Monday, October 30, 2006
So, yesterday was the first day that I cried since I've been here. I was trying to be really sentimental and kept saying to myself that it was because I missed my family, but to be completely honest I know it was because I was so terribly overheated. And we were out of water, there wasn't even any to drink, and the electricity went out just as I was about to be able to talk to my sister on the phone for the first time since I got here!!! This week it got pretty hot. Once when i woke up at 4 in the morning, I checked the thermometer and at this coolest time of day it was already a little over 30 degrees. I admit I used to think that maybe people from south america were lazy or something, but I consider myself to be a pretty industrious person, and here I am lazy. i have to be. On hot days all i can do for about 2 hours in the afternoon is lay on my bed. Sometimes i have the prescence of mind to read or study some spanish, but often i can only lay there and concentrate on trying to cool down a bit. I kept thinking of the place in isaiah where it says, "in returning and rest and rest you will be saved; in quietness and confidence will be your strength" or seomthing like that, because I want to feel useful and like I'm doing a lot of things, but right now the best thing I can do is sit back and talk with the people and learn their language and culture.
My roommate Vivi has a discipleship partner, Laura, who she meets with on tuesdays, but this week she had to take my other roommate to the hospital (don't worry, she's better now) so she said that I could entertain Laura for the evening. I was very excited when laura said we could walk to the park, because up until now i didn't know a park exisited in my neighbourhood (but there is a very small one across the street from the partment that I am moving into in the new year). It turns out the park was fairly trashed; as usual, there were beautiful plants growing all over, but there was also tons of garbage and the kids had to play on broken rusted structures. Laura and I complained about it for awhile, but then she also said something that stuck in my mind. She hates how the people don't take very good care of their things, but at the same time she loves that relationships and other people ARE very important. I've been able to talk with a few more people on the same topic, and EVERYONE I've talked to so far says that this is home and they want to stay here for the rest of their lives, because they love the people here. One boy in the school came here with his family from south africa, and he too says he likes it here best because the people are so friendly. I have definately noticed the willingness for people to want to speak with me, and have been a recipient of much hospitality. One day I met a girl from the school in the "super"and she helped me do all my grocery shopping and then invited me over to her house. You can show up at someone's house any time of day and (if they are not sleeping a siesta) they will ALWAYS have time to sit around and talk with you, even for a couple of hours. Do you think it would be a good idea for people in north america to follow their example a bit? I suppose that is one thing that is keeping me from being homesick, that I can always just walk around my neighbourhood and find someone to talk to, anyone will invite you to come and sit on the porch and drink terere with them.
I guess another significant part of my week was the day karen couldn't make it to school (she's 8 months pregnant) and I had to teach her kindergarten and grade one english classes. I definately think they went better than teaching the phys ed classes like I did last week (did I remember to write about that?) , but a lot of the time I worry that i might go CRAZY being in a classroom full of kids for 5 hours a day. It was fun because I read stories to them first in spanish, then the same story in english. they probably paid more attention than usual jst because it is pretty hilarious to hear me reading in spanish. Oh yes, going back to the part about being surrounded by crazy kids, on saturday night I went to our sister church in the slum area. I wanted to cry when I saw the river, the banks were blanketed with trash, and I also wanted to plug my nose. As usual, I struggled to stay awake during the service (this problem should be improving now that I purchased a spanish english bible) but it was very exciting afterwards when all the kids were asking me what their names would be in english, asking me to teach them a song, telling me they don't have a sunday school teacher and would I come back tomorrow?, and asking me about professional wrestling!