Diecinueve y veinte

 Minutes after I sent the addition to last week’s diary, I encountered another cockroach in the shower. The forth one in the last 2 weeks. I think they do come back to life after all, Anna. (It’s been over a week now and I haven’t spotted any more cockroaches in my house. Perhaps due to some sort of poison that was used on them.) On to better things.  

 

Sunday, March 14, 2021 

Florido for church this morning. Went for a walk and stopped to visit the parents of the guy who is in charge of the school here. (Skip to Thursday for more info.) Went out for pizza for supper and got to watch all the Mennonites who seem to make up the biggest percentage of diners stare at us and try to figure out who we were. Not sure if they figured us out or not.  

 

Monday, March 15 

Did a little fabric shopping on the way to Barrio San Pedro this morning. Later afternoon we went to Felicita’s for Bible Study. Thais (14) joined us for the first time. Maybe because she didn’t have 3 extra girls to play with.  

Things have gone downhill in Barrio San Pedro since Erics left. The guy who sold the best asaditos down at the cruce passed his business on to someone else and went to find himself different work. The place where we used to be able to buy the most delicious rotisserie chickens on the way home from church hasn’t had any the last few times I’ve been by. Our usual waitress at San Pedro (a restaurant in town) only showed up for a few minutes and they didn’t have time to blow up the globo locos like they usually do.   

 

Tuesday, March 16 

Once again we left the dejected Barrio San Pedro house to sit empty for another week. Stopped in at Juan’s place for Bible Study. He complimented me on how much Spanish I’ve learned instead of trying to speak Guarani to me. Maybe he isn’t scary after all. I’m not sure what else we did today besides come back to Campo Nueve.  

 

Wednesday, March 17 

Youth singing in the evening. Which consists of sitting in a circle and singing wholeheartedly or halfheartedly out of our folders for awhile. And as soon as that’s done, out comes the terere and Arlin or Peter sets up 2 chairs in the middle of the circle so they don’t have to hold the water jug on their lap and we sit and talk. Or rather, sit and listen to Arlin and Peter talk.  It was a bit of a colder evening so Shayla made us some sort of delish hot drink she called a ‘lumberjack’ and we sat outside and listened to the reports from Annual Meeting after we got home from singing.  

 

Thursday, March 18 

Shayla took Gabe for shots this morning and I spent that time in the libreria next door. They sell all sorts of books and school and office supplies. My main purchase was a Spanish Bible, and I got some things for school, too. Afterwards, we went and picked up the teachers and brought them into town for lunch and some fabric shopping. Which seems to be the same all over the world. 

I’m not sure if I’ve explained the appearance of ‘the teachers.’ We have a small church school here in Paraguay. I’m not sure of all the facts but its run (managed? School-boarded?) by a Paraguayan member who moved to the States. He finds the teachers and makes the necessary arrangements like a list of who is supposed to take lunch to the teachers each school day and stuff like that. Actually I think this is the first year he is in charge but he seems to be doing it quite well. From my point of view. Anyways, til now, there have usually been guy teachers and this is I think the first year that they have 2 girl teachers. Melany (from Guatemala) uses the church for her classroom of 4 children in grades 5,7 and 8. Katharine (from Dominican Republic) has a very tiny school house beside church for her 3 students in grades 1 and 3. So hopefully this explains the appearance of ‘the teachers.’ You will be hearing more of them in a few days.   

 

Friday, March 19 

The most noteworthy thing I did today was take the truck and go to volley all by myself. Typical volley game. The specified place was church, the specified time was 1800 or a little after and when I showed up at 1820 no one was there. Except the teachers who’s house is right behind church. Eventually a few people showed up and we played 5 on 5 til about 1930 when it got to dark to play and, surprisingly, since the teachers didn’t supply terere and no one had brought any we all soon headed to our respective homes. I didn’t have much trouble finding my way home but on the way I was going to pass a slow moving vehicle but then decided not to as there were vehicles coming eventually and I really wasn’t in a hurry. I found out the real reason I hadn’t passed a few minutes later when a moto with no lights came whizzing past me in the oncoming lane.  

 

 Saturday, March 20 

One other noteworthy thing I did yesterday was messaging the teachers and asking them if I could stay with them for the weekend while Karlins went to Barrio San Pedro again. So this morning I unloaded my backpack and mattress at the teachers’ house and waved to Karlins as they drove off even tho Judd pleaded with me not to stay.  The teacher house is a small, 3 room house. A bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen with a table, some plastic lawn chairs and 2 wire rocking chairs.  The girls were planning a youth supper for that evening so we needed to go shopping in Campo 9. The only problem is that the only way they have to get around are their own 2 feet. So a car was borrowed but wasn’t going to arrive on time so lunch was started and then the car did arrive on time so we drank papaya juice and turned off the stove and got ready and went to town. We went to a fancy restaurant for burgers for lunch and then went to the Super for groceries (or shoes in my case) and afterwards drove thru Lactolanda for ice cream. They must have enjoyed having me along because they wouldn’t even let me pay for my own lunch or ice cream. Later we dropped the car off and got a tour of the Fellowship church and school. They have 3 classrooms. Two for the English speaking children and 1 for the ones who don’t speak English. Which I found a bit strange. Although I did find it kind of refreshing to talk to the one teacher (who is technically a Paraguayan but looks as white as you and me and speaks perfect English but her Spanish didn’t sound much better than mine. Not to judge or anything.) instead of trying to keep up with the conversation in the Spanish class upstairs. I’m feeling very snobby with my distinguishing between classes by the language they’re taught in and saying that I went and found someone to talk English to instead of listening to the conversation and trying to figure out what they were saying. Although everyone in that conversation could understand English and most could talk it very well.  Anyways, its Friday afternoon already and I don’t have time to go on rambling and judging. We returned to the teacherage and eventually people started arriving for supper. It wasn’t a big group but we had fun playing volley and eventually the hot dogs were roasted and some of the guys went around trying to freak out the girls with the huge frogs that came to visit. It worked in a few cases and resulted in screams and silent treatment.  

