Siete

   

Well It’s Christmas time so you could probably call this a Christmas letter. But this letter is only about this week. Not the whole year. 
 
Sunday, December 21, 2020
‘Born a babe in a Manger. Never a lowlier birth. ’ I thought of this song this weekend when I went to church. I’m not comparing our church house to a stable, rather I’m comparing the stable to a church. I don’t know how that stable looked, but it became a castle thru the birth of Jesus the King. 
Our church here is lowly. The bluish grey wooden building stands close to the front of the long, narrow lot. A fence keeps large, unwanted visitors (cows mainly) out but neighboring chickens and any small animal can easily come visit. Half of the front yard is red dirt but the rest, including the back, is grass. Numerous flowering or not flowering bushes line the front yard while the way back boasts a few banana plants. Just behind the church, a. mango tree and a grape vine over an arbor provide us richly with shade for Sunday School and sustenance for after church, and an outhouse stands at attention. Inside church is some sort of a smooth, hard floor, stained from the dirt of the shoes of the people walking on it every Sunday. Six or 9 plastic lawn chairs are in their places, waiting to be useful, and a few wooden benches indicate where the children sit. A large fan in the corner tries valiantly to keep us all cool with the help of the 3 open windows. (no glass. Just shutters) and the 2 open doors. The cicadas sing along with us and occasional voices are heard from the house just 10 or so feet away from the church building. Some cows mumble while grazing in the long grass across the road and a moto or 2 noisily makes its way up the bumpy, dirt road. 
To me, this is lowly. I spent quite a few of my years going to a church with rug on the floor, soft (ish) benches and a high, arching ceiling. A church that can seat a few hundred people. Compared to that, our church here in Paraguay looks like something that could be used as a stable. But it’s not. It doesn’t matter how it looks, it’s a castle to all who come thru its doors and open their hearts to what the King is telling them.
I could go on and on about today. 
We sit outside on the porch visiting. It rained hard when we got here but cleared up soon after. The puddle that consequently formed (and has Tiago’s rapt attention) quickly dries up when the sun comes out. Numerous buildings line the yard. The house itself doesn’t big enough to house these people and the other ones who are apparently at youth. The wraparound porch is apparently what Menno Simon’s had on his house and is very popular amongst these people. The conversation is light, occasionally someone goes into a spiel in Plauteich or explains something in English, but mostly it is conducted in Spanish, the only common language between these two (them and us) Mennonite families. The girls have playmates their age and run around getting dirty and on each other’s nerves. After some discussion and terere, the woman of the house says its time to prepare faspa. We ladies go inside to set the table and set out cookies and breads and instant coffee. We adults sit around the table, duck our heads in separate, silent prayer and dig in. And dig in is what everybody does. There’s no polite ‘Pass the cookies please’ or worrying about where the crumbs go. Stretch your arm out as long as it can go to grab the water or use your knife as an arm extension to stab a piece of cheese. Or even loudly proclaim that you don’t eat sweets and make your mom warm up some meat for you and then shovel it in with no regard to the size of your bites. Due to the shoveling, after about 12.75 minutes everybody is done and the men stand up to go back outside and the children come in to take their places. No need to clear the table, the children’s can use the same plates as the adults did. And soon they’re done too. We left soon after we ate so I didn’t get to see how dishes were done. 
 
Monday, December 21, 2020
Today was our last day of school before Christmas. 
In an effort to decorate a bit for our Christmas, we tied stripes of red and green fabric to a string to make a bit of a garland. Due to the fact that we did not have sufficient fabric, we added some pink and the result is quite beautiful. I am not being sarcastic. We spent another few minutes wrapping our fingers in yarn in an attempt to produce pompoms. The results came with various success. We are planning to hang these pompoms and garland in the quincho with some tinsel and the ‘Silent night’ paper stars I have in my classroom and eat our Christmas dinner in style. 
Later this evening we opened (or quick downloaded) our respective apps and pointed our phones at the sky to make sure the double ‘Christmas star’ we were indeed Jupiter and Saturn. And once we got started looking at stars we kept on for awhile. Stars amaze and wonder me and I wish I had applied myself better in school and would know more about them. Or maybe start studying them now. 
And while we’re on the topic of celestial beings, last week there was a partial solar eclipse here. Apparently some of Argentina had a full solar eclipse but here we never saw any change in the sunlight. We were driving at the appointed time but we stopped the vehicle in order to see this wonder. Due to the sun being bright, we could not see it properly with unprotected eyes so we tried first one, then 2 and finally 3 pairs of sunglasses stacked up and we were able to view it nicely without hurting our eyes. The sun looked like someone had taken a bite out of one side of it. 
 
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
We sit in a circle on our chairs (something like the chairs you see below. These are very popular here.) 

