Daily Life

After a cold front of 7°C weather (45°F), it has warmed back up to 25° (77°F) again. Although it is currently 'winter' here, I expected it to be hot all the time here since it is relatively close to the equator (and mostly because the internet told me so). However, when the temperature here drops, it drops pretty severely. The houses are not insulated, so my wardrobe was definitely lacking. When it is hot though, it stays hot through the night.

I'm starting to settle in to a more normal routine now. I started work at a preschool that my host cousin, Pame, runs. I work with kids ages 1-2 in the morning and kids 3-6 in the afternoon. I mostly comfort crying kids, make sure they keep their shoes on, wipe their noses, and tell them to stay in their seats. They are adorable but complete terrors. It is a bilingual preschool so the 3-6 year olds practice simple English. It’s sad to think that I have the intelligence of a 3 year old, but I learn a lot at the preschool just through their repetitive songs. However the down side is that it is an hour and a half from my house by bus and goes from 8-4. Considering that we don’t eat dinner until 11 and go to bed at midnight at the earliest, it is a tiring schedule. I don’t have a set schedule yet but I think I’ll only be working there 3 days a week and possibly 2 days at a different school just around the corner from my house that my host aunt runs.

 

 

This is what a typical conversation with me looks like... looking up words in the dictionary. This also shows what a typical merienda looks like.

 Yanine and my host dad drinking tereré in front of our house.

My street. All of the residential roads are made of uneven cobblestone, making it impossible to drive more than 10mph.

 Marcia, Maira, and me dressed up to go out to dinner at Pizza Hut (a 'nice restaurant' here).

 Lupe, Pame, Amparo, and me at a discotheque. All clubs require that men wear collared shirts and that girls wear dresses and high heels. They have the right to refuse to let people enter if they feel they are not pretty enough as well.

 The Presiden'ts house in downtown Asuncion (a 30 minute drive from our house in Fernando, a suburb)

 One of the ubiquitous bicentennial signs.

Los "chiquititos" that I work with in the afternoon at a preschool.