Tuesday - Charla Makin'

Tuesday

I wake up this morning with absolutely no commitments, which is very nice. I water my seedlings, study some Guarani, brainstorm possible slogans for the fire prevention project meeting I’m going to tomorrow, have cocido and croquitos for breakfast, and then finish the rest of The God of Small Things. Wow. That is one amazing book. After that, I need some time just to let my mind wander, so I join my host father in shucking some peanuts for an hour. Then I plan out my 2nd beekeeping charla (informal teaching session) for Wednesday, first in English for myself, complete with icebreaker and a game for check for learning. Then I translate it into Spanish and make up the charla paper that has the most important points and pictures written on it to guide the session. Lindo (pretty) is key for charla paper in terms of impressing Paraguayans. So I make sure my lines are straight, my handwriting is neat, and my pictures are as decipherable and colorful as possible. I write the charla paper in Spanish, but at the meeting I will translate most of it into Guarani as I am speaking. This is for a few reasons. First of all, there are some adults who are illiterate or semi-illiterate, and these people only speak/understand Guarani. Secondly, even of those who can read, most of them can only read in Spanish (even though they mostly speak Guarani). This is because Guarani was forbidden to be taught in schools for many years under the dictatorship of Straussner, who ruled Paraguay from the 1940s until the late 1980s. Teenagers nowadays can generally read both Spanish and Guarani, but they would not be attending the meeting to translate for their parents. So yeah….language is a complicated thing.

After lunch, I take a short rest break in my room, just laying down and listening to some music. I’m feeling kind of down, but then all of a sudden the sun breaks through my window and I realize I really want to go for a bike ride. And it’s finally cool enough out so I can actually do that, even though it only 2pm. So I do. I take my bike out for a good stroll, probably about 5k, out to a neighboring community and back, where I haven’t been in a while. When I get back, I’m sweaty but really craving some térere. So I serve some térere to the adult circle (host father, mother, and visiting host aunt), who are pulling peanuts off the dried plants. Then I’m off again for a short run, because I’m already gross and plus the weather is just too wonderful to pass up. After I get back, I shower, finish my last charla paper for the Matched Up! (“Upeichaite!”) check-for-learning game I’m going to do (got some guapa points for that from the whole family), and then go to bed.

p.s. the picture above is from a charla during training, but you get the idea. Pretty fancy, no?