... Jiggity Jig

Here we are, back together again. One giant, happy familia paraguaya. (I could try to explain the family tree, but it's incredibly complicated. If you are very interested, comment and we will see what I can do.)
It is really wonderful to have Fide (and Nicole) home once again. I hadn't realized quite how much I missed them. Fide and I spent the evening last night discussing food, eating with your fingers, and culture. (I love eating with my fingers.) There may have also been a story or two about someone dying (have I mentioned Fide has a lovely little morbid streak?). She was also filling me in on all the craziness going on above ... something about a woman pregnant with eight babies (and already the mother of sextuplets?); the high cost of, well, just about everything; Los Angeles beauty, etc. Fide also received her official permanent residency card for the States (!!) on the condition that she return yearly. I am so excited for her AND me because this means I'll be able to see her on a yearly basis, which I had not expected. One of the difficulties I've come to learn about AFS in general is you can make such strong ties, but the reality of keeping in touch is not always as we would hope. Also, I've never been to LA (where Fide's hija lives), and I think it is high time I jetted over there to see what it is all about!

I've really begun to feel like myself again in this past month. Since June, really, I've been feeling like a bit of a stranger to myself. Through the challenges and joys of being here I've adapted, broke, become stronger, and learned such an exhaustingly vast amount of things (and continue to learn daily), but for the longest time I was having a hard time "recognizing" myself. I was a bit hollow. But since the beginning of February that's really changed and I feel like my old self again with a few new updated features and experiences. Finally I feel as if Paraguay is a part of me and I am a part of it. I am completely comfortable here. I never thought I'd be able to say that (with confidence).

Some days I cannot believe all that's happened and how long I've been here. Then again, seven months is really no time at all in the scheme of things.
I am now looking forward to my Family's visit, and the prospect of joining both familia and family under one roof.

Paraguayan Paradoxes

So I've been having this inkling--for the first time in the 6 + months I have been a Paraguayan resident--that I'm not sure I want to go home. For those of you who don't know: this is a big deal. I have been ready to come home practically since we touched ground all those months ago. Though I've enjoyed and learned a lot here, it's been really, very hard on me. I've dealt with a lot of loneliness and emptiness... but suddenly I feel so excited about my huerto and all the things I still have yet to see and experience, I just don't see how I could ever go home! This, I believe, is classic cram-everything-into-the-last-minute syndrome. Also important to remember--and as my Father always says: "Always leave the party while you're still having fun." I am finally beginning to truly enjoy this fiesta. I suppose it's all part of the Paraguayan Paradox: you're miserable until the end of your stay and then you suddenly realize you can't leave.

Another Paraguayan Paradox is the Panza Paraguaya. "Panza" in Spanish means "tummy"; and every single Paraguayan--young, old, muscular, fat, or stick thing--has one. Panzas are a downright PLAGUE I'm telling you! Even in the face of my weight loss and infrequent eating I've developed what my Peruvian boyfriend used to refer to ever so lovingly as a "tire". It makes me horribly self-conscious, but hopefully once I'm no longer a "paraguaya" the panza paraguaya will leave me in peace! =]

And yet another paradox (also beginning with "P", which, I just realized, seems to be a theme here) is a discovery Maria (mi compañera en la huerta) and I made recently while eating some papaya: though this particular fruit was a still a little hard, and possibly the TINIEST bit green, we couldn't help ourselves and dug in anyways. Much to our surprise and confusion the seeds filling the orange-pink interior had begun to sprout! Now, I could understand if we'd been eating a papaya that was a little over-the-hill, so to speak, and, having begun it's next cycle in life, was preparing to reproduce, but, as I said earlier, this was not a very ripe one! I would guess about 60% of the seeds had little green/white legs poking out through the scrunchie black balls. Very bizarre. We have yet to find an explanation (if anyone has any thoughts/theories or straight up answers, we would be very much obliged). We are thinking it might be related to all the direct sun exposure combined with the womb-like atmosphere inside of the papaya. It's super strange, and kind of exciting.

We also carved up some melons today and I rinsed and dried the seeds... goodness I love my job. =]

In other news, me viajé to Encarnación this past weekend for Carnival! with an AFS group was quite the event! It is quite the pretty picture: imagine Mardi Gras but everyone is holding a spray can (or two) full of shaving cream and they have some serious ganas spraying you into a white, puffy, foam-covered oblivion - it was a trip, let me tell you! Through the foamy-haze were the sparkling-peacock ladies "dressed" in intricately beaded thongs and bras, attached to story-high peacock tails made out of feathers and diamonds (With their five inch heels, it is a miracle they didn't topple over into the stands!), with headdresses to match--and their skin so covered in glitter you had to wear the sunglasses los vendadores were shoving down your throats for "cinco mil!" so that you could see them! It was exciting to say the least.

So now that I'm down to the wire (Just a little over twelve weeks left! WHOA! Where does time go?!) I'm determined to just make the most of every single moment I am given--be it dancing in the yearly 72 plus inches of rain, planting flats full of 19 different varieties of tomato, exploring every corner of this crazy country, or eating so much chipa that I puke; so when I am home once again I will have a chance to truly miss this place. I have a feeling I've been taking my life here for granted, and I am ever so glad I am now looking around and seeing everything for what it is and appreciating it.