This past weekend, 8 young people were baptized from our local church. The picture below shows one young man, Samuel, with Dan on his right and Osvaldo (the house uncle at the Children's Home) on his left. Samuel and his sister, Rocio, were both baptized, and we blessed to have some of their extended family come for the event. How wonderful to hear their testimonies and see what God has been doing in their lives.
The past two Sundays, Dan has been preaching on God's love--how immense and definite it is for each of us. The realization of it certainly touched all who have been there. Last weekend, a man came forward to receive Christ. Yesterday, another man stepped up to ask for prayer. Many from the community stayed to watch these young people baptized. It's great to see God moving here in Arazaty (Ahr-RAH-sah-tu).

The rain has stopped, so today Camille will visit the school again. (There's no school if it rains, since the kids all walk to get there.) The picture below is the morning group (some go in the morning, some in the afternoon) just before they walked to school Monday. They always have a circle prayer before starting the school day. I just love that. One of the children leads the prayer, and the others repeat after him/her.



Some doors are opening at the school that we'd love to have your prayer over. The director would like for me (Christie) to teach English classes to the elementary grades (up to grade 6) this year. He also spoke to Dan about the need for the seven schools in his district to have a religion class. It seems this is a new school requirement, and he asked Dan if Paraguay Missions could handle this. SURE! In the same conversation, the director asked if we had any youth functions happening on the campground, because the students need a place to "hang out" on the weekends. What an opportunity!

I'll be walking Camille to school when she goes this afternoon, to talk to the teachers about Project: Puente. Thank you to those of you who have already contacted us about being a part of this. There's excitement on this end, so let's see what God will do!

Today I went to my first Paraguayan funeral. Please pray for one of the children next door, who lost her father yesterday to an alcohol-related death. Alcoholism is a common problem here, unfortunately. Thank God that this child had already found a safe place to live, here at the Children's Home, where she will have a great chance at a better life.

On another note, we're getting some much needed rain this evening, providing for a wonderful drop in temperature. It's been "threatening" to rain for days now. Because the land is fairly flat and there are so many fields, you can see for miles and miles (or kilometers, as it is). Many times we see the storm in the next town, waiting for it to get to us, but it passes to the other side. I took this picture today of a downpour that did just that--passed us by. As I type, we are enjoying sprinkles and breezes from a neighboring cloud, it seems. Thank God for the much needed rain to this country full of drought and dry crops.

(No need to click today...)

Our primary mission goal here, Tapé Mission Experience, will be opening on July 1, but we are also trying to be involved in ministry to this community. We're running across needs with the children, so we're working on the ministry I told you about, Project: Puente. Our natural bent (Ken and I) is toward youth, so that's where OUR focus ends up. In the U.S., there are more direct ways of accomplishing youth ministry. Here, the obstacle of getting to know the people and letting them know you is a biggie. We can't just jump right in and invite some young people over for dinner and a Bible study, you know? That's cool, because we've always said our calling is relationship ministry. So we've set about trying to build these relationships.

One way is soccer. Ken gets out there and endures the laughs and (mostly) good-hearted jokes about his soccer playing. He's getting better, but this is his first time to play, and these guys have been playing it everyday since they learned to walk, practically. And they take it VERY seriously. The fact that Ken is even allowed to play with the big boys is a testament to how much "practice" he did playing games with the neighborhood children.

After most games, the guys all sit around and enjoy the Cokes bought by the losing team. Some evenings, I make juice or kool-aid, or just take out a cooler of ice water or terere. They don't have much to say, but I sometimes get a "thank you," and I have to believe these little gestures are breaking the walls down a little at a time.

We've gotten a few of the fellas inside our house (a huge feat, we're told), baiting them with a movie or a video of UFC fights (good thing we're big fans and brought the DVD's with us!) We try to be very hospitable and visualize these young men serving God one day, rather than becoming the typical statistic of a wife-beating, girl-chasing, alcoholic husband.

This is a whole different topic, but I wonder where the girls are. I know it's not possible for there to be 50 boys born to this community and only the 2 girls we've seen. I have asked, but no one says much. My thought is that they're home cooking or cleaning. Anyway,...

