Day One in the Dos - 7.14.08

Tavapy 2, 7.14.08 - So I'm sitting here in my little room at my host family's house trying to listen to some music on my iPod, but it keeps freezing. It just started playing, I think it may be possessed. At least it gives me an excuse to buy a new one. So anyway, I'm here in the town of Tavapy 2 (pronounced tah-vah-pull dos), visiting Andrew aka Andres. So despite my comments about how filthy his feet, etc. are, he is a cool ass dude. He has definitely gone "native" though, as some other PCV's have said. We got here earlier this afternoon after meeting him in a nearby town. After going around and meeting the different families we'd all be staying with we hung out around his crib, which is part of the cooperative with which he works. We took a tour of the coop's barbacua, which is where the hierba is processed before getting sent to the hierba mate company for packaging. The town has beautiful countryside; Andres has an amazing view of the valley from his huge yard. Pooja and I are staying with families right near the coop, while Tim is about 2 km away. Too bad he couldn't have been closer. We also took a walk to the field near Andres' crib and picked some cilantro for our dinner. That'd be tight if I can have some growing wild near me when I get to my site.


So now to the main thing that's been on my mind since I got here - THE BATHROOM SITUATION. So apparently my host family here has an electric heated shower but they all use a latrine. When I say latrine, I mean I'M BOO-BOOING IN A HOLE! So when I first got here I immediately asked where the bathroom was so I could get it out of the way. So I went in there and the stench was UNREAL. It basically smells like a Paraguayan sewer (or any other 3rd world country you may have been to): stale urine and feces on the rocks. So there I was with a little flashlight my host mom gave me, and I squatted and peed. She said that if I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and didn't want to walk all the way there, I could just go on the side of the house. That at least saved me from having to smell the stench, have mercy. We'll see if I'm brave enough to do some "major biznis" in the latrine tomorrow morning, I'm not sure that I will be...lol


On another note, the family computer (yes, I said computer) is this room, it's REALLY nice. Quite an interesting juxtaposition with the latrine out back. The granddaughters were watching a DVD old cachaca (Paraguayan music, similar to cumbia, look on Wikipedia if you're still not sure) music, and one of the groups had these dudes with sick-ass Mexican mullets. Not just business in the front party in the back, but gel-sculpted Elvis pompadour (sp?) in the front and permed-out, crimped-up, mid-back length mane in the back.