Birthday
In November I celebrated my second of the three birthdays that I will have while abroad. I was invited over to a Sunday lunch with some sweet friends in my community, Na Estela and Don Anselmo. I was very touched by their invitation and they didn’t know at the time that it was my birthday. I made chocolate cupcakes and brought them over to share. It was a small, quiet celebration (I didn’t want to make a big deal about it and Paraguayans tend to celebrate their birthdays like it’s a wedding, so I tried to avoid that at all costs!).
The following day, my friend, Megan, who lives not too far from my site (maybe… 4 hours if buses are running, including the hikes from her site and up to my site), came to visit! It was so great to have her up in my site and we celebrated again with a cake and my host-brother, Librado, came to join us. We hauled wine up our hill and made sangria. We also baked homemade pizza for dinner. A fantastic birthday celebration!
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving!!! My friend Wendy, from the Department of Ca’azapa ventured to my closest pueblo, La Colmena, to celebrate Thanksgiving in a non-traditional way. It was very very very hot, yet we still went for a good run in between the rain showers. We had a very non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the Japanese Hotel: sushi and other traditional Japanese food. I had just received a package from some very special friends from Bend, Oregon, which included a turkey hat, which we had a lot of fun with :). Thanks guys! 🙂
Christmas
I was excited to get some travel in to celebrate Christmas in a non-traditional way this year. Two friends, Tony, Wendy, and I, all volunteers, ventured on a 22+ hour bus ride (one-way!) to Uruguay. Then in Montevideo, we got on another 5 hour bus ride to arrive at the sleepy beach town of Punta del Diablo. We had a great time relaxing, reading on the beach or in hammocks, horseback riding, swimming in the cool Atlantic waters, surfing (or… attempting to surf… more like getting destroyed by little waves…), cooking good food, eating seafood, walking around the tiny town, enjoying the cleanliness and order of being in an organized country… It was lovely!
New Year’s Eve
After coming back from Uruguay, I stopped in Nueva Italia to visit my host family from when I was in training! I had SO much fun! It was a great transition to be back in Paraguay and to spend a great holiday with people that I feel very comfortable around and feel at home in their home. I had a great time with my host sister, who always takes special efforts to keep teaching me the languages. We got our hair done for ONE dollar and got dressed up to go to a fiesta! We had dinner at 11:00pm with the family, at midnight we drank sidra (apple wine?), and gave cheers to all. At about 1am, I ventured to the fiesta at the municipality with my host sister Grisel and her boyfriend and danced til 3am. I slept the whole next day! It was a GREAT NYE with Paraguayans and I feel rejuvenated and ready to go back to site!
Tiffany 