Semana Santa

Wow, I may never eat pig fat again (I WISH!!) This past week we have been celebrating Holy Week, better known as Semana Santa. The celebrations began on Wednesday, when every senora in Paraguay started gathering her cheese, milk, eggs, corn flour, anise, and yes, pig fat, to make the infamous chipa (see photo in previous entry). In my house we made about 20 kilos of this bready delight; ingredients included 2.5 kilos of pig fat, 4.5 kilos of cheese, 10 kilos of flour, and 60 eggs, among other things. Whipping the eggs by hand, mixing the mass of dough, and then forming it into the typical shapes (rings, half moons, alligators, doves, etc.) before baking in the brick oven is an all-day task in which the whole family participates. Afterward, absolutely no work is done on Thursday and Friday, not even cooking (that's where the chipa comes in); my youth group organized a soccer tournament to raise money on Holy Thursday, and that went over extremely well despite early-afternoon rain. Saturaday things get back to normal, and in Cerrito, that means a barbecue and then a dance party starting at midnight to celebrate the official arrival of Easter.

By the way, now that the weather is fabulous (socks, jeans, long sleeves....OH YES!!) and I've eaten all that chipa, I've started jogging in the afternoons, which makes the icy-cool well water bath a little less frigid. Right now, however, I am once again in Asuncion for the week. Our whole training group, in fact, has gathered for a week of in-service training...that is, more language classes and cultural chats. I've actually really been a lot more enthusiastic about Guarani, so I'm kind of looking forward to the extra training. I am NOT, however, excited about being back in a classroom all day, or being back in a group of Americans. It's not that I don't really like them all (I do) but I've gotten a bit spoiled standing out as exotic and exciting just by, well, standing around, and this week suddenly I'm just going to be another face in the crowd. I think you all know what I mean.

I wanted to upload pictures, but there's a problem with the internet, so that will be for another day. Chau gente!