Week Twelve in Paraguay

We've been home from Paraguay for a couple of weeks now, but I'm just now getting around to writing this because things have been crazy since we've been home! We've traveled many, many miles catching up with family we didn't see over the summer, had doctor appointments, got ready for the start of school (both for the kids and with Trent's job with the college students), and attempted to catch up on what we missed at home during our time out of the country. We still have many things to do in order to get back into the routine of being home, but we have started settling down some.

Our last week in Paraguay was busy and emotional. We packed, wrapped up many activities, and said many goodbyes. Thankfully, with today's technology our friends from Paraguay are only a text or Facebook message away!

Trent finished teaching in the Bible Academy at the beginning of our last week completing his class on the book of Deuteronomy as well as finishing grading all the students' work for the classes. Trent also had a couple of final private Spanish lessons in the few remaining days we had left in Paraguay.

During our last week we were able to meet with all four of our English students. I was able to teach the first lesson of Searching For Truth with two of my students, and I thought the lesson went well. I also completed lesson nine (of ten) with my other English student, and had the opportunity to talk with her about possibly doing Searching For Truth. Andrea made contact with all of our English students during the last week we were there to confirm appointment times with them as she took over all of these studies after we left. I'm anxious to hear how these studies progress!

The Paraguayans hospitality toward us continued to abound in our last week in Paraguay. We were invited to lunch at one family's home, and dinner at another family's. And, after services on Sunday morning, several members provided lunch for us before we had to head to the airport. It was nice to have a final meal with so many members of the congregation.

The Saturday before we left, Ella and I attended our last Ladies' Tea. At the tea I was able to give the devotional talk, and got to experience having my lesson translated for the first time. I was thankful to hear others' lessons translated before I did mine so that I had an idea of how to handle the situation. One of Trent's Spanish teachers translated for me! At the tea, I was also greatly surprised with a baby shower! I was completely shocked! At the shower we played a game where you go through several tests (Old Wives' Tales) to predict the baby's gender: nene (boy) or nena (girl). In the end, the game predicted nothing - equal chance that the baby was a boy or a girl. However, the ladies were asked to predict whether they thought I was having a boy or a girl, and they predicted correctly (a girl)!

I'm so thankful for the opportunity that our family had to spend in Paraguay for the summer working with the Christians there. If you would have told me even a couple of years ago that we would be spending our summer in South America, I probably would have laughed at you. However, among many things, I'm thankful that my husband had the vision for this opportunity for our family, and I'm thankful for the experience of working as a missionary in a foreign field for an extended period of time.

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Week Eleven in Paraguay

One week from today we'll begin our journey back home. We are so thankful for our time here, yet also excited to get back to work at home. This week will be filled with lots of packing, finalizing/transitioning our work here, and goodbyes.

This week I met with one of my English students, and we finished up our eighth (of ten) lessons from the book of John. Each week i meet with this student I feel as though she's opening up more about discussing the Bible during our lessons, so I'm hopeful that after we leave she'll be interested in continuing on with Bible study once she completes all the English lessons. Unfortunately, I did not get to meet with my two students with whom I was supposed to begin Bible study using Searching for Truth. Hopefully they'll be able to meet this coming week. Trent was able to meet with his English student and they continue to progress through the English lessons from the book of John.

Monday night we met with one of the families here, and let the kids play at the park and then got pizza together. The kids always love getting to play with their little boy, and I know they are going to miss him!


Trent continued teaching in the Bible Academy this week. He finished up his class on Christian Evidences, and continued teaching Deuteronomy. He'll finish up Deuteronomy on Tuesday of this coming week. 

At the end of the week, we had the unique opportunity to visit Iguazu Falls in Argentina with Troy and Andrea. It was an amazing experience, and words and pictures cannot even describe the awesome nature of the falls. In 2011 Iguazu Falls was named one of the seven wonders of the natural world, and it wasn't hard to see why. I'm thankful that we had an opportunity to take our family there while we were so close (about a six hour bus ride away). While we were there we also had the opportunity to see many beautiful butterflies, monkeys (which I had never seen "in the wild"), and pesky, yet intriguing, raccoon-like creatures called coati. The kids really enjoyed the trip, and also greatly enjoyed their time with Troy and Andrea.

Riding the ferry across from Paraguay to Argentina (you could also see Brazil from the ferry).

Playing soccer at the place we stayed in Argentina. You can always find a soccer ball wherever you are!

Riding the train at Iguazu Falls.

Monkey!

