Diary

hola como estas?! 
my first inscription to my diary since I landed in paraguay, asuncion.
I arrived on friday afternoon in ascuncion, where we were picked up by AFS to an reservoir. we got welcomed by some volunteers, working for AFS and got informations how to act conform in paraguay. on saturday morning we got picked up by our guestfamily.
my guestfamily is very nice to me. they got 3 daughters and one  15 year old son. the 2 big daughters are married already, the youngest one visited germany last year and can speak german.
she helps me a lot.
they also got a dog, called sascha, but it is a woman...very confusing for me.
the weather is hot, arround 35 degrees and the fruits are yummy. I already got a sunburn, because I did not have had suncream and I overestimated myself, thinking the sun can not break me.
but I am okay. 
so these are my first informations for you, i hope you will enjoy it and follow my blog. we hear us soon, so 
hasta luego mi compañeros
los quiero mucho 




Hola otra vez.
I will feed you with new stuff after you did`nt heard anything about me for a long time.
My family is still kind to me. The oldest sister, named Carina is going to marry on 10 of April. I`m excited, my first transcultural wedding experience. See how they are celebrating their wedding.
My spanish is grown a lot.  i can understand almost everything what the people are saying but  it is hard to understand, they are talking a mix of Castellano and Guarani, the leanguage of the Indios in Paraguay. They are raising up bilingual. Even in school they`ve got to solve an exam of Guarani. It is hard, but I like it. They are keeping a relationship to their past and keeping a tradition alive. 
The weather is`nt as hot as in the beginning. The autumn has come. As in Germany the time is +1 hour now. So we have 6 hours difference between Southamerica and Europe.
I am working in a children`s home, named Hogar San Vincente De Paul. It is near by the center of Asuncion and as I heard a barrio peligrosso ( not safe neighborhood), but nothing happend at least now. My worktime is similar to the german. I am working from Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., sometimes on saturdays, too, because of activities. I had not work on saturday till now.
The childs are from 4 years to 15 years old . My childredn`s home is only for boys.
When I am starting my work some of the childs are in the classroom,  learning, preparing themselfes for school. Because one part of the childrens are going to school in the morning and the other ones in the afternoon. They are learning till 11 a.m. then they`ve got some time for themselves unto the lunch. I am learning as good as possible with them  or I`m learning vocabs by myself.
After lunch untill the othter are comming from school is time to play and get crazy. And when the others arrived it is the same procedure as in the morning. I can play or learn with the childs. 
They are very cute and kind. Always laughing and joking. It`s encouraging and vitalizing. 
We are playing football, watching TV, joking around, painting or doing other silly stuff to spent the time together. It is a very rotative and demanding work, but it`s fun. 
I got to travel 45 minutes to got to it, what is a real torture with the busses and streets here. The most horrible thing is when I finished my work, tired and still got to wait unto 1-2 hours for my bus in the sun. The busses here are driving as they want and do not have arrival or departure times. Where ever you are and you are waving youre hands the bus will stop in front of you.
My Family got a nice big garden with mango trees, lemon trees a tree with fruits called azerola, it looks like a small apple and tastes sour. 

I already visited some birthdays of relatives. It is totally different to german birthdays. The whole family is sitting in the garden, friends are coming and leaving and they do barbecue. Always and a great one. I have never have eaten a better one as here. So the whole birthday is about communicating and eating. Not to celebrate the birthday child as in europe.
The people are very friendly and picking me up in a warmly way. They are always interessted in where I am from and telling me where they already been in the world or in germany.
The terrifying thing about southamericans is that the do not have a common weatlh for nature. They even do not got correct bins, which could collect trash. It flews around everywhere in the city and everybody is throwing it on the streets. 

But still green. Asuncion is called the "greenest" capital in the world. And you will find palmtrees everywhere.

I do not have visited much till now, but I am willing to do that as soon as possible. My first trip beyond asuncion was this weekend. My family got a Farmhouse about 2 hours from Asuncion in the wilderness. It`s very pretty. They are cultivating trees, because the brother of my hostfather is a cabinetmaker. They`ve got all there. Chicken, dogs, pigs, palms of papaya (mamon called in paraguay), bananas, pampelmuse a footballground etc..., the only thing what would be necessary in the woods by 35 degrees plus is a lake.

