It’s really hard to believe I’ve passed my year mark. I’ve changed so much, grown, stretched, shrunk a bit in some ways. I have 3 weeks left of class. The first day of what would be the fourth week is the day of my exams, and then I’m done. These weeks will fly by so fast I’ll hardly notice it until it’s done.

In a way I’m glad. It’s been a really busy time, and it’ll be nice to start the vacation. But I’ll miss the kids. I actually love each one, and the love is new every day. It also means I have less than 2 months to spend with Kathy. That’ll be the hardest thing – leaving her behind for a while. We will be counting on our faith a lot more than we are now, come the new year.

I feel like I’ve done what I came here to do. I suppose the principals would really be able to tell me if I did, but at least *I* think so. I’ve seen what I wanted to see, worked hard, learned Spanish, grown closer to God, and even found the rest of my life (though she was a surprise). So I will go home December 20th content that I fulfilled my calling for this past year, but I will be leaving my heart here. I’m almost certain it won’t be the last year I spend in Paraguay.

-j

More great posts:

• No Related Posts

I have visited the Chaco, I’ve been to San Pedro, and I’ve rerun through Asunción. What was left was visit the south and hit up a few more things in the east. I got that chance when the high schoolers went on exactly the trip I wanted to take before I left.

We left on a Tuesday night around 1am and headed south to Yacyretá to check out their hydroelectric dam. It was OK, but I knew there was a bigger one later on. Dams are noisy inside! After eating lunch there, we headed towards the Jesuit Ruins of Trinidad. It’s a sad history of indigenous persecution that the people who work there don’t want you to know.

From there, we went to the place where Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil meet, at the intersections of the Itaipú and Paraná rivers. Each country has a monument of some stort marking the spot (of course Argentina has to have a hotel and stuff). I think Paraguay’s still working on theirs.

That night we headed towards Ciudad Del Este. We couldn’t get across to Brazil to visit Iguazu Falls, so we went to this really sweet waterfall called Salto Monday (Moan-da-u, more or less). My joke was calling it Salto Lunes because Lunes is Monday in Spanish, but the word is Guarani for “stolen water”. I actually preferred it to Iguazu, but I’ve also been to Iguazu twice. For lunch we invaded a McDonalds (yay!). After that, we went to the Itaipú Hydroelectric Dam, the second largest in the world (China finished theirs in 2006). There’s also a zoo and Guarani museum that’s near the dam, so we went there. Their 10 point buck was very friendly. At the end of a very long day, we went to a really cool retreat center about an hour away.

The retreat deserves its own post, but I’ll keep it shorter. It had been raining for a few days when we got there. The road was cobbled, but only to a point. The bus couldn’t get through because of mud and overhead wires, so we had to hoof it, carrying our stuff, in the dark with no shoes (waay too muddy for shoes). We finally got there, had some dinner, and went to sleep. The first night in 3 that we were able to be in a bed.

The next day we were going to try another place, but because of the rain we stayed at the retreat center for a while. We went to downtown Ciudad Del Este to do some shopping. I didn’t want any fake movies, video games, or MP3 players (seeing an “iPod” made me sick), so I didn’t buy anything. I know there’s more there, but I didn’t need shoes or clothes, and our time was limited. I don’t think I missed anything though. We headed back to the retreat for lunch, but because of the rain again, we had to walk back, only this time it was the full 8km from where our bus was stationing itself. Some of us found a taxi, others found a local bus, and the rest walked. They realized later that was a terrible idea. Around 5 we decided to take off for good.

We went to Itaipu one more time for their illumination. It was cool, but not as Disney as I expected it to be. Then we invaded McDonalds once more because we had the dinner money left, and then FINALLY at 11 we started the bus to come home. We arrived at the school around 6:30 and I’m sure most of us slept all day.

I think I know all of the country that I intended to know. I’m glad I went. I can almost leave content in December.

-j

More great posts:

• No Related Posts