Mosquitos, Lizards, and Ants, Oh My!

Ahhh, it seems we have left our humid, 100+ degree days behind with summer. Fall has brought with it gloriously cool days with much more rain this year, than the last. Seems strange that we have been here in Paraguay long enough to compare seasons from one year to the next….. The change in “época” prompted me to reflect on the past three months…

The “cigarras,” or three inch long cicadas, with their high pitched buzz, announced that the watermelons were ripe. Our neighbors explained that this was a sure sign that summer was here, (the sweat dripping down our backs was a sure sign for us!).

Throughout the campo, you repeatedly heard the phrase, “Haku la mymbrui!” or How hot it is! This phrase prompted finding a spot in the shade under a big tree, sharing mass quantities of terere, and catching up on the local gossip. The days were long, slow, and tranquilo.

Remember the movie, “The Birds”, by Alfred Hitchcock? If he were still alive, I’m sure Mr. Hitchcock would have considered a sequel, entitled, “The Mosquitos”, had he visited Arazape. In the evenings we retreated, early, to the safety of our mosquito net. The loud, incessant buzz from the blood hungry swarms does indeed bring to mind a horror flick of major proportions!

Mark planted and harvested his first peanut crop. We learned how to roast the fresh peanuts and they were delicious! Since we rarely eat meat, except for special occasions, peanuts are eaten every day as one of our protein sources.

And then there were the ants- tiny; huge; Colorados- inflicting adrenalin pumping stings; leaf cutters- capable of carrying loads 5X their size; and all of them seeming to find their way to our bodies, leaving bites in EVERY location you can imagine. The bite or stings leave a red bump that fills with liquid, erupts, then leaves a small hole which scabs over and itches for about a week. Sorry for the gory details, just one of the realities of living in the Paraguayan campo.

I tutored two students, preparing for first grade. Lorenzo took off with his reading of “predictable text”. Johanna made good progress with her fine motor development and was gaining better control of the pencil with her higher functioning hand.

Two new pets adopted us. One, a three foot long lizard, or Argentine Black and White Tegu, became a regular in our yard. Our neighbors had definite ideas about his fate- they shared that he would eat our chickens and therefore needed to be killed. We also found out that Tegu is a delicious delicacy among the locals. Being the good environmental volunteer that I am, our Tegu was assured a safe home with us, with our neighbors checking their machetes at the gate!

 

Our other mascota is a Rufous-collared sparrow; we dubbed “Rufi.”Every day he sits on our window sill, waiting for the opportunity to enter our house. Some days he just sits there and watches us, like he’s visiting the "human zoo.”

Now, with fall upon us, we are back in full swing with work in the schools, agricultural committees, and planting our garden. Surely topics for future blog posts- stay tuned!