In one way it has been an uneventful week – we actually had English class at the high school both days this week and there were even students that I recognized! On the other hand it rained so often and the electricity was out for so many hours that it seemed as if we got nothing done. I have had minimal internet all week – just enough to look at e-mail. I did teach my first lesson with Digna on how to use a computer. She is very good with the mouse but I fear she may become addicted to Spider Solitaire. We don’t have any other programs on her computer but tomorrow I hope to start teaching her a little word processing using notebook.
It is interesting to note that Carlos who has downs syndrome also uses the computer. He can spend hours drawing boxes on the screen. They are actually quite artistic. I’ll have to save one and post it because they are very pleasing to look at.
As usual when it comes to the language, I often feel that I am a day late and a dollar short. For example, this past Saturday Digna announced that we were going to walk over to her copadres land to visit his well (pozo) and that it is only 3 kilometers (about 2 miles). At least that is what I thought she said. I had no idea why we were going but I’m up for any new adventure. Saturday arrived and it was storming with the usual deluge of rain, thunder, and lightning. Digna and I were entertaining Anae, a girl from Peru who is working with Eddy (Digna’s son, head of TeleCentro) on some sort of wireless project. However, Eddy left her with us while he took his wife to visit her parents. The electricity went out, the rain continued to pour down, I got out my embroidery to work on, and we sat in the living room talking.
All of a sudden, Apolonio, Digna’s brother-in-law showed up in his small truck. Within 5 minutes we were on our way (just time to get ice, water, jackets, and a bathroom break). I had no idea where we were going or why. Since it is Peace Corps rules that we cannot ride in the back of a truck, both Anae and I got to sit in the front. Also in the front seat (fortunately, trucks here do not have bucket seats but benches) were Apolonio’s small grandson and Digna, who squeezed in at the last minute – yes – five people in the front seat of a small truck. Carlos and Milo sat in the truck bed with a plastic tablecloth over their heads (remember, it is pouring down rain) and we were off. First of all there was a stop for coca cola and wine. Then we hit the main highway (Ruta 3). Remembering that this was only supposed to be a three kilometer walk, I prayed like mad that we would get there safely because Apolonio has a great sense of humor but has to look at the person he is talking to. He (and half of Paraguay) also has a habit of driving on the wrong side of the road because conditions may be better there. After a couple of Kilometers he turned off the main ruta – not onto a side road like we may have hoped for – but just at a convenient spot along the road so that he could get down to the side of the road where we also drove for a little bit and then turned onto his land (which, of course, had no road, only a bit of a pathway). We made our way through gates and paths finally ending up (after lurching from one side to the other to avoid the closely planted trees ) in front of a very old house. Slipping and sliding from one mud patch to the next we got to the porch where I finally saw why we were here (and it had nothing to do with a well) – to see how they butcher a pig! Fortunately, it was already dead, skinned, and hanging from the eaves. There was an enormous amount of fat on the table and Digna immediately began cutting it into little squares. They showed me the fire in the attached large shed where they had a giant pot of fat simmering to make lard, another large pot of blood sausage, and a third pot of some other pig product. It turns out that we were invited to a BBQ.
This is a real working farm and I was very impressed with the number of animals and their well-being. They had just birthed 16 new lambs bringing the total number of sheep to over 40. Apolonio is also interested in breeding cows and has several varieties – the only one I can remember is a brangus (Brahma and black angus). He also has hundreds of chickens, ducks, geese, guinea hens, and one turkey. He and I tramped through the jungle (or maybe the rain forest at this point) to see where several guinea hens and one chicken had hidden their nests. I was amazed at the number of eggs in each nest – up to 24! He took me around to all the pens so I could see the new piglets. It was a lot of fun and I took a lot of pictures. He and his wife were so excited to show me everything. If I ever get a good internet connection, I’ll post the pictures (as well as the ones from last week). Because of all the rain and mud the sheep (who will be sheared in the next couple of weeks) looked very miserable. One stood right in front of me with an expression on her fact – “I’m cold, miserable, and filthy dirty – do something”. So I took her picture. Best picture of all, however, was the chicken in the bathroom. This, of course, was an out house without a door. I was just sitting down when I noticed something in the corner by the waste basket – yes, it was a chicken sitting on her nest, very comfortable and not at all bothered by the number of people walking into her domain. I asked Reina (apolonio’s wife) about the chicken and she said that since she lays large numbers of eggs, she can set wherever she wants.
I tasted the blood sausage (hated it), and was fed little pieces of pork as it became done (much the best way to eat BBQ here because usually they cook the meat for hours and it is so tough that you can hardly bit into it). It was delicious but very greasy. Anae consumed about 10 times what I did. I couldn’t believe the appetite on that skinny creature! We all had a great time. When you needed to clean your fingers, you just located Apolonio (who had the only towel) and wiped them on his towel.
After a couple of hours (and two bottles of wine with coca cola) we took our leave. It had stopped raining so I figured that we would walk home but we only have to slip and slide our way to the gate (after a halt to make sure that a lost calf got back to her irate mother before we got between them). Turns out that Apolonio’s 16-year old son, Pedro, will drive us back home. He is a more cautious driver than Apolonio but spent most of the time on the wrong side of the ruta. I could just see the headline – Peace Corps volunteer in head-on collision – however, we did make it home safely and the electricity was on and stayed on for a couple of hours.
I finished up my lemon bars that were supposed to be for a treat after Mass. However, it was raining slightly and Paraguayans don’t go out in the rain. Digna had a call in to the priest to see if we were going to have Mass at the chapel but he never returned the call. We walked over there and found Mercedes mopping the floor to get the rain water off. She had everything prepared for Mass but Father never showed up (nor did anyone else). Mass was supposed to be at 6 p.m. and we waited until 7 p.m. and then went home and had the lemon bars for dessert that night. Unfortunately, it meant that we had to get up early on Sunday morning to go to Mass at the main church.
Speaking of lemon bars, I’ve been cooking up a storm lately – lemon bars, oatmeal cookies, carrot cake, and applesauce. I am on the cooking committee for the big Thanksgiving Peace Corps bash. We are going to have garlic rosemary turkey, a pumpkin/carrot dish with walnuts and marshmellows (we tested it without the walnuts and marshmellows and it was wonderful – I even made it for Digna and she loved it), capiche salad, creamed corn, (you won’t catch me eating the last two), and lemon bars for dessert. The recipe that we experimented with was not very good. I got one off the internet and it was better but Elaine Tannesen sent me her lemon bar recipe and it was the best! I’ve made them twice already and they disappear very quickly.