And start reading our Bible Study Text for today. Today it is Doña Felicita, one of her daughters and Eric and Rachelle and me. The girls find stuff to do with Felicita’s granddaughters and Tiago comes and goes out of our circle and the whims of his sisters. Often we read a Sunday School lesson but today we are reading an article on Justification By Faith. Some of us say this topic is hard for us to understand and I made the comment that today it would be especially hard for me to understand due to the language difference. 
Behind us sits Felicita’s 2-room brick house with a garden to the side and a kitchen and more plants and trees behind it. Her chakra (a bigger garden almost like a field where they would grow corn and mandioca) is behind that yet and her children live in house mere steps or stone throws from her house. A tree in front provides shade for us in the afternoon and the passion fruit vine that she has growing over the (short) arbor that forms the entrance to her front yard provides shade when we go in the morning. Chickens roam the yard and a few dogs act like they want to join us. Cicadas provide background music for us. A car drives by just on our side of the ditch and then decides to just use the ditch as a road to access the highway. A few motos drive by on the highway, numerous people with different bags and tools and whatnot sticking out in any direction. (It’s not uncommon to see a moto driving down the street dragging a 10ft piece of rebar behind it.) A bright red car seems to have a bit of trouble and stops just off the highway where he stays for most of our Bible Study. A rusty old truck drives by pulling a trailer just big enough to house one cow and sounding as though he has a flat tire somewhere. The afternoon was hot when we arrived, but by the end of our visit it had cooled down and there was a bit of a fresh breeze cooling us down. 
 

Cody Santiago is the youngest and only boy of my family here. He’s a fair haired child with hazel-ish eyes and a charming grin. He’s a little bit shy like babies should be but he loves to smile at people and sometimes even perform his little tricks. He can get a bit offended at me when I pick him up but I can usually distract him and eventually he almost forgets that he’s not supposed to like being with me. Or if I’m working in the kitchen he doesn’t mind me holding him and him ‘helping’ me. A week or so after I got here he started taking a step or 2 without holding onto anything, but just in the last 2 weeks he’s really started taking off and walking everywhere. When he crawled, he had a funny way of crawling on all fours due to the rough, hot ground he crawled on. 
The reason I’m describing Tiago to you is that today was his first birthday. His high chair was decorated with balloons and later on he got to eat a cupcake all by himself with everybody standing around him, egging him on. He loved the attention. He got his face full of whipped cream and started grinning and making funny faces at us all and making us laugh. 
 
Thursday, Christmas Eve
A lot of Paraguayans are Catholic. The Paraguayan Catholics celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. They all get together in the evening and do their asados (barbeques) and then at 12 they start eating. I guess that would be Christmas day already then. Anyways. Rachelle met one of her friends in town the other day and found out they weren’t doing anything tonight so she made plans for us to go see her and her dad and her sons this afternoon. Well we arrive late afternoon and find her dad hoeing weeds in his big dirt front yard. Rachelle’s friend just left but she’ll be back soon. At this news Rachelle murmurs to me that she’s not surprised but we seat ourselves on the offered chairs and start visiting and waiting. Nobody seems surprised when the lady never shows up but we had a good time chatting with her Dad and he gave us a bunch of beautiful pineapples from their garden when we left. 
A few hours later came the long awaited hour. The blanket was spread out under the stars and after spending some time playing games and figuring out strategies midnight came and with it the fireworks. This is another Catholic tradition. Only apparently there weren’t nearly as many as other years but the amount was still impressive. There were a few big ones like you see in big North American firework displays but most of them were small and a lot of them just consisted of a big boom and some smoke. And maybe we’d see the flash of light. But my ears are still ringing from the noise. 
 
 
Friday, December 25, 2020
What can I tell you about our Christmas Day. Maybe I’ll just write a few pointers because writing everything about the day would be too boring. 
•    Karlins showed up around lunchtime today. We were expecting them but not so soon. 
•    I didn’t check the temperature at all today but it didn’t feel very hot. Maybe about 30° C. 
•    Even tho it wasn’t 40°C today we made sure to do our program in a room that was slightly cooled from AC. It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to a Christmas program in short sleeves and sandals. 
•    We listened to Steinbach youth program in the afternoon and then surfed the Listen To Church app to see who else we could listen to yet. 
•    Mom brought us 2 escape room games when they came. We played one when they were out and we played the other one this afternoon. This afternoon we had a lot more luck then the other time. It only took 5 of us 1.5 hours to finish and we didn’t use any hints or clues. These would be really good games to play during quarantine because they take so long but not very good games to play if you don’t have much time. 
•    We decided to do our asado for supper tonight instead of last night when we could smell everyone else’s. Our feast consisted of fish, shrimp, Paraguayan cheese, pineapple and individual garlic bread all done on the grill and then sides of green bean casserole and curry potatoes and Pepsi to round out the meal. I don’t think anyone was hungry for Christmas goodies afterwards, but they definitely were available. 
•    Speaking of Christmas goodies. In Asuncion, we went into a fancy grocery store with items that you rarely find in Paraguay and while strolling the aisles I came upon some After Eights that I couldn’t live without and so we bought them and have already finished out one whole box. 
 
That’s about the size of it. 
 
