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