Paraguay

We made it! The bus ride only lasted four hours longer than it was supposed to. We broke down in the middle of the night. Other than that it was a fairly nice trip. The bus seats were practically beds, so sleeping was no problem.

I am staying with Francisco and Mercedes Diaz. They are very nice, and they have three other kids living with them right now. I believe they are all older than me. I think I will be sharing a bedroom with Daniel, (probably not the correct spelling,) but I'm not sure because he slept on the couch last night! I also have two sisters. The younger one is named Laura, (what a coincidence!) and the older one is named Janette. I also have a third sister, Celeste, who is living in the U.S. currently.

My bedroom opens onto the patio. It's not huge, but it has it's own bathroom with a shower. Mercedes has done her best to make me feel at home, telling me that I can use or eat anything in the kitchen and that, "Mi casa es su casa." Tonight I began to test my independence a bit. I got home a little late and hadn't had supper yet, but soon after I sat down in front of the tv Laura came in and handed me and Dani (Daniel) each an egg sandwich. I was still hungry, but I didn't want to ask Laura to make me another, so I took things into my own hands. I asked Dani to show me where the ingredients were. The only complicated part was the egg. Laura had made it over-easy, which I've only done successfully once. It wasn't quite as runny as it could have been, but I'll count it as a success. The sandwich was delicious!

Paraguay is pretty sweet. So far the people have been fairly easy to understand. I think they've been purposely talking slower and clearer to make it easier for us. Today we went into the center of Asuncion to do some sight-seeing as well as get our monthly allowance in Guarani, the local currency. We also got to experience the bus system of Asuncion. It's loads of fun. ;) Two of the buses we rode had absolutely no room, but still managed to let on just a couple more people at each stop.

I don't know what my job will be yet. I've heard two options. One option would be to work at Alto Refugio. Alto Refugio is an organization that cares for people with HIV/AIDS. (Their website: http://www.eng.altorefugio.org/ ) I believe that my Dad's cousin and his wife, David and Judy Schmidt, work with Alto Refugio. Another option would be a local school that is run through the Mennonite church. The school would not require the use of public transportation as it is within walking distance of my house. I think the current plan is to work for a bit of time at both of them and see which is the better fit.

I guess that's all for now. I'll try to get some pictures up soon. If you're friends with me on facebook there are a bunch of pictures up from our week in Argentina. Adios for now!

Connections Article

I just sent this off to my church to be published in our monthly news letter, FMC Connections. Enjoy..


Just Getting Started

It has been almost three weeks since I was dropped off in Chicago for Radical Journey Orientation, but it feels like it has been almost nothing. As you may have heard, there have been many changes for my team. We are not, as was originally planned, in Bolivia, and we do not plan to go there. Right now, (Saturday the 17th,) we are in Argentina and we will be leaving for Paraguay on Monday. We will be spending the remainder of our time there.

The reasons for not going to Bolivia are numerous and complex. For reasons that are not fully known to us, the Bolivian government has decided not to recognize visas with Mennonite Central Committee listed as the sponsor. This change of heart could have to do with the civil unrest that Bolivia is currently experiencing. The Bolivian government thinks that American missionaries may be encouraging the movement. This unrest would also be another reason for our team to not go to Bolivia, as we do not know whether the country will remain stable for the whole year. Our team was disappointed, but we are learning to let go of our expectations and go where God leads us. This week in Argentina has been great, and we are excited for the opportunities in Paraguay.

Our orientation was in Chicago with the other Radical Journey participants. This year, Radical Journey has four teams: Paraguay, China, South Africa, and England. Joanna Epp is on the South Africa team. Orientation was a time of preparation for the coming year. We had lessons and talked about how things we were going to be, but we also started getting out of our comfort zones a little bit and began to get used to a different lifestyle. We stayed with in an intentional community known as Jesus People U.S.A. We didn’t have access to many of the luxuries that we would have in our own home and we had to learn how to live in community with a wide variety of people.

Argentina has been a wonderful experience for the whole team. The two other males and I are staying in one of the poor areas of Buenos Aires. There is a small Mennonite church about a block away and we live with one of the pastors. We are learning to drop the expectations that we have formed as we grew up in America. Many things still confuse us. For example, why does the man who’s toilet does not have a seat have a large LCD television with cable? Another thing that has been hard for our team is the lack of schedule, or at least the lack of our knowledge of a schedule. Things are going to happen, but we are not always informed when or where. We also do not usually have influence on the schedule once plans have been made. Since Katie and Cara live in a different neighborhood than Andrew, Riley, and myself, we don’t have much control of when we get to hang out or for how long.

Once we get to Paraguay, we will have one month of English lessons as we begin our jobs. Right now we don’t know where we will be working or who we will be living with, but we trust that the Paraguayans will be ready for us when we arrive.

Some prayer requests: That our Spanish will improve quickly. Sometimes the people here call me timido because I don’t talk as much as some of the others. A couple of them know more Spanish than I do, but I also need to be more willing to attempt to say things even if they are not grammatically correct. Another prayer request would be for peace with the unknown, and the inability to communicate at times.

