Paraguay!

First off, I need to apologize to everyone for the lack of communication these last few days; I have been running around like crazy trying to get situated. But let's start with the bus ride from Bolivia to Paraguay...

Ok. Bolivia is half really high altitude mountains and half almost sea-level desert. The half that is sea-level desert turns into the northwest part of Paraguay. It is called the Chaco, and Paraguay and Bolivia fought a war over it in the 30's cause they thought that there was oil there. According to the Paraguayans I've talked to Bolivia had tanks and machine guns while Paraguay had only machetes and pitchforks (one guy told me that Paraguay used bee hives as grenades?!) And in spite of all of this Paraguay won the Chaco War and took its bigger share of the Chaco desert. And there wasn't oil there. There is, however, a giant aquifer there and Paraguay is very worried that the US will invade and steal all their water after we are done stealing all the oil from Iraq.

Remember the Mennonites from the last blog entry? So I get on the bus and who is right in my area of the bus but a real-live, gigantic, blond Mennonite and his little blond family! The dad and two sons (both under 3 years old) were all wearing blue coveralls with long sleeve white shirts and the Mrs. was wearing a shawl and an old style dress. They were speaking what I found out later to be (translated from Spanish) "low German" or I guess old German or something. It sounds more English than German. They had a bunch of stuff and were getting situated, and some of their things were on my seat, so I waited a bit until they were all settled. It took them a while because they were bringing a bunch of stuff back to Paraguay and because of the kids and everything. When they were all done, it turned out that they had only purchased 2 seats and stuffed underneath and overhead all the space that they could with their things, and then each had a kid on their lap. And they were across the aisle from me. So when it turned out that nobody was in the seat next to me I offered them one of the seats on my side of the aisle (thinking that they would put one of their tiny kids in the seat next to me) and they exhaled and were all smiles and the great big dad came over and told me to scoot over and the mom put the kids in the aisle and spread out across the 2 seats that she now had for herself. So for the whole ride I got to be squished by a giant german guy that doesn't use deodorant.

But it turned out to not be so bad cause pretty soon I was stinky too and I told the Mennonite that my grandpa was a sheep man and that made him immensely pleased. So pleased that he started sharing the prices of soy beans and sunflowers and the different prices in Bolivia and Paraguay and that his family actually lived in Bolivia now because the Mennonites in Paraguay had all been corrupted and were all watching TV now. They had moved to Bolivia last year and were going back to Paraguay to "get some documents." Which I guess was true cause when we got to the border he really didn't have any documents for his whole family and had to bribe the immigration officer 60 dollars to let him pass. He later told me that he had just driven his tractor across the Chaco and had eventually ended up in the right place in Bolivia.

The Bolivian immigration officer didn't seem to have any problems with the French and British people that were crossing the border (who didn't speak spanish) but with me he looked me right in the eye and asked me what I was doing in Bolivia and if the date on the entry stamp was correct and which cities I stayed in and the names of the hotels that I had stayed in and how much I paid at those hotels. After a pause he nodded his head slowly and looked kinda disappointed that I really didn't have any reason at all to give him 60 dollars and gave me my exit stamp.

The Paraguayan side of the border was more interesting because Bolivia, along with Columbia, is where cocaine is born. The coca plant, from which cocaine is made, is farmed and used to make a traditional tea or is chewed to make a traditional ball of goo, both of which are mild stimulants. Coca tea is what I had in the coffee shop before church. I just kind of assumed, but later found out that Bolivian Mormons do indeed drink coca tea. So anyway, since there is a lot of coca in Bolivia there is a lot of cocaine. On the Paraguayan side of the border there were drug dogs and searches and pat downs and everything. I was the very last one in line to get my stuff gone through and to get a pat down, but when my policeman came up I greeted him in Guaraní and he was really happy and instead of patting me down just patted me real hard on the back and told me to get as many Paraguayan girl-friends as I could and then he called the other police over and they all told me in Guaraní to get as many girl-friends as I could. Then I told them that I was already married and they laughed really hard and said that I had misunderstood; that they had told me to get girl-friends, not a wife. So I kinda uncomfortably laughed and they all laughed again and nobody checked my stuff.

