Things are a bit calmer here than when I wrote my last post, but we're not out of the water yet.  There are still protests throughout the country--peaceful demonstrations so far, where folks group together and block half of the road while cheering and waving flags.  We went through a couple of these roadblocks the other day, and it just makes for longer travel times and possible interviews with news reporters.

As far as the state of the country, that's pretty iffy.  Most of our neighbors, as well as other countries around the world, have refused to recognize our new president, Federico Franco, saying that the process of his impeachment and removal was unconstitutional and against democracy.  The rumor is that ex-President Lugo is setting up an alternate government, one that probably WILL be recognized by those nations I just mentioned.  Where that leaves the Paraguayan people remains to be seen.  The biggest worry I've heard is over Venezuela's promise to no longer sell us oil.  Many are also worried about the border closings which began this week.  Crossing the border sounds intimidating, but normally here, it's a bit like going from South Carolina to North Carolina, but stopping at the rest area that welcomes you at the line.  Many people cross every day into Brazil and Argentina, to work, to go to school, to make purchases.  So we'll see how this all plays out.

As for us personally, we're just a few days from our move to Encarnacion.  We are packing the house up one box at a time, and we signed the rental agreement this week on the little house we'd been looking at.

We had a bit of unexpected and unwelcome excitement a couple of days ago coming back from my PT and Caroline's dentist appointments.  It's never recommendable to drive in Asuncion during rush hour, but we got stuck in just that. I held my breath and closed my eyes for most of the ride while Ken bobbed to avoid the motorcycles that were passing us on both sides and weaving in and out of our lane.  We made it through the worst of it--no small miracle--and then a few miles from home, an oncoming car decided not to turn fully on a 90 degree curve.  Ken realized he was coming into our lane, but there wasn't time to get fully out of his way.  He plowed into the side of us just behind the front tire, then scraped all the way down that side.  And kept going.

As we watched him leave, we noted that the car behind us had to take the side of the road because the crazy driver kept heading straight toward him, even after hitting us.  He appeared to be a bit intoxicated, based on how much swerving he was doing in the crowded traffic.  Thank God that the ugly damage to our newly fixed car was the worst of it.  We've pretty much decided that it's not worth it to have the insurance we pay for monthly, fix it.  I think the last time they did that it ended up costing us more than if we'd just skipped over them and paid for it ourselves.  Ugh.

On a positive note, we plan to move to Encarnacion Monday, and the traffic there is much calmer.  There aren't nearly as many city buses, and the folks are just nicer on the road.  We don't hear the constant horn honking of Asuncion, nor have to slam on brakes as motorcycles fight us for our spot. To say I'm looking forward to that is an understatement.  Encarnacion, here we come!

So it's getting a little crazy here!  Soccer in Paraguay has been canceled this weekend--THAT big!  Don't expect my rundown to be as accurate as, say, some news site, but here's my best guess at what's going on down here in the land of protests and coups and fresh democracy, complete with links (click the colored, underlined words) if you want more info.

You know, Paraguay has a pretty wild political history, and the effects of the many, many years under some pretty scary dictators are far-reaching. After the overthrow of the last one in 1989, Paraguay has been considered a democracy, but she's still a toddler trying to get her feet under her and walk without stumbling.

When we first got here in 2008, the current President Lugo was coming into office.  You may recognize his name because he's making world news pretty regularly, with a cancer scare in 2010 and then again every time a different woman surfaces insisting he fathered her child while he was a priest.  (He's admitted to two.) There's a general frustration every time a new paternity claim surfaces, because religion is taken pretty seriously here.  But there's also a good bit of cackling and crude jokes about it because, well, this is a highly chauvinistic country where men typically have gals on the side. Despite that, folks were hopeful of what this Catholic "priest of the poor" who left his church office in order to run for president, could do to bridge the huge expanse between the very rich and the desperately destitute.  

Tensions have been high for many years concerning land rights.  I still don't understand this fully, but here's my take.  Many people claim their land was taken from them unfairly and handed over to politicians, or to friends and family of the Ruler of the Day.  Lugo's big campaign promise was to get the land back in the hands of the people--a promise he's not been able to keep.  His supporters swear he's trying, but that he doesn't have any backing in government, and he can't do it alone.  Who knows, but since we've been here, I can testify to the sin-techos (homeless, literally "without a roof") protesting the situation by squatting--camping out in tents in public plazas, on the side of the road, on large farms or uninhabited lots.  Usually this is fairly peaceful, albeit unsanitary and unsafe.

This past week, a clash between some campesinos (rural folks) ended violently, as a total of 17 police and campesinos were killed when police arrived to eject them from the property of a private landowner who happens to be a presidential candidate opposing Lugo.  There are tons of rumors and opinions about how and why this went down the way it did, whether it was a planned part of what's now happening, who fired first, if the campesinos were trained by the militia group (the EPP)--and they all sound like something out of a movie.  Wow.  This stuff REALLY happens.

Let me break from the land-rights issues to add a little more fuel to the embers of unrest.  There is an overwhelming feeling here of "us and them" when it comes to politicians.  The line between the common man and his government representative is not only visible in the horse cart vs. BMW and hut vs. mansion, but this is a land where connections make or break you, and, well, let's just say justice has a price tag.  The people make jokes about the roads that are paved on maps but actually still dirt, and say that the local politician is carrying that asphalt around in his pocket, or that the head of the dilapidated school is driving around in that school's new roof.  So a few weeks ago, the whole country was in an uproar against the senators because it came out that another LARGE sum of money designated for the betterment of the country, never quite made it that far.  The word I've heard more than any concerning this has been ladrones (thieves), in reference to the elected officials in the Senate.  Here are some pictures of the protests that followed.