Yesterday in the morning we went fishing, my 2nd time in life and I fished my first carp. We made a fishsoup. Yummy. 

In my free time I am sitting in the garden, drinking Terrere, the national drink of Paraguay, comparable to Coca-Cola in the west, eating fruits and playing guitar. Or I do some housework  cleaning the house, washing the dishes or my clothes.
I got some pets, too, as there are lizards, doughes and more.

So thats my first experiences and adventures much fun and we are going to hear us soon 
hot greetings from paraguay 



A little extra by the side. I visited my first wedding this weekend.
My host sister married. It was a great ceremony, they married on wednesday oficially and on friday in the church. Classic wedding music, classic clothed people and tears in the eyes of everyone.
After that we went to an banquet hall, where we were divided to tables. We got a meal and everything to drink we like to. Music was playing and the bride was dancing with her husband. We stayed in a row so that everyone could take a dance with the bride, only men and the women with the husband.
We tooked fotos and danced to latin music. The whole fiesta tooked untill 4 oclock. 
I was execited, now I experienced my first wedding in a paraguayan way.

Hei my dears I got news for you .
Till my last insc­pription nothing execiting happend. Working, playing guitar etc.
But last sunday my host-cousin and I went to the botanic garden of Asuncion.
It is impressive, it got about 400 hektars. Entry for free and you are away from the big city life stress, straight in a wonderworld of nature. It is in the center of Asuncion. A part of it is a Zoo.
In 188x the botanic garden was founded. (A german family hosted it a while and extended it). They are improving it everytime they got money for.
The entry for the Zoo costs 7000 Guaranies, which is about 1,30€. The first animal I saw was at least the biggest of all, an elephant. Imported from hamburg 40 years ago. Aimpressive animal.

My cousin is a volutary at the botanic garden, so he told me much about it and his work and the animals.
The 2^nd station was the most dangerous of it, Lions, Tigers and Pumas. Beautiful animals.
Before some years they just lifed in a cascet, which was not bigger than 2 per 3 meters. Pretty small for such big, wild animals. But now they got a big terretory where they could run around and feel a bit more comfortable.
Standing and wondering.

 

They have got many monkeys, funny animlas and really smart. One of my favorites. Alvaro told me, that they had to change the fences, because they were trying to escape. They unraveld the fencestitches.
4 or 5 Hippos are living there. Freaking big and impressive. Unthinkable that they are one of the most dangerous animals on the world. In africa more deaths are caused by hippos, than by lions...per year.

Beautiful, colorful parrots sang a song while we were walking through it. One tried to talk to me, but I think he just wanted to screw me becasue he was always saying the same ^^.
One of the most interesting stories about the botanic garden is, that there are boars, which were called dead, they were only known out of fossils. But they always were alive in the tropical Paragauy.
Many very rare examples of animals, like a tiger-cat, which looks lik a a mixture of a cat, an luchs and a tiger, some birds you only find in southamerica or paraguay.

Turtles everywhere I was looking.
I was suprised all the day and did not want to leave this place.

got u :D 

Hello my dears new stuff for you

last week i was traveling a bit through paraguay and made some great experiences id like to share with u.

On wednesday i tooked the bus to foz, brasil. My first station the waterfalls of iguazu.

You pay the entry and take a bus through the park. Its huge, you got some stations with extra acctivities you got to pay for like cycling through the park on a bycicle...

there are many sightpoints you can walk through with amazing views on the waterfalls.

I just was standing and impressed of the beautiness of nature. Its a feeling you cant desribe.

When you see them you feel like you would be nothing as a human beeing compared to this power of nature. I felt so happy and comfortable in this place. I didnt want to leave. I just was on the brasilian side of the waterfalls. Theyre splitted to a brasilian and a argentinian part. Id like to visit the argentinian part too once. They got more activities to do. like taking a ship straight under the waterfalls, pretty funny.

Its clear to me now why the cataratas of iguazu are one of the 7 nature worldwonders. You wont find a place like this twice with this beautyness and power.

I suggest anybody to visit this place once in your life if you got the opportunity to. You wont regret it.

