Mass Chipa making...as promised

Well...Chipa season has arrived. I am sick of chipa, that's for sure. Not just in my tast buds either, it has definately affected my digestive system. Here is how my Easter week (Semana Santa) has broken down: Sunday I went to mass with my host family and had Terere and lunch with my neighbors. Monday and Tuesday were "business as usual" (whatever that means)Monday I gave Charlas at the School about companion planting and helped them plant the garden and on the way home drank some delicious Passion Fruit juice (homemade) at a friend's house. Tuesday my house was ready so I bought a bed, cleaned the floors and moved in! I also dropped in and watch some of the women make Chipa. They were getting an early start.


Wednesday is the Chipa day. I went over to my host grandma's house because my mom doesn't have a tatakua(clay dome oven) and made chipa all day long. Thursday I helped Estela (host mom) make Sopa Paraguay for our Cena final (final meal), which was Asado, Sopa Paraguaya, and Mandioca. Then Estela and I drank wine and coke and talked for a while and then I went to a nemboe hape (prayer meeting) because someone in the community had recently died. From Thursday afternoon until Saturday morning no work is supposed to happen...actually until sunday as well. Friday I went back to the same friend's house who gave me Passion Fruit juice and hung out with her family and her sister-in-law's family. She gave me some chipa. Her house is pretty far away and down this huge hill in my community but luckily another friend passed with her family in their newish truck and I hitched a ride up the hill. We drank Terere and she gave me my own back of Chipa.


It seems to be a custom for everyone to give the Norteamericana her own bag of Chipa. I have a huge pile of it in my house now.


Friday afternoon the community met on one edge of the community and we walked house to house praying and reading each station of the cross. It was finished by saying the Apostle's creed at the Prayer Chapel. Saturday, Yesterday, rained all day and I stayed in my house with Ara, my cat, and read, and wrote letters, and did some more unpacking. That was my Semana Santa. I tried to go into Asuncion early this morning for an English Speaking service that I had heard about, but it never happened. It is kind of weird to not have all the Easter traditions that I am used to, but I appreciated walking the stations of the cross on Friday.


So...here are the Chipa pics:

Estela Mixing the Lard and the Eggs

Adding the Almidon/Corn Flour

Forming the Chipa

Taking the Chipa out of the Tatakua

A family event. All the women making chipa

The recipe for Chipa goes like this:

Lard

Almidon Flour

Corn Flour

Eggs

Anise

Whey

Can you handle it? Chipa, Chipa un Mil!

Mi oga'i (my little house)

The months of March and April have been rather busy for me, but not necessarily planting green manures with farmers or giving presentations about how to care for your chickens. I have been devoting a lot of time to building my house. My community has about 35 houses in it overall. All but 3 were occupied when I arrived in the community. Two out of 3 are extremely isolated and were not in the best interest of my safety. The third was filled with termites (kupi'i in Guarani) and I refused to try and use the "remedio" to get rid of them...let's face it, there are a lot of trees around and I didn't want to fight with kupi'i for two years.


Another option was renting a room with a family. Most families have children that come from Asuncion to visit every once and a while so renting a room from them was not an option. My last option was to live in a house that the previous volunteer built, but he gave it to the family, who then added onto it and used it for their teenage sons. Lets face it...female introverted American, sharing a space with 15 and 16 year old Paraguayan boys who love motorcycles and loud reggaeton music at all hours of the day (an night), and morning....


So I decided to build a small room on the property of my community contact. Her husband works construction so he helped design it and we build it together. He recommended using bricks, since wood is expensive and there is not longer straw around for roofs. The house is on the back edge of their property right before the soccer field/cow pasture. After the cow pasture becomes the fields. Don Ramon, my contact's husband, is extremely worried about my safety and since I am so close to the Chacra I am more at risk. I like the location. It is really tranquilo. I don't have to fight with reggaeton as much, and I am off the main road. When neighbors come over, which they do since my contact is an unofficial community leader, I can wave and say hello from my door.

building the foundation.

My materials. Bricks, sand, and more bricks.

building the walls.

Super Guapo (hard-working) Don Ramon Varela building the house up.

Paraguayan equivalent of scaffolding.

Framing the roof. Not the same as in the states.

Sticking my little head through the roof on the day we put on the Tefuelon (an insulation layer on the roof)

Oimpama la oga. (The house is finished!)

From the first picture in the series until the last it maybe took two and a half weeks, but I then spent the next month waiting for the doors and electricity to be installed.

Building a house with a Paraguayan man was an interesting experience. My training in SOS along with some church missions trips gave me some of the skills I needed, but I still am not well versed in technical construction language in Spanish, or in the techniques of building a house out of bricks. That, and the fact that I am a woman working in a culture that values Machismo, created their frustrations, but in the end the house is finally constructed and I have slept there for a total of 5 nights. I don't have the most recent pictures. Since these pictures were taken we have put in windows and doors and electricity. We also built pillars that will become my porch so that I can sit outside and read, drink Mate in the rain while drying my clothes, or hanging my herbs to dry.