South American Studies Program – Bolivia

Paraguayans love birthday parties because they love to get together and just spend time “hanging out” while celebrating individuals.

Our host homes have included the whole group as invitees when their “daughter” or “son” have a birthday to celebrate. We have had two more such parties in this month of April.

Aubrie turned twenty-two and her family hosted a typical “parrillada” on their back patio.

Leigh had her twenty-first birthday the day after our return from Buenos Aires. Her host mom, Ruby, hosted fellow-students and family friends for hot-dogs, salads and the speciality of the evening, her personally made and decorated cake. Delicious!

Thank you girls and host homes for the fun!

We have just completed our final learning tour to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This metropolis of 12 million inhabitants has quite a bit of resemblance to  European cities like Paris or Brussels due to major immigrations that happened in the late 19th – early 20th centuries.

Argentinians love their beef which we sampled along with Italian pastas, Indian curry, sandwiches, ice cream and even McDonalds. But here we are dressed up for a final farewell dinner at Juana M with its delicious salad bar and delicious steaks, candlelight admosphere and celebrating friendship, some birthdays and upcoming graduation for three of our group.

Our “official tours” included a walking tour of historic Buenos Aires starting at the Plaza de Mayo and the Pink House (like our White House) and four fascinating hours later ending at a memorial constructed at a former holding center for the “desaparecidos” of the “dirty wars” of the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Another half day was spent on the Tigre River Delta area where three major rivers and two smaller ones join in a large sediment-formed island delta region as they become the Rio Plata … the widest river in the world at about 21 kilometers of width. This Delta region is one of the playgrounds for the wealthy of Buenos Aires with summer/vacation homes built on these islands connected only by boat travel. There are a few permanent residents, an island school and waterways plied with grocery boats, school bus boats, fuel boats and garbage boats along with the tourist boats like ours.

We attended Palm Sunday mass at the central Cathedral and were able to experience current Catholic worship and ritual and processional to complement the study of Roman Catholicism we have done in our Religions class.

The rest of our time was on our own in various groupings for shopping, trying out eateries, visiting museums (at least one was required), visiting other major public buildings, riding the subways, or strolling through the Botanical Garden, the Zoo, the waterfront or an Ecological Reserve. Several took in a Tango show which is as typically “Buenos Aires” as exists. Others observed Tango dancers on the pedestrian Calle Florida.

And just around the corner from our hotel, the Plaza San Martin was the site of an international United Nations display for peace and unity in the form of painted bears. Each bear was sculpted identically at two meters height with outstretched “hands” but had been painted by an artist of each nation represented in the United Nations and depicting something of importance to them about their country. Buenos Aires was the display’s first stop in South America but it has been displayed in several nations of Europe and will continue on its journey.

I hope you have enjoyed our tour. We certainly did.

Every Tuesday and Friday we take a unique approach to school by going to our “jobs” at social service agencies, children’s homes, prison, and schools. Our purpose is to find ways we can be servants to others at the same time as learning  about Paraguayan cultural and social needs and the church’s response to those needs.

These pictures will show you a bit of the variety of experiences we are having. There is no way a photo can show what is happening in our hearts.

Aubrie teaches and tutors at Nuevo Horizonte, a Methodist school and community center in one of the poorer barrios of Asuncion.

Danielle and Sharilyn teach and assist English teachers and staff at two of the schools sponsored by the Assemblies of God church.

Becca loves people and does “whatever her hands find to do” at a drop in center and educational center for HIV+/AIDS affected children and adults.

Bethany and Natalie join forces to play with children, teach English and help with many other tasks at a children’s home sponsored by Salvation Army for at risk children.

Our other Bethany teaches and assists the fourth and fifth grade teachers at a missionary children’s school which also services the broader English-speaking Christian community.

Lorrie and Nathan travel out of town to Itagua to work alongside capable staff at another developing ministry for young kids rescued from the streets and other abusive situations.

Leigh has devoted her time to a group of teenage girls who have been court-mandated to be removed from their homes or living situations due to various abuses and risks. This home for about 10 girls is a safe place where they can learn to trust adults, take pride in themselves, go to school with opportunities for a future off the streets and learn about Jesus who loves and values them.

We have two other students for whom I don’t have photos. Mindy has travelled each week varying distances out into the country with a mobile vision clinic. They do screening for various eye conditions, issue medications, sunglasses, corrective glasses and make appointments for follow-up surgery or treatments. One extended trip included some 70 cataract surgeries and eyelid surgeries.

Mark “goes to jail” twice a week to volunteer in a Christian ministry within the state Tucumbu prison. For obvious reasons, we don’t have photos of this. He has led Bible studies with individual inmates, tutored some English, and found other ways to be a friend and encourager to these men who have become Christians within the prison system and are growing in their faith in a semi-protected environment.

We are proud of the contribution these fine students are making to the broader community of Asuncion, Paraguay in the name of Jesus.

When you put twelve students, two professors and two drivers/guides in a 16-passenger bus for four days you know you are off for an adventure. We really had a great time and were able to get a clearer picture of this country of Paraguay we are calling “home”.

Here’s some life on the bus for you to enjoy with us:

Along the way we saw the richness of the agriculture … grasslands for cattle that feed the Paraguayan passion for good beef … soy, cotton, corn, wheat fields … local trees that are the remains of old forests and areas of reforestation.

