It's been kinda wacky, today. First, let me prempt this by explaining that last night we had beans and rice for dinner. I’ve been trying to master this savory Brazilian-style dish for almost five years now. Last night however, they turned out too watery and a smidge hard. Believe-it-or-not, explaining our evening meal is vital to the story. Okay, so after dinner and putting our son down to sleep, I went out running. Ashamedly, I’ve only been out one time since our return. Part of the reason why running is so difficult for me here is the cobblestones. Do you now what the dictionary says about cobblestones? They are "a naturally rounded stone, larger than a pebble and smaller than a boulder, formerly used in paving." Unfortunately, our cobbles are NOT round and definitely not smooth. And around one minute into my run, I tripped and in trying to catch myself from splatting on the ground, I I did this ungraceful freestyle stroke mid air to keep from falling and I gasped, boy did I gasp. Well, somehow, when I took that big breath of air, an undigested bean (pinto, to be exact) comes flying at mach speed through my throat and got conveniently lodged behind my tonsils. I don't know where that little bugger came from, but apparently, he's there to stay. At 2 a.m. the thing started to really scratch my throat so I went online to see what I could do to beckon the little bean out. I must say that "How to remove lodged object from throat" is one of my more interesting google searches I've done these days. I was suprised to find a good deal of sites related to <a href="http:///www.tfproject.org/tfp/archive/index.php/t-20095.html"><font color="#99bbdd">this</font></a> and <a href="http://www.power-surge.com/php/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t5686.html"><font color="#aa77aa">this</font></a>, but thankfully I wasn't suffering those issues. I tried all the home remedies, drinking a large cup of water, eating bread, gargling, using my finger to try and sweep it out, but nothing worked. I decided to go back to bed, because it wasn't blocking my entire airway, it just felt like a small toaster was in there. So, this morning I called the hospital and found out that our ear, nose and throat doc only comes in once a month! And the GP was booked until after lunch. So, at lunch I was trying to cough to make the bean come up and miraculously a small piece did decide to break away from its mother. It definitely feels better...more like a can opener in my mouth, now. So, I'm praying that the doc can do something to coax the other half of the bean to make itself known. Moral of the story: Don’t go running on cobblestones late at night after eating undigested beans and rice.
If you're wondering what Paraguayans do at Christmastime, they have some great traditions , including the " noche buena " meal on Christmas Eve at midnight. They eat lots chipa guasu (a type of corn casserole, stay tuned for a recipe), asado or grilled meat (some eat it cold), salads, especially fruit salad, watermelon and drink mucho terere . Families travel from all over the country, many even return from working in other countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Spain, to celebrate with loved ones. This is us at last year's Kurrle celebration in Asuncion. Festivities are anything but a silent night with fireworks, loud music and drinking cidra (hard cider). Most Paraguayans do not decorate Christmas trees (we decorate ours in shorts!) or emphasize Santa Claus. Instead, they put beautiful nativities " pesebres " in their yards and in store fronts. Kind of novel to focus on Christ at Christmas, isn't it! To beat the heat, many Paraguayans g
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