Marcy and the Killer Bees

!IST!

2009-09-25T12:48:00.004-06:00

Just a short entry, 'yes, Dad I have done something since May...' We had a three day in-service training and I took some pretty awesome pictures of bees to share. The workshop was very useful for the community contacts, in my case my did not come...but that is neither here nor there. It took place at an agricultural high school right outside of Asuncion, on the trans-chaco highway...so on the edge of the Chaco. They had bees to yogurt and cheese-making, a real technical and advanced school, what a great oppurtunity for those students. I'll try to caption each picture explaining them...

Two volunteers, Keith and Mitra and one community contact, Hugo...anxiously waiting to get to the apiary!

The Colegio San Fransisco de Asis's apiary in Cerrito, Presidente Hayes, Paraguay.

A community contact opening the hive.

A real sweet photo...that said, a worker bee eating some honey.

The bottom half of the hive...with a queen excluder.

This is what a wax moth does to the frame.

Where's the queen?

So the lighter yellow are capped drone babies...and the flatter darker is the worker bees.
Just a bee!

NEW CAMERA

2009-08-25T21:30:00.000-06:00

well, the new photos are up...hopefully y´all can see them

http://picasaweb.google.es/lh/sredir?uname=Marcy.ASL&target=ALBUM&id=5283033867388222321&authkey=Gv1sRgCNWUq-fLv46DQw&feat=email

!Tanto Tiempo!

2009-05-26T08:38:00.000-06:00

Yes, so it seems like a theme here…I write out a whole blog entry and then oops something happens and it disappears…well I guess it helps for you because the second one is always shorter. Well, its exactly 8 months to the day that I have been in Paraguay and almost 6 months in my site…wow how time flies! The new group, G29 has arrived and sworn in and now g30 is coming in soon. It seems like g28, my group should be old hands at this Paraguay thing, though I am thinking am an sooo not adapted…My zona got two new volunteers so that is 6 in all in Caraguatay and the surrounding areas – we have a health and sanitation vol and then early elementary education. You might have heard a bit about Paraguay in the past few months – noticia numbero uno for us was the revalation of what our dear presidente did back when he was a bishop….i think he is up to three confirmed children now…one with a girl, now 22, that he baptised…in other news Paraguay is at the top of south American qualification for the football world cup (that’s soccer) and there are the next round of games coming up in june and then september, four more in Paraguay I hope to catch a couple, def…argentina v Paraguay in September.

A bit closer to home for me is that its been a super dry year, this year so it has delayed the planting of crops and my garden…you can plant all year round here and the winter is actually the bigger of the seasons because of the heat in the summer. My garden took longer then I expected, to dig the tablóns and cut, split and make the bamboo fence but its done and planted…sadly the weather didn’t work out for that, ill tell you more later. Hopefully ill get some super sweet veggies soon and next year my garden will be rockin b-c the soil will have improved. Right now it is depressingly clay-y…I have two more beds to dig which I am planning on planting with abonos verdes (green manures) and then the big news next week I am getting worms! Not the kind for your stomach but who knows I might have those as well, no I am starting to do vermiculture so ill now conquered my hatred of turning my compost pile because the little buggers will do all the composting work with only a bit of water and love….

Yesterday, the reason my garden might need some replanting, is that it rained all day and my yard has turned into a series of lakes, my backyard a marsh and I have a stream to cross to my garden…my roof sadly isn’t exactly roof-like either but no matter after that drenching no worries on the sequía and I can always replant my huerta…though I was so proud of my little rows etc…not that anything had sprouted yet.

No other news really, I am finally starting to work with the elementary school, no bee stuff bc its winter and the radio show is going great though now with five people competition for the mikes is fierce. You can listen! On radiolasmercedes.py.com at 9 am (eastern time, it’s the same) on Tuesday mornings…if you know guarani or Spanish it will make it more interesting and please tell me so I can send you saludos! Thanks for all the letters etc…I really enjoy them and the mail lady just assumes I am coming in…though note the address bc I have had some difficulties with that…oh I have a cat..or kitten her name is phillipa or phil and she makes my days and increasingly dark evening (5.30 here) more interesting.

Miss y´all!

