Well it looks like I am an official Olimpia soccer fan – MUCH to the dismay of all the Cerro fans at church/school.In fact, the Cerro fans are quite disappointed that I have chosen Olimpia. Honestly, I am not really sure how it happened, except for the fact that Olimpia just happened to be the team I went to see first, so I gotta stay loyal now right??? LOL I have been to 2 games already. This is a picture from last weekend when Olimpia beat Luque 5-1. In the picture is me, Laura, Guillermo, Hevarista and his two kids (one other guy, Dario, came with us, but he took the photo!) It was very exciting! This weekend is "El Clasico" - the game of Cerro vs Olimpia! My Olimpia friends and I already have tickets and it promises to be a very fun/intense game on Sunday!
Here are some photos of the streets around my house. The main streets are paved, but once you get into the neighborhoods they all have these cobblestone streets.
Right now the official tree of Paraguay, called Lapacho, is blooming. There are pink flowers everywhere and they are gorgeous! In a month or so there is another type with yellow flowers that is supposed to bloom and be gorgeous as well! I can't wait!
My friend Yessica hasn't been working this past week, so we have been able to eat lunch together when I get home from work, which I LOVE! (well the eating part, not the not working part. LOL) One day this week she made chicken soup with rice and vegetables "caldo de gallina". Then she also made "tortillas de queso." Basically they are pancakes with cheese - but they are really quite yummy! It was quite a delicious lunch!
Well that is all for now! I will let you know who wins the big soccer game this weekend! love and miss you all! S
Well it is official – as of today, I have been living in Paraguay for one month now!There have definitely been some ups and downs here, but I definitely feel that God has been taking care of me the whole time!
So, I FINALLY got a cell phone. I was pretty frustrated there for awhile that I didn’t have a way to contact people and the cell phone company was being a bit frustrating about not wanting to give me a cell phone plan. In the end I went with a pay-as-you-go plan. I just buy a card with a certain number of minutes on it and then buy another when it runs out.ACTUALLY I should say # of seconds, apparently you get charged by the second here and NOT the minute. Needless to say people don’t chat a lot on their phones! but they do text msg, which is good. now I just have to learn spanish text lingo! HA
Last Saturday we had a women’s conference at our church and it was awesome! Liz (women’s ministry leader for our church) asked me earlier in the week to share my story, along with 2 other women. Flavia shared about being married with two kids, and Valeria spoke about being a single mom.I got to talk about my divorce and how God helped me to finally be able to follow my dream to live in a Latin country! I was soooo nervous about getting up and speaking in Spanish. God helped me pull it off though because everyone said I did a good job! (whew).Afterwards, Liz gave a great sermon. Then there was singing and raffles and food – overall a huge success!I thank everyone for their good wishes and prayers!
Weather update – it is very strange here. it is back to freezing today (ok like 55 but that's cold!). But, over the weekend we got into the 90s – I was so grateful that the church has a/c! But tonight I am back to using my space heater. Of course Yessica just chuckled since apparently the heat over the weekend is NOTHING compared to the heat in Dec and Jan! YIKES I may just need to go travel for 2 months! LOL
On a fun food front, I did find a twix bar and oreo cookies today at the grocery store – super fun!Overall though, the food is simple, but good here. I haven’t seen anything too weird yet (although I am told there is some sort of soup thing with intestines they like to make!). My favorite thing are the chicken empanadas - yummy! I do have plans to make macaroni cheese and peanut butter cookies at some point in time for people though
Anyway, hope all is well with everyone!
Miss you all very much!
Lots of hugs and kisses!
Love
S
PS If you have looked for my photos on flickr, I am having a really hard time getting them uploaded to the site. It is REALLY REALLY slow and for now I may just stick to photos on facebook, or only a few on flickr! my apologies! =)
Well I finally have a free moment to try and write a quick note to you all!Friday I will have been here for 3 weeks – the time just goes by so quickly!
I am officially living in my new place and it is so nice! The house is owned by a young married couple, without kids – their names are Guillermo and Jessica.What’s great about the house is that my room/bathroom are actually separate from the rest of the house.
Here is a photo of the gate to leave the house.
Here is a photo of the front of the house. The side door on the right is where I go for my room.
So when you walk through the side door, if you take a left then you see this door, which goes to the kitchen inside the house.
If you take a right, then you can see my space. The door on the left is my bathroom and straight ahead is my bedroom. You can also see where I hang my clothes after I wash them - most people have washing machines here, but most don't have dryers. I will have to take a photo of my room after I have cleaned it up a bit - LOL
So 3 big events from past couple of weeks:
1)I started teaching at a bilingual school.I am teaching high school science and English. Right now I am working M, T, W, and F from 8-12.The job definitely has its ups and downs (but what job doesn’t, right!). I do like that it is part-time right now though.
2)Dia de Amistad is a big holiday here. On the day you give your friends cards and little presents to show how much you appreciate the friendship. They love to do a “secret santa” sort of thing though.Guillermo, Jessica and another girl, Karina and I all put our names in a hat for Thursday.That night night, Guillermo cooked these really intense hamburgers (see photo) with a hamburger patty, a slice of ham, a slice of cheese, a fried egg and some sort of dressing on it- HUGE!
After dinner we exchanged our presents. It was a VERY fun evening! This photo is of Jessica, Guillermo and Karina.
3)I went to my first soccer game. It seems like the two biggest rival teams here are Cerro and Olimpia (both based here in Asuncion).I went to see Olimpia play in the Olimpia stadium and it was a blast!Of course the people at church who are for Cerro are so not happy that I went to cheer for OIimpia! LOL.We sat on the side, but the end zone was FILLED with these intense Olimpia fans who jump, sing, and chant for the ENTIRE game.It was awesome!
Let’s see – weather update: up until today it has been pretty cold. I am grateful that Jessica had a space heater for me that they weren’t using. Even with the space heater, there were a couple of nights where I slept with multiple layers on!Today is hot, sunny and I have the ceiling fan on – a sign of the weather to come from what EVERYONE tells me!
I have also successfully taken a public bus from my school to my house. I have also successfully walked to and from my house to the supermarket and the mall – YAY!
Col 1:10-12 “And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. “
I share this scripture because God is definitely trying to work on my patience here.It has definitely been frustrating at times not being to understand what is going on around me. But God is helping me to work on being “tranquilo.” (calm and patient).I do give him thanks for taking care of me and really helping me to feel successful down here!I thank you all for your prayers and good wishes – I have felt all of your love down here.