(??!!) It was amazing to be surrounded by about 10 sweaty kids(seemed like 50)all grabbing at you and yelling in spanish all at the same time. Th kids at are school are only slightly more well-behaved. I have big plans for trying to keep their attention and having more disciplned classes. the good thing about teaching a specialized subject like english is that I get 6 different classes of kids to be with, of varying ages. I guess i will write more about that when I actually have my own classes in november. For right now we are having fun planning what kind of trips we can go on during the summer, and of course hoping that we will be able to start building the new classroom additions. Just today ben told me that even if we don't have the clasrrooms, we are going to find ways to squeeze more kids in. HELP! It's already too hot and crowded! oh, and I should make a correction -it's not 60,000 just for the foundation, that's for the whole building. things are pretty cheap here. I think if you want to take a vacation just for a really cultural-shocking experience and eat yummy food but not have to spend a lot of money, you should come visit me here. You can buy gigantic watermelon's bigger than Karne's stomach for less than $2. My goal is to become a really good translator in case anyone comes, because I really appreciate it when people translate for me. But i guess I should stop writing, because I try to only speak english on weekends, and since today is monday I want to convince my brain to be in spanish mode. One last interesting thing that I did this week was helping our landlady fumagate our house for termites. they are really really gross and any time I look up and see the remnants of the little trails they made it gives me the willies. Thanks everyone for thinking of me and taking time to read my blog. I feel like I'm becoming a better person, and also that when I come back home there will never be anything to complain about ever again, except maybe if people are too busy. Yesterday I was walking up to my house under a tree and a mango fell and hit me on the shoulder. I've been eating at least 4 or 5 mangos a day and I have a blister on my finger from peeling them. I guess they are like the christmas orange of paraguay. dios te bendiga("God bless you" I hear this about 500 times at the average church meeting, but it always seems sincere when you're also being kissed and touched by other sweaty cheeks)
My roommate Vivi has a discipleship partner, Laura, who she meets with on tuesdays, but this week she had to take my other roommate to the hospital (don't worry, she's better now) so she said that I could entertain Laura for the evening. I was very excited when laura said we could walk to the park, because up until now i didn't know a park exisited in my neighbourhood (but there is a very small one across the street from the partment that I am moving into in the new year). It turns out the park was fairly trashed; as usual, there were beautiful plants growing all over, but there was also tons of garbage and the kids had to play on broken rusted structures. Laura and I complained about it for awhile, but then she also said something that stuck in my mind. She hates how the people don't take very good care of their things, but at the same time she loves that relationships and other people ARE very important. I've been able to talk with a few more people on the same topic, and EVERYONE I've talked to so far says that this is home and they want to stay here for the rest of their lives, because they love the people here. One boy in the school came here with his family from south africa, and he too says he likes it here best because the people are so friendly. I have definately noticed the willingness for people to want to speak with me, and have been a recipient of much hospitality. One day I met a girl from the school in the "super"and she helped me do all my grocery shopping and then invited me over to her house. You can show up at someone's house any time of day and (if they are not sleeping a siesta) they will ALWAYS have time to sit around and talk with you, even for a couple of hours. Do you think it would be a good idea for people in north america to follow their example a bit? I suppose that is one thing that is keeping me from being homesick, that I can always just walk around my neighbourhood and find someone to talk to, anyone will invite you to come and sit on the porch and drink terere with them.
I guess another significant part of my week was the day karen couldn't make it to school (she's 8 months pregnant) and I had to teach her kindergarten and grade one english classes. I definately think they went better than teaching the phys ed classes like I did last week (did I remember to write about that?) , but a lot of the time I worry that i might go CRAZY being in a classroom full of kids for 5 hours a day. It was fun because I read stories to them first in spanish, then the same story in english. they probably paid more attention than usual jst because it is pretty hilarious to hear me reading in spanish. Oh yes, going back to the part about being surrounded by crazy kids, on saturday night I went to our sister church in the slum area. I wanted to cry when I saw the river, the banks were blanketed with trash, and I also wanted to plug my nose. As usual, I struggled to stay awake during the service (this problem should be improving now that I purchased a spanish english bible) but it was very exciting afterwards when all the kids were asking me what their names would be in english, asking me to teach them a song, telling me they don't have a sunday school teacher and would I come back tomorrow?, and asking me about professional wrestling!