Marcy

Random Video about PC PY

2009-05-07T07:55:00.001-06:00

So this was made by some people that in the two years above me and one of the trainers....just some video and stuff so you guys have more of an idea I guess of my life...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZA78xUzwTA

Its going to be shown to the new volunteers before they ship out!

Killer Bee Video

2009-03-27T08:41:00.004-06:00

So a long time ago my training group visited a crazy Japanese Brazillian beekeeper, I might have
mentioned it...here is a video that I took from visiting his site...this is where I found out I am not allergic to bees ie like 30 stings....also if you can hear the sounds, that is the bees hitting my camera etc...

Here is to the beekeeping...

2009-03-27T08:22:00.001-06:00

This is round two of this entry…I had a beautiful one all ready and then just as I was getting up to get my flash drive the power went out…literally the same moment. I didn’t have the heart to do it again that day.

My mom wanted a more detailed description of the beekeeping activities and the bees in general so here it is. Ill talk a bit about the program and then some about what I have been doing with the women´s comíte in Rio Negro, the community that is 8 km away by field and so much further by transportation.

So I work and everyone in Paraguay works with Africanized bees, these are those ones that are the fright of the bee industry of the US and general population, ´killer bees.´ Obviously with no experience with non-Africanized bees I can´t detail the comparison that greatly but from the information that I have received and my experience with Africanized ones here in PY I have some thoughts. Africanized bees have some benefits and some draw-backs, the former first – they are more defensive, sting more, can´t live in cold if you are in the northern US for example and have a tendency to swarm…that’s all or in my opinion…good things about them – they are more defensive so stronger hives so less susceptible to disease, insects etc…produce more honey and more brood, live well in hot climates obviously, and the tendency to swarm is good if you are a poor upstart beekeeper b-c you don’t have to pay for bees you just find them…Ill get to that soon.

So in Rio Negro and with PC PY beekeeping, we focus on starting beekeeping to bring additional sources of income…though a lot of it is just used as autoconsumption and not for sale. Honey is a pretty expensive product here and there are the other hive products as well being sold, pollen, propolis and royal jelly – as an export it has not really taken off but currently you would get a better price domestically then for export anyway on honey at least. So in the vein of starting beekeeping, we shy away from trying to get people to invest in modern beekeeping equipment specifically, Langstroth hives, the white boxes you all know that have frames with wire, which you would buy stamped wax for and need a centrifuge to harvest. We teach the construction of Kenyan Top Bar hives, ´bateas´ which are made for African bees so also suited to a more aggressive personality. The biggest difference is, is that instead of centrifuging the honey out and not damaging the comb, you cut the honey out and the comb so bees need to constantly rebuild the wax. This limits the honey production because it takes like 8 liters of honey to make 1 liter of wax, in energy etc…but for new beekeepers the price of modern equipo is a huge impediment. So with the comíte, we built a small top bar hive, only 10 bars, an example and to use in a trasiego (wild swarm capture).

After a couple of excursions to find hives, the one they decided to try was nice and hard…it was in the ground or more like in the hollow of the roots of a guava tree (live tree) under it. Nice hard wood to cut through and nice and dirty and dark making it almost impossible to recover good panels or find the queen. In a trasiego, you want to recover panels with cria, brood, to tie to the top bars so as to encourage the bees to stay and the smell is helpful as well and secondly or more primarily find the queen, because if she stays then the hive will stay as well. To do all of this you want to open the hive up, with a little bit of smoke but little, so you can see in it and so you can easily cut the panels off the sides or the wall etc…In this case, some of the roots were hacked out and we dug about to at least have some visual of the panels. The whole thing was too deep and dark for it to truly be successful. Basically, I could put my whole arm inside the whole with a machete and then touch the horizontal width of the hive – so most of the bees and definitely the queen hid and I didn’t see them. I cut some of the panels, the clean ones with brood on them to tie them to bars and then took out the rest of the other panels, some honey etc…one must destroy the hive to induce them to move to the new box or they will just stay with the panels….hoping that the destroyed hive and that the tied panels in the new hive would get the queen to move up into the box we left it overnight.

