Asuncion

Ok so I have had writers block for the past few days so I will attempt to make this quick, factual and informative! Over the past two days I have gone to Asuncion twice both trips showed me different parts of the city, the culture and the roots. On Thursday I went with my class in what they call an "excursion." this involved my whole class and some other school kids piling in a hundred degree leather bus and driving for three hours. While on the bus I got Guarani lessons from four of my class mates (luis, Freddy, billy and Pedro). I learned how to say a couple "simple" words. I quote simple because it was basically impossible. For example good morning in Guarani is "mba' eichapa nde koe" so as you can see its very easy to get frustrated. Anyway! In Asuncion we watch a movie called "7 Cajas" which means 7 Boxs. It was created in Paraguay and about the local markets and the need for money and the amount of corruption in society. I highly recommend seeing it so I will not ruin the ending! But you would need English subtitles because most of it is in Guarani and some Spanish but impressively I understood the whole thing!
Yesterday I went to Asuncion to buy my Maroon 5 ticket, which I will be seeing tonight! But after I bought my ticket my friend took me around Asuncion to many different museums and famous landmarks. The most interesting part of Paraguayan history I think is the train. About one hundred and fifty years ago Paraguay had the first train in South America. This train allowed them to bring in much money and it boosted the countries economy and productivity levels. However, this train was the envy of the surrounding countries (Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia). The countries allied and attacked Paraguay for the simple act of jealousy. During this time over one million paraguayans were murdered most of them being men. So once the war was over the population was 5:1 women to men. Which explains why the men are dominant in the culture currently because in the past the women served the men because they needed them to restore population and that custom has stayed the same for over 150 years. Also this was a huge tragedy for paraguay because the people currently always wonder what would could we have been without that war?
Tonight I will go to Maroon 5 with my friends from AFS and the people from city's far from Asuncion will sleep at a AFS staff members house so that we don't have to travel at night and alone. It will be so much fun! The pictures below are from yesterday touring asuncion alone with the one picture on the bus, of my friends.