Week One: Already Civil Unrest

It is Tuesday, and one full week since we arrived in Paraguay. The boys have started school, we have met some very nice people, and we have explored our little part of the city. Not too bad for only seven days.

I'm still without a way to upload photos to the blog, because I am not smart enough to pack the cord that came with the camera. While we were packing I couldn't imagine why I would need it, because out printer has a built in compact flash reader. However, the printer is in the surface shipment. I wasn't thinking of the three months or more that our surface shipment will take to arrive. Silly me. In the meantime, I am looking for one, and I hope that soon I will be able to share photos of our new home.

Last week was eventful in more ways than one. We explored a little bit of our new city. We found that there are very few traffic signs. And many one way streets. And most of them lack traffic signage. I have seen only one stop sign, but everyone seems to know who has the stop and who has the right of way. I can't tell that there is a system, but I hope to crack the code before I start driving. We're lucky not to have our car here yet. We would definitely get in a wreck if we did.

Monday was the boys first day of school. The first difference that we felt is that everything in this country starts early. The school bus comes to get the boys at 7 AM. Seven o'clock. One more time, seven. Seven. We have to get up and get dressed and get down to breakfast by 6:30. In the morning. We are used to leaving our house by 8:20, nearly two hours later. School starts at 8 AM, and goes until 3:30 PM. After school the kids can play basketball, volleyball, soccer, chess, get homework help, or learn about the surrounding countries. It is a fun program, with many travel opportunities for the kids 5th grade and older.

Chris seems fine. In middle school all of the classes are taught in English, except for Spanish class. He also goes to a special social studies class where he learns a little about Paraguayan history and culture.

Sam goes to SSL, Spanish as a second language. He is in a grade without many foreign students. While they speak English during instruction time, the playground language is Spanish. He misses the OC, he wants to go to the OC, and he wants to be home. I hope, for his sake, that he can have an attitude adjustment, or this is going to be a very long year for him.

Marcus got put into immersion Spanish. In first grade the language of instruction is Spanish because most of the kids are local Paraguayans, with only one year of English. Marcus is feeling frustrated because he wants to follow instructions and do what he is supposed to, but he doesn't understand what those instrutions are. Other than that, he likes school.

Each of the boys is assigned an "ambassador" who will show them the ropes, how to get lunch, how to get on the bus, and to hang out with them at recess and breaks. We hear that many of the ambassadors become the new students best friends.

Noah and I have been walking to the grocery store every day. We buy new treats to try, and stock up on bottled water. The store has Pantene, Colgate, Johnson & Johnson's, Huggies, a lot of Nestle products, Dove soap, and Coca-cola products. But everything smells different, or is different that what we buy in the USA. The chocolate tastes weird, the diapers are different, the soap is smelly. They only thing that is the same is Coke. And Coke light (diet Coke). Noah and I also explored the mall, it's pretty, it's kind of expensive for Paraguay, but we did find a suit for 340,000 guaranis. At the exchange rate of 5000 guaranis to 1 dollar, that's a good price.

We also experienced our first bit of authentic South American civil unrest. I don't know what is going on here politically, but there were about two thousand protesters outside the embassy today. They weren't protesting at the embassy, but at a building nearby, and there were riot police, and rubber bullets, and people being pushed away with water cannons. It's kind of scary and kind of interesting.

Here is a picture of the police outside the embassy.



I'm sure many of you know that we lost my grandpa last week. We really miss being home, especially because we are so isolated here. The boys have been very sad. Sam already wanted to go home, and this just cemented his desire. We are learning that life goes on without us, it is hard to learn, and harder to accept. We miss our family very much.

Welcome to Asuncion

Yesterday after twenty-four hours of travel, about a month of trying to pack, clean, and give away our extra stuff, and a very intense week really packing, cleaning, and giving away our stuff, we have finally arrived in Asuncion, Paraguay. There are a few things I have learned during our transition.

