Not long ago, Mac asked me if I drink terere or mate. Do I?! I have been called a terere fanatic. I drink terere every day, for much of the day, and on cooler mornings I drink mate before the day warms and I prepare my guampa and termo for terere.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been taking daily classes to learn Castillano. I have learned a lot, but not only about a language. I’ve also learned and shared a great deal about the history and culture of Paraguay. Terere is a very important cultural ritual here in Paraguay. During all of my lessons, Carlos and I share terere while we
I love this stuff!
talk and work– while we share languages and cultures. A while back I asked Carlos to assist me in making a video so that I could explain and share this part of Paraguayan culture that I’ve fallen in love with.
Grateful Termo & Guampa
Rather than simply demonstrating how to make terere or presenting some encyclopedia style explanation, we decided to have some fun. In the video Carlos speaks using his 3rd language, English, and I use my second, Español. My vocabulary is basic enough that you should be able to understand the gist of things. In many ways this video is a culmination of 8 months living here in Paraguay. It is about my adaptation to this foreign place and my efforts to integrate and appreciate.
The video is about 15 minutes long so sit back and relax. Enjoy the friendship, the terere, and the language development process!
No, we’re not pregnant again! Concepción (HERE to find it on a map) is a town in the north of Paraguay where we recently spent the weekend.
Our trip actually began about a week before we left. My profe, Carlos, had invited Katherine and I to accompany him and his novia (girlfriend) on their weekend trip to Concepción. We were up for a change of scenery and so agreed. The first step was for Carlos and I to get our bus tickets. For that we had to drive into Asuncion to the bus terminal. No problem. Our bus was to leave the terminal at 11:15 pm on Friday night, and it would arrive around 5 am in Concepción. We hopped Ofelia would like this plan and sleep through the trip.
On Friday night we woke Ofelia around 8:30 pm (she goes to sleep around 6!) then we walked 20min into Luque to catch the micro that would take us to the terminal in Asuncion. We had to be waiting for that bus early because there is no schedule and later at night it may only come every hour– but you don’t really know because there is no available schedule. We got lucky and only waited for about 20 minutes before our micro came. Then it was a loud 40 minute ride to the terminal. Once at the terminal we quickly found our friends and commenced to waiting. After about an hour our bus arrived at the terminal and soon we were able to board.
The long-distance buses are like tour buses you might see in the states. The passenger compartment windows are curtained and there is a wall between driver and passengers. The result is that you see very little as you ride, except for what you can see from your own window or that of a neighbor passenger. Our night ride quickly left the bustle of Asuncion and began the long journey through thinly-populated Chaco land. We occasionally woke when the bus would veer and bound over the road. It was apparent that parts of this road were “unimproved” but it didn’t seem to slow our driver, neither did the passing of cattle trucks on this narrow two-lane path.
At about 4 am we arrived in Concepción. Carlos agreed to help us find our hotel, Hotel Francés, at this early hour. We set off walking across the large and empty double avenue which had zero traffic and a median populated with some statues and some old machinery (this kind of street decoration is not as common here as it is in the states). As we passed a truck (on display in the median) from the ’30’s or ’40’s, I glanced in and saw that someone was using the front seat as a bed. Twenty minutes of walking through the empty streets, only meeting a few youngsters heading home after a full night of partying, we arrived at our hotel, bid Carlos good night, good morning, and headed for sleep.
We enjoyed a relaxing weekend of just walking around this clean and safe, and quiet city. There are no micros in Concepción so the air is much cleaner and quieter. Also they keep streets very clean and seem to have unusually well maintained streets and buildings– quite a contrast to most other towns we’ve seen here. Another difference is that motos far outnumber cars, it must be like 20 to 1, no joke. And I only counted about 5 helmets all weekend! Concepción has a beautiful river, Rio Paraguay, running past and affords great views and breezes near it’s banks.
On Sunday we headed out to the double avenue to catch our return bus. At the bus stop we shared a shaded bench with a scruffy fellow who seemed to be drinking his terere (tea like beverage) with Caña (alcohol made from sugar cane) instead of water! As we waited for the bus I looked around and saw the antique truck in the median. Then our friend, having exhausted his caña, stretched out on the bench for an early siesta. It was then that I realized I had seen him before– curled up in the truck two nights ago! Small world there in Concepción.
Prior to this trip I had reflected that things here in Paraguay don’t seem to be as crazy or adventurous as they once did. And I didn’t really feel like our journey to Concepción was all that adventurous— but I think that we would have had a different experience of things several months back when all of this was so new. It is comforting for us both to see and feel our continuing adaptation to Paraguayan culture. We have learned, and continue to learn, a great deal about accepting and dealing with whatever comes at us and not wasting time and energy on complaining or wanting things to be different. We value these lessons.
Here are some pics from our trip. Mouse over the image and click on images to make them bigger, and use arrow keys to navigate between them. You can also right-click and select full-screen to see a larger version of it all. Enjoy!
Thanks for joining us in our Process. We're back from the beyond and settling into Cleveland, 2 PhD efforts, a new house, and 1.5 children-- no boredom here! Our foreign adventure has passed but "domestic" adventures are emerging. Stay tuned for anecdotes and updates.
Trust the Process.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d9c18b24-9ead-467b-b83d-9aea65ea8b9c)
