How easy it is!

Qué Fácil es Servir! from Mauxito Lemus on Vimeo.

Noche De Soltero

Hello one of these days i am going to write my entire blog in spanish but don't hold your breath! But anyways how is everyone! write me a message and let me know! I will put my address here in a few days so you guys can send me stuff si quieres! This entry going to be all over the place cause its been a while since i posted so the next one i promise will be a little more organized!

The last two weeks have been crazy day by day! Some days are very clam and easy going and others im constantly on the move and i running around the whole city doing stuff. We recently satrted doing regular home visits and they aren't exactly my favorite thing but who  said service was about what you like to do. I guess i dont like them cause they tend to be akward and sometimes boring. Fridays tend to be the most crazy day because we leave at about 8:30 and go visit a Bahai that lives by the river and then we walk to the Mercados house and have lunch and hang out with them. The i go all the way to Arroyo Poya to hang out with my pre-youth and help my childrens class. Then after that i go back home. It doesnt sound like alot but if you had to do all the walking and bus catching and soccer playing you would understand.

So this is the part where things start to get a little changeling. No more rainbows and sunshine, well there still is just a little cloud cover. When i started the pre-youth group in arroyo poya i was so excited and the pre-youth were full of energy and they were excited to start a pre-youth group. Being all pumped up,the first two meeting were great. I went up there one friday afternoon and we played soccer and volleyball together! It was great i mean there is nothing more fulfilling then being in South America Playing soccer and Volleyball with 12 spanish speaking 13/14 year olds! 

Then the next week there was some conflict within the group. Then slowly the py stop coming one by one. So now we have one person that comes regularly and the rest show up when they fill like it. This week class was testing because the whole time the py were cursing at each other, hitting each other, making fun of each other, and the day ended with two of the py actually fighting another py, three or four py running home crying, and me trying to understand thru all the screaming and fighting what was going on, because spanish sounds like german to me when people are screaming at each other.. And the whole time this is going on, there one pre-youth, named lucas who is the peace-maker in the group, doing the staying alive dance and other disco dances that remains me of john travolta. So im trying to be serious and lucas is just cracking me up. At first i was thinking that the group would be impossible to do and now as i reflect on it and i realize that they are just being kids. 

I remember how i was with my friends growing up and we were the same way! They just need a little more guidance. So i deiced to spend a little more time with them. They love me because of the whole Foreigner factor That i have!

So there is me and another youth doing the year of service in Encarnacion and i guess its a given when you put two 18 year olds together from completely different backgrounds, cultures, way of lives, there are bound to be some differences. So thats another little rain cloud i trying to push out the way! 

But all in all its the beauty of this all! The good, the bad, and the ugly its all apart of the program !

Here i've gained the reputation of the accident Prone person of the group. i have a saying " Siempre Yo" which means "Always me". I am always the one who trips, falls, knocks down stuff all of it! Right now is carnaval and i was walking down the street and people in the apartments stand on their balconies and throw water ballons at the people below. Well while i was walking past a apartment building the decided to step their game up and poured a whole bucket of water of me! Just like the movies :)

I leave you with one more random funny story. So me, Simone, and Nidia were in a store downtown. We were about to leave the store and i was the first one to open the door. So i as i was walking i saw a sign on the door that said " Tire" So i asked Nidia and Simone "why they had the word tire on the door" and at that moment i went to PUSH the door open and i ran right into it knocking myself down. Apparently "Tire" means PULL in spanish! :-)

Free Tattoo

I forgot to post about what happen with my lovely tattoo that i got for free!

Well it was beautiful, Paraguayan day and me, simone, martin, y marcelo were on the bus on our way to Pacu-Cua. So it was our stop and simone said get up it we got to get off. So as i began to stand up the bus driver slammed on the brakes and i went flying forward but caught myself between two seats. I stood up to readjust myself and at that blessed moment the bus driver decided to stop again and i fell and tried to catch myself on the window but instead i punched through the window breaking it and cut my arm open! :) Then afterward noone really knew what happen including me, all i knew was that i was bleeding alot and cut. Martin was laughing (""after he asked if i was ok"") cause he thought it was funny obviously, marcelo was lost and didnt knew what to do or what had happen, and simone was freaking out. All in all Paraguay gave me a beautiful gift!