 

 Sunday, March 21 

It was a rainy morning but there was just enough time for us to have Sunday School outside between downpours. Its handy to have people fluent in 3 different languages especially when there are representatives of each language as a first language in church.  Sat under the tree at Abe’s and drank terere after church. ‘We teachers’ were invited for lunch afterwards. It is my aspiration to one day switch between two languages as easily as they do. I mean 3, or is it 4 by now. The way things are now, I think I’ll have to stick with one. For now. Melany spent the afternoon studying for school tomorrow as the courses she teaches are difficult and Katharine and I did the normal Sunday afternoon nap thing. People started arriving for the normal Sunday afternoon volley around 5 or so and eventually we had enough to play so we did that for awhile. And drank terere. Although that’s hardly noteworthy. We got invited to go to Arnaldo’s for an asado for supper so after everyone left we all showered and ate watermelon and brownies because these girls have obviously found out that at an asado, the meat might only be ready at 2200. Eventually we walked down the road and found Arnaldo’s children (read the list of youth below) and a few other friends drinking terere and waiting for the meat to be done. So we joined them in the growing cold and eventually were offered sweaters since we had neglected to bring ours and eventually around 2100 or a bit before the meat was done and we ate. Soon afterwards, the group grew smaller, some of the more unfamiliar faces left and the conversations switched from mainly Guarani to Spanish and Arlin started to quiz me out on Canada and eventually we left. The walk back home is quite short but eventful enough as there are tales of frogs and snakes and some of us were definitely not fond of frogs and snakes and we ended up running half the way back. Also there was a car coming.  

 

 Monday, March 22

 School started at 0730 but I slept in a little before sitting in on each class for a few minutes. School here is taught a lot more orally, and the teachers are kept quite busy with 3 or 4 students. Shayla picked me up not long after 0900 and that was the extent of my weekend with the teachers. They offered that I could come back next weekend but I’m not sure what’s going to happen with that.   I think this account of the weekend would be a lot more interesting if you knew the hidden aspects such as personalities and relationships and who belongs to what church and who their families are and that sort of thing.  I definitely recommend trying something like this sometime. 

 

  Wednesday, March 24 

I’m not sure what to write about anymore except that I’ve been doing some school shopping and trying to make amazing things for that. I figured out how to make origami stars out of 1/2 “ strips of paper. And also that post it notes make cute paper airplanes. Youth singing was cancelled tonight due to heavy rain and power outages. Which was kind of sad because this one was going to prove interesting as we were all supposed to preach a tiny sermon on a verse that inspired us.   

 

Thursday, March 25 

We threw a bunch of stuff into the pickup and headed down miles of cobblestone road to a lake in Bergthal Colony. The only others there were a few fishermen so we could watch the sunset quite peacefully. It wasn’t very ideal for swimming as they’ve been drying out the lake so they can work on the dam or something and they’d also been working around the edge with some sort of big equipment and made some deep ruts (where we were anyways.) The frogs came out when we were done supper and had a feast on the bugs that came too close to the fire and didn’t live to tell the tale. We were warned by one of the fishermen that the police were going to be out tonight due to the new restrictions coming in place this weekend for the Easter weekend so we took a different route back home and drove a bunch more miles of cobblestone road thru the colony and saw volley games and parties. It looks like it’s the in thing to stick colorful reflectors to gates or posts or whatever is at the end of your driveway and see if you can outdo your neighbor.  

 

Friday, March 26 

Did some more school shopping, Spanish studying, talked to Mom, walked around the corner to exchange the empty glass pop bottles for full ones. There was quartet singing at our place for awhile in the evening and eventually Shayla and I got to join them for a bit before supper. It was a very interesting group including an uncle of some of our youth who lives in the states now (the uncle does), Walter and his brother Josias, and an acquaintance/friend, Esli, from the Fellowship church who camee in cowboy boots and suspenders. Esli is one of those who is fluent in Spanish, Guarani and English. His dad is from the states and judging by his accent and the way he talked, I would have guessed Esli had grown up there but apparently he’s never been.  

 

Saturday, March 27 

I helped Shayla clean church this morning and after drinking terere with Dennis (read the youth section below), I got to mow some of the lawn! Smaller push mower than I’m used to but I’m spoiled I think. It felt good to mow lawn again, its amazing how much a girl can miss that.  And now its afternoon and I should clean my house here and do something useful and worthwhile. Although updating you is counted as worthwhile. As is mixing paints and trying to paint animal faces on tiny little pompoms. I just heard thunder so maybe we’ll get some sort of storm yet today. I’m hoping for volley sometime yet this weekend but who knows what will happen. Rain or the new restrictions for Easter week might hinder that.  

David and Lynora arrive next Friday! So we’ll go to Barrio and get the house ready and then pick them up in Asuncion and soon I’ll be back in my old bedroom in Barrio San Pedro!                 

 

Here is a list of the youth that I’ve been keeping company with and some random details about them. 

 Walter (25) just recently joined the church from some sort of Amish type church called The Fellowship.  

 Peter (18), Katrina (15), Dennis (12) All 3 are members. Dennis is still in school but comes to most volley games and singing. There younger brother Willie likes to come, too. Abe and Anna Jantzen are their parents. They lived in Whitemouth for a few years.  

 Leidi (17), Arlin (14), Alan (12) Alan is still in school and is not a member but comes to volley and singing. They have older and younger siblings, some of whom attend church. Their parents are Arnaldo and Floriana. 

 Evelin (15) is a cousin to the 3 you read about last and the one you will read about next. She is a member but her parents are not. She lives with her grandparents to take care of her sickly Grandpa.   

Andreas (15) attends church and volley regularly, but is not a member. He’s a cousin to the people in the last 2 paragraphs. 

 Melany (20) is the older grades’ teacher from Guatemala

  Katharine (21) is the younger grades’ teacher from Dominican Republic 

Diecisiete y Dieciocho

 I can’t keep anything straight apparently. I’ll try to get the right dates this time or maybe I’ll write that’s its April already. Also, you’ll notice that it’s week diecisiete again. This is the right diecisiete. The last one was supposed to be dieciséis. I think.   

 

Sunday, February 28, 2021 

Church feels very different with Karlins in place of Erics. The Toews girls made up a big part of children’s Sunday school and now as there aren’t so many who are qualified, the little boys colored while the adults (14+) had Sunday school.  After lunch and naps and making sure everything was in place for the coming empty week (for the house) and maybe some monster cookies and iced coffees we left for Camp 9. There was a soccer game between 2 major teams (Cero and Olimpia) being played tonight. Another table where we stopped for supper was quite quiet, intently watching until a goal was scored and the usual shout of ‘Goal!’ was heard from their direction. We drove around Camp 9 looking for the parade that follows the game in Honor of who won but we only heard it after we got home. Found out later on friends’ statuses that their had been volley at church.   

 

Monday, March 1 

My plans for this month in Camp 9 are sewing and studying Spanish, basically my summer vacation between two school ‘terms.’ So that’s what I started on today. I’m hoping to get a book to study from yet.   

 

Tuesday, March 2

 This afternoon we went and drank terere with Leidi and Arlin’s family. They’re 2 youth kids who have some funny younger siblings and some older brothers who I don’t see around very often. The dad is expelled and seems to feel like the missionaries should do everything for him and him do nothing in return. It was a very quiet time with a few Spanish conversations but mostly we had our own conversations-them in Guarani and us in English.   