When I got to Asuncion I was pretty dirty and sweaty and tired and very very excited to be in parts of Paraguay that I had been in before. The first thing I did when I got here was to go to the lomito arabe place - Collin knows what I'm talking about, and in Germany they had kind of the same thing and called it a duner kebab. There is this guy in downtown Asuncion from Lebanon that sells these things that are a kind of wrap with chicken and beef and vegetables and it is amazingly delicious and I am planning on going there a lot.

The second thing was to find a place to stay. Lonely Planet recommended a place in the center of Asuncion that is this old lady's house that she has converted into a kind of hotel. All of the older houses here are kind of indoor-outdoor experiences, in that you if you walk from the front of the house through the kitchen, through the family room, and into your room, you will first be outside, then inside, then outside, then inside again. It is pretty neat for the summertime because everything is open and breezy, and especially when it rains because you can be inside and dry but you are very close and intimate with the weather. Right now, though, since it is pretty cold, being intimate with the weather is about as enjoyable as cuddling with the lunch lady.

So all of that was Thursday night and I took a really hot shower and put a lot of blankets on the bed to keep the lunch lady out and slept like a log. When I got up, I realized that I hadn’t brought any phone numbers and went to the mission office to at least get the number of the Stake President here, who is the one who had given me the email address of Jabibi Noguera, the doctor that I will be working with in the clinic. Did any of you ever go back to your elementary school or high school after you had graduated, and feel “above” the jurisdiction of it? That is what it felt like being in the mission office with jeans and a beard. How mature am I?

I eventually got Dr. Noguera’s phone number and we agreed to meet Monday night at 5:00 to get acquainted and to get everything in order. I also had my laundry done (as in someone else did it) for three bucks. Then, a minor crisis with the ATM’s here occurred; all of the machines said that they weren’t associated with my card. And on the bank’s website it says that every ATM should work. Then I tried calling the toll free number for the bank, but all of the public phones and all cell phones here have toll free numbers blocked. (side note - almost everyone uses cell phones) (another side note - the police, fire, and hospital numbers are all toll free, so basically no one can call them) I went back to my hostel to use the phone there, but the old lady running the place really didn’t want me calling the US from her phone cause it would be expensive. When I told her it would be free and showed her the Paraguayan version of 1-800 on the phone number I was going to dial, she started explaining to me how far away the US is and that the phone lines have to go through water and across mountains and that everything in the US was more expensive. So I couldn’t use her phone. By this time it was already late in the afternoon and I was getting pretty desperate cause I didn’t have three dollars to give to the washer lady. Finally I tried another ATM and it worked. So I know which ATM to use now.

When I got back to the hostel, the old lady running the place told me that she wanted to go to mass and I asked her if I could go too. Nooo, she said, but could I stay and answer the phone and unlock the front door while she was away? “Just tell people you’re the guard from North America. Ok?” I guess she didn’t trust me enough to use her phone but now she wanted me to run the place for an hour. So I said ok, and she left and I answered the door and didn’t tell people that I was the guard from North America.

The next day, Saturday, I planned to surprise some friends, the Lopez family, by showing up on their front doorstep. So I got on a bus and rode an hour out to Anahi, where they live, thinking that I would just remember all of the streets and be able to just go right up to their door. Keep in mind that I practically lived in the streets in the streets of Anahi for four and a half months. So I got off the bus and everything was fine and good, but then the further into the area I got, the less I recognized, and I ended up just walking around the streets for three hours and getting really tired. I knew, technically, that I had been there before, but really was completely lost.

So I eventually gave up and found an internet place and read an email from Jill and felt a lot better about myself, and then I read another of the emails in my inbox. It was from the Figueredo family, one of the families that I met the first time I came to Paraguay. In the email they invited me to stay at their house and said that they missed me and were so glad that I was back in Paraguay and fortunately, they also gave me their phone number. So I called them up and rode the bus back into Asuncion to meet up with them, and they brought me home and made me food and everything was okay again. The Figueredos have been Mormons for a long time, and are better off than most Paraguayans; they have a big house and everything is very comfortable and free and, best of all, I am living with a family. We talked for a long time last night and drank lots of maté and today we went to church and I showed them pictures of Jill and we are all really excited for her to come down.

So tomorrow we will run some errands and then I have the appointment with the Dr. to see exactly what I will be doing for the next month. Sorry about the length of this entry, but it had to cover many days' time. I love this place!

Notes:

I was mistaken about the altitude in La Paz. It's not 15,000 feet like I said, it's closer to 12,500 ft. Sorry.