My biggest unsatisfied craving is for applesauce. I would like to use it when I make my oatmeal cookies substituting the applesauce for part of the oil. I decided that I’ve made applesauce before and I can make it here in Paraguay. The biggest problem is finding 16 apples that don’t have multiple bruises, dents, and gashes. The next problem is transporting them from Coronel Oviedo to Carayaó. This is in addition to my regular 7 apples for the week. But I did it. The recipe was simple (apples, lemon and a bit of sugar and cinnamon – okay, a lot of cinnamon). Since we don’t have a potato masher we put the cooked apples in the blender. You would have thought the results came from the store! Looked and tasted great. However, next time we won’t blend it so much and I can use less sugar – a couple of tablespoons instead of ¼ cup. I was thinking how expensive this all was but when I figured it out I had more than a quart of applesauce for about $2 U.S. so that’s not so bad.

I did make oatmeal cookies. Since chocolate chips are unheard of here in Paraguay, I substituted the Paraguayan version of M & Ms (called rocklets). The cookies were delicious and all 4 dozen have disappeared so I think that I may bake some more this afternoon (I shared).

That’s about it for this week. Be sure to keep me up to date on what is going on in your lives.

P.S. I just got a request today from Digna to make my oatmeal cookies as a birthday cake for her little granddaughter who is turning 5 but instead of little cookies, she wanted them done in a cake pan. Of course, I didn’t have enough oatmeal but heck, this is the age of experimentation. I threw in a little ground up peanuts and a little more flour and a lot more rocklets (which was the whole point of the exercise) and we had ourselves a cookie cake. I also used the rocklets to write her name on the top. It didn’t look like much (except a lot of rocklets) because they are bigger than M & Ms but if you like candy, you certainly got it in this cake!