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Paraguay celebrates 200 years

May 24, 2011

Last Monday was the 200th anniversary of Paraguay winning its independence from Spain (and it was also Paraguayan Mother’s Day). The anticipation for this event has been HUGE for months, and celebrations will be continuing all year long. For example, there are commercial spots like this one – which emphasizes the Guarani heritage of Paraguay: […]

Paraguayan fart jokes

February 7, 2011

I often bother Paraguayan friends to explain the meanings behind expressions that are new to me. One of my friends sent me the following email to help my education along (I can’t take credit for being the Canadian described in the email, but I often end up in conversations like this one). First, the original […]

The monstrosity I ate today, and other things

February 2, 2011

I’ll start with the other things. Firstly, I’ve been messing around with the blog a bit, nipping and tucking. The biggest changes are: (1) I’ve added a contact form for people to reach me from the “About” page, and (2) I’ve added a page called “Useful Global Health Research Links”. The latter is mostly for […]

Nivacle documentary

November 5, 2010

This is an interesting mini-documentary from Fortunato Films in Argentina, Nivacle: Recuerdos de guerra (War memories), which interviews a few older Nivacle men and women in Argentina about their life histories. The documentary shows a mix of modern and archival video footage, contrasting modern life with ‘how things used to be’. The documentary is in […]

The Paraguayan Pa PanAmericana dance

November 3, 2010

The “Pa PanAmericana” song is really popular down here and I hear it everywhere I go. This video went viral in Paraguay and some of the moves featured in the video have been adopted into popular dance culture…. Enjoy!

Cultural Notes from Paraguay, Part 1 of 1000

September 30, 2010

Paraguayans have tons of little traditions and customs – I can’t possibly document them all, but I’m going to start posting “Cultural Notes from Paraguay” to document the ones I learn about. Ñoqui on the 29th It is Paraguayan tradition to eat pasta (specifically, ñoqui) on the 29th of every month. You put money underneath […]