Tag Archives: Daily Life

Cursed Ants (aka la Hormiga)

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ant hillRed ants, black ants, brown ants

Small ants, medium ants, big ants

Crawling ants, flying ants, cutting ants

We have them all in Paraguay and they all bite.

You can find them in the grass

You can find them on the patio, on the chair, and probably in my hair

You can find them everywhere

Red ants, black ants, brown ants

Small ants, medium ants, big ants

Crawling ants, flying ants, cutting ants

We have them all in Paraguay and they all bite.

Ants make hills and ants make mounds

Despite their numbers, ants don’t make sounds

But marching and creeping they do alarm

Red ants, black ants, brown ants

Small ants, medium ants, big ants

Crawling ants, flying ants, cutting ants

We have them all in Paraguay and they all bite.

Ants bite hard and leave welts

Red and swollen humps and bumps

Ants can definitely give you the slumps

Red ants, black ants, brown ants

Small ants, medium ants, big ants

Crawling ants, flying ants, cutting ants

We have them all in Paraguay and they all bite.

Never have I seen so many ants

I like them least when they crawl up and down my pants

Cursed ants, darned hormiga

Red ants, black ants, brown ants

Small ants, medium ants, big ants

Crawling ants, flying ants, cutting ants

We have them all in Paraguay and they all bite.

We Built a Fogone

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A fogone is a wood-burning cook stove. It is made out of brinks and mud/cement.

In rural areas of Paraguay some families still cook all their meals over open fires. Oftentimes these fires are under a roof or inside the house. While cooking over an open fire is just fine while you are camping, it can negatively impact health if used for all meals throughout a lifetime.

Negative effects of open-fire cooking as a part of daily life:

  • Back problems caused by having to bend over to cook
  • Increased risk of upper respiratory infections due to breathing smoke
  • Burns, a bigger risk for children playing by fires

A fogone offers an economical solution for families that use wood to cook. Gas is expensive and many traditional Paraguayan foods require a lot of time to cook. Wood is generally inexpensive and can be an environmentally friendly, sustainable option if the wood is harvested correctly.

Building the first couple layers of the fogone.

Building the first couple layers of the fogone.

First two layers of the fogone.

First two layers of the fogone.

Backside of the fogone.

Backside of the fogone.

Frontside of the fogone.

Frontside of the fogone.

Checking out the done fogone - photo courtesy of Kelsey Levering

Checking out the done fogone – photo courtesy of Kelsey Levering

The fogone is done! - photo courtesy of Kelsey Levering

The fogone is done! – photo courtesy of Kelsey Levering

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Dirt

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Fork in the road

When I was younger my family went on vacation to Prince Edward Island, the island of Anne of Green Gables. Much like Anne’s hair, Prince Edward Island has red beaches and red dirt.

Paraguay has red dirt too. I find myself thinking of Anne of Green Gables from time-to-time–not only because of the dirt, but because the ox carts and horse carts that plod along my community’s roads and hand washing my clothes remind me of a time past.

They say in the Paraguay campo (the countryside or rural areas) the red mud is worse. It can be hard to get out of your clothes and shoes. Volunteers in the campo suggest soaking red-mud stained clothes overnight to cut down on clothes scrubbing time.

When it rains even the paved and cobbles streets are flooded with red-water rivers and puddles. Most of the Paraguayan dirt I’ve seen is fine sand. The sand gets everywhere—it crunches on the tile floors in my house, tracked in on our sandals, and creates a light film that covers walls and windows.