It was cold last week_.  The temperature got down to 34 degrees Fahrenheit and the apartment got cold for a few days.  It appears that that was winter’s last hurrah.  We were in the upper 70’s today with a low of 60 and the skies are clear.

     I went for a walk to the main downtown mall with my coworker and we enjoyed a leisurely day.  It was a 7km (4.5 mile) walk round trip and quite enjoyable. They had massages in the mall where you kept your shirt on while getting a ten minute massage.  It was well worth the $4.50 that it cost.  

     We were cautioned to stay away from the river when we first arrived. The government built a “River Walk” in that area and moved the people out of the shanties. Well, we came to the edge of where there were moved and I was glad to get out of the area.  It was the middle of the day and we were safe, but, I didn’t like being in the area.  There were shanty houses built in and around an arroyo.  People have to live somewhere and they were there.  I don’t know what they do during the rains, but they seem to know what they’re doing.

     In my taxi rides, I noticed stop signs with arrows pointing straight, to the right, or to the left. The taxi drive seemed to ignore them and I asked, “Why?”. His response was that they didn’t mean anything.  Well, I asked a trusted taxi driver and he told me that people just don’t like to stop.  Stop signs do not mean anything here.  If you want to go, you go.  Then I started noticing speed bumps before stop signs.  At least they had to slow down.

     Here are some more photos of Asuncion streets:  

 _{The photos were taken on a Sunday afternoon, so, there aren't many people and cars in the streets. Like many cities, the sidewalks are the responsibility of the property owner.  Some are decent and most are not.  You do need to watch your step.  The streets are in fairly decent shape.  There are not many potholes.  More to come.....} 

Construction Labor Practices, Transport, and Getting Around Asuncion

The weather is turning cooler with the high in the 50s and the low tonight somewhere around 34°.
The building that I live in has guards 24/7/365. The day guard lives 2-1/2 hours away from here by bus. He works seven days a week. Occasionally, a replacement guard replaces him so that he can go home.
Construction companies operate differently here than in the States. Professionals and management are not true employees of the company for which they work. The companies do not like to pay for health insurance and benefits required by the government for regular employees.  The companies pay the supervisory and engineering professionals monthly by contract.
These professionals pay the government 10% of their salaries for income tax and benefits. They have to pay this 10% at their bank and they do not have the option to have it withheld from their pay.
The construction companies do not have a regular labor force. They will hire a foreman (independent contractor) to do a job and pay him by the job. The workers are paid by the foreman. Normally, the workers pay is unregulated because the independent contractors do not usually declare their income. (You have to have assets for the tax collectors to come after their money.) Most people do not have many assets. US companies are not used to working this way, especially in projects where background checks are required for project access.
The Paraguayan Government is getting ready to change hands. The Colorado Party is coming back into power after being out. They held the reigns of power from WWII until five years ago. All of the government agencies and bureaucracies will change leadership. That could affect our project because we will receive some materials from the States. We do not know how long it will take to get materials through Customs.
There is a limited time for shipping materials through the river.  The river gets too low for shipping during the hot months. There are no railroads that come into Paraguay from the outside. I do not know why things cannot be trucked in (that is a question that I need to ask).
The country does not have a system of payments such as we have in the USA. You cannot pay online. You can pay your phone bill, your electric bill and water bill at banks and at payment houses. You can pay by check or credit card.  Most merchants charge an extra fee for credit card usage.
I get around town by taxi or I walk.  The buses are not recommended for us to use because of pickpockets. I talked with a fellow that was born in the States and raised here because his parents are missionaries.  He rides the buses regularly and speaks both languages like a native.  He has a "geek" job, but, refuses to take an expensive smart phone on the buses.
I went to a new shopping center yesterday hoping to find a big box store or something like that.  There is no such thing here. It's mostly mom and pop stores.  If you want something from the hardware stores, you go to the front desk and ask for it.  The clerk goes to the back and brings you what he thinks you asked for. You can't see what you want and get that.
The walking is fun and healthy.  I walked five kilometers (three miles) yesterday and enjoyed it. The weather was pleasant and I saw things that I hadn't noticed when I was passing by in a cab.
The movie theaters are either dubbed with Castilian Spanish or subtitled.  All of the animated films are dubbed for the children.  I'll have to wait until I get back to the States to see Despicable Me II.  I've been told that the evening shows are in English with subtitles and the earlier shows are in Spanish.
I haven't been taking many photos and hope to have some by the next post.....More to come......

