Once

I keep forgetting to post this on the right day. This is almost a week old already

 

 Sunday, January 17, 2021 

I woke up to a cloudy, sullen sky before 6 this morning. I figured church would be cancelled but still got up before that was confirmed around 7. I had a blissful, quiet morning. The family all slept in and I made cocido and thought about gardening and sewing and even got some songs sung by myself. It started raining maybe around 0730 and was still raining when we left the yard around 1330. Not just drizzling either. I’d say about ¾ of the way along the line that starts at drizzling and ends at cats and dogs. Anyways. Our destination today was a Mennonite couple with 3 younger children. The wife can understand some English and Spanish but can’t talk it while the husband talks varying stages of both. We got a tour of his brother’s house that is in the making right beside theirs and then toured their own house that’s in the making a little ways down the road. The second one was grand. A dream house if there ever was one. A huge front entrance/formal dining room with a loft like second story around 2.5 of the sides. At this point there was no railing on the upstairs walkway so it was just open. The downstairs had 2 living rooms, a guest bedroom, big kitchen, a porch with a place for their barbeque, a huge laundry room with grand bathtub off of it and a sewing room. Between the sewing room and the stairs was a playroom with windows into the sewing room and the stairs to break up fights more efficiently. Upstairs were the 3 bedrooms, a room bigger than the bedrooms which apparently was a storage room, and a beautiful big porch that wrapped around one side. On the opposite side of the upstairs was another outside area that wasn’t a meant for a porch but they didn’t know what they were going to use it for. Almost the whole house (walls, and some ceilings) was covered in tile. Mostly muted, textured whites and creams, but the play room had 4 or 5 different colored patterns that all seemed to go together somehow. Eventually it came out that this lady got her ideas from Pinterest which is quite very uncommon among these Mennonites. 

This family seems discontented with the church they’re going to. The clothes they’re supposed to wear, the fact that children can’t go to church til they’re 12, those are a few minor things they don’t like. The man (I think his name is Johnny) and Eric talked about different verses and didn’t agree but he said he was going to study up on what Eric had said. Maybe we’ll see them in church one Sunday.   

 

Monday, January 18, 2021 

Karlins are getting company and need to use our van while they’re out so Eric and Rachelle and Tiago and Aubrey were gone into the afternoon, trading vehicles and doing some shopping. Christina went outside for some fresh air during school and returned with the request to have school outside. For recess, we found books and quiet places to read them and afterwards spread out a blanket and finished our morning outside. Ellie and I had some work to finish up after lunch and Christina cheered us up by promising a surprise dessert which turned out to be some very delicious chocolate cake which apparently had had a very dark surface until it was scraped off. It was, in fact, more delicious due to the fluffy top and the icing that were the result of this mishap.  I drove a lesson home using Spanish today. I recommend teaching your students (and yourself) another language so you can use the grammar of one language to teach the other. To, too, too and two are quite easy when you use the words a, tambien, demasiado and dos.   

 

Tuesday, January 19, 2021

Bangladeshi food. Cream, cherry and Dulce de Leche filled donuts. Potato chorizo corn tacos. And the beetle that has been living in my drain finally gave in and died. Not sure if it was due to all the toothpaste and extra soap I used trying to kill him with cleanliness or if it was due to exhaustion from always have to climb up after being washed down. His body is resting on the rocks in my drain. If his friends and frienshaft don’t take care of him, I’ll have to bury him myself come morning.  

 

Wednesday, January 20, 2021 

Beetle’s best friend died of heartbreak right beside him overnight and I got to perform a double burial. I keep on understanding more and more on Bible Study. We’ve started sitting in the backyard of the house where Felicita used to live which is also the front yard of the one she now lives in. Her daughter and granddaughter are moving home from Asuncion and consequently she’s moving to the small house in the back. The yard is beautiful with plants everywhere and lots of shade for Bible Studies.  

 

Thursday, January 21, 2021

 Went to visit the Miller’s this afternoon. They’re an older Mennonite couple who speak English which felt almost refreshing. It’s kinda nice not to think about understanding what people are saying for a few hours. She fed us Kringel and cookies and Cinnamon rolls and ice-cream. Stopped at San Pedro here in town for supper later but it was raining so the girls couldn’t play on the globo locos. Those big bouncy things with air in them. I didn’t put ‘sadly’ in the last sentence because I am rather fond of rain and would have gladly run around in it. I got the hiccups just before we left and was the laughingstock of Tiago for awhile. Oh and that reminds me. We’re driving the truck around for awhile and the girls and I were all in the back this afternoon, with Tiago on my lap. For some reason he decided he was tired and gladly took his soother and lay down in my arms. It took awhile, but eventually he fell asleep for me! This is the guy who was freaked of me when I came. And this is the first time he’s fallen asleep in my arms. So I count that as quite a milestone. 

You can tell the moment you enter Mennonite-ville. The houses are larger than most Paraguayan houses, have a wraparound porch and numerous big shops and outbuildings. And plain, unmarked church and school buildings every few houses seems like. Some live right along the highway, but to reach most of them you travel a little or a long ways down a red dirt road, fields on either side, eventually roads branching off and suddenly you are at the first house and the other 30 or so come bang bang bang right after the other and they all look the same with their neat garden up front, car or buggy parked up front and the wraparound porch. Soon you’re out of the one village and after a bit you’re into the next. Some are more in clusters around a few corners in the road, some house stores. So far all the colonies confuse me. One thing I know, everybody knows everybody else. Well not really. But mention the Miller’s or Wolf’s or Zacharias’s and they all know who you mean. Ask where they live and they’ll tell you ‘Past where the Friesen’s used to live and it’s on the corner, beside Peter’s.‘ Well, I might be making things up, but think of how your grandparents of even great grandparents used to live and apply that to this place.   

