Getting settled
Sorry for the long delay. So far I’ve been unable to make an in-town Internet connection, which means I only get online when I dedicate the day to getting into Horqueta, the nearest town with an Internet café. Hopefully the situation will be ameliorated here shortly, but meanwhile this is the best I’ve got. I have been received your text messages, Bill and Katie, and they’ve been great day brighteners. Also, Katie, the copy of Vogue was a smash hit with Paraguayans and other volunteers alike.
Life is finally starting to normalize a bit. My first two weeks in Tacuati were stressful. My house was only half finished and I was three-quarters moved in. The yard was crawling with workers putting in the new fence and my kitchen was consumed with preparing lunch for ten every day.
The living is definitely better with the fencing moved out of my breezeway, a fridge brought in, my gas tank connected, a door to which I have the key, a light bulb in the bathroom, and my hammock set up in a nice shady spot.
Likewise, the coop is on the road to recovery. My predecessor in town terminated her service early, leaving a gap of almost a year without guidance. In the meantime, the paperwork was neglected. So when I came, it was apparently clean slate time. All the ledgers and loan applications were sacked up and carted to a new office, the only paid employee went her separate way, and a replacement fresh out school was hired.
I spent my first week here waiting for the stars to align for the move, and the second week unsacking and reorganizing financial records. So it’s been at least two weeks since we’ve been able to transact any business. But at least now I’ve got a feel for the state of the co-op´s record keeping. My job is going to be reinstating the practice of writing out receipts and calculating interest, and teaching the movers and shakers some skills in accounting and computer operation.
The Guaraní word of the day is ama, meaning rain. My first night in my new house coincided with the first rain Tacuatí had had since May. Since then we’ve reverted to a more parched state, but I’ll take it as a promising sign that the drought broke with me.
Bonus note!! If you want to get technical about it, Tacuatí is supposed to be a nasal word with a tilde over the final i. However, as a practical matter, modern computer systems don’t recognize that character without getting into special font sets. I’m not going to inflict that on you. The popular alternative is to use a standard accent mark over the i. Since all Guaraní words are accented on the final syllable anyway, the mark usually goes without saying and its presence implies that something more is afoot.