 

Wednesday, March 3 

I made a big batch of cinnamon rolls, mostly for the freezer and I’m not sure what all I did today. Maybe took a walk.  Youth singing this evening. We were set to go sing at the grandparents of some of the youth (also members) but it was raining so we weren’t sure if it was still happening cuz we’d be outside. After much discussion, we realized we were still expected so we went and sat in a big circle around the front door as Grandpa would have a hard time coming out and sang. The numbers were chosen few and far between, Grandpa had a list in his head that we sang. Afterwards, Shayla was asked if the youth girls would be able to come for a sleepover on Friday night (more on that later.)   

 

Thursday, March 4

 I’ve been sewing a bunch in my downtime and have got a few dresses done. Unfortunately they didn’t really live up to my expectations but they’ll work. I’ve been using the Duolingo app on my phone a lot more lately too. Plus (gasp) I’ve read a few pages of my 501 Spanish Verbs dictionary.  The teachers have been wanting to buy some flowers for the flower bed they made with bricks in front of their house. Today was Shayla’s turn to take lunch to the teachers so we brought them to our place for lunch and after dishes were done we headed off for the greenhouses. Well,  the problem was that it started raining during lunch. It stopped long enough for us to leave the house but by the time we reached the greenhouse, it was pouring. Greenhouses here are mostly open air (technically not a greenhouse??) with a few small shelters and some spots covered with mesh. Not conducive to shopping in the rain. So after making a few purchases, we headed up Calle Dos to take the teachers home and wait for another day. Driving up Calle Dos was a feat in itself, pretty much pushing water that was rushing down at us. Water was using objects as ramps, crashing down 3 foot waterfalls on the other side, and where vehicles or motos were parked, it was using the spokes as tunnels to flow thru.  Went to drink Terere this evening with another member lady with 3 young girls.

 

  Friday, March 5

 We were expecting 5 girls for night so we started planning fun food and stuff to do. At lunchtime Leidi messaged to say the plans were cancelled. They didn’t have a ride to get to our place. We had been wondering about that but since it was their party, they had asked, it was thought that they should provide the ride. There are various vehicles that could have been procured but due to various reasons (work, brothers/offendedness/thinking the missionary should do everything, car doesn’t work) they didn’t have a ride. And we weren’t going to offer one. Well. Ok. That’s that. There was volley at church in the evening, not sure if it was another attempt at getting us to give them a ride or not but that didn’t happen. Due to the fact that it was dark and there aren’t lights at church, we only played two games of volley before it was too dark. Afterwards we sat and drank terere and talked. Katharine (the teacher from Dominican) knows English quite well I think but only talks it if I really really need help. It’s kinda interesting talking Spanish to someone who when you  ask in English how to say something in Spanish she tells you and you continue stumbling through your thought.  

 

Saturday, March 6, 2021 {Happy birthday, Ciara} 

 The trek was once again made to Barrio San Pedro today. We arrived at the house and I messaged Sara that we were in town and she said ‘Can I come over’ and before I could reply she sent me a picture of the house, obviously take from the street so I went outside and there she was waiting for me. So we sat and drank terere and talked and played Uno and finished mixing tortillas cuz that’s what I had been doing when she came and eventually she left to go study or watch the pig being butchered or something and we left for Bible Study at Juan’s.  And then afterwards I pressed the tortillas and ate a delicious supper of homemade fries and wings.   

 

Sunday, March 7, 2021

 Normal, abnormal service this morning. Tereré afterwards until Gloria thought it time to leave. Packed up our stuff, made sure everything was in its place for the next empty week and left to find some food and visit more friends. These friends of Karlins were at the lady’s parents place so we went to see them there. They parents have 8 girls between the ages of 18 and 30 (that’s actually a wild stab in the dark), 5 of whom are still at home and 3 of whom came home with their families for the day. They also have an older brother who was not around. Maybe there was a reason for that. His sisters are quite rambunctious. Doesn’t look like there’s a dull moment at that house. They sang for us and we sang for them and we all sang together. Like most people here, they all sang one voice, and none of them sang very quietly. It was very interesting to listen to, and very beautiful to my 4-voice accustomed ears. I’m not sure what they thought of our 3 part harmony songs. Karlin wanted to play volley with the men at the court across the road but they wouldn’t think of not playing for money so eventually when we left, we saw them heading out to play volley with their other friends.  Our destination for night was a set of cabins that looked quite cool online. We watched the sunset in the palm trees as we drove. The road took us took us thru a town and suddenly turned into dirt. Following the signs, we turned from the dirt road onto a trail with grass growing between 2 trails for the tires. Ever hopeful, we kept going, trusting that this place would look like the pictures we saw online. We weren’t disappointed. Quite soon we turned into the driveway, and as the gate was opened we could see pools and lights and everything looked amazing. We checked in and explored. We had 2 separate cabins with a small kitchenette which had a few things to make breakfast with (Maracaya juice!). There was a big square pool on one end of the compound that had an island in the middle, a kiddie pool and some sort of pool with 2 hot tub jets or whatever they’re called at the other end of the compound. There were also lots of quinchos and a playground for the kids and a fireplace and a big cage by the fence that we eventually went to look at and found out that it held 2 peacocks!   We sang for awhile before bed. Hadn’t done that for a few weeks.   

 

Monday, March 8

 One of the reasons for coming to this place was that we wanted to see Salto Cristal which are a set of falls. Well, when Karlin called to book, he was told that they were 40 minutes away from there but there was another set of falls just 20 minutes away. Maybe the earth shifted or something between then and this morning, but we found out that Salto Cristal was actually a lot further and these other falls we 40 minutes away. So we decided to go to the littler falls this morning. We packed our lunch and drive off and talked to more people and finally found the right place. It was a big park kind of thing but there were no signs. We walked down to see the falls. We were at the top but there were a few paths down to the bottom. There was also a sign that said Such and such falls path this way’ so we decided to hike to see them. So we started walking down the river. When we crossed to the other side and started going back up the river the way we came from, we got suspicious. Soon enough we came to the ‘end’ of the hike and realized we had circled back to exactly where we had started from. We hiked 20 minutes to see what we could have walked down a few steps to see. We had a good little laugh over that and sat down to read and eat lunch and watch butterflies before climbing the steps back to the top. We weren’t going to go back the way we came! On our way back to the cabins, we stopped at a museum on the site where they used to use the water from the river to turn a huge wheel to fan the fire in an oven that somehow extracts whatever  was used to make things like war weapons and shovels. I’m terrible at remembering history like this so I’m not exactly sure what went on. I think there was a battle of some sort there most likely due to the fact that they were making a lot of war weapons. The ruins of the whole wheel/oven building are still partly standing and we could walk thru them. The place was built in 1800 something. There was a small canal running from a small dam to the big wooden wheel. There was a big open space in one wall that narrowed into a small pipe sized space that led to the next room where the oven was. A long ramp ended above the fire where the rock was pushed up and dumped in, and another pipe-ish thing let the melted stuff drip out. I doubt that makes to much sense unless you’d see it.  We stopped in town for ice cream (the power went off while the guy was sitting at the back of the shop, using an immersion blender to make my milkshake) and the print shop on the way back. Swam in the decadent pools (or in my case, gave my phone and my book a bath as I was making my way to go read on the island) and eventually made supper (chorizos and some other piece of meat which I forget what it was, garlic bread, a vegetable mix, pineapple, coke from glass bottles) over the fire. Absolutely delish.   

