TUESDAY.
What an adventure today was. This morning at 9:45, I was cracking an egg into a pot (because the pan was on the bottom the the stack, and it was a top-of-the-stack kind of morning), when Bruce and Sylvia, two of the sweetest people you will ever meet, pulled up to the gate outside of the driveway. Po went sprinting up the hall to let them in, sprinting down the hall to get her key, and sprinting back up the hall to let them in. I moved my egg around the pot at a more rapid pace. Egg finished and wrapped in a tortilla, I grabbed all my things and plopped a little water into my water bottle, and then jogged for the car. Bruce and Sylvia welcomed me into their car, into Paraguay, and if this was a movie from Hallmark, into their hearts. (I am laughing really hard at my own jokes today. Forgive me. Hahahahahaha.) Sylvia was so excited to take me to the HiperSeis (supermarket) that she actually brought me a copy of the paper she typed up at the beginning of her term in Asuncion, listing each useful thing in each aisle of the store, from the entrance to the exit, by aisle number. We walked around the store, going over each aisle and which brands were the cheapest and best quality, and although I had been to the same store the day before and had a tour, Sylvia managed to teach me quite a few new things, like how to order freshly ground coffee and freshly ground beef, and which powdered sugar is the powderiest. Did you know that the phrase for "powdered sugar" in Spanish literally means, "Sugar that you can't squeeze"? So cool.
After the grocery store, we went to the Feria, which only happens on Tuesdays. It literally means "fair," and it's in a blocked off parking garage under a shopping mall. There are tables filling one entire floor of the parking garage, piled high with all kinds of fresh vegetables, fruits, cheeses, meats, breads, jams and jellies, and different honeys. While I was meandering around, Sylvia did her shopping. I stopped at a little Chinese vendor who had these cool tea mugs (of course) that come with a strainer inside them. They were so pretty! Sylvia came to try to buy bean sprouts, but couldn't remember their Spanish name and couldn't find them on the table. We bought some honey and some vegetables, as well as a bag of fresh peanuts, and then Bruce surprised us with Chipa and hot Cocido! Chipa is original to Paraguay and the Guarani people. It is a piece of bread about the size of the palm of my hand. Onions are boiled with salt until they're soft and then whipped with milk, mashed corn kernels, butter, and Paraguayan cheese. The resulting paste is baked for about an hour, and it comes out with a half-inch thick crust and a wet still in the middle. Not all the way to gooey, but not dry either. It's glorious. Cocido is a very sweet milk tea. Sugar is carmelized with Yerba Maté leaves and then mixed into boiling water to make tea. Then the mixture is strained and hot milk is added. It's glorious. (I would not repeat myself if glorious wasn't the right word.) (:
After the Feria, Bruce and Sylvia dropped Po and I off at the Schells' house, and we went from there to the Orfanato (orphanage).
At the Orfanato, I was placed in a room of 11 2-year-olds. There were toys all over the tile floor, and the children all flocked over to look at me, after being instructed to call me Tía (means "aunt," but is used to connote a family-like relationship with people who sometimes aren't actually related. The children call each female worker Tía and each male worker Tío.) When I arrived, the workers were in the process of picking up mattresses from the floor where they had been placed for nap time and stacking them on top of a book shelf.
I had only been in the room a few minutes when bathroom time came upon us. Two of the workers took the girls into the girls' bathroom and I went with the other to help with the boys. We took all their pants and diapers off and set them in a row on little wooden trainer toilets with removable plastic toilet bowls. Each boy in turn was taken up onto a changing table and cleaned with a rag, which was rinsed between boys. Then each was put in a fresh diaper and dressed in a clean pair of pants. After they'd been clothed, they were given to me to wash their hands and face, without soap. The clean ones were made to sit on little stools against the bathroom wall and wait until the others were finished, but they didn't want to sit down. At first, I had to tell them over and over to sit back down, but I realized that when they didn't sit, I came over and nudged them down with my hands on their heads. They liked my hands on their heads. So they kept standing up. So instead, I sat down by them and played the pat the head game, which is where I muss up their hair and tickle them so randomly that they don't know which is coming next. pretty soon they were each patting their own heads and bellies to get me to muss their hair or tickle them again, and after that, when I left, they stayed sitting as I'd asked them. They were the ones that came and sat on me later. (:
We went back in the classroom and the children lined up against the wall to receive their cookies and bottles. Not long after the bottles were passed out, they were being flung around the room, leaving little puddles all over the tile floor already scattered with toys and dirt. The children loved the tickling game, and so we played that one again. [I bet Dania and Stephanie aren't surprised. (; ] There was one little boy named Daniel who liked to hit people when they came over to talk to me, so that he wouldn't have to get off my lap. We fixed that one by removing him from my lap when he hit someone, but leaving him there as long as he was willing to share me with Maria Paz y Jose Miguel. Chrisian was another boy who would not stop climbing up on the tables. He also was the toy thief of the day. I can't even tell you how many times He took toys from the girls, just to get his Tías to shout. It was kind of funny.
After the Orfanato, Po (who had been working in a different classroom with seven and eight year olds--I don't envy her) and I walked about 20 minutes to the bus stop, rode the bus for about 8 minutes, and then walked another 20 minutes to the Schell's house. We had dinner with another US American family, and then Lo (the girl in whose apartment we're currently living) made us churros. I laughed so hard that I cried, and I think I may have snorted. (: I love these missionaries.
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