(??!!) It was amazing to be surrounded by about 10 sweaty kids(seemed like 50)all grabbing at you and yelling in spanish all at the same time. Th kids at are school are only slightly more well-behaved. I have big plans for trying to keep their attention and having more disciplned classes. the good thing about teaching a specialized subject like english is that I get 6 different classes of kids to be with, of varying ages. I guess i will write more about that when I actually have my own classes in november. For right now we are having fun planning what kind of trips we can go on during the summer, and of course hoping that we will be able to start building the new classroom additions. Just today ben told me that even if we don't have the clasrrooms, we are going to find ways to squeeze more kids in. HELP! It's already too hot and crowded! oh, and I should make a correction -it's not 60,000 just for the foundation, that's for the whole building. things are pretty cheap here. I think if you want to take a vacation just for a really cultural-shocking experience and eat yummy food but not have to spend a lot of money, you should come visit me here. You can buy gigantic watermelon's bigger than Karne's stomach for less than $2. My goal is to become a really good translator in case anyone comes, because I really appreciate it when people translate for me. But i guess I should stop writing, because I try to only speak english on weekends, and since today is monday I want to convince my brain to be in spanish mode. One last interesting thing that I did this week was helping our landlady fumagate our house for termites. they are really really gross and any time I look up and see the remnants of the little trails they made it gives me the willies. Thanks everyone for thinking of me and taking time to read my blog. I feel like I'm becoming a better person, and also that when I come back home there will never be anything to complain about ever again, except maybe if people are too busy. Yesterday I was walking up to my house under a tree and a mango fell and hit me on the shoulder. I've been eating at least 4 or 5 mangos a day and I have a blister on my finger from peeling them. I guess they are like the christmas orange of paraguay. dios te bendiga("God bless you" I hear this about 500 times at the average church meeting, but it always seems sincere when you're also being kissed and touched by other sweaty cheeks)
Sunday, October 22, 2006
I thought maybe by now I wouldn't be so excited to write because I am more used to things here, but then this weekend a group of four of us from the church went to a little island for an outreach program . On the way we passed by a woman lying dead in the street with tired tracks on her arms from being run over, it was terrible. But that incident aside, the country here is beautiful. It is a nice mix of fields and myriads of different kinds of trees and plants, and for 3 hours along the highway there was just a string of houses and stores and animals which were all very interesting for me to observe. We took a ferry across the lake that had been made when they dammed up a part of the river. The island-life there was extremely rustic. It felt like we were on a camping trip, and I didn't even feel that dirty, so didn't take a bathe(in half of a tire) at night. I guess the people all thought this was pretty weird, and Ben and I later reflected that if it was your life all the time, bathing before bed would be an important ritual. I liked pulling water out of the well, and it tasted so good and fresh. But I didn't like sitting in the kitchen where they cooked over an open fire and it was just filled with smoke. It seemed like everyone there had at least 6 kids (and the lady across the street had another just as we were arriving), and I guess they never have any problem getting kids to show up to sing sings and hear Bible stories, and of course, eat snacks. the programs we did for the kids went really well. I don't know if I mentioned this, but everyone here is bilingual; they all speak the native language called guarani. Everyone gets a kick when I answer them in guarani phrases, it's a very accented, nasally language. On the island they didn't even know spanish, so Ben and I played the fools, literally and put on a few very sucessful sketches. When I am able to post pictures, it will make my blog that much more interesting.
My favourite part was sitting around at night at the neighbour's house. He was asking me questions which first had to be translated from guarani to spanish by Grasiela, and then from spanish to english by Ben. I suppose normally a conversation like this would be annoyingly tedious, but when you're on an island where there's nothing else to do and to sit on the porch under the single incandescent lightbulb, it's okay. One thing that made me sad is that i could see that many of the kids were malnourished; their joints stuck out far, the end of their dark hair was lightened and a few even had really big stomachs like the pictures you always see of starving african chidren. the worst part is, I don't think it's for lack of food, the people simply don't know anything about eating fruits or vegetables. We ate really yummy food, like chicken covered with deep-fried tortilla, but the whole times I was just dying for something green. Ironically, they produce tons of bananas because everyone on the island is a farmer...they are probably so sick of bananas they don't even think of offering them to guests!
On the whole, it seems most people don't eat very healthy. It's a shame because the crops are so readily available, but I guess people just don't know how to cook them or anything. People are very proud of their paraguayan food and are very pleased when I tell them that the chipas or croqueta is "rica." I like to tell them that in North America when we say food is "rich" it usually means it is food that makes you fat!
