We where very happy to be here for Paraguay's final showing at the World Cup. We thought about going over to our friends' church to see it (they were playing it on a big screen), but decided if Paraguay won it might be pretty hard to get back to our hotel. So, we went over to the Mall where there was a book fair and watched the first half there - they had several TV's set up so the employees could all watch. We watched the second half in the hotel lobby, where the employees again were all watching. I thought that Paraguay had a great game, and it would have been great to see the country after a win. Here's a little clip of what how much celebrating there was even after a loss!
That was after the Paraguayan/Spain game. Earlier in the day we heard lots of car horns and fireworks after Germany beat Argentina. I'm not sure if that was because there are so many Germans here cheering them on, or if the Paraguayans were happy to see Argentina defeated....During all of the games of the World Cup the streets were pretty much deserted (which is certainly not the case the rest of the time). It was great to be in Latin America during a World Cup year.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Why we're here
I realized after sending a massive e-mail out today that some of you may not have any idea why we are in Paraguay and others may still be wondering even if you had heard the news. Last September John started a new job with US-AID which is a US government relief and development organization that works in the "third" world (I don't think they actually use that term any more, but I'm not sure what the correct one is).
The process involved in getting to this first "post" was a long one. John actually applied for the job in November of 2008, not too long after we arrived back in the US from Costa Rica. After a long interview process he was offered a position last summer and we moved to the DC area for him to go through training, including some more Spanish training. We found out last October that we would be coming to Paraguay but did not actually arrive until July 1st. In the meantime we enjoyed a year in the DC area while I continued to go back to WV with the girls once a month to play in the Symphony there.
Since this is his first post, we will be here for two years. Sometime during the second year he will bid on his next post, which will most likely be a longer post (as I understand it, usually four years). My role will evolve as we get settled here - at the moment I seem to have daily appointments just getting everything set up. Today it was the maintenance guy from the embassy who came to show me things like how to manually open the garage door when the power goes out and how to exchange the gas tank for the oven/stove when it runs out! Then the plumber came to fix a leaky faucet, adjust the temperature in a shower and fix a leaky shower. The house was really in good shape when we got here, but some of the things just needed to be tested out by the tenants (us!).
The process involved in getting to this first "post" was a long one. John actually applied for the job in November of 2008, not too long after we arrived back in the US from Costa Rica. After a long interview process he was offered a position last summer and we moved to the DC area for him to go through training, including some more Spanish training. We found out last October that we would be coming to Paraguay but did not actually arrive until July 1st. In the meantime we enjoyed a year in the DC area while I continued to go back to WV with the girls once a month to play in the Symphony there.
Since this is his first post, we will be here for two years. Sometime during the second year he will bid on his next post, which will most likely be a longer post (as I understand it, usually four years). My role will evolve as we get settled here - at the moment I seem to have daily appointments just getting everything set up. Today it was the maintenance guy from the embassy who came to show me things like how to manually open the garage door when the power goes out and how to exchange the gas tank for the oven/stove when it runs out! Then the plumber came to fix a leaky faucet, adjust the temperature in a shower and fix a leaky shower. The house was really in good shape when we got here, but some of the things just needed to be tested out by the tenants (us!).
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
New Home!
We got into our new house last Friday! There have been an amazing amount of little things that need to be taken care of, so we are still getting settled. Here's an example: Today I came back in from an errand and found that one of the door handles to the house wouldn't open. I went outside and then the girls couldn't get the keys to the porch door to work! Fortunately the embassy sent someone over this afternoon to fix it. While he was out getting a part fixed, the door handle in our bedroom fell off! I think that they were in a hurry to get the house ready for us last week.
We are still working on getting the internet set up, so it will be a while before I can post some other details of our move, but I hope to soon!
We are still working on getting the internet set up, so it will be a while before I can post some other details of our move, but I hope to soon!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
New Blog
Many of you who knew us when we lived in Costa Rica asked if I'd be doing another blog to record our experiences on this new adventure in our lives, and here it is! I hope I'll be able to keep it up to date during our two years here. Please feel free to make comments - it encourages me when I know people are reading:). I also imported our old blog here so that you can read our overseas history if you'd like to.
We arrived in Paraguay on Thursday, July 1st after a long, but happily uneventful trip. So far, our impressions of Paraguay have been incredibly favorable. It helps that we have experienced some of the most beautiful weather that the country has - low 80's, sunny and low humidity. Today is the first cloudy day (but still pleasant!).
It also helps that we have friends here - the Sappia family whom we met in Costa Rica - who graciously invited us over to dinner our first night here even though they had just gotten back (with their 4 kids) from vacation a couple of hours earlier. Other people from the US community have been welcoming and helpful as well.
