Enfermeras, Solderos y Veudas en El Desfile

Today was a holiday in Ita. It celebrates the end of the Chaco War, which was fought with Bolivia over a huge piece of land in the north of Paraguay which essentially has nothing but they thought there might be oil there. We won in 1935. Today was a huge parade with all the school kids, teachers, firetrucks, etc down the main Ruta in Ita. It lasted a long time and there were food and balloon vendors and such. It was a lot like the 4th of July in Chelmsford. Somehow, I always get to foreign countries right when there´s a major holiday. It´s cool.

In my hermanita´s (small sister´s) school, which, oddly enough, is named Escuela Walt Disney, there were all the 4 and 5 year olds dressed as nurses (the girls), soldiers (the boys), and widows. The widows each had a sign with the name of what I can only assume is their dearly departed. The little nurses each had on a hat and carried a little medical kit. Each little soldier had a gun, a canteen, and had been painted with beards. It was amazingly cute. And it made me think: whoop-de-do for the Minutemen. Where´s those who helped on the frontline and those left behind in our rendering of our war success in our desfiles (parades)?

I´m an idiot and left the house without my camera, so I´ll have to beg copies off friends who aren´t so dumb. We had a beautiful early winter day for the parade as it is a clear blue sky and about 60 degrees here. So nice.

Yesterday, the 7 of us who live in Ita travelled to Las Piedras, about 15 minutes away by bus to visit the other 11 folks in our group. They live in the campo (the country) which is a suburb of Ita. They live in a farming community because their project is Rural Economic Development. We were fed yummy food and then played soccer, hung out in the sun and spoke bad spanish with little children. The day wound up with dancing and then we headed home. We are all kind of glad we live in the big city instead of the campo.

Last night was declared (by us) NO FAMILIES, NO SPANISH night and we played cards at my house in my room and drank a couple of beers and only spoke English. It was nice. But, also turned me into an idiot all over again when I tried to talk to my family that night. Too much English is not a good thing.

Overall, though, my Spanish is pretty good. As soon as I stop trying to directly translate in my head, I´ll be better off. But for now, my vocab is growing every day and I am getting better at my tenses and remembering that sentences (and paragraphs) need verbs!

All is well in Paraguay, a small little landlocked country with a wicked history that needs some help to take the next step. I´m hoping I can be part of it.