Semana Santa

Last week was Semana Santa here, or Holy Week. The celebration begins Wednesday, and then continues throughout the weekend. While I celebrated it last year with my host family in training, I enjoyed this year much more. I visited the families I know the best, and it was a really great week.


On Wednesday, I visited with Na Sixta and her family for the ever-important chipa making! Families all over Paraguay get together this day to make obscene amounts of chipa. Chipa is a bread made of corn flour, cheese, milk, salt, and a little oil. While the women were preparing the dough, the men were prepping the tatakua (wood burning oven) for cooking.

Lili prepping the dough

Tata Kua (or is it one word? not sure...)

My beautiful chipa :)

The finished products!

Also, eating pig is a huge part of Semana Santa. I woke up Wednesday morning to the sounds of pigs dying all over. Literally. Just when I thought it was finished, another neighbor killed their pig. When I got to Sixta’s house, the pig had already been killed (phew), but they were prepping it for eating. That means I got to help cut up pig fat into small cubes and watch them shave the hair off the skin to later be prepped for dinner. Yummy? I did try the pig fat (which is served fried and coated in corn flour), but chose to leave before the main course of pig skin stuffed with meat… I just couldn’t do it… haha

Next year's piggy!

Thursday, I was running all over, visiting 4 families in total. I started the day at 7am back at Sixta’s to drink mate, make more chipa and sopa, and chat with the family. Then I ate lunch with my landlord and her family (where i was sent home with both cow AND sheep meat! lucky me), stopped for a beer stop at Na Albina’s, and then relaxed in the afternoon at Na Esperanza’s. Busy and exhausting day, but fun!

The rest of the week was also lots of fun. It included a relaxing day with my neighboring volunteer, tereré sessions with new friends, Easter party in site, visiting more families, and of course, eating more chipa. Overall, definitely a successful Semana Santa!

Party in site!

My bestie in site, Silvia

On a different note, happy opening day!!! So glad us Cubs fans got to sing today! Go Cubs Go!