Rain, rain
go away…come again some other month.
It’s rained
every day since the students arrived.
I’m not talking about scattered showered. I’m talking full blow, thunder and lightning,
run for cover storms. Our roads are
super slushy and our front yard is a mud pit.
The students have such great attitudes.
They just go with the flow and accept changes in the schedule without
blinking an eye. They will all make great
missionaries.
We’ve
had some great visits. Julia, this lady
in the pictures below, gave us a cheese making demonstration – from curing the
cow’s stomach lining to curdle the milk to drying the cheese for a day before
eating it.
Paraguayans
cut one long swath around the fruit leaving just a thin layer of white
flesh. Then you hold onto it and squeeze
the juice into your mouth. Karai Ignacio
cut 5 oranges before Ryan could finish his first.
We also
visited our local petting zoo (as my kids have named it). My friend, Ignacia, loves animals and lets us
come to feed, hold, pet and take pictures.
Elijio
peeling a grapefruit for the guys.
In case you
are wondering, yes, we still have a petting zoo of our own. Our newest attraction, Zoe, is super fun. I am sitting with Zoe on my lap feeding her a
banana while her mama (Ginny) sleeps a bit longer. This has become our morning routine. After she’s eaten, she’ll play a bit. When she settles in for a nap, I’ll tuck her
in next to Ginny. Sounds like a human
baby, right. It’s crazy.
We realized
just yesterday that what we thought was a Capuchin is really a Howler
monkey. We aren’t too sure what we think
about that but it’s too late to do anything about it. Ginny and Zoe have bonded.
A selfie with a monkey
Ginny
cooking dinner with the monkey attached to her.
Ok.
Back to the students.
On another visit,
we pulled up mandio (a staple food here) with my friend, Mariza.
There been a
few patients that have trickled in on the rain days and the students have been
able to practice some. But, as I
mentioned before, clinic days have been slow due to weather. I guess they have lots of time to practice on
each other.
We’ve had
some great class times. We finished up
the language and cultural sections of our book.
We’ve also watch a video and discussed Catholicism.
Our team
mates, the Houghs, came to share their call to missions testimony on Monday.
Tuesday, team mates, the Reiches came to share their testimony and do a class
on church planting. We are so thankful
to work with an awesome team who is willing to pour into this Cedarville group
too.
We
have a bunch of athletic students. A few
have found time to run in between down pours. Thursday the students went to San Francisco to
play basketball. Saturday morning the
weather was bright enough for students and host siblings to enjoy volleyball together.
Makayla
watching the volleyball game
Bailey and
her host sister, Lumi
Ginny and Ryan's host sister, Elisabet
Grace and her host sister, Diana
josiah and Andrea, Megan's host sister
The
monkey seems to steal the show wherever she goes
Julia ans our neighbor, Leonela
These students
are amazing. They wash my dishes and
hold my baby. They allow my kids to jump
all over them and vie for their attention.
They ask such good questions about missions and life. They are observant and keen to learn all that
they can while here in Paraguay.
They are
eating everything their host family serves.
They are praying with their siblings and talking Spiritual matters with
them, and reading the Bible together.
They hung out at each other’s house playing games and watching soccer
games. They are being salt and light to
their host families and it is so fun to watch.
Sunday
morning, unfortunately, we couldn’t go to church due to rain, but we did get to
go to youth group mid-afternoon. It was
nice that several of their host siblings came.
Throughout their
time here, each student will stay the night at our house. Tyler was first up. Here we are playing Ticket to Ride.
