Updates

I´ve got a litle down time this morning so I thought I would post a little update.

Things are going well, as they have the whole time we´ve been here. Right now we´re getting ready for a little sight seeing and vaccation with my brother, who arrives tomorrow night. He´ll be here for a week and in addition to an as-USAmerican-as-possible-in-paraguay Thanksgiving dinner, we will be seeing the sights of Asuncion and visiting some of our favorite restaurants.

Our work at the library continues, we are almost done identifying a list of subjects for each book, and the next step which we hope to start this week is to begin to create a MS Access Database that will be searchable and allow people to check books out. After that, it´s on to other projects!

A few pictures here of the work in Fernando. When we arrived here this was an old rotted out shell of a one story building and people were begining demolition. Now the roof is almost finished and it´s starting to take the shape of rooms and hallways.


Things are peaceful around the house, just Sarah and I, and we´ve been spending a lot more time watching TV and listening to Podcasts. We got iTunes, and or favorites right now are This American Life and Car Talk. On TV we have been watching House, CSI, Eli Stone, and the occasional movies (which are always on.) It´s nice because it´s all in english.

OK one last thing I wanted to tell you about here. I added a link in the sidebar and I will post it here as well. Our good friend Ellen Ranson is preparing to head to Nicaragua to be involved in some mission work there. Ellen is sarah´s suite-mate from college and has been a good friend of ours for a long time, and we know she will be doing great work for the Kingdom of God. If you are looking for another volunteer missionary to support after we´re finished, please consider her work! You can read about her coming adventures here, and we will keep this link in our sidebar. Thanks!

District Assembly

I just wanted to let you guys know that if you are interested in reading about District Assembly here in the Central Paraguay District, you can check out my NTS blog here.
- Sarah

Ted and FOOD!!!!

Looking through our pictures this morning, we realized that we tend to take a lot of pictures that involve both Ted and food. So, we decided to make a little montage for you of these pictures... Enjoy!

We started to cook fish one night for dinner and then as it was in the oven we thought, hmm... this is really weird fish because it was all curling up and it looked really white and kind of slimy. Yes, that is right, it turned out to be calamari. Quite an interesting eating experience.

All around the city of Asunción there are huts that sell a variety of things, but our favorite ones are those that sell juice. They have a variety of juice flavors, with some fruits of which we have never even heard... but here is Ted enjoying some strawberry juice and relaxing inside the air conditioned mall after several miles of walking out in the heat.

This is at our favorite little cafe/restuarant called Medialunas Callentintas, which would litterally be translated little hot croissants. They sell amazing croissants and other desserts, plus great sandwiches and quiches and pizzas. They have it all because they also make a great cup of coffee. We like to stop here on our way to Spanish class to review notes and wake up with a great cup of coffee.

Ted, in Fernando de la Mora, sharing tereré with Oswaldo. I´m not sure why he has that weird look on his face..

Ted eating his first mango, and we have now discovered that he is allergic to mangoes, or at least to the skin of the mangoes. Unfortuantely there are huge mangoes trees everywhere we go and they are just now starting to get ripe! They keep looking so good and twice now Ted has tried to eat them and both times gotten a crazy rash on his lips..... for some crazy reason he is still thinking about trying to eat another one, just to make sure he is allergic. Don´t ask me, I don´t understand.... :)

Ted with the pasta at the "Tallarenida" at the church in Fernando de la Mora. Some people from the church made this huge pot of pasta, sauce, meat, mandioca and then people from the community came with their containers and paid 5000 gs (equivalent to a little more than a dollar) for a serving.

Have a wonderful Saturday! Hopefully we will not have any rain tomorrow and will be able to go Nueva Asunción and see the people there, take more pictures ... Also soon there will be a post up about District Assembly... God bless!

Legal Immigration!

Hello Everyone! Thanks for checking out our blog! We´re trying to update more often but life keeps getting in the way!

Well we´re on our own now, sort of... the Venturas, with whom we have been living, will be in argeninta for about 2 months, so from now untill Christmas we are alone in the mission house! It´s going to be a little crazy but a lot of fun... we´ve already started cooking some of the foods we haven´t made since we got here.

Today marks 90 days since we first entered the country, which means our origional 90 day visas have expired. Well mine has, Sarah had a few more weeks because she got a new one when she went to the women´s conference in Argentina. ANYWAY, the process for getting a new stamp in the passport was tricky, but it worked out really well.

Tecnically what you´re supposed to do is get a renewal, which involves about 3 government buildings in town, lots of paperwork, running around in circles, plus about $150 worth of fees. The only other way to get a stamp is to cross into paraguay from another country, and since Argentina isn´t real far away, we opted for that route. Last week we attempted to cross by boat, but the ladies at the border gave us trouble because it "seemed like we were only leaving so we could get our stamp and get out of paying the renewal fee". I guess we just weren´t sneaky enough.

SO, as it turns out, the Venturas were leaving monday and passing through Formosa, Argentina, a nice little town about 2 hours from the border and were glad to drop us off there. AND, as it turns out, our spanish teacher happened to be going to Formosa on Tuesday to take care of some business and was glad to bring us back to Asuncion. Well to make a long story slightly less long, it all worked out well. We stayed in a lovely hotel in Formosa for about $40 US, watched Oceans 12, got up early and had a "complete" Argentinian breakfast (croissants and coffee) and strolled around town waiting for Nilda. Sarah almost bought a skirt because clothes were pretty cheap there, plus we had some leftover Pesos we weren´t going to be able to spend. We did end up buying a copy of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator in Spanish, which we figure is just about our reading level.

On the way back home, just for a little extra sneakyness, we crossed the border by ferry. It was a pretty 10 mintue boat ride, although I did get a little motion sick. This picture is the hill in Lambare, which we will have to write about some other time because it´s a very interesting place. Below is a picture of the ferry going the other direction which we passed half way across the Rio Paraguay. (side note: no, I didn´t see any fish, but supposedly there are quite a few) So it was a nice trip, and in total thanks to the help of the Venturas and Nilda the trip cost us around $60, which is less than half of what it would have cost to get the stamp if we did the paperwork.

Ok so that´s about it for now, I will leave the stories from district assembly for Sarah to write because she knows more about that kind of stuff and I think she would do a better job telling about it. Also I´m kind of hungry right now. But I do have one last story.

Three times now we have heard Paraguayans telling this hilarious new joke that´s being passed around in circles with Guarani speakers. I will do my best to retell it, but it really is best when spoken by someone who speaks both Spanish and Guarani.

So apparently the word in Guarani for "He moved" or "he left" or "he doesn´t live here anymore" is "Obama." And the joke goes, the phone rings at the White House, the (apparently Paraguayan) secretary answers, and the person calling says "Hi, is Bush there?" to which the secretary replies "No, obama!"

Yeah we´ve heard it a few times now. The locals get a kick out of it around here.

OK I will leave you with this parting shot, I had to take this one for you guys... I honestly do not know what´s happening here but I do know it got put up around Haloween and I think it may be from some sort of Christmas themed haunted house? Well the picture didn´t turn out too great but let me tell you it´s WAY creepier in person.









And with that, a merry week to all, and to all a good day!

Peace
Ted and Sarah

internet...

our internet was taken out in a recent storm, and so we may be unable to communicate much the next few days (hopefully only a few days). Meanwhile we are experiencing serious symptoms of withdrawal...