Mosquitos, Skype, and other tidbits.....

     Unlike Panama, mosquitos are not controlled here and they have plenty of them. I was raised with mosquitos, but haven't had to put up with them for years.
     One good thing about living up so high in the apartment building, besides the view, is that mosquitos tend to live and play near the ground.  The locals say that they stay on or below the third floor, that's the fourth floor in the US.  They don't count the ground floor here. I live on the fifth floor.
     Hello, my friend, DEET.  It's sunscreen and DEET for the next year.
     In other news, I found out how to get water delivered to the apartment.  It costs about the same as the grocery store, but, I don't have to carry the equivalent of a gallon a day into my apartment.
     Skype works off of my cellular service when I have over three bars on my phone.  That's nice.  It's amazing that I can communicate with home all that I want to for $3/month extra.
     I don't use it much, but, Google has a free iPhone app that lets you speak Engligh into the phone and it will translate what you say into Spanish (or other) languages. It can even speak Spanish back to you.
     A coworker back in the home office is my "ambassador". That's a neat concept. My ambassador keeps in touch and offered to send a little something that I may miss such as peanut butter. Well, I got to thinking and it's the intangible, little things that I miss besides my family. Driving, clean and nice roads, no horns blaring when the lights change and (this is a little crass, but true) I really miss American plumbing! Most, if not all, of the third world does not have the sewer systems to handle tissue paper.
      The project is slow to get started and this would be one of the best times to go see the Falls do Iguacu. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iguazu_Falls) When I started to check into the best way to go, I found out that we may have to leave the country every 90 days and then reenter for another 90. This is Paraguayan law.  So, there is a decent chance that I may have reason to go to one of the surrounding countries.  We'll see.  It would be nice to be able to visit without having to pay for the visas and travel.  It looks like the costs are similar to go to the Falls or Buenas Aires. The bottom line is that I will probably hold off going to the falls until September. They are awesome.  I went there with Natalie and John Mihai when he was a year old.  I definitely want to go back.
     More to come......
    

Fourth of July Week

This was a good week. The Fourth of July was on Thursday and I was free to walk around the city and go to “Mercado Numero Cuatro”. That is the main downtown market and they sell everything that you need there.  The only thing is that you have to go to different shops for different items.  I even found a 220V coffee grinder that I couldn’t find in the regular shops. The fruits and vegetables are much less expensive than in the grocery stores.  There are more cell phone stores than I can count, hardware stores, clothing, leather, saddles, cloth, knitting, etc…  There was almost as much selection as WalMart, except that it was in 500 different stores.

I went to a missionary church and school later in the afternoon to visit with Brother and Sister Bir.  The dictator, Stroessner, was overthrown three weeks after they arrived in 1989. They brought their two sons with them.  One was six and the other was nine.  The sons married Paraguayans and have families here.  This is more their home than the U.S.

One thing that I was happy to see is that they do not live lavishly. The Birs have a nice home, but, they bought it with their life savings at the time which was $13,000. They have a school for kindergarten through the eighth grade which is almost totally funded through donations from the States.

Education in Paraguay is for the rich.  As is typical in Latin America, the government provides non-mandatory schools until the sixth grade.  For the most part, the only reason a child learns to read and write is if they want to learn. 

There are two socioeconomic classes here - the poor and the rich.  There are super rich, but there is not much of a middle class.  Business is fairly unrestricted, so, a poor person could climb out of their poverty.  We are so blessed in the USA to be able to change socioeconomic classes and for a common worker to own a house and cars.

In 1865, there was a war between Paraguay and its neighbors, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay.  At the end of the war, there were only 20,000 men left in Paraguay.  Also, there is a Mediterranean macho factor.  Most men have more than one family here. There are many who do not think twice about having a wife and girlfriend(s). This causes a lot of societal problems when the father is not responsible for the children. There are many men who do take responsibility for their children, but, it is not uncommon for them not to.

Paraguay is the only South American country to have the native language to be an official language.  Most countries only accept Spanish or Portuguese to be the official language.

Guarani is an official language here.  Most people speak it.  They say the language is similar to Japanese. Guarani is also the name of the currency here.

There is a Fourth of July gathering at the embassy for employees.  I’m headed there in a few minutes.