actually yesterday, when I intended to update this blog, I just didn't find the time to do it...






Saturday was really wonderful. We went to a city named San Bernadino. (For those who, like me, aren't wonders of geographical knowledge, it is by the lake Ypacarai, on the opposite side of Aregua, if I'm not totally mistaken (which is very possible, but still...) it's about 40 km south-east of Asuncion.)
The city was quite the opposite of San Lorenzo. It was quiet, clean and calm, and also very beautiful. 
This difference is mainly because people in San Bernadino are very rich, many families in Asuncion has summerhouses there. 
We walked around a little, to a church, a tiny little museum and to the lake. Also, we went to a bakery named Alemana, where they had a miraculously delicious thing named bollos. That is kind of like a doughnut, filled with Dulce de Leche (God's gift to mankind...). I bought some for my family as well.

Bollos (Pronounced "Buojjos"

 

Papaya

El Colectivo

AFS-ers :)

Family :)

 On Sunday, my family took me to a small fishing community by the river Paraguay, close to the bridge to Argentina. It was really nice there, but a bit too many cars and touristing people (Like us...) for it to feel like a genuine rural area. 
The main reason we went was because I previously told my family that fish is rather typical food in Sweden, so they wanted me to try the fish in Paraguay.
It was very sweet of them, but the dishes I tried were rather horrible compared to what I'm used to. The system of covering things with grease and salt instead of things with taste.
   


Yesterday I was in Asuncion twice. The first time we went to get a micro SIM card for my iPhone, which was quite complicated, we had to go to several places, because apparently my phone was locked for use in Sweden only or something like that. But now it works! Almost. One of the messages I've sent hasn't gotten through, and the text my mother sent from Sweden didn't get to me. We'll have to work on that.

 The second time I went to Asuncion I participated in Aerobic, which was VERY different from my beloved Friskis&Svettis aerobic in Sweden. The instructor was some kind of military dude with a loud voice who was cheering us on in a way that made me feel as if I was at a military camp. Seriously, my legs has hardly ever felt that sore, I was on the edge of just leaving at some point, and I can't remember the last time I was so sweaty. But I liked it anyway, I hope I'll be able to continue with it this year (I'll be in rather a brilliant shape...). I went today as well, came a bit late because of the traffic, but still rather exhausting...
My legs will hate me.

Take care and stay safe :)

Day of San Lorenzo

 

Some guys from my Spanish class

My Park, gotta love it :)

I've been here for almost three weeks now and get more and more used to everyday life as it looks right now, with spanish classes every afternoon. This week, we've met up with some other AFS-ers after every class, usually in the park, to drink some soda and eat something, and it has been really nice. The spanish classes are really relaxed, I wouldn't say that we do much, but I appreciate hearing spanish (our teacher only speaks spanish) for three hours, you just have to pick up something.

The beautiful blue church here

This weekend, or mainly tomorrow, the 10th of august (the clock in blogger is set to european time, so it's already tomorrow there though it's today here, here it's 18.20 and home it's 00.20), there is a big celebration here in San Lorenzo, in respect of the man San Lorenzo (Saint Lawrence), a Christian Marture, who died this exact date, 258 AD in Rome.

Yes, you can tell that this country has been colonized by Europe.

Actually, the whole country is still in celebration about Paraguays Bicentario, which are the twohundred (and one, plus a couple of months) years that Paraguay has been free from colonizateurs (Is that a word?), from the 11th of May 1811 to now

Otherwise, things are just ticking on. Time is ticking by faster now that I actually do things, and I still have some troubles sleeping, but nothing serious. The cough is still hanging on, despite the medicine, and it also upsets my stomach, which is not so nice, but it doesn't give such big trouble, mostly just stomachache.

My medications

Of course the mood is up and down, as expected. Some nights (mostly nights) I really miss home, my forest, and being able to get out despite the dark, which is impossible here. Dangerous streets...
Also, and I never even reflected over how good it feels at home, but I really miss walking accompanied by a dog. People here don't walk their dogs, they just run around in the house and garden. I've seen two or three persons with dogs on a leach so far.


Talking about dogs, I really like the street dogs here. They're the total opposite of Hippie in Sweden, they're calm, clever and very polite. They might sniff your foot when you walk by, but mostly, they just look and continue their life. That is probably because they've had a hard time learning, and those who weren't too nice got killed... The life of street dogs in a crowded city isn't too easy...