I'm sorry my blogs are so disorganized. I always have to end up writing kind of late (even though right now there's REALLY loud music playing outside the window, people here love to play so everyone in the neighbourhood can here. It only bugs me when I'm trying to take a siesta, which, by the way, I spelled wrong in a previous blog, how embarassing). Anyways, I wanted to talk about one really important thing concerning the school. Karen has told me a lot about the history of their church here. It's hard to believe the school was only actually started 4 years ago, it's such a big project just to maintain with the few people and small plot of land we have. Anyways, now they are planning to build an addition so they can have more classes (every classroom is just packed full!) and to go up to the tenth grade (currently we go from kindergarten to grade 9). Besides the fact that it will be a ton of work, they also need $60,000 just to build the foundation. In some ways I think that it will just never happen because it's too big of a project. But then, so did the church and the school that exist here already. From the stories of the church here, I've learned a good way to keep the church from being stagnant is to plan projects that seem too big and difficult. Also, maybe this would work in our own personal lives too, if we decided to set out to achieve more than we think we can. I'll stop writing because this is sounding so cliche, but I felt the need to tell you about this project, and maybe we will be able to get enough money to start building (it will also give me a lot of work to do over the summer!). I know they also want to improve the roof over the sanctuary. First of all, it leaks a lot. Secondly, it is made of tin and when it rains we can barely hear each other over the noise.
In case anyone wants to know, I've totally chickened out and barely wash any of my clothes by hand. Instead, I bring them to Karen's on the weekend when I also come to use the internet and play chess with Gaby whom I've now beat 3 times. Tomorrow is excursion day and I am going with the grades 4-6 to learn about buying organic products. But I probably won't be able to learn much. I am a fairly good reader in spanish and I can speak with Vivi and Emi my roomates, but most people speak too fast and don't enunciate clearly. Also, my vocabulary is very limited except in the area of "cool" exclamations, superfluous adjectives and names of food. Everyone, don't forget you can post comments or ask me to clarify some things if I breeze over things. Only very rarely do I get discouraged about not being able to communicate clearly, or always being sweaty or how annoying it is to wash dishes or thinking about being here for such a long time. Mostly I am very happy and I always pray that I will have joy in what I do and share the joy with others here. I pray that you too will remember that God invented pleasure and wants his creatures experience these delights in the way he intended. I write this because in the car on the way home from the island I was reading "the screwtape latters" by C.S. Lewis and in one letter the senior demon rebukes his protege for letting his "patient" that he is trying to tempt go for a walk in the countryside and drink a cup of tea at his favourite place. My favourite part was when the demon says it's terrible when someone reads a book because they really like it and not just so they can talk about it to other people to impress them. So remember to take time to do those kinds of things that really enliven your spirit and remember to be grateful to God. You might think the people here aren't as happy because they can't go out to eat all the time or they have to spend more time doing housework, but then again, maybe you haven't seen with what joy the kids can play a game of soccer. until next week...
My favourite part was sitting around at night at the neighbour's house. He was asking me questions which first had to be translated from guarani to spanish by Grasiela, and then from spanish to english by Ben. I suppose normally a conversation like this would be annoyingly tedious, but when you're on an island where there's nothing else to do and to sit on the porch under the single incandescent lightbulb, it's okay. One thing that made me sad is that i could see that many of the kids were malnourished; their joints stuck out far, the end of their dark hair was lightened and a few even had really big stomachs like the pictures you always see of starving african chidren. the worst part is, I don't think it's for lack of food, the people simply don't know anything about eating fruits or vegetables. We ate really yummy food, like chicken covered with deep-fried tortilla, but the whole times I was just dying for something green. Ironically, they produce tons of bananas because everyone on the island is a farmer...they are probably so sick of bananas they don't even think of offering them to guests!
On the whole, it seems most people don't eat very healthy. It's a shame because the crops are so readily available, but I guess people just don't know how to cook them or anything. People are very proud of their paraguayan food and are very pleased when I tell them that the chipas or croqueta is "rica." I like to tell them that in North America when we say food is "rich" it usually means it is food that makes you fat!
