Celebrations

Today was the day of folklore in Paraguay! Yet another day of celebration, dancing and rich with tradition. The more time I spend here the more culture and history this country has along with the complete need to have an excuse to have a party. I have learned more about the oppressive history of how for many many years they were under and cruel dictatorship and were forced to keep silent and uniform. This explains many things like how everyone here gossips. Because in the days when nothing could be said publicly it just went ear to ear. And also they need to party, dance and have fun is from the days when the oppression ended and they celebrate every moment of freedom. They also celebrate to remember that they were once not free and that they should never forget where they come from. This also explains the extreme importance of Guarani because it is specific to only Paraguay.
The more I understand the more I give props to this country as well. These people have VERY little. Just enough to survive. But they love this country. There is no disrespect towards the government or other people it is simply them not finding a negative in this country. I love the positivity of the people yet I also despise it. The drastic positivity stops improvement in the area. People don't see the bad or if they do the completely write it off. If there were more of a balance they would have a lot more of a country to talk positively about.
In today's celebration they danced and dressed up in traditional clothing. Along with hours of Paraguayan music, which all sounds completely the same in my opinion! We also drank gallons of Terere. Along with having to endure listening to the students trying to sing the national songs that almost no one knew, it is no wonder there are no famous singers from Paraguay!
I also witnesses a chicken murder. Which was very unexpected one moment they were holding it and playing with it. Next moment there was a big pop and there was a dead chicken. Then they plucked its feathers and stuck it in boiling water and that's what we ate for lunch... New meaning of the word fresh.... The pictures below are of the traditional dances, people singing and just me and my friends :)

Homesick round 2

So today was the end of my weekend of being in Asuncion and having a real conversation and normal food. But now it's all over and I have to return to my family. Being at the orientation really made me remember how boring of time I have in my city and how I cannot communicate. Also it mad me really homesick. Rite now I really just want to be home sitting on the couch with my friends and family. Because I really miss having things like hot showers, comfy bed and people who actually don't mind talking to me. Also rite now it is really cold so there is nothing to do to take my mind off of how much I don't want to be here.

AFS orientation!

Ok here is the AFS weekend update! Im here in Paraguay with people from: Iceland, belgium, Germany, Italy, Canadiana, Norway, Sweden, Philippines, and USA it is amazing to be able to talk to people from all over the world so interesting! They are all just amazing people that I have become great friends with in matter of days. I'm jealous of people with more students in their town because they get to spend more time with these cool people. The actual AFS orientation has been boring but the people make it so funny and fun. It is a great get away. In just 48 hours I'm so stress free and happy. Because being able to understand and have people to relate to you is really fantastic. Even taking the bus here from Asuncion was so fun even through everyone had been bussing all day before that bus and we were all tired but we just danced and had fun. I love these kids I hope that one day I will be able to visit them in their countries and the other way around!

Orientation

The break is here! Tomorrow I get to go to Asuncion, the capital, to see the other AFS kids!! I am so excited to get to speak English and have some friends! The only thing I am not looking forward to is hearing how they do all of this exciting stuff and I tend to normally be stuck in the house because there are no school activities or any form of transportation. But I am I'm still so happy! Also I am so happy to be staying in a hotel because that means hot showers, regularish food, and a comfy bed!! But I have to leave my little Celeste, my chicken, here I will miss her little tweeting self... A little... She tweets ALL the time it gets on my nerves but she's so cute I get over it. I will blog once I have internet access again which i dont know if I will while in Asuncion but hopefully I will be having to much fun for computer time. Photo below is my two friends Yessi (next to me) and Daly (eating a apple) haha it was a good day of school!

Children!!

Siblings....

