Ellen in Paraguay

Well, vacations are officially over and the weather turned a little cold again, but I am still enthusiastic, rejoicing over the wonderful two weeks I had, and looking forward to the return of Ocsar and Karen and Ben and Vivi. Plus we are expecting many north American visitors during the month of August, so I’m glad for all the Spanish practice I’ve had and anticipating translation practice. One compliment I learned here that I want to start using in English is sos percha “you’re a hanger” i.e. “you look good in anything.” I heard someone use that once on Ben.
I’ve made two interesting language discoveries lately: A common way of saying you’ve done something in vain is to do en balde literally“in bucket” and changing the preposition to “of” or “from bucket” de balde means “for nothing.” Thus, when I went to Argentina and we had to wash from a bucket, we were literally bathing in vain!
Second observation: the common word for wedding or marriage is “casamiento,” in which I only recently noticed the root casa “house” and so I guess it means something like a house-making? I joked that my friends Carolina and Alcildes didn’t really have a casamiento last month, because after getting married they moved into her bedroom in her dad’s house…they had a pieza-miento, a room-making!
My highlight of the weekend was playing Trivial Pursuit. I proudly announced that the game was invented by Canadians. This is obvious when playing the English version due to the over-proportionate amount of obscure Canadian political and historical facts, like who was Samuel D. Champlain or who was the eighth premier of Saskatchewan? Maybe Canadians won’t know the answer to the latter, but at least we know what a premier is and where Saskatchewan is located. My biggest challenges in the Paraguayan version were questions likes “how do you say dance in Guarani” (it’s jeroky) or chronologically who was the first Paraguayan poet? I had a lucky guess on which South American country produces the most salt (Chile, lots of coastline!) and I learned that Beethoven’s 9th, symphony, otherwise known as “Ode to Joy,” is the only coral symphony.
The picture is some of the friends I made at camp in Argentina.

I meant to title the last entry “ask and it will be given to you.” I think this verse is just as well-known and oft-quoted in North America, but the people here probably have a lot better understanding of it and take it more seriously. I have to admit I don’t know if the “unconstrained generosity” is a phenomenon of the Paraguayan culture in general or just among the church people, but since they themselves give freely, they see this same character trait in God. It is obvious in the way they speak and pray that when they ask something of God, they expect to get it, no matter how outrageous the request may seem to me. They have no fear in asking, and have complete confidence that God will give the very best, because that is also what they would do.

I just got back from church camp in Argentina. Oscar and Karen and their boys, Ben and Vivi were also attending camp, but in Washington with my friends and family, so I was glad to have something else to occupy my mind and keep me from being too nostalgic. I almost didn’t go for threat of the cold, but we were blessed with four sunny days, and I was blessed to share a small bed with Maria to keep me warm during four cold nights!I think I am in for a real shock when I go home, because even a trip to Argentina shows Paraguay in a pretty bad state of being. As soon as you cross the border, everything gets cleaner and nicer. The form of speaking is more melodic and smooth, and the people wear nicer clothes! One difference that I really appreciated was hearing four-part harmony at our camp meetings. Poor little Paraguay doesn't seem to have much of a chance in comparison. One night we watched the final of "Copa America" the classic game between Brazil and Argentina, and Marcelo, a Paraguayan, confessed to me that he hoped Brazil would win because he didn't know if he could stand the Argentineans' pride afterwards. They lost 3-0 so we didn't have to put up with any gloating and took a night walk downtown to the river where you could look across to Paraguay. It was very beautiful, but it was still in South America. The camp was at a school where everyone slept spread out on the floor in classrooms, there was only one cold shower and 5 out of 7 toilets didn't work in the women's bathroom. But I was a celebrity! I have to admit I am almost tired of speaking English, or at least the phrases "how are you?" and "good morning." I got three invitations to come to different parts of the country and teach English. I had no idea there were so many AC churches in Argentina. Also, greetings to the Pavkovs who know people in Argentina, and the Kovacs in Kitchener. When we were not at camp, I stayed at the house of David, who is engaged to my friend Maria from Lambaré. In his family there are nine boys and only one girl, and all the boys still live on the farm together, even the two married ones with families. David's mom confessed to me that she is worried for the six sons between the ages of 21 and 35 who aren't married yet. Perhaps partly for this reason, I was treated grandly and am invited back anytime! I would like to visit again, especially for the evangelistic campaign we are going to have in August there, but I know now that my heart is committed to Paraguay because of how I missed it. Even though the roads are bad and I don't care for the popular music and customer service is at an all time low, I have fallen into unreasonable and unexplainable love.I am afraid to write about this next topic for fear that my readers will not understand and be offended like I used to be, but this phrase keeps going through my mind since I heard it 3 days ago and if I don’t write about it I feel like I will burst: "If I have it, I give it." These words, even simpler in Spanish, were uttered by the wife of one of the married brothers in reference to an herb that someone was looking to add to her mate, but it could very well include material possession, all you have to do is ask. For example, this weekend a girl asked me for my jeans because she liked them, and when they didn't fit, she asked for a shirt, any one of my shirts so she could remember me. Another guy asked me for my sweatshirt because he liked it. He was the fourth person to ask me for this particular sweatshirt, but I haven't given it away, reasoning that I only have two sweatshirts and if it gets cold again, what will I do? But this mindset is not shared by the people here, and I am slowly beginning to understand. They don't think about caring for themselves in the future, they think about having good relationships right now. From now on, I am going to be complimented when someone likes my stuff or when they want something to remember me by. Often North American visitors will leave without their watch or their running shoes. Marcelo, who I am sure has a lot less stuff than I do, gave away a jacket and a toque this weekend, even though it might get cold again and he doesn't have a replacement. Maybe his plan is just to ask someone else for one! I think one reason why I am so affected is that I didn't exchange enough money, and instead of worrying about who would pay back who or exchanging with me for Guaranies, everyone just shared and the group took care of me. Don't worry, I am not taking advantage of them, in the end I gave people money, but the point is that no one asked or expected me to pay them back, they just gave. I think I used to be very discriminating in my giving, and taking into account the economic state of the person I was giving to or their ability to return the favour. I think here people just give and they enjoy it and they love the person they are giving to. I would love to experiment with this when I go back home and ask people for stuff and see what happens. I might need to too, since I am all pumped up now about giving away my stuff!