I'm sorry my blogs are so disorganized. I always have to end up writing kind of late (even though right now there's REALLY loud music playing outside the window, people here love to play so everyone in the neighbourhood can here. It only bugs me when I'm trying to take a siesta, which, by the way, I spelled wrong in a previous blog, how embarassing). Anyways, I wanted to talk about one really important thing concerning the school. Karen has told me a lot about the history of their church here. It's hard to believe the school was only actually started 4 years ago, it's such a big project just to maintain with the few people and small plot of land we have. Anyways, now they are planning to build an addition so they can have more classes (every classroom is just packed full!) and to go up to the tenth grade (currently we go from kindergarten to grade 9). Besides the fact that it will be a ton of work, they also need $60,000 just to build the foundation. In some ways I think that it will just never happen because it's too big of a project. But then, so did the church and the school that exist here already. From the stories of the church here, I've learned a good way to keep the church from being stagnant is to plan projects that seem too big and difficult. Also, maybe this would work in our own personal lives too, if we decided to set out to achieve more than we think we can. I'll stop writing because this is sounding so cliche, but I felt the need to tell you about this project, and maybe we will be able to get enough money to start building (it will also give me a lot of work to do over the summer!). I know they also want to improve the roof over the sanctuary. First of all, it leaks a lot. Secondly, it is made of tin and when it rains we can barely hear each other over the noise.
In case anyone wants to know, I've totally chickened out and barely wash any of my clothes by hand. Instead, I bring them to Karen's on the weekend when I also come to use the internet and play chess with Gaby whom I've now beat 3 times. Tomorrow is excursion day and I am going with the grades 4-6 to learn about buying organic products. But I probably won't be able to learn much. I am a fairly good reader in spanish and I can speak with Vivi and Emi my roomates, but most people speak too fast and don't enunciate clearly. Also, my vocabulary is very limited except in the area of "cool" exclamations, superfluous adjectives and names of food. Everyone, don't forget you can post comments or ask me to clarify some things if I breeze over things. Only very rarely do I get discouraged about not being able to communicate clearly, or always being sweaty or how annoying it is to wash dishes or thinking about being here for such a long time. Mostly I am very happy and I always pray that I will have joy in what I do and share the joy with others here. I pray that you too will remember that God invented pleasure and wants his creatures experience these delights in the way he intended. I write this because in the car on the way home from the island I was reading "the screwtape latters" by C.S. Lewis and in one letter the senior demon rebukes his protege for letting his "patient" that he is trying to tempt go for a walk in the countryside and drink a cup of tea at his favourite place. My favourite part was when the demon says it's terrible when someone reads a book because they really like it and not just so they can talk about it to other people to impress them. So remember to take time to do those kinds of things that really enliven your spirit and remember to be grateful to God. You might think the people here aren't as happy because they can't go out to eat all the time or they have to spend more time doing housework, but then again, maybe you haven't seen with what joy the kids can play a game of soccer. until next week...
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Usually we spend all day at church on sunday, but today it is rainy outside. It was disappointing at first but it is very relaxing and a welcome change from the heat. I really wanted to write again soon anyways because I discovered another BIG difference here that I am going to have a hard time getting used to; I guess the sewage systems aren't very powerful, and only yesterday I learned that you're not allowed to flush toilet paper down. It's actually not as gross as you think it would smell.
We had lunch at church yesterday and afterwards watched a movie together. i was all excited because Ben (my friend from Ohio who is getting married to a girl from here) told me it was in English with Spanish subtitles. Actually, it was called "end of the spear" about some missionaries, a fairly entertaining movie, but most of it was actually the natives speaking in their own language with spanish subtitles so I really didn't learn or understand much. My joke was that I can know speak perfect wadohani. Okay, I have to go now because brandon and gabi are presuuring me to play games with them (I beat gabo at chess yesterday, yes!). I tried to put some pictures on here but the computer is really slow and not working for some reason. Chao!
