British English and Spanish Subtitles

So, apparently having an English roommate means watching British TV shows.  Not that I'm complaining, I've happily learned to love me some Dr. Who and Sherlock... The only problem is that my ears seem to have a problem interpreting the British accent on "TV" (ie. laptop). This means that I sometimes have to resort to reading the Spanish subtitles to figure out what they are saying in English.
Sooo...Hello. My name is Kathryn and sometimes my life is weird. Awesome, but weird. Also, I go by Kathryn now, just in case anyone was wondering about that (otherwise we would have had three Katies here, and that's just too many), but Katie is still fine with me, I kind of miss it sometimes.

School so far has been great. I'm up to fifteen students now (a huge class, I know!).  It's strange just how different two groups of five-year-olds can be. This class is definitely louder and more active, but I'm loving my little ones, they are so much fun! They are a smart little bunch so I am able to do more center work learning and less group teaching, which we all enjoy. I especially like it, since that was my number one goal for my teaching this year-have more centers, and as of last week, I've got about 10 different center activities we can do.  They aren't nicely organized like on all those teacher blogs, but they exist, so I'm happy. It's nice to actually meet a goal.  :)  
We've also done a lot more art activities since these kids LOVE anything that involves paint, glue, markers, crayons... They happily spend all their free time after snack and lunch coloring and copying whatever words they can find on the walls.  Sadly for them, today they finished up the giant bucket of paper I had for them in August. Guess they'll have to do more homework to get some more!
Next week a student teacher from the US is coming to finish out the semester in my classroom. 
I'm excited to get to do for another what my amazing master teacher did for me, but a little nervous about getting to be a mentor teacher.

Painting with vegetables...as you can see we are still learning the "paint the paper, not yourself" lesson.

 

Introducing a whole new class to the song "Aiken Drum"! I'd never heard it before last year, but it's basically my new favorite song. Madeline L. Pott's youtube video pretty much makes it theirs too.

 

 

Last month we had various camps for the students and I got to be co-director for Lower Elementary Camp.  It was basically VBS in two days. Craziness.

The kids had a blast though, and I think the teachers had quite a lot of fun too! I'm so thankful for all that God did in helping us teach our kids to "Tell It!" on the mountain and everywhere.

 

Learning about Elijah and how our God is the one true God!

Crazy teachers have trouble carrying the oh so heavy "stones".

And to think I spend eight hours a day with these people!

Minus me, this is the Pre-K/KG team!

 



 

 

The trip to Uruguay in July was so much fun.  It was actually cold and the hostel showers were mostly hot...such a luxury in the middle of winter! It was a lot of fun just being far away from work and exploring a new town. We did all the touristy stuff, and explore about a billion museums.

One of the coolest parts was going on a tour of their legislative building.  It has seven types of marble in just one room!

 

We also traveled to a few different towns...got lost on a couple buses (because you know, it just isn't an adventure without getting lost on at least one bus...).  The last two days were pretty cold and rainy, but we still had fun and it meant we got to try a special Uruguay treat that people apparently only eat when it's raining. It made for a super yummy treat on a cold, wet night.

The major downside to the chill and wet was that I caught a cold that kicked off a chain of colds I couldn't shake for about ten weeks (my kids kept giving me new ones before I could get well). Oh well, such is life!

 

The giant hand in Uruguay!

Normally it looks like it's scooping out of the sand, but it was crazy windy that day so we gave up on the beach and went for hot chocolate instead.

 

 

 

If you ever go Uruguay, I definitely recommend going to Colonia.  It's absolutely gorgeous and is basically a living history book. The streets are old and most of the building in the old section are original.

A really old building. Apx 300 years. My mind was kind of reeling...

 

 And over here we have a classic old town Colonia corner,

complete with lamp post and hand painted tile street sign.

 

 

We paid our three dollars and climbed to the top of a lighthouse.  The view was gorgeous, well worth the squeezing past the dozens of people on a tiny staircase.

 

We biked up the coast to see an old train, but we were too cheap to pay to get on the real thing, so I had to settle for "riding" a tiny train instead.

 

Being myself I had fun hopping around pretending I was taking pictures of mountains.

As it turns out, if you hop around taking pictures of moss on rocks, random people will think you are some sort of moss scientist and come up to ask if it's a rare kind of moss. 

 It's a little hard to make things up in a different language.