All the events of my life for the past week or so are tied together by the common thread that I was freezing cold for the duration of all of them. There is no respite from the cold here except being in a store or riding in a car, things I do with little frequency. I think I used to have a somewhat romantic notion of the poor people here; when you see the women outside washing clothes in the sunshine and the kids playing soccer barefoot on the warm earth, they look free and happy. Yesterday when I saw the kids playing outside barefoot it just made me sink further into my layers of clothing. A lady at church told me that it has never been like this before, and usually winter consists of maybe two or three days of cold. Which is actually no consolation to me, since this is the only winter in Paraguay that I know. But it is obvious to me that this is not normal, or they would have started building houses and wearing clothes better suited to survive this cold. Today I am leaving for church camp in Formosa, Argentina, where it is NOT uncommon to have cold, rainy weather. I am really scared of spending 4 days just suffering from the cold and not being able to sleep or shower.
I remember returning home from college 4 years ago in April and just when we thought it might start to warm up, there would be another snowfall and cold spell. I was almost depressed after more than 6 months of white ground, and I had to take hope from God’s promise to know (better than the rainbow one as far as I’m concerned) that there would ALWAYS be a change in seasons: seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, so I didn’t have to worry that it would stay winter forever. The great thing about Paraguay is that hope is always in sight. As soon as a tree looses its leaves, there are immediately new green buds pushing through. Yesterday, which I think was the coldest day of the year, I was still able to sit outside with the strong morning sunshine warming my face. I will never be able to complain about weather again, hot or cold, humid or rainy. I will just have to be thankful for such things as indoor heating, thermo fleece, and air conditioning.

Even though I haven’t written an entry for awhile, and no one knows what I’ve been up to for two weeks, I am just going to focus on yesterday. I went with Pastor Pedro and two of his kids to a sister church /outreach in Bañado, which means “bathed.” Contrary to the luxurious images this name may invoke, it is a dirty and uncomfortable part of town. The houses, sometimes just a collage of cardboard and metal, are meant to be impermanent due to the occasional flooding by a river which in this part of town resembles a garbage pit/sewage mixture. Even though that morning I was sufficiently cold to wear two sweaters and leave my winter jacket on during the service, I noticed that most people in attendance only had a sweater. One man was wearing only one flip flop, only one being necessary because the other leg just had a big round nub on the end of it in place of a foot. The service was on giving the best of ourselves and all we have to God, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of the poor widow who gave her last few cents as we went forward to give our offerings.
There were less than 30 people there for the sermon, but when it came time for me to teach the Sunday School class afterwards, I think there must have been near 70 or 80 kids. They tell me that just like the poor farmers on the banana island, here too every household has 5 or 6 kids. It is really easy to do children’s ministries in places like this, or I should say, it is easy to get lots of kids to show up if you have some sandwiches or a bag of candy. I told an embellished Paraguayan version of Jesus’ parable in Matthew 14 about a man who finds a treasure in a field, and in his joy goes out and sells everything he has to buy the field. In my adaptation, the man owned a hat, a coal cooking stove (which he sold for 15,000Gs, or $3), a bed, a cow, and a little house., and the treasure that he found had been buried by Francisco Lopez (see my blog entry from May). Of course, the greatest treasure we can seek cannot be put in a box and locked up; Jesus uses the hidden treasure as an illustration of the kingdom of heaven. When someone encounters this treasure, he or she will gladly give up whatever it takes to live a life of peace, love and service to others. That is why I try to be happy and not feel sorry for myself even when my family is all together on vacation at the beach.
The remainder of Sunday I celebrated Canada’s 140th birthday with the Elliots, my favourite Canadian family in Paraguay. The kids made pretend fireworks, we sang the national anthem, we quizzed each other on Canadian trivia and took advantage of the nice weather by going to the park with the kids. I knew that the Quebec Act was signed in 1774, but I didn’t know what purpose it served. Lane had me read an article on the Timbit as a national symbol. We watched the first episode of “Little House on the Prairie” although in hindsight I guess “Anne of Green Gables” would have been more fitting for the date. It was probably the most celebrating I have ever done for Canada Day, ironically in a country that barely recognizes Canada’s existence. The Elliots like being famous in my blog. Lane showed me some fascinating Paraguayan statistics. I forgot the sheet at their house but I will write the ones I remember and maybe Lane can correct me if he reads this. Percentages of Paraguayans that have:
a car 24%
a freezer 70%
a TV 74%
a cell phone 36%
internet in their house 1.4%
I guess I only have one of the above mentioned, and even then our refrigerator is about 2 steps away from the old appliance grave, but I do have a computer to write my blog!