Saturday, Boxing Day
Its amazing how lazy a person can be when there is nothing specific to do. I did play a few games with the kids this morning. I have wonderful childhood memories of playing King’s Base and Bear Around The Corner and those sort of games with how many other missionary kids ranging in age from CSI boys and teachers down to the 5 or 6 year olds who just got in the way all the time. But with only 4 kids aged 4 to 9 and 2 little one year olds to try to play around the game selection and quality just doesn’t match up to the memories. 
Shayla had brought the leftover meat from their asado on Christmas Eve so we had a feast for lunch. Around 2, I hopped into the truck with Karlins, stopped halfway to our destination for (McDonald’s) ice cream, passed a lot of slow vehicles including one who’s model name was Rush (ironic, IMHO, as it clearly was not Rushing) and soon arrived at the Camp 9 mission house. Tonight is practice for the youth Christmas program and tomorrow I’ll help them deliver it at church. 
I was going to send this letter without this paragraph. But then I decided to write this paragraph so I will sent it with this paragraph. Practise at 1900. Those of us who show up tonight do so a bit before 1900. The setting is church. Turn off the highway, up the short, steep driveway and pull in under the trees. Some arrive by bicycle, some on foot, some by car. The church is situated right front and center, a teacher age toward the back of the property and a small school room off toward the edge. Grass and red dirt make a patchwork quilt on the ground and the volleyball net in the backyard is sagging. Maybe it hasn’t been used in awhile. Everybody greets each other and soon we walk thru the doors and creak across the floor to the front. Everybody knows their place to stand and after a hasty consultation I’m given a spot too. And without further ado we start to sing. I know all the tunes of the 9 songs and just have to concentrate on the words which is becoming easier and easier to me. The Guarani song does throw me for a few loops tho. Most of us sing soprano, guys and girls alike, with one or 2 of us taking each of the other voices. There’s no chatting between songs, no fooling around or cracking jokes. Everybody songs like they mean it and the results could move anyone to tears. My favorite song is the second last one. Not a Christmas song and I’ve heard them sing it once before. The song in English in ‘Lift Him Up, Higher Higher.’ My favorite parts in Spanish, the ones that flow and swell together are as follows. ‘Álzale, muy muy alto…Es la única esperanza.’ (‘Lift him up higher higher.. He’s the only hope of promise’ in the English version.) And then we sing the traditional ‘We Wish You A Merry Christmas’ and we’re done practicing in half an hour. We sit down on the benches for a few minutes but by 1945 we’re all out the door and gone to our respective places. 
 
There’s been a Ford F250 roaming our neighborhood recently. Rachelle and I had to dash out of the house one day to make sure we were actually seeing what we thought we were. There are some full size pickups in Asuncion but around Barrio San Pedro we rarely see one, hence the dashing out of the house.
I think I skipped a Tuesday in my last letter too. I don’t have anything against Tuesdays. I guess nothing much worthy of writing home about happens on Tuesdays. 
 
Hasta luego, 
Addie
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Barrio San Pedro missionaries 
Eric and Rachelle Toews
Christina – 9 (Grade 4)
Ellie – 7 (Grade 2)
Aubrey – 5
Cody Santiago who is called Tiago – 1
Me - teacher
 
Campo Nueve/Camp 9 missionaries
Karlin and Shayla Hiebert 
Judd – 4
Gabe – 1
 

Cinco y Seis

 Sadly, my brain is still obviously English. As you will all have seen, I called my last letter ‘quatro.’ Only a few hours after I sent it did it register in my brain that I actually should have written ‘cuatro.’ I hope you can forgive this mistake and overlook any more honest ones that I make.  

 

 Sunday, December 6, 2020

 The preacher, song leader, Sunday school superintendent and teacher were all under the weather this morning so church was cancelled. Rachelle offered to preach and I thought I’d make a good Spanish song leader but apparently that didn’t go over well. Christina made us pancakes for breakfast and a few hours later Rachelle and I walked to the store for a few things for our asado (barbeque) for lunch. I napped and read all afternoon and later we went to Guajayvi (about 20 or 30 minutes from home) for a drive and some ice cream. We are quite spoiled here I must say.   

 

Monday, December 7, 2020 

Normal school day today. I’ll walk you through a bit of our normal school day. We start at 0800. Some mornings we’re still sitting around the breakfast table at 0749 and then we all scurry to be ready on time. We have devotions at the breakfast table so we start school with a few songs and go right into math. By 1000 we hopefully have math and language done and we go outside to play ten steps or bear around the corner or dodge ball before running in for a few minutes of story. On the hottest days the girls will sometimes run to the little shop next door for ice cream. After story, we have reading, spelling, science, sometimes penmanship and if work has been going fast then some map workbooks. We’ve only had 2 art periods (much to the girls’ dismay) due to super short weeks or else mixed up days. It’s not uncommon to be doing our work to the beat of the music coming from the gym behind us, or to be constantly opening the door or adjusting the fan speed or trying to get the cool air from the AC in my room right next door in order to be able to study better.  

