Week 3:

Yesterday, we were put into pairs and given an assignment to find two or three places in Asuncion. This is actually the first time that we have been in the city (although we landed at the airport two weeks ago, we didn’t actually see any of the city that day). My partner was Adam, a very quiet person, who speaks very good Spanish (a whole lot better than I do). However, I think I’m a better navigator than he is.
We took the bus from in front of my house around 7 a.m. Our assignment was to visit the Credicoop, the Mercardo Abasto, and the Shopping Villa Maro. We were to compare the two markets. Well, Adam received the information that the Credicoop was just across the street from the Supermercado Guarani, so when we saw the Supermercado Guarani (after being on the bus for about an hour) we figured that this was the place to get off. Ha! It was definitely not the correct stop. We asked around and found that the Credicoop was still about 30 or 40 blocks away. Not being certain where we were (no maps), we stopped at an internet café and used mapquest to find where we were and where we should go. It turns out that we were about 5 Km away from our target.
Adam thought that we could walk it so walk it, we did. The streets here are very noisy and there are no sidewalks. However, since this was in the city, there were a lot of stores that we could pass in front of. This wasn’t exactly a rich section of town – just a little under middle-class so it was an interesting walk. Best of all, we passed right by our second target, El Mercado Abasto so stopped there and did our research first. It is a wholesale market for fruits and vegetables. Kind of like a giant Pike Place Market but a bit more on the wholesale side. We didn’t take long there (I did buy a pineapple for my family but it appears that I paid 2-3 times what I should for it – it was 5 mil or about a dollar – it is still sitting on the kitchen table so I’m not sure if they don’t like pineapple or if they are saving it). After further walking we did find the Credicoop. It took about 30 minutes to find out all about them (we are all going to be working with co-ops for it is important that we find out as much about them as we can). Our next stop was the Shopping Villa Maro. We did take the bus. Fortunately, a lady heard us ask the bus driver if this was the bus to the shopping center because she poked us when it was time for us to get off. This is a shopping center equivalent to Bellevue Square (though the stores are not that large). Everything was very expensive. I tried to find a wrist watch but the cheapest I could find was 180 Mil which is about $50. There are a lot of other places that sell watches cheaper so I’ll wait. Since it was only about 2-3 Km to the Peace Corps office, we decided to walk there. In this case, I agreed with him because we had no idea what bus to take. On our way we met some others from our group who were looking for places to eat so we all went together to have lunch. We spent the afternoon at the Peace Corps office in Asuncion learning all about what is there and how they are going to assign us our site. Best of all, I had a letter waiting for me from Monica! What a delight. She sent the letter on May 30th and it arrived at the Peace Corps office on June 8th so that isn’t too bad. Unfortunately, you don’t get your mail until you go to the Peace Corps office so that can be more than a week’s delay.

Best of all, we were driven back to our homes in Paso de Oro by van.
Our driver, Jonathan, is one of our trainers and he stopped at a very exclusive ice cream place (Italian gelado). The gelado was delicious and we had a lot of fun.
Tomorrow is a holiday here so we don’t have classes. However, on Saturday we will all be traveling separately to each visit another Peace Corps volunteer for 4 days. I’ll be going to Villaricca which is a small city that everyone says is “chuci” (that means it is very upscale and elegant). The volunteer there, Brennan, is working with a credit co-op and this is definitely not out in the country. Everyone teases him about his easy assignment. It is about a 3 hour trip. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back.

Another Bonita Story – Bonita and the Radio

Bonita loves to listen to the radio with Diana. One day, Eladia was in the kitchen when all of a sudden she heard the radio which was located in another room (somehow or other when the radio is turned on in one room, you can hear it in all the rooms and we usually spend all day Sunday listening to 80s music – in Spanish and in English).  All of a sudden, the music blared out. Eladia yelled at Diana to turn down the music but didn’t hear a response from her. In fact, the music became even louder and the station changed. She went into the room where the radio was to scold Diana only to find Bonita in front of the radio, turning both the volume and the station dial, dancing, dancing, to her heart’s content. She had turned on the radio all by herself and was busy finding a good station. Obviously, she loves her music loud!