So all my life I have pretty much lived with 4 older brothers and Gregory who is technically my little brother but We are 11 months apart so he doesn't count. Now I'm in a house with four younger siblings. Also, all o you whom know me in the slightest know that I do not like kids very much. Considering they are loud, dont listen and are just genuinely irritating. Living with four younger siblings hasn't really taught me anything i didn't know about myself. I know I lack patience, thank you dad :p, and I know that logic and children do not go hand in hand. The only thing living with a 5, 11, 12 and 16 year old has done for me is highlighted how the worlds best birth control is children! And of people spent more time with kids before they had them we wouldn't have a massive over population issue that we have currently. my little sister is completely out of control and runs the house here. She gets away with it all and does not understand boundaries in the slightest. Comes in and out of my room, takes my things and when ever she doesn't get her way she cries. She cries ALL of the time. Over half of the day I try to not shake a baby. My brothers are malty manageable the older one is cool the younger sometimes just repeats everything I say which is beyond annoying. And my sister i don't consider younger because we are so close in age. To be honest the major issue I have in this house is dealing with the little girl with out her in the house it would make this experience a lot less painful.

Q&A

So I have gotten so many questions about my trip and many are very similar so here are the answers I came up with! If you have another's just shoot me an email kayemilewski@live.com

Q: how do people cope with the water shortage?
A: well my little neighborhood is the only one who gets lack of water because it is a poorer area. People have been living with it forever so it doesn't even phase them.

Q:how far are you from the Argentina boarder?
A: I am not exactly sure Asuncion is almost rite on the boarder so I would say no more that 3-4 hours which here is just a bus ride!

Q: are you traveling anywhere else why your there?
A: I hope to go to Brazil in October with october to see the Iquazu falls which is where brazil, paraguay, and Argentina's water shed combines it looks beautiful. And if I had to dream a little bit I would love to go skiing in Chile and visit Argentina and Bolivia haha :)

Q: have you showed them how to play frisbee?
A: I have not yet because my disks are in the mail on their way down here! However, some people know what a frisbee is but have never used one.

Q: do you have a tv?
A: yes there is a tv in the house in my brothers room. It is mostly used to play video games but sometimes we will watch tv. It has very bad reception and is all Spanish!

Q:do you have access to books that you want to read?
A:yes I have a Kindle but I'm trying to not read because I think that it is affecting my learning curve.

Q: can you see the southern cross constellation?
A: yes I can! The sky is so clear out here at night I cannot stop looking at it. I can even see the streaks of the milky way. One thing that is weird is that some nights there is no moon only in the day time.

Q: how can you pass your classes without knowing Spanish?
A: well I only need a math and elective credit currently I'm in classes that I have already taken so I really do not need to pass them. Also the teachers don't expect me to do the same work considering here it is semester 2 so it's half way through the curriculum.

Q: how do I communicate with other AFS students?
A: there is one other AFS girl in my town and we text the others that I have become friends with we stay in touch my reading each others blogs and Facebook is a god sent!

Q: doesn't the family get paid to help host you
A: nope!! AFS is a strictly volunteer host program. All family's do not get any money or other support to host me. Which I find really cool because it gets families who really care and aren't in it for the money.

Pollito

So today...I bought a baby chicken! I named her Celeste which mean turquoise in English. She is really sweet and tweets when ever she's Away from me which is so cute! I know it's weird but I kind of feel like me and this little baby chicken are in this thing together. My goal is to keep this little animal alive and let it experience this year with me. Yes I know it's just a chicken but it can probably relate to me better than many people could rite now haha any way I love my chicken!

Yesterday's post!

So today I died my hair purple! Only part of it though do don't freak out! I did it because the red from ultimate frisbee was turning orange which was ugly! Also me and my sister wanted to match! Haha I totally love it! I realized that today was the mark of living here for a whole month! Which kind of freaked me out! Because it doesn't feel like its been that long! But I'm also really glad I feel that way! Only concerning thing for me at the moment is that I went to my Spanish class today with Ana, another exchange student from Belgium, and her Spanish has gotten so good. I feel like i am not picking up as fast as the other people which is kind of discouraging. I'm going to try to stop reading for awhile and not use my phone for anything but blogging because it may be interfering with my learning. I hope that within this next month my Spanish sky rockets. In order for that to happen my goal is to make as much as an idiot of my self by just talking all of the time. Also by trying to not get things dumbed down as much so that i can learn more complex vocabulary.

Solo espanol por favor!