It was suggested that I should maybe go see Sara (see the evening we went to Julian’s in one of my first three diaries. Probably on Sunday in Tres) while the rest of the family went to Felicita’s this afternoon. I was not fond of the idea as I’m not a very outgoing person especially in another language that I don’t actually know very well. But I decided it would be good for me to go. So I went. Now Sara is quite a bubbly (for lack of better wording) girl who never lacks for words or, it seems, energy. I imagine you’ve all got it figured out already that my expectations were sadly lacking. I had an absolutely wonderful time with her. We found some shade and terere and both used our phones sometimes to translate and figure out what the other one said. She knows some English from school and puts it to good use, and is excited to learn more. Her dad and brother came in from the garden after awhile and sat with us. They both know English and use it to varying extents.  

Too soon, Eric came to pick me up. Today was exactly one month since Rodolfo (Felicita’s son) died and they wanted to sing for awhile so I went to join them. After singing awhile, we stopped at a place in town here for supper. We walked thru the restaurant, or maybe it was the bar part, and out across to the patio to another patio and set up a table and chairs for us to eat at. We ate out there all alone under the stars. The play structures were blown up for the girls to play on and Tiago and I eventually decided we weren’t going to miss out on the fun so we joined them.   

 

Wednesday, December 9, 2020 

We were done school by 1130 today. Or rather I let the girls out at 1130 so I could go stuff some overnight necessities into my backpack. We picked up lunch along the way and 3 hours or so later we arrived at our grand hotel, Los Alpes, in Asuncion. We didn’t waste any time in making our way down to the (outdoor) pool once we were checked in. The pool itself was smallish but clean (it also had a water falls in it) and the area around it was full of chairs and trees and fake grass and a little bit it sunshine. You didn’t need the sunshine to dry off tho, it was warm in the shade, too. I did the same thing as I usually do to my family. After awhile in the pool (never long enough for the ones I’m with) I opened my book and spent the rest of the time reading.  When an hour or two had passed, we jumped into the van again and headed off to go shopping. First Rachelle and I ran into a bit of a Superstore type of place called Superseis saying we wouldn’t take long and then we wound thru 1 layer of underground parking to park on the second underground floor. Oh and we all got our temperature taken before being allowed into parking, which would be normal here for big stores except that they’d often temp just the adults or just the front 2 people in the van. And another thing before we move on, the driving here is not like driving in Winnipeg. There are some stoplights and street signs but mostly it’s fend for yourself. Stick your nose in and make yourself known if you need to turn onto another street. Any amount of space between you and the on coming vehicle is enough to pass the vehicles in front of you, the oncoming person just has to move onto the shoulder. A honk doesn’t mean ‘hi’ or ‘you are doing something wrong,’ a honk is to let someone know you are coming up behind them or just letting them know that you are there. Oh. And watch for motos. Those little guys can be quite sneaky, weaving in and out of traffic, off and on the shoulder. I still can’t figure out when they act like vehicles and when they act like pedestrians but I think usually that is left to the driver of the moto in question to decide.  Anyways. With the help of some escalators, we were transported from the cool, dimly lit parking garage and spit out into a grand shopping mall. I’m not sure of the full layout of the place but I think it had about 3 stories of stores on either side of a street with a walkway above the street. The stories didn’t contain a terribly high number of square feet (individually) if I remember correctly but it looked like there was a nice variation of stores. We didn’t go into very many of them, I’m looking for souvenirs not expensive things from Puma or Timberland, and soon made our way up to our ultimate destination, the food court. Which included a McDonald’s. That nobody went to. It also included another restaurant that seems to make the same food as McDonald’s but apparently is better then aforementioned Golden Arches. I didn’t try that either. I’m not going to say what I had cuz it was very boring and I could have gone to a good pasta place but I didn’t but we all stuffed ourselves and then some of us had frozen yogurt yet before we left. We left the empty parking garage behind us and drove around for a few minutes looking at Christmas lights. The over-the-street walkway in the mall is covered in lights to form Ñanduti* shapes. We all went to bed around 2130, in anticipation of the arrival of 0200 the next morning. Or night.    

 

Thursday, November 10, 2020 

0200 came and with it our reason of coming to Asuncion and we sleepily and excitedly climbed out of bed and into the van. The streets very pretty much deserted, maybe due to the fact that Covid restrictions here mean installing a curfew between 1000 and 0500 or something like that. One or 2 vendors still had their wares out but these ones sleep on the street beside their outdoor stores. We saw a few vehicles at first and then a few more on the main road. The parking lot at the airport was crowded with vehicles tho, and the street in front of the door with the inhabitants of those vehicles, waiting for the arrivals. This waiting outside is also due to Covid. Oh and also we all had to wear masks. Because of visas and other things it took a long time but eventually the doors opened to reveal Dad and Mom! Hugs all around and exclamations over how big people had grown and then we were back into the van, driving back down the deserted streets we had passed thru just an hour ago, stumbling back up the hotel steps and finally collapsing back into our beds. Only Dad and Mom were wide awake as their bodies didn’t think it was quite night time and their minds were working hard taking in this new country, this new continent. 