 

 

So, that's my school year so far.  I'm thoroughly enjoying myself and I thank you for all of your prayers! I miss everybody terribly, but frankly...I love Paraguay!

Best road in Montevideo!



 

Day 365...

I have officially lived in Paraguay for one year now! So stinking excited about that...you know, living in another country, teaching, living with awesome people...good times!

 

Happy Fourth of July!

When I first moved here, I had absolutely no clue what to even expect, now I love it here. Really, really love it. Paraguay is a beautiful, warm, amazing country.   In other news, according to my last pay statement I've finished paying off my paperwork fees, so I'm an official permanently permanent resident of Paraguay (always nice to know you have a backup home for the rest of your life...).

Things are done a little differently here sometimes, but that's okay, because I've enjoyed adapting and getting used to new things. I'm sad to miss out on family things, like weddings, but I am glad God sent me here. I've learned so much while I've been here-from 20 ways to use Dulce de Leche (when I tried to list them out I felt a bit like Bubba from Forrest Gump-DdL cake, DdL ice cream, DdL alfajores...),  to which bus NOT to take to the mall, to communicating with children who don't speak English.  It's been a lot of fun and a lot of work, but I honestly love it.

Look, they have John Deer in Paraguay!

I'm loving being a teacher, though I hated being a first year teacher. I am seriously looking foward to this year where I have a little bit more of an idea of what I'm doing!  It's been a crazy year this year, though.  Our school went through reaccredidation (we earned a recommendation for passing, I don't know what the final vote this month was) and we've had camps, and field days, and field trips, and new teachers, and geez it's been fun, and crazy!
Jacqui and I started a Girl Scout Troop. It's the only USA GS troop in the country thankyouverymuch. On the bright side, since we essentially are the OCC (overseas commitee something) we get cool titles like "President" and "Vice-President" and "Secretary" and "Treasurer" (we actually have assigned these titles, mostly for the fun of calling each other by our titles). We could have offical bar pin thingy's and everything! :) We have five little Girl Scouts that had their promise ceremony and got their pins and they are so cute! We love being their Brownie Leaders!

Today, Jacqui and I are flying Uruguay (South America has some really cool sounding countries, doesn't it?). We'll be there for a week. I'm excited, except it's supposed to be pretty cold, at least that's the first thing EVERBODY says when I tell them where we are going! We're excited to get out of Asuncion and properly relax without feeling like we should be doing something productive. We'll get back in town just in time to still have a few days off and then school starts back again. It's supposed to be beautiful there, so I can't wait!

Now, for a little bit of randomness...
1-10 New Country Style
1-year
I've officially been living in Asuncion for 1 whole year!!!

2-apartments
I lived upstairs for several months and then moved downstairs to my current apartment

3-roommates
My first roomate Lydia moved to another apartment, and Hannah just moved in :)

4-seasons (kind of, feels more like two)
Kind of, it felt more like three: cold, kind of hot, really hot, kind of hot...

5-different towns
Aregua, Lambare, Encarnacion, Luque, and Ypacarai (ee-pah-ka-ry)
Although, technically Lambare and Ypacarai were explored at the end of a mis-directed bus journey...We didn't get lost, we were on an adventure!

6-trips to Aregua
Three of those trips for the strawberry festival...don't judge, you'd have gone back too if you'd tasted all the strawberry goodness! I can't wait till September, they are already starting to sell strawberries on the side of the road again!

7-plants
Some are even still alive, and the pineapple plant looks alive, so that counts too, right?

8-new foods (that I can remember):
empanadas-yumminess, corn, chicken, ham and cheese, you name it in a convienent, yummy, little pocket
sopa paraguaya-basically really excellent corn bread
mbeju (bey-shu)-very different, but super yummy!
chipa-any morning that starts with chipa is a good morning, think chewy cheesy bread dounut thing. mmmmm!
chipa guasu-I'm not 100% sure what the difference between this and sopa is, but when the cantina ladies say it's chipa guazu, I just assume they know what they are talking about...
chorizo-fat little sausages in a million different kinds. I even tried blood sausage...it was...different...
milenesa-kind of like chicken fried steak on a sandwhich, or a Chik-fil-A sandwich pounded flat.  Pretty good either way
Cocido-Better than coffee or tea...Love. This. Stuff. Basically you take Terere (a drink made of herbs and leaves and other green stuff) and cook it, then pour it in hot water, steep, add sugar and milk, then seriously enjoy yourself!