The next day, I went back to check with all the expectation that the bees would have left to find a new home…what I did find was all of the bees had indeed left the hive but were coating the side of the tree, about an inch deep of them and a meter tall stripe on the trunk. So with this opportunity for the queen to be out in the open and for me to see her, I started working with them again without any smoke. Two things, I assumed that the queen was there because there is not other reason for them to all be out in the open, they were probably waiting for scout bees that were looking for new locations, the queen attracts the rest of the bees with her scent and send signals with pheromones. Second the lack of smoke – the bees in a trasiego are very calm because once you start destroying the hive and removing panels they are just confused and also don’t have much to defend so smoke just is an annoyance for you and breathing it in. I start taking handfuls of bees looking in them for the queen, she is longer and has a fatter abdomen also runs really fast, and then dropping the by the handful into the box.

I only got stung twice in the hand and that was more due to me grabbing a bee the wrong way not because they intentionally did it. Sadly, I didn’t find the queen and since I had to leave Rio Negro that day I don’t know if the trasiego was successful…I can only hope that I grabbed the queen accidentally and dropped her in. Note – when you do find the queen, you put her in a match box to prevent her from swarming, have the box a tiny bit open so the workers can feed her and put it in the new hive. Her smell will get the bees to stay with her and start working there and then they will eat her out of the box in three days…she might stay in the nice new dry box or she might leave after that but there is more success if you put her in that matchbox.

Sorry this was a long entry but it had a lot of information. Everything is well here…I hope to move into my small house soon – just across a field from my contact – they are doing some work on it right now. Semana Santa, Easter week, is coming up and that is sure to be exciting.

Miss you all!
Marcy

THREE MONTHS AT SITE

2009-03-04T05:25:00.000-07:00

The three month mark is approaching…I have now been in site as long as in training and possibly feel that I have achieved less then I felt each day in training. At least then I had a consistent schedule and could say, `Today, I went to class and learned fifty new words---` Fifty is a bit strong but you got the idea. No…I shouldn’t be that down, I have been doing some stuff just it’s been less then I would wish. My comité is a bit unorganized and has difficulty setting up meetings and now the school year has started so half of the guys work during the week now so limits my abilities to the weekends…that leaves a long stretch of the week days to fill.

I guess, I am most proud of the fact that I now am working with a women’s comité in another community. There is another volunteer that lives literally 8 km away by field in a community called Rio Negro, (you can find it on Google Earth around a place called `Estancia Kennedy`) but it is a huge hassle getting there. Anyway, the women are really interested in working bees and I have already been there twice and made a batea, bee box, and tried to do some trasiegos…they didn’t work out but nice try. It also involved one trip where I woke up at 3.30 in the morning and arrived my 8 km away at 9…this involved about 50 km of bus rides…that was not a good day. I am going back again and it looks like I will be working there off and on for awhile.

Last notes of this post, I am still looking for a house…its decidedly difficult apparently to find a house here, no idea why – update on the cute nephew he has left for school in Asuncion but his sister visiting kept up the tradition of indignantly saying that bees make bad boyfriends because they don’t know how to kiss – and thanks for the birthday wishes, mostly via facebook…they made me feel infinity better though not on my birthday, my host family forgot my birthday, a thing I found hard to understand as it was a day after my host dad´s…I will be celebrating it again this week in Asuncion, we have training and I think maybe back in the states…lets plan it for a ´Marcy´s 23rd and 24th B-day Bash and oh She´s Back in the States Party!

Miss you all! Marcy

PS The time zones are going to make sense again soon when y´all jump forward and we go back…yes PY will be the same as the East Coast…

And thank my family for being good sports and mailing all the letters I write in bulk now…and who ever else received a random two in one affair…

Observations from the Field

2009-02-10T07:11:00.003-07:00

I have an incredibly cute little nephew here...not the one that has no discipline but one who has a big crush on me and is 8 years old. My host family, hosts many a grandchild for periods of time, obviously during the summer when there is no school. Most frequently, Ivan and Diego stay at my house and maybe Ill see Ivan´s mom, Olga but I have never seen Blanca who is the eldest of Julia´s children and has the Brazillian husband that refused to learn Guarani.... Ivan, the four year old, acts like he is two and I truly hope that I was never like him as a child but I dont recall those years of my life. Diego is generally very affectionate towards me as well as helpful because he can understand my grasp of spanish mixed with guarani.

