Return Trip

I've officially been back in the states for 10 days. The trip home didn't go as smooth as I'd hoped for, but I'm still alive, and wasn't mugged, so all in all, it was ok I guess. It was my first time to travel alone, and God put some wonderful people in my path on the way to help the travel much easier and interesting.

I landed in Miami at about 5 PM on December 18. My first 5 minutes back in the US were so surreal... I was expecting the dramatic language change in that whenever I got back here, everyone would be speaking English. That was not the case at all. I heard just as much Spanish in Miami as I did in Paraguay. All of the airport employees were Hispanic, with only a handful of exceptions. It did catch me off guard though, when I got into the food court area and there was an Indian man wearing a turban. I had completely forgotten the existence of people from India, and especially their use of a turban... The smell of Subway made my taste buds go insane, but not insane enough to break down and spend a million dollars on a sandwich and chips... I had a few hours to kill, but no one to kill them with, so I decided to just go ahead and go to my gate to wait for the plane. Luckily, there was a small plasma TV hanging from the ceiling in the giant room of people, broadcasting CNN. The meteorologist was doing his spill about the weather and about how North Carolina and a few other states were having the worst storm of the season, and that he would hate to be the pilot of American Airlines having to land in Charlotte and look down on that mess... Fantastic... I was flying with American Air, and going to Charlotte... what are the chances... For some miraculous reason, we got to Charlotte without any delays at all, but due to the weather, my parents and I had no other choice but to stay in a super cool hotel for the night until the ice melted :) There is a ton that I've noticed in differences already, but I'll save that for the next blog. For now, I'm just throwing out the official, I'm back in the States again, and I'm alright.

Despedida

After over 5 amazing months in Paraguay, it's now my time to go home. It was a hard decision, but a decision that I had to make. I have made a lot of friends in Paraguay, and will miss them like crazy. It has been a huge learning experience, and I'm looking forward to taking my new found wisdom to my home country and sharing it with everyone there.

Sunday, Ken and Christie threw my a going away party, "Despedida," that turned out amazing! Several of the neighbors came, pretty much the entire church, and other friends that we've made along the way. Saul and Ken put their chef skills to work and made home-made pizza for the entire huge crowd, and Christie did what she always does best, the computer. We had a slideshow of a few pictures of my time here and some Christian music videos projected on the wall. And the Pastora (Pastor's wife) even baked me a cake! We all had a great time, and I'm going to miss everyone here very much.

Stove top for everyone!

Last year I got to spend Thanksgiving with the Hispanic congregation from my local church. I remember thinking what an awesome experience it was fun to do a little something different. I had no idea one year ago that I'd be spending this Thanksgiving in Paraguay, but it was definitely something I'll always remember. Another missionary family came over (with awesome food home-made American food) and we cooked up some ourselves (including stove top stuffing from Ken's mom, wohoo!). Some of the neighbors also came over to have lunch with us. It was cool getting to watch them try food that is so completely normal to us, and them having no idea what it was.

Happy Hour

If you read my last blog, you have already seen a few on the tons of children that live in this neighborhood. Since there are so many, I decided to have a little something every Sunday to teach them a Bible story and provide a little snack. Oddly enough, the children's ministries here are called "Hora de Feliz,"...Happy Hour.

Sunday was my first time and it went super. We had told them about it earlier in the week, but apparently they had forgotten that it was Sunday, so the girls and I went outside to remind them. As always, there were about 10 kids sitting on the front porch of our house just hanging out. I asked them if they were coming, and they all acted as if they had no idea what I was talking about. I reminded them of what we were having, that it started in 15 minutes, and to bring colored pencils if they had some. They all jumped up as fast as they could to run home to get their pencils, and tell the rest of the kids in the neighborhood. I think the final number ended up being about 18 children in total, some of which that I had never even seen before. It was a super turnout and I was so excited. I read them the story of creation along with a little slide show. Then afterwards, they each got a paper and were assigned a day of creation to draw. (The picture to the left is two of the most roudy kids of the bunch. Everyone was so shocked to see them sitting so quietly and contently drawing their pictures.) Everyone went above and beyond of what we were expecting and they put a lot of time and effort into their drawings, older kids too! Some of them didn't even want to stop drawing to take a group picture. We also served popcorn and Caricia (here's version of Kool-Aid).

The past few days, several of the kids have came up to me and told me that they couldn't wait for this Sunday's lesson, and that they had so much fun drawing and doing coloring pages. It's so shocking to see how something so simple can mean so much to them.