When Ken packed our fishing reels and a couple of the smaller rods, I'm sure he was just thinking about the three little ponds that separate our house and the Children's Home from the camp buildings, and some evening/weekend free time activity. This past week, he's cast out into the ponds a few times. One evening, his timing was perfect!

He had just thrown his line out when a few of the older guys started showing up for the nightly soccer game. No sooner did one say, "It's not the right time or wind for fishing. You won't catch anything," than he got a hit on his line and reeled in a fish. Well, it was on! He quickly drew a crowd, and those same guys who'd been stand-offish and silent were now asking questions and making comments and getting quite interested in this funny looking reel Ken was using. One of the guys took that first fish home as a meal for his family.

I still struggle sometimes with the feeling that we should be doing more WORK somehow. That we're just spinning our wheels and need to do traditional stuff, like handing out tracts door-to-door or preaching on a street corner or holding a Bible study in someone's house. I can't get my North American work ethic wrapped around the reality of this new world. God keeps reminding me in ways big and small that His timing is not MY timing, and His ways are not MY ways. It's hard to operate that way, when I've always felt more spiritual according to how much I'm DOING for God. These things we do aren't so easy to measure. (I know, I know, that we don't earn salvation through works, but I still am happier DOING things for Him---I'm working on it. Don't crucify me over this one.)

I feel a certain pressure because I think, "We have these folks supporting us that want to hear about all the spiritual fruit of our labor, and there isn't enough fruit yet." I can't always see the fruit that's just starting to grow, or hasn't even sprouted yet. I guess I'm looking for the ripe fruit that's fallen off the tree already. None of you has made me feel this way, it's just how I'm wired. I've read that all these feelings/struggles are common for missionaries, especially in their first year. So my hope is that admitting this "out loud," so to speak, will help me get a little mroe in tune with God's ideas for our life and push aside my own conceptions of what my missionary lifestyle should be.

I'd love feedback on this one, so either comment below or email me at hagerman100@yahoo.com if you have thoughts. For now, I'm happy that my boss is a God who lets our "work" consist of hanging out with children at their school or in their neighborhood, playing soccer, and fishing. What a wonderful God we serve!

God has been so gracious to keep the really yucky animals at a distance for our first few months. It seems all the freaky things are coming out of the shadows now, though. I showed you the picture of Ken's stingray, but here's the piranha he also caught, right before letting him go. Below it is the tarantula (big old hairy legs and all) that was in the grass he was clearing. Then you'll see a very large burrowing worm that looked too much like a snake for my liking. I don't have the nerve to mention the slithery animal I'm so grateful we've avoided so far, but I'm grateful we've not met up with him. And I should say that I don't think the animal activists would be too happy with us so far.... (If you're reading this from my blogspot, click below for the pictures.)

Food is such a great way to learn more about the culture you're in, anytime you travel. We've shared a few North American goodies with our Paraguayan friends, including brownies and grits. The grits were a little "different," they said, but the brownies are an instant hit (was there any doubt?)

Ken is privileged that asado (steak on the grill) is a Paraguayan custom much observed, and the beef has a great flavor. Bread is also a staple (I've already mentioned that they don't call it bread, though. Each type has a unique name and bread is only the sliced stuff you buy in sandwich loaves.) We've learned a few recipes, but one of my faves is tortilla. No, it's not chips or even a relative to the taco, but it's a fried up bunch of goodness...

2 cups flour
2 eggs
2 cups liquid (preferably milk, but water will do in a pinch, or a mix of water and milk if you don't have 2 cups)
a handful of whatever you'd like to add (I like rice and black beans, with bell peppers. Ken likes tomatoes. Fresh veggies all chopped up are a good addition, too. Every Paraguayan uses onion.)

Mix all that up and drop by big spoonfuls into a frying pan with about an inch of hot oil. I generally fit three at a time in a regular sized pan. Cook until they're brown, turning them in the pan once. Camille eats hers with ketchup. We like to just salt them.

The benefit of this simple meal is that most people have these ingredients on hand. The downside is that for those of us who aren't accustomed to fried foods at all, it produces quite a belly ache within about half an hour. It's good going down, though. Try it and let me know what you think. (PS--I tried avoiding frying, but there doesn't seem to be a way to produce the same thing any other way. Alas.)

