Asuncion

January 24, 2009

We always have a to-do when we come in to Asuncion and we spend most of our days running around the big city. There’s not much that we can do in our little rural community. Here’s what was on our list this time:

Take advantage of high speed internet connection to:
Renew medical license
Renew RN license
Check airline prices, contact travel agent and book tickets
Send out newsletter
Get caught up on our SIM and medical insurance paperwork
Get centrifuge fixed (someone accidently plugged it into a 220v outlet)
Buy t-shirts and scrub tops for upcoming medical intern, get design printed
Buy tennis shoes for Ginny and Tyler (isn’t it amazing how fast kids grow!)
Dental appointment
Ophthalmologist appointment
Buy new contacts and glasses
Pick up new songbooks and prescription pads
Buy medicines for clinic
Get divers license renewed
Pick-up carnets (permanent resident cards)
Start paperwork for our cedula (PY i.d card)
Grocery shop
Pick up pay check
End of year interview with director
Car brakes fixed
Get tires aligned

It is always a bonus to be able to skype with family and hang out with our city missionary friends. We have been able to do both. Some sweet friends of ours even watched our kids last night so Jeff and I could go out on a date (we haven’t been out together since we June).

PAPERWORK!!!
I think only those who have lived in a foreign country can truly appreciate the amount of paperwork that is involved for us to stay in the country legally. Things move so slow here…we’re talking old fashion type writers, carbon copies, dot matrix printers. Plus, department heads change and therefore requirements change, misprints happen often, papers are just lost, and they’d like to collect bribes to speed things up (which we refuse to pay).

Over three days we have been to 6 different places and have spent 18 hours waiting in lines, signing our names, getting finger printed, picking up and dropping off our thick stack of birth certificates, passport copies, marriage certificates, etc. We had a big hang up and had to redo several steps because some of our paperwork had our last name spelled MCKISSICK and other paperwork MC KISSICK (with a space).

The kids have been as good as can be but they are tired from all the waiting. At one point today Ginny said, “You mean we have to go back to that place where we sat forever and ever and could never never get up to leave?”

Praise God, after 3 ½ years of living in Paraguay, we finally have our permanent resident cards. Now we don’t have to update our visas every 3 months. We are now starting the process for our Paraguayan identification cards.

We were hoping to be done with it all today, but we’ll have to come back Monday and finish.



co 2009 Amy McKissick