Our first international crossing was a bridge linking Encarnacion, Paraguay with Posadas, Argentina on Day 2. Then on Day 3 we took a ferry from Puerto Iguazu, Argentina down the Iguazu River and across the Parana into Ciudad Presidente Franco, Paraguay. Where the two rivers join you can look and see Brazil to your left, Argentina to your right and Paraguay just in front of us … boundaries being defined by the rivers.

It felt really good to be back “home” in Paraguay again.

A stop at Monday Falls near Ciudad del Este, though not as grandiose as Iguazu Falls, were beautiful and you could get up close in a small park without a lot of other people around.

Our final “tourist” stop was at the Cathedral of Caacupe where Paraguayans take their annual pilgrimage on December 8 to honor their patron saint, The Virgin of Caacupe.

A historical focus of our land trip was visiting the ruins of three of the thirty Jesuit “reducciones” (communities) of southern Paraguay, northern Argentina and southern Brazil.

 The Company of Jesus or the order of Jesuit priests of the Roman Catholic church developed what has been described as a “utopian civilization” throughout portions of southern South America during the 1600’s-1700’s. Jesuit missionaries, two by two, armed with language skills in the local dialect, Guarani, moved into areas and gathered semi-nomadic groups into communities to protect them from Portuguese slave traders and Spanish colonists, to teach them skills in woodworking, building, music, literature and to evangelize with the message of Christianity. In political maneuvers, King Charles III of Spain expelled all Jesuits from Spain and its colonies in 1767 and led to the demise of these communities. All that is left now are ruins and untold stories of the past.

We visited San Ignacio de Guazu and Trinidad in Paraguay and San Ignacio Mini in Argentina. We were trying to learn of the methods and motives of these missionaries and how that might contribute to modern missionary movements.

   One our first stops in our land trip was in the city of Yaguaron, Paraguay where the Franciscan order of Catholic priests during the 1500’s built one of the first cathedrals of this region and perhaps one of the most beautiful that remains to this day.

The woodwork was all completed by indigeneous craftsmen with combining European styles and their own folklore and designs and then painted with native vegetable dyes. This gives a different appearance than the gold, silver and bronze of the cathedrals of Cuzco and Lima.

One of the great successes of bi-national cooperation between Brazil and Paraguay is the massive Itaipu Dam.  Construction began in the 1970’s with the first actual power generated in the 1980’s. However the final two of the 20 turbines were fully operational in 2007. The power produced serves all of Paraguay and major portions of the southern states of Brazil and is said to have the largest annual hydroelectric power production in the world.

We were impressed as we stood along one side even though the massive spillways were dry due to low rainfall this year … all the water was being used to generate electricity. A tour down into one of the turbine galleries, a drive along the base of the dam and then across the top completed our tour. Yes, we can say we visited Brazil as the border between the two countries is down the center of the dam.

     The early morning mist gave our first introduction to The Devil’s Thoat and upper falls of Iguazu an almost storybook feel. The roar is deafening, the spray saturating and the views awe-inspiring.

 Following a short train ride through jungle growth and then stepping along a walkway that extends across the top of this great series of waterfalls, we all thought, “this is beautiful” and then around a corner our breath was taken away with the thunder, mist and panorama of La Garganta del Diablo.

We spent the rest of the day following the three sets of trails that explore the views of the expanse of falls from on top, through the middle and then close to the base of the falls.

The grand finale was loading into a powerful rubber speed boat that took us actually up under the cascade of two different falls … a drenching similar to being caught under a gigantic ocean wave and then exploring on down the river for several miles before unloading onto an open truck for a drive and introduction to the flora and fauna of the jungle. Unfortunately, we don’t have pictures of the boat ride because our cameras were safely tucked into waterproof bags! But here we are: wet, happy and smiling on top of the truck.

    CEMTA (Centro Educativo Mennonita de Teologia de Asuncion) is the campus of the Paraguayan Evangelical University that has welcomed us for this semester. Located in San Lorenzo, Paraguay (a suburb of Asuncion) we all take city buses each morning and evening (about one hour average each direction) to attend our classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.  We’ll tell you more about our field experience work sites in a later blog. We go to them on Tuesdays and Fridays.

We’ll take a little photo walk from the bus stop to campus to help you get a feel of where we live and study.

Then onto the campus itself … always neatly cared for with many trees to make the termperatures a little more comfortable.

The library provides internet connected computers as well as a light comfortable place to study before or after classes.

Our classroom is down a short walkway. It is simple but adequate and even has air conditioning for hot afternoons.

Classes started for CEMTA students of Theology and Music on March 2 after their long summer vacation so now we share the campus with about 150 other students (about half of these live in dormitories on campus). We are just starting to get acquainted but share the cafeteria at lunch time and hope to participate in a few of their chapel times on Monday mornings. Ron and Carolyn have a little faculty office with internet connection and a printer where we can get our homework papers printed off our flash drives.

     Friday night Mark’s host family helped us celebrate his birthday.  It was a beautiful Paraguayan evening under the stars with ping pong, hotdogs, sopa paraguayo (a specialty type of cornbread), and of course cake and icecream.

                Dad and Uncle Vincente added some guitar music to the informal admosphere of sitting around visiting.