 

Friday, January 22, 2021 

I was feeling very lethargic this afternoon after a short catnap when Sara showed up to buoy my spirits. Her brother who is a school teacher somewhere other then here in town is home in between jobs and came to visit Eric. So we got right down to business and Christina and Sara and I played Uno for most of the time. I thought I could beat her if we played the fast way of Uno using English but she still won. She did find out tho that I sometimes can understand more Spanish then I let on. When you know the root of a lot of verbs and basic pronouns and some nouns you can catch on to a lot.   

 

And today is Saturday, January 23, 2021 

Company coming at 6 but its 7 already. Quite normal but due to the fact that it’s been rainy all afternoon they might not show up??..  They showed up and we sat and visited and ate the cake they brought and drank coffee because it was too cold for terere because of the rain. The 10 year old boy played hide and seek and such games with the girls. They have a 16 year old girl and another boy who wasn’t here who drives a cool white VW bug.  

Tonight we have music to put us to sleep. Or keep us awake more like. Sitting in the quincho we had a hard time hearing the conversation and the music was across the street from us. Can’t imagine how their ears will feel after tonight. 

 I’m talking on the phone right now and trying to finish this so that’s why this might not make too much sense.   

Ciao,  Addie

 

Diez

 Sunday, January 10, 2021

Bienvenidos. The word welcomes us from the wall behind the pulpit. We’re sitting in church in Florido (Campo Nueve) waiting for the members meeting to begin. We travelled here this morning and it is now 1400 and raining and nearly everyone has arrived. The children have all gone to the small house next door with Rachelle. I sit on a hard, straight backed wood bench with the 3 other youth girls. We sing a song, and proceed with the service. The head of the meeting speaks English and consults with Eric and Karlin thru out the meeting in words I can understand. I am amazed how much of the rest of the service I can understand. Two of the three men that speak, I can tell what they are saying. Anyways, that’s more interesting to me then it is to you. One of my favorite songs, Savior Breath an Evening Blessing, is sung and by 1500 both our service and the rain are over. The youth file out to stand under the tree with the motos. The leaves of this particular tree are of such variety that if you rip along 2 certain veins, a heart forms and this became our topic of conversation. Well that and what to do with the rest of our afternoon. Someone suggests volley. Another one asks me if we play volley on Sunday in Canada and I tell them no. So we discuss that for awhile. Eventually we move to sit by the volley ball court with our terere and keep talking. The volley topic comes up every little bit and they discuss if they should or shouldn’t play because its Sunday. Until now they always have so I’m not quite sure what brought this up. Some people have no use for the discussion and start setting up the net and the boundaries and soon the call for the ball comes. Where did they put it last time they played? Oh yes, in the bathroom! After this there is no more discussion and since there are only about 10 of use there who can play we divide into 2 teams and start playing. The group today is the youth who are members and 2 or 3 others who are very regular attenders. 

‘How can I get your diaries? ‘ ‘Are you going to send letters?’ ‘Will we hear from you?’ These are the kind of questions I heard when I told people I was going to Paraguay. I couldn’t figure it out for awhile. I didn’t know why they’d want letters from me. Sure, I was going to teach for my cousins in Paraguay but I didn’t count myself a missionary teacher. (Still don’t by the way. Not sure if it’s pride or the whole not-wanting-to-be-like-everyone-else thing or what.) Missionary teachers are those heroes who leave their families to go live with another family and learn all their quirks and habits while teaching their kids. (If you go live with your cousins it doesn’t count.) Missionary teachers are those people who leave for 2 years and come back with super long dresses and styles of yesteryear. I’m learning tho, that even if I don’t count myself as a missionary teacher, others do. 

The other way I’m not a good missionary teacher is this. Invariably, about every second or third letter (remember, they only come once a month if you are lucky) about ¾ of the way down the second page there’s a sentence that reads something like the following. ‘There’s so many more wonderful, heartwarming experiences I could write about but I don’t want this letter to get too long and boring.’ And after one or 2 more sentences they close off for the month. Granted, they have 2 whole years to write about and they don’t go rambling on about not feeling like they’re living up to missionary teacher standards or even about their letters, but I feel like they’re using it as an excuse. (You missionary teachers out there, please don’t get offended at my words. I admire you a lot for committing for two years and I’m trying to make myself look better I guess.) Maybe I’ll start doing that too. Maybe it would make me feel like a real missionary teacher then. I only have about 1/2 of a page to go for that.  

Here’s the thing of it. I like writing this. I like reading over it a few weeks later too. I’m just kinda tired of writing every single day every single week. I get lots of inspiration, usually when I should be sleeping, but those thoughts never come out onto the page in the forum they’re supposed to. Somewhere between my brain and my fingers some of them get separated from the rest and take a wrong turn and become lost forever in my toes or something. 

We played a few games, one of the girls hurt her ankle, the sky kept threatening to rain. During the 5th or so game a clap of thunder deafened us and our game was suddenly over. This time everybody knew it was going to rain soon and they all had to walk or drive moto home yet. The game promptly stopped, within 2 minutes everybody except the few from next door and the 2 of us who were going there were gone. The rain came before we reached the house. We sat on the porch and ate Flan and played Dos and got a little wet. Soon the van arrived to pick me up and I walked happily out into the pouring rain much to the astonishment of the rest. Paraguayans try to stay out of the rain if possible. I live rain.   

