Week 20- Cities and Kitties

This is two for one week. The internet is so slow and I’ve had nothing to do but write notes. I actually have a Facebook window here (no G-mail or anything else but Facebook on the internet), so decided to post them both while I had time. It is storming here again. I finally figured out that there is no rain without thunder and lightning. Very interesting concept. I will try to post my pictures but I fear the internet connection is too slow and will have to wait until Eddy gets back from Peru and his internet conference before I can get a decent connection at the Telecentro.

We are used to unusual city names in the U.S. In Washington State alone we have Issaquah, Humptulips, Puyallup, and George. However, Paraguay puts us to shame when it comes to naming cities. Take the name of the pueblo where I live – Carayaó. It’s a nice Guarani name – kind of equivalent to Issaquah. However, Guarani is a very simple language (except when you listen to it or try to speak it). “Caray” means Mr. and “aó” means clothes, so Carayaó means Mr. Clothes – go figure. Everyone I asked gave me the same answer and they are just as puzzled about who Mr. Clothes is or why a town would be named that. Most of the other Guarani names make better sense – Ita is rock so we have Itapu (big rock) and Itacuribi (little pebbles – because there is a lot of gravel in this city), etc. Very comforting to have names that make sense.

I also like Arroyos y Esteros – Creeks and Swamps. And that is exactly what it is. I spent 5 days there on long field training and spent most of the time trekking through swamps and streams. It is a lovely place but very difficult to keep your shoes clean.

The nearest city to Carayaó is Coronel Oviedo. He was a rather ineffective soldier in the Triple Allliance war (couldn’t find out anything about him but then the city was founded in 1822) but they named a city after him – and you just can’t say Olviedo – you have to say the entire name – Coronel Oviedo. At least it isn’t as bad as Desmochados Villalbín – that one is a mouthful.

The Paraguayans also name a lot of cities (and even more streets) after days of the year. For example, Liz lives in Sixto de Abril (the 6th of April). There are also 3 de Febrero, 10th de octubre, and 25 de Diciembre. Except for Christmas no one is sure what happened on those days – it had something to do with the “war” and since Paraguay has had a lot of major wars, that is a safe answer. (This is also the safe answer to whatever holiday we are celebrating – it had something to do with the war – and you don’t even care which war because it is a free day).

Many towns are also named after saints – but it’s not as simple as San Francisco or San Jose. The Jesuits, not the Franciscans, brought the faith to Paraguay and if there is one thing certain about the Jesuits, they get their facts straight. It is not sufficient to name a town San Juan. We need to know which St. John this town is to be named after – so we have San Juan Bautista and not too far away there is San Juan Bautista de Neembucú. In the other direction there is San Juan Nepomuceno. I can just see the Jesuit conversation now –

“Father, we’ve decided to name the town after San Juan.”

”That is good, my son, but which San Juan?

”San Juan Bautista, Father.”

“Yes, my son, but which San Juan Bautista?”

“There is more than one, Father?”

“Of course, we have San Juan Bautista, the original cousin of Jesus, we have San Juan Bautista de Neembucú; we have San Juan Nepomuceno, we have San Juan del Paraná, we have . . .”

“Never mind, Father, we’ll name it Jesus, there is only one.” (And yes, there is a town named Jesus in southern Paraguay.

Now if a Franciscan had done the naming the conversation would have gone like this –

“Padre, let’s name the town after St. John.”

“Sounds great to me – there are a lot of St. Johns so we can honor them all.”

And just when you think there are no easy names, we arrive in Yhu – black water. Doesn’t get any simpler than that (except for Ita).