 

Tuesday, March 9  

We made good use of the place as we had it to ourselves, other then the worker and the 2 men who were building some sort of restaurant on the yard. Just before lunch we set off for Salto Cristal. The road we took was mostly dirt. The small stretch of pavement lasted only until we were up the hill (or mountain from this Prairie girl’ standpoint) were we stopped to take in the view. We must have spent our last few days in a valley without realizing it and now we could see for miles. The view was quite breathtaking especially since the parts of Paraguay that I’ve seen aren’t like that. The guy in the hammock under the lean-to  probably didn’t know what to think of those Mennonites who got out of their vehicle to exclaim over the view but didn’t take pictures.  Salto Cristal was just as breathtaking as the view. After finding out we had to pay to use the bathrooms, we hiked a few minutes, down some steps, and along the river. Mostly on rocks. The falls didn’t have masses of water pouring over, but it’s beauty was in its height. It drops down from sort of an end of a canyon into a deep hole. Along the edges are ledges where the water is knee deep or so. To go swimming, you have to wear a lifejacket, rented out by the lifeguard on duty, who when we got there was a skinny looking guy who was taking pictures of the butterfly that landed on his hand.  We ate supper at McDonalds on our way home.  

 

Thursday, March 11

 Took lunch to the teachers. Once Gabe was sleeping, Shayla and I went shopping to a bunch of the little stores here in town. I didn’t find what I was looking for. Most of these little stores don’t stock their items in more then one size and that is usually size small. A lot of stuff (more so around Barrio San Pedro) is homemade and you could go to the fabric store and make it yourself.  Went to Walters place in the evening. He himself wasn’t home due to harvest but his family was. One of his sisters is my age and knows English. We were invited to stay for supper so we ate fresh chipa and tallarin with them and afterwards sang some English songs.   

 

Friday, March 12

 The youth girls found a ride to being them here for night tonight. Shayla had the grand idea of a utensil supper so we set the table with random things and made sure supper wasn’t food you could eat with your fingers. I think the girls enjoyed it but it was hard to tell because they were all quite silent. After supper we played some volley, and a card game and eventually sat around for awhile in silence. I guess I could have contributed more but I’m kinda the type to sit in silence when there are to many people or it’s too strange so I sat in silence too.   

 

Saturday, March 13 

Breakfast was cooked over the fire this morning, but due to the fact that that fire was in the sun (and also the sun was shining quite much by then) we sat and ate breakfast in the shade a few feet from the fire – in silence. Eventually dishes were washed and we took them home. In silence. These girls can talk when they want to so I guess they were just out of their comfort zone here. Kinda like I was. They seemed to enjoy it tho, and even talked about doing a utensil supper for the rest of the youth. The girls who came were Leidi, Katrina, Katherine (she’s the teacher from Dominican Republic) and Melany (the teacher from Guatemala). Evelyn had to stay home for some reason. She definitely would have been more lively.  

Not my most inspirational day for writing diary. Now I’ll be off to play Go Fish with Judd. 

Dieciséis

 This week seemed to go by so fast I didn’t have time to write. 

 

Sunday, January 21, 2021 Nobody was in a hurry to leave after church today because this was Erics last time in church. Last time seeing most of these people. I served the big circle terere until most people had had enough and then everybody started goodbyes. Oh and one bunch of bananas was ready to be picked and sent home with someone so there was a bit of a discussion who should get it..  We stopped for a delicious rotisserie chicken on the way home. At the place where we get them, there are probably a dozen automatically rotating over the fire in 2 rows. The one on the end gets taken off the stick and unceremoniously packed up, some mandioca gets put into a bag and there’s your lunch. It’s absolutely delicious, especially after church when your hungry and want to eat right aways instead of making lunch first. I think we’re spoiled.  Early afternoon we were booked to go see some friends who have twin girls Christina’s age and a little boy just older than Tiago. Everybody had a grand time playing together after the initial quiet what-are-we-going-to-do time and the rest of us drank terere and helped make hotdogs, which were served in a bun with a line of mayo drizzled beside. And coke/Guaraná. Which was our afternoon snack or early supper. You choose.  Perla came over in the evening to officially say goodbye.  

 

 Monday, January 22, 2021 A bunch of neighbor ladies who rarely came over before stopped in to chat with Rachelle this morning. And bring gifts. I worked on the escape room that we were setting up for Karlins and packed up for the month or so that I’ll be living with Karlin and Shayla in Campo Nueve. The ice had barely frozen over the room keys that were needed to open the escape room when Karlins arrived to first of all, escape and then to help with packing and cleaning and support and whatever needed to be done yet. Christina and I biked to the store at the cruce and stopped in at Julian’s fruit stand where we were given individual containers of fruit salad before biking back home. Which took us all of 2 minutes. Supper was going to be around 2000 but due to the many visitors who started arriving at 1930, it was around 2300 by the time we devoured our poutine and chorizos.    

 

Tuesday, January 23, 2021 Last minute preparations, cleaning up the yard, washing a huge stack of dishes to be put away at a later date. That’s what our morning consisted of and the heavily laden vehicles left the yard before noon. Stopped for Subway ish style sandwiches (which were even better than Subway) on the outskirts of Asuncion, drove thru a Covid testing station (the 5 tests all came back negative) and checked into Los Alpes hotel where we napped and swam and later headed to the shipping container out door food court where Eric’s friend Brett has a crepe restaurant. Several hours later, after trying tatakua pizza, hummus and of course crepes and waffles and milkshakes, we waffles back to our vehicles and into the hotel and went to bed to sleep off the supper.   

