Settling in and Cleaning up

So, the last two days have been fairly quiet. One of the school administrators and another teacher took my grocery shopping at the mall (malls have grocery stores in them). It was fun, but a little overwhelming since I mostly had to go with pictures to buy food. It was market day so all the farmers brought in produce and set up on the bottom floor of the parking deck. It was a lot of fun looking around at all the produce. There were lots of familiar foods like carrots and potatoes, but also some really different ones. There were some big yellowish squash for sale that were big enough to fit a baby in! There was also a neat green squash that is all pinched on the bottom so it looks like it has a mouth. Produce at the farmer's market costs about what it does at a store, but it's supposedly fresher. You can't keep any of it around long though, because even packaged food will go bad a few days after you open it. But this is due to the fewer chemicals and preservatives in the food. :)

I also went out later with my neighbors and Elizabeth's parents. We went to Pizza Hut in the mall for supper. It was interesting, our pizza had a tomato slice on each piece and you are supposed to eat it with a knife and fork. Then went to the grocery store for cleaning supplies. Here in Paraguay, things get really dusty really fast, and mold can be a real problem (because, for example, my bathroom never really dries all the way I leave footprints on the wood floor on the way to my bedroom every day). Elizabeth's mom basically gave me the ins and outs of cleaning and laundry supplies in Paraguay, which was really helpful, because some laundry detergents bleach in them, and I never would have known!

I happily started today with a wonderful hot shower!! I've spent the rest of the day washing out all the kitchen cabinets and washing all the dishes. That was an interesting adventure. As people in the apartments move to new apartments, have group dinners, and move out they take dishes with them. As a result, most of the apartments have lots of pieces of lots of different sets. For example, I have one small frying pan with black only on the edges, a tea pot, a frying pan with no handle, a tart pan, and a few assorted baking pan type things, but I have no pots. I also have plates from four different sets, and about a billion forks in different colors, but only one regular knife and a couple of spoons. Elizabeth and I are planning to have everyone get together one day this week and try and match up some sets and see if we can distribute cookware a little more usefully. I'm intrigued to see how many different sets of dishes we'll have!

Soooo much glass!

Teapot macaroni!

I'm kind of having fun mopping the floors, because I have a neat mop. You take a certain kind of rag, get it wet, and drape it over a big squeegee looking thing. It actually works really well, and it doesn't drip all over the floor. I'm enjoying cleaning today, but tomorrow I have to clean the shower and try and make the walls a little less...slimy (yuck).

One very dirty rag, and one very clean floor :)

Tomorrow we have new teacher orientation, which I'm really excited about. Hopefully I'll know more about what I'll be teaching and get to spend some time in my classroom. I'm interested to see what materials I'll have, because very few, if any of my students will speak English. I'm excited for everything to get started!

Life in Paraguay #1: Instead of throwing toilet paper in the toilet, you have to throw it in the trashcan beside the toilet.

Prayer Requests:
Pray that orientation will go well tomorrow.
Pray that I will be able to start making some lesson plans for my class!