Being Back

I've noticed myself getting more and more used to the lifestyle of being back in the US, and it makes me extremely sad. A few weeks ago, I was using a clothes dryer as opposed to a clothes line, for the first time in 6 months, and that taking a hot shower, that didn't require flipping a switch to turn the electric shower head on to make the water hot. 

I'm still getting asked if I'm excited to be back, and how I'm adjusting, and I'm still not sure exactly how to answer it all. I guess the best way to put it into words being 100% honest: I'm a different person. I don't know that I'll ever be fully adjusted, or excited as I could be, to be back.  In saying that, I do not mean at all that I'm not extremely happy to see my family and church family and friends again. But life has a different meaning. 

Tonight, Allisha and I spoke to the church about our trip experience, and it was so incredible to be able to show pictures and talk about what happened in Paraguay. Of course, just seeing the photos and hearing the stories, don't completely serve it justice, and none of them may ever know the people or the lifestyle of Paraguay as I have got to know it, but now they have a little piece of what goes on in a country that a lot of people don't even know exist. 

My past couple of Sundays (and some nights during the week) have been spent with the Spanish congregation of my Church. It still feels so surreal having complete conversations with them in Spanish, and they have really given me a confidence boost in being impressed with how fast I was able to pick up the language.  

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.