 

Wednesday, January 24, 2021 Walked around a park and tried to go over a bridge that wasn’t open and it started raining and we went to a mall and spent money and had lunch. Spent the afternoon at the hotel. Ate cheesecake that had been brought from home. Around 2230 we donned our tapabocas and set off for the airport. Once there we found out that we actually could go inside to see Eric’s off so we did that and eventually watched them walk thru the doors to security and as it didn’t really pay to say bye to the rest of the people there who we didn’t even know we walked out and drove back to Los Alpes on semi deserted streets, the time being after midnight.  

 

Thursday, January 25, 2021 We made the journey from Asuncion to Campo Nueve today. The van had to be ferried home with us so Shayla got to drive.. Stopped at a cool chicken barn turned restaurant for lunch before those of us who weren’t driving succumbed to sleepiness. 

 

 Friday, January 26, 2021 Well, I can discuss other people being sick in my letters so I guess I have to when it’s me, too. It’s a hard thing for me to do, tho, because I’ve prided myself in not being sick to the stomach for the last 5 years. Actually I don’t remember the last time I was sick. Anyways, I was in bed with some sort of virus til early afternoon today. Not a good feeling. Coke and homemade chocolate chip iced capps do a lot for a sick person and I got most of a dress cut out yet. 

 

 Saturday, January 27, 2021 Got ourselves chipa and cocido for breakfast and headed out. We stopped at some friends for terere in the morning and they served us delicious lunch of grilled chicken. There’s a conservative church close to ours in Florido that Karlins would have a bit to do with and these people were of the same church. Continued on to the forlorn Barrio San Pedro mission house where we were greeted with a stack of clean dishes (that may or may not have been full of little ants) and no power. Now I’ll switch tenses because I don’t know the future yet. But the plan is to pick up Perla and Sister Felicita (like usual) and go have Bible Study with Brother Juan (like usual.) Church tomorrow and then who knows what will happen after that. 

Catorse y quince

 Now I don’t even know where to start or how to write this letter. I guess it always helps to start at the beginning so I’ll try to remember that far back.

 

  Sunday, February 7, 2021  

The whole congregation (Felicita, her 2 daughters, 2 granddaughters and 1 grandson, and Perla plus all of us) piled into the van after church and came to our place for an asado for dinner. Felicita had sent some meat for this a few days ago and we supplied a few sides (including chorizos. Insert heart eyes here.) They also brought boiled sweet potatoes and some absolutely delicious chicken milanesa (meat pounded flat and fried with a coating.) We girls played variants of Uno while the adults talked and drank terere and waited for the meat to cook. Later on we played a bit of volley and ate cake and drank more terere. I forget what we did in the evening.

 

  Monday, February 8, 2021 We’ve been wanting to go down to the river with Perla for a while and today was the day it worked out for that. Or whatever you want to say. We got to Perla’s just after 1000 and she said ‘Oh you’re here already? I thought we were going this afternoon!’ But she was ready anyways and hopped and in directed us where to drive. We parked in some shade on someone’s yard and started the walk down to the river. The ‘path’ took us thru tall grass, under fences, thru pastures; most of the way was quite sunny and having learned the Paraguayan way, most of us sot any shade we could find which was rare. We were almost down to our spot when a farmer came briskly down the path to get his cows out of our way so we could be there in peace. The part of the river -or should I say stream- where we stopped had a small waterfall with a bit of a deep spot where the girls could pretend to swim. The rest was quite shallow and not flowing very rapidly. Although the sun was shining, the water was kinda chilly and I didn’t stay in very long. I read my book on the bank and Perla and Rachelle found clay to mold into pitchers and bowls. We had ourselves a bit of a picnic lunch and soon headed for home. The way back to the van seemed hotter and longer then the way down and we stopped for a few water breaks. We went a bit of a different way back and this time one of the pastures was occupied. The cows didn’t seem to mind us tho.  Again, I’m not sure what else we did today. Maybe we went to San Pedro (the restaurant with the globo locos here in town. Directly translated, globo loco means crazy balloon, which is what bouncy castles or whatever you want to call them truly seem to be.)  

 

Tuesday, February 9, 2021 Left for Camp 9 this morning. Bought chipa and cocido for breakfast along the way. Every town seems to have at least one chipa stand. The girls running these stands will hop into busses with baskets of food and get off at the next town or somewhere to catch a ride back on another bus. I think maybe they don’t have to pay to do that. We stopped in Colonel Oviedo at the fabric store where they have big wire baskets filled with cut pieces of fabric which you buy by weight. We also stopped at the market where I spent more money. McDonalds for lunch and we were on our way again.  For supper, we went to some of Erics’ Mennonite friends who live in Sommerfeld colony close to Camp 9. They have children close to the girls’ ages and they have a lot of fun together riding bike and quad and playing all sorts of games. Supper consisted of pizza and ice cream out in the garage and then we women went inside to the women’s sitting room to chat. The house is amazingly grand. A small kitchen off the garage with some sort of pizza oven or bbq, a bigger kitchen inside with a breakfast nook, 2 living rooms for separate seating when company comes over, a playroom with a built in playhouse, a big sewing room with a industrial sewing machine and at least 1 more normal sewing machine and a serger, a few more closed doors that were never opened to me, and apparently I only saw half of the house. Anyways, enough about the house. We sat and chatted in a mix of Spanish and German with some English thrown in about healthy eating and I forget what all else.   

 

Wednesday, February 10, 2021 Our destination today was Itaipu Dam just out of Ciudad Del Este along the Paraná River which forms part of the border between Paraguay and Brazil. We arrived in time to watch the IMAX or movie or whatever it was to get the details of the dam. My memory being my memory doesn’t take in the facts it should remember such as the measurements of the dam, but instead remembers random details. If I remember correctly, one of the 20 generating units supplies 90% of Paraguay’s power. Most of the power is used by Brazil. It is the largest producing dam in the world and could supply the whole world with power for 32 days. At it’s tallest, the dam is 60 some stories high. The steel used in building it could build (my brain remembers 30+, online it says 300+) Eiffel Towers and the amount of truckloads of rock hauled in could stretch around the world 3 times. My facts seem to be kinda jumbled so you might want to look it up or visit it yourself if you want to know more. After the movie, we boarded a bus which took us to view the dam. We stopped at one lookout where we could see  a lot of the dam. There are 3 spillways, but none of them were open. Back in the bus, we took a tunnel underneath the spillways and beside the 20 turbines used to generate the power before turning around and coming back across the top of the dam, which concluded our tour. We had eaten lunch and done our fabric shopping (I don’t think I can ever have enough fabric. Not enough room in the suitcase, yes, or not enough money, but never too much fabric.) before going to the dam so we headed back to Camp 9 from there.  The regular Wednesday evening youth singing was changed to an everybody evening due to us being here. We sang as a congregation for awhile and then we youth sang for awhile. A lot of the songs in their folders I knew in English so that was nice for me. The school year has just started here, due to the fact that we’re nearing fall, so I got to meet the 2 new teachers have come to teach at the school in the Florido congregation. One girl is from Guatemala and the other from Dominican Republic. After church we stood around and talked for awhile and eventually everybody left and we went to a churrasqueria for supper and stuffed ourselves with delicious grilled meat. And ate grilled pineapple with sweetened condensed milk.  