I think I have hit a mental wall of procrastination, along with a severe case of writers block. But here we go up date of the past few days! The past two days I have been off school! Which was great! I got to sleep!! Which I needed, and I still need. I may have said this already but I am tired ALL of the TIME. It is no exaggeration every hour of the day I am wiped out! I talked to a few other exchange students and they said it is the same for them. This may be because of having to focus so much on what is happening around me all the time along with trying to understand what people are saying. Also because I haven't slept through the night sense day #1! But the past few days have been good time being able to reciprocate and now it's the weekend which is even better! Tonight I was walking with my cousins and my sister and I saw the sunset, it does so at about 5pm here, and it was stunning EVERY color imaginable with the palm trees swaying in the wind. It was a split second but I felt at peace with how every thing is going here.
I think that my Spanish is improving slowly but surely! I do not study too much because it doesn't stick with me but I'll try to just have a conversation and I'll learn more there than two hours with my nose in a book. My comprehension though definitely isn't perfect, it is getting a lot better. I can get most of what people say. Except it amazes me how people do not pronounce their words! They will say entire paragraphs without even opening their mouth and things are completely slurred together like a drunk person that makes it very hard. Also the other challenge is Guarani! I have had the same argument over 9000000 times sense arrival that I MUST learn Spanish before Guarani which is logical because people cannot even tell me the definition of the word in Guarani! But people get completely angry with me! I try to explain to them that in the future I will learn, but now I must learn Spanish considering that is the first language here! And also for friends and school but the older people think that I am being massively disrespectful to their culture. Which makes me very frustrated because I am the one embracing their culture by moving here! Also my grandmother is decently aged and she only speaks Guarani with a few words of Spanish she will talk to me and expect me to answer and my mom will be like only Spanish! And she will replete the same thing in Guarani because I think she thinks she speaking Spanish. Other than that everything is okay :)

Slight issue...

Water! Okay! So I have discovered that water is becoming more of an issue than I thought it was going to be. For the rest of the year until it is winter again, mind you it is currently winter, we will only get water once a day. In the morning 2-3am and that's it! So that means from now on I get to wake up at 2am everyday to shower yay! Not only to shower but no water here means: no using the bathroom, all dirty dishes, all dirty clothes. So for that hour every morning this house is going to be very very busy trying to do everything with that water. When I heard this about two minutes ago I had a slight phase of hitting my head against the table and being in shock. Also, considering that the heat index is slowly rising, so this city is about to stink!

Just another day :)

Each day here I'm feeling more and more like it is home. Today I went to school and talked to some of my friends about life here and back home, then I went fishing! It was a little different than what I expected... We had two long sticks that we tied fishing string and a hook onto. Then we loaded on the motorcycles, three people on each, which is way less than people can fit on them over here I have seen up to 6thus far in my journey. The ride was about 20 very bumpy minutes. The ride was half the fun struggling to not fall off because you were laughing so hard and being squished! Once we got to this house we asked if we could use their river and they said yes! So we proceeded another 15 minutes of jumping rocks, slipping through barbed wire and getting smacked and cut with branches; then we reached the river! It was a pretty place, but after about three minutes of fishing we gave up and explored; eventually it ended in the guys all pulling each other into the water. That made it awful time for the person sitting behind them on the bike ride home ME because my whole front got soaking wet! It was a great time and very simple, I think I have found my place :) the only negative currently is that we are out of water :( so I am covered in dirty river water and cannot shower, or drink anything it is the second day I hope we get more soon!!

Observations of Paraguay!

