Paraguay, a culture shock

In November 1987 I moved to Paraguay, South America. My parents had already been there for two years. I didn't speak Spanish but quickly got hold of a phrase book and started communicating.
Paraguay itself is vastly different from South Africa, where I grew up. I had to get accustomed to buying my vegetables at the market, which was a lot of rickety little tables in the open air market square. At first I lived in a large town called Caaguazú, where my father had started a sawmill and furniture factory. Most of the roads were dirt roads but downtown had some cobble and cement roads.
Then after 7 months I got a job teaching English at a British institute in the capital city, Asuncion. Later on I also started teaching aerobics. It was a whole lot more modern than the town I had got used to. Asuncion has some lovely shopping malls and modern supermarkets. Shopping downtown is interesting for they close from 12 to 3 p.m. for siesta, which means they roll down large steel shutters (which makes window-shopping impossible).
Transport is mainly by bus, which is dangerous but efficient as there are so many people in Paraguay who do not own a car. Driving in general is dangerous and it seems there is not much respect for life.

The Paraguayan countryside is beautiful. The skies are a magnificent blue and the little clumps of clouds the whitest white. It also seems the grass is greener than in any other country I've been. The butterflies flutter by in a vast amount of different colours, shapes and sizes. There are also so many of them. And that goes for things that bite too. We have a saying in Paraguay... If it doesn't bite it stings. The mosquitoes are enormous and very hungry. They also have a little fly which has serrated jaws that leave a very painful bite. The ants can cause really nasty infections that don't heal for weeks. Even the plants are hostile. There are several varieties that have barbs, thorns and spikes, just waiting for you to walk by.

In general I enjoyed the 8 years I lived in Paraguay. I got to learn a new language and a new culture. I got to do quite a bit of travelling too. I went to Brazil several times to vacation at the beach. I also did a trip to Patagonia and the glaciers in the south of Argentina which was fabulous. On another occasion my mother and I went to the north of Argentina, to Salta, where we started our trip over the Andes to Chile. Of all the places I've been in South America I loved Chile the most. I was planning a trip to Colombia and Peru but just as I was about to leave there was a coup so I didn't go.

I found the Paraguayan people to be friendly (to a point). It takes some getting used to the way they do things. It seems you can never get anything when you want it, you always have to wait for mañana (tomorrow). It is a hard life if you do not have money to start your own business, but if you are just passing through, it's a fantasy of colours, sounds, textures and smells.