The rest about Ayolas

A little late, but as promised, this is my account of last weekend when I went to Ayolas to visit a volunteer in-site.

I got up early on Friday, and met two fellow travelers at the bus stop at 645am. Regular buses begin running at 3am so that people can get into Asuncion and open up their shops at various markets in the city. Therefore, a 645 bus is in the middle to later side of the morning commute. We arrived at the Asuncion main terminal around 8am.

The main bus terminal in Asuncion is different from what I expected. I thought there would be one ticket office, but the long-distance buses are operated by private agencies. So you walk down this line of booths and the salesmen are yelling out different destinations: Buenos Aires! Pilar! Sao Paulo! Actually, in my case, as Mike and I reached the entrance to these booths, we’re looking around bewildered, and in no time and opportunistic man approaches us and asks where we’re going and immediately takes us to his company’s booth. However, PC recommended a different agency so we located them and bought a ticket for 36,000G (about $7.60 USD).

The bus was Brazilian-made and much like a coach bus in the US, just older and run down. The windows could open and the seats were marginally comfortable for the 6 hour  bus ride. I’m pretty sure that the bus ride could have been a 3-4hr affair if the bus didn’t stop on every corner of Asuncion and in every pueblo along the Ruta.

Directions in Paraguay are vague. But Paraguayans know the main roads really well. So at any time you get on a bus, you can just turn to a nice señora and ask her, “Will you tell me when we arrive in (city name here)?” We knew the bus ride was 5.5 hours, mas o menos, and our directions told us to ask to be dropped off in Ayolas at the Quartel de los Bomberos…the firehouse.

So we arrive, and Mike and I meet the two volunteers Jessica (Environmental Education) and Liam (Munical Services Development). They gave us a walking tour of Ayolas–through a suburban neighborhood, past the community center, gym and swimming pool, the soccer field and the river Paraná.

Red flag alert. Community Center? Gym? Swimming pool? Ayolas is no pueblo.

Ayolas is located in the department (sort of like a province) called Misiones. And this area has been greatly affected by the second of Paraguay’s dams–Yacyreta. The downside is that the dam has displaced many people, changed ecosystems, flooded land. And to compensate, the central government of Paraguay distributes 50% of the funds made off the dam’s operation as royalties to help pay for community improvements and development. Hence the upside. There are two factors that determine the amount of royalties a department can receive: proximity to the dam and population. But his process is often very corrupt as you might imagine.

Another reason that Ayloas is chu-chi (Paraguayan slang for fancy or cushy) is that many engineers and employees of Yacyreta live there. The new side of town looks like a suburb (sidewalks, curbs, streetlights, parks, trees). There are large pieces of undeveloped land that were intended for more housing development, but it never happened.

On Saturday we biked all around town…to the public relations office and museum, the commercial center, the old town, and a pier. The museum had a large collection of stuffed animals native to Paraguay, plus tons of preserved insects. There was also some pottery, jewelry and a traditional dwelling. The commercial district was a main street lined with small shops. The old town included the traditional plaza with surrounding buildings of importance–a school, church, clinic. And at the pier, we met some teenagers that were fishing.

That night for dinner, we headed over to the firehouse. He had been invited to eat dinner with them. The menu?! La cabeza de la vaca – Cow’s head. I kid you not. A cow’s head was seasoned and wrapped up in aluminum foil. Normally, cow’s head is cooked in the ground over night, but because we were short on time, it had been roasting over a fire for much of the day.

When it was time for the big reveal, the cow’s head was placed on a large tray, and the aluminum foil delicately unwrapped. To eat, everyone was armed with fork and knife and instructed to have at it. Sin Vergüenza! Without Shame! I ate some tongue and part of the cheek…with gravy! That’s right. There was gravy. Any meat is better with gravy. Check out the video of the big reveal:

Sunday, we got up bright and early and watched Paraguay´s World Cup win over Slovakia. We watched at the firehouse on a large projector. And afterwards, we participated in the victory celebration outside the firehouse: horns, sirens going, flags waving, grown Paraguayan men singing at the top of their lungs. And then the fire chief stopped by and gave the firefighters the OK to take the trucks for a victory vuelta (lap) around town.  We road on top of the fire truck! What a site to see.

Sunday also happened to be Father’s Day, so I got to talk to my Dad via Skype at Jessica’s house. Yay! And then Jessica and I went to celebrate the holiday with one of her host families. They were having asada (a cookout with beef, sausage). SO much fun. They also served manioca, a cabbage salad with awesome tomatoes, sopa (cornbread), a rice salad and cake. I did a lot of listening and understood most of what was going on, with some help from Jessica from time to time.

On Monday morning, Mike and I headed back to Villeta by way of Tres Bocas and Guarambare. We road  the bus for about 4.5 hours, got off the bus after the toll both in Tres Bocas and walked across the street to wait for the bus to Villeta. I got home around 5 and the best part of all was that my host mom gave me a big hug! And she said that Dalmi had been asking about where I was all weekend. It’s good to be missed!

Tonight, the PC trainees in Villeta have been invited to a quinceanera, a 15^th birthday party, which is a big deal in Latin American cultures. The connection is an interesting one…

Twenty years ago a PC volunteer (Joanna) met and married the son (Vincento) of the family next door to our training center house in Villeta. They live in California now, but they visit Paraguay every few years. They are visiting now, and throwing a birthday party for their oldest daughter. So Joanna and Vincento came over during class earlier this week and formally invited all of us to attend and explained their story.

Being the curious one I asked how they met. It was Joanna’s first week in Paraguay and she was sort of lost in Guarambare when Vincento gave her some directions. A few days later, they were at the same party and when Vincento asked Joanna to dance she replied, “Soy Joanna. I’m Joanna.” Haha. Oh Spanish.

Anywho, looking forward to the mass and the party later tonight. Afterward if possible, we’re going to Ypane, the other satelite community where trainees live, to attend the festival of San Juan.  Stoked.

Here’s a preview for an upcoming blog topic: Dia de Practica #1. I’ll be working with another trainee to complete 5 days of community work that will build up to a final project by the end of training. We went to the municipality and more or less interviewed a women who works in the dirrecion de la cultura, Department of Culture, about possible service opportunities there. I think she’s going to set us up with a group of interested youth and we’ll see what their interests are soon. And then we will go from there.