Felic Dia De Gracias

November 7^th, 2011. We have been spending a lot of time coming up with designs/color combinations for one of our new Butterfly products that we are shipping to Australia. We have been working on orders for Australia, Italy, and the US so there is a lot of work right now. I went to an Expo out in Tobati (over an hour away) to try to find/meet with the indigenous Maka women who sell necklaces in which they make out of coconut shells. There was this man at the expo who made products out of wood. The retired sisters now have one of his products- a wooden cane that has a pincher on the bottom of it so that you can pick something up with your cane when you drop it, instead of having to lean down. How nifty! (Jodi, if you are reading this, it's like the garbage picker-upper we used except cane style.)

            The weather here is really heating up as summer is less than a month away. It's already hit into the high 90s. We have had a few days with no gas, no fans, no water- which has been quite the adjustment. Talk about being grateful.  Monetti had an infected hair which turned into this big painful boil thing. It hurt her so bad she could hardly sleep. On our nights that we are awake, we have started to develop a play, with our friends from home being the main characters. The time period of the play is 2020. So far our characters names are “Nelly, Pecka, Richele, Cody, and Dandy." Ahhaha! We only have got up to the opening scene but it is a work in the making!

What else? Monetti and I had a really fun night with the retired sisters. Let me explain. This particular weekend was a big soccer weekend. Paraguay vs. Ecuador and a big soccer weekend for NYU Women’s Soccer. To be in solidarity/spirit with the Violets, Shell/Nic, (and to take my mind off of the fact that I was missing NYU games/friends/soccer), we decided to put some black face paint on, some bright headbands, buy some cookies/make popcorn and watch the Paraguay vs. Ecuador game on the retired sister tv and rage with them! That was hilarious. You had some sisters all into the game, screaming “VAMOSSSS PARAGUAY!!” while others were saying prayers when someone fell or got tripped, praying that they would be okay. Such a classic atmosphere. Success on all ends. The Violet’s destroyed the turf that weekend, hitting new records for NYU while Paraguay came away with a 2 nil win over Ecuador! Let’s not forget about St. Johns with J. Lev (when is your autograph signing Mia Hamm?) and Amy Marron making Big East All Conference! Pay Rae and Quan Academic All-District. There are more awards these STJ Diva's have received that I am leaving out but check out redstormsports.com for more info. Well in! Get it girls!

            Hm what else? Mbopi, the black cat, continues to choose us as her owner. We literally cannot even stretch without her jumping on us. She puked in our house twice last week for us to realize that SHE IS PREGNANT! Janey Mack!

I’ll leave that there, what else? Oh, Packages! We received three packages this month- CD’s from Annie, Halloween candy from Mads, and a big box from Mom with animal crackers, wheat thins, and honey wheat pretzels (none of which they have here in PY)- talk about feeling like a kid on Christmas morning! I also received these SAWEEEEET new kicks from Mike called Merrell Barefoots. “You are unique and so are your body and stride. Merrell believes in allowing your feet to find their natural landing pads. Listen and let your body lead you.” Obviously, I am obsessed with these shoes on a whole other level! Due to safety reasons, I am not allowed to run here which has been tough to balance. Walking and literally feeling the ground under my feet has become more important to me in my life than ever before.

Speaking of bodies, we found ourselves at El Centro de Salud, this small kind of sketchy health center, on one sunny Saturday afternoon. Monetti’s arm infection turned into a mini surgery for her which was quite the experience. There’s me, sitting outside double doors on a bench, while Monetti is laying on table, which is 4 feet from another table that housed an intoxicated man with a huge gushing open head wound, saying prayers that she is going to come walking out of that room in one piece. I can really say that was an experience like no other. Im glad to announce she is currently healed and better.

            What other snidbits? Snidbits is a great word. Oh, we went to a free local film festival which was cool. One of the kids in one of the documentaries is one of the kids in our program here that we work with. What else? We continue to tackle books here including “The Help” which Monetti continues to act out with her southern accent.

            We shipped Italy’s Christmas order out on the 15^th! Wahoo! There is so much behind the scenes work that goes into the products. So on the day that we ship an order out it feels like we just finished our last term paper before summer break.

 Raquel, our German classmate, finished her classes and went back to Germany to get married to a Paraguayan man. Patrick stopped showing up to class. So now, its me and Monetti and our teacher Vivi, who we continue to become more and more obsessed with. There are so many details that I can never fully get to. For example, on our way home from school the other day, there was a guy selling fruit at his street fruit cart WHILE shaving his beard. CLASSIC.

            We took a bus to San Ber lake this month which was beyond refreshing. Played cards, ate animal crackers (thanks gigi) and played with rocks while kicking out feet in the water. We also decided to have our own photo shoot- duh.

It’s really been quite interesting making our funtivities, such as photo shoots, or playing truth or dare, or 20 questions, or putting on dances for eachother, or cutting Monetti’s eyebrows with a pair of scissors.

            With other details inbetween, I am just going to have to skip right to Thanksgiving. This was my first Thanksgiving away from family which was interesting, especially being that no one celebrates Thanksgiving here. Monetti and I were missing our families, a given, but instead of talking about missing our families all night, we decided to get up and make our own Thanksgiving here in Paraguay. We wanted to celebrate it with the retired sisters, as they have been like our crew of grandma’s here. We also invited their two cooks, Lourders and Silvana, and a coworker, Fabi, all of whom have become our good friends here. We cooked food for 17 people and made name cards at each seat for each person. On each card, we wrote a reason for why we were thankful for them. What started off as a "task-oriented running around/getting everything prepared feeling" quickly turned into the Thanksgiving Spirit. As we wrote each gratitude card, it gave us an opportunity to sit back and see how special all of these people really are to us, how much they have done for and with us, how they have supported us, and how they have become our family here, even in this short amount of time. The verbal language barrier between us may not always been clear/can get confused, but the sentiments they have shown us have been so clearly genuine and it was so nice to sit back and feel so grateful for each and every one of them for their own specific uniqueness as characters in our storybook. We really are so lucky. Thanksgiving, a holiday of gratitude, is exactly what this day/night had manifested itself into above and beyond what I ever imagined. It all always comes together in the end, doesn’t it? It will be one Thanksgiving I will never forget, one unlike all the rest and for this, I am grateful.