Stay safe and take care :)
                                        Greetings from paraguay

Geese in the park

Some sellers

 A bit of junk shaped into things, and some accessories...

Aregua and cultural confusion...

Yesterday we went to a city about an hour from San Lorenzo, with the spanish class (the other AFSers in the area) It was really nice there, but unfortunately we couldn't swim in the lake because of pollution.

 

                                             

Waterfall sign

                 

Why don't we have these??

The lake

A thing that catches my attention over and  over is how every little part of the nature in the Asunción area is totally littered with all kinds of human waste. People here appear to just throw things at the streets or into the forest when they don't need it anymore. I hope it's different if you get to the 'Chaco' (halfdesert/forest), but coming right out of the very clean and mostly untouched Biele Vody-forests (The place in Slovakia where we've got our very cute summer house) it really catches my eye and that is one part of this country that hasn't impressed me all too much...

Very cute thing :)

Tereré-thermoses

AFS-ers and spanish teacher Susanne

Abandoned train....

 Another thing that we've learned is that blonde hair is rather a disadvantage around here, with the whole macho-thing. Guys here seem to think they're very appealing and cool when they shout things or whistles when you walk  past them on the street.
Me? I think it's disgusting and unpolite. But you learn to ignore it.

                               

              

Gosh, aren't these fancy?

Quite nice things :)

Some kind of fruits

A nice garden, though I wish I could say
that it's the jungle just outside the house ;) 

                                        

I'm a total sucker for nice buildings

In Aregua, there was this street where they were seling all kinds of nice clay things. It really iched me to buy some of them. Like an enormous flower pot. But how would I get that home?? At least I have my red and white coffee mug  :)

We also visited a very beautiful church.

View from the church in Aregua

On a totally different subject, I've discovered how much healthcare differs from Sweden. I've been having a cough since I came, which don't worry me a bit, since I'm completely fine in any other way.
But here, people are really worried about it. So friday was a really mentally exhausting day. We went to this other doctor, who didn't really talk English, or at least didn't talk to me though someone said he knew English. What I gathered was that there was something wrong with my lungs (I think bronchitis, if I may add my opinion...) and if I don't take antibiotics it will only get worse.

My preferred remedies... 

The thing is that I'm not so fond of taking antibiotics, or medicine in general, when I dont need it. Especially when no one tells me why I all of a sudden need 3 different (unnecessary) drugs. And especially, when I try to look the substances up myself and discover that one of the components in the cough syrup is a substance that has been banned in Sweden since 1992 because it had the small disadvantage of destroying heart tissue and blood vessels...
But the thing that I was really dubious about was breathing fumes of cortisone through a mask at a Pharmacy. A mask that other (Probably ill for real) people has used before me, and which isn't cleaned between different patients. 3 time a day. For 50 days.
Now, I really don't want to disrespect the culture of this country, but that is one thing that I'm only going to do when a doctor talks to me directly, and shows me real evidence that I either do that thing or get a coffin immediately.
Now I've settled on the heart'damaging syrup and the antibiotics though, but it was really frustrating at the time. Imagine being on the other side of the earth, no one tells you what is happening and you don't have enough words to say something comprehensive... That's kind of a situation when you feel very alone...

 I guess it's because we usually don't give medicine just like that in Sweden, because our viruses and bacteria aren't so forceful here. A cold and cough is just something that passes on it's own...

Beautiful orchids in our garden

I will never tire of this beautiful art of nature

On the whole I like Paraguay very much though. It's different, but most people here are very nice, and my host family is great. I'm in awe about how much I actually understand when people are talking. Of course not everything. Not even half. But it has only been two weeks, and I understand so much more than in the beginning. It's a very cool feeling when you actually understand what is being said.
It is a bit like laying an ENORMOUS jigsaw puzzle. That has been thrown out all over the floor. I'm collecting some pieces and some patterns are beginning to show, but there's a very long way until I can see what the picture looks like. And it's a challenge. I love that.

Dollar, one of the dogs

Starfruits and strawberries in Aregua. 

      Stay safe, take care :)                                            

Tried to post this one before but it was just flipped the wrong way. But this is
probably my favourite photo so far  :)