I am sending a bunch of pictures for you bud so that you can maybe use them in your project... I took a lot during Pday, but hopefully you can use some of these as well.
BUDDY, sure do love you boys ( and family) so much! Nick, I hope these pictures help you with your project... the only thing is you have to talk at least a little bit about the church and missionary work, okay?! That is the only prereq with using all of these pictures...! have a great weekkkk!!!!!
This is a picture of the "asesimientos" or government housing that they have here. It is really diverse. We live right next to a mansion but then just one cuadra up is a neighborhood of homes like these with nothing but dirt floors, tarps and wood for their walls. It is very humbling. A lot of them that live in neighborhoods like this just cook all of their dinners over an open fire and their form of work is to make and sell anything they can... collecting plastic, selling tiny cakes or emañadas...living from day to day but still very giving of what they can. We were in a lesson with a lady named Alcalina and her husband Laureano and they were so excited to make us some fresh "limeade" from their lime tree after we finished the lesson.
They have open markets were there are TONS of people selling different fruits and vegetables, but because the Sisters in the mission are pampered, we shop at this grocery store that is only a 20 min walk from our house... I buy fruit and vegetables here for less than half the price in America. You litterally could live off of the fruit that is just found on the trees though. Mango season has stopped, but for my first two months here, I sometimes wouldnt pack anything to eat for the day, but we would just eat the mangos that had fallen from the trees!
There is A LOT of religious diversity, but the main religion is Catholic. You can find little shrines like this even in the poorest homes or sometimes just in the streets and people will come and leave an "offering" to show their respect to the virgin maria
Every city has a "plaza" where vendors will come and sit outisde and sell just about anything they can. There are often people passing with baskets of freshly made "chipa"... everyone eats emeñadas and chipa!
This is a picture of "colectivo" or bus that we take every once and a while to get to an appointment if we are in a hurry. In the mornings, they are JAMMED packed with at least 60 people going to work... heading west to work downtown in Asuncion... we live about 25 min from Asuncion.
All of the roads are filled with this read dirt and "empedrada"... you get used to walking on it after a few days! I think I can count on one or two hands the number of paved streets that we have.
Sometimes when it rains, you have to take draistic measures! We walked from appointment to appointment wearing these tarps becasue an umbrella just doesnt do it!
Nick, I couldnt fit in the file of the quick video that I took... but every weekend, especially Sundays, everyone visits family and they sit outside under the shade drinking tedere (I am not sure how to spell it.. it is a yerbe mate drink) and listening to their Guatani music blarring... their music is something VERY typicall to Paraguay and their Guatani language. They are very pround to be Parguayn and to speak Guatani. They teach it in the schools starting when the kids are really young.
No comments:
Post a Comment