The picture is at the local church with some of the members. The man holding the pizzas in the front is the pastor who is hosting me.

Lost In Translation

Everything is going well. I don’t have much time to write, but I thought I’d share a quick story before we leave for Paraguay tomorrow. (18 hour bus ride! Woohoo!)

A couple nights ago we went to the house of a man named Gustavo for dinner. Gustavo was one of the guys who picked us up from the airport and has driven us around a couple times to get our visas for Paraguay. He is a jolly older man who always has a smile.

At one point in the dinner, Herman, our current host, told us he once ate a pizza that was large enough to feed 19 people by himself. It was the kind of deal where if you eat the whole thing you get it free. Riley told me in English that there was a place in Pueblo that had a similar deal with a 5-pound burrito. I attempted to translate this to Herman:
“En Colorado, tiene un burrito cinco libras. Si tu comes, es gratis.”
The Argentinians looked at each other, puzzled. Herman asked, “Un burrito?” (A burrito?)
I replied, “Si. Con una tortilla, y papas, y carne” (Yes. With a tortilla, and potatoes, and meat.)
“Ahh,” Herman said. “En Argentina, burrito es,” as he made a smoking symbol with his hands.
“Marijuana?” I asked.
“Si, si..”

I had told them something to the effect of, “In Colorado, they have a 5 pound joint, and if you eat it, it’s free!” The laughter continued for a few minutes and the story has been retold multiple times since then. Silly Americans..

Edit/Addition: I found out after I posted this that we were not actually leaving on Friday. The new plan is to leave for Paraguay on Monday.

Team Paraguay?

 Well, it's been a crazy week. Due to problems with the Bolivian visa process, Team Bolivia is currently in Argentina, where we will be applying for Paraguayan visas in the near future. Then it's off to Paraguay for 10 months. I suppose I should change the name of my blog.. While it is a disappointment for us not to be able to stay in Bolivia, I think we are all very excited about the opportunities that have opened up in Paraguay.  Isaac, a member of the Radical Journey team last year who was planning on returning with us as our leader, decided to stay back and attempt to get into Bolivia with a new visa. He has a very strong connection with the people there and has felt lead to return this year.

 Our travels went well. We had no problems going through security in any of the airports and even the Bolivian customs agents didn't give us any trouble. We met some members of the church there, and they took us downtown and bought us a bite to eat.  They were extremely nice and very understanding of our poor Spanish. The food was called salteñas, and they reminded me a lot of bierocks, but had a much different flavor.

Argentina has been wonderful. We are staying close to a small church and have met with some of the youth there a few times already. While speaking Spanish is sometimes difficult, I have enjoyed playing music and ping pong with them. The church owns a bass, a guitar and a drum set as well as a homemade ping pong table.

Our hosts have also been wonderful. The boys in our group are staying in one place, and the girls in another. The mom in our house has insisted that we not do any work while we're here and gets angry when we try to help her. They have also been trying to help us learn more Spanish, and they say that Paraguayans speak much faster than Argentinians so we probably need all the help we can get.

Well, I guess that's all for now. I'll try to post some pics later, but I haven't taken any in South America yet. Thanks for reading, and keep sending those prayers!

-Tim

Orientation

Wow, what a week. It’s gone by really fast, yet so much has happened! I am enjoying being in the company of my team as well as the other Radical Journey teams. This week has challenged us to grow together and share while preparing ourselves for the upcoming 10 month term.


I should probably start with some general information. I am serving this year in the Radical Journey program through Mennonite Mission Network. I am currently at Orientation in Chicago. We are being hosted by the wonderful folks at Jesus People U.S.A. I am on the Bolivia team, and we will fly out of Chicago on the eighth of September.


Team Bolivia consists of myself, Andrew, Riley, Cara, Katie, and our leader, Isaac. Our team is the only one that has a leader this year. I think we are getting along quite well so far, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them all better throughout this year.


Thursday night, the power in the building we were staying in went out. I have often found that power outages cause people to be spontaneous and can end up being quite enjoyable after the initial shock of realizing you won’t be able to do what you might have been planning. This case was no different. We ended up having a small hymn sing/worship session in the dark. We sang 606 as well as some other popular Mennonite hymns and threw in a couple praise songs with guitar accompaniment.


One thing we have been working on this week is the Enneagram Personality Type Indicator. It is a device that splits characteristics into nine different personality types, and then explains about tendencies and characteristics of each type. We took a short test earlier in the week which told me I was a type seven, the enthusiast. While working later, however, I realized that I really did not identify with how they claimed a type seven would think or act. Today I took the long version of the test, which takes about 45 minutes. It told me I was a type two, the helper, which I identify with much more. Type two is one of the most relationship oriented types. It was interesting to read through what they said about my type and realize how well some of it described me. I still don’t feel I fit perfectly into any of the nine types, but I’m sure that’s true for many people.


This may be a short post, but it’s all I can think of to say right now. Thanks for reading, and I hope you continue to check back for more updates!


-Tim

First

The blog is finally up.

Not much now.

More later.