Project: Puente is the brainchild of Camille and Caroline, who have decided they want to take a more active role in our mission here. The goal of the project is to be a bridge (or "puente") between children at home and children here. They hope to facilitate communication through letters and postcards, emails, or e-videos. Not only will this be a great encouragement to these local children, but it will make overseas mission come alive for those in the United States.

The needs in this community are great, with most families living in a level of poverty we can't comprehend. We found out a few days ago that many of the school children come to class without the basic supplies needed to complete their work. For a lot of them, daily food is not a sure thing, so pencils and paper are a luxury. With that in mind, Camille and Caroline decided to "kick off" their ministry by getting some of these things to the teachers, so that they can disburse to those children in need. Friday (yesterday), they took pencils, scissors, glue, rulers for each grade at the Andres Avalino Delvalle Escuela Basica (Elementary School).
If your child or the children's department at your church would like to be involved in this project by becoming a pen-pal partner to a child/children here, please contact us for further details. On that note, we received an unexpected package from the Children's Ministry of Praters Creek Baptist Church in Pickens, SC. It was an envelope stuffed full of handmade cards of encouragement, and we were so glad to receive them. How thoughtful that these little people took the time to minister to us here. Thank you, Bryan and Christi, for going to the trouble to bless us. It was a welcome surprise!

When I logged on to post a blog this morning, I noticed we've crossed over the 10,000 mark!!! That means that on 10,000 different occasions, someone has clicked on my blog to see what we have to say. This doesn't count those who have it automatically delivered through their email inboxes. WOW! I am floored that our little family would be of interest to anyone, much less for 10,000 clicks. Thanks for stopping by! (And if you're one of those lurkers who just reads and never comments, now's the time to be heard....)

This is a bittersweet weekend. The girls are kicking off their own new mission, called Project: Puente today. I'll be blogging more details about that soon. We have service in a house-church tonight, which had been postponed for the last several months. It will be good to be with these brothers and sisters again. But tomorrow, my new friend Brenda will be leaving Paraguay for an indefinite time. She's just found out she has breast cancer (read about it by clicking here) and will go back to the U.S. for treatment. I found her blog and started reading it months before actually coming to Paraguay, learning lots about what we could expect. I emailed her with questions about this new life, and she always proved helpful and encouraging. Once we arrived here, she was a strong resource for our family, not only answering my endless questions, but introducing us to other American expats and even hosting a much-appreciated Christmas dinner the afternoon of the 25th. She's not only a huge blessing to the missionaries here, but to visiting teams and the people of Paraguay. Please pray for her healing and for safe traveling.

Again, thank you for being faithful readers. I was brand new to this blogging world when I started this mission page, and it's been such a benefit to us, through the ability to "journal" our happenings, to keep our faraway friends and family posted, and to meet new folks from around the world. God bless you, Friends.

There's a new addition to the Hagerman house. No, it's not a baby--or even another chicken--but living each night in our kitchen is a dirt bike. It's technically a "moto" (motorcycle) here, but at 200cc's, it seems like a dirt bike to me. The motorcycles here are all between 100-200 cc's, except for the occasional import. It lives in the kitchen because anything that can be stolen has to be brought inside nightly.

We've been saving up for this one ("THANK YOU!" to those who contributed) and are thrilled to get the relief it will bring to our gas budget. There are times we need to run around the neighborhood or into town, and taking the SUV out each time gets pricey. This alternate method of transportation also frees Ken up to do things farther from home during the day while we're schooling. (He didn't like the idea of us being "stranded" here with nothing to drive in case of emergency.) As soon as the motor is broken in (500 km or so), I'll be learning to drive it so that I, too, can use it for short trips. Look out Paraguay! Here I come!

Surely this post means that our family members will be increasing their prayer time for us, especially my mom, who saw how crazy the roads are here. Actual road rules are practically non-existent, for the most part, and the general law is that the biggest vehicle does what it wants. So motos lose out most times. There's no enforcement of a speed limit, but in the case of motorcycles, they just can't go very fast because they have such small engines. For this reason, rest assured that we will continue the Hagerman family rule of helmet usage. We will probably be more "North American" in our usage of the moto, as well. Here, it's very common to see families of four or five people (sometimes including tiny babies and/or toddlers) riding one small bike, and it's normal to transport the strangest things while riding. Just the other day, we saw a guy carrying a giant ladder. This picture below was taken last weekend, and yes, it's a live pig. We'll be sticking to normal passenger loads and minimal cargo for now!