 

Monday, January 11, 2021 

One doesn’t realize that one actually has decent reflexes until one is climbing around on slippery rocks.  We left Karlins after a delicious breakfast of a sort of a coconut monkey bread. Muy muy rico. Anyways, we distributed ourselves between the 2 vehicles and most of the kids and Shayla and I clung to our seats with a prayer always on our tongues as Rachelle tried to keep the big 16 or so passenger Hyundai van up to the speed of Karlin who was at the helm of their manual Chevy truck. Actually just kidding. I just have to bug the people who I live with and who also read my letters. Our stop was a beautiful water fall/ tall rapids halfway between the 2 mission houses. So we climbed all over the rocks and sat under falls and ate our lunch of hotdogs and had a lot of fun. Later we went home and I don’t know what else happened.   I have more I could write about, but this diary is getting long enough so I’ll skip these days that didn’t have much happening. 

 

  Thursday, January 14, 2021

 It’s one thing to be a beginner in decorating cakes. It’s another thing to take the second cake you decorated and place it beside the cake of someone who’s done it many times. Today is Christina’s 10th birthday. Yesterday one of her friends turned 10 and we were invited to her place to celebrate. We were at David and Erna’s one Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago when they’re youth children were at youth so I had only met some of them. They have 3 girls almost exactly Christina and Ellie and Aubrey’s ages and then a girl and 3 boys between the ages of maybe 16 and 22ish. The youngest, who is 5, had cancer and I think she is now in the last stages of chemo. Anyways. Supper was at 1830. Rachelle and I worked on the cake after lunch and left early as there were a few places to stop at on the way. We got to David’s early and sat and talked for awhile. Eventually the kompst borscht and pizza rollups were ready and the table set for 6. Time to call the girls who sit down and chow down. Within 10 or so minutes they’ve all finished eating and are back outside. Now the question remains if we should wash their dishes or just use them dirty. Apparently David doesn’t like eating from someone else’s bowl so we clear and wash the dishes, reset the table and call the men. Bow our heads for silent prayer and dig in. Reach and stab, stand and grab. No ‘please pass the water’ or ‘excuse me.’ Everything is fend for yourself and you’ve got to eat fast because otherwise everyone will be finished and you’ll still be sitting there with a plate full of food.  That last paragraph has very little oomph to it. I think I’m getting writers block.  

 

Friday, January 15, 2021 

The game ‘Uno’ can be a very good go between. A lot of people know the game. You don’t have to know the same language to play together. Sit around a stool, in hammocks, on couches, chairs that sink into the dirt, whatever is available. Play a few rounds and soon you’ll know how to say the four different colors in the other person’s language. Soon you’ll be able to tell them that it’s their turn. You won’t necessarily be able to ask about the rest of their lives but at least you can be with them and connect with them just a little bit.   

 

Saturday, January 16, 2021 

At home my dad clears the snow from the church yard so the many vehicles can park there. Here we rake the church yard and the only vehicle that comes finds somewhere to park right by the fence. Sweeping the church takes about 5 minutes.  Cleaned church and I cleaned my house and we went to Bible Study at Don Juan’s. Ordered pizza for supper. Heart eyes. It hasn’t come yet tho.   

Don't take it personally, you missionary teachers. (Assuming you kept reading that is.) I’m actually getting tired of writing every week.   

Enough sarcasm,

  Addie     

 

Nueve

 I find it hard to believe that this is my ninth week in Paraguay. I shouldn’t count. It’s probably not good  psychologically or something. But since I’ve been numbering my diaries it’s a bit hard not to count. I can’t imaging tho that I’d write so often and number my weeks like I do if I was going to be here for longer. Good thing, eh.  

 

Sunday, January 3, 2021 

I still am having to get used to writing 1 instead of 0 at the end of the year. Forgive me if I write it wrong. Seems like yesterday that I was just in Gallup, wiping noses, burping babies and settling fights. That’s over a year ago already. And I’m on another adventure now. Maybe in a year from now I’ll look back and think that this life I’m living now feels like such a short time ago. Maybe I’ll reread these diaries and fondly remember each day while also cringing at the way I wrote. Anyhow. Today. Rachelle taught children’s Sunday School and I sat in on adult class today. That was interesting. Felicita and Perla keep a running conversation going for awhile. Church was vacated quickly after the last Amen. Some stood on chairs under the grape vine to taste the first of the last of the crop. There’s nothing like eating handfuls of fresh grapes or biting into a just picked mango just after church.  We had company for dinner. We’ll they actually came and ate dinner with us, we didn’t have them for dinner. (That’s a bit of a family joke. ‘Hey mom can I have so-and-so over for dinner? ‘ Mom- ‘Over what. Mashed potatoes?) We were home from church by 1100 and they came from Rio Verde colony over an hour away so we had some time to get ready after church. Two couples came, each of them had 2 young children about 6 and under. The ladies were sisters and had grown up in Ontario and so knew English. The men may have been brothers and they grew up here in South America and hence the language they learned other then German was Spanish. So our lunch table was interesting. The men talked Spanish over us women’s English and their children only know German. The children understand most English tho, the men understand and one of them tried talking a bit in English and the ladies understood Spanish but didn’t talk it. Did I confuse you yet? That’s what I was trying for.  We drank terere but other wise besides that and the Spanish and the heat and the setting we could have been in North America somewhere, chatting with friends. Do I guess that doesn’t really tell you anything cuz really it was nothing like North America. It was probably above 30°C, we were sitting under a mango tree. The cicadas were humming in the banana plant, lime tree, peach tree and the other trees on our yard that I am too dumb to remember what they are atm. The motos and occasional vehicle kicked up dust on the dirt roads that form our community and slowed almost to a stop for the speedbumps on the paved road in front of our place. Conversations were being held quite fluently in 3 different languages. The guampa we were using for terere, probably feathering some sort of etching of brick houses or a horse, was being passed around the circle, every body including the kids taking a turn. Actually, in the afternoon we drank iced coffee, which I’d say is a very North American thing to do.      

