Today I had one of those Peace Corps days. The kind where nothing goes the way that you planned, everything seems harder than it is, and you end up blaming the whole country for your problems. Ok, well it's not Paraguay's fault that I currently have blisters on my feet, but it feels like that. Because when I start to think about the good things about the day, I remember how many times I wanted to say "te agradezco muchismo" or "I really thank you" to a Paraguayan. Here's how the day went:
I was visiting my friend Barb in her site to create a world map at her site. I would love to write a whole post about Barb and the nice time we had together cooking, laughing, and drawing the world together, but words cannot describe. Anyways, Barb recently tried her hand at keeping bees. She had the beebox built and tried to capture a wild hive, but the bees didn't stay in the bee box. I currently have my eye on a hive of bees next to my house that I want to raise. So Barb offered me her really beautiful bee box. The problem was getting it back to my site since Barb lives a taxi ride, two 1/2hr bus rides, and a 3 Kilometer walk from where I live. But I said, "no problem, I will figure it out." Oh, let me remind you, today starts Semana Santa, or Holy Week, in Paraguay, which in this Catholic country is a big deal and everyone is traveling home for the week starting...today.
The taxi ride and the first bus ride were a breeze. I arrived in the town 1/2hr bus ride from my community (Ayala) by 10am and split up with 2 other friends I was with the run into the grocery store for some dog food and other goodies that I can't buy in my community. I met up with my friend (one had already caught a bus) and waited...and waited...and waited. Ayala's bus stop is in town and not directly on the ruta. It seemed that the buses that I needed to take chose not to enter town but keep on going on the ruta today. I waited until 12:45 (almost 3 hrs) when I decided that it was better to take a bus that would get me to the town outside of my community and wait for another bus that would take me to the entrance into my community. I put the beebox underneath the bus and hopped on. I was hungry and tired, and found a seat. When I arrived in my town I got off the bus and picked up my beebox from underneath the bus. I couldn't close the latch and nobody was coming to help me. I kept trying to slam it, finally some women helped describe the problem to me and I figured it out.
I then was in my town. I had mail that I wanted to pick up, but didn't want to miss any chance at getting a bus, so I called the mailman who came and met me at the bus stop and even brought me my mail. Then one bus passed, one the usually will pick me up and drop me off at my site, but they told me they wouldn't take me. I tried to be as pushy as I could, which isn't very pushy for me, but the location of my site along with the site of that big bee box didn't help persuade them. They closed the door to the bus and sped off. I stomped around and complained in my head for a while and told myself that I couldn't wait to get home and sit on my bed and cry about this horrible terrible day.
Finally a bus came that was willing to take me to my site, and without complaints loaded my bee box under the bus. When they dropped me off they gave me back my bee box and I went in search of my bike, that I had left at a home on the ruta. Once I had my bike I tried to attach the bike to the rack on the back, but my whole bike tipped over and made a mess. Luckily a boy and the woman at the home where I had left my bike came over and helped me load up and send me off. I had to walk and push my bike in not very supportive flip-flops, which gave me blisters, but I finally arrived home with a smiling puppy running out to greet me.
So did you catch the moments where I said "te agradezco muchisimo": When the women gave me advice as to how to close the latch on the door underneath the bus where I stored me beebox, when the mailman brought my mail to me from the post office, which was closed today, when the bus picked me up when no other buses seemed to want to pick me up, when the family stored my bike in their house without even knowing me and said "we stored it really safely for you" even though before hand she had seemed hesitant about letting me leave in there for so many days, and then when she and the boy helped me secure my beebox to my bike, and when my puppy ran to meet me, always making my days brighter.
There are hard days, good days, bad days, and easy days here and its hard not to blame the hard and the bad ones on the whole country of Paraguay, because when I sit back and look around, I see smiling Paraguayans looking back at me willing to lend a helping hand and they are the ones that make the days easier to get through. I didn't go home and sit and cry on my bed, instead I cuddled with my puppy and thought of all those kind faces that got me through a rough day.