First of all moving is really horrible. But the organizing and cleaning out all of the extra collected junk is really nice. I feel like I lost about 2000 pounds. Probably because I did. I really like to keep stuff and have stuff and share my stuff when it is needed, but holy cow, I don't really need all that stuff. So now a lot of it is gone. But not all. I have some packed away in storage, like a security blanket, just so I can be comfortable. And happy.

Second, if you ever move, and if you can afford it (because we didn't pay for it and I have no idea how much it would cost), it would be really great if you could hire movers. They are soooo nice. I wasn't supposed to put anything in a box, or move any boxes, or do anything to any boxes. Three very efficient movers showed up at my house on a Tuesday morning, and by the time they left on Thursday afternoon, my house was empty except for some cleaning supplies, the stuff we were taking to Paraguay, and some leftover stuff that we forgot to store. In an ideal world, I would have been organized and had everything ready to go, but in reality I am me, and I don't do things until the last minute, so I was still sorting and reducing while the movers were packing. It's really not the best way to do it. Sam tells me that if Kevin was in charge, then we would have been done weeks ago. I'm sure that's true, but I am a procrastinator, and I do all my work at the last minute. It worked in college, and it worked this time. If I were giving out grades, I would give myself an A-. However, I am so exhausted that I could cry. Next time, when we move home, I resolve to be more organized. And not keep so much stuff.

Third, traveling to a foreign country, on another continent, and in another hemisphere is not really fun. We got on a plane in Salt Lake City, Utah at about 11:45 AM Monday morning, and flew to Atlanta. We arrived in Atlanta at about 5:30 PM, and got on a plane to Sao Paolo, Brazil at 7:30 PM. We flew all night, and arrived in Sao Paolo at about 5:30 AM. Then we got on one more plane at about 7 AM, and flew first to Ciudad del Este, then on to Asuncion, Paraguay. We arrived here at about 9 AM. We were met by some really nice people from the embassy who got our luggage to a van and took us to our hotel. So, after about twenty-four hours of travel, three airplanes, and not a lot of sleep, we arrived at our hotel. Kevin and I crashed at about 2 PM, the kids fell asleep at about 4 PM. It was a very long day.

Fourth, you can cancel all of your utilities from your cell phone in an airport. We know because we did. Kevin called to cancel our last bill, our cell phone, during our layover in Atlanta. It was kind of funny, but we didn't want to be without a phone until the last possible minute. As it turns out, they won't stop our service until the end of the next billing cycle, so we still have service until April, but we don't have phones that will work in South America.

Finally, our family is very loud. We are in a nice, quiet, peaceful hotel, and we are loud. We talk loudly, we run loudly, we yell, loudly. I feel bad because I know the kids are feeling stir crazy, but we are not in our own space yet, and we are making our presence known in this one. The hotel is very nice, we have two adjoining suites, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, and two pull out sofa beds. Plenty of room to sleep, but not to play or to unpack all our things. I would love to have a big closet, a dresser, and a bathroom cabinet to really unpack and move in.

Our first impression of Paraguay is that it is very green, lush, and quaint. The streets are narrow and all except the main streets are paved with rocks. Not cobblestone exactly, but rocks, with sand pounded in to fill the gaps. They are very bumpy. There are not really any high rises right around our hotel, and most of the buildings have red-tile roofs and stucco walls. We walked to a supermarket yesterday, bought some water, some snacks, and changed some dollars for guarani (local currency). The traffic is loud, a bit unruly, but not that bad. We had hamburgers with ham and cheese on top, pretty good, and fries. We haven't tried any local dishes yet, we are starting out slowly.

We also went to tour the boys' new school today. It is a beautiful campus, with lots of grass, flowers, and trees. It seems like a good place for the boys, and they will start on Monday. If you would like to check it out, here is the website: http://www.asa.edu.py/.

We miss our family and friends in Utah, but we are excited to learn new things and make new friends. Please drop us an email at llawdnus@gmail.com, or give us a call, ask Cynthia for the number. We'd love to hear from you.