The Kids in Barrio San Jose

A few hours ago, I went to visit my friend (and neighbor) Denisse. When I got to her house, she still hadn't gotten home from school. But, I did have another little friend over there. Her name is Paola. At any time of the day, you can walk outside and be sure to find Paola walking around somewhere by herself, or playing with the kids in the road. She doesn't look hispanic at all, and could easily pass for an American redneck kid. You know, the kid that's always playing outside and that's always covered in dirt. But aside fromt that, she is quite the kid, with an interesting story. Every now and then, I think about when we first moved here. Sometimes we would turn around and there Paola would be standing...she would always figure out how to get into the house without being seen. At first she wouldn't hardly talk to us, but we soon found out that she has a lot to say. Her mother was working for our neighbor, and recently passed away. (I can't remember when, but I believe it was in the past year.) The neighbors that took care of her took her in to raise her, but they have their own things going, and I imagine it's hard to keep up with a 5 year old that thinks she's 17. She spends a lot of time at Denisse's house and may come and go as she pleases. So today when Denisse wasn't home, I decided to hang out with Paola for a little while. We sat in the dirt road infront our house and talked. She had a bag of cocoa's that she was playing with, which ended up turning into an English lesson. I asked her if she wanted to count her cocoa's in English and she said "Yea! One, two, three, four, five, seven." It was the cutest thing. I tried forever to try to get her to say "..six, seven." and she got it a few times, but after that the "seven," turned into "sevenen." Haha. After a while, another neighbor kid came up. His name is Ulysses, and he's 4. The three of us played soccer and hung out, and then I ran inside and got my camera. The longer we were out there, the more kids that came, and they all wanted to take a picture. It's so cool hearing little kids running around screaming your name. :)

So, enjoy the pics as I enjoyed taking them, of the kids in "barrio San Jose." "Neighborhood San Jose."

Halloween was Hot

Wow has it really been 4 months already?? I can't believe it. Nor can I believe that in November, while I'm typing this, it's over 91 degrees in our house....that doesn't have an AC. The weather differences are really odd, and I'm still not used to the fact that the seasons are opposite.

Halloween was my Grandfather's birthday. And one thing I remember every year is that it's ALWAYS cold or chilly that night. So Saturday when I looked at the thermometer and it was almost 100, I was totally shocked.

Every Saturday night, we have youth service at church. Last saturday night, we had a "vigilia," (vigile) service until midnight. Since Halloween is an extremely new thing here, a small part of the service was set aside to teach about what it was and how it became to be a "holiday." It was so interesting, and I never knew that even Jack-O-Lanterns have a meaning behind them.

Sunday after service, we had Communion and a foot washing. That's my first communion with grape soda (cool idea) and I've definately never done foot washing so that was cool too.

Sunday Fun

Yesterday was quite wonderful. After church service all of the youth came over to hang out, listen to some music, and have, popcorn, brownies, and terere.
After snacks, our friend Carlito that leads praise and worship sometimes for service asked to play Ken's guitar. After a few songs, they decided to take the music out to the front patio. Carlito and Sesi (another youth) did a duet of some praise and worship songs, and Ken brought out the congas. The music was so beautiful and drew in a small audience. The crowd across the street that is normally watching a soccer game was on the porch, and some of the neighborhood kids lined up on the sidewalk to watch from a short distance.

Learning

After two weeks, today, I finally finished a small goal that I set for myself: reading the entire New Testament of the Bible! I have learned so much that I didn't know, and the stories I did know, I got a better insight on. I have also been reading another book called "For Such a Time As This," by Lisa Ryan. It's a book about Esther and how to be a "modern day Esther," and do things that aren't always easy to do, but you do them because God wants you to. It's been a wonderful book so far, and I feel like I have a better idea of Esther and her life, and how she might have felt back then. The Bible is so much bigger than I ever imagined, and every day I see more and more that there's more to this Jesus thing than the ten commandments and Noah's Ark...

