The more I think about it the more I realize I
skipped over a small part of everyday experiences and cultural aspects of
living here. Therefore, I just want to clear up any and all confusion about
where I am living.
For starters they always greet you with two
kisses starting from the right to the left cheeks. If you enter a circle of ten
or twenty people you still must greet every person. Most of the time people are
sitting and they do not stand so you do this awkward squat thing. For me I cannot
get used to the kissing it seems really close and personal and you still do it
if you’re a stranger to people. The women give ¨kisses¨ to everyone does not
matter about gender. The men only kiss the women and shake the men´s hands.
Also, some people do a high five fist pound thing which is much quicker if you
are passing by or there are a ton of people. My host father does that, quite
funny because in USA that is something only young people do and here it is
common for the grandpa´s and two year olds.
Another aspect here that some people may have experienced
is the not flushing toilet paper. Yes that is correct; you stick it in the
trash you can NEVER put it in the toilet because the piping is very thin. You
obviously must change the trash once or twice a day or it leaves an odor in the
bathroom (we all know why). In the beginning it was very hard for the students to
adjust to that. In the welcoming camp in the girls ¨dorms¨ all the toilet were
broken by the end of the two days because it is just reaction to throw the
paper into the toilet. Quite a hard habit to break; when you tell people here that in USA you
throw the paper in the toilet they are all astonished and ask why?! And I say that’s
where it is supposed to go! No one quite understands it.
The water situation here is not very great. I
am a very lucky student because in my first city the water was very clean and
now my family drinks well water which is very clean. But, it does have a weird
taste. The weird taste is from when my host father adds iodine to the water.
Because, it is very common for Paraguayans to have iodine deficiency
considering there are no laws on iodized salts (which is where most people
ingest their amount of iodine). Sense there are no laws on adding iodine the manufactures
do not because it is an extra cost. Having an iodine deficiency can lead to an enlargement of the thyroid body also known
as a goiter because the body loses its thyroid hormones which the iodine
helps create. Most of my exchange friends have to drink from the big purified water
jugs in their homes because the water is not safe to drink.
Paraguay is a very poor country. I seem to
have over looked that topic many times in my blog and some people forget I am
living in a third world country. This is a country where %80 of the wealth goes
to %1 of the population. Yes that statistic astonished me too. Though there are
very rich parts of this country, like any country, there are so many more very
poor parts. I am so fortunate to live in the city that I do, sense it is close
to the capital because though it is very impoverished it is also largely
globalized. Yet everyday when I board the busses there are venders selling
anything from Q-tips to pineapples. Ranging ages 5-90 with lines of hardship across
their foreheads and the imbedded dirt on their feet. Also, when you drive in
the cars into the city and you get caught at a light you are always greeted by
a 5 year old holding a baby, in mangled clothes and broken sprits, begging for
money. I have seen a whole different side of poverty. I look at the homeless in
America and though have sympathy for them, it kind of makes me giggle
considering poverty there is nothing compared to poverty here. Poverty here is
not eating for days, having half a pair of battered pants and a piece of card
board to sleep on, not to beg with because they do not know how to read or
write. I have also seen all the families that live in the slums that just so
happen to be next to the governmental building, irony at its best. The biggest
sign of poverty here for me is the trash and the animals. The ASPCA would have a
cow if they stepped foot into this country. The amount of homeless dogs is
about equal to the human population. You see these animals that are walking,
bone and fur, searching for food. I have seen dogs with three legs and I know it
was not removed surgically. The dog of my friend, white lab, got out into the
street one day and someone poured boiling water on it. You know what happens
when you pour boiling water on a white lab? Their fur turns pink. The respect for
life here is so low which is so sad, but I can also see that there is a
priority for the well being of humans to deal with. But no one is helping
anyone. From what I see is this country is at a standstill. The next president
will be an X mob, drug trafficker. You know why? Because all of Paraguay believes
that this man has so much money that he only wants to help this country. I do
not know, I love the hope these people put in people, but all it will do is
kill this country a little more. Though I cannot judge; because all of their
political candidates are some type of X drug dealer or something. It is also so
interesting to hear these people talk about their country. They all love this
country so much. You say one negative comment and they are ready to attack.
Though there are a select few who think this country needs to change, they will
do nothing to be the change, and the other %90 of the country thinks that it is
the best place in the world and does not need to change. Many also have no
desire to travel or see the world because well according to them it doesn’t get
better than Paraguay. The trash is the other section of poverty and lack of
intelligence that there is here. It is showing how the people do not understand
the effect of anything they do by tossing everything off into the streets. I have
been on the busses many of times seeing women cleaning out their purses and all
the trash they just toss out the window of the bus. This is true for
everything. My friend threw away a fruit cup one day in the trashcan and
someone came up to her and asked where she was from. My friend was puzzled because
she fits in with her looks very well here and asked why he knew she was
foreign. The man responded simply ¨because you used the trash can, no one uses
those.¨ This year the lake that is usually home to many of the tourists in the
summer is too contaminated to swim in which means the tourists will not come.
Therefore meaning the little money they would receive usually from that is no
longer there. This country is slowly dropping down I think. My friends and I all
are interested to see what this place is like in twenty years it will either be
much worse or a lot better. Though I feel the latter one is not going to be
correct I hope this country proves me wrong.
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| an everyday sight... |
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| This is Paraguay´s population pyrimid (top) of 2010. The kiss formation is the sign that it is a devloping third world country. When the pyramid looks like this is shows that the IMR (infant mortality rate) is high and the life expectancy is low. Which in all terms is bad. On the bottom is the deloped country poplulation pyramid, such as USA. This means that the life expectancy is older and most people reach it as well as the IMR is very low. For example the IMR for paraguay is 26 deaths of infants for 1000. While the USA is 6 deaths per infants per 1000. |
