Gracias a todos
I do have a lot to be thankful for. Certainly I’m thankful for all of you being in touch by e-mail and snail mail alike. Or just reading and wishing me well. I’m living a pretty good approximation of the high life out here, doing good work, enjoying some adventures, and I’ve got more to look forward too when I finish my service.
In the meantime, I’m really looking forward to this trip. By volunteer standards, I haven’t been doing much traveling. Also, I haven’t been doing a whole bunch of sleeping since I sighted a few rats brazenly moving through my bedroom. So a couple of nights in a hotel should do me some good.
The Guaraní word of the day should mean “thanks”, but Guaraní as it’s presently spoken doesn’t much have its own term. The Spanish word is used much more frequently, albeit modified to “gracia” or “graciamante” to accommodate the Guaraní speaker’s accent.
The word of the day, then, is jopara, meaning mixture. The vast majority of conversations in this country take place in a jopara of the two principle languages, heavier on the Spanish in big cities and formal occasions and leaning more towards Guaraní when you’re telling the kids to go feed the chickens.