Ellen in Paraguay

I feel like I haven’t written a blog for a very long time. Since I last wrote, I’ve passed my time being nervous about teaching, playing more ping-pong, trying to talk with people about more in-depth things like the history of the Jews, and learning about Dengue (I think that is how it’s spelled, and I’m pretty sure it is the same in English and Spanish.) There is a bit of an epidemic here, already seven people in Asunción have died. One lady in the church had it and she was pretty weak still on Sunday, almost two weeks after she got it, but is doing much better now. Monday was declared a national holiday in order for people to clean their homes, supposedly to prevent the dengue from spreading. The funny thing is that it actually comes from clean-water mosquitoes – probably someone just wanted to have the day off. I read once in Karen’s newsletter that she counted up the holidays and that Paraguay and the U.S. have the same amount. Not that I want to disagree with the wise woman who is my superior, but it seems to me like they have a lot more, and strange ones too: Day of the worker, a whole week for Easter, Day of the Founding of Asunción, Peace of the Chaco (a desert-like region with really salty earth and a whole bunch of Mennonites raise cattle), in addition to the normal ones like Independence day, and they actually take seriously the days for celebrating Friendship, Health, Trees and the national anthem. But before we judge the things other countries choose to take note of, I think all of us need to consider the significance of Groundhog Day. Over the last couple of days I’ve tried to explain the meaning of February Second in North American to some very confused people. In the first place, I have a real fat Spanish dictionary, but I don’t know if the Spanish-speaking world is aware of such an animal, which I have chosen to call a rat-type rodent that lives underground. Secondly, there is the problem that no matter if the groundhog sees his shadow or not, there will always be at least six more weeks of winter in Edmonton, and probably more like nine. Nevertheless, I still think “Groundhog Day” is a great movie. I would appreciate it if someone could tell me if there actually is one reliable groundhog and where the mythology for this day comes from.
The teachers returned to school today. It was very exciting to have lots of new people, because we needed to meet more requirements in order to have tenth grade. For example, there is even a psychology teacher that comes one day a week for two hours. I thought perhaps they must had a hard time finding her, but Karen said they had the most trouble with finding a Christian math teacher. So just a reminder that it would be nice if all Christians could spend four years studying religion and theology like me, but we really need Christian psychologists and politicians and architects and math teachers, people to be salt and light in all these fields that have so much influence in society. I haven’t talked to him yet, but I think my favourite new teacher will be the loud, skinny, six-and-half-foot-tall, ex-cab driver, history and social sciences teacher. He appears to be not only very intelligent but very lively, and enthusiastic about teaching. I am a bit stressed out of my brain because right now there are only 3 students in the kindergarten class I am teaching and I haven’t even gotten my schedule, but Ben reminded me that we are in Paraguay and not to worry because probably people will just decided to show up at the school on the first day to register their kids. For some grades we don’t even know yet if we will have one or two classes. Efficient-Ellen is going nuts over how we are going to be able to have the right number of textbooks and normal sized classes; it’s a good thing I have a lot of faith in our leadership and I was able to see the school running smoothly last year.
Speaking of efficiency, I feel like I spread a lot of my North American way of thinking this week. I taught Marcelo how to measure out the rope first to make the lines on a volleyball court as opposed to just eyeballing everything, I took a couple kids to the park one day and taught them about the woes of littering, and today over lunch I informed my roommate that Abraham Lincoln was not the first president of the “E.E.U.U.,” but rather it was a man named George Washington. Pardon me if it sounds like I am making fun of the way people do things here; Of course some things are really different, but some things they do much better. For instance, last night we had a snack after church, and instead of everyone lining up at the table, a few of the ladies walked around with plates of food. I enjoyed making the rounds and refilling pop because I could make chat with lots of people. I also think it is very efficient to share cups, and I like how they wash all the dishes first and rinse them all at once afterwards. Here you never have to walk more than one or two blocks to buy anything essential (in Paraguay, this includes empanadas, cooking oil, pop, cookies and yerba) because there is a store on almost every corner. In addition, there are guys that drive carts full of pineapples or mandioca and make their presence known with loudspeakers which distort their voice almost to the point of unrecognizable speech. (Today I asked for dos piñas and right away the man said “two!two!” in English, which proves Karen right that people can instantly tell I am not from here, “just from the way you walk” she says.) And of course the ice-cream man comes by every day with his whistle. I could easily survive within a three-block radius, which probably lots of people do when it’s just too hot to walk any distance.
Hmm...I guess I always have things to write about even when it didn’t seem like my week was so exciting. From now on I will probably have stories about kids doing really bad or really cute things in the classroom. Happy Groundhog Day everyone, and just so everyone knows, I do get homesick, but if I had make a choice, I want to be here looking out my window at the palm tree across the street and with my fan on and getting ready to be an English teacher, and right now leaving to go and get ice cream with my friends.