December

My Nana

My Nana died last week, on Tuesday December 19. I’ve known she’s been sick for a while, and in hospice care for a few months now, but she got much worse this past week and was finally taken off life support. This is my Dad’s mom, whose husband died a year ago last August. Nana was such a wonderful woman, warm and generous and strong and brave. Once again, I can’t imagine how hard it’s been for my aunts and cousins to be looking after her all this time, and I’m so grateful that Nana has had such loving family to surround her. I didn’t go home for the funeral – it’ s too far, too expensive, too difficult in many ways. It’s hard to believe she’s really gone, that we’ll never play cards or be offered food or hear her laugh or or or again.

It’s easy, though, to separate from everyone back home while I’m here, to imagine that everything and everyone is just as I left it. But I know things are changing – there are weddings and funerals and babies and promotions and illnesses and life and death. I have been able to communicate with my family through my cell phone, calling and even sending instant text messages back and forth, which is pretty remarkable (though the technology isn’t perfect – I have to unplug my fridge to charge up my phone while I talk). And now knowing that my family was all together in Florida for the funeral and a few days afterwards, that they told stories and looked at pictures and ate and cried and laughed together is, well, I don’t know what it is. It’s part of the process of mourning and grieving and moving on, it’s comforting, it’s important, and I certainly wish I could be part of it.

It feels strange too to bury this news in the middle of other blog entries, but that’s kind of how it happened here for me. It seemed unreal, at times like it didn’t even happen. I pretty much stayed at home during the week that she was dying and the funeral, waiting for calls and updates from my sister, played an inordinate of amount of minesweeper on the computer and did other mindless things, bowed out of a few commitments here when possible, but otherwise life continues.

A Very Paraguayan Christmas

My PC buddy Carole (whose sister lives in Westford, not far from my dad!) and her (Paraguayan) boyfriend came to visit me for Christmas, and even though it didn’t really feel like Christmas with temperatures soaring, it was still nice to share the holiday with my friend. We went swimming in the river, cooked a delicious asado (barbecue), stayed up til midnight on Christmas Eve, which is tradition here, and then went outside as everyone set off firecrackers to celebrate, then went to the big townwide disco, where it seemed everyone was there to welcome Christmas Day with beer and dancing. After sleeping in on Christmas Day, we watched It’s a Wonderful Life on my laptop, and then it felt a bit more Christmasy, cheesy tears and all! Remember, no one is poor who has friends!

Other cultural tidbits: Paraguayans only give small presents to kids on 3 Kings Day in January. Some houses had American-style lights outside. On Christmas Eve Day, out of nowhere, nativity scenes sprang up outside of houses all over town, but they were gone by Christmas Day. They drink a sangria-style drink called clerico, wine or soda or juice with lots of fresh fruit inside – yum! There’s pan de navidad, Christmas bread with bits of fruit inside, kinda like a fruitcake. And plums are suddenly in season too, though they’re expensive and go bad really quickly.

Family Planning

December 27

Did my first health charla (little talk) today in the health center in Planta 2, one of the small settlements 5k from Tacuati. Ten people showed up, over an hour late, and most of them had come to see the nurse, not the charla, and got stuck, but no matter, I think it went really well. We talked about what it means to plan, to make decisions, and to consider the consequences of your actions, and the various birth control options available for women here.

I didn’t make the activities up myself – it’s a combination of activities used in a youth curriculum that deals with decision making and sexuality, a family planning charla another PC volunteer did in her site, and an HIV/AIDS workshop for health center workers. I just reworked the activities a bit. I’m hoping I’ll be invited to repeat this charla over and over in the other health centers and here in Tacuati as well, and that the families of Tacuati will be well-planned happily ever after.