                            

 

After coming back from the waterfalls i walked over the boarding to paraguay to ciudad del este. The city next to the brasilian border. Its the city with the most markets on the streets, its very popular for tourists and buying any kind of electronic stuff . But funny is that they re all closing at 3 or 4 pm cause they are to lazy to work till 7 pm haha.

I didnt stay long just for an couple of hours then i tooked the bus to encarnacion.a 6H travel, arrived there in the night.

I think encarnacion is one of the most beatuiful places in paraguay, very popular for tourists and clean. You got a beach on the rio paraguay and you are close to argentina. But for my best it was raining and nobody was on the streets cause its autumn right now in paraguay and the people here all are in their casas. I tried to enter into a club but they didnt let me in becasue i was wearing a hat, confusing when you cant enter a club with a hat but can smoke inside till it looks like it was burning.

But what to do paraguayan laws are that understandable like trying to give a blind men his sight back, just impossible.

The next day i went to the ruins of the jesuits which settled in paraguay, one of the sights near encarncion.

The jesuits settled in every corner of this world trying to mission the indigens to christianity, with succes, cause the most here are christians.

They lived together with the indigens here and were cultivating the land, teaching the way of christianity.  The jesuits are one of the kindest cults of christian sects you got to know and they didnt try to opress the non christian. they were living together in harmony..more or less.

I spent 2 days in encarnacion and went back to asuncion, my hometown.

On my trip i saw the onliest hills in whole paraguay i was suprised that there are even hills here cause i read that the highest hill here is like 600meters. The rest pampa.

the ghost of them are still alive^^

When i arived in my casa i got to know that im going to  change my guest family and now since last monday im in a new guestfam near to my old one.

On thursday the 14^th here in paraguay everyone was celebrating the day of indepedence from the spanish conquerors.

The whole city was crowded of people and fiestas everywhere you looked. People were selling typical food and selfmade jewellry. I met a guy from guatemala who is traveling around the world for more than 25 years selling his stuff. With him i drank some bear, talked and jammed guitar on the street. The people were standing looking and enjoying the spectacle, a black rasta chilling with a white guy jamming on the streets and spreading good mood. Some even tooked photos of us. Yeah start gettin a famous street musician haha.

It was a crazy and funny night, that much people celebrating.

I heared that paraguay was the only country in southamerica that got a peaceful revolution without a bloody war. And that in the 19^th century paraguay was much bigger then now. Much parts of bolivia and brasil belonged to paraguay.They were very developed for these days, they built the first train through south america.

But because the british kingdom wasnt that happy about the development in paraguay they incited brasil, uruguay and argentina to fight against paraguay.

two big wars were enumerated in the paraguayan history that changed a lot.

The  big war against brasil, argentina and uruguay, called the bloodiest war in the history of southamerica or la guerra de triple alianza. ¾ of the paraguayan population lost their life because of it and 50% of the landscape were taken away. And the other big war was against bolivia, called the chaco war.

 

paraguay before the war

southamerica nowadays

now my vacation ended and i got to go to work again.

Enjoy it and hear us soon

greetings from paraguay

yours

stefan

Hei my dears got some news
since the last inscription nothing spectular happend.
For 3 weeks im living with my new guestfamily. Its near to my old casa. I got an older brother, nice guy he has had a band before and was the lead singer. a sister, but right now she is in canada till september. my father is a typicall paraguayan.
Just imagine him as a typical german, but paraguayan. He is into football, talks very loud and guarani as well as he likes beer. Sometimes im playing on the guitar with him.
My mother is very kind, she went to germany in the 90s, traveled and learned there. She is a teacher in a technicall universitiy here and went to germany with a stipendium.
My casa isnt that impressing and big as the first one but i like it. Im living like a gringo(american)
its an onefloored house and it looks like the paperhouses in the us.
Right now its autumn in paraguay and you can feel that. Even it has 20 degrees or more youre freezing. It is raining much more and sometimes the rain gets through the roof into the house.
But thats paraguay the houses here arent consctructed for that much rain.
My spanish is increasing day by day and i am learning guarani with the childs in my work.
It sounds great and there are some phrases you do not have in spanish but theyre just necessary for talking, to understand.

