Creepy Crawlies

Thankful for me, the site where Chris and I live has one of the lowest concentrations of mosquitoes I´ve yet experienced in Paraguay. Thankful for ME. All the bugs usually love me, and since we´ve been here, I´ve had a mouth virus, bed bugs, all sorts of infected mosquito bites which ooze pus (one which most recently which gave me a fever last week), a near eye infection, and most recently a bacterial sore throat infection from which I am recovering. So I am thoroughly surprised that Chris was plagued with whatever larvae-laying, flesh-boring insect that decided to bite one of us. Because neither of us has been anywhere without the other. Last night I pulled the scab off Chris´ wound to purge it of pus and was surprised to see the hole had become deeper (see above). Though it is no longer infected, I am now able to insert a needle about 1 cm. deep without pain. The usual protocol when handling these types of bugs is to suffocate it out by putting tape over the wound and waiting a bit for the critter to come to the surface for air. Nothing came, so I pronounce the wound bug-free. But why won´t it close then?? Where are Raquel and Patsy when I need them?

Anyway, it´s been a rather frustrating past few days. I´ve been sick and it rained one day, which brings everything to a stand-still. Not to mention the power was out for 18 hours. Usually I look forward to this sort of thing...not when the well is powered by an electric pump and there´s no water for 18 hours and you can´t even brush teeth, drink water, shower, or cook...!!! Not then.

Chris and I are going to build a house, look´s like. A little brick one of our very own. About 5x6 meters, with an outside latrine. We aren´t sure when construction will begin but hopefully soon.

On the up side, we´ve been invited (rather randomly, I might add) to go help make and eat lunch at a family´s house on Sunday. We are going to make Sopa Paraguaya and empanadas. How often does it happen that when you stop in to buy a Coke, that someone just invites you in to visit and then asks you over for lunch the following Sunday? Never. That just doesn´t happen in the U.S.

And last but not least, a photo of our current, temporary house above. It´s definitely one of the better places we could be and is located about 20 yards from our host family. Tried to send these pics and more to everyone, but haven´t been able to in gmail last couple times, so I hope these suffice and I´ll try to send them again next time and even more.

In the mean time, we´ll keep on keepin´ on and HAPPY 2007!!

Love,
Marissa