Amistad y Cataratas! ...Week 6: July 27-August 3

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Thursday morning, we had a meeting with MassPublicidad to discuss the progress they have made for the publicity for the Water Conference and to confirm the cost of their work. The rest of the day I wrote and sent out more invitations for the Conference to senators and diplomats. That night, I went salsa dancing at a place called Café Bohemia. Every Thursday night, they have a live salsa band for dancing. It was a blast!

Friday I continued working on writing about the juntas and I translated two documents for a conference that will be held in Cusco, Peru in September of this year. Also, our entire office went out to lunch at Ese Lugar to celebrate el Dia de la Amistad (Friendship day). The official day is on July 30, and it’s somewhat a “Hallmark” holiday, as it is traditional to celebrate by getting together, buying gifts, and doing gift exchanges where people pick names from a hat. The restaurant is on Avenida España in las Carmelitas. It was VERY tasty and had great service. They had a wide variety of food. When talking to people about Dia de la Amistad, I received responses of mixed feelings. Some people put much effort into celebrating this day and use it as a set day to meet up with friends; whereas others feel like a special day shouldn’t be needed. Friday night I attended the 26th anniversary of the Fundación Paraguaya. It was a great celebration, with people being honored, typical foods being served and catered by the Escuela San Francisco (a school modeled like that of Mbaracayu), and the soccer team from Mbaracayu being presented.

It was then time to begin the trip I had been looking forward to. I took a bus out during the night to Ciudad del Este, and I got in a taxi once I arrived. I was with a few other interns, and we were lucky to have found a nice and trustworthy taxi driver. He charged us a flat fee for the entire day (about 20-25 USD each), with our first journey being crossing the border to Foz de Iguazu, Brazil to see the Iguazu waterfalls. These falls are located on the Iguazu River on the border between Brazil and Argentina. They were absolutely breathtaking! Many people do not even know that these falls exist. There are 275 waterfalls in total, with about a 1.7-mile total width. We happened to go on a somewhat cloudy and foggy morning (probably a little more eerie than on a sunny day), but they were beautiful nonetheless. On a clear, sunny day, there are rainbows on each waterfall, but we only saw a few. We were able to go out on a walkway that went right on top of a waterfall (part of la Garganta del Diablo, Devil’s Throat) and we left soaking wet from the powerful spray of the falls. From the falls, we went to a smaller waterfall back on the Paraguay side, called Salto Monday (not pronounced like the day of the week). It was a little more private and was free from tourists! Next, it was time to go to the Itaipu Dam, which is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. It is located on the border between Brazil and Paraguay on the Paraná River. It provides almost all the power for Paraguay and about 20% of Brazil’s power. The tour started at 2 pm with a video, and then we got on a bus, which took us around and on top of the dam! We were lucky because they had just opened up one spillway that morning, which doesn’t happen much during these months, since it is their “dry” season. As a civil engineer, I thought this was just as beautiful, interesting and exciting as the waterfalls! We returned on a 4 pm bus back to Asuncion that afternoon.

Sunday, the second professor from Kansas at my house left and the third professor arrived. The time that the second professor was here passed far too quickly; this only means that my time here is passing right before my eyes. How it is now already August is a question I have yet to find an answer to. The cold came back on Sunday, too. It didn’t even reach 60 degrees F! This whole week is supposed to be in the 60s. I have found a good way to do exercise, since I can’t exactly go for a run like I am used to back at home. I started using exercise videos I found online to work out on the patio in front of my room. It feels so good to finally have physical activity to do (other than all the walking around town I do). The most exciting news for Sunday was that Carlos returned safely to the U.S. from his family trip to Guatemala! I was finally able to talk to him after a whole month!

Monday and Tuesday I worked on the map for the water system expansion project and continued writing descriptions about the water boards. I enjoy writing about the water boards because it allows me to review the notes I took when I visited them, and I am able to make comparisons between advanced and less advanced boards. Wednesday at work I had two meetings: one was to speak with a woman who we are considering hiring to make a documentary about the president of the Federación (the overseer of all the water boards) and the other meeting was to speak with Plan Paraguay to ask for support for the Water Conference. After work, I went to a Churrasquería (Brazilian meat restaurant, like a steak house) called Paulista Grill (supposedly the best in town) for a goodbye dinner for two interns. Talk about delicious! We ate SO much! We were there for like 3 hours, and the waiters just walked around with TONS of different meats every 5 seconds, and grilled pineapple with cinnamon, and there was a buffet with lots of rice, pasta, salad, sushi, etc, and even a dessert buffet. Every single thing I ate was tasty! haha! Great end to my sixth week here.

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