Why I'm glad this isn't VeggieTales...

Or: "How to survive in a Spanish speaking country when your Korean student knows more Spanish than you do"

1. Learn the fine art of hand guestures. 
Aren't you glad God gave us hands and arms (unlike the Veggies)? Between my very small (but growing) vocabulary and a lot of gesturing, I've managed to have several conversations with the lady who cleans my classroom (including communicating the need for bleach in my classroom during a pink eye outbreak).  Hands are marvelous things. :)

2. Start practicing Spanish!
You know how when you were little and your teacher told you to "read, read, read"? Like "Read signs, read cereal boxes, read magazines"? Well, apparently that applies to learning another language, too.  I've found that just reading signs or notices on the bus and practicing sounding out the words until I can read them fluently has make it way easier to remember words that I hear too.

3. Make friends with people who speak fluent English and Spanish.
They can translate things for you, help you practice asking for things, or (in my case), help translate notes home to parents (I always get the Pre-K aid to translate one copy then I copy her's onto the other notes, for the practice).

4. Google (translate) is your friend.
Whether it's translating the instructions on the cleaning fluid, or reading an article about a strawberry festival.  Google is a great help.
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So that little infomercial kind of sums up a lot of what I've been learning the last month: practice, have fun, and ask lots of questions.  It's kind of crazy to think that I've officially been here a month!  In the past, I would be packing up my backpack and steeling myself for a miserable 20 hour plane ride.  Instead, I'm sitting in my apartment contemplating the fact that I managed to go a whole month before I lost my keys (I am sooo glad the previous occupant made a spare key to my apartment!) and the pile of laundry on my bed that I really need to put away in my closet. In other words, I'm loving this place.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, what with the start of school and everything that goes with that. I went back to the strawberry festival with my friends for the "official" opening.  That was lots of fun and we pretty much bought one of all things strawberry and kind of passed them around so everybody got to try some. It was great. The sugar high was nice, but we all were very tired on the bus ride home.

The little girls here in Paraguay all learn traditional dances in school, so I got to see the girls in the town perform some very traditional pot and fan dances. It was pretty neat.

The 15th was the day celebrating the foundation of Asuncion. It was also our last school holiday until Thanksgiving. My grand plans of sleeping in and then making lesson plans pretty much turned into sleeping in till 7:30, a little bit of planning, and a lot of reading for fun. The sun's schedule is kind of confusing here.  It starts rising about 6:15am and then starts setting about 5:15pm.  Basically you can't really sleep in (especially if your room faces east) and you start getting sleepy at supper time. Oh, well, it means I don't have to walk to work in the dark at 6:30 in the morning, though I'm starting to wonder what time it will rise in the summer!

I've really getting settled into my apartment, and I'm learning the quirks of it. I may end up moving downstairs to a three bedroom apartment in a few weeks, if the school gets another teacher, but it's still nice to be settled in here.

A few "little things" I love about Paraguay, and my apartment:
A. I can walk to the grocery store in ten minutes, and it's not uphill (walking back with heavy bags is less fun, but still). This is good since food here doesn't have a lot of preservatives, so you can't shop too far in advance.

After 5 days in the cabinet...bread stays in the fridge now!

B. The showers have faucet heaters.  No wasting water while you wait for it to heat up.  LOVE THIS! America should totally switch to this system, it saves a ton of electricity because it only heats while you use it!

C. Produce is cheap here.  Like, really cheap.  Like a couple of dollars for a week's worth of fruit.

1 kilo of sweet strawberry festival (very fresh) strawberries. 

It was very hard not to eat them all in two days. Yum!

D. My classroom has lots of windows and between opening the doors and the awesome seven level fans, I haven't needed the air conditioner yet! Plus, the playground is nice and shady.

I love the swings on this playground.  They are very kid friendly.

E. I have a gas stove. Granted I did manage to blow up the cover the first night, but since then we've gotten along great!  I baked cupcakes last night in 15 min.  Seriously, that's it. And they were perfect.

15th time lighting my stove...and I made sparkly playdough. 

I thought that was very "me" and my girls about died with happiness when they saw it.

F. I have awesome neighbors and coworkers.

G. I have a crazy, awesome bunch of students. There are eight different personalities that somehow all manage to get along (most of the time).  It's fun learning how to manage each personality to get the most from that child.  I also enjoy the many hugs I get everyday (though, I'm anxious about the fact that I was holding the child who started the pink eye in my class on the day her eyes started itchig...). 

My girls

H. I also really love that I can pray with my kids. I really, really love this.  Last semester one of my 4th graders was upset about her mother having surgery and the only comfort I could give was a hug and a silent prayer.  This week a child was worried about her grandfather getting surgery and I was so thankful I could pick her up and say "would you like to say a prayer with me for him?". Not gonna lie, by the end I was about as teary eyed as she was.
Well, that's about all the news I have for now.  I've made it a month and I'm looking foward to the next one!

Life in Paraguay #3: Meat and bread/carbs are dietary staples here.  Typically they are eaten together. For example, if you buy a chicken (pollo) empanada with meat in it you will probably get a roll to go with it.

Prayer Requests:
Another teacher has officially been hired and she will arrive a soon as her visa comes through, please pray for her safe travel and quick assimilation, especially since she will be picking up several weeks into the school year.
The school is hoping to hire a few more teachers to fill much needed spots.  Pray that God will bring the right people quickly.
In a small school with lots of cross-grade level interaction, infections travel fast.  Please pray for the health of the students and teachers.
My students are in the process of learning the vowels as the basis for reading. This is a little frustrating for a few the native spanish speakers because in Spanish the vowels have only one sound each, and those sounds are not the same as in English. Please keep their continued understanding and learning in your prayers.