Eventually they must have slept tho, and then eventually we all woke up and had breakfast down by the pool. The girls swam again and the rest of us started on all the news and happenings of home.  And then we started ambling our way home. First we stopped at a roadside fruit stand and ended up buying more than just fruit. We stopped for lunch at a gas station slash restaurant slash tourist store called Ka’Avo. It’s the same place we stopped on the way home. From the airport when I came. Then we went in search of an Atm I think and ended up finding a fabric store. And later on, a little shop that sold beautiful wood cutting boards and spoons for a price you would never find in Canada. Oh and we bought at least 2 hammocks thru out the day. We actually did make it home without spending all our money.  We sat outside and unwound and had asaditos and Paraguayan tortillas for supper. And then chatted some more and eventually went to bed.   

 

Friday, November 11, 2020 

We took Dad and Mom to visit Felicita this morning. After drinking terere under her Maracuya (passion fruit) vine, we walked around her yard and she showed us all her plants. She can grow anything and everything it seems like. The most amazing plant to me is her cinnamon tree. The leaves smell exactly like cinnamon and you can use them to make your food taste like cinnamon but the actual stuff comes from the bark.  

In the afternoon we went to visit some Mennonites about an hour and a half north of us. Unlike most other Mennonite girls here, their girl Lisa who is 21 is in no hurry to find a boyfriend. This is quite rare but she seems to enjoy being single and having fun with her niece and family. In the guest house where we sat and chatted, they had an industrial sewing machine (called Jack. From China.) set up that they use sewing everyday items. The speed on the thing is quite insane.  We stopped for supper at a small restaurant on the way home. Delicious assorted sandwiches and wrap sort of food. But with slices of beef and fried eggs and pink ketchup.   

 

 Saturday, November 13, 2020 

We cleaned church this morning. Meaning we raked the fallen leaves and mangos and grapes and dumped the into their respective holes to be burned or composted. The church floor was swept and the chairs were wiped off and it was ready for church the next day!  

Saturday afternoons are Bible Study with Juan afternoons. He lives with his daughter I’d say 15 minutes from us and he’s over 90 and consequently it’s a bit hard for him to make it to church. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know his Bible or anything. He was a preacher in another church for 40 years and he regrets the false preaching he did during that time. 

Rachelle and the girls stayed home from Bible Study to get ready to have company tonight. Julian’s and 3 of their children came to sing with us and have supper with us. We sang a bunch of Christmas songs including Silent Night in three different languages, Spanish, Guarani and English.   

 

Sunday, November 13, 2020 

I taught the children’s Sunday School by myself this morning. It’s not very hard as there’s 3 eager helpers to translate for the 2 others who regularly come. The adults can get quite long winded with their Sunday School so we usually have a lot of time to color the picture in our book and too sing. Church starts at 0830 so we’re usually home before 1100.  

After dinner we took a drive thru the Durango colony to stare and comment on the different lifestyle. It might look simple and quiet but I don’t think it is actually that way. Due to it being Sunday afternoon, some of them had found some beer and we came upon one guy dancing in the middle of the road while his friends all crowded around someone else in a buggy most likely gazing in awe at a (forbidden) phone. A little while later a buggy was parked sideways across the road and the driver who seemed to have been fighting with his friend in the front seat made sure the horse knew it was its fault that this guy was drunk and mad and they weren’t going where they thought they were going. I don’t think that life is very peaceful.  

 

 Monday, December 14, 2020

It’s already Friday and I haven’t written any details since Sunday. Looks like you’ll be getting the bare minimum,  not many of the small details that make things interesting.  Today was a transit day. Rachelle had made muffins to take along so we all piled into the van before breakfast and started out on our journey. We stopped in Coronel Oviedo to spend some time in a fabric store where you pay by the pound and also for lunch at McDonald’s. Our final destination was Karlins in Camp 9 and once we reached, the men went visiting with some of the kids and us ladies had some delish iced coffees and set out to do more fabric shopping. (Yes the fabric and everything else that needed to did fit into the suitcases.) For supper we ate at a churrasqueria (Brazilian barbeque) where they 

 I’m beginning to think I wasn’t very smart when I first started sending letters/diaries/whatever you call them by the week. Except that I didn’t even send one last week so I must just be lazy. But I did write about last week so that does still count. It must just be me kicking against the pricks. This is something I’m making myself do so I don’t want to do it so I leave it til the last minute. It’s Friday night already and I’m hoping to listen to my cousins’ Christmas program in a few minutes if I don’t fall asleep but I still have about 4.5 days to write about. Sigh. Maybe I’ll wait til tomorrow.  

Anyways. Back to out supper on Monday. Those of you from my area back home, Carnaval in Winnipeg is a fancy Brazilian BBQ. I’m sure there are more restaurants like that around home, those just aren’t my North American style. I think I’ll definitely make it my South American style tho. They waiters bring around long sticks of different cuts of meats and cut it off and serve you right at your table. Some places also serve you grilled pineapple. This time we were also served sweetened condensed milk to pour over our pineapple (oh and here you also eat the core) which is, I think, a Paraguayan or South American special. I maybe made the last comment up. 

I can’t think of many more boring details about the evening other then the fact that we went home (to Karlin’s) and went to bed.  Actually, idk if I’ve mentioned it before so you may be tired of hearing this already but these people eat their supper late. As in we went for supper at 1930 ish and were the first or maybe the second group there. 2030 is probably an average time.   