As mbae teko-how is it going, or mbae chapa-como estas...
it is a nasal language, pretty hard but possible.
I am very creative and practicing on my guitar skills. I am  gettin better day by day...rockn roll will never die! Also i published a new blog with art made by myself youre all welcome to visit, share and get inspired.
So thats all for now. Love to all and enjoy.
http://artyourselfcommunity.blogspot.com/p/mainpage_1.html
See you soon.
Hasta la proxima

steffler




Hello my dears did not heard us for a looong time now. I got many things to tell and to share with you.

I start with the visit of the pope at the 11 and 12 of july.
It was a chaos! Everybody was euphoric, streets were fixed( thankfully) , flags of the vatikan roofed the houses and military stationed in every corner…any rockstar would like to have that much fans as the pope got in paraguay! At his arrival you could not leave, the streets were closed and that much people on the streets screaming, waving and trying to take a look at the pope that it was more safe and comfortable to stay in your house.
I never felt that much enthusiasm for a person as for him! But after he has gone nothing really changed and switched back to the old routine…kind of sad.


I can not belive it but half of the year passed already and we have had our midstay camp in a hotel here in asuncion, where we talked about our projects, families and experiences till now.

We also made a day trip with a guide to the most popular and nearest cities around asucnion.

Our first destination was luque. luque is called the city of music, handcraft and gold refinery.
It was and is a very important city. 1868 luque was the capital of Paraguay, during the war the people moved over there to rescue themselves.
You will find here a lots of jewelers and gold as silver for lower prices as usually. When the people moved to luque they burrowed their jewelry that it can not be found by the invaders.
Besides the many jewelers you will get to see many harp- and guitar factories. Luque represents guitars and harps in whole of Paraguay and even in the world.

Nowadays it got about 300.000 inhabitants, without any possibility to dance. It does not got any kind of disco or bars, so the people are just collecting themselves on the street on the weekends and partying there. It is still an important city, because of its airport and the hotel of the southamerican football confederation.


There is a lake near asuncion called ypacarai, what means the blue lake…sadly you can not call him blue anymore. He is more green than blue, because factories used him for years as a departure for their toxic rubbish. It is said that the water will be refreshed and can be used in ten years, if nobody throws anything ,from now on into the lake anymore. 

toxic algaes

On the one side of the lake you got the wonderful city called argeua, which is popular for its strawberries. Right now you got the strawberry season here and you can buy any stuff made out of strawberries, such as marmalade, juice, cakes or alcoholic liquors…
You can call Aregua “the black colony”, because it was the first city which received blacks where they could life free. You can not really believe it, because almost there aren’t blacks in Paraguay.
After the visit in aregua we went to san bernadino, the city of the other side of the lake.

 

a national park near aregua, i forgot the name...with volcanic rocks ( slate)

In san bernadino we have taken a little self made fairy and enjoyed a ride over the lake. The amazing thing about this was that the water on this side of the lake was not green anymore, as in aregua, but sadly still contaminated. San bernadino has a lot of german bakerys, with the reason that san bernadino was the first colony of german settlers in Paraguay. You get to see many hotels with german names or restaurants called beer garden or something like this there.

At the 15 of august everybody was celebrating the 478^th birthday of asuncion. The streets were crowded and full of life. There was a movement that big that you could reach to the other side of the street without doing a step. Music, live-bands everywhere and a good mood.
But the fiesta still has not finished, on Saturday the 16 of august everybody was celebrating the “dia del niño”- the day of the child here in Paraguay.
It is not an international holiday, it is a national one with the reason that in this war of the triple alianza were killed almost all men’s and kids.
So this day in Paraguay is specially celebrated as a tribute, beside the international day of child. you have got special games made for the kids and you can see how they are carrying their parents into shopping malls to utilize fully the day.