Now to my story - While I was washing my clothes one day, Diego comes up to me and asks...´Marcy, have you had any boyfriends¿´Certainly an interesting question for an 8 year old to a 22 year old...he then says, ´I have had four,´ while laughing I try to explain that what i think of as a boyfriend might be quite different then his thoughts...he doesnt under stand. He then stands and stutters for a while and then comes out with, ´I want to ask another question but I think you will get mad....have your boyfriends ever kissed you....right here...´point to his lips. I nearly died laughing at which he proceeded to sulk for the rest of the day.

I went to Asuncion for the second time, with a big slate of activities along with a date for Hooters for the SuperBowl...and interesting experience to say the least...being around 40 other Americans is an overwhelming thing when your contact might be by phone or seeing another volunteer once a week but I did have a lot of fun and thankfully the game was not a blow out...though by the sound of the PC group we probably scared any of the families which had come for a nice quiet meal on a sunday night...at Hooters. I happily recieved those thoughtful packages, Xmas!!, and am under the assumption nothing was missing from them because they looked quite intact...THANK YOU A LOT!! They made my day and with the goodies that I was able to disburse made several other volunteers days as well.

Miss you all heaps,
Marcy

¨For Space Ships Only´

2009-01-08T07:33:00.002-07:00

Oh I have the coordinates for my community so if you want them send me an email....super cool google earth!

Life at Site

2009-01-08T07:10:00.002-07:00

I am not certain where to pick up or where I left off..and no embarassing stories come to mind to regale you with but I will write some sort of an update...My last internet excursion was to Asuncion and the PC Office, an adventure or time to atleast speak English with people face to face, and somehow I managed to make it a stressful trip. Without the details - it all boils down to not the mini-vacation that I expected but not having money, three hours in the embassy, waiting two hours for my mail and possible the most packed bus ride in exsistance (they stopped picking up passengers...yes that full) it all culminated in me going to bed at 10.30 on New Years Eve.

My daily life is now patterned with a lot of terere and awkward conversations with unknown people and watching the world pass by on their motos...Its summer and life sort of stops here because it is around 90 degrees from 10.30-5.30 with humidity.

Two funny stories to leave you with or interesting since the second is a bit morbid...

I cooked a variation of past one night and Aurtilio, my host dad, reacted in surprise and semi-pain to my hot pepper..I dont know if I actually put to much in...quite possible I could have over-componsated for the lack of spice in my life right now (sort of literal)...or its just PY and inablilty to handle spicey things..

Number 2 - so I am getting used to the catholic tradition of rosary on the anniversary of deaths and such...to be honest in two more months Ill be able to recite it myself in Spanish...but on New Years morning I went to a reso... a little odd because most of them are in the evening...I figured out halfway through that it was not an ordinary reso but actually a funeral, my host sister hadnt forgotten to mention that small fact. I wasent tipped off until I saw through the cluster of people saying their hail marys, a casket...needless to say I felt a bit uncomfortable in my flip-flops, tank top and just awake after a hard day bed head....

Chou Chou and Best Wishes for the upcoming year!
Marcy

2008-12-30T05:43:00.005-07:00

I have discovered that I would much prefer to write these entries out before then have to think them up on the spot...so Ill leave you with only a couple of observations.

Christmas - involves everyone just staying up until midnight on the 24th while waiting for the asado to finish (bbq)...possibly drinking this fruit salad mixture with wine except not my family b/c they are evangelical christians. Also if you are Catholic you go to other peoples houses and look at there creches and drink more of that Clerico...(the fruit salad stuff). And at midnight, which caught me off guard, everyone goes around and hugs each other wishing people a merry christmas. And thats nice and all but I didnt know half the people so it was a bit strange for me. Another note - the only thing that they eat is the asado...with maybe some mandioca but really just meat so my diet has been heavy on the protein every since because at this time of year they eat asado a lot.

Second I have a joke which was told to me by one of the language teachers right after the election and its in Guarani and then the translation.

Petei kuimba’e Paraguayo onemongetase Presidente de los Estados Unidosndive. Upeicharo Ollama La Roga Moroti ha oporandu ane’e Presidente George W. Bushndive. Katy la secretario one’e, “Nahaniri, Ovama.” (in spanish and guarani the sound of the 'v' is very close to a 'b' sound....

A Paraguayan man wants to have a conversation with the President of the US. So he calls the White House and asks to speak to President George W. Bush. But the secretary there says, “No, he left.”

