Zoo

I skipped 4th period of school today.  Well, a large group of Americans arrived at the academy and said we were all going to Asuncion zoo so I didn’t have any option.  I was only 5 minutes from being done anyway.  10 of us went in the 5-seater and blended in amongst the other Paraguayan carpoolers (some there -none of us- hang onto the backs of 4x4s or perch precariously on the sides hoping for no major bump to wipe them out).

Me and Dexter

The zoo featured what are probably the only Paraguayan jaguars left that aren’t riddled with Paraguayan bullets and hung on walls.  They cut a pretty miserable sight in their concrete dungeons, and one was very flabby (or perhaps pregnant, to be fair).  Apart from the unhappily incarcerated native cats, the zoo was brilliant in many ways, partly because it wasn’t trying too hard, and approximately 15% of the animals had broken out of their cages and ran around us to the concern of nobody.  Loose animals included: one of the vultures, and about 15 small monkeys that had escaped their island with the help of a fallen tree that had bridged the monkey-proof moat.  One of these primates threw a fruit at us which struck an alumni from the school I was working at.  We named him Dexter (the monkey, not the graduate), and Dexter followed us around the small zoo, posed for pictures, ate sticks we handed to him, and even chugged some Coca-Cola from a discarded bottle which impressed us all.

SIM Paraguay's new dog.

Speaking of animals: the SIM HQ has got a new dog (currently named either ‘Sam,’ ‘Zim’, or ‘FreeToAGoodHome’), and all SIM Paraguay members have to submit names for her.  The suggested names range from the common (Shadow, Wolfy, Indy), to the downright peculiar/Swiss-German (Ueli).  She's a softy but races towards any suspicious people.  My suggestion is the name Twiggy, although 2 year-old Julia’s baby-speak name Hababa is quite good because it sounds funny.  We’ll find out the results soon.

Tomorrow I join students and teachers on a mission trip with Habitat for Humanity (habitat.org) to get some footage of their own mission work.  Should be good.  Would appreciate your prayers, however, that I can be up a 5am when I have to leave HQ.