Milanesa Surprise

Yesterday, was my friend Denisse's parent's 17th wedding anniversary. They invited me to come over for dinner to celebrate with them. I really enjoy visiting with them because it gives me an opportunity to practice my Spanish a lot, and I get more of an idea of Paraguayan life. So, for dinner, we had chicken soup. It was quite different than the good 'ol Campbells, but it was good nonetheless. I have noticed several traditions in Paraguay that are not the norm. For example they eat a snack (Merienda) about the time we normally eat dinner, and then they have dinner at about 8 or 9 o'clock. Then they don't drink they're drinks while they eat...they wait until after the meal. Last night, they not only waited after the meal, but they waited 30 minutes after the meal, because they said that if you drink right after eating soup, it will make our stomach sick.
So, after soup, they brought out what they called a "Special Milanesa." (Think country fried steak.) The way they were acting, I could tell it was something weird... and then they kept saying "You're gonna die when we tell you what it is..." My first and only guess was horse. [it's illegal, but readily available black market style] Turns out, it wasn't horse but Crocodile! It was quite delicious and I took every bite down with a smile :)

Denisee

It's my goal to learn spanish. There have been so many times when I was back in the states that I wanted to strike up a conversation with someone from church that didn't speak English, and the only thing I could remember how to say was "Hola, como estas." (Hello, how are you.) And a very general reply. I took two years of spanish class in high school but it has been about 3 years and I have forgotten most of it. After I got here, some of the words and phrases began to jog my memory and I would remember stuff, and if I didn't know it, I would ask what a particular word meant, or what someone was saying. It's much easier to figure out what someone is saying than it is to speak to them though.
I am very proud to say that I understood a lot of Sunday's sermon. :) The general idea was what you can do for your neighbor, or to help your neighbor out. We just moved to a new neighborhood and I hadn't spent a lot of times with the neighbors yet, but I had met Denisse, the girl across the street that seemed very nice. Her Mom runs an almacen in their house, (it's like a mini store with food and random stuff to buy in it, they're very common in neighborhoods) and the girls and I have went across the street a few times to get snacks or eggs.
So, when I got home Sunday, I walked to Denisee's house and told her that I really needed to practice my spanish more and I was wondering if I could help her with English and if she could help me with my spanish. She said that that sounded great, and to my surprise, she pulled out a couple of chairs right there on her porch and started talking to me. I learned more about her life and about her school. If I didn't unerstand a word, she would slow down and tell me another word for it, until I understood what she was saying. Sometimes she would have to stop talking and get something if someone came to buy something from the store, and a couple of times she would bring us back a snack when she was done :)
I am so glad to have made a new friend, especially a friend that's a neighbor. Everyday, she tells me to come back the next day and we'll practice more. There's another language here [Guarani] that everyone speaks. They grow up in their house speaking Guarani, and then they learn Spanish when they go to school. It's kind of weird though, because if you go to the country area, there are some people that don't speak any Spanish, because they never went to school. After a little bit of yesterday's spanish lesson, Denisee decided that I needed to learn Guarani....hahaha. It's really difficult for me, and after the several hours that we were on the porch, we had an audience of all of the neighborhood kids watching. Everytime I would pronounce something, they would think it was hilarious. :) Guarani is only spoken in Paraguay, so I will only be able to use it here, but I'm very excited to get to learn it. It's a very beautiful langauge.
I also wanted to ask that everyone keeps Denisee's family in your prayers. Her grandmother is in Asuncion, the Capital, in a coma. They have gotten a lot of bad news about her condition, and they're not sure how much longer they have with her. Asuncion is about an hour and a half drive from here and I would think that it would be hard for them to not have their store open to go stay with her.

Moving!

After many prayers, Ken and Christie have decided to expand their ministry into the city area of Carapegua, right down the road. They found a very neat house that we will be moving into

Tuesday. It is very big and pretty. The downstairs has a big "salon" area in it that we one day soon hope to open up for a youth center on the weekends, and bible studies during the week. It also has many bedrooms upstairs that could house future mission students of Tape mission school [another cool Hagerman project! http://www.tapemissions.org/]

I am very excited about moving into a new place and meeting the people of the neighborhood, but I am definitely going to miss seeing the people around the campground everyday, but luckily we will still be back to visit to teach English class and do youth nights.

Tonight, I was enjoying some terere with Caroline on the front porch when I noticed some of the neighborhood kids swimming in the pond in front of the house. I have noticed them out there a few times and decided that I had to take some pictures of them. They we're more than willing to strike a pose, throwing up their "muscles" and grabbing their buddy, fighting to get my attention for the next picture. :) Then they wanted to look at every picture we took. It was a great time because the sun had just set and the sky was beautiful as always, with pinks and purples behind the palm trees. We didn't stop taking pictures until it was way to dark to take them, and then they asked if we could take more tomorrow. It was quite fun :)

Yesterday's Fun

Out of the past couple of weeks we have spent several days in Asuncion, the capital, trying to get the Hagermans paperwork done for their residency so that they don't have to renew their visas every few months. It has been a very difficult process for them for months, and it seemed like nothing was straight forward. They finished Wednesday and we're all so excited. So, yesterday we had a fun day. Christie called some of the neighbors and all 8 of us piled in the car, bought some empanadas on the way, and went to a park that was about an hour away, two cities over.