I am trying to upload some photos and am getting frustrated so I might stop and find a better internet connection...sometime but here is the link to the album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Marcy.ASL/Paraguay?authkey=QwY5_LzqylU&feat=directlink

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2008-12-23T10:21:00.004-07:00

Just a quick note - I hope everyone has a nice cold and white holiday season far far away from the mid 90 temp. that I am at...I am sure to be boiling away on Christmas Day and also super hungery because apparently we wait until midnight of the 24th to eat dinner...I dont really understand. Note the change in address for letters - my mother and I are testing it out to see if I can get packages that way as well...but I am sure to get mail much faster at this address...

Seasons Greetings!

Swearing In...take 2

2008-12-08T12:55:00.006-07:00

I just wrote a whole post and then lost it....sad.

A brief description of swearing in - I am now officially a Peace Corp Volunteer, as of December 5th. We had the ceremony at the US Embassy in Asuncion and like all of the US Embassies I have seen it was manicured to perfection - also has a pool that as a Volunteer I can use! The ambassador could not attend due to a meeting in DC apparently but we had a replacement - I am not actually sure of his title. He and our country director spoke both of which were bland and forgettable but a message of, 'this is a great oppurtunity and a great place to be.' Both of which are true but not going to keep us awake in the summer heat. We also had voted for one of the other volunteers to speak, who did keep us awake and amused (Steve is a farmer boy from Ohio with a booming voice.) Then we were let free, not really because we had to get bank cards and phones for PC as well as other errands - but this weekend was the first oppurtunity to really get to know Asuncion. My phone number...country code 595 and then my domestic number 0982600006 - I dont know if you leave the first 0 or take it off when calling but once I find out Ill be sure to tell you...skype you can call me for about 6 cents a minute. 01159598260006 - correct number 0- that is what you need to dial...

We had an article in the local Asuncion paper as well - http://www.abc.com.py/2008-12-06/articulos/476047/nuevos-voluntarios-en-el-cuerp- and make sure to check out the related articles b/c they interviewed two of the beekeepers (yes all in spanish, sorry)

Here is also a picture of the bees - bottom left to right - Lara, Nina, Adam, Mitra and I - top l to r - Justin and our trainer, Jonathan.

I leave for site tomorrow so I am excited for that and ready to get to work or get to start trying to ackwardly socialize and drink terere with hundreds of people.

Merry Christmas - Marcy

Another way to say ´Hello!´

2008-12-01T03:36:00.003-07:00

As Justin (one of the bees) always says the Guarani language is really deep - the example is their combinations of words that then later mean another thing. For example - nothing - mba´ve - when broken down means -mba - things - ve - more, so nothing literally means more things. The other words - no where - moo´ve - moo - where + ve ie - more where - and the last example no one - mava´ve - more who...the ancient Guaranis must have been very philosphical. I think it strikes a chord in the PC where having nothing might be very similar to have more. My final language class and interview approach on Wed, and I am amazed at the speed of my language comprehension. I definitely, with a month or two, will speak better Guarani then Spanish, though I will have to improve my Spanish as well. There are very few people in Paraguay that do not understand or speak Guarani. In Asunción, Spanish is more prevalent but since most of the population has moved there from the campo they understand Guarani. In the campo, generally Guarani is spoken but Spanish is widely understood either from school or more likely watching TV. I actually have to at least improve my Spanish as well because one of the beekeepers in my site only speaks Spanish.

Like many languages Guarani is not a written language and has taken many advanced and modern words from Spanish. The ease that Paraguayans can transition between the languages is amazing. At a meeting for example, the conversation is conducted in Guarani but the minutes are written in Spanish without hesitation or thought - in the end with all of my classes - I will write better Guarani then most of the population. Note - I will never speak pure Guarani, since my site is pretty large and semi-urban - my language will be Jópara- the mix of Spanish and Guarani.

I will try to get out an email about my site but I am running out of time right now.

MISS YOU ALL!!!
Marcy

!MY HOME FOR TWO YEARS!

2008-11-19T12:50:00.002-07:00

I got my site - a small town (1000) called Capellania near the larger town of Caraguatay in the province of Cordillera. You definitly can find the larger town on the map - its a new community with very little bees but close to the markets of Asuncion...and they sell lots of fruits and veggies. It sounds like a real chuchi community and I am the closest of my G´s to Asuncion, like 3 hours. I wont be ruffing it either, since my community has running water and electricity. Im off to visit tomorrow and then two more weeks until I am officially a PCV!!

