I also love my room. With two big windows right by my bed it makes for a great breeze and on these beautiful spring days I feel kind of like I'm sitting in a gazebo in a park, not on my bed. :)
Anyway, life here in Paraguay is good. My roommate and I seem to have started a tradition of going on adventures together every Saturday. The first time we went to Lambare (on accident), the next week we tried again and ended up in the area we had intended to be the first time, and found a great cheap store where Jacqui was delighted to find a little teapot for her tea. It's kind of fun having an English roommate! I'm learning all sorts of neat history and cultural things. I now know the lineage of the royal family and who gets to be called a prince and princess, and I know the difference between a cookie and a biscuit, among other things.
Today we went to Aregua. I was excited to go, because when we went to the strawberry festival we didn't go to the town proper. Today we stopped in the town and looked at the thousands of pots and clay animals that they make. Most are made from a mold, but we also found a little shop that did lots of handmade things too. The best part about this is that because she sold the handmade stuff too, the lady sold the molded pieces cheaper than other shops. Jacqui and I had lots of fun picking out Christmas gifts for family members. Just as we were leaving, the shopkeeper gave us a little gift as a thank you. For those of you worried about my marriage prospects in another country, I've now got it covered, or at least the chickens do...
Meet Amor (love) y Suerte (luck).
Jacqui and I had already picked out a pair of bigger chickens for us to put in the apartment, so between the two of us we should have a line of men knocking down our door any day now!
Aregua is a neat little town, and I'd like to go back and explore it a little more now that we have a tourist map of the place (a precious commodity, because maps are hard to find here because tourism isn't a big thing in Paraguay). We also managed to score maps of Aregua some other neat towns in Paraguay, so our Saturday adventuring can get a little more adventurous! We are hoping to go to the town that makes Nanduti lace, Itaugua, soon.
I don't know why, but Aregua loves it's frogs...
which is funny because the locals are terrified of the massive toads here,
they think the pee makes you blind
"Don't even think about kissing me, you dirty human"
I'm excited that November is almost here. Since most of us leave right after school ends in December we won't really get to celebrate the Christmas season together. As a result, the apartments have decided to make November "holiday season". We will be decorating for Christmas and Thanksgiving and having Christmas movie nights and caroling throughout the month. We also are going to try a new holiday from England "Guy Fawke's Night"! It should be fun. Now I just have to live up to my Southern roots and pull off a pecan pie for Thanksgiving supper...know any good recipes? Or how to make brown sugar?
In the meantime, elementary has their camps next week. Upper elementary is going away to camp, but lower elementary has two days of Day Camp at the school. It should be fun; we'll have water games and other fun stuff. I'm the co-leader for crafts, and also I'm also co-captain for the Yellow team (I'm really glad we have a camp shirt, because I own nothing yellow). I like that the grades are all mixed up for teams, because I'll get the chance to get to know some of the first and second graders that I don't already know. The big thing is that since both of the other Lower Elementary teachers will be gone next year it's up to the Pre-K teacher and I to pay close attention to how camp goes so we can help lead it next year!
Please keep the upper elementary camp in your prayers this week. The camp had some damage occur last week during a big storm and God really protected the middle schoolers that were there at the time. Hopefully all the downed trees and damage will be completely repaired when elementary gets there on Monday. God has done some great work in the High schoolers and Middle schoolers this month and we are praying the same happens again with the Elementary kids.
That's all for now, I hope to write again soon. Next weekend I'm going to see the Iguazu Falls in Argentina, so I'll have some cool pictures to post then!
We see the same moon, but I see different stars...
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