I apologize that I am writing this three weeks after arriving in Paraguay. Things have been kind of busy and I have just focussed on things going on here. Things have been really great! There have been many very fun and exciting times meeting many great people, learning to live in a very different culture/style of life, improving our spanish, and traveling around to see different parts of the city. There have also been difficult moments, where the language barrier makes communication very difficult, where the slow pace of life and people's interest in their cell phones and TV makes moments of boredom, and just plain exhaustion from so much newness. But the good times are always soon to follow and my positive outlook returns.
After our long overnight flight, on which we woke up to the sun coming up over the Chaco, Alfred and Edulia Klaasan, the pastors at our church, picked us up at the airport. Obtaining visas and going through customs was strangely easy; they asked no questions and didn't really search our things. We spent part of the day at Alfred and Edulia's house, and they introduced us to our neighborhood and host families. All four of us volunteers live in the same neighborhood within five blocks or so. I got placed with a great family named the Alderete Perez's. Living at our house are our parents, five of their seven children, their grandma that has severe dementia, and sometimes their aunt. Needless to say it is always a happenin' place, especially since there are usually cousins, aunts and uncles, other siblings, and friends over at our house as well. The ages of my siblings are something like 1, 14, 20, 22, 24, 26, 35. This means that my 1-year-old brother has a niece that is some 16 years older than him.
The first week we mostly just got introduced to the neighborhood (we are between the huge, beautiful botanical park and the Rio Paraguay), church (there are three services every weekend plus several youth activities), the city of Asuncion, and Tereré (the national drink). We went around the city with various youth from church to introduce us to different parts of town and the bus system. This was fun as we got to know some awesome youth that we get to spend the next year with and got to see different parts of the city. We went to downtown a few times, San Lorenzo, a huge market, and to the "Shoppings" (yes it's a noun here). This last one was a popular place for people to take us, I think because they wanted to show us the one place that is clean and sparkly and that resembles corporal America. We trudged along to the various Shoppings to make them happy.
The most fun things that I remember from the first week were walking and playing soccer in the botanical park, going to the Paraguay/Argentina game with my family, and sitting and drinking Tereré with family and friends. The church services are very different than what I am used to but I can respect them and learn from them. I have to keep remembering that churches have to respond to the local culture and situations, and so in a place as different as Paraguay, the theological focuses and worship styles are bound to be different. Church and the youth events are also great social settings where we can meet and converse with new people.
In our second full week here we started our work assignments. Austin and I were both placed in Alto Refugio, an organization that works on holistically helping people with HIV/AIDS. It is run by David Schmidt who is related to both Austin and me. Hannah and Brittni both work at the school that is connected to our church. At Alto Refugio, we have worked in areas such as child care, the kitchen, and cleaning. In child care, we watch the children of HIV/AIDS patients while they go across the street to the hospital for treatments or just want a break. The kitchen provides meals to AIDS patients and gives out bags of food staples. Alto Refugio also has days where it gives out clothing, has self-support group meetings, has a dentist because other dentists are too expensive or don't allow AIDS patients, has cots for them to rest, and has devotionals during the day. It is a very good organization that really helps a lot of people that are struggling and need a place to turn and get support. I am very glad that we can participate in its work. It is also fun to get to know the Schmidt's. They had us over the other night for a big meal and also had some of their children and grandchildren. It was a great time.
After three weeks, communication in Spanish has become much easier, although I can still only understand and communicate fairly simple things. Listening to others conversations is still usually very hard because they talk so fast and use Jopará, a mixture of Spanish and Guaraní, the indigenous language that everyone is fluent in. I have tried to learn some, but I usually just forget everything I learn because everything sounds like Korean and looks like this: "Mba'échapa." That means "what's up."
The food is sometimes hard to like because mostly everything is either an animal or wheat product. There are definitely foods that are really good, but my family jokes that if there isn't meat on the table, they won't eat it. This is tough for a former semi-vegitarian.
Thanks for reading and for all of your support! I hope everything is going well in the US as well.
Benjamin
P.S. Sorry there are no pictures - transferring them wasn't working. I'll try to post some later.