9-students
Had eight, lost one, gained another.  Nine very different little personalities that I love dearly!

10-broken dishes
Yeah, I think I need to just stay in this apartment for a while, then I'll only have to replace one set of dishes...


Also, since many people have been asking when I'm coming back to visit, the answer is: not this year. I assume that means next Christmas, but that's a long time from now, and I obviously can't say for sure.  This Christmas I'm going to England with Jacqui to explore her country.  And my daddy's coming over the pond to visit me! We might even go to Wales!!! (how cool would that be?) Since a lot of the teacher this year are either couples or new, I wouldn't really have someone to travel with, and well, Paraguay may be safe, but that doesn't mean the rest of SA is...but I still want to explore somewhere new over the break, so next Christmas it is! In the meantime, I would love to have people visit me here (hint, hint)! It's safe, pretty darn cheap (I can think of at least six towns you can visit for the price of a 50 cent bus ticket) and well awesome! And the people are really nice, so not knowing spanish isn't a huge deal. I'm just saying...

Also, for those of you have asked, if you look at the bottom of the school website, the school address is there (write all three lines, I think?).  Just send it to Asuncion Christian Academy and put my name as "Att: Kathryn Piggott" at the bottom and they will deliver it to my "mailbox" at school. http://aca.edu.py/ . Mail is always fun!

My very first piece of overseas mail!

Speaking of people coming here, ACA got a first grade teacher! Happiness! God answers prayers! But...now we need a 2nd grade teacher since another teacher ended up not being able to come. So if you know anyone interested in teaching a great class of kids (there are about seven of them), and want to move overseas, tell them to try here! I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone has, and point you to the person to ask, if I don't know the answers.  And, you know, ACA needs some more South down here.  There are way too many people from the land of actual snowy winters (ie, the North)! ;) Either way, please keep the school in your prayers.  The school as a whole has done some incredible work these last two years to improve itself, and I know God has big things for it now that we are on the right track.


Either way, here's to One WHOLE Year in South America, and to another one coming on it's heels!

 

Deep Breath...Let it Out...Relax

IT'S OVER!!!
I am officially done with my first year teaching. Yeesh, I was beginning to think it would never end (especially every time someone gleefully posted that their year was over-grrrr). But it's finally here and I can go back to setting my own hours, not arriving at school at 6:40, and gosh, actually enjoying my evenings! It's marvelous...and I can't wait to be back. On the bright side, they have to wash the carpets in my classroom so I CAN'T go back in for at least two weeks. Hurrah!
I got my classroom as set up as possible for next year, furniture wise, because I just couldn't bring myself to leave without doing so. Luckily, some of the furniture was too heavy to move, so I had to leave it (my back is rejoicing). Everything else is shoved in the bathroom, in hopes that it won't look like it did last semester when I got there..

 

As crazy hard and exhausting as my first year was, I am definitely glad I decided to follow God's direction to go into teaching. My little ones are such blessings, and so funny. It's amazing how different all of their personalities are! Even thought they won't be far away in first grade, I'm going to miss them! The Pre-Kinders coming up will certainly keep me busy though.  There are 12 of them and most of them are still working on speaking English, though they can understand it pretty well. They are sweet-hearts, but there are definitely a few that will keep me on my toes!



How to get boys to willing write 100 of something: Tell them that a google (their favorite number) is a 1 with 100 zeroes after it. In about 15 minutes they had written a google three times for fun! :) Smart kids!

 

 

I've had a great last few months.  With holidays and various school breaks, we've had lots of opportunities to explore Asuncion on our days off. For Paraguayan Independence Day there was a whole host of interesting things to do!

 

Paraguay apparently has a Navy (who knew) and we got to tour one of the ships! The one on the water is ship #4 and we got to tour #5. I've now been on a Navy ship for two different countries...which I think is kind of cool!

 

We also finally got around to going inside the Pantheon of Heroes in the Plaza de Heroes. It holds the tombs of various military heroes, as well as a "tomb to the unknown soldier".

 

 

 

 

We also did a little exploring around the river.
This is a picture of part of the "Chacarita" (slums) in Asuncion. It's really crazy to look at, because this poorest part of Asuncion is directly behind some of the government buildings, almost under them. You see well cared for lawns and the police station, then you walk to the edge of the land and look down twenty feet and see the slums.

We couldn't go through this part, but if you look closely there's a sidewalk by the river we walked around to. Jacqui really enjoyed being by the water again. You'd think she'd grown up on an island or something!

