Marianna Castiaux In Paraguay

Know whats best about teaching a small group of girls without teaching officially in a school? I get to teach WHAT EVER I WANT; WHEN EVER I WANT. so, yesterday the girls learned a little bit about me when i was a girl, about a famous author in the states, about guarani, and about environmental education. All this through the beautiful simple words of Shel Silverstein and translated into guarani by a Bill Bryon, former volunteer. Well, truth is that the girls had a lot of issues reading the story. It was guarani guarani and not the mix of guarani -spanish. They struggled and read it twice but i felt, after i discussed what it meant for me as a child: a story about the heart is how i translated it, they soon understood that this tree had given its life, its body for this little boy. Tomorrows class is how to make southern bisquits!! and english vocabulary of the kitchen!! education fights injustice, heheh one bisquit at a time...

I am slowly getting absorbed into a more humane lifestyle. Today on my bus ride our bus driver stopped on the ruta to say hi to the other bus driver going the opposite way. In my american mindset i see that there are only two lanes, no cars can pass them on this main highway. Further along we stop, this time to pick up mate from a stand. the drivers helper goes out with his thermas and guampa (cup.. uuuh sorta cupish) to pay the stand to fill up his thermas with hot water and refill his guampa with new yerba mate. he pays a small price and we are off again. I wonder about stress of the Muni Drivers in SF verus here. Maybe if they took small stress breaks everyonce in a while there would be less accidents. it is interesting that in american we need a reason for a break, a stress break i called it. here it is a lifestyle. it would sound ridiculous to a paraguayan that we rush into the bathrooms at work or quickly chat with someone as we run back to our computers and work. when you soci...

So, big news on a happier note. Leticia has a labtop computer! She is a senior in high school and her family thinks it is a good investment for a future job. She is adopted and the only child of an elderly couple who has a store here. (but before u get swept away with ´wow what an amazing family´ as my first months in site always had that naivity, she was treated like an adopted child, ´put to work endlessly, sometimes hit with the leather cow whip they have here). But Leticia has a computer WITH INTERNET!!!!!!!! you can buy this inserted wireless device that is through your telephone company. While marveling over her new computer, she asked me ¨marianna, i am afraid that my computer can get viruses, could i get AIDS from my computer¨? I explained that we use the word virus to explain something that can cause damage to your computer but only your computer. they arent human viruses. I didnt go into the AIDS talk, especially with her mom nearbye. AIDS is sensitive topic, but the necessi...

I get angry now hearing or thinking of people in the developed world complaining that women in third world countries need to have less children. I cannot think how americans can think this, when they themselves have so many familia issues. I can not understand when latin culture values its children so much. do you know that even when the soccer teams here had their finals, the photo at the end of the game included their sons, nephew, cousins, daughter, etc? Can you see an American Futbol team´s photo on our sports page with children in the photo? Here it is common to see on the front pages of Ultima Hora or ABC COLOR. YAY for Cerreo Porteno fans, and players and their children. Children are the happieness of an unhappy life. they are the joy that your life has meaning. Your suffering may lead to happiness for your children. Each day surrounded by the cries, laughter and naivity of children, slips one away from their own pestimistic minds. Please i dont want to hear anymore about child...

Today my voice of my blog is a little sadder than usual. Eusebia is a women in our womens comitee i am close to. Since day one i could tell her spirit was bigger than her skinny body. Her eyes and laughter attracted me to her heart. Her son and his wife had a son and three days later it was dead. That morning Eusebia came over saying her baby is dead. Later that day I went over to a shocking scene. I had not prepared myself to see the small, so small, three year old, dead on a white table cloth surrounded by women in chairs and red flowers. I got a good view of the child when we paid our respects, two coins over its eyes, a knife and money wished him good fortune. Sitting on the chairs, listening to the mom crying in the room, i saw the newly made grave across from where we were sitting. In paraguay, a child up to five years is burried in the front of the house. It is not common for children to die this day and age. My neighbor Josefina has a grave that is 21yrs old. Eusebias nephew ...

There are moments here in Paraguay where I become overwhelmed with hope. It is an emotion that hits hard and I start to tear. Today after receiving a notice in my mail box that i had to go to the post office to pick up a package (that means its big or they decided to keep it to make you charge $ for it), i found myself questioning What package could this be? After being lost and luckily finding yet another overly helpful paraguayan that basically WALKED me to the front door of the post office, I found a package waiting for me with many boxes of girl scout cookies. I thought to myself, why am i becoming emotional over cookies????? this is ridiculous! i could of done something better with the money, orrrrrrrr could i?? i thought what better way to show support for a brand new girls soccer team then to send them cookies ALL the way from the states. someone in the states, and in fact a whole group of girls, cares about a small team, still without their own soccerball in paraguay (we have s...

A real quick update: Our first reunion 10 girls showed up between the ages of 12 and 18. Many more girls than i thought! A few others also want to join. I thought the meeting would last only an hour but the girls were there for 2.5 hours. My sister reminded me that they have all been in the house all day, and just getting together and talking is fun. I feel like as volunteers we dont really see the full picture Our name SUPER GIRLS ( in english) is for our team, Super Chicas is for our comite. i presented my ideas of the last saturday of every month is a day where a different activity that i will lead will occur : Environmental Education, Nutrition and American Cuisine (aka how to cook with vegetables), English Classes, and Auto Esteem. My boss really likes my idea and is giving me resources for different organizations that can help me out. The girls want to have 7 shirts for our team ( we can switch skirts when one goes in to the game) that are neon pink. our aunt can make them. They...