Siempre Yo....

Some things never change..

Hecho en Paraguay

Transmitiendo desde tierras Guranis!!

Hola Amigos y Mi Familia!

So how is everyone doing? I’m going to start off by saying that I do miss home very much! Just not enough for me to leave this incredible place! At first it was very hard to adjust to my settings here! I never had to live with 9 other people who speak another language, in another country, for a month.  So all the adjustments I had to make and get use to the culture were done with everyone watching me. Privacy was very scares. So for the past month I served, played, ate, washed my clothes, and did everything with these 9 people and we became like a little family.  We had so much fun and I love these people so much. 

I am surprised at how much I have learned in the last month. I understand the Spanish so much more and I can now have conversations on my own. The only problem is that a lot of people speak Guaranies. 

Someone asked if I had grown spiritually. And I answered honestly not yet. The reason being is because I’ve been dwelling so much on the language difference that I miss the beauty in all the things I’ve been doing.

There is a family that lives in the barrio above me, and I go there every Thursday and Saturday. I love this family because first there are 3 of the little kids and they are like the three musketeers. They do everything together and they are always with each other! They asked if I wanted to join them. Now I  am the fourth musketeer. Norma the owner of the house is not a Baha’i but her mother is and they are so nice and sweet and have been through so much in their life. We have devotions  there on Thursday and by the end of the last devotion we had on Thursdays, I was crying. Norma lost two of her sons and 2 or 3 years apart and Norma’s mother  said maybe 10 prayers in a row and I was just so moved and appreciative. Then on Saturdays we have children’s class there and I was so moved again because Norma’s mother has never done activities in her 30 years of being a Bahia and she was nervous and she was doing it straight out of the book and it was spiritually uplifting to see God’s plan in action.

So now I have officially started my year of service here in Encarncion, Paraguay! There so many stuff going on and a lot of stuff that will be going on. I am so excited for it! There is pre-youth group we are starting right outside of Encarncion which I am also very animated about! (Pun Intended). We met today and they are fascinated I can speak English. They wanted me to call them by their English version of their name. The funny thing is that most of their name are the same in English just without an accent. But it was nearly impossible for them to say it. We started out wit 4 Junior Youth, by the time we finished talking to the parents 5 more jr. youth signed up. The cool things is that they all WANT to do this! Junior youth are becoming my favorite. Study circles are cool, Devotionals are interesting, Fireside are intriguing, but Junior Youth Groups are were the party is at! I am convinced.

Last Sunday I finished tutoring book 7 with 2 Baha’is in the community. It was difficult to tutor a book in another language but it was funny because the participants were very understanding and patient. Simone helped me out a lot too! It is really hard for me to get to know personally because of the language difference here.  But I still have made some great friends and met some amazing people. I’ve noticed that a lot of people are fascinated  by me because:

I’m from the United States

I’m dark 

Since I’m dark I am Brazilian

I don’t speak Spanish and I’m Puerto Rican

I know English

I have been extremely tired lately. I have been at it non-stop Since I got here. I am so exhausted. The schedule has been like this for the last month. Wake up at about 7:00 in the morning. Breakfast at 8:00. Leave at 9:00 to do some activity either children’s class, study circles, devotional, home visits. Then lunch at 12:30.  Free-time until 2:30. Then we go out to do the same. We get back at about 6 and at 7:00 we study The advent of Divine justice for two hours. Then dinner and then bed. 

Now to the fun stuff! I am truly having a blast here! So right now here in Encarncion is Carnival. Which is like Mardi Gras. Encarncion Carnival in famous in Paraguay! But here every weekend for the next three weekends its like a huge water fight in the city. Nobody is safe for the watering. You could randomly be walking down the street and kids will attack you with water balloons or water bottles! Saturday got ambushed twice, once by a random group of kids and the second by simone. The second one cause an all out street war because I wasn’t going to be the only one getting wet any more! The entire street was a war zone! I think this is a tradition that needs to continue in the states.

So I finally have my own room now! Its actually very nice and pretty big for one room. I have nothing in it at the moment but a mattress a chair and my luggage but it great because its mine!