Procrastination and Pictures

We have now been living in a hotel for six weeks. It is getting really old. We received our air shipment last week, and we had to store it at a warehouse because we don't have anywhere to store everything here. Kevin and I went to the warehouse to get some things out of our boxes, and I noticed that I needed everything that I packed. I suppose that the point of having an air shipment is that we get the things we need faster, and now we have to decide what we need and what we don't. It really is okay to live with less of our stuff. It's hard because there is only one dresser drawer for each of us. And two tiny closets that we share. Kevin's work clothes take most of the space in one closet, and the other is full of the boys' toys, shoes, backpacks, the hammocks we bought last week, and a couple of suitcases.

For the last six weeks, I have been telling myself, "as soon as we get a house, I will..." I will start exercising, take harp lessons, find the kids a piano teacher, feel like we are home. Not having a house has been my excuse for not doing a lot of things. Well, last night I decided that I'm going to start doing some of those things while we are in the hotel. If we are going to be here another two months, then it is really time to start living how I want to live while I am in Paraguay. My first task is making, I mean, signing up the boys for afterschool sports. Sam and Chris are going to play basketball, and Marcus wants to play soccer. I think that they will be happier and make more friends if they get involved in activities. My second task is going down to the gym at the hotel and spending some time on the treadmill. My third task is getting some pictures up on this blog. I hope that some of this will help us feel like we are living here, and not on an extended vacation.

I have some cool pictures of our field trip to San Miguel.

Here is a worker at a big loom. It's kind of dark, but you can see the whole loom. He is using foot pedals to switch the warp threads up and down, and also to shoot the shuttle across. It's pretty amazing, this piece of fabric he is weaving is going to be sized for a queen bed. You can also see some wool hanging from the ceiling.

This is a smaller loom. This weaver is making narrow fabric for throw rugs, table runners, or placemats. He uses his feet to switch the threads, and sends the shuttle back and forth with his hands.

A spinning wheel, still in use.

These girls are wearing traditional Paraguayan clothes. They performed two dances for us at lunch.

This dancer has a bottle on her head. It's hard to see in this picture. She is wearing a beautiful skirt of handmade lace.

The final two pictures I took from our van, while it was driving. They are kind of blurry, but you can see what how the campo (countryside) looks.