SITES...maybe?

2008-11-19T03:33:00.002-07:00

I will try to sum up the past few weeks as I prop my lids open (and probably not accomplish any review of my activities)...I am writing this from my bed, to then enter tomorrow morning maximizing my internet time..., I am under my misquito net listening to the strains of the oh so constant polka music, my family talking and variuos insect noises coming in my window. I was talking to Ariel about the lack of variety in his music tastes and how I dream of cachaca musica and then I wake up and the dream doesn´t end...a cachaca filled nightmare.

Speaking of dreams I had my first one in Guarani...YEAH! Not that it made any sort of sense, I just know Guarani was being spoken. The dream, which occured on our long field practice (a week long visit to a current volunteer, filled with fun and intense...intense is just the word to sum it up, new host families and days filled with Guarani...) Anyway, the dream - included my tech trainer, Jonathan and Danielle, the current volunteer, coming to my host family´s house (the one on long field) in the middle of the night and visiting. I think the Guarani was actually the running commentary in my head about if when they left I would leave the house with them in order to fo to the latrine. It was very much on my mind, I now not that it stemmed from the fact - 1. I had to actually go to the bathroom. 2. I was afraid of to actually leave my room at night because of the guard dogs they have and they might not recognize me. 3. my family had not actually told me the location of the latrine was, I asked earlier where the bathroom was and got a response of ´oh, we dont have one....´ They assumed that I wanted a modern bathroom though that could have been lost in translation...my interest in bathrooms should have jogged them into showing me the latrine because even norteamericanos will eventually have to use the toliet....My inner monologue at one point switched back to English but that could have also occured when I woke up and still had my mind focused on the toliet.

This post has nothing really to do with what I have been up to the last few weeks but one more amusing picture before I sign off - think about what you were doing election day and then visualize me...not having access to news and freaking out...climbing around with my antenna and shortwave trying to pick up even a slight hint of english...I eventually found Voice of America and then BBC, it defintily was BBC Africa and I have even found BBC East Asia but no sign of South America...anyway I got to see part of Obama´s speach on the news in Spanish the next morning

I also have a bunch a pictures and a amazing video what I hope to never see again - you know how I said you would be crazy not to use smoke on Africanized bees well we found someone that crazy and I am very sure that I am not dangerously allergic to bees because I got over 15 stings from that little adventure...

I might write a short message this afternoon with my site!!!

Marcy

Blackberries and Bees....

2008-11-01T11:45:00.004-06:00

I am at the PC office in Asuncion today - we got a day off from class today - which is amazing but it was to make up for the extremely long day we had yesterday. It takes about an hour to travel here and two crowded buses, though nothing like Uganda only a little shoving is involved and the likelyhood that you are either getting on or getting off a moving bus. The driver speeds along while blasting his music and drinking his terere...thermos and cup in hand. Terere is the national pasttime here, its mate or a tea but cold with other local medicinal herbs mixed in with ice and poured into a smaller cup and bombilla (a sort of metal straw). The amazing thing is that they don't spill a drop. This will be very important in the future...proper terere'ing because it is the way we are going to integrate with the community. A lot of awkward conversation and overful bladders later...

Yesterday - we visited a former beekeeping training site (one that was in the early 2000s) and a very guapo man (hardworking). He had 8 hives that were in various stages of disrepair, including one that had fallen all the way apart...but this is good practice for what we will see out at site. The hardworking part came from the fact he owned about 14 acres of land and worked it all himself and did a lot of real lindo things like intercropping, rotation and abonos verdes - green manures. Back to the hives - it basically was transfering comb that had been bent and broken to a new hive - trying to avoid killing bees, hurting the brood and totally destroying all their honey. It worked out okay but definitly involved a lot of honey leakage and cutting of comb. I am going to try to upload some pictures - along with one of my sister, an amazing act of acrobatics getting

two people into a bee suit and the cigars that I rolled. The blackberries were the dessert of the day - this farm had a whole hedge of them and just there for the taking - amazing....you'd think that a country that could grow all these amazing fruits and veggies would actually enjoy eating them or somehow make them more available but that is life....

Talk to you soon!

