We arrived at the hospital around 6:30 AM 4/18 to begin the induction. The night leading up to the induction was not as restful as we had hopped– Ofelia apparently got a stomach bug and woke several times during the night to empty her stomach over her bedding and pajamas! That, was not what we had planned! I guess this is foreshadowing of what things can be like with more than one child…
By 11AM the contractions were getting a little stronger, but not yet painful.
3PM: Consistent contractions, but still not painful. Lots of waiting. Weylin has completed 2 Sudoko puzzles on the G-phone (I’m trying to stay sharp for the big push!).
4PM: The pain has arrived!!! Here comes the intensity…
9:09PM: Mateo is Born!!! We have a new son! The newest and youngest subscriber to this blog! 21 inches; 9 pounds 1 ounce.
Mateo and his mother are happy and healthy. Katherine did a great job and made it all the way through labor without pain meds! What a trooper she is!
98 days. That is how long I have been away from Katherine and Ofelia. Since mid-August I have been back in the US, living in Cleveland OH and working on getting my PhD in Organizational Behavior. 98 days is a very long time to be away from one’s wife and daughter. It feels even longer when that distance is from Cleveland to Paraguay! So many frustrating Skype conversations with digitized pixelated video and choppy unintelligible conversation. And how exactly are you supposed to carry on a conversation when there is a 30+ second delay? We have had to adapt and adjust, and in general make the best of a difficult situation. We have done well with it, found ways to remain close and connected, and most importantly– it is about to end!
Tomorrow I board a plane and begin the long journey into the world that is Paraguay. It will take about 24 hours to complete the journey (provided I don’t get waylaid in Panama or Bolivia!), and it will be worth every minute. We will have the pleasure of reuniting as a family in Paraguay before returning as a family to Cleveland. Having already made the re-entry transition, I know that temperature is the least of the differences that must be adjusted for. It is an extreme culture shift traveling between these two worlds. The beautiful thing is that we will now do it as a family– as it should be.
So before I embark on this journey I’m posting up a video of Ofe that Katherine sent to me. This is the type of thing that has kept my spirits up and focused on making it to our reuniting. I cannot wait to see them both. We have a lot of catching up to do. What a wonderful Thanksgiving this will be.
I’ve been back in the states for nearly 2 months now. All this time I’ve had this video and these pictures ready and waiting to be posted. Why the wait? Sure, I’ve been busy, like every other American who puts too many plans into any given day. But that’s not why it’s taken me two months.
When I left Paraguay, I left 2 very important parts of my life there, Katherine and Ofelia. Being back here without them has been very difficult, and very lonely at times. I realized that by not posting these pictures and this video about our trip to the Jesuit Ruins, I was avoiding a piece of having left Paraguay, and my family there.
Things are going very well for me in my graduate program, but I deeply miss many things about Paraguay and my time there. I still drink terere every day (my colleagues have gotten accustomed to me and my termo) and I’m even studying Español every day– and still I miss Paraguay.
I’ll soon be going to Paraguay to bring my beautiful wife and daughter back to Cleveland. So now I can share this video and these pictures with all of you. We can all stop waiting for Jesus!
We shot these great photos and this video back in late June when Kate and my mom and Kamilah were visiting. We took a weekend road trip with Gladys, Roberta and Francisco to Encarnación. The video is from the Jesuit Ruins at the town of Jesus– about 12km off of the paved road, and about 45 minutes drive from Encarnación. Translation: the middle of nowhere, but unbelievably beautiful and impressive. Some of the photos are from another Jesuit ruin site also in the Encarnación area.
Not long ago, Mac asked me if I drink terere or mate. Do I?! I have been called a terere fanatic. I drink terere every day, for much of the day, and on cooler mornings I drink mate before the day warms and I prepare my guampa and termo for terere.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been taking daily classes to learn Castillano. I have learned a lot, but not only about a language. I’ve also learned and shared a great deal about the history and culture of Paraguay. Terere is a very important cultural ritual here in Paraguay. During all of my lessons, Carlos and I share terere while we
I love this stuff!
talk and work– while we share languages and cultures. A while back I asked Carlos to assist me in making a video so that I could explain and share this part of Paraguayan culture that I’ve fallen in love with.