On the 30 of august we, my family, me and my friends have made a farewell party, because I had to change my host family. 
Not because I am that naughty, just by the reason that I lived in the room of my host sister and she has returned on the 5th of September. We were sitting in the garden, eating, by the side my first time in life crocodile and it tastes like a mixture of fish and chicken, yummy drinking beer and talking. 
For the best of all my guest father has given us a life concert with romantic Spanish ballads and Paraguayan polkas. A great night that no one wanted to end , but sadly it was Sunday… 

my old guest mum, me and mandioka

And since the3rd of September I am living in a new family in the city of music, luque. i got a dog a parrot, really fun with him, a 17 year old brother, but his birthday is coming soon, who is practicing the motocross and a 15 old cousin, with whom I am sharing my room. Till now everybody is kind to me and I am looking forward that it will stay like this.
 

form left to right: my cousin, a friend of the family, my brother, father, personal advisor, me, mum, representant of luque

By the side I worked in a child home till now, not as my primary intention was, but what to do. for the next time. 
And I am going to change my project, too, because of some differences with the noun there. Really sad, I love the kids and they integrated me as one of them already…I do not know much about my new project till now, just that it is called aldea SOS, in which I am going to start working this week. Good luck to me :D and to anybody else ! 

 

  folklore day

 

                                         the kids and me :D



So that’s it I think it is enough stuff to read and to be well informed what happened the last few weeks in my life in Paraguay.
We are hearing us soon
Love kisses and rockn roll to anybody out there who needs it and is following my blog.

hello my dears ive been away from keyboard for a long time now. this is going to be my last inscription. im back in germany since january and i arrived pretty well.

i cant say that i am feeling lost or lonely here or had anything like a cultureshock. the only thing that shocked me was the winter on my arrival. from the hot tropical 45 degrees soutahamerican continet straight into the dark and wet cold winter up to -10 degrees celsius. i did not want to go out of the house for almost 1 month. 

so what happened since my last inscription till today?

as mentioned ive changed my guestfamily for the last time ( the 3rd one ). honestly it was horrible to live with them. my guest-mom was very special. she couldnt handle it that somebody is living in her house who is independent. who knows how to cook, to clean and to go out by himself. even if paraguay is very dangerous and you have to watch out where to go at which time. but fuck it i wasnt there to hide me in a house and getting to know paraguay in this way. i wanted to explore it by myself. you cant get in contact with people and a culture sitting scared at home. but yes that is the way of living of my guestfamily.  on the other side i have laughed much with my guest-father, he always told me paraguayan jokes. we also talked a lot about history. this guy is a living library, interesting man, sad situation. my brother was hard to handle. he doesnt went to school, or helped in the house and was doing what he wants to. The end of story was that they threwed me out of their house, mothers decision. 

one of the hardest thing for me were the hygienical conditions, the house was similar to one of a messi. and the other thing was that they couldnt accept a stranger was learning and speaking their former language...sometimes better than themselves. often they were laughing about my pronunciation and stuff like that. pretty ignorant and very frustrating. i was kept as the stranger.

i have changed my workplace too. away from the poor, christian childrens home to the rich, well organized ALDEA SOS childrens home. dimensions between these two instituitions. the ALDEA SOS childrens home is an european, better austrian inventory founded after the 2nd worldwar to give childrens without parents or hard circumstances a place to live and develop theirselves. it is a big area with huts on it. in every hut a family is living. 5-8 kids and an so called aunt. the kids are going to private schools and can practice any kind of hobbies they have or like. they are learning how to respect each other, how to solve problems, how do deal with hard pasts, like getting raped, violence etc. its great that there exists sth like ALDEA in a such poor country and is working. but sad at the same time that the paraguayans cant handle their own poor-generation-problems. it was very nice to work there. i was occupying myself with the little ones (from 3-6). we drawed pictures, did oregamies, laughed, played on the playground...with the older ones (14-17)  i did some sprots like body exercises. 

ive taken part in a movement called TECHO (roof), which are constructing houses of wood for poor families in whole paraguay, south america. a great experience. so many people participating. on this construcion in total we were about 700 people. all of them simpethatic and willing to change the situation in their homecountry. the construction was about 2 whole days (friday night arrival, saturday, sunday). we, the families and the volunteers cooked and ate together. you have seen the happiness in the eyes of the people. 

our group of techo participants

the finished house

                           

my team with fam.childs

an other thing ive done was to take part in a simulation. an airport-simulation, where the passengers had to play some roles, like being injured...the fireworkers and the airportsecurity had to rescue us in under xxx minutes. pretty funny.

my grade of injury throurh the simulation...crazy blooded

i can call me lucky. my guest-cousin ( of my 1st fam.) brought me to exotic places you do not see as a tourist. we went to a house of a friend of him in paraguari. next to this house there is a nationalpark.