 

 

 

 

 On the fourteenth, I celebrated my 24th birthday! Somehow we managed to have enough forethought to buy cupcakes, but not birthday candles, hence the mismatched emergency candles. Not nearly as fun to lick clean...

 

 

 

 At the end of May, I officially passed Level 1 of Spanish and Jacqui and I've started Level 2! I'm quite proud of myself, though I've still got a ways to go, I can definitely tell I've learned a lot! I can now ask for things, hold a basic conversation, and generally understand what people are saying to me.

I'm officially official, and I gots a paper to prove it!

Why yes, I did get 90% on my writing! I'm very proud of myself! :)

 

 

In other news, Jacqui and I have managed to keep not one, but six plants alive for over a month! And like the true little nerds we are, we named them. 

Meet The Doctor, River Song, Donna, Rose, Rory, and Amy!

They live in memory of Bob, Joe, and Rowena who, sadly, succumbed to neglect and thirst. The wimps

 



For now, though, Jacqui and I are enjoying the prospect of five weeks of being left to our own devices.  In July, we are going to hop on a plane and go to Uruguay for a week.  Coming from the US, where hopping on a plane for three hours leaves you in the same country that you started in, I'm quite amused by this idea of being able to travel to another country in such a short amount of time! Jacqui, my European friend who is used to the idea of hopping on a train, or a boat, or a plane for several hours and being in any number of countries doesn't quite understand my fascination.

Even though it will be pretty cold, it will be fun walking down by the beach, exploring the old cities, and generally enjoying the new sights. Apparently, at one beach, there's a giant's hand sticking out of the sand! Also, the hostels are reported to have hot (real hot, not "not cold") showers! So excited!

 

Finally, there will soon be a third in our apartment.  We are getting a new roommate, named Hannah, who is moving to ACA from another school in Asuncion.  She's Irish, so soon I will get to learn even more "Britishisms". We are excited to be getting to live with someone that we already know and like! :)

 

We get to add another flag to our door soon!

The little ones are the GA state flag and the Essex County flag, so Hannah will get her own flag.

 

 

Prayer Requests:

Please pray for the returning teachers as we relax and refocus over our school break and for the new teachers as they prepare to move their lives to a new country and life.

For safety as Jacqui and I travel to Uruguay in a few weeks.

ACA is still looking for a permanent first grade teacher (I can highly recommend the cuties!), so please pray that they would find the person that God has prepared for the position and that her/his transition would be quick and smooth.

Finally, a random advertisement:

If you know someone who is looking for a teaching position and would like to work overseas in a safe, welcoming environment, encourage them to check out ACA! Even if they don't want to come to PY, I highly suggest www.missionteach.org as a way to look for overseas school related jobs around the world. There are so many schools that need teachers, and we are just one of them! It's how I found this job.

 

 



Orange Limes

Did you know that there such a thing as an orange lime? Neither did I till today! I was very sad because my roomie and I were making fajitas (a shocking thing because it involves actual cooking and no pasta) and I couldn't find a lime on the lime tree. I finally found one on another tree, but of course, being my short self, I couldn't reach it. I went and got my roommate, who couldn't reach it either. As we wandered around our veritable orchard of random fruit trees  we noticed that a bunch of them were getting some nice little orange fruits on them.  We figured "hey, it's not like we make recipes right anyway, might as well use orange juice instead". We shook one down, took it inside, and tasted it.  Turns out all those oranges are really limes.  Orange limes...who'd've thunk?

 

 

So, *cough* this week *cough, cough* has been crazy *cough, cough, cough*.  Between having a cold that by this point is irritating both me and my roommate, Friday being Field Day, and next week being the Parade of Nations and the school's 50th Anniversary celebration, I've felt a little like this last week has flown by.

Field Day was a lot of fun.  It was essentially an entire day of competitions for all the students from Pre-K on up to 12th. The Pre-K teacher and I hearded our group around the campus and cheered for them as they ran races, kicked balls, and put people in danger with frisbees. We got plenty of exercise what with chasing down stray kids and running all the races with the kids (otherwise they tended to get stuck halfway through). Thankfully, all the kids had fun and there wasn't a single injury, except the damage done to my poor hoarse voice!

