Fun Times

Over the past week I have gotten to spend a lot of time at the Hogar, which has been simultaneously wonderful and exhausting. Here are some of my experiences:
--Worst night of sleep ever. Involving several little boys migrating to my (twin) bed during the night. Turns out that my natural response to waking up with tiny feet kicking my back is to shove the aforementioned feet as far away from me as possible, even if they belong to a two-year-old. Thems the breaks, kid. Also, if I don't have lice now, I will be amazed. Plus, I was sleeping in the room where the newest Hogar addition, a three-week old baby, lives. He naturally woke up several times screaming, which I can't really blame him for. Then at 3am Paty burst into the room and flipped on the lights. It had started to rain so everyone had to go outside and bring in the clothes that were drying on the line. All of these conditions meant that I didn't really sleep at all.
--New fruit. There are some small trees that have just started to produce little orange fruit. They are everywhere, and the fruit is really good. Walking from the Hogar to one of the schools, the kids stopped to climb several trees (after asking the neighbors, on my insistence) and toss down the little fruits. If you are feeling like a prissy American, you rinse them off with water first. If not, you just eat them dust and all, careful to avoid the 1-4 large seeds in the middle. The seeds are excellent for spitting contests. (I, however, am terrible at spitting. Must work on that.)
--Olympics. Went to one of the high schools to watch the school olymics on Saturday. Turns out that, in true South American style, it consisted of soccer, soccer, and more soccer. With one game of handball thrown in for variety. Still great to watch and cheer on our friends.
--Mosquito bites. On my face. Come on... I hate those little bastards.
--Getting really mad at small children. While I generally just play with the kids, I have become more authoritarian lately. Most interactions in Paraguay are really blunt, and discipline is no exception. Just part of the culture--you call it as you see it. It seemed harsh to me at first, but it now seems really normal. Several times in the past few days I used the phrase, "Don’t ask me why. Because I told you to... (whatever)."
--Coconuts. The trees are everywhere here. Most of them bear really small fruits. Some of the littler kids showed me how to gather them from a neighboring pasture and pound them with rocks to get to the fruit. Sometimes you find some that are hollow inside, and these make excellent, loud whistles.
--Yves. A Frenchman who is visiting the Hogar for a couple of months because he is pretty much in love with Paty (the 50-something director of the Hogar). Does she speak French? A little. Does he speak Spanish? Not really. But they are trying really hard and it is adorable.
--Fire ants. I was bitten for the first time. Damn. That smarts. The thing was tiny but somehow drew blood. So I hate them now and squish them on site. While I don't generally agree with preemptive strikes, I feel that they are not to be trusted.
--Kittens. Sasha, the cat who lives at the Hogar, was pregnant (Again. She gets around.) and gave birth about a week ago. The kittens still haven’t opened their eyes and aren't quite strong enough to really walk. Still small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
--Second worst night of sleep ever. I opted to sleep on the living room floor, thinking I would be safe from screaming babies and small kicking feet. But Sasha´s "bed" is in the living room, and during the night she decided she would rather move herself and all five kittens into my bed. So I kept waking up covered in kittens. That might sound cute to some people, but it is not. Kittens have tiny claws and wet noses. Gross. Plus I was worried about accidentally smothering or mangling one in my sleep. I tried to relocate them several times, but Sasha was persistent.
--Homework. Got to help some of the grade school kids with their math homework. Adorable. I never liked long division and I still don't, so it's a good thing the kids are cute.
--Pooped on. By Santiago, my favorite two-year-old. Yuck.
--A head full of flowers. I was resting on a bench in the front yard. Several of the younger girls (under 5) decided that they would pick a bunch of wild flowers and put them in my hair. Wish I could have taken a picture.
--Secrets. My Spanish is really just getting good enough to have meaningful conversations with the older girls about important things like school, family, boys, and what they really want to do. But they mostly like to talk about boys, and I an honored to know their secrets.
--Caterpillar. I saw the biggest caterpillar ever. I usually think those are cute, but this was so big it was kind of gross.
--Illegal tomatoes and spontaneous swimming. Paty asked Jon and I to come with her to pick up some food donations. So Jon and I went with Paty, Yves, Daniel (Paty's biological, 20-something son), Oscar (Paty's adopted 19 year old son), and Jose (15 year old Hogar resident). After a beautiful hour and a half drive into the less populated areas of Paraguay we arrived at the city of Eusebio Ayala where three trucks full of contraband tomatoes had been confiscated by the police. (I'm still unclear as to how the tomatoes were illegal, but I just went with it.) 50 crates were to be donated to the Hogar. The boys filled the bus with the boxes--a messy operation. On the way back to the Hogar we stopped at Lake San Bernardino, a beautiful place where the wealthy people of Paraguay have their summer homes. Paty lived in a house there for much of her childhood. What started out as a stroll along the beach turned into swimming with our clothes on. The bus was already dripping with tomato juice, so a little lake water wasn't going to hurt anything. Really fun and refreshing. Of course, when I got back to the Hogar we were immediately overwhelmed with children who accused us all of peeing our pants. My response (the only logical response, really) to these accusations was to chase them all threatening to hug them.