Grateful Termo & Guampa
Rather than simply demonstrating how to make terere or presenting some encyclopedia style explanation, we decided to have some fun. In the video Carlos speaks using his 3rd language, English, and I use my second, Español. My vocabulary is basic enough that you should be able to understand the gist of things. In many ways this video is a culmination of 8 months living here in Paraguay. It is about my adaptation to this foreign place and my efforts to integrate and appreciate.
The video is about 15 minutes long so sit back and relax. Enjoy the friendship, the terere, and the language development process!
No, we’re not pregnant again! Concepción (HERE to find it on a map) is a town in the north of Paraguay where we recently spent the weekend.
Our trip actually began about a week before we left. My profe, Carlos, had invited Katherine and I to accompany him and his novia (girlfriend) on their weekend trip to Concepción. We were up for a change of scenery and so agreed. The first step was for Carlos and I to get our bus tickets. For that we had to drive into Asuncion to the bus terminal. No problem. Our bus was to leave the terminal at 11:15 pm on Friday night, and it would arrive around 5 am in Concepción. We hopped Ofelia would like this plan and sleep through the trip.
On Friday night we woke Ofelia around 8:30 pm (she goes to sleep around 6!) then we walked 20min into Luque to catch the micro that would take us to the terminal in Asuncion. We had to be waiting for that bus early because there is no schedule and later at night it may only come every hour– but you don’t really know because there is no available schedule. We got lucky and only waited for about 20 minutes before our micro came. Then it was a loud 40 minute ride to the terminal. Once at the terminal we quickly found our friends and commenced to waiting. After about an hour our bus arrived at the terminal and soon we were able to board.
The long-distance buses are like tour buses you might see in the states. The passenger compartment windows are curtained and there is a wall between driver and passengers. The result is that you see very little as you ride, except for what you can see from your own window or that of a neighbor passenger. Our night ride quickly left the bustle of Asuncion and began the long journey through thinly-populated Chaco land. We occasionally woke when the bus would veer and bound over the road. It was apparent that parts of this road were “unimproved” but it didn’t seem to slow our driver, neither did the passing of cattle trucks on this narrow two-lane path.
At about 4 am we arrived in Concepción. Carlos agreed to help us find our hotel, Hotel Francés, at this early hour. We set off walking across the large and empty double avenue which had zero traffic and a median populated with some statues and some old machinery (this kind of street decoration is not as common here as it is in the states). As we passed a truck (on display in the median) from the ’30’s or ’40’s, I glanced in and saw that someone was using the front seat as a bed. Twenty minutes of walking through the empty streets, only meeting a few youngsters heading home after a full night of partying, we arrived at our hotel, bid Carlos good night, good morning, and headed for sleep.
We enjoyed a relaxing weekend of just walking around this clean and safe, and quiet city. There are no micros in Concepción so the air is much cleaner and quieter. Also they keep streets very clean and seem to have unusually well maintained streets and buildings– quite a contrast to most other towns we’ve seen here. Another difference is that motos far outnumber cars, it must be like 20 to 1, no joke. And I only counted about 5 helmets all weekend! Concepción has a beautiful river, Rio Paraguay, running past and affords great views and breezes near it’s banks.
On Sunday we headed out to the double avenue to catch our return bus. At the bus stop we shared a shaded bench with a scruffy fellow who seemed to be drinking his terere (tea like beverage) with Caña (alcohol made from sugar cane) instead of water! As we waited for the bus I looked around and saw the antique truck in the median. Then our friend, having exhausted his caña, stretched out on the bench for an early siesta. It was then that I realized I had seen him before– curled up in the truck two nights ago! Small world there in Concepción.
