February and March

Today is March 12, 2012. I haven’t blogged in quite some time. As time goes on and relationships deepen, I put blogging lower and lower on my priority list. But, Im determined to not stop completely as I know I’ll appreciate reading my own blogs 10 years from now. Shall I begin…January Patagonia Adventure flew by! Just two days after I got back, I was cleaning my ear with a qtip. I took the qtip out and realized that the cotton was missing. Did the cotton fall out in my ear? Or did I put a qtip in my ear not realizing that was missing one side of the cotton? I wasn’t 100% sure. I tried wetting another qtip and sticking it in my ear hoping it would catch the dry cotton piece if it was in there. No luck. At this point my ear did feel a little different and I started to feel more sure that there was actual cotton in my ear. I told on of the retired sisters during our lunch break. She told me I need to go to Centro de Salud immediately! Next thing I know I’m laying on a table wondering what process I am about to encounter to capture this cotton! The doctor had his ear light but problem= it didn’t work. Bang banging the light on the table. Licking the batteries. Nope, no luck.  He tells me if my light doesn’t turn on he cant help me. I still have hope! 20 minute and a hard bang later- boom a small light comes on-flickering! Yahoo! (Sidenote- the 20 min during the light banging was also some smooth head swiggling from the doctor as reggeaton was blasting in his office which in most cases I would probs appreciate ha, but not with this pulsing ear issue! Oh also, Titanic song Spanish version was thrown in there. Gotta love the randomness of music in the midst of the ear dilemma) He looks at me and goes “Quick hurry before it breaks again!” Followed by this is Doctor McDoc shoving his light tool down my ear pretty much tickling my brain.  There is me pushing his arm as he’s shoving it. We were pretty much wrestling as Im yelling that he is hurting me and he’s telling me just a little further. So after the wrestle, he so calmy says “Nope, nothing in there.” Im like really? He walks away to go write down some prescription for pain meds bc now my ear is suurrriously pulsating! I ask him “ Is that it? Are you sure you didn’t see anything? I really think there is something there; can you please look one more time.” At this point, I was ready for wrestle #2.  So wrestle #2 and 4 minute later out comes the cotton swab! I scream I knew it was in there!!—all excited that its out! He’s like “it’s a good thing you made me go back in there!” Ha, I cant. Always an experience at Centro de Salud.

After the ear fiesta, we went to Lago Ypacari with some friends. Didn’t swim in it because the last time we did, we had some skin reactions. SO HOT out! Brought some food and drinks and just chilled with some friends which is always refreshing.

The Roa Sisters- Jeny Claudia and Anchi. Then there Fabi, Monetti and I.

We have also been on top of the game at work! Lots of orders! The artisans quality of works continues to improve which means more sales! Busy Busy Busy!

Yes, we continue to be hair, hand, and neck models! This month I was also a blouse model! Aaaaaahahahaha! I cant!! We cannot even breathe when we are photoing for the catalog! Too hilarious!

Spa Jessie is still open for pampering! Although I usually like my nails to be free of nail polish, I do like to paint Monetti’s nails and design her eyebrows! My favorite part is POURING baby powder on her head. She’s not a fan of it but its part of the Spa Jessie deal because I find so much humor and fun in it! Mwwaaahahaa!

What else has happened? Hmm…more sleepovers at the retired sisters, our besties. We rented The King’s Speech (on Monetti’s laptop with a projector on the wall- home movie theatre!! Except the volume from the laptop was so low we had to put subtitles, ha) and had a popcorn slumber party with them. Ice-cream-always ice-cream. Dulce de Leche…yummmm never gets old!

Another highlight is that we got our fans fixed in our house which has been such a blessing! It is still hitting into the 100s and sometimes the fans just toss around hot air but they are awesome on the days that it rains and there is a breeze that comes through.

The avocado tree is now in season which is great and not great! Great to eat but it is also located right over our house. So, as we are sleeping, we hear loud bangs on the tin room at 12am, 1am, 2am, 3am and so forth which leaves us jumping out of our bed scared shitless from the sudden bang and then we look at each other and say “onlyyyy an avocado!” It was funny in the beginning but not so much anymore with our baggy eyes. Ha, but still a little funny.

What else? Oh, apparently I was featured in Good Shepherd Services newsletter. Our coordinator told me he copied and pasted a part of one of my blogs to be featured in the newsletter. I was also asked to write a short piece for the GSV blog. So I decided to take our corny and by corny I mean FABULOUS motto of “Just Love” and write about it.

http://justlovegsv.blogspot.com/2012/01/just-love-from-paraguay.html

Hm, what else. Reading books continues to be an activity of ours. Monetti continues to act out the book The Help. We keep practicing The Four Agreements to the best of our abilities..and well, more books about social justice issues/Bluestocking-esque.

We went to a festival in Ita ((Ita= (guarani)= Piedra (Spanish)=Rock(English)) with Jeny, Claudia and Fabi which was fun!

We’ve recently been all about making stuffed peppers!

Let’s just say Monetti had a moto burn incident! Ahhhhaa!

Hm, what else? We decided that we want to become scorpion savors instead of killers so we have masters catching the scorpions in our house and freeing them outside.

Nothing like brushing our teeth and freeing a baby scorpie!

Some other highlights have been receiving mail from friends and family! It always feels like Christmas morning when we get a letter or package from someone from home! Received an amazing HILARIOUS Christmas DVD from my family! Thank you thank you thank you!! Mike you are the coolest.

It takes us a few hours to download but every now and then we download a 20 minute episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race. We love Jiggly Caliente!

What else? Prop 8 was declared unconstitutional and Washington State legalized gay marriage.  Love itttt.

Oh, Superbowl fun! We sort of watched the superbowl- very grainy but still tried! We skyped Mickie, Monetti’s mom for the Superbowl which was hilarious. NY WHATTTTTT?? Madonna’s performance was fab- never disappoints!

Monetti and I have been trying to master the booty shake in our spare time. We think Missy Elliot’s “Shake Your Pom Pom” is an encouraging song for booty shake practice. What is wrong with us?? Ahhaaha.

Rafiki and Nala continue to be our best friends here too. They are too cool!

We decided to rock some dreds! Found a croche needle and crocheted dreds into eachother’s hair. My dred is named Liz.

This is Hermana Elisa. She is the youngest one that lives in the retired sisters house. She isn’t a retired sister but she lives with them. She is the one that works at the Women’s Jail. She is THE JOKESTER of the group and is constantly picking on Krystina and I-with love, obvi. We love her. Here she is-“visiting” our office aka asking me to give her a massage. She was super stressed this week. (She usually gives people massages- the retired sisters or people who are hurt.) So, I gave her a massage for a change, except we couldn’t tell anyone because it would be “inappropriate” so she came to our office and I basically punched out her stiff shoulders. We were cracking up, especially me! Being sneaky/ “bad” behavior with the Sister killed me!

Okay, one last update for this blog: our friend Court, another volunteer who is doing service in Malaysia got pink eye. The medical solution to cure her pink eye was breast milk. Except it didn’t work; it just made her eye creamy and more blurry. Classic!