We had lunch at church yesterday and afterwards watched a movie together. i was all excited because Ben (my friend from Ohio who is getting married to a girl from here) told me it was in English with Spanish subtitles. Actually, it was called "end of the spear" about some missionaries, a fairly entertaining movie, but most of it was actually the natives speaking in their own language with spanish subtitles so I really didn't learn or understand much. My joke was that I can know speak perfect wadohani. Okay, I have to go now because brandon and gabi are presuuring me to play games with them (I beat gabo at chess yesterday, yes!). I tried to put some pictures on here but the computer is really slow and not working for some reason. Chao!
Hola Everyone! I said I would be able to write this weekend, and indeed I am right on schedule. I already have my routine here down pat; Monday through Friday I wake up and pray in the mornings with Vivi and Emi, the two sisters that I live with, and we go to school at 6:30. The entire week I was Ben’s protégé as I followed him to his English classes all morning until 11:30. The morning can sometimes seem long, but we get a recess and I usually get out of at least one class every day because another grade will ask me to join them for phys. ed. Lunch is the big meal of the day here, and the favorite time of day for Vivi and Emi and I to spend together. Since I don’t really know how to cook here, they have been making delicious meals everyday and I watch and do all the cleaning afterwards. Perhaps starting next week I will make a meal or two (tell me if you have a good idea of what to make using simple ingredients and only a stove, it is way too hot to use the oven plus we don’t have a very big kitchen so we use our oven for a cupboard). I spend the afternoons at home alone while Emi takes university classes and Vivi goes back to teaching. It is necessary to take a ciesta because it’s too hot to do anything else, and I also study my Spanish. I am looking forward to when I don’t have to study as much and I can read during this time. Sometimes I like to wander around the neighbourhood; I entertain myself by getting lost and finding my way back. At 3:30 I return to the school to tutor Brandon and Gabriel, the missionary kids. Those 2 hours are part of my day that I feel very much at home during, since we speak English and I mostly nag them a lot, but they are funny kids and I enjoy our time together. In the evenings we can hang out at the church/school since there are always people there talking and playing sports, and prayer meetings or Bible studies or people practicing music. I think one of my favourite things about being here is living so close to the people from church and to the grocery store and the man who sells light bulbs and to “work.”
Even though I wake up at the same time every day and see the same people, it’s always exciting because I am experiencing so many new things. Going to the supermarket to get groceries was totally exhilarating; you should have seen the piles of produce and the mass of all different types of bread in the bakery. Plus, the cheese is delicious and so cheap. My splurge at the store was some hard dutch cheese that cost about $3 US/kilo. Even riding the bus was fun, or interesting at least. Oh, I just noticed this blog is way too positive and there are some things I don’t like; I don’t mind washing t-shirts, but my socks are so crunchy when they dry. Fortunately, I come to Oscar and Karen’s house on the weekend and they have a washing machine! Another thing I would never have to deal with in Edmonton was the cockroach that was in my dresser when I first got my room, yuck! But at least I learned the words to the rest of the song “la cucaracha…” Everyone kept telling me I was going to get sick from my body adjusting to the water, but I never did. I must have an iron stomach. Right now I am loving the food, but you can ask me in a couple of months if I am tired of eating empanadas and rice and tomatoes and bananas. I am looking forward to when I can be more useful in teaching at the school. In two weeks Karen will be really close to having her baby so I am going to take over her classes and teach the kids Christmas carols…while it’s 28 degrees outside and the mangos are ripening!
Even though I wake up at the same time every day and see the same people, it’s always exciting because I am experiencing so many new things. Going to the supermarket to get groceries was totally exhilarating; you should have seen the piles of produce and the mass of all different types of bread in the bakery. Plus, the cheese is delicious and so cheap. My splurge at the store was some hard dutch cheese that cost about $3 US/kilo. Even riding the bus was fun, or interesting at least. Oh, I just noticed this blog is way too positive and there are some things I don’t like; I don’t mind washing t-shirts, but my socks are so crunchy when they dry. Fortunately, I come to Oscar and Karen’s house on the weekend and they have a washing machine! Another thing I would never have to deal with in Edmonton was the cockroach that was in my dresser when I first got my room, yuck! But at least I learned the words to the rest of the song “la cucaracha…” Everyone kept telling me I was going to get sick from my body adjusting to the water, but I never did. I must have an iron stomach. Right now I am loving the food, but you can ask me in a couple of months if I am tired of eating empanadas and rice and tomatoes and bananas. I am looking forward to when I can be more useful in teaching at the school. In two weeks Karen will be really close to having her baby so I am going to take over her classes and teach the kids Christmas carols…while it’s 28 degrees outside and the mangos are ripening!
