Photos and Baby Cow

A fogon we built during my technical excursion. Its a brick oven, heated by wood.
This a guampa and bombilla, used to drink tererre.
G26, the group that I came with to Paraguay . Includes Health, Education and Urban Youth. This is after our swearing in ceremony, Juramento.
Paraguay isn´t much for scenery at times, but when the clouds roll in for a thunderstorm, it´s breathtaking.
A flower that I thought looked super cool.

A fantastically interesting experience occurred this past week. Every day in Paraguay is like a moment that you would never have had before. Two days ago, I witnessed the birth of a cow in my ‘backyard.’ Fermim, the head of the household, delivered a male cow. I would’ve never seen this had I been in the states, well unless I was in Ohio visiting Abby I guess. Everyone came out to see, well everyone being neighbors. It takes a bit of effort to deliver that thing. The cow mother had been sick for a while. First she had a parasite, then was moaning and groaning. The cow was having trouble birthing so Fermim washed the backside of the cow well with detergent (made in my pro-health women’s group), greased up his hands with soy oil, and just reached his hand into the cow to help the birth along. First the front two legs pop out (which is what is supposed to happen). They tied a rope to each leg, to help pull the baby cow as the mother pushed the baby cow. Then the head popped out, after which the rest of the body slowly came free. The calf is pretty big and seemingly healthy. The mama cow seems very happy and very tired, but both were walking around fine yesterday! (I was so ridiculously upset that my camera was still not fixed due to my own laziness. But no worries there is another calf on its way apparently and maybe I will post photos then.)

In other news, I am sure some of you have heard of Where the Hell is Matt? Well here is something that made my heart happy to watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY. I want to be like Matt and visit all these places one day but for now, I am staying put in Paraguay!

I finished reading Holy Cow, which really really makes me want to travel to India!!