On my last trip I went to Buenos aires, the capital of argentina. Huge city up to 10mil. Inhabitants. Buenos aires is the hometown of the tango. Theres an touristic area called la boca ( the mouth ) where tango dancers are dancing in the streets and you can find expostions. An other big attraction of Buenos aires is the graveyard. Yes the graveyard. These graves are worth it to be seen. Its very European. No comparison to Paraguay. In the 19^th and 20^th century many Italian people went to Buenos aires and you can feel and see that. Italian faces, architecture, pizza and coffee-shops and the Argentinian way of speaking. Its like an Italian speaking Spanish. Originally. Ive spent there about 9 days in a rock hostel in the center of b.a. the luck I had was that ive got a “cousin” in b.a. who invited me to a roof-top party. Good music, good mood, a pool and you have seen the skyline of b.a. huuuge. 

puerto madero

national library ( once an opera)

Thinking or shitting man 

sight of our hostel/plaza del congresso

the graveyard

The interesting thing in s.a. is that every country, except of brasil gots their own Spanish-slang. So you can hear where theyre from just by listening to their slangs. The Paraguayan slang is very hard. In its pronounciacion, way of talking and because the people are mixing guarani, their indigen language with Spanish. They like it to swallow vocals so that a simple word sounds that different and un-understandable. Honestly when somebody learned Spanish in Paraguay he can make it everywhere!

 

a map of how you call friend in the different countries

Laguna blanca, the so called sea of Paraguay was an other station on my trip through Paraguay. Very nice place far away from civilization in the middle of the jungle. Its hard to get there, far away, this area is politically very dangerous, means some org. are fighting against police and no streets. Until we arrived there the trip was exciting enough. It was raining. So straight through the mud with our excellent 4*4 wheeled car. We got stucked more than 4 times we had to push the car out of the mud and once we had to order help from citicens living around there to pull us with their trucks. It was fun. The beach there is almost white. The water transparent. Butterflies flying around everywhere. It’s the best place to relax and to be with yourself. We spent there a weekend. Not that much but at least ive seen one of the prettiest places in Paraguay.

A historical moment in my year abroad was the demonstarions of the pupils of the national university in Paraguay (UNA-universidad-nacional). The pupils were occupying the campus for 5 days. They fought for more rights and a fair treatment for all. Why. Because the system is that corrupt and was in the hand of one family that favoured only their family-members. Great feeling to see that. The same thing happened in Germany but many many years ago. So you can see now on which level of development Paraguay is.

What was good, what wasn’t.

Good was that I got to knew a culture in a special way, by living the culture. Because of the hostfamily program you as a participant have to integrate yourself in the way of living. You don’t just travel through the country like a tourist. You live there for a year. So you get many impressions of how live is going there, political situation…

what can i say more about paraguay and the people living there. theyre crazy, all of them and lucky, doesnt matter in which situations they are. just lucky. dirty, but green. they have got the best soil on earth. its red and the plants are growing that good n fast and with a passion ive never seen before. i ate the best fruits over there in my life and the best meat. ( the 2nd biggest meat exporter worldwide). All in all a great experience. 

a beer-transporter crashed...it explains it by it selfes

even bus drivers went to collect some beer

after a few minutes

Now to my org. AFS-intercultural experience e.V. in Germany theyre well organized. In your country where theyre sending you I cant say that. Because of my experience and of the others. The AFS XXX are independent of the AFS-Germany and that’s how its going there, chaotic. In my situation I had to change my guestfam. For 3 times, in other cases even more often. In this way you cant integrate yourself that good in the family and cant feel comfortable. You just felt well in the one fam. And you have to move to the next one and start the whole thing from beginning. 

I wouldn’t do this a 2^nd time with an organization, neither with AFS. The next time ill go abroad ill do it by myself. That’s clear to me now. But except for the chaos with AFS it was wort it.

So I hope youll have fun with this and don’t be that mad with me because I didn’t wrote for a long time. 

I love you all and thanks for all support! 

Were going to hear us when my next journey is coming.

Hasta la proxima!