 

Monday, January 4, 2021 

We started school this morning. I changed the arrangement of the classroom a bit in an effort to make it more interesting to start again. I still face pretty much the same direction which is the door, but now the big cupboard the holds everything is beside me instead of beside the door. I cobbled together a tree with construction and tissue paper and twigs when I came in November and that is still my job chart in its little corner but I took down the ombre evergreen with fog tapestry and hot glued it to another wall. I want to see how much paint I can get off the walls.  Sara’s mom had talked about coming over this afternoon so I messaged Sara and told her she should come with. Well it looked like rain and neither of them had committed to coming so we weren’t sure what to expect. I worked on some sewing and then needed some fresh air so I was sitting on my hanging chair when I heard a noise at the gate. There was Sara. She parked her moto on the porch so it wouldn’t get wet if it started to rain and then we sat and tried to talk for a bit. Eventually we played Uno with Christina and then Rachelle came to explain Dos to her so we could play. Dos is a sequel to Uno that came out in the last year or so. It’s a fast paced game, more for racking up points then figuring out schemes. You rarely get 2 rounds around the players before you are done one round. I like it tho. Sara has taught Eric’s some different Uno games and we also played Uno Rapido. Which only involved the number cards and was also quite a rapid game. We all got moto rides when she left, my ride lasted longer than the others’ did and I got to sit with her and her mom at their fruit stand at the cruze. Drank terere with her for a bit and then took a bit more of a moto tour of San Pedro before being dropped back off at home. That was my first moto ride here. I wonder what people thought of the white lady in the black flapper on the back of the moto. That’s a rare sight around here.   

 

 Tuesday, January 6, 2021  

After school was out we piled into the van to go shopping. This kind of shopping is only a like to shopping in Winnipeg in the fact that you spend money. And that you’ve got to wear tapabocas. Most places anyways. We stopped at a buffet in a gas station for dinner on our way out. About 45 minutes later we arrive in a town where we walk into a few stores. The main reason for shopping today was groceries, but I had mentioned something about wanting to go venti-mil shopping sometime, so that’s what we did a lot of. Almost every town has at least one store that bears the words ‘Todo por 20 mil’ which means ‘Everything is 20000 Guaranies’ (about $4 CAD.) The classiest of these stores would have mannequins in color coordinated dresses lined up out front but the inside isn’t really like that. Some are one roomed, dark stores with tight dresses and lacy blouses hung on the walls and on racks in between. Some are bigger, with clothes stacked everywhere, doorways to more and more rooms full of treasures. Ok, well maybe those aren’t venti-mil stores anymore. Anyways, we shopped some of those stores, didn’t buy much. Moved on to the next town about 15 minutes away. Kept shopping. Two story stores with toys and kitchen and craft supplies downstairs and fancy clothes upstairs. There was one store that Rachelle had seen before and wanted to go in. So we stopped there today. Walked in. The first room was literally packed with clothes. Stacked tightly into cupboards that lined the walls, draped over those things on wheels that have a rod to hang your hangers on. Not very much room to walk. Way too much to even start looking so we went thru the next door. Which looked more like a storeroom then the first. So we go back and ask if it’s ok if we go there. Ya ya definitely. (OK so we didn’t have to really go back. As soon as you step into the store and start walking around someone will be right behind you ready to get anything you need down, or put something that you looked at away, or try to get you to buy stuff.) Well the room still looked daunting so we go to the next room. Closed shoe boxes stacked to the ceiling lined the walls. Not the place for us either. We backed out. So much to look at, so little time. Off to the side in the front room was another door that seemed almost forgotten and unimportant. It was calling us tho. We went to look and found it was the most important room of the whole place. It held Fabric. Again. Packed in tightly. To the ceiling. If I could have spent 4 hours there I would have bought more. Good thing I didn’t have 4 hours to spend there. I only bought 2 pieces to add to my collection at home. Outside one big store was a long line of people. We groaned but then realized the long line was for the gift wrapping table outside. Today is the Day of the King’s when most Paraguayans (Catholics??) give their Christmas gifts. Must have made 5 or 6 stops before the grocery store.  Our supper destination was a churrasqueria that Eric’s have been to a number of times. We were the first ones to arrive for supper, at about 1920. Yup, the meat would be ready in about 10 minutes. We sit down and our waiter comes to take our order and tells us the meat will be ready in about half an hour. So we wait. Other people start arriving. Eventually the waiter comes and tells us that the meat has been ready for awhile already, they just aren’t coming around with it on their big sticks like they used to. Most likely due to Covid. So we go thru the buffet and pick up our salad and noodles and pickles and such and then go to the back of the restaurant with an empty plate to pick up our meat. The guy there pulls the sticks off the fire and slices the meat right onto our plates. It’s a bit of a gamble if the piece will be chewy or not.    