 

Tuesday, December one day more than yesterday because I’m too lazy to look back at what ‘yesterday’ was, 2020 

We decided to do things a little different today. Instead of spending lots of money on things, we decided to spend a bit on memories. So we drove the 2ish hours into Brazil to check out the Iguazu Falls. (Fun fact: the Spanish word for waterfalls is ‘Cataratas.’ Kind of a fun word to say.) Ciudad del Este (in Paraguay) and Foz do Iguaçu (in Brazil) are twin cities in separate countries but have an agreement between them so you don’t have to stamp in and out of either country to cross the border into the other city. So that’s what we did as those of us who aren’t citizens of Paraguay (Dad, Mom and me) would have had to have Covid tests to return to Paraguay. Whew.  

 The falls themselves were an absolutely awesome crashing wonder. I’m not a writer who explains things in great deal and I won’t be able do justice by explaining so maybe you should look them up and see what you can come up with. These falls that are bigger and grander than Niagara are made up of one main set called The Devil’s Throat and 250 or so more smaller falls. The Devil’s Throat itself is over 250 feet high and has hollowed out a hole at the bottom another 150 or more feet. They say the falls are more magnificent to view from the Argentina side (which unfortunately we couldn’t get to due to Covid) and you can get closer to The Devil’s Throat. We were able to walk out over the water close enough to the falls that we definitely got wet. And later some of us rid ourselves of any possessions that were not want to be wet and climbed into a boat for some sort of exciting ride under some of the smaller falls! The captain of our boat maneuvered us right under the falls, dousing us all and our tapabocas a few times. Most of us actually had our tapabocas off by then and were screaming and hollering and trying to keep from getting too much water in our faces. We all lived thru it tho and my contacts even stayed in amazingly enough.  We ate food and talked to some Holdemans we met there and walked around and rode the double decker buses and eventually made our way back to Karlins’ for supper and singing and sleep.  

 

Wednesday, December 16, 2020 

Another transit day. This time we slept in and when we eventually got going we drove by the church and the members’’ places and stopped for ice cream at Lactolanda where they have delicious Dulce de Leche soft ice cream. And then we went on to Asuncion which was about 3 hours drive. Did a bit of shopping and ate supper and then went to find our sleeping arrangements for the night which were in Los Alpes hotel. 

 Supper deserves a paragraph to itself tonight. It always does actually but usually I’m too lazy. We went to a bit of a food court for supper except that it’s outdoors and the restaurants are in shipping containers. There are maybe 15-20 different places but the one we were going for was a small one up the stairs, around the corner and tucked neatly in the back. It’s a waffle and crepe place owned and run by an American friend of Eric’s named Brett. The food was very delicious, I must say, but my favourite part of the evening was when I got to go behind the counter and was instructed by the Crepe Master on How To Successfully Make A Crepe. In the midst of the crepe making process a customer came to the window and so I was hurried to the back for a tapaboca* so I could keep on working. In the end the crepe I made was used for a customer so it must not have been too bad.   

 

Thursday, December 17, 2020 

Eric took Dad and Mom across the city for their Covid tests this morning while the rest of us got to sleep. After breakfast we went to finish up a bit of shopping in the tourist stores and drove down by the Rio Paraguay. Later in the afternoon we adults tried to turn on our brains and play one of the escape room games my mom brought with. Most of you know that I absolutely adore escape rooms so it wasn’t hard for me to spend a couple of hours on this. Some people got bored after awhile or had other stuff to do so Rachelle and I ended up finishing it by ourselves. Unfortunately we forgot to use one of our codes and consequently had to use hints but eventually we ‘got out’ of the ‘room’ and went back and figured out what we did wrong and got ourselves excited for the next game. 

 

  Friday, December 18, 2020 

After a whirlwind week, Dad and Mom again boarded a plane and left us in the wee hours of this morning. Their first layover was in Panama City and they got to leave the city and take a tour and see the Panama Canal. We had to pack up our bags and leave for home. Actually we did a little shopping and ate lunch before we left. I made it to 3 of the malls in Asuncion in the last week and they all are more high end then anything you’ve seen in Winnipeg. Think more West Ed style except newer, with lofty, spacious walkways and brand name stores.  We got home mid afternoon and found out it was quite very hot and humid but soon after we sat down under the mango tree to drink terere the wind picked up and it started to rain.    

 

Today, Saturday, December 19, 2020 

Cleaning day. It may or may not rain again this afternoon. We may or may not go to Juan’s for another interesting lively Bible Study.  Like I said earlier, I’m not much of an explainer. I have yet to figure out how to paint a picture with words but maybe I’ll have to try that next week.   

 

*Ñanduti is the amazing, colorful crocheting or something they do here. The image below is pretty much like we find here in small to quite large sizes.  And *tapabocas are masks.  

 

Cuatro

 ¿Que tal?   

