PARAGUAY!!!!! - Part 1

So if you did not know, I went to Paraguay for three weeks with my third year class here at bethany. The following post is my journal of events that I kept while I was down there so I would remember. This is my chance to share some experiences and lessons that were learned down there with you.

We arrived in Paraguay on Friday January the 7th. From here we were picked up at the airport and driven to Cemta in San Lorenzo where we would make our ¨home base¨ for the next couple weeks. Saturday we were already up and at it. We headed to the Chaco by bus in order to get to Yalva Sanga. The bus trip was an interesting one as we spent 6 hours on it and fell asleep to nice cool air conditioning and woke up to hot humid heat. This was a unpleasant surprise but we did make it there eventually. We got to Yalva Sanga and were greeted by an ambulance. Not because anyone was injured but because that was the bus that would carry us around for the next 5 days.
Our host in Yalva Sanga, Rennvik Reimer showed us our places where we would be staying and we went to bed fairly quickly after the long day of travelling. Although we were already getting used to the idea of Tarade every day multiple times a day. Sunday we woke up with the expectation of presenting for the Inclet church, and so we woke up got ready and headed to this church. We had already bonded with Rennvik the night before and could tell he was going to be a fun guy. He is 24 and attended CEMTA and is working with the natives in the bible school in Yalva Sanga. We completed our first presentation and got ready to present again in the evening. THis time at a Evenclay church. Before this we went back to Rennvik´s house for lunch and some Siesta (which we were about to get used to in Paraguay). We also headed out to a dugout to do some swimming. While the water was not particularily clean it was a lot of fun having mud wars, and just sitting in the nice cold-warm water. We arrived at the Evenclay church and sat right up front at the stage. THis was interesting and kind of awkward as we were all pretty tired, yet we had no chance of zoning out at this service. The service went well and we were greeted with basically a recieving line of native people. We eneded up staying up and joking some more with Rennvik, while of course drinking tarade. While also enjoying a rain storm that came in and dropped 160 mm of rain in the next three- quarters of a day.

Monday January 10
Because of the rain we were not quite sure if we were going to be able to go to La Huerta (the agricultural school) because of the roads and other conditions. So in the morning we ended up walking around the streets of mud and touring the town of Yalva Sanga. Rennvik showed us the hospital and the school and explained to us that the native people are always split between guys and girls. There is marriage at a very early age, because they cannot really interact with one another unless they are married. and because of this the students at the bible school MUST be married. He also told us about how the students pay 80 dolllars a year to go to school and live at school, they get fed and a place to live. They can go home at Christmas and holidays and long weekends but many stay because the conditions of the school are better than their home conditions. We had a fun time walking through the mud and taking pictures. Eventually the day cleared up and we got to go to La Huerta. THIS IS an agricultural school for boys that takes boys in and teaches them how to work, basically. They come and learn how to build stools for milking and other projects and with it they can recieve their high school learning diploma as well as a college agriculture degree. The boys live on the farms and farm their own plots. THe school is run by four teachers and has a great amount of land. Among other things the boys do on the school is play soccer. THis was our first time playing soccer since we had arrived and we were sweating out of every part of our body but having fun doing it. THEY Were quite good little soccer players, even though they were all 14-18 years old. We did a program in the eveing and the boys seemed to really enjoy it despite our lack of spanish speaking abilities. It was interesting having to have everything translated and was hard to stay focused, but I WAS starting to pick up some words.

Tuesday January 11th
WE travelled to another part of the chaco. This tme we headed to Neueland. We arrived and the tour started. We arrived in this small town that seemed to be built around the ¨Co-op¨ and were in the middle of the German Hub of the Chaco. Our guide, Heinz, led us around tellling us about how the woman of the Chaco were the ones that helped it survive. They were the ones that did the farming and if it were not for them the Germans would not be in the Chaco doing all they are for that community to this day. We got to go to our billets for lunch, and me and Chris met our lovely billets named Kathy and Herman. She spoke broken English and was a very sweet lady. He spoke almost no English and so it was hard to communicate with him. We ended up drinking tarade on their porch me, chris, and herman and sitting in silence. Me and Chris did not know what to really say in our broken German, and I´m sure he was in the same boat but at first impression he seemed kind of grumpy. Later Kathy would tell us that he was suffering from heart failure. Their doctor had told him that his heart was at about 35% and he would not be able to do much else other than sit around all day. Which is hard for a cattle rancher and man who likes to work with his hands fixing everything he can lay his hands on. We went back to our tour of Neueland after lunch and went in for a presentation about what the Mennonites are doing in the Chaco area. They told us about their missional perspective and what they were already doing. THEY HAD partnered with the natives and were offering them jobs and places to live, and were doing what they could to provide but not just give things as a gift to the natives. They were working at initiatives that would allow the natives to provide for themselves without living in poverty. Yet, in fact the most natives around Paraguay have the basic essentials. They have food and water, and they normally like sleeping under the stars so even if you give them a house, unless it is rainging they will sleep outside anyway. We went to a museum and to Heinz´s house in the next part of the tour and he was a very nice good tour guide. WE then went back to our billet´s for supper before we wre to head off to the GERMAN YOUTH group that was meeting that evening. We went to our billet´s house and to our surprise Herman was woodworking. He was turning candle holders. He had learned wood turning and was doing it as a hobby. This was one of the few things he could do, and he did it a lot. Their house was full of things he had made big and small, and now all he could do was the small things. He could turn a candle holder or a guampa in 30 minutes to an hour, easily. The hard part was getting the wood to do it and from then on he would finish it in no time. One surprise we found while he was doing this that to finish off the product, he would use old jeans and run them along the turning product. This would create a nice smooth shine, and we were astonished. WE ate supper and headed out to youth group.
While at youth group we talked with the youth (through a translator) that they were having a tough time dealing with being lukewarm and not having to live like a Christian despite the fact that they were in a Christian group. They found it hard to be a light in a place where it did not seem that light was needed. I found it interesting that this was some of the same things that Christians in Canada deal with, and found that we need to keep supporting these people through prayer even if we are a couple continents apart. It was a good moment to see that these problems were not North american exclusive. We then got our second opportunity to play soccer although in a way nicer temperature because the sun had already gone down.