 

Thursday, January 7, 2021 

Ok so it’s not Thursday yet. But getting close. Thursday will come too soon and yet here I am. Not sleeping.

 Still Wednesday, January 6, 2021 

Ias coerced into making Cake today. Actually, the cake was made Before (don’t ask for Story) and today was for Decorating. Tonight. And I wanted to do it. I used Professional Tools such as bags with different tips on the end to help form Rosettes. And I substituted Spatula and Knife for other Professional Tools. Result was good. Cake was not totally Smooth, but by the end I had covered Top of Cake with Small Rosettes which covered up Bumps and Ridges. I used Chantalli for the icing, which is similar to Whipped Cream. But it is very Forgiving. And long as it can be Cold. Which was Slightly Inconvenient as I had to work in the only room that contained Air Conditioning, which turned out to be Bedroom. Thankfully there is a Fridge just outside my Door. Color Palette is what I was most happy about. Even while Using What We Have On Hand and Mixing Two Different Colors I ended up with Light Pink, Dusty Blue and Orchid Purple which turned out to be a perfect palette for Cake.     

A few more things about today.  

• I made butter chicken for lunch today. I whipped it up in just over an hour after school and the naan even worked out like it was supposed to. The butter chicken itself tho did not love up to my expectations. Probably because I followed the recipe but used my own ingredients. And method.  

• Perla showed for Bible Study today. Which is very rare for a Wednesday Bible Study

 • It threatened to rain all afternoon. I wish it would have. It was hot and very humid out under the mango tree where our Bible Study was taking place. 

 • A loud screech interrupted our Bible Study and we looked up to see the front tires of a Nissan truck lock up as he tried to quickly slow down before the speed bump. At least I think it was a Nissan.  

 Like normal, Bible Study today was a time of trying to read words right and figure out what they were. We’ve been studying Justification by Faith (try reading justificacion {hoo stee fee ka see own’} three or four times in one paragraph) and by looking up Bible versus and a few words I actually was able to figure out what a few sentences said.  

• This wasn’t just today but I’ve been hearing some interesting excuses when school work isn’t going properly lately. The first one, ‘But my mom didn’t let me sleep long’ and another ‘I think too deep’ when being asked later how math had gone. This is my new favorite excuse.  • Friend – ‘You have a whole week to write about on Saturday!? Why didn’t you write about the day when you went to bed in the evening?’ • Me – ‘ Oh, I think too deep’ 

• When a lady walks by the yard and is looking in or makes eye contact it is only appropriate for the lady of the yard to say ‘Adios’ to her. Or if you meet someone on the street. It’s a sort of ‘Hello. Goodbye.’ And if you aren’t sitting anywhere close to the people walking by, you murmur it under your breath almost as if you are being impolite by not saying it. Well I’ve observed the murmuring under breath action just once.   

 

The Real Thursday, January 7, 2021 

We ate my cake at lunch today. Due to some unfortunate reason, I had had to fill the cake in with icing in some places but it was still good in my opinion. Another Paraguay fact. You compliment yourself when you make food. Next time you make Sunday dinner for company (oh wait. You can’t. You poor peoples in Manitoba.) try filling the lull in the conversation with ‘Oh this is good? Isn’t it? Don’t you think It’s delicious?’ We got onto the topic of Venice and other cities that have water ways instead of streets while eating our cake. The comment was made that it would be a good place to grow hydroponic lettuce. That’s my next venture.  We around 1400for Friesland Mennonite colony. Stopped to pick up some records at the hospital there. Our other stop was at the big Super. Which is sort of like a small Walmart. I bought, surprise surprise, a piece of fabric!  We made fast tracks home around 1500 to get to Felicita’s by 1600. It’s been 2 months since her son died and they wanted to commemorate that by singing in the afternoon. It threatened to rain all day so we weren’t sure if it was still on but we went anyways. First of all, we sat for close to an hour in front of Felicita’s house waiting for everybody to show up. Finally, when everybody had showered or finished work and gathered on front of the house with us, we picked up chairs and walked across the yard, ducked under the piece of wood across the top of the fence and set our chairs down in a big circle in the widows yard. There we started singing. Anything goes. No one except the Canadians tried to choose songs that would sooth a grieving family. Eventually we had a prayer and picked up our chairs again to walk back to Felicita’s where we sat down again to drink Terere for awhile. By the time we left it was after 1900 and we picked up asaditos from Pedro for supper. And drank delicious maracaya juice with it. We have a maracaya (passion fruit) vine on our yard that isn’t bearing just extremely much fruit this year, but Felicita has one and she doesn’t like the fruit so she gives it away.   

 

Friday, January 8, 2021 

I’ve started writing November instead of January twice already this diary. I’m not sure what the problem is. I got 2 letters from friends in Africa today! It’s very interesting to see (or rather, read) the difference between being a teacher in South America and being a teacher in Africa. One of those letters was from Malawi so that is especially interesting to see it thru a teachers eyes and contrast that with my memories of being a student in Malawi. 