Coati stealing food

Riding the ferry back to Paraguay.

Troy telling the kids a story about a boy with a dream. :)

After services today we were invited over to the secretary's home for lunch. We thoroughly enjoyed the fellowship and the food. The kids also enjoyed getting to play with her son whom they've recently been getting to play with quite a lot (because the kids here had winter break the last couple of weeks). 

Bible class

Troy helping hand out announcement sheets.

 Playing at lunch.

Knocking down lemons at lunch.

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Week Three in Paraguay

I really wish I had a catchier title. :)

As I mentioned last time, Gary and Sarah Fallis have been working with the church and the Bible Academy this past week. Trent attended a few sessions of Gary’s class in the Bible Academy in which he was able to listen to the lessons being translated from English to Spanish. We have both found that it has been very helpful to hear the English being directly translated. Sarah also taught a ladies class on Wednesday evening. Wednesday evening one of the members (who speaks English) brought a girl from the U.S. whom she had met randomly while touring in Asuncion. This girl is working with a Luthern (I think) church here in Asuncion this year, but had really been craving to get to speak English with some folks. Since there are several members (plus us) at the congregation who speak English, it was a perfect opportunity to invite her. Hopefully she’ll continue to come around, and it may be a great opportunity to show her the gospel.

Gary teaching the Bible Academy.

Trent continued with his Spanish tutoring this week, and plans to add another private tutor this next week. Trent has had several conversations with his Spanish tutor about the Bible which have been good.

Trent was supposed to begin teaching his short course (meaning teaching all day for one week) at the Bible Academy this week (about Christian Evidences), but due to some scheduling conflicts with another teacher, Trent’s class has been rescheduled to start in a couple of weeks (as a regular, not short, course).

Teaching English using the gospel of John has been going pretty well. As I mentioned in last week’s post, I added two new students this week. The students are a brother and sister who had been (if I understood correctly) exchange students for a few months recently in Florida. And, if I understood this part correctly as well, while they were in Florida came in contact with the Palm Beach Lakes church of Christ which supports the work here in Asuncion. The members there told them that when they came back to Asuncion to come take the English class - and they did! We are hopeful that this pair may be good contacts. I also continued on with my student from the previous week, and she has been very enthusiastic about the study so far. Trent has also had a new student (whom he now met with twice) who has had some good conversations with Trent about needing to come back to church, and seems genuinely interested. Another good contact!

Wednesday before I taught English the church secretary prepared lunch for us - a traditional Paraguayan soup called vori vori. It was a little different than what is described in the link. To me it was very similar to a chicken noodle soup - without the noodles and adding in the cornmeal dumplings/balls. I thought it was pretty good, although I didn’t love the texture of the dumplings. She also prepared fried yucca for us, which was pretty similar to thick french fries. And, speaking of the church secretary, she was successfully able to get Luke to nap at the church building Wednesday afternoon. :)

Luke sleeping at the church building.

Friday we took some time to relax as a family. We went to one of the malls here in Asuncion, walked around some stores, bought Luke some tennis shoes (he outgrew the shoes I brought, and I didn’t think to bring some a size bigger), and let the kids play some games in an arcade. We also ate at TGIFridays, which was nice because I was able to get a salad (which I have really, really been missing!).

Saturday there was another Ladies’ Tea (devotional and food), and Sarah Fallis gave the devotional. Even though we’ve only been here a little over three weeks, it was amazing how much more comfortable I felt at this Ladies’ Tea compared to the first one I attended. I understand the customs better, I know the ladies better, and I’m also understanding the language better. At the Ladies’ Tea Ella and I finally got to try chipa, which is a traditional Paraguayan cheese roll/bread. I thought it was yummy, but Ella said she didn’t like it (I think she was just interested in the other food she already had, because a cheesy roll is right up her alley!). The girl from the U.S. who came on Wednesday night also came to the Ladies’ Tea.

Ella playing at the Ladies' Tea.

Ella playing at the Ladies' Tea.

The whole group at the Ladies' Tea. Standing really awkwardly, trying to make sure we were under the light.

This week has been quite warm and sunny. In fact, I was checking the weather back home and saw that it was the same temperature in San Marcos as in Asuncion. Maybe it will turn cooler before we head back . . . but we’ve already been here almost a quarter of the time we will be here, and we’ve only needed a light jacket maybe twice, and most of the time it has been much warmer.

