General update

Hi readers,

Sorry I have gone AWOL over the past week. I'm still in Ciudad del Este, wrapping up this stage of my project; it's now been a month since I came here.

Although Ciudad del Este is not a particularly pleasant city, I have had a wonderful time here. I met many incredibly kind people, who have helped me understand this place and invited me into their lives.

I spend most of my time trying to document daily life, banal as it may be. In order to make things more interesting and to focus the scope (avoiding the "lens" pun, or not) of my project, I've dabbled in various themes of documentary, which I won't get into now. Nevertheless, the major event I did cover this past week was the 97th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of China (ROC) which was celebrated here with a big banquet dinner, dance performances, and in typical Chinese fashion, karaoke.

Fang sheng

I also attempted to cover the Buddhist practice of Fang sheng, or "releasing life," in which one buys condemned animals and sets them free. They usually aren't big animals -- nobody (to my knowledge) goes out and buys a cow and set it free on some pasture -- instead, they are usually birds or fish.

Alas, the releasing of animals was cancelled due to inclement of weather: torrential rainstorms all day on Saturday. Hopefully I will be able to witness it before I leave Ciudad del Este. Maybe the fish will end up condemned down Iguacu falls or the Itaipu dam -- the world's largest hydroelectric dam before the Chinese outdid them with the Three Gorges Dam.I suppose I'm being pessimist.


New Zealand out, Southeast Asia in

In other news, I've been thinking over the past couple weeks of making some slight changes to my original itinerary. I was planning on going to New Zealand in April, but have now decided that my project time would be better spent with more time in Southeast Asia. Malaysia is the last designated stop on my itinerary, but I will likely add Thailand, Vietnam, and/or Indonesia. Of course, I probably cannot cross of New Zealand and add all those countries, so I'll have to pick and choose. It's all up in the air -- I need to think about this more and do more research before proposing such a major change.