Ellen in Paraguay

My sister and I are both here in the church sanctuary using our particular creative talents; as I write my blog, she is painting a mural of a Paraguayan river scene. On Saturday we took a tour of the countryside and now she is inspired to put into paint what I am writing down (but maybe I will post some pictures too). The topography of Paraguay is quite fascinating. AS I mentioned in an earlier blog, we are actually quite close to sea level, but every once in a while, a big hump juts out of the rolling flatness. One such hump is Cerro Lambaré where we got robbed a few weeks back, another is Cerro Yaguaron. There was a rainy torment the night before, but by the following afternoon the sky was a blue as it could be for us to climb the hill and see for miles. The only thing that put a damper on our hike was the teenager with his eyes on us and following as we took out cameras to take pictures on the deserted crest of the hill. Jason and Larissa and I may have been a little paranoid due to the previous events, but thankfully the most dangerous occurrence was when Karen saw a scorpion.
At the next place we stopped, I nicknamed Oscar the Paraguayan crocodile hunter owing to his superior knowledge of flora and fauna. I like how he differentiates between animals whose poison is fatal, and other that aren’t that aren’t really “poisonous” because they don’t kill you. The boys and I were wading around in the creek trying not to get our clothes too wet, but all our prior vigilance was forgotten when Gaby and I spotted a snake in the water and were only concerned with getting out as fast as possible. Oscar taught us how to tap the spiny stem of a certain plant to make the leaves steadily fold up on hinges and so we were occupied for the next few minutes seeking bushes to tap and filming video clips. I remember how during the winter time my siblings and I would pass the time waiting for the school bus by cracking the ice in puddles if the day wasn’t too cold for it to be frozen solid, and I imagined Oscar tapping all of the plants he could find while waiting out in his yard or walking along the way to school. In this same place by the creek we also found a bright orange fluid fungus called “Jew’s ear,” which I would say looked more like a cerebrum, I stepped into a booby trap under a decomposed log, and we did a photo shot with a frog.
As the sun was dropping, we visited Ypacarai lake just outside of the city. I remember reading about how often Spanish names don’t fit with the thing they are describing, but I have never met a worse example than the so called “blessed waters.” Well, the area called San Bernardino used to be a very exclusive expensive tourist resort, noted from the country clubs and fancy hotels. Then they found out that tons of sewage and other pollutants were seeping into the lake and no one has really done anything about it. Today there are still many vacation homes, but the hotels are closing up, and Gaby said it best when he called it a lake full of poop and oil.That night I was in my glory as we back and made a campfire at Oscar and Karen’s house, and I got to roast a whole bunch of hot dogs and marshmallows for everyone and we all shared our favourite parts of the day and heard funny stories about Brandon and Gaby when they were little. It was almost as fun the next day trying to describe a marshmallow to Emi so that she could understand. I am so glad I have some people I care about here to meet my friends and especially Oscar and Karen’s family so that when I go back and I miss them, my family will understand why.