Marcy

Almost a month in....

2008-10-22T04:34:00.001-06:00

Mba’eichapa!

Sorry for the long wait and the lack of communication….it is very easy to just avoid internet and communication in order to not have to spend the time writing etc…not to say that y’all are not important or deem writing, which of course you do!

As you can see “mba’eichapa” is the first word I learned in Guarani. The loose translation is “How is it going?” but literally I think it just means “how.” It is accompanied with a nice strong handshake even from the women…not of that limp fishy type of shake I got in Uganda but not like the power grab in the US. If you are greeting women, then they go to air kiss both your cheeks and comment ‘Que linda…” etc…or some comment on if you look fat (happy) today and for me basically talk about my blue eyes. If you are so lucky to get two kisses from a guy but that is generally reserved for good friends…not necessarily boyfriends etc… Though I have had the occasion where a unknown guy, mostly my brother’s high school friends, zoom in for the cheek kiss and manage to lay nice sloppy wet ones on my cheeks. That as we learned is a sign in Paraguayan culture for a sign of interest… My grandmother on the other hand coordinates the kissing with a couple of squeezes to my thighs. We have yet to figure out the actual intent but Nina (another trainee and also granddaughter) think that it is checking out my childbearing abilities as we have never seen her do this to guys. It might also have something to do with her lack of fat, I think she is about 90 and though is quite spritely; her thighs might be the diameter of my lower calf.

My grandmother happens to live on the corner between the main street, Calle Ybate, and my house so I often walk through her open-air house, rooms off of an open walk-way, to get to mine. At the beginning of my time I didn’t know any other way so all of the other trainees who came to visit had to awkwardly meet and greet my grandmother, aguela (yes, sort of like Spanish) as well, thigh squeezing and all.

Ill try to give you guys just a few more details of my life (I am actually using another girl’s computer to write this ahead of time…) So as I mentioned the last time I have class all day and once a week go into the big town, Guarambare for group class. Training is sort of going back to school, something I should have expected but also so much information in such a short time – back to HS or elementary with a 8-5 schedule. It is also increasingly compact because they are now fitting 12 weeks of training into 10 weeks because of budget cuts…note: y’all should write you congressman to complain about PC budget cuts…seriously they don’t need to give PC that much money for it not to go a long way in these developing countries. Its the third week and I am actually starting to click with the language though I am still in the basic sort of sentences. In the afternoons we have tech training, mostly focused on bees but some agriculture stuff because we are truly crop extension volunteers just with a more specialized sector.

The bees: I am actually really enjoying it, I like bees. They are the sort of animals that are real organized and I get so much satisfaction from just the basic ‘lets reorganize the hive and clean it and make it all lindo and everything…’ the ocd-ness of the operation is great. We do work with Africanized bees so they are more aggressive then the ones in the US. They initially had Italian bees here but in the 50’s someone brought some African ones to Brazil to experiment and of course because you can’t really control bees, they got out and their genes started to dominate the Italian population. It is still spring so they aren’t that angry but as the people with beekeeping experience have mentioned much more aggressive. You would never consider going into a hive without smoke and full body cover…I have only been stung a couple of times and have had varying reactions from a welt the size my fist on my knee to not even having a reaction when I got stung right below my eye. That was a relief, and really really hurt, my eyes watered A LOT but I cant even find the sting now. That was on my volunteer visit, which the highlights were working bees, getting lost and chauffeured by the Paraguayan military and then getting sick….topped off by a 10 hour bus ride which I couldn’t eat anything on because I was sick.

I just found an English radio station but probably will spend all night at the internet cafe on Nov 4th....

Lots of love,

Marcy

A Week In...

2008-10-05T07:15:00.002-06:00

Well, here is a bit of a taste of my life right now....I get up every morning at around 6.30 and get ready for school (school on days that I am only with beekeeping). I have a small breakfast of tea, its like nescafe with lots of milk really, and some little bread things. I walk down the road to CHP´i, the subcontracted organization which trains PC Paraguay. I have language class until noon where I go back home for a bit of lunch, a lot of lunch because its the largest meal. Then return to school for technical training till 5 or so. Home - hang around go visit people play soccer until dinner around 8 or so take a cold shower and go to bed. I realize that this is brief - I am also pressed for time...sorry I will elaborate more once my little sister isnt waiting on me at the internet cafe. On other days we have to go into town for training with the big group - which means we leave our site at 6.30...yeah! Oh, we met the bees for the first time and it was really cool - they are africanized I wrote down the species but forgot to bring it today....