Our house is not ready for us yet, so we have been staying in a lovely hotel. For me, this is a helpful transition because I don't have to cook! But we have seen our house and at least the grown ups are VERY happy with it. So we look forward to moving in - hopefully in a couple of days. Until then, we are having a sort of mini-vacation while trying to learn our way around, getting some tasks taken care of (Abigail needs new glasses), and getting our Spanish back in shape.
We arrived in Paraguay on Thursday, July 1st after a long, but happily uneventful trip. So far, our impressions of Paraguay have been incredibly favorable. It helps that we have experienced some of the most beautiful weather that the country has - low 80's, sunny and low humidity. Today is the first cloudy day (but still pleasant!).
It also helps that we have friends here - the Sappia family whom we met in Costa Rica - who graciously invited us over to dinner our first night here even though they had just gotten back (with their 4 kids) from vacation a couple of hours earlier. Other people from the US community have been welcoming and helpful as well.
Our house is not ready for us yet, so we have been staying in a lovely hotel. For me, this is a helpful transition because I don't have to cook! But we have seen our house and at least the grown ups are VERY happy with it. So we look forward to moving in - hopefully in a couple of days. Until then, we are having a sort of mini-vacation while trying to learn our way around, getting some tasks taken care of (Abigail needs new glasses), and getting our Spanish back in shape.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Post log #3 Culture Day - El Turno
Every semester the Spanish Language Institute holds a Culture Day for the adult students in place of going to classes. While we enjoyed them all – it was nice to have a break from classes and learn more about the culture – I think the last one we had was our favorite. Our teachers worked hard planning the day so that we could experience what is known as a “Turno”. These are carnival like festivals that are held in towns throughout Costa Rica. You can read more about the history at this link http://www.interculturacostarica.com/news/articles/mascarada.php.
For the first part of the day we played various carnival type games including Bingo, Ring Toss and Dart Throws. Then we had a guest speaker who makes the masks used in a Turno. The most fun was that after his talk on how they are made, a group of Ticos arrived dressed in the masks and playing instruments. They paraded through the school and down to Sojourn Academy where our kids went to school. It was an awesome experience and I'm going to try to post a video on YouTube so you can see for yourselves what it was like. (Anyone who has experience with that can send your advice - so far I've struck out on how to do it!
More photos at our shutterfly website: http://lafamiliamacy.shutterfly.com/
Friday, November 21, 2008
Post Log #2 Tortuguero, Las Palmas
When we were at ILE there were opportunities to take trips to various places around the country to see the sights. Since we had spent a total of 4 weeks vacationing in Costa Rica, we had seen many of the main sights that were close to San Jose. There were, however, a couple of things farther afield that we really wanted to do. One was to go see the turtles!! Their nesting season didn’t coincide with our previous vacations, so when the opportunity arose to take an excursion to see them last October, we decided to splurge.
There are no roads to Tortuguero, where the main turtle work happens in Costa Rica. So, after a microbus ride, we unloaded and got into a boat to take the canals up the coast. There was a lot of wildlife on the trip, so that was a big part of the excursion. We arrived late in the day to the resort (formerly an ecolodge, so take the word resort loosely!), and our guides told us that the trip to the beach to see the hatchlings would be delayed a bit because it was raining. We went to get hot cocoa, asking them to come get us when it was time to go. Well, somehow we didn’t get that communicated, and they went to the beach and saw many hatchlings making their way from their nests to the ocean while we enjoyed our hot cocoa and coffee! Fortunately, when we did go to the beach, we managed to find a nest that had a few stragglers still finding their way to the beach.
The next part of the tour was to go watch a mother make a nest. Around 9 pm we got in the boat to go up to another part of the beach. When we arrived, the guide told us we had to wait at the airstrip, while they went to find a mother. We waited and waited, and had to move under the cover of the small building of the airstrip when it started to rain. Abigail fell asleep on me on the concrete, and finally after about an hour and a half of waiting, the guide told us that we were going back. It was late in the season for laying eggs, and we just weren’t going to see that.
The next morning we were awakened early to the sound of howler monkeys. We headed out to the beach at dawn, hoping to see a mother finishing up, but we did not. We did, however, see the mother’s tracks, which were pretty cool themselves (as seen in photo above). After breakfast we took another tour of the rivers, and saw a lot of wildlife – including sloths, crocs, howler monkeys, a jesus christ lizard and a poison dart frog. We stopped at the town of Tortugera and the headquarters for the turtle preservation organization before making the long trek back to San Jose. It was an exhausting, but rewarding weekend.
