PARAGUAY!!!!! - Part 3

So I lied in my last post, it is actually going to turn into a 4 part post, because I forgot that I had neglected to finish the journal for the last week of activity. so here is part three.

EASTERN PARAGUAY.

So what is is about eastern paraguay that is so special? Well nothing too much really, we went out to eastern paraguay (more central than anything) Paraguari and Escobar. WHile there we stayed at a place called ALMA which was intended to be a seminary but never really got going because it is literally in the middle of nowhere. It is in the bush and is just a little ways away from EScobar but right now it is just kind of sitting dormant, while the man there named Richard, works to keep it up and build more all on the Churches dime. Our group was quite frustrated with this, and it was quite interesting to see how some very nice facilities could be put to waste because of the lack of positioning, and the wrong purposes. OUr group also thought we had one hundred million better ideas of what to do with the place, some quite good. Yet, there it still sat when we left it dormant as ever.

WE arrived in Eastern Paraguay wet, and with quite the adventure and story to tell right off the bat. WE took the bus to Paraguari and got a truck to pick us up to take us to our residence. Yet, right when we were climbing in the back of the truck with the cover on, it started to rain. We tried to hole the cover down, but the rain just kept pelting us (some of us getting more wet than others). Me JOel and Bonnie were sitting closest to the front and of course we were just drenched as we tried to hold the tarp down so we did not get so wet. It still soaked us much to our enjoyment, and much laughter was had on this ride. We got to our destination and the rain had basically subsided and yet, we were drenched from head to toe. Almost right away we were ready to give the church there our program. We went to ALMA to get ready and eat some food and then we headed right to the church. The production went quite well and we really enjoyed the people of the Mennonite church there, they seemed to be quite into the program. Yet, we had a surprise waiting for us when we got back to our residences later that night. We were all tired from the 2 hour bus trip that going out to Eastern Paraguay gives us, and so we planned on heading to bed quite soon after our program but when we had gotten back to our residences, we noticed after stepping on the veranda that there were swarms of ants waiting for us. Turns out we were foolish to eat on the veranda and not clean up the crumbs after we were donje eating. So there we were in the dark, getting eaten ourselves by ants. So we gained some brooms and went to attacking ourselves, while some of the others went into the rooms and made sure there were none in the residences. Lucky for the guys there were none in our dorm. Unlucky for the girls the ants liked something in their room. There was a solid line of ants coming out of the girls room and it went on for quite some time. While all this was going on me and Alan took to sweeping the ants off the veranda for probably a good solid 20 minutes. Needless to say we never ate on that Veranda again. We headed to bed, and thus started our stint in Eastern Paraguay. O yea, and our pampered air conditioned, pillow ridden trip was about to be thwarted.

That night, was our first without pillows, and without air conditioning. I did not sleep well during this time. I came to realize how much more I love my pillow than actually the temperature of the room when I am sleeping. I tried almost every combination of clothes I had, along with almost all of them in the pillow case I had brought, but nothing could replace, and everything felt like rocks on my head. The only time I would come close to accomplishing any sort of comfort, and sustained sleep was when I rolled up some of my shorts into a U-shaped neck pillow and put the top of my head on that. This seemed to work, unfortunately, I only figured this out on our last night in Eastern Paraguay.

Sunday January 16th

We had another program at the same church this morning. We woke up ate breakfast, and were ready to go to the church to do what we knew how to do (or at least were learning how to do). We headed to the church and put on our program, this was the church that always had something for us as well. The night before they had put on a drama about two military men, one who went back for his friend despite orders not to. This morning their response to our program was a testimony from one of the guys that went to this church. He had been a Christian for 6 years, and he talked about how being a Christian was something that you worked for and that took hard work. It was not something that one could just get by on. THis was a good wake-up call, and a good thing to remember. We finished the service and had a barbecue with the people. We stuck around while some people played with the kids and some of us chatted and played guitar (I tried despite my lack of skill and actually got the guitar playing going surprise, surprise). Then after this meeting we said goodbye to the people, we would see some of them again the next Saturday at the wedding, and headed off to go for a swim. We went back to the residences (no ants this time) and got ourselves together. Then we headed for a swimming stream that was a couple kilometres away. We walked down the road and came to this house. A drunken man was there and Alan talked to him and we got permission to go swim in the stream that was a part of their property. It was a nice little wading stream that was a very nice refreshment from the heat of the day. We spent quite some time here and just enjoyed the cool water. We met some of the people from the church at this place, and some of the girls said hello. WE then went back to ALMA and hung around for a while. Steve enjoyed some tanning and got himself royally burnt (although only on his stomach, with a distinct white line on his back, and where his shorts were). WE ate supper and then we hung around and enjoyed the rest of the day.

Monday January 17th

Today was the day we were supposed to go and see the Campasino´s and what their lifestyle was like. However we got rained out, we basically spent the whole day just bumming around ALMA, and sleeping.

