Ellen in Paraguay

Yesterday I got to hold a one-day old baby. He belongs to Oscar and Karen and he was three weeks early, but he’s just great. He doesn’t look funny or scrunched up at all; his head is a nice shape and the only weird thing about him are how his feet cock back like he was doing leg presses in the womb. But that’s good because it means he wants to have strong quads in order to be a soccer player. I snickered when I kept hearing people use the Spanish word for work “trabajando” to describe what Karen went through to have him, but then I remembered what “labor” means and I felt very silly. In fact, I feel so dumb that I am considering deleting that terribly embarrassing tidbit, but I will let it be just to show how learning other languages can help you understand your native tongue better. Anyways, Karen was meant to be a missionary. She had that baby like a pro and she’s probably back on her feet and baking a cake and nursing the baby at the same time or going to school board meetings. The doctor said he looked like an Arab just like Oscar!?! but the nurse said he looks german because of his cheeks. Oh, by the way his name is Edson. It’s a good name because it’s pronounced the same in both languages , it’s kinda original, it’s a town in Alberta, and it’s the name I was rooting for (they were also considering “Jonathon”).

Things are definitely winding up at school. We are finishing exams and preparing for the Christmas program at the end of November. On days like today one is really glad to be laying in her room under the fan writing a blog and not in class with 20 sweaty kids; Ben said it was 36 degrees at 7 o’clock last night, plus there were a bazillion mosquitoes out. By the way, if you don’t want me to have to be stuffed into a class with 40 kids next year, you can give money so for building the addition to the school. It’s really easy: just send money to the ACC missionary foundation for the “Paraguay School.” And then I’ll help build it… it’s a good deal, free labor!!

I realized this week I have NO CLUE what is going on in the rest of the world. I haven’t so much as glanced at a newspaper (sorry Auntie Barb, I think I broke my promise to try and stay globally informed). I want everyone who reads my blog to stop right now and think about how thankful you are that you can pick up a newspaper or turn the radio on or look on the internet and learn what’s going on. And most of all that you can be politically informed. The political process here is utterly anti-intellectual and corrupt, so Ben tells me. But I had already observed the campaign vehicles driving around with HUGE speakers blasting music (how does this get people to vote??), and heard the fireworks at night, and seen the volunteers or campaign people or whatever sitting around their posters and drinking beer. It’s very strange. The funny thing is that the voters are fairly uninformed, but everybody votes – it’s illegal to even have church on the Sunday that they have elections. Sorry that everything I know about Paraguayan politics so far are bad. I was reading a poster that said something like “stop the corruption, stop the lies,” and Karen just scoffed and said “yeah right.” Sad.

I dedicate this entry to Ben’s mom, who I hear has been appreciating my blog. I tried to make it very descriptive and specific just for you, Lily. I just started to read the comments so I want people to write good comments and ask questions to keep my blog exciting, and maybe you will get special mention! Also, it’s not like I miss this at all, but there aren’t doorknobs in Paraguay, just handles. Just something different.

# posted by Ellen @ 7:30 PM