 Sunday, November 29, 2020 

What a day! Yesterday we brought Stuart’s back to Campo Nueve and had convert meeting in the evening. Stuart and Cindy and I spent the night in the guest house at Karlins and they took us with them to church in the morning. I was impressed that at least one of the missionary vehicles here was manual.  Church started at 9.The youth sang 2 songs and then we proceeded with the service. It was being translated for me until Tiago decided that his mom didn’t need to hear any more for awhile so I tried to follow along with the Bible verses and pick out the few words I knew. When it came time for the baptism there wasn’t enough room up front so Jacob, Walter, Arlin and Dennis went up 2 by 2. We closed with a rambunctious ‘When The Roll Is Called Up Yonder’ if I remember correctly. By the end of the service, a lot of people were sniffling, most likely remembering their own baptisms or simply out of happiness for these boys, some of whom have overcome more difficult trials than the others.  

While the women prepared food and while we were waiting for an hour close to lunch time, we gathered in a few circles to drink terere. There was a bunch of youth there today. Youth being interpreted as age 12ish and up. There are 3 girls who are members, Leidi, Evelyn, and Katrina, and Peter, Dennis, Walter, and Arlin are the guys. (Listed for reference sake. I’m hoping I’ll get to talk about them again sometime.) Peter and Dennis and Katrina’s family lived in Whitemouth for awhile so they all know English very well and are happy to translate for me. Leidi and Arlin are siblings and 2 of their older brothers were also there with us, as well as their younger brother who’s name I forget but I think is he’s often called Chiquito which would mean small or tiny. We moved our chairs around a lot, trying to find the best shade and they all had a grand old time teasing each other while I tried to catch on to everything. Same as with every youth group, this one has at least one clown, at least one singer, at least one avid ball player. Speaking of ball. Eventually we ate lunch and after sitting around for awhile longer, we played ball. We may have tried very hard to find shade while drinking terere, but while playing volleyball we were in full sun. And it was hot. Apparently the lovely manual truck said it was around 40°C but nothing can hinder playing ball. These kids just started playing ball in the last few months, but you wouldn’t know it by watching them. And the ball looks and feels more like a basketball then the ones we soft Americans are used to.  Well all good things come to an end. I had a lot of fun even if I was very far out of my comfort zone, and probably the laughingstock of a lot of them. The ones who spoke English were really good with talking to me and explaining what was happening, and Leidi was really good with talking slowly to me, in words I understood. But when Eric’s left around 2, my mind was too full to take in another 2 or 3 hours of it so I went back to Karlins with them, where we just chilled the rest of the day. I listened to some of Jaden and Joelle’s wedding in Lonetree.  

 

Monday, November 30, 2020 

The plan for this morning was to meet at a cool bakery for breakfast. It did happen. The reason I said was is because I’m writing this many days later that ‘today.’ The reason I say cool is that this bakery IIS part of a flour mill and is big and has lots of windows so you can see the workers doing their baking and also it has the most delicious Dulce de Leche donuts and Maracuyá (passion fruit) juice. We chilled at Karlin’s the rest of the morning, helping Cindy make Mexican food for our lunch. After eating the deliciousness, we took departed, leaving Stuarts with Karlins. We made a few stops before leaving Campo Nueve including a fabric store and the ice cream department of Lactolanda. Lactolanda is the dairy (processing?) place where most of our dairy products are from and I must say they have the most delicious Dulce de Leche soft ice cream I’ve ever had. As you can tell I am quite much of a Dulce de Leche fan. We took the scenic, back route home and after that I don’t remember what we did. We were most likely tired from a lively weekend, and probably stopped for asaditos for supper and went to bed.    

 

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

 Nothing very much of general interest happened today. Rachelle and I decided it was time to sew since she had a few dresses that needed sewing and I just bought a bunch of fabric. So she did some in the morning and I joined her in the afternoon.   

 

Wednesday, December 2, 2020 

More school, more sewing. Bible study with Felicita in the afternoon. I can understand a lot more than I could at last week’s Bible study. I’m in the midst of catching on to the conjugations of verbs right now, if I’d apply myself a wee bit harder I think it would be no problem.  Dad and Mom officially booked tickets to come see me! They’ve always wanted to come see Eric’s in Paraguay and were kinda counting on it when Covid hit. Now that I’m here, it warrants quarantining back home for 2 weeks afterwards. It helps that Nik is quite enthused about running skid steer if it would snow. Anyways, they arrive here early next Thursday!   

 

Thursday, December 3, 2020   

I woke to the sound of a vicious fight taking place above me. Rain thundered down on my tin roof in attempt to wake all who slumbered and to out do its rivalries, Thunder and Lightening. Thunder did its best to drown out all other thoughts and make sure Lightening didn't steal the spotlight like so often it does. I must say, Lightening didn't try very hard in this fight, or maybe that's because I was hard pressed to open my eyes and even more so to go outside. The three failed miserably, if the main motive of their fight was to keep me awake. I am rather fond of rain and I just pulled my blanket tighter against the cold and went back to sleep.  The storm raged on. It barraged us on and off all morning. It turned the power off, let it come back on again and then, just in time for school, decided to withdraw it from us again. We started our school day using headlamps and a few candles. 