(Don't click below...)

We spent a couple of days in the capital for our monthly business trip last week, although most of the "to-do" list didn't get accomplished. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a third-world country, and that means efficiency is out the window. The plus side is that the other members of our "Paraguay team" live a good bit closer to the city, so we took the opportunity to spend the night with the Mortons. We also spent a couple hours at the zoo in the capital (homeschool field trip, so to speak), which was nicer than I'd expected. The picture below shows Ken with little Abi on his shoulder, so she could see the monkeys. The sign says "Don't scream or throw objects at the animals." We passed several signs that said things like, "These animals prefer silence." You gotta be kidding.

We had a great time, though, and learned a lot about South American animals. There was an impressive museum of natural history on the grounds, with all sorts of stuffed and pickled animals, and--I'm not joking--a stuffed person. Okay, stuffed isn't the right word, but it was an actual native Paraguayan from long ago, with hair and all. She wasn't pickled in a jar like the two-headed cow or the freaky reptiles, but she was taxidermied, I guess you'd say. The girls were completely grossed out by this, including little Abi who was ready to go back outside when she saw the poor gal.

I'm constantly amazed at the economical price of things here, and that day was no exception. You just can't beat zoo, museum, and botanical garden admission and parking for about $4 for the whole family, and lunch afterwards at the newly opened TGI Fridays for 18,000 Guaranis per person (about $3.60), including an appetizer, a drink, and the entree. Wow. I haven't eaten that much in one sitting since getting here. Lucky for us, we went to the zoo before the meal, or they'd have put me in a cage alongside the hippos.
(No more following... don't click below.)

A couple nights ago, the house parents from the Children's Home invited us over for asado. This is the name for delicious ribs grilled over charcoal, with a tremendous flavor. We gladly accepted and enjoyed the opportunity to hang out with the kids in their home. It always amazes me to be there and see THAT MANY children (19 in all, ranging from ages 4-15) functioning as a family. They are polite at the table, they set the places and clean up afterwards, and the older ones help the younger ones cut their meat and pour their drinks. And I thank God each time for the healthy meals these kids are privileged to eat. Many in this country are quite malnourished, and most of these kids themselves were going hungry before coming here.

The picture below shows Angel, whose birthday happened to fall the same day as the asado. The house mom, Maria, is a phenomenal cook and always prepares a homemade cake for the birthday boy/girl. That child gets a particularly large piece, and everyone else is served a normal portion. I snapped this picture because it made me think of human nature. Angel has his plate right in front of him, with at least four times as much cake as everyone else had, yet he's pushed it to the side to scrape the crumbs off the empty pan. How often do we do that with the life God's handed us? He offers us a ridiculously spectacular life, and we push it aside because the crumbs on the empty plate seem more appealing. The world somehow draws us away from a "sure thing" to the measly leftovers it has to offer. Help me to eat that big slice of your homemade cake, Lord.
(Don't click below...)

I know that technically, the Sabbath first referred to in the Old Testament fell on Saturday, and that Jesus is our New Testament Sabbath. But I also know God created our bodies (and many things in nature) to operate as part of a cycle. We need the rest afforded to us each night as sleep. We also need that day of recuperation each week, to refresh ourselves physically, spiritually, and mentally. Our little family has never had the opportunity to fully partake of that rest.

Since getting married, Ken and I have both always been involved in our local church, but not on a full-time basis. So after a week of working a "regular" job, Saturdays were usually reserved for home and car maintenance (or a youth activity, or travel), and Sundays were jam-packed. We usually left home around 8:30 AM for Sunday morning services, which concluded between 12-12:30 PM. After cooking and eating lunch, then cleaning the kitchen, it was time to get ready for the evening service. We never begrudged this because we've REALLY enjoyed the different jobs we've held at church. I have to admit, though, that I was always envious of those folks who really RESTED on Sundays. Our version of rest was the nap the girls took in the back seat to or from church, or on the back bench of the sanctuary if it turned out not to be worth it time-wise to drive back home between services.

