Ellen in Paraguay

I’m going to add a little bit to the discussion on money that I started last week, since one of my primary forms of entertainment is still to go to the supermarket and look at prices. Here is an except that might be of interest to you, taken from “The Essential Handbook for Short-Term Missions: Produced exclusively for service at Iglesia Nazarena Apostólica Cristiana and Centro Educativo Adonai in Asunción, Paraguay” (that’s just the working title, doesn’t it make you want to read it?)

Empanada (staple snack): 1,500 Gs ($.30)

Potatoes: 2,000 Gs per Kilo ($.40)

City bus ride: 2,100 Gs ($.40)

2 Liter Pop: 3,000 Gs ($.60)

Toothpaste (90 g): 4,000 Gs ($.80)

Notebook: 5,000 Gs ($1)

Lunch at church: 5,000 Gs ($1)

Camp T-shirt: 20,000 Gs ($4)

Thermos: 35,000 Gs. ($7)

Long-distance bus ride: 50,000 Gs. ($10)

Propane tank fill (10 L): 50,000 Gs. ($10)

Desk: 150,000 Gs ($30)

Cell Phone: 300,000 Gs ($60)

Bed (good mattress): 500,000 Gs. ($100)

There is a minimum wage set here, about $200 a month. It’s not much but definitely enough for a single person to live on (my rent is $30 a month and I pay around $50 for food). The sad part is that three-quarters of the people actually make less than minimum wage, because it is not enforced by the government (this sounds like an exaggeration, but I read it in The Lonely Planet Guidebook, a very reputable source, and it is also confirmed by trusted others), and therefore not enough to live on. I was talking with a lady from the church who wants to get into social work, and she told me that there are more than 15,000 homeless children in this city of about 600,000 people and she blames it mostly on the corrupt government and a lack of education.

In some ways I am starting to believe that there could indeed be human sacrifices carried out atop of Cerro Lambaré or on Halloween and the authorities not knowing or caring enough to do anything about it. Lots of times the police just come and park their truck on the corner by my house and sit around drinking tereré. At least they don’t eat donuts and get fat like N.A. police, haha. And I know that traffic violations are rarely enforced, which is why I greatly prefer walking, or as Ben says, taking the linea 11 (Get it? 11, like you have two legs?).

On Wednesday Judah Weinhardt from Phoenix arrived to visit for awhile before the wedding. I think his first impressions of Paraguay must be very extreme. First of all, our church camp started the day after he arrived – three full days of spending lots of time with people and sitting in on Bible classes, difficult things to do when you don’t understand Spanish. It works well for me though because not only do I have someone to speak English with, I am also getting lots of practice translating. The first night of camp there was a torrential rain storm, like nothing I’ve ever seen. I thought it was fun because we were all at the church and of course the electricity was out so we just sat in the dark telling riddles and listening to people play guitar. But then I found out that it was nothing like anyone else had ever seen either, and we started to get worried when the water started coming into the classrooms. Thankfully it let up soon after that, but since the floors were a little wet I had a woman from the church and her daughter come sleep over at my house. One thing I really like about the people here are how easy-going they are; it seems like they will just sleep anywhere, fitting two or three people on a single mattress, with no need for pillows or pajamas. We stayed up late talking, but I finally called it quits after about an hour of the dumbest dumb-blond jokes I have ever heard.

Camp was a little low-key because usually they have one-hundred or more people that come from other churches, but I guess the biggest of those decided to have their own camp this year. I thought it was nice that almost everyone in our church had time to come for the whole weekend. On Friday it was a national holiday for the Virgin of Caacupe. Thousands of people made a pilgrimage to Caacupe, some leaving even on Monday or Tuesday and spending the whole week walking to Caacupe. So I’m glad at this point not to be catholic, because instead I got to play volleyball and eat great meals with all my friends! Although I regret not being more informed on exactly why so many people went there and how far away it is.

Speaking of being informed, on Sunday I had a chance to read a newspaper in a bakery while Ben and Vivi shopped for wedding cookies. I’m not sure if it was a high-end newspaper, but the “world section” was exactly three pages long. It had great pictures in the entertainment section though. I’ll tell you about an interesting piece of local news. Last year a fire started in a big supermarket, and the owners didn’t want all the customers to run out with their un-purchased food so they locked the doors. It ended up costing them more money in the end however, because some 400 people died and they had to go to court over the matter. This week it was decided that the owners whose decision it was to lock the doors would get two years in prison. Some people were so upset with the lenient sentence that they burned down another one of the supermarkets in the chain!! Generally people tend to not exercise a whole lot of caution with fire. One day someone that lives across the street from the church decided to light a huge pile of trash and yard debris on fire, and it also burned down half a mango tree. Composting is unheard of; almost every day someone from the neighborhood has a big stinky fire burning, even today when it’s over 30 degrees!

# posted by Ellen @ 8:10 PM