 Today started out normal enough. We had school and somehow I forgot to give the spelling test. Well there’s always next week. Spelling is not these girls’ weakness so I’m not worried. Rachelle had the idea and supplies for art today so she came and helped us. For once we got to draw on clothes (plain white T-shirts) with permanent marker! I actually used an old dress of mine that used to be T-shirts and just added some accent stars along the bottom. The girls copied soccer team shirts and then we sprayed rubbing alcohol on the marker drawings and writing a few seconds we could see the ink starting to spread and blend with the next color. The result is very cool!

 I’m not sure why I’m making people being sick into a paragraph for my diary. But that’s what happened today. Within an hour or 2 after lunch, Christina and Aubrey were down with stomach aches and Rachelle tried to curb her own to help them. Eric was at Don Juan’s but soon came home and took over. He had a steady job all afternoon and later when the girls were settled in for the night, he took his turn. Ellie and Tiago and I were blessed. None of us seemed to get any of this flu. We tried to stay in or around my house all afternoon so as not to disturb those inside too much. Tiago was an angel for me; playing and eating when he was supposed to. Mind you, he got to play with a container that had gum in it and eat chocolate. I got some sewing done and Ellie had a good book to read. . Ellie and I found something to eat around 1830 then decided that the others were drinking Sprite and we’d had a long afternoon too so we walked down the street to the corner store and bought ourselves some Coke. Tiago didn’t appreciate it when he realized I would be giving him his bath instead of his mom. He was still letting me know that when I was trying to put his sleeper on. The neighbor lady heard him and came to the fence to see what was the matter. So Tiago stopped crying and we went to talk to her. I can understand a lot more then I can talk so I felt like we had a pretty good conversation but I doubt she felt that way.   

 

Saturday, January 9, 2021 

Slow morning. I made eggs for myself for breakfast and tried unsuccessfully to share them with Tiago. Peaches too. He wanted, rather, to share Christina’s soup with her. I finished reading Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator to the girls. We had started the book probably in the beginning of December. Ellie and I walked down the street to finish up a deal that Rachelle had started. She was buying some sheets from the rich neighbor lady a few houses down. I made schnetje to go with our soup for lunch. Also I tried to get this ready to send off. And wound up showing Christina how to use my Bluetooth keyboard.  I was lazy most of the afternoon. Played Uno with Christina on the lawn. Rachelle joined us after awhile. The afternoon was hot and muggy and we were wishing that the clouds that had been threatening us for a few days would open up and pour out a blessing on us. My weather app (must be wacky) said that it was drizzling slightly here. The only drizzle I felt was the sweat down my back. Christina and I decided to do something useful and bake. Except we didn’t have milk. Rachelle drive us into town and we picked up a few things including some pop and some chorizos for Ellie and I for supper. The rest are still on a toast and soup diet. Back home we started mixing up ingredients and realized we didn’t have enough flour. So Christina and I dashed off to the corner store (Emanuel) just down the street and around the corner. Finally as we were finishing up our baking, it started raining. We young and foolish ones went and stood outside and let ourselves get wet.  

For some reason, terere keeps wanting to be capitalized. It shouldn’t be.

  Anyways, I don’t think I have anything to add yet.  

Ahata ayu,

Addie

  I’ve never actually used ahata ayu in real life yet. It’s Guarani and means something like ‘I am going and I will be back.’

 

Ocho

 Thanks to you all who send replies to my emails. Even if I don’t reply back, I enjoy reading them immensely!
 
Sunday
Small conversation. In Spanish. With Arlin. 
 
Thursday
Someone complemented me today. She told me I have pretty eyes. She made my day
 
On Sunday I thought ‘Hey I have some time now and today held so much to write about I should just write it all right now.’ But I picked up a book. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, same thing. I always found something different to do. Like fabric shopping. Or sleeping. Or watching new scenery go by while driving. And now it’s Friday and all I have written is what you see above. I wrote those few sentences when inspiration hit me at the wrong time and I was busy or tired and wanted to remember those things. But those are personal experiences, not the kind that make these emails worth reading. Sure they maybe make it a big more interesting, but it’s not about Paraguay life. Or else maybe it is. Anyways I better start writing about my week before I talk myself into a hole here. Or maybe I already have.
Actually, I need to go work with school stuff before I write more.
 
Sunday, December 27, 2020
Its still Friday as I write this. But later then before.
I’m not sure how to describe Sunday. I had fun. I enjoyed it. I had been with these people about 2 times before. I could only converse with them half the time. The setting is something I’m still not used to, everything is done outside, under the best shade there is, you can move around as many times as you need to find that shade. Stiff grass underfoot with patches of reddish dirt to make sure your feet get stained. 

I’ll start with church this morning. Church in Florida (where Campo Nueve missionaries go) is a lot different than back in Barrio. For one, the church is a lot bigger, there’s benches (with songbook holders!) instead of chairs, and lots of people. Maybe about 15 members and that many attendees, too. There’s actually a youth girls’ bench in front! We had youth Sunday school which I have not been to for a long time. We all filed out of church to the backyard where the boys got the chairs and benches out of the teacherage (I’m not actually sure what the building is for) and we sat in a big circle of 10 or 13 people. Read the whole lesson and then answered some questions. The teacher tried to get some discussion going but only 1 or 2 people had thoughts to share. After Sunday school was over, we all waited til everyone else was seated to walk in and we filed straight to the front and said the verse from our lesson all together and then found out seats. There was a bit more of an opening before the youth (members and regular attendees) were called upon to deliver the program. I joined the other 10 or so up at the front and sang along to the words I knew how to pronounce but didn’t always understand. Well usually didn’t understand. The poem was about how Christmas in our hearts doesn’t just have to be at Christmas time and how parties don’t mean you have Christmas in your heart. The program was over in about half an hour and after a congregational song and closing we all sat down again and candy bags were handed out to the children. The youth were also deemed children today. 