Since moving here, that has definitely changed. Sunday services are literally in our front yard or right across the small pond, so we leave our house at 8:50 AM and walk to service that starts at 9! We get back home by 11 AM at the latest, with plenty of time to sit around sipping terere with other church members or to take a swing at a siesta in the hammock. It's tempting to catch up on schoolwork or housework (it's neverending here), but we've tried to remain committed to taking full advantage of this new Sunday schedule.

We've also found that this is a good time to explore nearby places with our Paraguayan friends, who get a kick out of being our guides. Just this past Sunday, Milciades showed us a fishing spot in the River Paraguay. The girls and I fished a tiny bit, but mostly I lay on a blankie with a book, and they dangled their feet in the water. Ken was the only person to catch anything, namely, a STINGRAY! The men fishing on the bank were quite impressed and very disappointed when Ken let him go. They came running to the river's edge trying to grab the stingray before he got away, but the little guy was too fast for them. He had no desire to be the milanesa (fried patty) they were screaming for.

I hope you're able to work restful family time into your Sundays, too. I think God is smiling about our time, and I know WE are!!

Sorry for the long pause between posts, but we have been without internet for days now, due to what we assume was a cell tower out of commission. Whatever the reason, we're happy to be back in the land of the web.

We had a great example of God's love and a demonstration of the power of prayer this morning, which will not be soon forgotten by Caroline. She's still working through an emotional time right now, with quite a few teary moments and a bit of clinginess. Well, Ken burst into the bedroom this morning to tell me that the pet chickens were not in their pen, and that one wall of the pen was on the ground. There are stray dogs all around, as well as cats and larger chickens, all of which we've had to shoo away at various times, to protect our new little chickens. So my first thought was that a big dog had come in the night and had a feast. Caroline was quite distraught, as you can imagine. After a few minutes to calm down, Ken suggested we pray for the missing birds. Caroline was unable to pray due to her tears, so she asked Ken to pray, and she added her "Amen" at the end. I am not exaggerating when I say that within 30 seconds of the prayer for their safe return, the chickens were at the back porch pecking around for their breakfast. God is not only good, but sometimes He's really fast. It is good to know that the "little things" in our everyday life matter to our Heavenly Father, as well.

A popular saying around here is "Don't buy what you can make yourself." It's much like what Ken and my brother, Dino, used to say when finding an item to be overpriced: "Well, I could make it for THAT!" And so we did. Lots of times we'd just construct whatever item we thought we needed at the time, from clothing items to furniture, and even our own house. Ken was looking at costs of having one built and finally said, "You know, we've never done anything like this before, but I could build a house for much less than that." And that's exactly what he did. Every free moment, including all our weekends and each evening after work, I was his assistant as he handbuilt our house. We'll not elaborate on the times the handy assistant shot him (twice) with the nail gun, or any of the other near-disasters over the course of the two-and-a-half years it took us to get the house built. I was just proud that I'd married a man with SKILLS!

So here we are in Paraguay, where he fits right in. I've already shown you the lovely little bird cage he made, which now serves as a chicken coop at night or in the rain. Paraguayans are always filling a need by making something ingenious, like the picture above. This is our tv antenna. Now, we could have gone into town and purchased one for about $10, but someone told Ken you could make an antenna from an old flourescent light bulb. We had a bulb that needed replacing, so the old one was put on a cane pole and hooked to antenna wire on each end, then the cane pole was hoisted to the side of the house. It works like a charm! (Okay, not exactly like a charm, but if you don't count the times one of us goes outside to twist it so that whichever channel we want to see comes in clearly, then it works as well as the $10 one!!) PS--Don't click below...

Liz (pronounced Leece) is one of the precious little buggers living next door to us in the Children's Home. I've spoken about them on this blog a trillion times, but if you're new here, we live beside a home for abandoned children, which houses 18 boys and girls, plus the house parents (Tio and Tia), and their 4-year-old son, Kevin. So there's never a shortage of fun right outside our front door. These children are sooo special, each with his or her own needs and personalities and mannerisms, of course.

Liz is the youngest, who came here with her slightly older sister, Laura. The two of them are as different as night and day. Liz often wants to sit in my lap and wallow around all over me, singing the cutest little songs about hanging out in the sun, a milk cow that produced Coca-Cola, and wanting to marry a Senorita after eating rice and milk. But my all-time favorite song is called Kirito, and I've recorded it here, if you click below. I posted the lyrics in Guarani (which is how she's singing it), and then in English, in case you'd like to learn it. Don't ask me why she's throwing gang symbols throughout her version of this little song. She's very animated and often over-pronounces her words for effect, as you'll see.