Fast forward to today, when tensions are still high from last week's campesino/police massacre.  Lugo's party, the Liberals, sided with the opposition and the Senate voted 76-1 to impeach President Lugo.  Within an hour or so, he responded with a speech that he would not resign, but would await due process and go through the impeachment.  By this evening, the Senators presented 5 arguments against Lugo, which he will contest tomorrow.  Yep, that quick.  Despite the cold and the rain, people began to file into downtown Asuncion for more protests.  President Lugo was escorted out by helicopter.

Four heads of departments resigned, and combined with the two who resigned after the massacre, that means Paraguay is now without some key figures, including the Ministers of Education, of Agriculture, of Industry, of the Interior, and the Chief of Police.  The news stations were announcing all the private school closings but had to add that they were unsure if public schools would remain open, since there was no one in the position to make that decision presently.  As you can imagine, it's all a bit unstable right now.

http://www.ultimahora.com  TRANSLATION: "LUGO, the people are with you."

From what I can understand, most who are protesting are in favor of the President, not necessarily because they are Lugo's fans, but because they see this move as a political coup.  Many of them held signs that called for the resignation of the "thieving Senators" or that said, "We won't return to a dictatorship."  They see this as a power play and are taking a stand for democracy.  At least, those are the ones who are being interviewed by the news stations.  Incidentally, the Catholic Church has asked Lugo to resign to avoid the potential violence.  But EVERYONE who gets the microphone is calling for more people to come out, including a mobilization of the homeless, and folks are coming.  

The plaza was full when I last saw a broadcast, and there were constant announcements of buses being sent out to and arriving from all parts of the country.  The area near the recent massacre reported to have sent 570 people to the capital tonight.  Police are controlling who comes into the city, stating that they won't interfere with the right to protest, but they are checking everyone traveling to assure that weapons of violence don't enter.  Needless to say, we have decided against my physical therapy appointment and Caroline's dentist appointment tomorrow, since both are pretty near the drama.  Think we'll just stay put and watch the news on tv.  We're particularly interested in the reports that the Union of South American Nations has condemned the actions of the Senate, affirmed that they will not recognize the successor, and threatened to close the borders of Paraguay.  Yeesh!

But we are safe, we are praying for a peaceful end, and we are advising our friends to keep their distance from the protests, as the Embassy has warned us to do.  The potential for escalating into violence is really, really high here, so we'll avoid the crowds.  As always, we try to stay out of politics and deal in the spiritual needs of the people.  For that reason, I'll again add this disclaimer that you might not want to quote me on any of this.  I'm just telling you what I've seen, and I admit that this whole thing is confusing to me, but I do recognize instability and a volatile situation that could get ugly in a heartbeat.  Your prayers are appreciated for this country we presently call home and have really come to love.

Back in February, I told you about our vision trips to various towns all over the eastern end of Paraguay (refresh yourself here if you've forgotten that post or missed it the first time around....)  We knew God was calling us back into the thick of things, but couldn't quite figure out where.  And then when we thought we were pretty sure about the place and were ready to pack up and go for it, the car took its long vacation in the repair shop for a couple of months.  Hmmmm, maybe God wasn't quite ready for us to go.

I don't pretend to understand God's mind, but we kept praying in case we were rushing things or not hearing clearly which town we thought He was sending us to.  But when the car finally came back home, we still felt that Encarnacion was the "place we oughta be" so we loaded up the bug and we drove to ....  Okay, "Beverly" really fits better, but we just drove southeast until we hit the river that borders Paraguay and Argentina.

Because realty agencies and classified ads aren't really common here, going in person was our best chance to find a home to rent.  We drove up and down every street in Encarnacion, her surrounding neighborhoods, and even the roads leading out of town.  Encarnacion is a city undergoing a lot of changes this past year, as the lower areas were flooded on purpose to make the city into a sort of island.  Now the only way to reach it is by crossing one of several bridges now linking it to the rest of the world.  There's construction on every side, with road crews and red dust and dump trucks full of rocks.  Building being torn down, buildings being built.  And not many houses to rent.

Looking at Posadas (Argentina) from the Paraguayan side of the Parana River

More than once, I questioned God about Encarnacion.  Are you sure, Lord?  We're really just country folks, and the youth we've worked with in Paraguay have been rural people, as well.  I wasn't really nervous about moving to another little town the size of Carapegua, where we could basically do the same sort of thing we'd done there and fall right back into step.  I reminded Him that I'm comfortable in that, and that we're really used to youth from the interior of Paraguay.  I pointed out to Him that these Encarnacenos are border kids--they have a different culture from living so close to Argentina (just a bridge crossing away, a bridge that's crossed both ways by tons and tons from both countries daily).  And, Lord, while I'm at it, You do know that things are a bit more expensive close to the border, right?  I'm sure God was really glad that I was there to fill Him in on all this!

But I kept hearing all those little cliches we learn in Sunday School:  That God will not call us to something He can't equip us for.  That He's more interested in AVAILABLE than ABLE.  That He wants to take us beyond our own abilities to show His strength in our times of weakness.  Okay, Lord, I'm available.

So we attended a few church services, hung out with a spectacular youth group, met with a few pastors, shared our vision a few thousand times, and found a little house near the downtown area which will stretch us in a whole lot of ways but could really prove to be strategically located.  We're still waiting on confirmation on the rental, but if all goes as planned, we may be looking at living there by this time next month.

As always, we appreciate your prayers.  Prayers that we can tie up loose ends on this side of the country enough to move on, that God goes ahead of us and prepares the way, that we can figure out the best way to move our stuff, and that our girls will do well in yet another time of transition.