Monday, April 30, 2007
Today was Day of the Teacher. It’s great because every class presents a song or poem and all the students bring presents and food and you get to have parties in class. I really fell in love with my students as I watched them recite poems and shower their teachers with gifts. Here is my inventory from today:
• An 8-inch tall clock shaped like a giant pink shoe with a boy standing beside it. The clock face says (in English) “Don’t forget it. I’m always waiting.”
• A necklace with a butterfly that already broke
• A box of yummy looking candies and chocolates
• A gift set of perfume and a pencil case (well, it’s probably a cosmetic bag, but it looks like a pencil case) that I might not open and possibly re-gift
• A little flower in a clay pot that has petals and leaves made out of coloured nylons
• Earrings shaped like a coin and with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth on it. For reasons unknown to me, these are very popular here, and people are interested to hear that Canadian coins have the same picture on them.
• Another school uniform t-shirt from the principals
Other teachers got sweaters and watches, rings and brushes. Last year Vivi got a huge wooden boat that you can plug in and it lights up. Although Paraguay is nowhere near the sea, almost every house I’ve been in has one of these wooden sail boats. I think they are fairly tacky, but I was secretly hoping to get one today. Once I told a friend I thought the boats were ugly, and when I went to her house the next week I saw that she had one too! The worst is that Karen also has boats and she is going to read my blog. But her boat is very small and inside of a bottle, so that kind of redeems it. My shoe clock is my prized possession, and I plan on bringing it back home with me, along with the clock I am currently using – a Precious-Moments-looking-boy kneeling beside an I-love-you-heart.
Ben gave me a book to read about a Mennonite from the Ukraine who ends up as a very influential missionary in Paraguay. I cried at one part because he spends Christmas all alone in this distant country, thinking of the rest of his family members who have been exiled to Siberia. He ends up marrying a Canadian girl whom he has never met before, only corresponded through mail. I cried for her too, because she was like me and had really high hopes of learning the language fast only to realize it would be more difficult than she thought. Plus her husband to be forgot to tell her that there was only cold water for showering, and even though she was a fine baker, she couldn’t use her skills because they didn’t have an oven. But like me, she realized that she could buy fresh bread from the store very cheaply, and so we are glad to not have to spend our time baking. I only miss not having an oven when we want to make pizza. Anyways, the part I really wanted to tell you about was her disappointment in the wedding presents. “Gifts were opened later at Tante Lena’s home and here again Anna felt the great contrast between Canada and the Chaco. In place of pretty gift wrap, the presents came wrapped in newspaper. There was an enameled pail, tea towels homemade from sugar sacks, and, instead of a dinner set, odd plates in assorted designs and colors.”
Sometimes when people give gifts here, they don’t even open them. And sometimes they just have a whole pile that they rip through and don’t really make a special effort to thank people individually. It is not part of the event that all the guests watch the present opening. I think they don’t make a big deal over presents because even at a birthday party it is unlikely that everyone will bring something, and the ones that do usually bring just something small. Since I am kind of a practical gift-giver, I found it difficult at first to know what to get people because I don’t like giving flowers made of nylons (that is probably why I like the shoe clock so much, very practical). But now that I have pictures on my computer of almost everyone, I like to get photos developed of the person and their family and give those, since most people don’t have a camera.
In case anyone is wondering, the book about the Mennonite missionary is called “whatever it Takes” by Dorothy Siebert. It is not great literature, but Ben says it is essential for understanding the history of Mennonite missions in Paraguay, and it is exciting enough to make me want to stop writing this blog and go back to reading it right now.
• An 8-inch tall clock shaped like a giant pink shoe with a boy standing beside it. The clock face says (in English) “Don’t forget it. I’m always waiting.”
• A necklace with a butterfly that already broke
• A box of yummy looking candies and chocolates
• A gift set of perfume and a pencil case (well, it’s probably a cosmetic bag, but it looks like a pencil case) that I might not open and possibly re-gift
• A little flower in a clay pot that has petals and leaves made out of coloured nylons
• Earrings shaped like a coin and with a portrait of Queen Elizabeth on it. For reasons unknown to me, these are very popular here, and people are interested to hear that Canadian coins have the same picture on them.
• Another school uniform t-shirt from the principals
Other teachers got sweaters and watches, rings and brushes. Last year Vivi got a huge wooden boat that you can plug in and it lights up. Although Paraguay is nowhere near the sea, almost every house I’ve been in has one of these wooden sail boats. I think they are fairly tacky, but I was secretly hoping to get one today. Once I told a friend I thought the boats were ugly, and when I went to her house the next week I saw that she had one too! The worst is that Karen also has boats and she is going to read my blog. But her boat is very small and inside of a bottle, so that kind of redeems it. My shoe clock is my prized possession, and I plan on bringing it back home with me, along with the clock I am currently using – a Precious-Moments-looking-boy kneeling beside an I-love-you-heart.
Ben gave me a book to read about a Mennonite from the Ukraine who ends up as a very influential missionary in Paraguay. I cried at one part because he spends Christmas all alone in this distant country, thinking of the rest of his family members who have been exiled to Siberia. He ends up marrying a Canadian girl whom he has never met before, only corresponded through mail. I cried for her too, because she was like me and had really high hopes of learning the language fast only to realize it would be more difficult than she thought. Plus her husband to be forgot to tell her that there was only cold water for showering, and even though she was a fine baker, she couldn’t use her skills because they didn’t have an oven. But like me, she realized that she could buy fresh bread from the store very cheaply, and so we are glad to not have to spend our time baking. I only miss not having an oven when we want to make pizza. Anyways, the part I really wanted to tell you about was her disappointment in the wedding presents. “Gifts were opened later at Tante Lena’s home and here again Anna felt the great contrast between Canada and the Chaco. In place of pretty gift wrap, the presents came wrapped in newspaper. There was an enameled pail, tea towels homemade from sugar sacks, and, instead of a dinner set, odd plates in assorted designs and colors.”
Sometimes when people give gifts here, they don’t even open them. And sometimes they just have a whole pile that they rip through and don’t really make a special effort to thank people individually. It is not part of the event that all the guests watch the present opening. I think they don’t make a big deal over presents because even at a birthday party it is unlikely that everyone will bring something, and the ones that do usually bring just something small. Since I am kind of a practical gift-giver, I found it difficult at first to know what to get people because I don’t like giving flowers made of nylons (that is probably why I like the shoe clock so much, very practical). But now that I have pictures on my computer of almost everyone, I like to get photos developed of the person and their family and give those, since most people don’t have a camera.
In case anyone is wondering, the book about the Mennonite missionary is called “whatever it Takes” by Dorothy Siebert. It is not great literature, but Ben says it is essential for understanding the history of Mennonite missions in Paraguay, and it is exciting enough to make me want to stop writing this blog and go back to reading it right now.
# posted by Ellen @ 10:54 PM 