Monday, October 09, 2006
well, I have been in Paraguay for 3 whole days now, and I feel like I would need to post a new entry on my blog every hour if I wanted to tell you about all the new and exciting things I've experienced. But since I have to wake up at 5:30, I'll keep it short. On Friday I spent the day at the school. It is a simple two-storey building with small classrooms and a playground(with a wooden slide!) and a court for playing the 3 favourite sports: soccer and volleyball and handball. I don't even attempt to play the first with them, but the fourth-graders (my favourite class so far) asked me to play handball with them, and all the girls who didn't get to be on my team cried.
Yesterday Ben and his financee Vivi took me downtown. I am going staying with the missionaries right now, but am moving to live with Vivi and her sister Emi tomorrow in an apartment about the size of our living room. I get along very well with Oscar and Karen and their two boys (they like me too, the boys were won over by my ipod!), and I adore Vivi, I can see why Ben fell in love with her. She speaks enough english for her and I to communicate with much difficulty, everyone else I can barely understand a word! When a boy asked me what I liked about Paraguay, I said "todo"-everything- and everyone started laughing. I learned the important lesson that a "d" must be pronounced "th" because to pronounce it like I do in english makes its sound like a rolled "r," so he thought I said "torro," meaning, of course, "bull."
I do like the bulls though, and the skinny horses that feed untethered beside the city roads and the roosters that wander around and all the stray dogs. I like the salty corn bread with whole kernals of corn and the empanadas (deep fried pastry filled with "carne") that I've eaten everyday so far and a drink called mate (ma-teh) in which you pour a few tablespoons of hot water into a cup with what looks like tea leaves and drink it through a straw. Everyone shares from the same cup, and when it's drunk cold it's called terere (teh-reh-reh).
In another couple of days I'm probably going to get a little sick as my digestive system gets used to the water. I'm also going to go crazy trying to have the simplest of conversations and having it take forever. But the people are very patient with me, and I hope you will be too as I probably won't have the chance to write again until next weekend. I want so badly to be able to tell you what it's like here, but I just think everyone needs to visit. It is amazing. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Yesterday Ben and his financee Vivi took me downtown. I am going staying with the missionaries right now, but am moving to live with Vivi and her sister Emi tomorrow in an apartment about the size of our living room. I get along very well with Oscar and Karen and their two boys (they like me too, the boys were won over by my ipod!), and I adore Vivi, I can see why Ben fell in love with her. She speaks enough english for her and I to communicate with much difficulty, everyone else I can barely understand a word! When a boy asked me what I liked about Paraguay, I said "todo"-everything- and everyone started laughing. I learned the important lesson that a "d" must be pronounced "th" because to pronounce it like I do in english makes its sound like a rolled "r," so he thought I said "torro," meaning, of course, "bull."
I do like the bulls though, and the skinny horses that feed untethered beside the city roads and the roosters that wander around and all the stray dogs. I like the salty corn bread with whole kernals of corn and the empanadas (deep fried pastry filled with "carne") that I've eaten everyday so far and a drink called mate (ma-teh) in which you pour a few tablespoons of hot water into a cup with what looks like tea leaves and drink it through a straw. Everyone shares from the same cup, and when it's drunk cold it's called terere (teh-reh-reh).
In another couple of days I'm probably going to get a little sick as my digestive system gets used to the water. I'm also going to go crazy trying to have the simplest of conversations and having it take forever. But the people are very patient with me, and I hope you will be too as I probably won't have the chance to write again until next weekend. I want so badly to be able to tell you what it's like here, but I just think everyone needs to visit. It is amazing. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
