April thoughts

Paraguayan Generosity…

...has been in abundante recently. Not just because of Semana Santa, where every woman I passed forced chipa into my hands, but in other ways as well. Last weekend I visited a friend of mine, and her slightly buzzed father said that before I left he was going to buy my father a present. A really nice guampa and bombilla (used for terere), he said, the perfect souvenir from Paraguay. It was really sweet how excited he was, what a generous thought for this man who has so little to even think of saving money to buy a present for a man who he’s never even met before. Who knows whether it’ll actually happen, but the sentiment was really special.

Yesterday, I was all excited because I bought fresh corn and went to the store to buy butter so I could eat it with salt, American BBQ style. But it was noon and the stores were all closed, except for Na Luisa’s store in the front of her house, and she was out of butter. When she saw how sad I was (and after I was able to successfully tell her in Guarani that I wanted to buy butter to put on the corn I had just bought – Che ajoguase petei manteca amoihagua la choclondi akaaruhagua), she went over to her kitchen, opened the fridge, and handed me a half-used tub of butter. She wouldn’t take no for an answer, and sent me away with her own personal butter to put on my corn on the cob. When was the last time that happened to you at the grocery store???

I’m so Guapa

Guapa means hardworking (in other Spanish speaking countries it means cute, apparently, but here it’s hardworking). Not sure if I’ve mentioned here yet that I’ve been training for a half marathon. Yes, me. I plan to run the Asuncion Half Marathon – 13.2 miles, or about 20km - in July. It may kill me, but I’ve got a great training schedule recommended to me by my own Coach Hal, and I’ve been following it religiously. http://www.halhigdon.com/halfmarathon/novice.htm
The challenge will be to keep up with it while back in the States next month.

Yesterday I ran the longest ever, 72 minutes (with just a quick 2 minute breather in the middle), which may be about 10k but I never know for sure on these country roads. I didn’t think I’d be able to make it, but after about 40 minutes I definitely feel that “runners high” that people always talk about and I felt great, like I could keep going for hours. Here’s the iPod playlist that got me through:

Beautiful Stranger – Madonna
Dancing with Myself – Eddie Money
Hung Up – Madonna
A song whose title I don’t know, it starts “Why must the children play in the streets”
Me vale – Mana
Rompe – Daddy Yankee
If I was a Rich Girl – No Doubt
Heya – OutKast
Lets go Crazy – Prince
Hips Don’t Lie – Shakira n Wyclef Jean
Push It – Salt n Pepa
Don’t Phunk With my Heart – Black Eyed Peas
Strong Enough – Cher (played twice)
All I wanna Do – Sheryl Crowe
Jump - Madonna
Ay Amor - Shakira
Dos Cosas Ciertas – Ozomotli