Halloween Part I- Decorations

Apparently, since our school is the American school, they have grasped onto some American ideas, one being Halloween. Last week, room mothers (yes, each classroom in the elementary have assigned room mothers to plan birthday parties and I'm not sure what else) started showing up to decorate the school for Halloween. Now, most people would assume that decorations might include a few streamers, some pumpkins, and some pictures of some kind. Well not these decorations. You could say, that Halloween has gotten a bit out of control. It almost appears to be a contest between the rooms to see who can decorate the most.

This is outside of my room.

In front of the office.

These decorations do little for the education of the kids and do a lot for exciting the students. It makes me a little bit sad to think about the amount of time and money spent on our school's decorations when there is so much poverty still around us.

They also decorated for the Halloween festival that happened after school on Friday. I didn't take pictures of the decorations there, but they were quite a sight.

Folklore Day

A few weeks ago, the elementary school has their Folklore Day. Folklore day here is somewhat similar to the Dia Tipico's that we had in Honduras, but it did have some differences. To start, a little history is needed to understand Paraguayan schooling. For most people in the country, Spanish is not their first language, Guarani is. Guarani is the name of the traditional indians that lived in Bolivia, Paraguay, and northern Argentina when the Spanish took over.

Outside of the big cities, Guarani is the main language of the country. Jesse and I hear Guarani being spoken almost daily by our guard and our maid. However, during the 1930's and 40's, Guarani was viewed as an inferior language, and therefore was banned in the nation's schools. Sometime in the 1970's (my dates may be a bit off) the government realized what a diservice it was doing to its youth, and now, every student has to take a Guarani class as part of their education. It is still viewed as a campesino language, a poor person's langauge, so many of our students don't value the language or its culture.

Fast forward to today, and as a part of the elementary school Guarani program at our school, they have a Folklore Day. This is where each grade level is taught a traditional dance and they wear traditional clothing as well. The girls wear traditional colored skirts, and wear fake hair braids to give the illusion of long hair. The boys wore gaucho clothing with a traditional belt, and the 5th grade boys also got to carry a guompa (my spelling may be off) to simulate a machete to harvest crops with.

The celebration is held for the parents to come and watch, with announcements made in three languages- Guarani, Spanish, and English. As it is the 5th graders last year dancing for Folklore Day, they got to do an extra dance to celebrate. Teachers were also asked to participate, although for my first year, I chose to sit out and just observe the celebration.

Three months in...

This week is our 13th full week here in Paraguay. Every day that I put the date on the board, I'm amazed at how fast our time here has flown. We just finished our first quarter of the school year, had parent-teacher conferences, and have done one really nice vacation so far. There have been some struggles, but overall, I am enjoying my time here and I really like my job. It is a little difficult trying to think of October as spring, but I'm working on it. I do wish we had a few more three day weekends to see more of Paraguay, but what can we do. I've been designated our official trip planner (since I have a little bit less of a teaching load than Jesse), and I've been spending a lot of time planning our upcoming two month vacation. I am really looking forward to spending time with Alex and Caitlin in Chile, Easter Island, and Ecuador; and seeing Dad in Peru. I have a feeling it will be here before we know it. Time, it is a-flying.

Buenos Aires- Recoleta

I realized this afternoon that I hadn't posted on our visit to the Recoleta neighborhood in Buenos Aires. The most famous part of the Recoleta neighborhood is the Recoleta cemetary. This cemetary was amazing, with astonishing architecture for the family crypts. This is where Eva Peron rests with her family, which added to my desire to visit it.

A startlingly beautiful statue.
An example of the architecture. The cemetary was set up with alleys to guide you around.

Eva Peron's gravesite.

Recoleta also has, what is commonly called, a Hippie Market. Here, hippie portenos sell their artistic wares. Jesse and I bought a painting, some earrings (for me), a ring (for him), and some picture frames. We also stumbled upon a live music show going on, so we just sat and listened for awhile.
What may have been Jesse's favorite part of the neighborhood was where we ate lunch. Around the hippie market there are all these outdoor cafes and restaurants. Well, we found a microbrewery among those outdoor patios. We bought a sampler and enjoyed the variety of beers.

Boca Juniors

One of the things that makes the La Boca neighborhood famous is its soccer team Boca Juniors. CABJ (Club Atletico Boca Juniors) is one of the 2 giant teams in Argentina and they have had some pretty famous players and lots of championships over the years. Their stadium called "El Bombonero" (which means chocolate box because it looks like a box of chocolates from above) is only 4 blocks from the touristy street with all the painted houses so we decided to pay it a visit and take a stadium tour.
The tour was only $5 and took us all around the stadium including some of the nicer box seats which felt like they were right on the field, under the stadium and into the visitors locker room, and even onto the corner of the field.

We were also able to take pictures where the players and coaches give press conferences after the games.
The most famous Argentinian of all played his club soccer for Boca Juniors. Of course I had to get my picture next to the bronze statue of Diego Maradona. This other picture is of a giant mural covering an entire wall of the Boca Juniors museum depicting Maradona.
Unfortunately there was no home game while we were there, but the next time I'm in Buenos Aires, taking in a game at the Bombonero will be high on my list of things to do.