Terere at Katarina’s place after church. Just like last time I was there. I’m not sure if that’s normal or just on special days. Soon everybody left for their respective places and I stayed for dinner. Abe and Anna, Katarina’s parents, joined from the Mennonites a long time ago. They moved to Whitemouth, Manitoba for a while and eventually moved back to Paraguay after, I think, they were missionaries here for awhile. Maybe I explained that once already, I don’t remember. I don’t think I had had mashed potatoes since coming here before today.
Later afternoon the youth and Karlins and Abe’s met back at church to play ball. Most of us got there about 1530 or so and we drank terere and sat around for an hour or so until the volleyball court was at least halfway shaded. No one is in a hurry here. When stuff happens, it happens. The guys played the first few rounds of ball and us girls eventually joined too. After every game we all stand around for a bit before someone gets inspired and everybody tries to decide who’s playing. Usually it’s 4 on 4 players, sometimes 5 on 5, but you never rotate on, you just drink terere until the game is done and you can play the next round. Once we numbered off (to 4. We were not more then 20 playing.) but very quickly those numbers were thrown to the wind and forgotten. At one point we played 5 girls against 4 guys and smoked them. When someone has made a good move, they are congratulated by at least one team member with a high five and games are ended with the winning team all high fiving. Brothers or friends or people from other churches came and went. I left with Karlins around 1930 but the rest may or may not have played longer. 

A few people remarked on how well I read in Sunday school today (I credit that to having been ‘forced’ to read in Bible Study twice a week) and I even had a few bits of conversation and could say the score in Spanish and understand what was going on while playing. My favorite conversation was while I was kinda lost on my own world and suddenly I heard someone saying something and I realized he was talking to me and I understood what he was saying. He doesn’t know much English but was talking in Spanish and I didn’t have to think but knew exactly what he was saying. We each had about 2.5 sentences to say together (he must have understood me) but I was proud of that little conversation I had, without anyone or anything translating for me. I know. I’ve been here almost 2 months already. That should have happened long ago.
Well I gotta go check up on the donuts now. I might have to finish this tomorrow.  

For supper (I’m still on Sunday here) we went to a place where we sat at tables on a strip of grass between a highway and the side road that the businesses are off of and someone came to take our orders and then went across and down the street a bit to have it made for us. I had a sandwich filled with asado meet that was very delicious. 
 
 
 
Monday, December 28, 2020
I’ve been on the Mennonite colonies around our place, but I’d never gone here by Campo Nueve. So that’s what we did today. Our excuse was the big store which stocked almost everything seemed like. Including fabric. The roads to get there are almost all cobblestone which can make a lot of noise when being driven on. If I’m thinking of the right stuff, then these stones (3 or 4 inches across maybe??) have all been laid by hand. Many, many miles of it.  

Due to changes in plan with visitors and building plans, Eric’s decided to drive to Campo Nueve today. They arrived late afternoon, in time to eat supper and for Eric to go to the men’s’ meeting at church. After supper, the ladies and children and I piled into the van to go see the family of on of the youth boys from here. They’re from some sort of Amish church and now the oldest, Walter, has joined our church. The dad left his wife and children (I think 6. Or maybe 5) awhile ago. The mom looks and sounds like a jolly, good natured woman and sews and crochets and macrames in exchange for a bit of money. The family all know English, to what extent I didn’t figure out but I chance to believe at least some of them know it quite well. The boys (early 20s ish) took the missionary children on endless moto rides while the girls (15 and 20) joined our conversation inside. The style of their house was one of the most North American style houses I’ve been in here in Paraguay I think, maybe due in part to their conservative upbringing/church. 
 
Tuesday, December 29. 2020
0600 found the Toews family and teacher sneaking off the yard so as not to disturb the Heiberts’ peaceful slumber. 1030 or so found us at a big office building in Asuncion to pick up Tiago’s passport. Half an hour later or so found us driving thru Asuncion, out into landscape that slightly reminded me of New Mexico, the part of Paraguay that must be where those pictures with mountains or hills must be taken, thru the soccer ball and hammock towns of Paraguay, to a town called Quiindy (prn Keen due’ or actually probably kee een due’) to some friends that used to live in Barrio here. That was before my time but I have heard a lot about them. Mario and Maria and their 3 girls, Beatrice (prn Vay a trees), Victoria ( called Viki), and Belen (Ve’ len. It’s the Spanish way of saying Bethlehem.) The girls are exactly the same age as my students and have a lot of fun together. We arrived sometime after 1300 and sat down to drink Terere with Maria and her sister, Mario was working. Eventually we went in to help get lunch on and we sat down to eat. They have a bit of a store at the front of their house where they sell fruit and the cakes Maria makes. It’s a big open room with a TV and that’s where we ate. Thru the door at the back of the room is the girls’ room, then the kitchen. Her kitchen consists of small counters on either side of the sink, a small stove with a tank attached sitting in front of it, a tall cupboard and that’s where she does her cooking and baking. She makes and decorate amazing cakes. One of the outside doors leading out of her kitchen opens to the backyard which is sloping and consequently there’s a drop of 2 or so feet to the ground. Just off the kitchen is a small hallway with a bathroom and another bedroom on it. The other bedroom completes a circuit with a door into the first bedroom and that is the entirety of the house. Not terribly much privacy. After lunch we sit outside a bit and eventually Mario came home and later on we went to visit her Mom. Eric said we needed to leave around 1700, we had 2 hours to drive to Asuncion to the hotel and these peoples are never in a hurry to do anything and we knew if we were going to stay for supper that would only be at 1000 or so. Well we got back from Maria’s mom’s place around 1700 and Maria wanted us to have some cake that she had baked but first she needed to decorate it. That was cool to watch. I haven’t ever watched someone decorate a cake like that in real life. She squirted strawberry juice onto the 3 layers of the cake and stacked them together with Chantalli (a sort of whipped cream made from Chantalli powder and cold milk) between. Next she covered the whole cake in Chantalli and made 3 flowers on a little stick and gently transferred them to the cake with a pair of scissors. She dripped chocolate sauce on the edges to drop down the side of the cake and covered that with more Chantalli squirts and the cake was ready. But we needed pop to go with the cake so we walk down the street to the little store and exchange greeting and pleasantries and where are you froms before telling the lady what we want. The actual buying process takes up only around 23.6% of the time we were at the store. Image what North American shopping trips would be like if you spent 15 minutes shopping and another 45 minutes chatting with the cashier.  