The park was very similar to Table Rock. There were walking trails and picnic areas, and there were also waterfalls and a river that you could swim in! It was very cool. At one waterfall, there was a place to the side with rocks that you could sit on that had butterflys everywhere. I had never seen anything like that before. There were all different types, sizes, and colors, and they weren't scared off when we sat down.

How I Got Here...

I know that my decision to stay in Paraguay was a huge surprise to a lot of people, even me. When my friends and I were planning this trip, it was originally supposed to be for 2 weeks in Paraguay and afterwards, we were supposed to go to Peru for 10 days to join up with another mission team. That was the plan...

God told me several years ago at a youth camp in South Carolina that I would one day be doing missions. I was very young and confused as to why and how I would one day being missions. Now looking back, I see how God was molding me and making me and sending me in the paths that I would be exposed to missionaries and situations that would one day bring me to where I am now.

The first person I personally knew to go on a mission trip was my cousin. She went to India for about two months to work with some ladies there. When she got back, we had a big talk about her trip and I told her about how I knew one day that I would be doing missions but I didn't know when. I had always been so unsure about myself because I never had anyone that was like "yea, you could do it!" When I told her, her reply was "I have seen that in you for a long time." She had always been a huge role model to me and for her to say that made me feel like a million bucks.

There were also other people along the way who would show me my strengths and helped me to see how I could make a difference in the lives of others.

Last year, I went on my first mission trip to Peru. It was the most incredible experience I had ever had before and I felt so blessed to get to go. While we were there, our main focus was a youth camp in the jungle area, (Iquitos.) The youth are absolutely amazing and they all wanted to be our friends. I have so many pictures of random kids that were like "we want a picture with you!!" The trip was only 10 days and as soon as we got on the plane to leave, I was ready to get off the plane to stay. So needless to say, when planning time came back around to start fundraising for Peru this year, I was overcome with excitement! My best friend was not old enough to go last year, so she got to go this year. While we were talking about the trip, the idea to visit our former youth pastors (the Hagermans) came up. They moved here 9 months ago to be missionaries and have an incredible story! (www.hagermans.blogspot.com) After reading their blogs, and seeing the need Paraguay here, the decision to come was not a difficult one.

After many fundraisers, we finally made it. God has been so good in all of this and we have been so blessed!

We landed in Paraguay a little later than we were supposed to because on one of our layovers in Argentina, we were delayed an hour because of really bad storms, so the actual getting here was that much more exciting. It's so weird that one day we were in a country that spoke English and two days later, we were in a country that spoke spanish and another language, Guarani. It was the weirdest thing! Reality would really start to sink in when I would look down at the car infront of us and see "Paraguay" on it's license plate, if it had one that is...(some cars don't even have them...also weird..)
The day we met the children was wonderful. They're all so curious and they all wanted to know our names and hold our hands and spend time with us. Throughout the trip, we visited people of the neighborhood and they would visit us. Spending time with these people was what affected me the most. It just felt like home, and I didn't think I could leave, so I began praying about it. I was so afraid to not go home, because I am very close to my family and saying goodbye for 3 weeks was hard enough...I couldn't imagine any longer. I was also not physically prepared, I had only brought a few outfits with the intent to wash them and rewear them. I had no idea it was going to be this cold in their winter here so I mainly brought shorts and tshirts and a couple of very thin jackets, nothing really sufficient for a cold Paraguayan winter in a house that doesn't have heat... there was also a lot more stuff at home that I miss and knew that I would want, that I use on a daily basis. I finally decided to stay for sure a few days before time to leave. After praying about it, I felt like God has a purpose in me staying here and not having those things that I'm comfortable with at home, has given me a new perspective on life. I am used to having my own computer, a huge bed, and not sharing a bathroom. Being here has become a huge adjustment, but it's very humbling and it's helped me to become a servant, and I try to help out more with the people I live with. I find myself doing things everyday that I would normally never want to do and avoid at all costs. Haha.

I have no regret in staying and it has definately been a huge learning experience for me as a person and as a Christian. I do miss home and my family and friends, but I know that this is the right thing for my life right now. I wanted to thank everyone for all of their support and cares, continue to keep me in your prayers.