(Sidenote: Just this week I taught her to say, "I am Liz and I am four," in English, and she's been saying it to EVERYONE! Unfortunately, I didn't record that, but it's just the cutest thing.)

Kirito, che rekove omapotî, ikatuma heraitépe ame'ê che maitei. (There's more, but this is all Liz sings, over and over)

"Christ has transformed my life and now I can greet you in the peace of the Lord." (or "in His name")

Today, Camille was a guest at the local elementary school here in Arasaty. Her daddy and I laughed that the first time she sat in a desk in a public school was in a foreign country. We'd visited the same school a few times last year, to meet the teachers and greet the students. The teachers seemed excited to have us drop by each time, and they invited the girls to attend as students. We didn't want to make that sort of commitment, but we asked if they could come from time to time as guests, to which we received an enthusiastic "Of course!"

So today, Camille ventured with a few other kids from the Home next door, to what we thought was a typical Friday. Apparently, the students get most of their book work done on Monday - Thursday, and Fridays are reserved for cooking (home ec), fisica (P.E.), and dibujo (art). When they got there, they found out P.E. was delayed until another week, art was replaced by catching up on the math, and cooking got replaced with Guarani class, since Camille was there. I'm sure the other students appreciated that. The teacher got a kick out of speaking a little English with her and teaching her some Guarani greetings and questions/answers.

The math class was a little challenging for her, since it consisted of word problems. She didn't quite understand what the problem was asking, and then when they wrote out the numerical problem on the board, she found that their method of writing out the problem is different (see below, with her problem on the left). When she showed the teacher how she'd written out the division, he told her he'd never seen anything like it and didn't know why she'd put the remainder in a fraction form. So he rewrote it to the right of hers, adding his personal signature. I just love that.


I'm not sure how often the girls will drop in as "visitors," especially if it upsets the schedule for the other kids (wouldn't want to cause problems, you know), but for today, Camille had a good time and learned a lot of new Guarani!

We attended church this past weekend at the same home where we learned to make Sopa Paraguaya. Around 8:30 PM, the pastor's family and some others from the neighborhood began gathering in the front yard, where chairs and a few benches were waiting for the crowd. We were given the opportunity to speak for a few minutes, and to my surprise, both of the girls volunteered to greet the crowd and give a short testimony, completely in Spanish. Way to make the Mommy proud!

Apparently, church services have been held here for the past 11 years, using the yard as the meeting area. One of the men took me around the side of the house and showed me a foundation which had been poured for an actual church building. He shared that they think more people from the community would attend if the facilities for meeting were more "formal," like this small church building would provide. He said the foundation was finished and now they lacked about 10 million guaranis to finish the rest of the building (approximately $2000). Some of this money they already have, if I'm understanding correctly. I smiled to hear of their fundraising endeavors, since some things just don't change. They've been hosting soccer tournaments, cooking dinners to sell, and selling things, much like what we do in the U.S. to raise funds for building projects!! The only thing lacking was a good old fashioned Krispy Kreme doughnut sale in the Wal-Mart parking lot.

The pastor did us a favor by preaching his sermon in Spanish, rather than Guarani. The language most spoken out here is a blend of the two called Jopora, where most words are Guarani with a few Spanish ones thrown in the mix. (Jopora is actually the Guarani word for "mix.") Usually, there's enough Spanish in Jopora preaching for us to get the main point of the sermon. He voluntarily worked his way through the sermon in Spanish, though, and we enjoyed some of the praise and worship in Guarani. Afterward, the lady of the home served us a wonderful chicken and rice dinner (much like my Granny's version of chicken and dumplins) while the men sang and played the harp and guitar. The pastor's daughter invited us to her Quince party--the traditional party when a young lady turns 15. We can't wait!

We enjoyed our fellowship with these brothers and sisters and felt quite at home in "God's house" with them.

