Drumroll, please
Tacuati. Population around 2,500 in the pueblo and a few thousand more in the surrounding campo. Located in the northern part of the Department of San Pedro. Forty kilometers from Horqueta, 80km east of Concepcion, more or less ten hours from Asuncion. Another Peace Corps volunteer in town, a woman working in elementary education, and still others in communities ringing Horqueta. Electricity and running water. Spotty cellphone service. Dirt roads. Noncommercial Internet access. Neither the most nor the least developed site available. A follow-up assignment, building on the work started by previous volunteers. A new but hardworking co-op. They grow cotton, soy, and sesame up there.
I’m pleased. Can’t hardly wait to meet the people I’ll be working with and get a first-hand look at the place.
Pictured above is the Temple of San Buenaventura in Yaguaron, or at least a small part of the artwork. The whole thing is vast, grand, and ill-suited to depiction in snapshots. It was built for the Franciscans two and a half centuries ago, and excepting some gold leaf on the Bernini facsimile altar, is decorated entirely with plant dyes fabricated by the indigenous Guarani people.
It ties in nicely with today’s Guaraní word, which is porã. The closest dictionary equivalent in English would be lovely - it can apply to visual appeal or to less tangible kinds of goodness. However, porã lacks the fussy and effeminate connotation that’s been attached to lovely over the years.
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:43 pm
Hey, Sweetie. Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written. I have thoroughly enjoyed your last few entries, however, and must say again how impressed and proud I am. I’ve quit work for good now and am so loving being ‘mom’ again…to the neighbors, whoever needs one! It’s my element. Napping, cooking and shopping, etc. ain’t bad, either! SO…I’ll have more time to keep in touch. We’ll go out on the boat tomorrow, I hope. It’s been at least a month since the weather and hormones have cooperated. Summer is flying and we haven’t spent the night on the lake even once. Have some ribs and fixins ready with crossed fingers for this weekend, though. How weird to think you’re living in WINTER. We’ve had some massive landscaping done this week on our side yard and have enjoyed sitting out and looking at it tonight (cooking a little steak, of course.) I’m trading babysitting for a neighbor’s little ones ( 3 under 5 years old) for her professional horticulture skills and ideas in planning our water feature. That’s our next big project. Bed beckons now, though. Pups and kitties are already tucked in and with Charles’ commute, he just can’t make it past 11 pm. Keep up the wonderful blog. You’re just spectacular!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love you. Lynne