Plenty of Movimiento

Another word I’ve warmed up to in the Spanish language is movimiento. To us English speakers it looks very much like the word ‘movement’ and sometimes it can be translated so. The first time I heard it, however, it was used by my middle ‘sister’ Diana when she was describing what she missed when she lived in Ciudad Del Este, a large commercial city on the border between Paraguay and Brazil. Her answered included a brief description with the emphasis on the movimeinto or the constant motion, activity, hustle and bustle of the city.

I recount this memory to try to let you in on what life is like in the Molinas' household. If I was describing it to a friend I would probably say it is ‘crazy busy’ to my mom ‘absolutely nuts’ and to a Spanish speaker ‘demasiado movimiento’. Acting as sort of a central hub being so close to the church there is never a lack of social interaction. There are the daily drop bys of the local young adults, weekly visits from a Swiss family (unfortunately they are not named Robinson) who live about an hour outside of town and stop ins at any moment from family, friends, church members, neighbors, clients of Secundino’s work and any other random visitor that feels free to stop by. This has only been compounded the last few weeks by a surprising amount of birthday parties, family anniversaries and Christmas celebrations.

Christmas in Paraguay was definitely a different scene. First of all it was hot and the only white Christmas you are ever going to get is in your dreams. Festivities started the Saturday before the big day where there was a ‘theater’ night in the church where every age group prepared something to share including a couple of choral songs from the adults, the always popular dressed up 2-5 year olds doing hand motions to a song, a skit from the preteens and another skit from the young adults starring yours truly. I still got some bugs to work out with my Spanish because apparently when you want to say, ‘Um… Can I just watch first to see what the play is going to be like’ it really means ‘Yea! I’ll be in it just tell me what to do!’ The following day instead of a Sunday morning service there was an all church Christmas dinner which involved excellent food, Karaoke, a table center piece competition and a few minor language slip ups from the foreigners that produced some stifled laughter.

The family spent Christmas Eve with relatives from both Secundino and María’s side. The morning of the 24^th was used to set up decorations, cook and prep the house for the festivities. Secundino’s brother’s family came around 3 in the afternoon where we pretty much just hung out until about 10 at night where we had a huge candlelit dinner outside, fireworks at midnight, presents opening and finally a sparkling cider toast. We all slept in the 25^th to recover from the long night and continued to enjoy, according to my host mother, the only day in the year where we don’t have to do anything!

I remember when I was just a little criatura...

That has to be my favorite word used in Paraguay, criatura. Literally it means ¨creature¨ but here they use it in reference to little kids and babies like Lucas, the son of a church couple who had his first birthday last week or my baby ¨cousin¨ who has monster cheeks they call ¨cachetes¨.

Can you remember when you where just a little criatura? Pretty carefree wasn’t it? I can still vividly recall neighborhood water balloon fights, craving driven candy hunts, secret club formations and competitions on who could run/ride/lift/jump faster/more/higher. I don’t think I’ve grown out of those last two and depending on who you ask some might say I haven’t grown out of any. But the point is life was free of stress. The number one thing on your mind was either how awesome it would be if the Ninja Turtles and G.I. Joes joined forces or where the heck did mom hide the soda this time.

This is a pretty accurate analogy of my life in Paraguay. Not that I sit around all day thinking of all the materials I need to build a super-top-secret-underground-tunnel-fort (those metal tube slides are impossible to find here) it’s just that I’m enjoying what I’m doing here. As of yet I teach about 4 different English classes every week which adds up to about 12 hours of in class time which I’ve come to enjoy tremendously. The majority of my out of class time I spend prepping and making lesson plans.

Beyond teaching I’m becoming more involved with the family by helping out with dishes and cooking, accompanying them on town errands and giving up my room for overnight guests. Church life has also become a solid part of my life in Paraguay. Every Saturday night we have a young adults service followed by a huge hangout afterwards where we play fútbol and vole. Sundays are just an extension of Saturday with Sunday morning culto (service) at 9, a relaxing afternoon and more hanging out and sport playing later that night. The support I'm recieving from the family, young adults and church is outstanding and I really can't imagine what Paraguay would be like without them.