JATAITY….ARGENTINA…ASUNCION….and BEYOND

Sunday, July 2nd the TIME students and Ryan said good-bye to Jataity bright and early.

The sunrise was beautiful.

We took one last family photo in front of our house.

It was a long day of travel.  I am so glad that we have kids (and a monkey) that travels well.  It was 5 hours to the Paraguay border.  Then we waited two hours at the Argentine border as the inspectors combed through all our documents and scanned our van. 

 After 11 hours on the road, we made it to our hotel.  Boy were we tired!

FOZ do IGUAZU, Argentina

July 3, 2017

It was a beautiful day.  Not only was the weather perfect – warm with a slight breeze, the waterfalls were spectacular.  They never lose their beauty!

We took a boat to a little island.

 Makayla was so cute in her over-sized life jacket.

A well deserved ice cream break

I love these animals!

HAPPY 4th of JULY!

We spent the 4^th traveling back to Paraguay.  We first stopped at the Tres Fronteras monument.

Standing in Argentina, looking at Paraguay to the left and Brazil on the right.

 We took a ferry across to Paraguay.

 Makayla’s first fourth of July and first ferry ride.

 This gave us a bit of a scare, but it turned out to be something Jeff could fix with rubber cement.  We are very thankful for zero car troubles the entire 6 weeks.  The last two groups had to make the trip back from the waterfalls on bus because the car broke down along the way.  We are ever so happy to be returning in our own vehicle!

 After 10 hours on the rode we made it to Asuncion. 

We went straight to souvenir shopping and then to dinner.  I think Jon finally got full.

 Traditions of the 4^th of July could very easily pass us by down here in Paraguay if it weren’t for my husband and his childlike love for blowing things up.  As always, he put on quite the show.

Preparing the fruit to be blown up.

 This is what’s left of the papaya.

Can you feel the anticipation?  Those firecrackers were loud!

 I love these boys!

We got little sleep as the students needed to be at the airport at 3AM.  It’s always hard to say good-bye and this time was no exception.

AND SO WE SAY GOOD-BYE….LAST WEEK in JATAITY with TIME and RYAN

 It was a great last week with last visits and last patients, last class time and visiting with missionaries.  Last meals with host families and last games of Uno and Spot It with host siblings.

And we celebrated Bailey’s 21^st birthday.

Saturday was Ryan’s last full day in Jataity.  I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t on the brink of tears all day long.   He spent the morning with two of his best MK friends.  

At noon he had a crash course in how to cut hair.  Thank you, Tyler Reid for being a guinea pig!

 Ryan packed.  He handed down clothes to his siblings, gave away treasures and deliberated hard over which games to take to the US with him.

 At 3:00 a bunch of kids from the community got together for a good-bye soccer game.  It was just what Ryan wanted to do his last day.

In the evening we had a good-bye dinner for the T.I.M.E students and their host families.  There were some wonderful words shared and tears shed.