2 meetings, and an outing

so yesterday I went to the meeting in Spanish(of which i could understand almost nothing....) So to get my spiritual food, we went to the  meeting in English as well. It was held at the German kingdom hall, and given by an american brother visiting from Tennessee. Kind of felt like home.... The English congregation is made up of Germans, Paraguayans, Americans, and Argentinians. In between meeting we went out to lunch, and after the meetings, i took a nap, and then we went out  for some snacks with a REALLY nice German couple. He's German, and speaks English, and she is Paraguayan and does not speak English. I had a really nice time!

Empenadas! And catchup :P

Service, Shopping, and Barbecue

So i went out in service for the first time here today. I don't speak much Spanish yet, so Just kind of watched and didn't do much. It's kind of strange, because since most people have gates, and not many people have bells, when people preach here they stand outside and clap their hands and wait for the person to come out. But even though i couldnt have a full share, i still enjoyed it.

Even though this is a city, you see things like chickens and horses. It's still kind of strange though.

This kind of tree is called a purple Lapacho.It's very pretty, and the plant itself  has been  used traditionally for cancer and other health problems for centuries by the Indians here. My dad drinks this tea too.

So the mailboxes here are kind of like mail slots back home. You put the mail in and  it goes in so no one can mess with it 

Me out in service :)  This is the spanish group

After service, we went out for lunch and shopping.

We ate sandwiches with something called peceto, which is a very good cut of beef, drank German beer,  and had these little things called Croquetillas, which are fried mandioca flour fritters filled with chicken or pork. They are AMAZING, and kind of look like Jalapeno poppers   

Spanish colonial era building. You will see many of these in Paraguay. Many of them are falling apart, however. Dunno why they don't repair them. Would lead to more tourism.....

Discount store

Bought my own guampa and thermos today :) Its made by the Guarani  Indians, and covered with crafted leather. I like it  :)

Me with Elvira(Kittie's mom)

At the discount store we bought some natural oils and incense and a burner

We also bought me a new mouse and keyboard, which I LOVE! :)

They decided to have a barbecue to welcome me to Paraguay. Barbecues are very common in Paraguay. They call them "Asadas". In fact, moast families barbecue on the weekends, and some stores close at mdid-day because most people are at home barbecuing.

MEEEEEAT!

 So its still hard to get used to everyone talking spanish, and me not understanding more then a few words. But I will learn. I learned something, though. No matter what language you speak, a smile is universal...

bye everyone :)
 Miss you.......

Second Day....

 Well, its my second day here. How do I feel? good. Am I homesick? Yes, a bit, but what can you do? It's not like I didn't expect it. But it's not too bad if i don't think about it too much. There's so much going on here, It's easy to be distracted. I spent alot of the day sitting outside under the fruit trees on my laptop. The weather was nice most of the day. One thing that bother me though, was the mangoes dropping from the trees. They may be small, but they make a BIG impact! How lame would it be to have your computer broken by a falling mango, lol

Mmmmm.... Mangoes....

Here most people dry their clothes outside because of the hot sun

It's a nice setup :)

I swear i must have hit my head on this stupid mango at least 15 times today as i walked by! gah...

Sleeping, or dead? You be the judge :)

And then i ate lunch and played soccer with some of the local kids :)

Drunken chicken with noodles,  pasta, lemon juice, onions, and parmesan cheese :)

Alan, my adopted nephew :)
(on the left), and Alejandro

This thing may be old, but its invaluable :)

Soccer :)

Went out for a walk with Kitties dad, and then we went to the supermercado(supermarket).

Here people use a weird basket thing instead of a trash can when putting out the trash. The reason its so high up is to keep the dogs away.

Some of the roads here aren't paved. I guess it's because people don't want to pay to have them paved.. 

These things are called "Mirame y no me toques", which means "look at me but don't touch me. People  plant these on their walls to prevent people from cllimbing them

They also put broken bottles on top of their walls for the same reason.

most middle and upper class people have gates. Maybe they are afraid of the poor people?

Here the bread comes flying out of a shoot to land in the basket below. Seems weird, but it is REALLY fresh!

Horse and cart. You see them quite often here :) I want one! hehe

Most things here are ridiculously cheap.  for 88,000 Guaranis(about 22 bucks), i got 5 containers of yerba mate, like a pound of lunchmeat, a pound of cheese, a big beer, a pizza, and a bottle of nice hard liquor(canya), a bag of bread, and a bag if chipa :) We ate the pizza later that night, and was like the best pizza i ever had! everything was made fresh, even the crust, and it only cost about 3 dollars :) And i mixed some canya with lime juice, honey, and ice, and it was SO nice!
Just found one one of those types of yerba mate, called katauava, is an aphrodisiac and sexual stimulant... Guess i better be careful with that one, eh? :P

Doggies! :)

So one last thing i wanted to mention are the insects. Since this is a tropical climate, they are EVERYWHERE. Flies, mosquitos, dragonflys, and other things. Having a bit of trouble getting used to that, but i will get over it. I'm gonna look into some natural mosquito repellent tomorrow. Anyway, jajochata koerope(pronounced:yayo-shatay-ko-airopey), which basically means "Talk to you tomorrow" in Guarani.