The cake is delicious and the pop hits the spot and just after 6 we are on the road back to Asuncion. We stop to buy a ball in the soccer ball town and drive around a bit in the hammock town trying to find these hammocks with very little success. Maybe everything was shut down already, everything taken in for the night. Back in Asuncion 2 hours later, we take our Dos game (a descendent of Uno) into Pizza Hut to play while we wait for our supper. We check in to Los Alpes probably around 1030 and find our beds soon after.
 
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
I have made it known that I want to take lots of fabric home as it’s definitely cheaper here and also it’s just different from at home so Rachelle and I spent the morning fabric shopping. Well, I did the shopping, she did the driving and navigating and translating and Tiago-ing. I laid claim to 19 pieces of fabric from 4 different stores. We ate lunch at one of the impressive malls impressive food courts and headed for home. We stopped to pick up asaditos from our friend Pedro at the cruze for supper. He’s trying out a different job come the new year and this is his last day of making asaditos. Sadly. He’s figured out how to do it so the meat is tender and not crunchy and they are the best around. 
 
Thursday, December 31. 2020

I spent the day in the school room, getting ready for the next few weeks of school. Made Angel food cake (from a cake mix) in the afternoon. Two of the girls’ friends came to play and Rosita (8 or 9 ish🤷🏽‍♀‍) told me I had beautiful eyes. ‘Que lindo sus ojos!’ That sort of made my day. We went on a drive later afternoon, to get out of the house and to pick up some groceries and fireworks. Later in the evening we chilled in the yard and set of fireworks (5 of the cool big ones that rain down on you plus a bunch of Roman candles and maybe some other little ones cost less than $30.00 Canadian) and ate cake and waited for midnight when everyone else would set off fireworks. 
I have endless fascination with these people. On New Years Eve, you are supposed to wear new, white clothes. 
 
 
Friday, January 1, 2021  

I did more school stuff today. After lunch Rachelle and I made some sort of Baked Salted Caramel Pumpkin donuts with tinfoil in muffin tins instead of donut pans. We took a few to Felicita later. While we were there, Rachelle asked Gloria (Felicita’s daughter) if she’d cut Tiago’s hair sometime and she said sure why not now which means let’s keep talking for 20 more minutes and then go do that. So we went to her little hair salon at the front of her yard where she conducted the hair cut and somehow I got a hair wash out of it. I’ve always thought it would be cool to see what a hair dresser thought of my hair and give me tips and the wash itself felt really good. Gloria believes in cold water for washing hair, but the water she used wasn’t super cold which was nice. And then she dried it with a special attachment on her hair drier because apparently I have curly hair. Compared to most Paraguayans anyways.  

We had supper almost made later, when Eric announced that the neighbors were here. Antonio is a big, jolly man who has a tire shop right next door. Blanca is a short, stout woman who mans the adjoining store where the girls go for ice cream. They both seem to like to talk. They didn’t stay much longer than half an hour and then we finished our supper and ate it.  

Most of us celebrated the New Year last night, but the neighbors behind my house are celebrating tonight sounds like. There’s been loud music and shouts and loud guffaws coming from that direction for the last few hours. It’s after 2300 now so I’m going to try to sleep to this noisemakers. 
 
Saturday, January 2, 2020 

More school stuff this morning. I skipped out on cleaning church so I could clean my house and make lunch. Bible Study with Don Juan this afternoon should prove interesting like usual. A few weeks ago he suggested that I should wear long socks and shoes when sitting out on the grass so I wouldn’t get so many bits on my legs. A very good idea, but no thanks. I’ll rather try to remember to use Off. 
I wrote most of this today when I rather wanted to be sleeping and I’m not taking much time to read over or edit it. 
 
Ciao, 
Addie 
 
The power was out for awhile and I was hoping it would stay out so I wouldn’t have WiFi and wouldn’t be able to fix the mistakes or take random stabs and guess at my statements instead of asking to make sure I understand things right and send it off yet tonight. And then I could conveniently forget tomorrow and the next day and you’d never read these thoughts. But sadly, the power came on so here you go. 
Please don’t take that last paragraph personally. I do like updating you, I just gotta make it sound like I don’t for some reason.