Santiago and Priscilla were on our list for the afternoon. They’re friends (early 30’s ish I’d say) who live about an hour from us in a nice new house. The house is very modern with white paint on the walls and a few round windows. They make their living selling produce from their market garden. Santiago seems to be someone who is very capable of making things work. He has found a way to grow lettuce during summer when everyone else says you can’t grow lettuce in summer here.  

I believe this is a bit of a typical Paraguay story, but I’ll still make a big deal out of it so you can get the feeling. We arrived mid afternoon and were greeted warmly. We sat and chatted for awhile and then they asked if we’d like to stay for supper, they’d toast us some rabbit. Well of course! So the men go start the grill and the rabbits get pulled out of the freezer to thaw and we keep on talking. Another lady and her kids stop in for awhile and talks about a sort of orphanage her and her husband run. Tiago seems to think this is a good time to show off how he can walk. He can take a few steps at home but usually it’s too much work when you have enough big people to carry you around. My attention wanes from the convesations after awhile and I chastise myself because I didn’t think we had been there long. Eventually I check the time and it’s after 6. The other lady leaves, the grill is started but the rabbits need to fully before they can be cooked. The grill is an amazing thing. It’s a big brick thing in the corner of the porch with a tray for the fire that can be moved up or down with a sort of a pulley situation. Later on, the rabbits will be skewered and the skewers will rotate them over the fire while they cook. It is now at least 7 and the rabbits still aren’t ready to be cooked. We move outside from our seats inside and I try to ease my bit of boredom by doing Highlights picture finds with Ellie and Aubrey. Santiago’s don’t have children yet so the girls are also a bit bored. Around 8 the rabbits are finally ready to be skewered so Santiago and Eric rub them in a sort of seasoning salt and get them started. Although I’ve dreamed of it, I’ve never done rotisserie meat and I was a bit surprised at how fast these were rotating. At the rate those things were speeding around and with the height of the fire, I thought those things would never get done. It did take awhile. Meanwhile Priscilla made mandioca for supper. She made rice, and then started on chipawasu, a sort of cornbread. We sat outside and watched bugs or helped and generally tried to keep ourselves happy while we waited for supper. We were all hungry but no one was in any hurry. Around 10, the meat was finally ready, so we gathered around the table some on the floor, some a few feet away from the table as the table is a round table, about 3ft in diameter. Sin problema. After prayer, Santiago cuts up the meat and piles it onto our plates. We grownups each get a bit of each part. The main part or backbone or I’m not even sure what it is, a rack of tiny ribs, and ease try the part that stretches from the legs to the stomach and enabled the poor creature to jump properly. That part was very thin and crispy and tasty. The skin also was quite delicious. Well, by the time we’re done eating its around 11. Rachelle helps with dishes and I play ‘Captain May I’ with the girls to try to keep them occupied and slightly quieted than they had been. By now we are all overtired and some of us are going a bit crazy from trying but not being able to understand the conversation, or from having been there for 6 or 8 hours without other playmates. And I was doing what I never thought I’d do. My thoughts were on the next days school work and I was hoping we could have some school but I knew that we had an hour drive to home and this was not going to be conducive to a good morning of school.  Once we were in the vehicle, it was decided that we’d spend night in a nearby motel. The decision was met by some groans and some cheers of excitement. I was one who was rather fond of the idea as it took care of my school dilemma for tomorrow. The hotel had 2 rooms available for us but they weren’t very close together. Christina and I had the room on the second floor together so we got to make our own rules and we did a little bit of exploring before going to bed. The place was amazing. The pool had a fountain in it and was sparkling clean. There were trees and plants everywhere, creating a very peaceful atmosphere. 

 

 Friday, December 4, 2020 

Christina and I were up a bit earlier than the other room so we picked up our meager belongings (we hadn’t realized we were going to spend the night so we didn’t have much along with us) and went outside to explore in the daylight. They had a bit of a garden to walk in in the back yard so we strolled down there. We were standing by one of the fishponds when a man came up and started feeding the fish. Soon he gave the food to us and let us finish feeding them. The pond was full of little minnows (I think,) some tilapia, and we even saw a bunch of catfish trying to get all the food. After breakfast (lots of options and apparently other hotels have even bigger selections) we got some bread crusts from the kitchen staff and went to see the bigger fishponds. The water was quite muddy in these ones so it was a bit hard to see but apparently the fish were quite a bit larger than the ones in the first pond. They said they fish and eat from these ponds.  We eventually made our way towards home and after lunch, those of us who needed to trekked out to the school room to try to get something done. We started by practicing most of our  Christmas program, and got most of our scheduled Friday work done in under 2 hours.  

 

And that brings me to today.  

Saturday, December 5, 2020 

We all slept in and eventually had breakfast lazily started our day. Due to rain and a bit of sickness, we didn’t clean church yard this morning and Bible Study with Juan is cancelled for this afternoon. I’m feeling kind of ashamed to say that I sewed 2 dresses for myself this week but it has been raining quite much so we haven’t been going away very much. 

 I’m going to quick do spell check and maybe ask Rachelle about some things that I tried writing about that I don’t know enough about. And then I’ll send this off and you can get on with your day and don’t have to keep anxiously waiting for this diary.  Ciao ciao,  Adorae