Have fun with life in the US!
Marcy

Mba´eichapa!

2008-09-30T15:47:00.002-06:00

So I am just writing a quick post to tell everyone I have gotten here safely. Internet is real expensive here and also I dont really have a lot of time to get to the internet etc... The PC Group that enters in September 2008 (G28) is all agriculture and environmental volunteers; crop extension, beekeeping, agroforestry and environmental education. There are 28 volunteers in total, we all met in Miami and had some basic training....got on the plane on...Wed night? Im not totally sure, dates and days dont pass in a normal way. We stopped off in the Sao Paulo airport and then got to Paraguay on Friday morning, amazingly we arrived on the same plane as the president, Fernando Lugo, who had just been in NYC for the UN. It was pretty amazing because everyone on the plane was really excited and there was military and bodyguards everywhere. We arrived and it was a whirlwind ... I live in a small community the furthest out from the main training site with a family that has had several volunteers in previous years. I have a brother, Ariel 17 and sister, Alice 7 and of course mother and father and A LOT of family around me. The primary language is Guarani which is an interesting adventure along with all the other trainings that we get... I´ll write more soon! Have a fun winter...its going to get very hot here soon...
Marcy

The Last Best Place

2008-09-21T23:10:00.008-06:00

It is 11.15 pm the night before I leave Missoula...I have many feelings running through my mind but those are mostly clouded by denial of stress and the current cold virus that decided to pop up my last couple days in Montana. Leaving for two years plus is a bit stressful, exciting and unimaginable, in many ways it exactly like what many of my friends are experiencing, the first day of school or new jobs etc...but there is that two years in a hut that is possibly the major difference.

I might say that I know very little about Paraguay - I might add that it might not entail me to spend two years in a hut like PC Africa has to look forward too. It definitely will be different from domestic life in Montana or DC but I believe that I certainly will have power and maybe even running water (fingers-crossed for at least a tap). Paraguay is an unknown country to most people and also to the Missoula Public Library -so what I know is from either Wikipedia or the 20-page packet that was sent to me upon my PC invitation. A brief summary of my knowledge:

1. the largest export is hydro-electric power (why I know I will have power)
2. had a very bloody war in 1870 with Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, the War of the Triple Alliance, which resulted in a state (department) named after President Rutherford B. Hayes (Presidente Hayes)...go figure
3. there was a dictator, Alfredo Stroessner, from 1954 to 1989, terrible guy - like Nazi war criminals who then was overthrow, yet his political party still retained power until the most recent election.
4. and the new president is a former bishop, a leftist, Fernando Lugo - who knows what he will be up to because he was only inaugurated in August of 2008.

My preparation for this trip, the only part I had definite information on, was my packing list which I won't burden you with but I will offer a little amusement of my packing situation.

Here is picture of what the living room looked like with all the items I intended to fit into my two bags (80 lbs max) and to be honest ALMOST all of it did fit...who knows if I will actually use all of those items but if not they will find a nice home in Paraguay.

As I conclude this post, I have a couple of thoughts, some more important than others.
1. On behalf of my mother's strong emphasis on grammar - I apologize in advance for the glaring grammatical errors which will certainly occur in the future.
2. I promise to do my best on updating this blog - but there will be unavoidable voids on information and voids in time...who knows what sort of sketchy internet service I will find at my site...
3. If you write either email or snail mail - I will do my best to write back but also there might be unavoidable stretches of response time...who knows what sort of mail services...and yes I will be testing the global mail service and reporting back ie. letters to Thailand and even Europe.
4. Last but not least, I am excited to share my experience with all of you and give you maybe a brief look into a different culture and world...and I am thankful for all of your friendship and support on this new adventure that I am taking and happy that none of you tried to convince me otherwise.

I will miss you but I will see you all again...in two and a half years or when you are lucky enough to visit me...!!!

PS. For the next three months (my training I will probably have weekly email access and feel free to share this blog with anyone who seems interested).
PPS. Make sure to subscribe to this...I will eventually stop emailing to tell people I've posted...or if I can figure it out I might automatically put all of you on this