It snowed in Buenos Aires last week. It hasn't snowed there in 90 years.

My excuse for the run-on sentances and bad grammar of the blog? I have been reading Jack Keruac lately.

The Title Has Returned!

Hey hey hey everyone. I am so excited that I can do titles again that I am going to go back and put titles on the last few posts I have done, so that it will look neater. I am in a cybercafe in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and the guy who runs the place (he is probably 15 years old) is playing Brazilian Techno really loud and there is another kid (who is probably 8 years old) who is dancing very enthusiastically in the doorway. I wonder if it is an elaborate plan that they have made in order to to attract business.

Sorry about the lack of pictures. The camera needs new batteries, and I have been on the bus for a long time. Yesterday and the day before that I came from La Paz to Santa Cruz on an 18 hour bus ride. We got stopped three times so that they could check for drugs. In all there were probably like 3 hours of delays because of the drug police. I sat next to a lady whose dad is half Japanese and half Turkish. Her mom is Bolivian. She was kinda interesting, but she talked for probably half the trip, which when you are on an 18 hour trip, adds up to a lot of talking. She was one of those people who only listen to you for long enough to know what to talk about themselves next. I guess that is kind of like this blog, huh? You all can make comments, but mostly it is all about me! I was also worried because there were like 5 families on the bus who had babies. But all of the babies were pretty good for the whole trip, even though they were really stinky.

Last night I slept in a dorm room with 2 other guys. One is from Sao Paulo, and lived in Boston for 2 years. He was really laid back and cool. The other guy is from Wisconsin and kept talking about 3 things. The first thing was how awesome it was that he spoke Spanish and Portuguese so well, after only one semester abroad. The second thing was how awesome it was that you can get drugs so easily in South America. And I forgot the third thing cause I kind of stopped listening to him after the other two things. I hope that he gets picked up by the drug police.

There are tucans in our hotel. You can hold them and everything. I have almost gotten pooped on like 4 times cause I always want to hold them, and cause they poo a lot. This morning I wore sandals to the bathroom and they both started attacking my toes with their huge beaks.

I leave tonight at 6 oclock for Paraguay. Supposedly it is a 30 hour ride, through the Chaco Paraguayo. The Chaco is probably a lot like Wyoming. There are a lot of cattle and sheep and some Indians, but instead of ´´I´m a Maverick´´ mugs filled with Pepsi like in WY, the Chaco has German Mennonites. Contrary to popular belief, most came over between the World Wars, as in they weren´t Nazis or anything. But there are Nazis for sure. One of the questions on the Brazilian visa application is ´´have you ever committed genocide?´´

Well, I guess the next post will be from Paraguay. Ciao!

The Best Day of the Trip So Far...

Today has been the most relaxing days of the trip. So of course it is Sunday, so I wanted to go to church. Fortunately, there is http://www.mormon.org/, where you can look up the times and places of any congregation anywhere in the world. So I looked up La Paz. There were 3 pages of information, and I asked the guy who runs the internet place which of the addresses was the closest. Pretty soon everyone from the whole cybercafe was crowded around my computer telling me to go back to the first page, then to page 2, then back to page 3 and after about ten minutes and much deliberation, the consensus was that the one on 20 de Octubre was the closest. Then I went back to my new room (a whole $2.50 a night) and went to sleep.

I woke up extra early and got ready; I felt pretty sheepish sneaking out of the hippy lair in a white shirt and tie, but it was Sunday morning so not very many of the wild things were stirring. The walk to church was great, gone was the madness of the Saturday market and the only other people about were a few older couples out for their early morning (8 am) walk. I love older people in Latin America, because when you say, ¨Buenos días,¨ they act as if you had just given them a million dollars. They smile and say ¨good morning to you, young man,¨ and want to shake your hand and may God bless you and we hope that your family is okay without you and all of this happens while each party is still walking past, so it´s quite the intense experience.

After a Bolivian breakfast (a piece of bread and a coca tea) I was hoping that no one would see me walking from the coffee shop to the mormon church, but sure enough there were some guys in white shirts and ties that I pretended like I didn´t see. When I got to the church I was talking to some of the members there and it turns out that the guys in the white shirts and ties were also gringos, and also from BYU. This piqued my interest cause Nate, remember, my friend doing research in Sucre who I was going to see but didn´t, was with a big group from BYU. So maybe these guys were from the same group. We went up stairs to one of the meetings going on, and lo and behold, there was Nate! So everyone was surprised and happy, except for the Bolivians until I explained to everyone that I wasn´t with these other gringos, but that it was pure chance that we met up. It turns out that Nate´s internship in Sucre fell through, and he is waiting in La Paz until tomorrow, when he´ll go to another city.