Tuesday January 18th

Today was one of the busier days on the trip. We headed out to Paraguari to go for a bit of a hike. We got to the church after picking up some of the local youth and headed out with about 15 of us and probably another 15 other people from Chile and the youth group in Paraguari. We basically rode the whole way standing on the back of the truck that we were in and enjoying the wind that was in our faces. We arrived at a house and from there we took off to tackle this mountain. It was quite an interesting climb, we were all of the sudden on sharp incline whereas jsut previously we had been walking through a farmers field. The rest of the hike was a combination fo barbed wire fence climb-overs and rock to rock climbing. There were some parts where some decent climbing was needed and one part the guides pulled out a rope that we used to traverse up some tree roots that were exposed. IT was actually quite enjoyable and surprisingly not too difficult. We got to the top and had such a wonderful view of the countryside and even of Paraguari. We climbed on the top of some of the rocks and looked out at the view, and some went to other peaks to look out over the countryside, when Adriana found a tarantula under a rock! We prodded it out from under the rock and trapped it in a sawed in two pop bottle, and watched it and took pictures of it. This was quite neat as we had not seen one up to date. We stayed up there for some time and then it was time to head back down. The climb down was definitely tougher than the climb up the mounatin but not too difficult we all got down in one piece. We joined at the same house and just relaxed and allowed the sun to beat down on us after a good hike. Dwight found some friends that were into the same metal music that he is into and they immediately connected naming off American bands that they both knew. This was quite enjoyable for everyone else as well. We travelled to Tropicana a Empanada place in Paraguari where we indulged in Empanada´s and pop for everybody. They were quite delicious, and we had our fill. We said goodbye to the friends we had made on our hike and headed back to the ALMA where we were staying. It had been a long day and we had to travel back to CEMTA the next day so we said goodbye.

WEdnesday January 19th.

This was a travelling day. We took the truck back to Paraguari (without rain this time) and took the bus back, and all of the sudden we were back at CEMTA (our home for the trip) . It was nice being in a place that we knew again and enjoying it. This time however we were anticipating not quite so comfortable a stay, as Alan told us they had no airconditioning, and such in the place we were at. This did not bother us too much we were just happy to be back at CEMTA. There was a German Mennonite convention going on that happens every eyar, and so 100 germans were in the CEMTA dorms, so they moved us to a house just off campus that they owned. To our surprise there was air-conditioning when we arrived, and to my delight a pillow so I could sleep through the night (which I had not really acheived a single night on the trip). Also before we hoped on the bus at Paraguari we purchased some Machete´s for the guys as souveniours and were mighty pleased with them. We also went back to Tropicana to have some more empanada´s before we left. WE woudl be coming back to Escobar for a wedding on Saturday, but only for the wedding not for anything else, and we would be going back to CEMTA that night as well. We enjoyed playing soccer with some of the Germans in the evening and enjoying a meal of roulcoocing and watermelon (a good mennonite meal) and slept in comfort that night. The girls did almsot experience some culture difference that they did not appreciate. They almost were not allowed to join in the soccer game, because they were girls and soccer was a physical sport, and they were not happy about it either. Yet, they got to play and everyone was happy.

Thursday January 20th

This was the day where we were touring and going to go shopping. And when we woke up it was raining. It seemed that many things had gotten cancelled already due to rain, and this time we did not want the rain to spoil our parade. We waited a little while longer than we had planned and then headed out in the rain to do what we could and see what we could. An hour busride later and we were in downtown Asuncion. We walked 15 minutes to the orphanage that was in Asuncion and saw the place where kids go to recieve schooling and get out of unhealthy family situations. It is run by Germans and many young adults come to help at the centre as internships and other volunteer opportunities. It was interesting to see this kind of program run by the germans, and to hear that they get 60 percent funding from churches of Paraguay and the other 40 percent they recieve on faith. This was quite the cool place to see how it was run, and was very interesting to be able to tour it. We kept going and saw the presidential palace, the pier, some monuments of the history of paraguay. Then we came to the Guarani shopping complex. It was just one street block of homemade shopping ornaments and things, that has been going on for many many years. It has been under the same roof for quite a while and so we did some shopping there and bought souvenirs for those at home. We then continued on to do some more shopping of soccer jerseys, and other paraphanelia. WE enjoyed a afternoon of looking in shops and buying things. I bought a soccer ball coincidentally at an Adidas outlet. The same store I bought a germany jersey previously in the trip. Yet, I still got deals on them, and so here we are at Cemta awaiting the next 6 days of things and then back home to the land of the free. Tomorrow is wedding planning. Saturday is the wedding. Sunday we are going to a church and then possibly going to barbecue (barbecue might be tuesday). Monday we are doing something I cannot remember. Tusday seems like a chill day before we leave. WEdnesday brings an early morning and another 24 time-span of flights and lay-overs. Homestretch, here we go!