Arrival and first impressions

So I finally made it! The flight was LOOOOONG! But aside from getting groped by the TSA, it was pretty good. TACA gives you free food and liquor on their flights, so thats always nice :) I tried Flor de Caña for the first time. It's good :) It's a kind of fermented sugarcane liquor that tastes like rum. Plus I sat next to a REALLY nice Brazilian guy on the way from Peru to Uruguay.

Friendly Brazilian Guy :)

He didnt speak much english, but we both laughed alot :)

         
                             

Sandwich, cookies, and fruit slice

                                     

                                                     mini salad, some type of curried chicken,bread, and sesame crackers

                                        

Pasta with cheese,cheddar cheese, dried fruit, and cookies

                                          Some of the views from the plane were REALLY nice!

                            

                                  (sign in peru)
                                   Correct me if i am wrong, but isnt there a reason it's called toilet paper?

Sunset over Paraguay

Sunset over Peru

So I FINALLY arrive at Silvia Petirossi International Airport in Paraguay, and of course  NO ONE in the ENTIRE airport speaks english, not even the customs people. So they were just smiling at me and speaking spanish, and I managed to get through customs without a problem, and they didn't even search my bags!(there was some kind of presidential celebration going on, and security was focused on that instead)

And of course, my phone doesn't work, so i go to use  the phone there to call her, and it costs 800 guaranis(about 80 cents) and i don't have any guaranis, so i have to convert some.  And this guy came up with a cart after  i got there to put my baggage in it, and then proceeded to follow me around for about 20 minutes while i did what i needed to. He was really nice, so i tipped him 5$, which for the poor people is like a whole days wage. Needless to say, he was really happy after that :)

So she arrives, we load up the car, and we are all really hungry so we go to eat something. Thus begins my introduction to Paraguayan fast food. 

This is Chipa. Its like a bread thing filled with different stuff . I had one filled with sausage and onions, one with ham and cheese, and another with eggs and 4 cheeses

Chipa is AMAZING! and all the meat here is completely natural, grass fed organic meat, which is awesome!

I also had some fresh pineapple juice, and a strawberry/banana yogurt/ice cream thing. anyway, it was awesome, and i ate SO much, lol.

It was at a shopping centre, and aside from it being all in spanish, it could easily be somewhere in america. And the first thing i saw when i got here was a burger king :)

So we got home after a while, and i worked on getting settled in.

This is a Tatakua  Its a brick oven used for making all kinds of stuff. It looks like an igloo :)

A view of the backyard and all the fruit trees. They have mangos,oranges, lemons, guavas, avacados, and something else i cant remeber.

Me drinking Terere :) Find more about Terere here

This soup tastes alot like the soup mom makes. There is also some veggies with bacon, and Sopa Paraguaya, which is like a cheese cornbread. And i was coughing earlier, so the tea is something called amba'y (roughly pronounced AMBAH-OOH. Its a guarani word, and very hard to write out a phonetic translation)

The kitchen.

Dining room

Front Room

Bathroom. Im still trying to get used to not having a shower , and just standing on the floor to take a shower. You cant see it in the pic, but the shower head is up above, and the water is heated as it comes through the shower head by something called a Calefone. Neat idea if you act me, cuz you can never run out of hot water :) You just flip the switch to turn on the Calefone, and Voila! hot water! Its nice :)

My room, including bed. There is a window on each side of the room, and wind blows through, so it is VERY  fresh. 

My wardrobe. Hope its big enough for all my clothes :)

My room is actually partly open. Like you walk out of my room, and theres the bathroom, and then another door witch is open on the top and bottom, and it opens up out to the backyard. And then if you keep going, you get to the kitchen.

So what are my first impressions? well even though almost no-one speaks my language, Paraguayan people are among the friendliest in the entire world, and I think i will be very happy here! The food is good, the water is cleaner then back home, and i drink it right from the tap. Some places are a little run down, but mostly in the poorer areas. In alot of places, you see people driving by in expensive cars, even mercedes. Alot of places are very modern and beautiful. The sun is HOT, and this isnt even summer yet, so that will take some getting used to... Anyway, I'm gonna wrap this up now. I miss all of you! More to come soon...