 

Thursday, February 11, 2021 Eric’s had some documents to work out and sign so some people ran around trying to get that done this morning. The rest of us ran around to green houses and succulent green houses and eventually we all went to town for lunch and then some of us set up the volley ball net while the papers were finally read to be signed and eventually Erics left for home, leaving me at Karlins. That’s how I remember the morning anyways. Shayla was going to take supper to the teachers so she messaged them and they said we could drop it off at church as they weren’t’ home right then and didn’t know when they would be home and Shayla said we wanted to eat with them cuz I was around and they never read the message and eventually we find out that they were at Walter’s eating popcorn with his mom and sisters so we go over there and sit and drink terere with them all (this is probably after 1800 already) and eventually we play a few games of volley and it gets dark and Karlins and I took the teachers home and ate supper with them and went home to bed ourselves. 

 

 Friday, February 12, 2021 Ran a few errands today and sat and drank terere at Walter’s again. There was ball in the evening. 

 

 Saturday, February 13, 2021 We left the house around 9 this morning and made a few stops to pick up the rest of the youth and their backpacks. The ultimate destination was home (Barrio San Pedro) but first we stopped at some small falls for a bit of a hike and our lunch. We were there with Karlins a few weeks ago and since then a storm had ripped thru there and took down a bunch of trees. Now they’re fixing it up nice and adding some benches in the water and a nice quincho to eat your lunch under. Some of the guys went swimming and hiked up a tall set of falls that feeds into the river/stream and us girls got our feet wet. The hike back up to the van was quite brutal but we all made it eventually. And we stuffed back into the van (10 people on the 9 seats and the 3 guys in the back. Plus backpacks.) and carried on our merry way. We stopped to sing a few songs for Don Juan and soon all piled out of the van at my house. After 3 hours in that van we were all happy to be free. Arlin who is about 14 loves to talk and I don’t think he was quiet for more than 5 minutes the whole 3 hours. He had us all singing at one point but mostly those of us in the back seat were either laughing or rolling our eyes at him. (I was in the back seat with his sister and cousin.) Everybody kept asking me if we were going to play volley ball while they were here. We sipped a few rounds of terere and headed off around the corner to play. We haven’t played volley here in town but the neighbors play a lot so we asked if we could use their court. Well they wanted to play with us. Especially the one lady who wanted to play her way. So we tried to figure out their way and showed them what we could do, too. The Florido youth play a lot of volley and consequently are quite good and play well together. We had quite the group watching us by the end. Eventually we came home for supper and when we should have been getting ready for bed we started playing Dutch Blitz. Which is one of my favorite games, but not every body knew how to play. It got quite loud; everybody was shouting, some were singing to try to distract the others, the people who knew how to play were trying to help the ones who didn’t even if they weren’t on the same team... Eventually we were told to go to bed and we all found our mattresses and settled down for a few hours. Between the two houses, we had 19 people to find beds for.   

 

Which brings us to Sunday, February 14, 2021 We were all up and milling about by 0700 this morning and shortly after 0800 we were all off the yard, heading for church. Instead of Sunday school, we youth sang a bunch of songs. The sermon, given by one of the Florido guys, was about Moses, and due to my having my English Bible along and him reading lots of scriptures I could understand most of it. It was truly very inspiring. Especially from a guy who joined our church just a few months ago from some sort of an Amish church. The church was quite full and the fan was running quite high to try to keep us all from getting too warm. But it almost felt like the church services we used to go to back in Manitoba. A full church, the songs are sung in 4 voices with  multiple people to each voice, the song leader, preacher and Sunday school leader are different people, children sitting up behind the pulpit -wait, what? I guess that’s not a North American sight but neither are the plastic lawn chairs that constitute our benches and the short sleeves and sandals that we wear. The big circle we sat in while drinking terere outside after church was another not so North American sight.  Thais and Marivel came home with us for dinner and soon after dinner dishes were over we hopped into the vehicles again to find another volley ball court to play on. Our destination was a sand court beside a soccer field bearing the name Manchester in big letters along the side of the field. The sun was shining brightly and the sand burned the feet of those of us who were stupid enough to want to play barefoot but we all got a few games played and Sara showed up with her brother Gama and eventually we convinced her to play a game with us. She kept saying she didn’t know how to play volleyball which didn’t turn out to be true.  The van for Florido left around 1600 with most of them hoping that Arlin would sleep all the way home so they wouldn’t have to listen to his constant chatter.     

 

Monday, February 15, 2021 I spent about 2 hours on the phone with various members of my family. Keenan and Sophia wanted to talk to me and later I called my sister for advice on something I was baking. I think other wise we mostly recuperated from the weekend. One of these days we went to a pizza place in town called La Rustica which was decorated in wood and had delicious pizza. Also I think I cleaned the fridge in my house either today or tomorrow.  

 

 Wednesday, February 17, 2021 Went visiting this morning. First of all to some Mennonite friends I hadn’t met yet where only the man knew Spanish and Rachelle tried to understand the lady’s Plautdeich and the girls got to go feed the cows and then to another place where we were fed a delicious lunch. Bible Study at Felicita’s in the afternoon.   

 

Thursday, February 18 2021 We went to visit one of Rachelle’s friends from town named Suni. The driveway into her yard is a narrow strip between two buildings that opens up into a big yard full of plants and flowers. She takes care of her dad who is old and forgetful and ‘acts like a child again’ and  who thinks that I should know Guarani already.  For some reason my inspiration is run out and I can’t think of more to write about today.   

 

Friday, February 19, 2021 We went to visit Doña Felicita today and when we arrived the yard was bustling with activity. The children were getting ready to go next door to help their uncle and aunt clean their yard so they can fix up the house and move in. So I joined the throng and when we get there Thais finds 2 chairs and her and I sit down and drink terere and the offers I make to help are turned down because ‘there aren’t’ enough machetes’ so we sat and talked and Monica (one of Thais’s cousins who is 17) stood and chatted with us until her mom called her to work again. I had never chatted with Thais like that as she usually is with Christina or one of her cousins and I take an effort to talk to, and I found her quite amiable. We had a bit of an English/Guarani lesson where I learned (and promptly forgot) Guarani words for the things around us and they reached into their brains and remembered how to spell words like ‘cat.’   