The next morning we were awakened early to the sound of howler monkeys. We headed out to the beach at dawn, hoping to see a mother finishing up, but we did not. We did, however, see the mother’s tracks, which were pretty cool themselves (as seen in photo above). After breakfast we took another tour of the rivers, and saw a lot of wildlife – including sloths, crocs, howler monkeys, a jesus christ lizard and a poison dart frog. We stopped at the town of Tortugera and the headquarters for the turtle preservation organization before making the long trek back to San Jose. It was an exhausting, but rewarding weekend.
One other trip that I had always wanted to make was to the beaches of the Caribbean. So, once again, when we had the chance to go on a school trip in April to see that part of Costa Rica, we jumped at it. The last part of the trip is on unpaved road, but the weekend was spent relaxing at the beach, so it was quite nice. One of the great things about the school trips was that the girls had friends to play with while we were away. Abigail actually went on a different microbus than we did, so she could ride with one of her friends! John and I got to enjoy sitting on the beach chatting while the girls were happily playing.
In the end, I think we all decided that we liked the beaches on the Pacific Coast better, but it was a really enjoyable weekend, and I was glad to get to fulfill that dream as part of our year in Costa Rica. The only bad part about the weekend was that we got a bit too much sun even though we tried to stay off the beach during the middle of the day, and use a lot of sunscreen.
As usual, more photos at http://lafamiliamacy.shutterfly.com/
Post log #1 - Visits from Eversons, Cideciyans, Macys
Besides the visit from the Fettigs last November, we had three other really great sets of visitors while we were in Costa Rica. The first was our good friends the Eversons (Lori, Terry and their son Peter) in February. We were thrilled to hear that Terry had been invited to conduct the brass section of the National Symphony and that they decided to make a family trip of it, since his hotel was paid for by the symphony. We were able to have them over for dinner once, meet them for dinner in San Jose once, and spent the day on Saturday seeing Volcan Poas (which we were able to see – it doesn’t always happen) and La Paz Waterfall Gardens, where there is a lot of Costa Rican wildlife and some beautiful waterfalls. The week was crowned by Terry conducting the brass at the National Theater and included a solo (trumpet) performance by Terry. It was great to hear him play again (I think the last time was at our wedding). An added bonus was that our kids had a GREAT time together.
Our next set of visitors was my sister Lisa and her family, during Semana Santa (Holy Week). We went to a beach which we had visited on one of our vacations. It was in a great little town called Samara, where you can walk to the restaurants and the beach. It also has calm surf (which is rare in Costa Rica), so we were able to enjoy the water with our kids. We headed back to San Jose on Easter, and I took the day off from school on Monday, so I could go back to La Paz Waterfall with them. The kids didn’t like the LONG trip to the beach (about 4 hours), but they didn’t complain much and otherwise had a great time.
Our last visitors were John’s parents, who came to see us very soon after they arrived back from almost a year in Ireland. We were delighted that they were willing and able to make the trip to come see us. We spent our time in the Central Valley, but John’s parents rented a car (for John to drive), so we were able to see some attractions that we never had seen even though they weren’t far away. One was the town of Sarchi, where they make the traditional Ox Carts. Another was Volcan Arenal, which we went to see on a Sunday afternoon in the rainy season, and had a spectacular view. (It is not usually clear enough to see it in the afternoon during the dry season, so needless to say I was pretty excited). We also went to tour a wood factory (that produces most of the wood products that are sold as souvenirs), which John and I had seen on school field trips, but the kids had not, so we all enjoyed that.
Thank you all of you who were able to visit and make our year even more special!
Photos here:http://lafamiliamacy.shutterfly.com/
Our next set of visitors was my sister Lisa and her family, during Semana Santa (Holy Week). We went to a beach which we had visited on one of our vacations. It was in a great little town called Samara, where you can walk to the restaurants and the beach. It also has calm surf (which is rare in Costa Rica), so we were able to enjoy the water with our kids. We headed back to San Jose on Easter, and I took the day off from school on Monday, so I could go back to La Paz Waterfall with them. The kids didn’t like the LONG trip to the beach (about 4 hours), but they didn’t complain much and otherwise had a great time.
Our last visitors were John’s parents, who came to see us very soon after they arrived back from almost a year in Ireland. We were delighted that they were willing and able to make the trip to come see us. We spent our time in the Central Valley, but John’s parents rented a car (for John to drive), so we were able to see some attractions that we never had seen even though they weren’t far away. One was the town of Sarchi, where they make the traditional Ox Carts. Another was Volcan Arenal, which we went to see on a Sunday afternoon in the rainy season, and had a spectacular view. (It is not usually clear enough to see it in the afternoon during the dry season, so needless to say I was pretty excited). We also went to tour a wood factory (that produces most of the wood products that are sold as souvenirs), which John and I had seen on school field trips, but the kids had not, so we all enjoyed that.
Thank you all of you who were able to visit and make our year even more special!
Photos here:http://lafamiliamacy.shutterfly.com/
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