Showers and Some Pudim

Yesterday we went on a walk to visit some people of the neigborhood. We stopped to talk to one lady who was once thought to have H1N1, but doesn't, thankfully. While we were talking to her, we could hear her daughter yelling from a bush. The mother then told us that her daughter was bathing and needed her shorts. I can't imagine never having a shower...and having to bathe outside everyday. That's something I have never thought about, we are so blessed and there are so many things that we take for granted every single day.
I think about all the time how someone would react if we took them from this tiny town in South America and dropped them off in the US. Wow, it would be so mind boggling. Things are so different and this lifestyle is so simple, and I'm so excited to get to be a part of it and experience all that's going on.
On the other side of things, today was my turn to make the snack and I forgot...oops! So, belated as it was, I started making the pudding, only to realize that it was in neither English or Spanish... I had to ask Christie was leite was, which was on the recipe. Turns out it was milk...in PORTUGESE!!! Lucky for me, Christie is the language master and somehow seems to be able to understand everything...so anyway, this pudding (Pudim in Portugese) was so weird, I had to boil it, which was the step that made it thick, instead of refrigeration...that's just weird to me, but after I boiled it, I had to refrigerate it, and voila, there are now pudding cups in the fridge! Yay! Sweet Success!

English Class

Tonight I got to teach my first English class. It was so much fun! Normally, Christie teaches all of the kids together but we decided that it would be more beneficial to them to seperate the kids by age or by how well they were progressing. There are a few smaller kids that come so Caroline and I took them. We had Liz and Kevin who are both 4, and Mercedes who is 6 (i think). I was so impressed by how much they had remembered from previous classes with Christie! I started off by saying "Hello, how are you." They replied with "Fine, thank you." It's so cute hearing 4 year olds with their tiny voices saying that! :) After that we went over some basic colors and we taught them a song to help them remember their colors easier. We also went over counting 1-10 and they did it very well with little help from Caroline and I.
After class when everyone was walking home, I heard several kids singing the color song. I knew it would be a big hit and I am sure everyone will be singing it tomorrow...

Esso, No Mas

Since so much has happened before I made a blog, I figured that I needed to do a "catch all" one to summarize what exactly has been going on in my time here.

The past few weeks have been really cool and so much has happened. Our first day, we road on an ox cart to the house on this rocky dirt road. It was crazy but so much fun! We also went on a hike with the neighbors, Antonio and Francisco on their hill. It was so beautiful and we could see over everything.

This is part of our group in the picture. Francisco is the speck on top of the waterfall, Antonio is the fella sporting the red jacket, Camile, me, Allisha, Caroline, and Cole.

It was so weird at first walking in the woods and seeing 10 cows just hanging out in the woods, not having a fence or anything! On the way, we did see some very tiny houses that entire families lived in. Most of them were really small and they had a bamboo wall or something that would not prevent the cold from coming in at all. It's very sad that they have to live in those conditions, but they do what they have to do and that's ok with them. I have no clue how they survive it in the cold.

A few days after we got here, we took a trip to Pedro Jaun Caballero. It took several hours by bus to get there but it was so worth it. We stayed with a very nice lady that owns a hair salon below her house. A lot of people make their livings like that...they get a building and have their business or store in the bottom and they live upstairs. Church wasn't until that night, so during the day we got to have a little fun. Alicia, the owner, did our nails and hair and had us looking all cute for church that night! But sadly enough, after we started on our long walk to church, it started raining on our cute new hair. Haha. To the left is Caroline with her new pink tips, I got highlights, and Camille got blue tips.

On the 13th of July, Allisha my best friend turned 18 here so we had her a birthday party complete with princess tiaras and a cheese cake that I made. It was a great night of laughs, UNO and pizza.

A big part of being here is getting to spend time with the kids next door. They are so fun and it's such a blessing to walk outside and 10 kids yell your name and run and hug you. I am learning more and more spanish everyday and I hope to be able to speak well one day so I can communicate better.

One night we had a Princess Party with the girls next door to teach them about being a princess of God. It was a very good experience to share with them and afterwards we got to paint fingernails!

Out of all the new words I have learned, there are a few that are officially my favorites:

"Esso, no mas," "Verdad!" "Increible!" "Enserio" It may be because I hear them all a lot but they're my favorite and everytime I hear them, I giggle a little. haha

My Start in Paraguay

Hey! I'm Amberly and I'm 19. I live in Carapegua, Paraguay. I came here on July 6th originally to come for 2 weeks when God pricked my heart to stay. I have officially been here for 23 days and everyday has been even more incredible than the day before it. I live with my former youth pastors, who moved here to become missionaries. We live in a house on a campground here right next to a home for abandoned children and it's always an adventure with the kids around.
I am so excited about life here! Keep me in your prayers :)