Well the dawn has broken and were in Paraguay! After so much anticipation it’s good to finally be here.
Our travel here was an adventure in itself. We left the airport in Chicago around 2:30 in the afternoon last Tuesday to Miami. The flight was a bit long but were we so excited it didn’t matter much to us. We had about an 5 hour layover which was nice and relaxing and even informational since we were able to watch the 2nd presidential debate on a conveniently central tv by our gate entrance. However, Miami was also a bit sobering because it was the last place our cell phones were going to work so we were all making frantic last minute phone calls. Soon we were all aboard our plane to Lima, Peru (it was about 1 o’clock in the morning) and we are facing the longest flight of the trip. We settled in, took off and in less than an hour were served breakfast, which was a little strange for everybody becuase it was 2 am. This flight was also our introduction to our next 10 months in Latin America since everything announced, presented, read or asked was in both Spanish and English. A side goal of mine was to fool the flight attendants into thinking I was a Latin-American. Didn’t work.
Our flight landed and we stumbled out tired and disoriented awaiting our next flight to Santiago, Chile. We didn’t have to wait too long until we were flying over the Andes mountains on the way to our final destination of Asuncion, Paraguay. The flight landed followed by the shortest customs wait I’d ever been in (I’ve only been in two) after the longest trip I’d ever taken (30 hours from the time we left) and we were immediately greeted by a whirlwind of hosts. There was hugging and kissing (it´s a custom here...) and before we knew our team was seperated into 3 cars which consequently met at the same house just 10 minutes later.
The house was that of Maria Molinas, who happens to be my host mother for the next 10 months. She is an excellent, fun loving women who is married to the pastor of the local Mennonite Church located just down the street. Her family has proven to be a rock in our first month of language orientation and have adopted us, especially me, as their new hijos. Her husband’s name is Secundino and together they have 3 daughters, all of which are named Laura which has lead to an interesting phenomenon of me being renamed as Lauro Tyler Molinas. In effect, I’m the fourth Laura.
Our setup looks like this; Dorothea and Rebecca are staying in the house which will probably soon be my room when our group dissipates. Craig and Krista and staying with member of the church a quick stroll down the street and Scott and I are bunking together in a room off the side of the church that I believe is usually used as a Sunday school classroom considering the brightly colored pawprints and pictures of babies dressed in animal costumes on the wall.
A typical day is pretty relaxed. Some breakfast in the morning followed by some sort of Spanish immersion, lunch with a restful siesta right behind it, then dinner and some games to complete the day. We’ve been learning a little about the culture and actually had a trip to downtown Asuncion the other day where we hung out and were able to see a lot of government buildings, fairs, and a museum. We’ve also gone to a couple church services already were we attempted to figure out what was going on amidst us being brought to the front to introduce ourselves and trying to sing the tunes of new songs.
All in all, I can say it’s been a very comforting and warm welcome which has helped me transition smoothly, however there are so many new things to discover. It reminds of being a kid who has gone to his friend’s house for the afternoon and is exploring his backyard for the very first time. There are so many new things to discover but everything resembles a basic pattern of familiar. The people are different in the language they speak but something similar lies beneath. We eat new food but the table is still full of laughter. We wake up in a different bed but fall asleep like we’ve always have. It seems as though Paraguay, if made a recipe, would be a lot of new with a hint of familiar.
The rest of our time has been used in a variety of ways including museum and exhibit going, logistical meetings regarding team finances and covenants, tying up loose ends before we leave, and just plain enjoying each other. Most of our days include some kind of game playing, usually cards or frisbee or both, and more than often we end in an unplanned house hangout that eventually trickles into bedtime.
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