 

Saturday, February 20, 2021 Rachelle was popular this morning. Two sets visitors with promise of more tonight and Monday morning. I sat and listened to the neighborhood gossip and served them terere. Christina and Tiago stayed home with me in the afternoon as there isn’t enough room in the truck for all of us to go to Bible Study.  

There you have the last 2 weeks. My inspiration to make it interesting and not just unemotionally write the bare facts was gone by the time I finished as I waited til the last hour to write and didn’t even get it sent off on schedule. Not sure why I have to have such a rigid schedule. Maybe cuz I don’t count myself a missionary teacher lol.  

Ciaocito Miss Addie 

 P.S. I remembered another name that I had been going to write about last time and forgot. Rodolfo. Which is Rudolf in English. Quite common I think. 

Trece y medio

 Let me give you a few facts to tide you over til next time I write.    

There are normal names here like Nicole and Peter (Pedro) but I find some other names very interesting. We have neighbors named Moses and Snow White (Moises y Blanca Nieve.)  A friend named Bethlehem (Belen) and I thought there was more I was going to add to this but I forget what.   

The waitress or shop keeper babysits for you.   

The high up consulate WhatsApps with his ‘customers.’  You can order pizza by WhatsApp. You can get diapers or cheese or other packages delivered to your gate, by WhatsApp. You can do anything with WhatsApp seems like.   

Due to Covid, at most places there’s at least one barrel with a sink set into the top beside the door and some soap and paper towel. The question is whether or not you have to use it. Same with masks.   

The guard at the door of the store carries a spray bottle with hand sanitizer along with his gun.   

McDonalds has 2 floors. With a balcony on the second.  

At some restaurants you buy your food by the weight. You can buy frozen yogurt by the weight. Fabric by the weight (but not at restaurants.)   

You shake hands and greet everybody. If you are in the middle of a volley ball game when someone arrives, one of the first things you do when the game is done is to shake hands with the newcomer.

 The other thing you do is crowd around the person serving terere so you can be served next.   

If the fruit tree on your yard spreads its branches over the fence, the fruit on those branches is fair game. Even if you are standing right there talking with them.   

Sunday School is interrupted by a pig.   

And of course I have had more brilliant ideas but they slipped my mind somehow.    

 

 

And then a few comments I found interesting   

From a 4-year-old: ‘I have a big heart!’  

 From a 7-year-old when Mom wished something would have happened faster: ‘But Mom! This is Paraguay.’   

 Maybe I should title this ‘You know you’re in Paraguay if…’ bit these are just random tidbits that I’ve hard about or that have happened to me  and don’t necessarily happen thru out Paraguay.  

Trece

 Ah this week has flown by and I don’t have anything written yet. Oh well, maybe I won’t send it today.  

 

Sunday, January 31, 2021

 Due to our company, (Rachelle’s friend Raquel, her little sister Vanessa, and their friend Lisandro) I made the hammock in the living room my bed and actually got cold due to the rainy weather happening outside the open windows and door. Also due to the rain, church was cancelled. Some of our company slept in (because that’s what you do in Paraguay when it rains) and some came in early and chatted and drank mate, which is pretty much like terere except with hot water and some sweetener added. It’s definitely not my favorite. If they were disappointed about not going to church they didn’t show it, and we had a little song service ourselves after breakfast. Afterwards the chess game was hauled out and some of us gossiped or read or colored and soon it was lunch time. I’m a quiet person when it comes to new people’s, especially in Spanish. But it’s fun to be able to understand most of what people are saying even if I have trouble talking. It’s also fun to hear the word ‘snowboarding’ as in ‘I want to go snowboarding’ thrown in to an otherwise only Spanish conversation. Our company left not long after 2 and I logged in to Steinbach Sunday morning service to hear my Dad talking! That came rather as a surprise to me and I got to listen to his impressions of Paraguay.  A few hours later we welcomed more company thru the gate. Shayla’s sister Cindy and Ty (from Alabama somewhere I think) and their 2 boys, were visiting Karlins. We did the normal things like eat and talk and then we sing for awhile which I enjoyed immensely and after it was good and properly dark the fireworks were brought out and drowned out the neighbors music for a few seconds.  

 

Monday, February 1, 2021

 I again slept in the hammock and slept late much to the dismay of the little people who were desperately longing to play with some of the toys in the living room.  Karlins and company left soon after lunch and we shortly followed them. We took a scenic route to Asuncion and did some shopping before heading to Paseo La Galería (shopping mall between the Twin Towers of Paraguay. Picture below) to eat a delicious supper of build-your-own pasta on the 3rd story balcony overlooking the city. We even got to watch the sun finish going down. We live in style here.   

 

Tuesday, February 2, 2021

 Eric worked at getting my visa renewed this morning and then we (I) spent more money and drove around and eventually met Karlins and company at another mall food court and then all trooped down to underground parking to exchange vehicles. We’ve been using the pickup for the last 2 weeks and the van now feels luxurious with lots of space.  

 

 Thursday, February 4, 2021 

The long awaited day for the girls came today. Rachelle made a jug of lemonade, 2 cakes and a colorful sign and the girls set up a table outside the gate for a few hours to vend their wares. Thais came to supervise and brought her little brother Cristian. I mostly stayed inside and made buns and cinnamon rolls but most of the neighbors stopped by (Rachelle had done a status update) and 2 vehicles stopped. Apparently one vehicle only wanted the cake which had sold out and had their own drink and apparently were quite happy due to their drink. All in all it went quite well and they warned enough to go buy ice cream afterwards.   

 

Friday, February 5, 2021 

The electrician neighbors came for supper tonight. I’m not sure if I should leave it at that or give you more details.  

I’ll start on the details. First of all, apparently this has happened to all the teachers that have been here but the lady loves to jokingly pair her son (Jimmy) with the teacher and that makes it a bit awkward for both of us. Anyways. I’ll tell this in order. The mom and her daughter (Emily) were going to come early to learn how to make hamburgers with us. Well, we thought, since there wasn’t a time given, they might come around 1600. Well, 1600 came and we weren’t quite ready for them so we breathed a sigh of relief. I was doing a rather large renovation on my dress and was glad they didn’t show up in the middle of that. Five o’clock came and we were all ready and we started playing games on the living room floor and they didn’t come. They finally arrived just after 1900. But that’s Paraguay for you. Gotta love it. And, oh, the godfather of the girl and his family is coming to their place from Asuncion yet tonight and they might suddenly have to go home when they arrive. Ok. So we make the hamburgers. The dad and Jimmy arrive sometime after 2000 and we drink terere and eventually Eric starts grilling the hamburgers and then suddenly it’s time for a ride in Jimmy’s car. There’s definitely reason for that as it’s a 1985 VW Bug. Four speed manual I found out. So some of us got a ride much to the delight of some and the dismay of others but we won’t go into that. It turned out to be a rather long ride; I’m used to going a block or 2 and then returning home when testing out someone else’s vehicle. But no, almost to the end of town one way, then the next and then stop at a store to buy pop before going back home. By which time the hamburgers are ready and we sit down to eat a hardy meal and everyone’s to full to eat cake but the godfather’s call that they’ve arrived saves us from having to stuff ourselves with cake yet and the 5 of them pile into the tiny interior of the bug with a tray of hamburgers and half the cake on their laps and they’re gone. And we have just enough time to clean up before the clock strikes 2300 and we head wearily to bed.   

