Ken and I walked down to the almacen (tiny country store with a few groceries) at the end of the block about midnight one night, and a couple of men were standing outside.  They greeted us and offered us a seat, so we stuck around to chat a bit.  These were a couple of 40-something fellas, one of which had spent about 10 years working in the northeastern US, so he wanted to swap stories.

It's always interesting to hear how people who've lived outside of Paraguay feel about other countries, and the things they notice about their own when they return.  A couple of nights later, one of them showed up on our front porch for terere, and then took us on a walking tour of the neighborhood.  We learned a lot of history and some interesting current events, and then ended at the other guy's house, where he'd prepared us sandwiches and homemade pizza.  

Friday night, we invited a few kids from the girls' youth cell group, for pizza and hanging out.  We planned to watch a movie, but skip-bo took over and everyone was having so much fun talking, no one wanted to watch it after all.  It's amazing what things you learn when you put food on the table and just listen.  :)


The next day, one of the mothers from the group came by with this plate of homemade goodies, to thank us for spending time with her son.  I do love how these folks always want to share!  (**Note: By the time I took the photo, some of the yummies had gone "missing".)

Saturday night, we dropped our girls and a couple extras off at youth service and went to the beach, where about a trillion people were hanging out.  We sat with the skater kids and shared a Coke, and learned that they are passing around a signature sheet to ask the city to build a skate park.  They'd filled it already, so they asked us to return tomorrow and sign the fresh one they're going to print.

We picked up the girls and went with a group of teens to eat dinner.  It always amazes me that folks are out STARTING dinner (entering the restaurant or cranking up the grill) at midnight.  By the time we ate, got the 5 girls who came back for the pajama party settled in and went to bed ourselves, it was 3 AM.  Lo and behold, at 5 AM we heard a band crank up.  Half a block from us is a big gym, which was rented out by the Catholic group, De Colores.  They're having their national convention there today, and I can't fathom why they started so early, but the band and the welcome speeches were at such volume that I thought the microphone and speaker must have been in our bedroom.  As I type this, they're still full swing.  Oh, well, at least the lyrics are clean, versus what we USUALLY hear at full volume on the weekend.  :)

Anything interesting going on in your world lately?