Prior to this trip I had reflected that things here in Paraguay don’t seem to be as crazy or adventurous as they once did. And I didn’t really feel like our journey to Concepción was all that adventurous— but I think that we would have had a different experience of things several months back when all of this was so new. It is comforting for us both to see and feel our continuing adaptation to Paraguayan culture. We have learned, and continue to learn, a great deal about accepting and dealing with whatever comes at us and not wasting time and energy on complaining or wanting things to be different. We value these lessons.
Here are some pics from our trip. Mouse over the image and click on images to make them bigger, and use arrow keys to navigate between them. You can also right-click and select full-screen to see a larger version of it all. Enjoy!
No, this is not a post about Mayoliva, or even Mayonnaise. The title indicates something about products, but really this is about complaints. You see, this is my third attempt at writing this particular post supposedly telling you about our experiences with product supply and intermittent availability here in Paraguay. However, on my first two attempts to write, I kept getting stuck when I would read over what I’d written and realize that I sounded like I was complaining– I didn’t want that, I thought I simply wanted to tell a story. Well, I’ve finally accepted that what I really want to do here is complain a bit.
When planning to come to Paraguay we often wondered about what products would be available in stores in terms of medicines, foods, and baby supplies. Upon arriving we began to explore the grocery and pharmacy stores, taking inventory and sampling brands and varieties. For those of you wondering, no, there are no Trader Joe’s stores here. And yes, that has been difficult for me.
We were relieved to find a few kinds of frozen vegetables for us and Ofelia, such as the Brocolí pictured here. We also found some treats like the mayonnaise made with olive oil pictured above. (it puts a nice twist on ham and cheese sandwiches!) In general, we found that there is a much, much smaller selection of goods. This goes for groceries as well as things like toilet seats (I’ll spare you a picture of those). To a large extent, what you find in one store you will find in another. Coming from the US style giant stores with mind boggling product variety, this was a big shift– and at times welcome. There are nice grocery stores here, they just don’t have the extreme product diversity and variety that we have in the US. Example: the cereal “isle” is about 10-15ft long. The yerba mate isle contains more products than the cereal isle! (this I like)
We also had difficulty finding yogurt without sugar. The one pictured here is the only one we have found, and many stores don’t carry it. That is part of my complaint.
The other part is that products you see today, may not be here tomorrow, or they may. This has happened with the Brocolí and mayo, and with our preferred brand of baby butt wipes– actually with our top three brands of wipes! The wipes are not pictured here because at the time of this writing we cannot find them in stores! This is what happens. Back in January we thought everything was cool with the Broc, but then it disappeared. Two months later it re-emerged, only to disappear a week later and to remain absent for another three weeks. When it came back that time, we bought all 8 bags! We have adjusted, we’ve learned to hoard. It does earn us some funny looks at the checkout, that’s a price we’re willing to pay.
What all of this comes round to is not about the excesses of the US, or the scarcity or unreliability of goods here in Paraguay. My complaints are really about our own struggle to integrate into this system. It is a challenge to our assumptions about “the way things ought to be.” We are constantly faced with the reality that how we live is not how everyone else in the world lives, and they often do just fine, or even better in some ways. As difficult as it can be, it is a growth experience in struggling to adjust to someone else’s norms and expectations. It has helped, and continues to help, us examine ourselves and how we live, and the choices (or cultural assumptions) we often make without thinking.
Thanks for joining us in our Process. We're back from the beyond and settling into Cleveland, 2 PhD efforts, a new house, and 1.5 children-- no boredom here! Our foreign adventure has passed but "domestic" adventures are emerging. Stay tuned for anecdotes and updates.
Trust the Process.
We arrived at the hospital around 6:30 AM 4/18 to begin the induction. The night leading up to the induction was not as restful as we had hopped– Ofelia apparently got a stomach bug and woke several times during the night to empty her stomach over her bedding and pajamas! That, was not what we had planned! I guess this is foreshadowing of what things can be like with more than one child…
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