El Espíritu del Cuerpo de Paz

Cuerpo de Paz is a rollercoaster. I’ve had some less-than-perfect days (almost crying in language in class, missing my friends’ weddings and July 4, getting sad news from home), but every once in a while I have one of those unbelievable the-world’s-conspiring-in-my-favor days. Luckily, today was the latter.

I have to give a shout-out to my friend and g-mate Zach with the telling of this story. Zach was in my language class from Day 1. What you can infer from this is that like me, Zach was a beginner Spanish student. He once told our language teacher Diosnel that he drank AIDS (SIDA) at a birthday party. Diosnel was kind enough to raise his bushy eyebrows and gently correct saying, Tomaste sidra? – “You drank cider?”

quince birthday party, cider toast for the men (zach=white shirt)

So now, I’ll take you back to Zach’s first day in Paraguay when he met his host family. Walk with me…

Zach’s host dad Tony: Por qué juntaste Cuerpo de Paz? (Why did you join Peace Corps?)
Day 1 Zach: Uhhh….EL ESPÍRITU! (Uhhh…THE SPIRIT!)

What Zach failed to say fluently, I believe he managed to say concisely. There’s a spirit of service, self-discovery, adventure and curiosity for the greater world around us. And that’s at the heart of everyone’s impetus for joining Peace Corps.

Consequently, it was not uncommon to run into Tony around town, and as a way of saying hello, you’d say, “EL ESPÍRITU!!!!” and throw your arms up like a referee signaling TOUCHDOWN! (Go ahead and try it out; it’s quite fun.)

So as I said, el espíritu del Cuerpo de Paz, was guiding me today. Here’s how things went down.

I slept late this morning until 730am. I’m making some granola/yogurt/apple concoction to take with me to work. And then I hear clapping outside. Remember, clapping = doorbell in Paraguay. I usually don’t answer the claps because they’re not normally for me. But today it was. It was Don Kiko. Don Kiko is hired to landscape the yard at AMUR, and he was wondering when I could let him in the gate there. So I walked him over. And for the eight minute walk we took together, I understood everything he said. And even managed to identify him as the owner of the most lindo (neatest, tidiest) garden in town. So we talked about gardening and what part of the broccoli and cauliflower plants are meant to be eaten–Flowers or leaves?

Sabes comer brocoli? Do you know how to eat broccoli? This sentence construction is always used when discussing which foods someone eats. So if ever I don’t want to eat something, I just have to say No sé comer eso, gracias. I don’t know how to eat that, thank you. But in this case I said Si, yo sé  comer brocoli. Te voy a mostrar. Yes, I know how to eat broccoli. I’ll show you.

After a stint at AMUR until 11am I walked home with Don Kiko; and when it came time to part ways, he invited me to tour his garden. Of course he loaded up a generous bag of goodies–Swiss chard, tomatoes, radishes, broccoli, beets, parsley–and invited me to visit his house to meet his wife and kids anytime. He suggested I come by and explain how to prepare broccoli. Absolutely will do that soon.

my vegetable loot

Then it was lunch and siesta time until my future landlady called and said she’d be in town today. She didn’t make it yesterday because it rained all day. We met at 3pm to read the lease, pay up and get the keys. So as of today, I am officially leasing my very own casita in Paraguay.

Riding this wave of success, I headed back to AMUR to hang out with Ña Ede. We put up a chalkboard to advertise my upcoming painting class. As the power had gone out (a normal occurrence these days) we moved outside into the shade to watch the soccer game at the high school. There were some other socias around, so I took advantage and invited myself (sin vergüenza – without shame) to visit one of their houses tomorrow afternoon. And then this weekend, I’ll be staying with another socia in the campo countryside.

Today, I also got the OK on a t-shirt design and logo I created for an upcoming youth leadership camp. Here’s the logo. Ñande Ha’e Tenonderã is Guarani for Our Future.

Our Future