![]() ![]() ![]() Peace Corps training taught me the cultural importance of mate most Paraguayans cannot imagine anyone not drinking it-and I quickly learned that sharing mate was a great way to make friends and gain acceptance. Conversation flows as the process repeats itself until the yerba mate loses its flavor-about thirty minutes. The server then refills the guampa with water and passes it to another person in the group. One person in the group (the server) pours some hot water (or cold water for tereré) into the guampa and passes it to a companion who dutifully sucks all of the liquid from the shared straw and returns the guampa. She wasn’t at all concerned about catching a cold from me!ĭrinking yerba mate is a communal activity. Wasn’t anyone worried about germs? When I tried to refuse an offer of yerba mate from my neighbor because I had a cold, she responded that she had added some herbs especially for colds and so I had even more reason to share the mate with her. Drinking out of the same metal straw ( bombilla) was even more jarring. I had never thought of drinking from a cow’s horn or gourd. Everywhere I went, and at all times of the day, I saw small groups of people passing around a hollowed out cow’s horn or gourd ( guampa) filled with ground leaves and a single metal straw sticking out of the top. I first encountered yerba mate as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Paraguay. Un alto en el campo by Prilidiano Pueyrredón represents a typical Pampas scene, the tree, the gauchos and the mate. Image by Prilidiano Pueyrredón.
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