It’s been a hot minute, and by that we mean 2.5 months. These weeks have been hectic, emotional, HOT, frustrating, exhilarating, and so much more. Our last real update was at the end of October, as we were wrapping up projects in Yatytay. A quick glance at a few things that have happened in the interim:
- We said some “see ya laters” in Yatytay (we will visit once more in June), and had a few great last shared meals and tereré sessions. We also said bye to our lovely little house – our first home of married life. We will miss her very, very much.
- Our follow-up volunteer, Tai, visited for week. She is wonderful, and we cannot wait to see where her service will take her. We are also crazy jealous, because, well, we are humans. And we love Yatytay. And we know Yatytay will love her. But mostly, we are excited for all the new friendships and cultural exchange that will continue to grow for Tai, and people in Yatytay
- We watched all of our cohort-mates finish their service. We feel so lucky to have served with such a passionate group of people, and look forward to seeing where people land.
- Dylan’s brother, Ben, visited Paraguay! He arrived on Thanksgiving Day in Asunción, and from there we got to introduce him to a bunch of friends in Yatytay, and show him our home. After a short weekend, we went down to Bariloche, Argentina, for a few days of hiking and good beer. We are hoping Ben’s take on the trip will be included in the next blog….
- After saying bye to Ben in Buenos Aires, we continued traveling down to Ushaia, aka the end of the world, practically Cape Horn. This was a VERY cool part of our trip – we got the chance to walk with penguins (honestly, something that was never really on our “must-do” list, but when in Rome….and it turns out it was incredible), and hike in Tierra del Fuego National Park. From there we continued up through Patagonia for another week, then bopped over to Uruguay. We drank some Uruguayan wine (Tannat is the grape they are most known for), and relaxed. We ended the trip in Buenos Aires, because we love that city. The end of the trip was a bit of a shitshow, but we’ll save that story for another blog post.
- Spent Christmas in Yatytay, sweating, cleaning out our house, spending quality time with people we love, and saying more “see ya laters.”
- Spent NYE in Asunción in a hotel with ALL of our crap, and Michimi. TBH, it was pretty stressful having a non-litter box trained cat in a hotel, along with everything we own. Turns out, our cat is brilliant (but obvi we already knew that) and did his business IN THE SINK. Which we realize may gross some people out, but we felt like parents of a toddler that was using the toilet for the first time. The purest sense of group accomplishment. Also, we did not go out, but we did drink 2 bottles of wine and had wicked hangovers the next day. We are not 21 anymore… hell, we are not 28 anymore. We are officially one (bottle of wine) and done.
- Traveled to the Chaco, and moved into our new room. Think v. small studio apartment with no closets, but a nice patio. More on this new location to come.
In summation, it’s been a bit of a wild ride these past several weeks, but we are feeling immensely privileged to have had the opportunity to do some more traveling, and to have spent a final Paraguayan Christmas in a community that has given us so much.
Hoping these first few weeks of this new decade find you all healthy and happy!
Much love,
Dylan and Alli