Happy Fourth of July!
When I first moved here, I had absolutely no clue what to even expect, now I love it here. Really, really love it. Paraguay is a beautiful, warm, amazing country. In other news, according to my last pay statement I've finished paying off my paperwork fees, so I'm an official permanently permanent resident of Paraguay (always nice to know you have a backup home for the rest of your life...).
Things are done a little differently here sometimes, but that's okay, because I've enjoyed adapting and getting used to new things. I'm sad to miss out on family things, like weddings, but I am glad God sent me here. I've learned so much while I've been here-from 20 ways to use Dulce de Leche (when I tried to list them out I felt a bit like Bubba from Forrest Gump-DdL cake, DdL ice cream, DdL alfajores...), to which bus NOT to take to the mall, to communicating with children who don't speak English. It's been a lot of fun and a lot of work, but I honestly love it.
Look, they have John Deer in Paraguay!
I'm loving being a teacher, though I hated being a first year teacher. I am seriously looking foward to this year where I have a little bit more of an idea of what I'm doing! It's been a crazy year this year, though. Our school went through reaccredidation (we earned a recommendation for passing, I don't know what the final vote this month was) and we've had camps, and field days, and field trips, and new teachers, and geez it's been fun, and crazy!
Jacqui and I started a Girl Scout Troop. It's the only USA GS troop in the country thankyouverymuch. On the bright side, since we essentially are the OCC (overseas commitee something) we get cool titles like "President" and "Vice-President" and "Secretary" and "Treasurer" (we actually have assigned these titles, mostly for the fun of calling each other by our titles). We could have offical bar pin thingy's and everything! :) We have five little Girl Scouts that had their promise ceremony and got their pins and they are so cute! We love being their Brownie Leaders!
Today, Jacqui and I are flying Uruguay (South America has some really cool sounding countries, doesn't it?). We'll be there for a week. I'm excited, except it's supposed to be pretty cold, at least that's the first thing EVERBODY says when I tell them where we are going! We're excited to get out of Asuncion and properly relax without feeling like we should be doing something productive. We'll get back in town just in time to still have a few days off and then school starts back again. It's supposed to be beautiful there, so I can't wait!
Now, for a little bit of randomness...
1-10 New Country Style
1-year
I've officially been living in Asuncion for 1 whole year!!!
2-apartments
I lived upstairs for several months and then moved downstairs to my current apartment
3-roommates
My first roomate Lydia moved to another apartment, and Hannah just moved in :)
4-seasons (kind of, feels more like two)
Kind of, it felt more like three: cold, kind of hot, really hot, kind of hot...
5-different towns
Aregua, Lambare, Encarnacion, Luque, and Ypacarai (ee-pah-ka-ry)
Although, technically Lambare and Ypacarai were explored at the end of a mis-directed bus journey...We didn't get lost, we were on an adventure!
6-trips to Aregua
Three of those trips for the strawberry festival...don't judge, you'd have gone back too if you'd tasted all the strawberry goodness! I can't wait till September, they are already starting to sell strawberries on the side of the road again!
7-plants
Some are even still alive, and the pineapple plant looks alive, so that counts too, right?
8-new foods (that I can remember):
empanadas-yumminess, corn, chicken, ham and cheese, you name it in a convienent, yummy, little pocket
sopa paraguaya-basically really excellent corn bread
mbeju (bey-shu)-very different, but super yummy!
chipa-any morning that starts with chipa is a good morning, think chewy cheesy bread dounut thing. mmmmm!
chipa guasu-I'm not 100% sure what the difference between this and sopa is, but when the cantina ladies say it's chipa guazu, I just assume they know what they are talking about...
chorizo-fat little sausages in a million different kinds. I even tried blood sausage...it was...different...
milenesa-kind of like chicken fried steak on a sandwhich, or a Chik-fil-A sandwich pounded flat. Pretty good either way
Cocido-Better than coffee or tea...Love. This. Stuff. Basically you take Terere (a drink made of herbs and leaves and other green stuff) and cook it, then pour it in hot water, steep, add sugar and milk, then seriously enjoy yourself!
9-students
Had eight, lost one, gained another. Nine very different little personalities that I love dearly!
10-broken dishes
Yeah, I think I need to just stay in this apartment for a while, then I'll only have to replace one set of dishes...
Also, since many people have been asking when I'm coming back to visit, the answer is: not this year. I assume that means next Christmas, but that's a long time from now, and I obviously can't say for sure. This Christmas I'm going to England with Jacqui to explore her country. And my daddy's coming over the pond to visit me! We might even go to Wales!!! (how cool would that be?) Since a lot of the teacher this year are either couples or new, I wouldn't really have someone to travel with, and well, Paraguay may be safe, but that doesn't mean the rest of SA is...but I still want to explore somewhere new over the break, so next Christmas it is! In the meantime, I would love to have people visit me here (hint, hint)! It's safe, pretty darn cheap (I can think of at least six towns you can visit for the price of a 50 cent bus ticket) and well awesome! And the people are really nice, so not knowing spanish isn't a huge deal. I'm just saying...
Also, for those of you have asked, if you look at the bottom of the school website, the school address is there (write all three lines, I think?). Just send it to Asuncion Christian Academy and put my name as "Att: Kathryn Piggott" at the bottom and they will deliver it to my "mailbox" at school. http://aca.edu.py/ . Mail is always fun!
My very first piece of overseas mail!
Speaking of people coming here, ACA got a first grade teacher! Happiness! God answers prayers! But...now we need a 2nd grade teacher since another teacher ended up not being able to come. So if you know anyone interested in teaching a great class of kids (there are about seven of them), and want to move overseas, tell them to try here! I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone has, and point you to the person to ask, if I don't know the answers. And, you know, ACA needs some more South down here. There are way too many people from the land of actual snowy winters (ie, the North)! ;) Either way, please keep the school in your prayers. The school as a whole has done some incredible work these last two years to improve itself, and I know God has big things for it now that we are on the right track.
Either way, here's to One WHOLE Year in South America, and to another one coming on it's heels!