We finally tried out Paraguay’s taxis this week. Normally on the days when we’ve been teaching English we’ve been walking to the church building (approximately 1.75 miles away), but because Trent was already at the church building for Gary’s classes there really wasn’t enough time for him to walk home, and then for us to walk back to the building (it really isn’t feasible for me to walk with all three kids by myself to the building, even with the stroller because of the busy streets, and less-than-ideal walking conditions at times (impassable sidewalks, etc.)). We were pleased to find out it only costs about $3 for us to take a taxi to the church building. It feels nice to be able to use the taxis (and to know that the cost is very reasonable) because it means we aren’t quite as constrained in where we can go.

And, finally, no major injuries this week! And Troy’s face is healing very well. I thought it was ironic when I got this email about Troy’s age this week. :)

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Week Two In Paraguay

The surroundings and people are slowly becoming more familiar as each day passes. We are easing into a “routine” of sorts, though each week we are here will probably be different to some degree. Trent discovered a grocery store that delivers when you place an order online (a big plus for us since we don't have a car!), and we even had some empanadas (a local favorite) delivered from a local chain here. 

This past week was slightly cooler (I’m still waiting for it to get cold like we’ve been told!), and a couple of evenings it was cool enough to need to wear a light jacket. This next week is supposed to be warmer again though, and I’m beginning to think we should have packed a few more short-sleeved things!

We began teaching English this week using the gospel of John and a curriculum called English Bible Talk. The ideal schedule/setup is to meet with each student for an hour twice a week, for a total of five weeks. We had four students lined up for Monday (two with me and two with Trent), but of all four students we only studied with one (one of mine). Trent rescheduled one of his to meet on Sunday afternoon instead because his student could only meet late at night due to work schedule. Then on Wednesday, none of my students showed up, but Trent’s other student showed up. I’m honestly not surprised by students not showing up, just because I’m familiar with how things go in Jamaica when you set things up (they might make/they might not). I’m hopeful that as time goes on we’ll have some students who stick with the class. We are continuing to accept students (as they request it), and I ended up having two new students yesterday (which I’ll write about in next week’s update - I’m a little behind!).

We are getting to spend a lot of quality time together, mostly as a result of our tight living quarters! We spend a lot of time together when we are at home, but it is different because we have space to spread out. I was concerned when we came that it will be difficult with the kids to have us all in one room (particularly at bedtime and nap time), but the kids have really slept well in the situation. I think the hardest thing on the kids is that there isn’t room to run in our apartment, but thankfully most days they get to go play outside on the playground. The kids have really taken to our life here well, even though they don’t have all their regular surroundings, toys, beds, friends, or language. I was never really worried about them though because they all seem pretty unaffected by change (unlike me!). One of the things the kids love about our home here is the new friend in our complex - Trooper the big black dog! I suppose she’s a guard dog for the complex, but she is very friendly if you are inside the gate (I still need to take some pictures of the place). When we first arrived she’d stay mostly in her kennel area, but now she usually sleeps right outside our front door, and is often waiting for us by our front door when we’ve been out.

Ella and Troy with Trooper.

Luke with Trooper.

Trent began taking private Spanish lessons this week. I’m not taking any at this time (with the kids it can be difficult to schedule that much time for both of us, plus Trent will be teaching in the Bible Academy soon which will also limit or schedules). I’m planning to continue on with using Rosetta Stone (which I have found to be useful to this point - I’m only partway through level 2 of 5). 

On Thursday we went out with the family who had us over the first day we were here (and who have been one of the families taking care of us!) to a recreational club where the kids could play on a nice playground, and afterwards we got pizza. At the club the kids also got to see some "real" soccer games which they really enjoyed.

On Friday Trent went with one of the brethren to pick up Gary and Sarah Fallis (from Ft. Worth area) from the airport. They will be in for a little more than a week. Gary will be teaching a short course at the Bible Academy, and Sarah is teaching the ladies on Sunday morning. Sarah’s class to the ladies was translated from English to Spanish which I found to be really informative because I could digest the Spanish in small chunks and generally knew what the Spanish was supposed to mean. Sunday evening one of the families of the congregation invited us, as well as Gary and Sarah, to this house for dinner. It was a wonderful evening of food (including guava sauce/syrup on ice cream)

 and fellowship, and the kids loved playing in their yard.

Sarah teaching the ladies class Sunday morning

Luke is healing well from his fall last week - much better than I thought he would have healed at this point. Troy managed to trip and fall twice (two separate days) scraping his nose area both times. He looks pretty pitiful, but both injuries were very minor cuts (thankfully!).

Troy's poor face.

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