Observations of Paraguay!
1.TRASH! People litter here like no bodies business! Everything goes on the ground, no matter what it is. I'm not sure if it is ignorance why they do it, or laziness. They may think that it all just turns into compost immediately but obviously that's not how it works. I realized littering was such a issue here whenI finished my lollipop and stuck the rapper and stick in my bag to throw away once I found a trash can; then my little sister that is FOUR reached into my bag, grabbed the trash and threw it on the ground. A four year old already adapted to throwing everything on the ground is simply sad. This country is in the need of a environmental education and common knowledge.
2. Eating habits! These people eat meat at minimum two times a day. Once you finish a week of eating over 10 meals of meat you have a giant BBQ on the weekends with even more meat! I haven't had a meal without meat yet. Also they don't have balance in their meals; it contains meat and some sort of starch, normally no vegetables or fruits. Not only does this contribute to the health issues here with immune systems and teeth but also the amount of animals that have to satisfy these people is remarkable. Many animal lives and the huge amount of room that these animals take up in order to grow up to become an entrée.
3. Gender roles. Here gender roles are very clear. The women do everything in the house and the men sit on their a$$e$. Cooking, laundry, cleaning, children all women's job the only job the males have is to go to work if they have a job (the women also work mind you) and get served to some extent. One thing I'm glad of here is that the jobs of women are respected and not treated as a person who cannot fend for them selves. However when I mentioned that I have no desire to have kids in the future you would have thought I confessed to being Adolf Hitler. Along with me saying that getting married wasn't top on my bucket list and I had a lot to personally accomplish before I would think about marriage in my future. Everyone was shocked and were asking why, because here it is all set you get married and you have kids, especially if your a women because that's you purpose is to have kids that what you were made for. And the person who told me that was my host mother I agree with a lot of her beliefs but I simply think that is incorrect, personally.
4. The power goes out all the time! I do not know why but at least 4 times a day the power goes down.
5. Sweets, for having all of these cows I would have thought these people could have managed some decent ice cream! Haha it's all sugar but there is this one bakery that knows whats good so I try to get over there every so often to get my sugar fix because they don't have any desserts or things like that EVER!
6. Poverty, there is an extreme amount of poverty here that is very visible. There are people that go around picking up plastic bottles maybe for recycling money? Not quite sure. The animals get a hard strike in the poverty here. There are dogs everywhere that are without homes and are starving and need water. But it is also like that with the dogs with owners. They "claim" the dog by putting anything around its neck either a rope, chain or collar. After that they do not do much else with the dog. They just allow it to be on their property but they don't feed or give them water, they have to fend for themselves. Also the large animals like cows and donkeys live here in the small city don't get areas to graze. they spend their lives tied up to a tree which I find very sad yet at the same time it is better than spending life in a feeding factory.
7. Robbery! Everyone fears that everyone will steal almost everything all of the groceries stores here but one have bars on the windows so you have to clap to get the persons attention and tell them what you want so they can get it for you. Which makes it hard for me because I don't know how to say all the foods! But although they fear robbery of their chips, the cows are not a worry! People tie their cows up everywhere... or not they'll just let them walk around the city. And they have no worry about the cow being stolen because I think it is a cultural code like its ok to steal candy but you DO NOT steal a cow.
8. People! People here are so very kind! The USA needs to take some major classes on how to be a good human. Though this is a small town I have experienced it in Asuncion as well most people here are just very kind hearted. They think about other people before them selves. They ALWAYs invite you in the house and offer you food and drinks. They will help you find your way when your lost and they will ask you how you are and actually wait for a response! This country may have some flaws but they have some great people :)

Bored

Bored of boredom... Here in Quiindy to be perfectly frank, it is boring! I spent yet another day sitting in my room reading. I'm living vicariously through my books wishing my life was that exciting. I try to arrange something to do but no one cares if we do anything or not. I'm trying to get involved in some activities but there is nothing here for girls I brought up the idea of soccer and people thought I was mental because apparently girls DO NOT play soccer. I hope that soon i can get some friends that like doing stuff rather than wasting their life away sitting in the house. But there is some hope ! I just met this guy who speaks English we are going to get ice cream tomorrow with the Belgium girl so something to do, and another person to know.

At the beach!