Next week is the school's "Parade of Nations". Basically every grade researches a country and creates a presentation with general information about the country and themajor mission needs in area. This includes decorating the room, learning songs, ect. Then on Friday, in a highly orchestrated manner, classes give the presentations to other classes and go around to see other classes presentations. It's quite the undertaking!  Pre-K/KG are doing the Netherlands.  I can't wait to see all of our little ones dressed up in their hats and attempting to explain the Netherlands, tulips, windmills, and missionaries to six other grades in Spanglish. It should be...interesting.

Fall Break/Easter Break was fun and very relaxing, if only because there wasn't much to do.  Jacqui and I went to Encarnacion during the break. We stayed in a very nice hostel, saw the ruins, sat at the beach and played a LOT of cards.  During the Semana Santa or "Holy Week"  cities kind of shut down on Thursday and Friday.  As a result, we were basically forced to relax because nothing was open.  Thanks to Jacqui, and about 150 rounds,  I can now play cribbage and another card game I can't remember the name of , quite competently.  The hostel was probably one of our favorite parts...hot showers at any time of day, hot water in the kitchen sink, air conditioner we didn't feel like we had to turn off after 15 minutes...ahhh luxury!

The Jesuit ruins near Encarnacion are the world's least visited UNESCO site.  Which is a shame.  They really are very incredible. The ruins in Jesus are very well preserved and, as you walk around, you can practically feel the history breathing and see the priests and Guarani residents walking around. I couldn't get over how incredible the handbuilt church was.  It's amazing the skills that God has given to people, that they could build something so huge without the aid of cranes or modern tools!

 

The beach in Encarnacion is small, but nice.  During the holy days, Jacqui and I spent quite a lot of time sitting in the shade of the restraunts playing cards for several hours. It was very peaceful and a needed dose of boredom.

 

All in all, I'm definitely enjoying my life here in Paraguay.  I can't believe how close to the end of the school year we are!  The last day of classes will be June 20 and all my little Kinders will be off into that bright shiny world of first grade! Sniff, sniff...but gosh have we got a lot to do in those few weeks!

Please keep praying for the teachers, staff and students of ACA.  Dengue is going around the city and several of those at our school have family members affects. Also, as the school works this week to get ready for two major events, please pray that the teachers would have patience and energy to get everything done!

 

Avispas, whale brains, and walking cheese puffs...

 

Today was round four in the war against wasps on the Kinder/pre-Kinder playground.  They invaded my classroom and landed on my students, so I sprayed them (the wasps, not the students) with bleach and smashed them with behavior notebooks (again, not the students).  Then I called in the heavy-duty arsenal who vowed to pull the whole air-con unit out of the wall and eradicate the entire nest for good...THIS. IS. PARAGUAY!!!       Sorry...I couldn't resist.

So, the fun part of teaching kindergarten is that you learn some really random vocabulary.  Especially now that they know I'm trying to learn Spanish, my little ones are cheerfully fulfilling all my vocabulary needs...as long as I only ever want to talk about zoo animals and Bible characters. 

Some random vocab to throw into your next conversation:

avispas-wasps

espinas-thorns

gordo-fat

permiso-excuse me

mono-monkey

Last Monday was the Dia de los Heros, so we got a the day off from work.  It was wonderful having a three day weekend, let me tell you that!  My housemate, another teacher, and I went to the Asuncion zoo.  It's very small, but we had fun.  We saw hippos, a jaguar, and a very friendly toucan.  We also saw lots, and lots, and lots of ants.  Not surprising really, ants pretty much inhabit every square foot of ground here in Paraguay (and our kitchen counters). Here in Paraguay there are tiny ants, giant ants, ants with square heads, ants with triangle heads, ants that eat bugs, ants that carry leaves, ants that bite, and ants that run for cover.... It's like living in the movie, only cooler, and with less chance of getting your head crushed.

He wanted to greet us up close!

Show off... :)

 

This "little" guy is as big as your thumbnail!

 

We also got to see some...um, interesting, preserved animals (described as a "ghoulish collection" in the PY guide book).  Such as badly stuffed birds, a very cool collection of the giant bugs that Paraguay has to offer, and some pickled whale brain.  Yup, that's right, pickled whale brain.  How many of you can say you've seen that? Don't worry, it was about as nasty as it sounds.

It's looking at you!

 

Them's some big vertebrae!

                                                       

  Wait...is that cheese puff moving? 

