A Wise Man Once Said

"How come we can't ever have just like a salad?"

Well it happened. We had a huge salad bar with beets, carrots, lettuce, cilantro, parsley, cabbage, and onions. It was amazing. We each had two huge plates of it along with our daily allotment of soup. Unfortunately, only the teacher table enjoyed the salad. None of the students ate any of it. They aren't accustomed to eating fresh vegetables and find the idea of them mixed together really gross. At the end of the meal, the professors gave a big lecture about eating healthily and how the students should be ashamed of themselves for wasting food.

Alas, I think our salad days are over for the duration of our stay.

Church in Paraguay

It turns out that we have a branch just down the road from where we are living. It's about a 40 minute walk to a small town called Benjamin Aceval. They have a small church building with an even smaller branch. The members are warm and friendly. My Spanish is coming along slowly, but priesthood meeting was in the local language of Guarani, so that didn't help. We enjoyed the meetings and look forward to getting better acquainted with the branch members here.

We're excited for conference this upcoming weekend. We haven't decided if we are going to travel with the members to the stake center in Asuncion or just watch it online from home. Either way, we are looking forward to a great weekend.

Life on the Farm

We've spent the last few days trying to get to know the school, which is a little difficult when only one other person here speaks English.  Still, we've been able to see and figure out a lot.  I'm realizing that I know a lot more Spanish than I thought.

Students get up at 5:45 am (so early!) to clean their rooms and do other chores.  Then breakfast.  After that, half of the students go to class and half go to the farm.  Each week, students switch between regular classes and working the farm.  Other than a few hours of break after lunch, all of the students are pretty busy from about 8 am to 4 pm.  After school, students hang out with their friends, listening to music, playing soccer, or watching TV.  Dinner is at 8 pm, and everyone goes to bed by 9:45 pm.  They work hard in school, but they seem to enjoy themselves.  I think they all feel pretty lucky to be able to attend the school.

Taylor and I have now familiarized ourselves with the school, and though we aren't here to work on the farm, it's been fun to see bits and pieces of farm life.  Yesterday, we observed new cows being immunized and tested for diseases.  (Actually, I couldn't really watch much.  I hate shots, and these were the biggest needles I've ever seen.)  The school's method of farming is intense and completely organic, but the teachers here say that it's the most affordable way for the students to learn to farm...at least, in the long run.  They will save money by not buying chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and they won't have to keep moving every few years when the chemicals wear out their land.  I'm still not sure what I think, but it's cool that they can do so much without chemicals.

I am beginning to work on an English curriculum for the school, and Taylor and I have a meeting with the school's director on Monday to discuss the school's finances and marketing strategies.  Excellent.

Living in Nacho Land

WELL, OBVIOUSLY... We have a Nacho Libre in Paraguay park.

This afternoon, Mandy and I realized that this place is a lot like the place where Nacho Libre lives....

• Nacho lives in a Catholic school; we live in a (former) Catholic school.
• Nacho eats soup for every meal; we eat soup for every meal.
• Nacho wears stretchy pants; Mandy wears stretchy pants.
• Nacho speaks Spanglish; we speak Spanglish.
• Nacho wants to be a luchador; Taylor almost got arrested with luchadors. (Joel this is your shout out!)
• Nacho has magical eagle eggs; we washed magical chicken eggs today.

The similarities are endless.

Other news: last night we watched a gigantic pig giving birth to a myriad of little piglets. I think we are now prepared to deliver a litter of our own. We spent the morning milking goats, washing eggs, and talking with an intern that is leaving tomorrow.

We are going to spend the week getting to know the school and getting a better understanding of what the students do here. It's been really fun to learn about a new culture, language, and exciting solution to rural education.

Fundacion Paraguaya

This morning we drove with our new friend Luis from Asuncion to Cerrito, where the agricultural school is located.  We spent the morning meeting people here at the school and touring the facilities.  This place is amazing.  The school houses 150 students in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades.  It has been completely financially self sufficient for the past three years.  The first of its kind in the world.

If you want to watch a short video on youtube about the school and its founder click here. 

Our room is great.  Unlike most of our third world escapades, we have a hot shower, AC, electricity, internet, and a flushing toilet.  Life is beautiful. 

So far the temperature is amazing, though we hear that it will get unbearably hot in another month or so.  We can't seem to beat the heat.

I think we'll spend the next week meeting people, learning about the school, and figuring out how we can help each other.  We have discussed a few potential projects including:

• Teach English classes after school to interested students
• Create a board game based around the school to help students (and other interested people) learn how the school operates and how to conduct best practices.
• Find new vendors and markets for the school's products
• Help with branding and distribution
• Strengthen relationships with the local communities and form partnerships

It's all pretty exciting stuff.  We're looking forward to the adventure.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Finished this on the plane to Paraguay.  I must say I really loved every moment of reading this book.  The writing is engaging, and it really makes you think.  An eye-opening close-up of poverty in the rural US.



View all my reviews

Sin Gas

Tonight, for the first time ever, we drank water that said it was "sin gas", meaning without gas or air. We had a good laugh. Apparently, all our lives we've been drinking water with gas. This explains a lot. We're looking forward to a life without gas for the next few months. Who knew?

Bienvenidos

So, we made it to Paraguay.... 27 butt-numbing hours later. Travelling around the globe is amazing, but getting there is always such a pain. Two nights of no sleep, 6 meals of airline cuisine, long lines, one McDonald's breakfast, and Mandy squeezing my hand off every time the plane bumped. What an adventure.

Paraguay is amazing. We are loving it here already. We were picked up at the airport by Michael Graham, the intern director, at 2am. He's a great guy who is native to Paraguay, but ironically enough graduated from K State. Come to find out, Kansas and Paraguay are sister states/countries. Citizens from Paraguay pay instate tuition in Kansas. They formed a partnership in the 60's. They are both landlocked. They are both agricultural. Therefore, they love each other. We have met a couple people now that went to school in Kansas. Random.

We spent the morning at Fundacion Paraguaya's main offices. The employees and management are awesome. Everyone is passionate, hard working, and laid back. We really like the people here. We'll spend a few days touring around, meeting people, visiting the school etc. to get a good feel for the organization. We talked about a few projects we can work on over the next few months. Mandy and I will most likely work together the whole time. It'll be fun.

The language will be a bit of a challenge. Mandy has taken a bunch of classes in Spanish so she can usually get the gist of what people are saying. I'm pretty much clueless. This morning everyone was telling me "bienvenidos". I assumed it was a form of greeting so I repeated it back to them. Come to find out it means "welcome." So, I have now welcomed everyone to their own country. Take luck? The first of many linguistic blunders I'm sure.