La Boca

Buenos Aires is a city with many very distinct neighborhoods. One of the more famous of these neighborhoods is La Boca. It is a neighborhood located next to the port in Buenos Aires which was settled by many immigrants from Italy and Spain. These immigrants worked in the port and used lots of colorful paint to make the barges and ships that they worked with more pleasant to the eyes. When they had leftover paint, they brought it home and painted their houses with it to make the tin and old wood look better too. This tradition led to a beautiful and colorful neighborhood that became popular with tourists.
We wandered around the neighborhood for a while, took some pictures, and picked a place to sit down for lunch after being hounded by what seemed like 50 restaurants offering food and a tango show. We settled on one and had a nice steak lunch while watching the show. Crowd participation is apparently highly encouraged in Argentina because Danielle got pulled up on stage for a little dance as well. Overall Boca was interesting and beautiful but a little touristy and fake as well. Still worth a visit though.

Buenos Aires- The Tango

The tango is a dance that is synonymous with Argentina, especially Buenos Aires. The dance originated there, and has now become a tourist attraction in the city. Restaurants were constantly offering free tango shows during lunch or dinner in the touristy areas, and our hostel advertised tango shows as well.

I thoroughly enjoy theater and dance, and seeing a tango show was high on my to-do in BA list. The six of us booked tickets to a classy tango show and got picked up at our hostel. We got there with plenty of time to spare, and plenty of time to share some good Argentinian wine. Below are some pictures of the show.
My favorite part of the show was when they grabbed certain audience members and added them to the show. Our group was lucky enough to have two members chosen- Molly and Jesse. Jesse actually got whisked away backstage and made part of the act.
Below is a short video we took of the action.

Buenos Aires- Day 1

This past weekend, we had our a six day weekend and tickets to the "New York of South America"- Buenos Aires or BA for short. This has been our first break from school, and we took advantage. We flew out of Asuncion on Thursday. Arriving in BA, we knew we were in a whole different world than Asuncion. We caught a ride into the city. One of the first things I noticed while driving through is how European the city looks and feels. I could very easily have been in Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, or London with the architecture and the feel of the city. Asuncion is a very laid-back quaint city. BA is a city of constant movement and activities.

After we arrived at our hostel (if you remember from the last post, it was Jesse and 5 ladies- lucky him) we went up to the roof. Our hostel had a roof-top terrace with a beautiful view of the city. The bar was also up there so we had a beer to cheer our first South American vacation.

Then we went off exploring. Our hostel was right downtown, so it was very easy for us to walk to some very cool places. First, we went to the Plaza del Congreso, which is where the Congress meets.

Next, we walked down the other way from our hostel and went to see Casa Rosada. This is where Eva Peron (Evita) did her big speech to the masses. The traffic was crazy around this area, but we needed the picture.

BA is known for its shopping, and since Asuncion is not, and we were five women and Jesse, shopping is what we did. Since it was kind of late, we mainly just walked down Calle Florida to see what is available. Calle Florida is pedestrian only street goes on and on forever. It has stores and shops of all kinds, and has access to two or three malls. It was incredibly crowded, and with the street vendors in the middle of the street, it was difficult to get by sometimes.
We ended our first day in BA with dinner at a Thai restaurant and drinks at an Irish pub. I love Thai food, and thankfully, so do all of our companions. Here is a picture of my neighbor Chaya and I.
Jesse found an interesting beer (note to Simpsons fans) to try at the Irish pub while we planned the rest of our BA activities.

A Well Deserved Vacation

Starting after school today, spring break has started. We are free of students and responsibilities until next Wednesday at 7:30am. Jesse and I, with four other female teachers, are traveling to Buenas Aires, Argentina for the weekend. We are super excited for the break from work and for the chance to experience a new place. We'll do some new posts when we get back on Tuesday.

Rosa

It seems as if the "thing" to do in Paraguay is to hire a housekeeper or maid. Jesse and I, trying to keep up with the Joneses and our neighbors, have one. Well, we share our housekeeper, Rosa, with our neighbors, meaning that Rosa gets a full time job and we get a part time maid. Rosa has worked in the complex for the past few years and comes highly recommended by both our neighbor and our landlord.

And I love her. I walk into my house every day after school and my clothes are washed, bed is made, dishes are done, and the house is clean. She gets our big 5 gallon jug of drinking water, and will pick up things for us at the grocery store. I can't say how thrilled and ecstatic I was when one morning, I thought there couldn't be any coffee because there was no milk, only to find that Rosa noticed we were out, went to the store, and bought some for us. She will also cook for us; she makes a mean potato empanada. We have not washed our own clothes nor washed any dishes almost the whole time we've lived here.

I'm writing this post today, because I was reminded how quickly one can start taking things for granted. Rosa's sister passed away last week, and she's been dealing with a lot of family issues. I came home from school today, saw a dirty floor (there had been a storm the night before and leaves and dirt blew in from under our door) and found myself a little annoyed. I walked into the kitchen and saw dirty dishes and realized that Rosa didn't come today. Her sister's body arrived today from Spain and she shouldn't have been at work.

I think its important to stop and evaluate how lucky I am that I am in a position to be able to afford to employ someone. We are indeed lucky. I also need to remember that we have this lifestyle because of some social injustices in the country that we currently life in. Many housekeepers, afraid of losing their job, will come to work ill, injured, or when serious family issues are taking place. Also, many housekeepers, or empleadas, will try to fix things that break or get stained. They fear of losing their $240 a month job. These social injustices, fair or not, are a part of life in Latin America.