Church was great. The guy who taught one of the lessons is a professional teacher and asked the most amazing questions that really made you think. Someone played the guitar in the Sacrement Meeting, and afterwords a guy with a pin on his jacket that said ¨Don´t Mess With Texas¨ came up and wanted to practice his english with all the gringos, which he most certainly needed. But then we started speaking in Spanish and he was very very articulate, in fact, it turns out that he writes for the Associated Press. So that was cool.

After that, all us gringos went back to the apartment that they are staying in. It´s right in the middle of the most busy street in La Paz, on the eigth floor. That would be like living on Times Square in New York or Center street in Provo, or next to the Pony Express in Ten Sleep. They have a great view of the whole city and carpet and a washing machine and mattresses that aren´t made out of straw. So we went out to eat after that and had a great time.

I hope that you are all well! Thank you very much for the comments, by the way. It has been more lonely than I thought it would be (I don´t know what I was thinking, man I miss my little wife) and it is nice to know that you guys are following along. Colleen (Brian!)- sorry, but I can´t help you out with the Titicaca fishing info. I did stick my fingers in the Lake, and it seemed warmer than I thought it would be. Is that something that fishermen do? One more piece of info about Titicaca- one of its islands is Isla Del Sol, or the Island of the Sun, which is where the Inca creation story supposedly took place. Matt - glad to see you here too, I will definitely call the Solers.

Today really has been a good day. Tomorrow I will get an early start so that I can do all the paper work at the Brazilian and Paraguayan Consulates, and I will probably post again tomorrow because the Brazilian consulate supposedly takes all day to do its thing. Then tomorrow night - the bus to Santa Cruz. Ok, bye!

One More Picture...

Here is one last picture form the top of the hotel. When I woke up at around 8 this morning, that road that you see was completely full of vendors selling fruits, vegetables, fish, flowers, sweaters, RCA cables, knives, and anything else you could ever want. Anyway, I should probably go, I need to find a cheaper place to stay for the night- it cost 5 whole dollars for my place last night.

Ciao

Some Pictures of La Paz...

These are 2 pictures that I took from the roof of the hotel that I stayed at last night. They were taken right at sunset. From the top picture you can sort of make out the shape of the city, which is located at the bottom of a bowl in the mountains. The pictures don´t do justice, however, to the magnitude of the height difference between the top and the bottom of the bowl - around 2,000 ft.

Arriving at La Paz really is breathtaking. After our little boat rides on Titicaca, we traveled for about 3 hours accross a completely flat plain, with mountains off in the distance. If it weren´t for these mountains, the road itself could be in Kansas. The outskirts of the city are the poorer regions, and slowly these began to appear. After about one hour of driving through the slums, with detours down dirt side streets due to strikes and demonstrations blocking the road (all peaceful) the bus turned to the left and we were on the edge of the top of the bowl. We had a complete view of the city. The city itself consists of tall buildings and organization in its center, but as it creeps up the sides of the bowl, it turns brown and chaotic. Richer people live in the older districts at the bottom, and poorer people have filled the bowl to the point of overflowing. The view from the top really was magnificent.

You Need to Move Your Bus Across the Lake? Use My Raft!

Here is a picture of our bus on its little raft. I took it while I was in the boat where all the people had to go. At first I was kind of annoyed about having to get off the bus and pay for another ticket to ride the boat, but when I saw this raft thing I was happy that I wasn´t trapped inside the bus as the raft capsized and it sunk to the bottom of the highest navigable lake in the world. Well, that didn´t exactly happen, but it very well looks like it could have, as evidenced in this picture.

Some other funny things about the bus - this one has ¨Leon de Juda¨airbrushed on the side, which means, ¨Lion of Juda.¨ The owner of the bus seems to be not at all shy about his faith. Also, on the way into La Paz, we passed a big church that had a parking lot full of buses in front of it and a priest was blessing each bus.

