HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELLEN!

Today is my friend’s special day. It’s Ellen’s birthday! I’ve only known her since October of last year and it seems as if she could be my sister. She came as a short term missionary and has truly won over the hearts of ALL Paraguayans; young and old, rich and poor, etc. She came without knowing a word in Spanish, and now we can’t get her to stop talking! I told her that I was going to write about her today so here it goes…
Ellen is FRIENDLY. She cares about everyone and is just plain loving. It doesn’t matter WHO you are…an impatient teen, a disobedient student, an “interested” youth, all the neighborhood girls, or whoever. She always writes little notes to tell us how much she appreciates us. She always has time to show you she cares and wants to love you with Christ’s love. John 13:34-35, 1 Peter 3:8-9
Ellen is OPTIMISTIC. Everything seems so fun when you’re with her. Even when things go bad, it’s too cold, the rain ruins our plans, she’s far from a telephone to communicate back home, or steps on Arnold’s dog mess, she’s so happy. She always looks at the good in everything. Psalm 16:11
Ellen is ACTIVE. She never stops playing with the little kids. Even though she is tired, she will stay up an extra hour to play games with my boys. She gets out her recipes to bake cinnamon rolls some Saturdays for our treat. She loves to go grocery shopping…walking there and back, of course. She goes for walks with the neighbor lady, runs at the track with other young kids, and goes bike riding with our kids some times. It seems as if she is NEVER tired. Hebrews 10:24
Ellen loves to SERVE. She will set up chairs at church. She will carry people’s loads of groceries. She will help sweep where ever. She jumps at the chance to serve water at the table. She washes my dishes…with joy! She seems happiest when she’s serving others. Mark 9:41, Galatians 6:10.
I was thinking of a verse that I could dedicate to her and I found so many! (1 Timothy 4:12-14, Romans 12:6-8,1 Peter 4:10) My prayer is that she will continue to love and serve as I have seen her do here in Paraguay WHEREVER the Lord leads her after November 2007. When you leave, Ellen, you will leave an empty space in our hearts. WE LOVE YOU!!!

Mother’s Day – Oscar’s Birthday

May 15th is OUR day. It’s MY day because of Mother’s Day. It’s OSCAR’S day because it’s his birthday. Strange enough, here in Paraguay, it’s even a holiday! We always have a hard time deciding WHO gets to be congratulated first, Oscar or me. Yesterday was a wonderful break from school and routine…a good, family day.
I wonder sometimes why there is so much fuss in Paraguay over Mother’s Day. People even let off fireworks at midnight…Monday night! Parties started on the 14th already. Our neighbors had music going until 3 am in the morning. Some say that women have a great impact in Paraguayan history, family life, farming, etc. While the men were at war, the women stayed home to handle the crops, animals and many, many children. (Oscar’s mom had 14). During one war the women and children even went to battle. Women…mothers…are very highly esteemed. Last year my neighbors had some “MARIACHIS” come to sing to their mother at dawn. Towards the end of the day, yesterday, I was surprised to be considered a 2nd mother, and was given a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
Oscar likes to joke that he is his mom’s best Mother’s Day present and that his birthday is so important that they made a holiday out of it. Well, of course, we started celebrating his birthday on Monday, also, and today, Wednesday, at a school meeting we continued with the party. Tonight after church there are refreshments planned to celebrate his 40th birthday. Yesterday I made three cakes to take to the different places we were celebrating.
According to Oscar’s birth certificate, passport and other legal documents, he is 41. He was “born” on May 15, 1966. According to the rest of the family he is 40 this year and was born on May 15, 1967. His brother, José was born August 15, 1965, which means that if he was born in 1966 his brother would have been exactly nine months old…but the mother claims that there is a 1 year 9 months difference meaning that Oscar had to be born in 1967.
Anyway, it was a beautiful, warm day that was lots of fun.
Last night there was a TERRIBLE thunderstorm and half of our house is with out electricity. Today, wintry, cold weather is settling in and it’s raining.

Mimo, please!

Edson’s become “mimoso”. In Spanish I guess that means something like wanting to be held, cuddled, hugged and kissed, etc. He wakes up every 20 minutes with a little whimper (sometimes more than that) and when he’s held, of course, he goes back to sleep. Oscar says he’s spoiled, but any attentive mother would not agree. Her baby is NEVER spoiled!
Well, that is MY opinion with all three of my kids. I would NEVER THINK of spoiling them. If they are crying or whimpering there must be a reason…he has a fever, he just got his shot, a mosquito bit him, his diaper needs changed, and his socks are too tight, whatever! But my best excuse is always…he’s getting a new tooth!
Well, this time it’s TRUE! He has two new teeth popping out and he’s uncomfortable. It’s cold outside (and inside for that matter). He needs warm hugs. He needs to be rocked in the rocking chair. He needs to be cuddled with warm blankets. He’s crying out “mimo, please”.
He’s at that stage where things are different. He can eat now…squash, potatoes, and bananas. He can rock back and forth on all fours and sometimes even slide around or flip back and forth to get where he wants to. He laughs, screams, and coos all day long. But…oh…that tooth! It’s hard to grow up. Think about Brandon, 14 years old and 5 inches taller than myself…even though we are “mimoso” many times. I could NEVER get him to fit in my lap on the rocking chair!
My baby’s not spoiled! But, I think I’ll have to go and hold him for a while and rock him back to sleep…it’s all because of his tooth!