 

Saturday, February 6, 2021 

A few weeks ago, the call of ‘Combine!’ brought everyone to the front of the house to watch the massive beast roll down our street and over the speed bumps. Obviously harvest is now beginning and  the last 2 mornings I’ve seen them on our street. Now I’ve seen combines before and even ridden in one (que guapa Miss Addie!) but I feels it’s rather uncommon to see one rolling thru town.  

Doce

 Sunday, January 24, 2021 

I can’t believe it’s the end of January already.  

I’ve written a bit about what the church yard and building are like. Now to tell you about the service itself. To start with, Everybody arrives via the missionary vehicle. We stop to pick up Perla at her hair salon on the way to church, and then once most of us have been dropped off to unlock and set up the Sunday School benches and make room in the vehicle, Eric goes to pick up Felicita and whoever wants to come from her compound. Usually it’s Felicita’s daughter Gloria and her 2 children Thais (14) and Cristian (2.) Another on of her daughters, Nimia, sometimes comes with her daughter Marivel (17). Once everybody has arrived we stand around talking or listening to voice messages or run around. Eventually, when Eric has deemed it time (maybe he checks the time?) we all walk into church and find our seats. The ladies seem to have an unwritten rule about who sits where, while Eric has about 4 different spots to choose from. Church starts, Eric leads a few songs out of the books that we spread out across the room while we wait for the aforementioned second load of congregationalists. (I don’t know if that’s the right word.) Most Paraguayans don’t know about following notes and are not necessarily melodious singers. There books with no notes that they can use while we follow our little notes. We sing only soprano in church although other voices are added by those who don’t sing on tune. It truly is quite beautiful tho. After a short opening Eric, the children are dismissed and the adults scoot they chairs around into a semi circle and proceed to read the Sunday School lesson and having a lively discussion. Perla and Felicita don’t run out of words very often and discussions with them can get pretty interesting. Meanwhile, outside the children are pretty much playing musical chairs while supposed to be having Sunday School. First we read the lesson and do the exercises, then we spend a while coloring the picture with assorted sizes of pencil crayons before opening the Cantemos songbook that may or may not be missing 10 or 15 songs. We might sing one that we already sang in church that morning or we might sing Oh Come All Ye Faithful as it seems to be a favorite, even after Christmas. Back in church after I’m not sure how long, half an hour or longer, we recite our verse from the lesson and sing a song in front of church. Finally back in our seats we sing a Guarani song or 2, someone might comment a few words on it from the benches, or ask what certain words mean and then the sermon is brought by (drum roll, please) Eric. Throughout the service, Christian will be running in and out and around, Rachelle might be translating for me out loud, and someone might volunteer a thought from the benches. A song, a prayer and church is over. But we walk around, eat fruit, visit, because that’s what you do after church. Even if we’ll all squish into the van and make only one trip to drop everyone off. Before Covid, they used to drink terere together after church and sounds like we might be starting that again soon.  Monday, January 25, 2021 We visited Julian’s tonight. I love being with them. There’s never a dull moment, always fun and laughter and craziness and singing. The oldest few love to practice their English and the 16 year old twins are a highlight with Eric’s girls.    

 

Wednesday, January 27, 2021 

I’m afraid the bugs have gotten me again. I mean, not afraid. Mad. There was a stretch between then and now (then being the week or 2 after I got here) that I didn’t have many bites and thought I was getting used to the bugs here or something. What a joke.  

 

Thursday, January 28, 2021

 At breakfast, the mist that was misting down on us turned into a drizzle and then suddenly turned into rain and pretty soon we vacated the table as the grass roof on the quincho was starting to leak. Breakfast came to an abrupt end and we got on with our day a bit earlier than usual. Actually it’s still raining as we speak; I’m sitting in my desk getting ready for school and the time reads 0733. 

 

Friday, January 29, 2021 

We were invited to (Jacob I think his name is) Miller’s for supper tonight. We went to see them last week and they wanted to have us over for supper yet. Did some shopping along the way as some of the shops we shop in are in their direction. We ate a delicious supper of mashed potatoes and meatballs and  jello and pickles and pickles beets and buns and I forget what else. Reminded me a bit of going to my grandparents and trying to help with prep and cleanup and eating however many cookies you want  cuz they’re Grandma’s and you don’t always get Grandma’s cookies. Later in the evening some of their children and grandchildren came to sing with us. There were some strong, beautiful voices there; 2 of the little boys sang a duet for us and one little 4-year-old belted out the chorus of his favorite song when we came to it. I found the languages very interesting tonight. The men conversed in Spanish but the women had to try to make each other understood thru all 3 languages. Mrs. Miller speaks English and 2 of the other ladies there definitely understand some English and they’d all understand some Spanish but speak neither. So if Mrs. Miller wasn’t around it for quite interesting. Rachelle had the ability to be fluent in Plautdeich when she was young. She lost that along the way but can understand some and tries to talk some much to the delight of some Mennonites.  I don’t even know what I’m writing anymore. It’s barely still Saturday and I still have today to write about and I want to sleep yet. 

 

 Saturday, January 30, 2021

Rachelle’s friend Raquel from Campo Nueve asked if she could come for night tonight. Well sure of course! Then she asked if she could bring her sister, and later she said there was a youth boy coming along too. They were at a wedding on one of the colonies and needed a place to sleep. I find it very interesting. They’re from some sort of plain church, they wear plain colored cape dresses and white lacy head coverings. Raquel is maybe 40 ish, her adopted sister is 15, and they brought along a 22 year old guy who is of no relation to them as far as I know. The guy is a teacher in Guatemala at some sort of school for boys who’s parents don’t want them or something. They all seem quite relaxed here and want to come to church with us tomorrow. Who knows how long they’ll stay. I’m hoping to play ball with them tomorrow as apparently Raquel is quite the ball player. 

Anyways I’m not feeling very happy about how this letter is written but this is what you’re getting this week.  

Addie