Today I went to Florida, it is another city in Paraguay which clears up a lot of confusion for me considering when they said want to go to Florida and I thought it was a big joke...apparently not. Anyway! We took the bus to Florida! It was a beautiful day for such a beautiful place. They call it a beach but as all of you should know by know Paraguay is landlocked, so it is a river, but it has sand just like a beach! With the sand adding extraordinary amount of time to my stride I walked the "beach." the gleaming water was stunning as another beach yet cold considering it is winter. Im currently in a bus going back to quiindy but my father is driving it because he is a bus driver! He reminds me a lot of my real daddy! He wakes up at crazy hours! Everyday he leaves for work at 3AM! And gets home at around 8PM Madness! And though a different line of work he is a very hard worker just like me own dad:) currently it is only my family on the bus its pretty fun the boys remind me of my brothers back home, aka completely insane but lovable! It was also a great day with my sister! We are becoming really close she is very fun to be with, helps me and is eager to introduce me to people. And we are so much alike which is great! It's also nice that we aren't the same size because we don't have to have the arguments about who's pants are who's considering she is about a foot taller than me. She is like my best friend and we both respect each others space which is nice the little one hasn't gotten that part yet. Any who I'm off to the fair! More pictures of the day can also be found on my Facebook!

Hope

A wonderful day for the fair! Last night my sisters, cousin and I slipped of to the "fair" that is I'm not sure if it's in town or if it always is. It consists of four rides that in terms of me and my friends "sketchy" the fear wouldn't be of the ride, but of it breaking. The Carousel had unmoving horses with drawn on eyes by black sharpie and the paint was so chipped that white became the color of all the horses. As we were walking to the fair I met two other of my 40000 cousins and they tagged along. It was amazing how quickly they welcomed me in. They held my hands instantly (what all the girls do here) it was really nice at the fair we laughed, ate and watched soccer which I got reprimanded many times for wearing my Olympia flip flops because there is a huge rivalry between the two here. But it was the first night I really felt happy and at peace here. Though I still feel extraordinary lonely but, there is hope.

Healthcare or lack there of

Health care. Haha well health care and America is a what everyone thinks is a complete mess. That we deserve this and they don't deserve that but the fact is when you need to go to the doctor you can and you will be treated no matter the time of the year and will be cured. Here in Quiindy I realized today that arguments of who deserves what treatment really doesn't matter they just want some sort of treatment. I was told we were going to the doctor therefore the image of a office and waiting room popped in my head like it would for any other American. However, to my dismay it was not. We walked to the school which was occupied by at least half of Quiindy when I arrived i saw baby's in the arms of their parents and the older people trying to find a chair to wait out the day until their name were yelled. There were a group of about 7 doctors for the over 700 people. By the looks of the groggy eyes and swaying bodies I could tell it had been a long day for the people waiting. As each person walked out they held one of two things cough drops for their throat or Ib profen for their heads. There were no strep tests, no shots given or even a second glance. If you were terribly Ill you were still sent off with some cherry drops you were not different, you were just another face in this poor country that they didn't have the resources to help. It astounded me how these people lined up for this mediocre treatment. I do not know if it what by ignorance of them not knowing that a cough drop wouldn't cure all or the hope that it would. These doctors only come twice a year to hand out these candies and I imagine each time there is that line of hope waiting for them.

Priorities and interests of Paraguayans

It interests me so much what the proiorities of people are here verses what the priorities are in the USA. In the USA life is rushed and stressful for every deadline, we must be in the know at all times of what is happening with the world, and free time is a perfect time to do more work. While compared to life here it is opposite. Down here it is like being the only people on earth there is not a newspaper that is read or a news station that is largely watched in Quiindy either. The time portion is completely different as well which I love and hate. Time isn't money here time is life. My family can make some terere (cold drink that is herbs in a cup with a filtered straw to drink it) and we will sit in the middle of the side walk for five hours drinking and either talking or silence is just fine. Also, for things like meeting people they say 5 for meeting it means 6 party starts at 6 that means 11 which is nice because you do not have to freak out that your ten minutes late but also you get left standing and waiting for someone always. The Paraguayan people priorities are the three F's which are 1. Family 2.friends 3. Food anything outside that is not completely necessary. Family comes before all else there is an extreme amount of respect for the elders all the people that are younger wheatear by 40 years or two days must hold their hands in like a prayer motion to all their family elders and wait for a response of dios de vindega. If you do not you are cast as rude an disrespectful. Friends are also huge here there are whole days and parties just for friendship and most people are friends with everyone or at least very polite. And as for the last one FOOD it's the other religion here. Everyday is devoted to preparing lunch and occasionally dinner they eat all the time and on EVERYTHING there is salt it would be a multi billion dollar store for someone to open down here along with a heart center and dental clinic. If you eat only one inhumanly sized helping everyone asks if your dieting or if you hate their food, because everyone here tends to eat three to five servings of everything. I like their priority list because unlike the USA it doesn't get pushed aside for work or pride, people stick to it and follow through they made a commitment whether it be to their spouse or to make dinner, they will do it.

