Happy 15th, Camille!

As I type this, my baby girl is curled up in her bed, exhausted from a full evening of celebrating her birthday with friends.  She'll be 15 tomorrow (January 23), a giant milestone for girls in Latin America.  The traditional birthday party here for a girl turning 15 is a giant fiesta that really looks much more like a wedding reception, complete with attendants and a band and a girl in a big, puffy dress, and tons of photos. 

Camille, however, decided she didn’t want this sort of throw-down, and opted for pizza and birthday cake with about 40 folks who live nearby.  Despite the fact that I was looking forward to being part of the traditional Paraguayan 15 party, her reasoning was solid and I couldn't help but give in to her wishes.  She's a very practical girl, and standing around in an uncomfortable formal dress for hours after planning for this party for months just didn't appeal to her one bit.  Nor did dancing the waltz and having everyone tell you how you're basically an adult now.  So I finally decided to stop trying to talk her into it and just let her choose.  It turned out to be kinda fun to show some of our friends how WE celebrate birthdays.

I learned something new tonight about how birthdays are done here, too.  I noticed that no one's gift had a card or a note or a name tag on it.  Once most people had gone, I asked how we were to go about writing the thank-you cards without being sure who'd brought which gift.  What a pleasant surprise to find out that this is not expected, and is, in fact, a bit frowned upon.  It turns out that the point is to arrive with something in your hand, something to add to the gift pile.  When the party is over, the birthday girl privately opens the gifts.  This way, no one has to feel embarrassed if he couldn't bring a nice gift.  So it truly is the thought that counts.  We're not supposed to try to guess who brought what or thank the people after the party, just accept the gifts and enjoy them.  Cool, huh? And if someone has something they specifically want you to know came from them, they can give it to you in person and ask that you open it right then, but this doesn't happen often.

A benefit (for me, maybe not for her!) is that Paraguay does not give driving permits to 15-year-olds like South Carolina did when I had this birthday.  Phwew.  Bullet averted, for a while longer anyway.  Camille has always been mature beyond her years, but I still can't believe my first baby is turning 15 already.  She's such a great girl, always looking for ways to serve, always using her gifts of friendliness and hospitality, always sensitive to the promptings God whispers in her heart.  She was practically born talking, putting off walking for quite a while because she was content to sit around and chat with people.  It's great watching God use her talents and tendencies for His glory, and to stand back in awe of the young lady she's becoming.  How proud we are of our quinceañera!

Tour of Paraguay

We have been looking forward to January for weeks now, planning and anticipating the visit of Ruth "Crimefighter" Arnell.  She's a lovely young lady who spent several years of her childhood in Asuncion, as the child of missionaries to Paraguay.  She found this very blog a couple of years ago and began to leave comments, which developed into emails, which developed into a facebook friendship, and the next thing you know, it's 2012 and she's on a plane.  She's got a remarkable memory of things she did and saw here, and she came back to... well, she says it best, so check out her blog if you're curious about her reasons for visiting.

To take full advantage of showing her the face of missions in Paraguay these days, we took a week-long tour of missionaries.  We made a big circle (well, more like a triangle), beginning with a visit to the home of Julie and Norberto Kurrle in Obligado/Hohenau.  You may remember them from peanut planting, Bible training, and recently adopting a beautiful little girl to be Timmy's sister.  They filled us in on the latest projects and plans, and treated us to a wonderful meal.  I think that Julie is quite the cook anyway, as a successful homesteader, but her mom's visit coinciding with ours meant a double blessing, one that included German chocolate cake!  We also got to see our old pal Michael, and hear about missions in Bolivia and bees in Obligado.

We spent the next few nights with Justin and Allison Rayburn, a young family with three adorable little people, who work with the indigenous tribe called the Mbya.  They were so kind to let us invade their apartment, and to take us on a tour of the neighborhoods where ministry is greatly needed.  They are from southern Louisiana, so do I need to explain how tense the first night was, when LSU (their alma mater) lost the national championship for college football?  The children were all dressed in their little LSU outfits, there were streamers all over the place, and Allison had cooked pizzas with purple (beets) and gold (corn) edible decorations.  They are some serious fans!

We ventured out to the Jesuit Ruins the next day, despite the impressive (and OPPRESSIVE!) heat.  Ken, the girls, and Ruth explored while I sought shade and a bench.  It's quite a lot of walking, so my crutches gave me the excuse to hide out from the sun underneath the mango trees. We returned to the Rayburn's place to find a giant pot of Louisiana-style jambalaya.  Mmmm!

It's pretty amazing how different things seem down there on the eastern edge of Paraguay.  Germans and Mennonites (and sometimes German Mennonites) own large farms, so in place of so many oxcarts and skinny working horses, you see giant tractors, huge mega-stores where farming equipment is sold, and restaurants with German names.  Many other nationalities call this area of the country home, as well.   I felt like we were in the midwest US, with rolling hills and acres and acres of farms--corn, soy, yerba, that sort of stuff.  Unfortunately, we're in the midst of a potentially devastating drought, and lots of the green was actually brown.  It was still obvious that they have much more grass there than we do, though.

We ended our time there with a cookout at the Rio Parana, a big river that separates Paraguay from Argentina. And a great time was had by all.

That was only the first half of the week, so tune in later for the rest of our trip, where we hung out with the British and the Venezuelans in Ciudad del Este and Brazil.  And click on Ruth's name above if you'd like to see pictures and more detail of our travels.  :)

"Your" Iniciative

Earlier this month, we had the privilege of participating in something the local church organized--an event called Your Initiative.  In Spanish, they made a clever play on words that actually meant Your Initiative as well as Initiative You and Me.  The point was Paraguayans reaching out to other Paraguayans, their neighbors.  For the past couple of months, the youth leader Guillermo has been asking for donations from those who attend the church, and from various people in the community.  Then lots of people came together this scorching Saturday to hand out clothes, toys, baby supplies, food, and smiles to a needy neighborhood where a new work is beginning.

The children are invited back to participate in weekly Bible studies ("Sunday School" on a different day of the week, basically), and eventually the plan is to have a soup kitchen operating there.  Some old friends of ours from Carapegua are heading up this new work, and our prayers are with them as they get it going.