 *On a random side note, I discovered that if you blow on a stream of sugar ants, they'll all freeze in place till you stop. My housemate was less impressed with this than she was with the fact that if you drop them in water they drown really, really fast. Basically, I've decided to give up on fighting the ants, and just have fun with them.

 

Now that we are in March (and Fall-that-looks-like-Spring), I'm excited to get to Easter Break.  Jacqui and I are hoping to do some traveling outside of Asuncion. We can't wait to see something new and maybe eat something more complicated than pasta and chicken. :)

We couldn't resist...

Sweaty-A State of Being

It really is. When the weather is 98+ degrees and humid you pretty much wake up and go to bed damp.  The rain last week provided a nice change of pace though, instead of my being damp, everything around me was!

It's been awhile since my last post, and a lot's happened. I got a new student (giving me a grand total of eight students), and Pre-K got three (there's 14 of them now...next year is going to be crazy!) and we started school.  I'm enjoying this new semester, I don't feel quite so overwhelmed as a newbie, though I still find it frustrating to be a first year teacher!

The girls enjoying their new "girly" toys that I brought back from the States.

A whole new classroom arrangement...getting ready for centers...and next year's class!

 

We spent our first two weeks of school doing curriculum mapping for all of our subjects for the entire year. My brain felt like it was going to give up by the end of it, it's SO much work!!! Thankfully, that was pretty much the end of the work that the teachers have to do for the ACSI accreditation visit coming up soon! Hurrah!!!

We are right in the middle of the rainy season, which is great for the temperatures, but not so much fun for the Kinders and Pre-Kinders.  Our playground has sand on it, so every time it rains it takes one to two more days to actually get dry enough to play on. We had four days of rain last week, so by the end of the week the kids and the teachers were about to go nuts.  We took them out to the covered basketball court on Valentine's Day for a treat and let them run around.  They got plenty wet, but had so much fun! They also enjoyed the cookies and snacks they got to eat after!

I was so proud of my Kinders today.  We had learned the books of theOld Testament last semester, but hadn't sung the song since the beginning of school. I mentioned that we were going to sing it again today and they were so excited they pretty much just took off!  They made it all the way to Amos before they even slowed down! I couldn't believe they remembered all those books, especially since we hadn't had a lot of time for the last few books at the end of the year!

Now that my life isn't quite so crazy, I'm enjoying making more center activities and incorporating them into my lessons. The kids really enjoy getting to do more small (really small) group activities, and since there are so few of them, I get to work with pairs or individuals on reading or math. I imagine it's a bit like homeschooling a large family some days.

I'm also starting have more time to explore the nooks and crannies of my classroom.  The last teacher left lots of materials and I haven't had time to go through them all yet.  I keep opening boxes and getting happy surprises!  Today I opened a box I could have sworn I'd opened before and discovered about ten really great computer games for the kids!! I'm so very happy!!

In other news, several of the teachers, myself included, have started Spanish classes at the local Japanese community center (that's a mind bender, isn't it?). It's been fun, but crazy so far.  According to my homework, pretty much every conversation I'll ever have starts with "hello, where are you from?" ("Hola, De donde eres?).  Since our homework for every class so far has been to write a "long" conversation using what we learned that day and every other day, my housemate and I have been entertaining ourselves by creating different characters and stories to have the conversations.  Jacqui, being English, is partial to conversations involving Dr. Who, because, as she says "How many places would someone start a conversation with 'Who are you? Where am I? What is this?' We are also learning lots of random words as we use the dictionary to look up words to meet our needs. In addition to making life in South America a whole lot less confusing, I'm hoping that speaking more spanish will help me when Pre-K comes up-none of them are native English speakers. My Kinders were really excited to find out I'm learning spanish, and they enjoy teaching me random words during class  (I may not be able to ask where a bus is going, but I can tell you that an oso lives in a cueva).

I'm looking foward to Easter vacation, because Jacqui and I plan on going to Encarnacion to see some Jesuit ruins. It will be quite a test of our Spanish!

I hope to post soon, but we'll see...I've been trying to post for weeks and you see how that turned out! ;)  Feel free to leave me a message on Facebook or call me on Skype! I love hearing all about what's going on back in the States!

Please keep praying for the school as the administrators look for teachers to fill open spots for next semester.  The school will need a 1st, 2nd, and 4th grade teacher, and a high school science teacher.  If you know anyone who loves teaching an wants to work overseas...encourage them to check the school out! Paraguay is a great place to live and work. It's safe, cheap, and easy to get around! :)