Holidays in Paraguay, Part II.

This entry's title might be a bit of a misnomer, since it's now January 31st, but thought I should at least try to be a bit consistent, given my previous entry's title. I mistakenly thought the holiday festivities would be a bit more prolonged here, like they are in Spain with the observance of the Reyes Magos on January 6. While many children here do indeed receive a gift from the Three Wise Men/Kings on the morning of January 6 (after first leaving out water and hay for the camels the night before), the day itself is not an official holiday nor is there any sort of community-wide celebration, e.g. parade, at least not in my village. The upside is that since it is not a holiday, there is mail service. I felt like the Kings had left something for me too since I received my first USMail package of the year on this day, a package full of gifts I had ordered for folks here...so I in turn had a chance to give back on the special day!

2010's first month has just evaporated. It began with a couple days of being under-the-weather thanks to extra gastrointestinal activity, and then switched gears to an office routine, as I staffed our area's education Supervision office from January 5 thru Friday, Jan. 29. The women who work in Supervision include the person who requested a Peace Corps Volunteer for this area several years ago, while she was still the director of the small school where I began my service. "Lidia" is now "Supervisora Lidia" who oversees 54 schools in our district. She and others in the office had worked through December 30, and were looking forward to their January vacation, planning to return to open the office on February 1. (School is out for the summer, classes scheduled to resume on February 23.) She learned on Monday, January 4, that the Ministry of Education and Culture had decreed that all Supervision offices must remain open during the month of January...you now get the picture....she asked if I could staff it so they could have some long-anticipated time-off. I was more than happy to help out, especially since I needed some good office space, complete with a land-line, this month to make progress on the library manual revision. So, in short order, I was given the keys to not only the education offices in the City Hall, but the key to the front door of City Hall, and the key to the Mayor's secretary's office where the fax machine is located. My "keys to the kingdom" have come in very handy this month...in fact until this last day of January...for having them has allowed me to come into the City Hall on a Sunday afternoon to post my January blog entry (the City Hall has a wireless network, hip hip hooray!) I turn the keys over this evening so my colleagues can open up the office tomorrow, February 1. I will be boarding an early bus to Asuncion with the director of the main school; where we have a 2 1/2 day workshop with the rest of my training group.

January was not ALL work at the office however...it included two lovely outings to nearby Colonia Independencia. The first was for a birthday party for 3-year old Nico, held at http://www.hotel-sportcamping.de/en/index.php?weiterleitung=true&language=en. In essence, it was a pool party, amid thatched huts, and mountain views. I delighted in getting Nico to jump into the pool/my arms repeatedly, and started teaching him how to swim. Many Paraguayans do not learn to swim. The kids were amazed when I simply dived into the pool! The second outing was with some girlfriends, and included a behind-the-scenes peak at a 21st Century castle that looks like it should be overlooking the Rhine. (I'd mistakenly assumed it'd been built by a homesick German, for there are many Germans in this part of Paraguay, dating back to post-WWI days.) Colonia Independencia is nestled amidst Paraguay's highest mountains, the Ybytyruzu range, and we could readily view Paraguay's highest peak, 842 meters high Cerro Tres Kandu, from the castle tower. Here are some mountain views, courtesy of the Travel-images web site:

http://www.travel-images.com/paraguay5.html

Hope to make it back to Colonia Independencia before the summer's over and school starts again. Thankfully it's really close by, so we'll see...meanwhile, next on the fiesta agenda here in Paraguay is CARNAVAL...and nearby Villarrica supposedly stages one of the country's best celebrations...stay tuned!