I miss...

I miss so much it's unbelievable people say "you don't what you've got until its gone" are only speaking the truth. I miss such basic things like hot showers, shower curtains, bedroom doors, sheets, mattresses that are more than an inch thick, snacking, tons fruits and vegetables, and of course my family and friends. I miss Denver and Colorado having things to do other than walk to grandmas house also the moutains and the fresh air :) I also miss having my own time and space that's a foreign concept for people here any time you want to just sit and read you are interrupted at least 20 time by people asking of you are sad or they ask what your reading and I just want to respond well I'm trying to read but I don't simply because I have no idea how to say it in Spanish :) i miss English so very much! Even though my Spanish is progressing I is very slow I feel like I have all this to say but it's just stuck in my head and I can't form the words my cousin teases me by saying "nothing" or "never mind" because I resort to that after struggling with a comment or question I just give up because it gets so frustrating. The things that help me when I'm feeling so very homesick are defiantly my music and my reading it brings me some peace and some english. It is something that I can relate to and understand. But I have also made some great friends down here which helps a lot however I cant take credit for a lot of them considering I'm "related" to half of Quiindy.

Uniform!!

So who ever said school uniforms weren't flattering was a complete genius!! However, I do love the part of waking up and knowing exactly what to wear maybe if someone came up with a better design it would become more largely adapted in public school in the USA it's time, money and judgment saved.

school!!

It has become more and more visible that no matter where you go to school for high school it is hard to get a good education. Here it is about the same as school in the U.S.A. a large waste of time except its a fun waste! The structure of the school is pretty basic there are eight classrooms and there is one teacher for each subject that teaches every grade. The teachers travel classroom to classroom not the students which is very smart and conserves time. In the actual classroom there are a pile of chairs and about three desks that are individual. The kids all surround the three desks or just use their lap. The rooms supplies consists of: a chalk board. Nothing else for math, science, Guarani, Spanish, English, History, Geography only a chalk board. During school hours sometimes the teachers will show up when they do they write on the chalk board then leave the srudents copy the work and we will sit there for the next three hours talking and drawing. Also, the take things such as hand writing so seriously if one word passes the line they will rip the entire paper in half yet when i see my cousins type they use two fingers and peck the keyboard. Their priorities are quite different than the U.S.A.

new life :)

Today is day fifteen of my Paraguay adventure! I decided to start this blog because my notebook has been filled with school stuff and also all of you can have something to read! Anyway thus far of my trip I have experienced many different things. The first night of my arrival I had a severe case of culture shock. My house is about 1/4 of the size of my house in USA it is a straight hallway and branches off into Four bedrooms that are doorless and the hall also acts as the living room. You literately have to step over the couch to get through :) also there is a kitchen that contains a stove about two feet high with a non working oven and a refrigerator that is about 4ft high with a open freezer. Which is currently holding the Armadillo that was a gift from my sisters boyfriend... My family has also a back yard that contains about 10 chickens, two turkeys, three ducks and two roosters that along with other 300 in this city, find it necessary to "cockadoodledoo" approximately every three minutes at ALL hours of the day. I love my new family they remind me a lot of what I have back at home my brothers are the exact same as Jacob and alex were at ages 12 and 13 and my sister that is 16 is so fantastic. School is also fun they do not really do too much just like America I sit and draw because I am utterly lost. But all of the kids are so nice and help me speak and don't give up when I have no clue what they are saying. :) that is by far the hardest part of this all.