Making Headway

So, what´s going on with the house? A lot. We had a professional albañil, Felipe, come out and help us for four days with everything--he´s an animal! At no cost to us, thanks to the landowners! We have the structure for the roof up and just about everything else done so that we can start with the walls, which should go quickly. We still have a little bit left to do with the brickwork for the bañadera (shower), and to pour the concrete floor. So far everything´s going along nicely and we can hopefully finish soon. We are still however, missing a door, the rest of the straw for the roof and also someone to do the roof, hardware to make windows and some plumbing stuff and also a seat for the latrine, which I will make this week--provided we have enough brick! Looking a little skimpy on the brick... We still need enough electric cable and accessories to hook-up electric plus labor so that´s going to cost us a pretty penny, but probably won´t be done until we get paid next month anyways. And then, we have to paint the house so it won´t grow fungus or get eaten by pests. Still lots of work to be done.

Right now Chris and I have come for fortifications and suppplies to Caaguazu. We were all out of food and needed more nails and stuff for the house. We are both doing well and have become stronger from work and have both lost the weight that we gained in training. We don´t eat much meat, and have been existing on lentils, beans, flour tortillas, eggs, mandioca, vegetables (if available), rice, pasta, and some fruit. We did luck out today when we went to market and found a nice assortment of carrots, cucumbers, starfruit, passionfruit, custard apple, and a huge beautiful brazilian mango for cheap! Some days I hate the market because it´s hot and busy and claustrophobic and everyone wants your money, but today was great.

Otherwise, the weather has cooled down a little bit and we are enjoying it. Last week brought temperatures cold enough to wear a hooded sweatshirt for part of the day and we were soaking up every minute. The heat has comeback somewhat now, but it´s still considerably cooler as fall is soon to be upon us. Chris and I will be going back to our training community during the second week in April for a week of language training and we will then be celebrating Chris´ birthday in company with many others friends who also have April birthdays. This will be the next time that we will be in touch with everyone.

Everyone needs a place to poop!

Well...since the wifey is under the weather I will do my duty to our few and loyal readers and update some more of our time here and put in a few pics for those interested. Simply put the construction of the Updike Manor is going well. I must say though that its been a frustrating yet good experience. Since I have a political science degree and thus no real skills, you can only imagine that construction is not my fortay. However, I or rather we, have decided to go it our own and venture where we have not gone before and do it all ourselves. Thats right we will build our own house and will hopefully have it all done in time to kill and roast a pig for my birthday in April. Killing pig, drinking luke warm pilsner and playing vollyball with the locals are now a few of my favorite leisure activities. I hope the house is done by then but we will see. On a related side note... I must say that Marissa is quite the skilled mason & I want to commend her publically for her excellant craftsman ship on our crapper. Its an understatement to say that this has just been a lot of work. So far we have cleared the land of weeds, tree stumps, roots and bichos (paraguayan for pests of all shape and size) dug and laid the brick for the latrine, built the concrete slap for the latrine, dug 50 something meters of trench to bring water to the construction site and planned, bought and had delivered all the "necessary" materials for the house. Now it kind of like building with legos except on a rather large scale. We not to large the house is only 6 m by 6 m and a roof of 6 by 8... Lets just say that three months of training made my hands and back a little softer than i would have prefered. Also, there is nothing like clearing jungle while the temperature is in the mid to upper nineties. Like I said this is a unique and tough expereince. I sure wish I had actually laid some concrete before we got here! But hey how many of you out there have such an intimate relationship with where you poop??? Well, I shouldn't be so chaste, I have yet to christen er yet!
As per our other buisness, we are quite well and have no real troubles to speak of. Like marisa said we came into Asuncion to pick up packages and have a little R & R, but as Marissa put it she got ill and has spent more of our leisure time with the toilet than with me her husband. I know what your thinking... your connecting the dots as to why i built the potty before the castle, ah yes! But no worries we get good medical care here and they will fix her up in a jiffy. As per my health nothing to speak of since the abcess. We are headed back in our time machine (or rather the bus to the campo) tomorrow and will be preparing to make the footing for the house and prepare the beams and posts. The wood should arrive by wendesday, I hope. We are going have friends come and help us for a bit so it should be a rather nice time. I hope you enjoy the pictures and the last two or so are our new cat (Marissa wanted a companion to help her team up against me) the other is of a toad who got stuck in a tomatoe can. I am begining to empathize with that toad now. Well enough for now we wish you all well and take care

Quick Update

Hello everyone. Yes, it´s been a while and I just wanted to quickly update this to let everyone know what we´ve been up to the last month. We finally started to build on the new land and have almost finished the latrine. It took a lot of digging in hot weather and hard work, but am excited at the prospect of using a letrine that is not crawling with maggots and smells horrible. We just need to build a seat and put up the privacy structure around it. Never thought I´d be so excited about where I go to the bathroom.
Right now I am ill with some sort of gastrointestinal bug that has rendered me inactive while we are here in Asuncion trying to take a break from manual labor. It is frustrating to be sick while you have come for a break and just want to relax a little and eat some different food. I feel like crap and hope that it is not a giardia infection which comes and goes and makes you sick a couple times a month. We´ll see. I´ll check in at the doctors office tomorrow. I´m just glad that the painful cramps seem to have subsided for now.
Other than that, just going to continue plugging away at the house building. Two of our PC friends, a married couple named Justin and Amanda, are going to come stay with us on Wedneday and help us hopefully contruct the foundation to the house. Our PC friends near us have been really good about offering their help and we are very glad to have it.
The heat and bugs have been getting to me lately, probably because we´ve actually been working very hard in the thick of it. Hope it cools down soon.

Sorry no pictures for this update. I will try to get some up next time and maybe send some in e-mails. I must go rest for now as I am still sick and feel hollow inside from not eating. I hope all is well with all of our friends and family back home. Love you and miss you.

Chau,
Marissa