Just the same old new things

While I’ve officially passed the halfway mark of my time here, which I believe was March 7^th, my life has reached a comfortable rhythm of normal routine peppered with intermittent original experiences. To know more about my regular routine one can refer to my previous entry because this blog I would like to dedicate to recount a few new happenings I had the past few weeks.

A good starting point would be ‘The Week at the Airport’ sponsored by a few of our group members and Darrell Gascho, the infamous director of the Radical Journey. The last week of

February there was an overabundance of airport trips due to Dorothea going back to Canada, Scott returning from his aunt’s wedding in Mexico and a week visit from the leader of program, Darrell. The rest of the week we found ourselves spending a lot of time with Darrell talking over group subjects, playing cards and going to the local zoo which, by some standards could be considered a petting zoo (Although I’m not sure if it’s recommended to pet hippos or pumas).

The following weekend I was invited to a wedding in the neighboring town of Villa Hayes which happens to be the town where Becca is living for this year. To reach Villa Hayes one has to cross a pretty decently large bridge that spans the Rio Paraguay, a pretty neat sight at night. We arrived, the sisters, some of their relatives and a member of the church who drove us, to find that the wedding had already started and was actually half way through the ceremony. After getting a table we enjoyed the tail end which included the vows, the signing of the license, food and pictures.

After not getting much sleep because of the late night wedding, I found some energy the following afternoon when I met up with one of my students who was taking me to my

very first Paraguayan soccer game! By an intelligent move on his part, he chose a game between two teams that don’t have much of a rivalry because otherwise I could have come back with a few unwanted souvenirs. The game was between Olympia, one of the fan favorites,

and 12 de Octubre, a ‘dying’ club according to some and was held in one of the nicest stadiums in Paraguay. The game itself was pretty exciting being that we were decently

close to the on field action and even closer to the ‘barra brava’ the fan section known for their undying faithfulness to their club which they show by continual cheers, stadium covering banners and outrageous brawls.