Cooking in the country

This is how the car looked after the ride home yesterday through the mud roads in San Pedro. I tried to upload this yesterday and my connection wasn't good. So, this picture goes with yesterday's story.

Today's chapter is about my cooking experience. My grandpa loves going to the country when he comes. I think he remembers when they used to do everything by scratch. No...already prepared packages to buy in the store!

Anyway, well Oscar took his mom and Dolores to the doctor’s and I stayed home with 6 little cousins/grandkids to cook for. Remember, this is San Pedro…it is the country! Cooking styles are very different than the city. The oldest girl, Deborah, 17, killed 2 chickens. (I wasn’t about to do that!) She knew how to grab them (Edson thoroughly enjoyed the chicken hunt as the girls ran around trying to grab the squawking things), kill them and take the feathers off the chicken, but never cut one up…that was my job. Usually we get the “nice” plump ones at the supermarket with no innards inside. This one had all the guts still in it, it was still warm, and it was very skinny. Its corn breakfast was still in the neck! I started cleaning, cutting and washing each piece, trying not to think that it was a little bit gross. The animals (cats and dogs) were waiting for any little waste we would throw to them as we cleaned the chickens. We quickly prepared Vori-vori – polenta ball, chicken soup…OVER COALS! Working over the hot fire and blowing to keep the flame going was challenging since the charcoal wasn’t real good and kept burning out. That worried me a bit because a farm chicken has to be boiled a lot longer or the meat will be tough. Our meal had to be done by 11:45 since the girls go to school in the afternoon session. Thankfully I had MANY babysitters who took care of holding Edson and we soon got our soup boiling.
The next step was to make Vori-vori…little polenta balls. Since I came from the city I expected to have the polenta already ground. In the country…you have to make your own! The girls were experts at that, also and already had the corn seed boiling over a campfire and were soon grinding and sifting it. The polenta is mixed with farmer’s cheese, an egg, and some of the broth. After mixing it well, little balls are formed and set aside. When the soup is almost done, you add the balls, boil an extra 5 minutes and it is done…it was 11:45! We made it.
After lunch the cool air was settling in and I smelled like a burning log since I was working over fires all day long, I decided to leave the cleaning up to the girls and took off to clean myself up and sleep a siesta.

Oscar's Mom, Ña Sergia

We just went through a spontaneous and tiresome weekend trip to San Pedro. For about two weeks we have been receiving calls from Oscar’s brothers and sisters that his mom is not well. We were planning a trip in about two weeks, but Sunday’s calls were insistent and after placing Brandon and Gabriel at their favorite friends’ house, we took off with Edson and picked up Oscar’s sister on the way. The 250 mile trip went smooth until the last 30 miles of the trip. It was around midnight and the dirt road to San Pedro was TERRIBLE. Our speedometer was on 20 m/h for a whole hour as we dodged big holes in the road. The pavement is to be finished in 13 months, but unfortunately we didn’t see any preparations for the new road.
We arrived at 1am and found my mother-in-law very sick with fever, a bad cough, high blood pressure and cholesterol AND refusing to go to the doctor. Oscar’s sister was insisting on bringing her back to Asuncion, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Finally, it was decided that she would see a doctor in the morning in San Pedro and Dolores, Oscar’s sister, would stay with her for a week in order to make sure she was taking her medicine. She was a little bit better Monday afternoon with just a pretty bad cough.
Around lunch time on Monday there was a change of weather and the southern winds forced us to bundle up. The rest of the afternoon and all throughout the night it was windy and rainy. This morning it was 50 F and very windy. We hurried to prepare our “mate” (Yerba tea leaves in a little cup with a sippy straw called a bombilla) and take off for Asuncion. We got back five hours later and with a VERY DIRTY CAR!
Tomorrow I’ll tell you about cooking our meal!

God's Promise!

God's promise! Right outside our window!

Water outside but none inside!

Last week was a rainy week. According to Oscar, rainy and cold means FALL/WINTER weather. It got down to 57 F. That’s pretty cold for a sub-tropical climate. During winter, though, we may reach 41F or even 32F. Anyway, it rained so much last Wednesday that a small portion of our yard was filled with water. I faithful packed Edson into the car and off we went to a meeting at school. The whole ride was on the exciting side while I tried to stay on the part of the road that was clear of rushing water. Heading toward Vera Cruz we have to pass through a low spot between two hills. The water covered more than half of the tires and I started to think that I probably shouldn’t have gone out. Well, with the Lord as our guide, we continued on; went to the meeting and came home to a soaked, but beautiful yard.
I walked into the house to wash my hands and start cooking for lunch and realized that there was no water coming out of the faucet. This happens often in our neighborhood. Once we didn’t have water for a week and the firemen came to fill our community’s tank. Four hundred families were affected, and our neighborhood in San Antonio even made primetime news. Well, I didn’t worry about too much this time and just started cooking with the 3 gallon jug we usually have filled up for reserve. After cooking, doing some cleaning, filling a pitcher for the kids to wash hands with, drinking terere, etc. We were down to just a couple quarts…but, the water didn’t come. We went to church that night (with no showers) hoping that when we get back we will all shower. We got back and there was still no water. Now, every precious drop was like GOLD. I even put some buckets under the rain spout for bathroom uses (but by then it had stopped raining). All night long there was still no water. The kids got ready for school the next day…still no water…and no showers! Finally at 7:15am the water came. I frantically started washing dishes, clothes, the bathroom, the floors…everything that could get wet, I washed.
Today, Wednesday, it started raining again! Hopefully, the water on the inside won't stop!