As I mentioned earlier, Fredy's mom invited us over this past Saturday to learn the art of Sopa Paraguaya. It's a very popular form of cornbread, but you DON'T call it bread (they thought I was crazy). After a time of terere and greetings, we got started with a bag of corn kernels. They were put through the grinder and came out the other end into a bag. We took the bag over to the table, poured a little bit at a time on top of screen like you'd find on a window, and sifted out the fine powder into a pile. The leftover parts that were too big to fall through the screen were set aside as chicken feed. (Warning to my dial-up readers: Many pictures included if you click below...)



Next, we started a blazing fire in the brick oven. Pretty much every family in the campo (rural "country" areas) has a brick oven. It's much smarter to cook outside in this heat! The fire was stoked and allowed to burn while we finished the food preparations.



A big bowl was used for mixing the ingredients, which included butter, the water that collects when you're making cheese (more about that later), some Paraguayan cheese, the corn flour we'd just sifted, and a few eggs. I was told that the amounts on this can all vary, according to what you have on hand. The cheese water (called suelo) was poured into a cup with large grains of salt and left there for a few minutes. Then the water was drained off the salt and added to the mixture, which was being stirred by hand (the girls really wanted to get their hands into that bowl!)


When it had been WELL-mixed, we poured it into the baking tins (greased with oil) and ooohed/aaahed over the pretty batter.

One of the sons removed all the limbs from the brick oven and raked it until nothing remained inside. I wondered if there'd be enough heat in there. It was a concrete floor, though, and it was quite difficult to get close enough to the heat to push the pans in, even though I was using a rake. Fredy remarked that this is why he didn't want to go to Hell.


The door was closed and all the cracks around it were stuffed with leaves and small branches. We took that time to play with the chickens and make some chipa (another popular bread).


After what seemed like about 15 minutes, we opened the door to find perfect Sopa. There are no pictures of us eating it because no one could be torn away from the warm fresh goodness to snap a photo. Trust me when I say it was delicious!!

No, we haven't dropped off the planet, we've just been running, running, running. Last week was a very hectic homeschool week, with us trying to get back on track. I got up Saturday morning to leave for the hospital before 6 AM (not my style, you know!) and have my "study results" interpreted. I have one more scheduled this Friday because they thought some of my numbers were off and that I may have kidney stones or something. Okay, I don't want anything like that, so I'll take any prayers you want to send up on that matter. :)

After getting back to the house, we all loaded up to spend the day with Fredy's family again. They had invited us to visit so that his mom could teach us the "real" way to make Sopa Paraguaya, which is a delicious version of cornbread. We stuck around for the evening church service, which was held in their front yard. I have tons of pictures from the day, which I plan to share with you later this week. Fredy's mother gifted Caroline with a pair of chickens before we left, since Caroline was oooing and ahhhhing over all the animals there. Caroline was ecstatic. Those of us trying to hold the chickens in the car were a little less excited at the time. Ken is threatening to name one "Fried" and one "Boiled."

Sunday morning we attended a service in Carapegua, where several churches came together for worship and Communion. This church still practices literal feet-washing after the Lord's Supper, so that was a treat for me. It was the first time for our girls to experience that.


After service, we took the kids from the Children's Home back (we were packed in like sardines) and headed to Reinaldo's house. He is an old friend of the Millers who invited us for an asado (grilled beef ribs) at his home. We drove past such beautiful scenery to get there, including winding mountain roads, a large lake, streams and rivers, and crystal springs. Reinaldo and his wife have a 3-month old baby, which provided us all with some easy entertainment. Their home is near where the Millers and Mortons live, so we decided to head that way for dessert. Needless to say, it was so late when we finished, we spent the night and headed into Asuncion this morning.

We're still waiting for the car salesman (actually, he's the lot owner) to get us our legal paperwork for our SUV. We expected it today (after being put off SEVERAL times by him) but no luck. We did swing by the supermarket that occasionally gets imported groceries from the US, and Ken found the JACKPOT! Hidden behind and under several bags of other things, he uncovered a single bag of CHOCOLATE CHIPS!!! REAL, semi-sweet Baker's brand chocolate chips!!! I've found some waxy chocolate-flavored chips already, and they are certainly better than nothing, but we were sooo excited to find those today. Shaun and Sara went with us and found something special today, as well, but I won't let the CAT out of the bag for them. I'm sure she'll be sharing about it on her blog. More later....