Visitors!
This past week, my mother and her sister (my aunt) came to visit. That was wonderful on many different levels - wonderful to see them, wonderful to show off some of the fascinating parts of the life I’m living, and wonderful what they did for me while I was here. I have an elaborate new drainage system on my front patio now, a hammer, and a mind-boggling assortment of plastic bags and second-hand capri pants.
You have to have lived in Paraguay for a little while to understand how exciting some of this is. But take my word for it, I’m enormously grateful. And I’m especially grateful for their patience and flexibility. We had some hold ups in our travel arrangements. Nothing completely devastating, but some definite frustrations. I’ve known people who would have melted down in the face of being stranded by a broken bus, 20 kilometers from anything. But not these cool chicks.
The Guaraní word of the day is for giving commands. If you want to make an imperative statement to one person, you prefix the verb with the sound e. For two or more people, you use pe. There are various suffixes you can add to make a request more or less forceful. So if you wanted to politely request for people to come visit any time, the verb form would be pejumi.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:03 pm
I savored everyword of Mom’s tale. It was so good to get first hand accounts and news. I am so proud of how you are dealing with your daily life and I love you very much. Now that I have gushed… D and I had our last visitors this past week. The house should be ours for the next couple of months. Just as I was starting to feel like spring was finally coming, we got a HUGE dump of snow over the past couple of days. Snow or not the resorts will be closing next week. D and I will now have to find some other weekend activities to keep us busy. I think I am going to join in fly fishing this summer. And then there is biking, hiking, and backpacking. That is most of our news. D and I both send our LOVE. 17 months and counting.
April 6th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
I wish each person who reads this blog could experience the extraordinary visit we had to this remote corner of the world. We were hosted in style by a composed and savvy young lady who is flourishing as she takes life by the horns. A mom just couldn’t be any prouder.
My fave parts, aside from the obvious of getting my arms around my daughter, were seeing the homestead, traveling with a beautiful and generous sister, sharing a big pepperoni stick with delicious cold PY beer, being a part of a bus rescue, meeting PY neighbors, shocking the locals in the hardware and plumbing ’store’ as DYI women, visiting the local church, and so much more.
17 mont