My favorite bus thing though, was on the ride out of Lima, when one of the attendants came around and passed out bingo cards! Then he got on the PA system and we all played bingo. The prize? A return ticket to Lima. The winner was invited to give a speech over the PA, in which he fervently thanked the bus company for the excellent entertainment and for the generous prize. He also thanked his family and all of the other passengers for playing. It was great fun.

Pictures!

I found a computer that will let me upload pictures, but it still doesn´t like the title thing very much. Oh well. So here are some pictures. They don´t tell a very complete story of the trip so far, because like I said, I have been on buses a lot. But of the things that I have seen, here is a glimpse into a few of them.






This picture was taken in the Cathedral of Lima, which was built in 1555. The bones were discovered in the 1900´s. There is another famous place full of bones which is called The Monastary of San Francisco, which I am saving for when Jill and I come back to Lima. The Cathedral is the official church building in Peru and consequently all of the important people like the archbishops, the viceroys, and whatnot were buried here. One of the famous guys buried here - Francisco Pizarro.

The Monastary was where everyone else was buried, so consequently there are a ton of bones there. None of this is news to Jacque and Brandon.

In this picture you can see many things.

1. This is a picture of the crossing that our bus did at Copacabana, Bolivia, which is located on Lake Titicaca, the ¨highest commerically navigable lake in the world,¨according to Wikipedia. This was a funny crossing because we weren´t told anything about getting off the bus beforehand. All of a sudden the bus came to a stop at the shore and the driver´s assistant announced that the bus would be going across on a barge and that we would be going across on a boat. We had to get off the bus and buy a ticket for like 50 cents to take a little boat across. This picture was taken after we had gotten off the bus and while we were waiting to get on little boats to take us across the lake. So you can see the little boat that we rode in with the Bolivian flag on it. Also, you can see that the other side was not very far. We were probably in the boat for like 10 minutes.

2. Prominent in the picture is the Bolivian Naval Seaman. Or maybe we could call him Lakeman since Boivia doesn´t have access to the sea.

3. You can also see the two ladies in the foreground of the picture with their boweler hats. Every woman over 30 and about 50 percent of the women over 20 wear the traditional hiked up skirt, little jackets made of wool, a woolen shawl, and 2 long braids and a bowler hat, just like in National Geographic. I didn´t want to just take a picture of them in the street ´cause that would be rude, so that is why I point them out in this picture.

I Found a Title for the Poor Little Orphan Entry...

For some reason, this computer won´t let me put a title on this blog. If I could, though, I would give it the title, A Change of Plans. I got into La Paz, Bolivia last night at 6.00. I was planning on going taking a bus to visit my friend Nate in Sucre while I waited for the Brazilian and Parguayan consulates to open on Monday. For some reason I thought that Sucre was only 8 hours from La Paz, which wouldn´t be so bad on an overnight bus. It turns out that Sucre is 16 hours from La Paz, and I don´t really feel like being on a bus for 32 hours this weekend just so I can be with Nate for like 10 hours. Sorry, Nate.

I am also dissapointed, because I wanted to go to Potosí, which is really close to Sucre, but I won´t be able to now. Oh, well, I guess that just means another trip, which we could call, Bolivia 2009. Or something like that. So I am stuck here in La Paz for the weekend, but it will be good, though, because I can do a bunch of research over the internet today and rest a lot tomorrow.

As I have been on buses for the past 3 days, I have mainly only met other tourists, which is neat, but I am not exactly experiencing Peru and Bolivia. Most of the other people on the buses are Europeans. It´s interesting. Everyone is really laid back and willing to chat for the whole bus ride pretty much. In every one of the conversations that I have had so far the topic of ¨where else in South America have you been¨ comes up and I always tell everyone that I lived in Paraguay for 2 years. And then they ask why, and of course I tell them that I was a missionary. And then they scoot a little further away from me and I tell them that I was a Mormon missionary and they scoot even further away. Then they look really worried and uncomfortable for a little bit, then I tell them about the church and what exactly it was that I did in Paraguay and they scoot back closer and we get along fine again. They always say, ¨but you don´t look like a Mormon,¨ which I don´t know if that is because they expect all Mormons to be wearing a white shirt and a tie or if it´s cause of the ultra-hip beard I´m growing.

I am trying not to enjoy myself too much, because Jill is working so hard back home. I always tell everyone that my wife always makes fun of me because she graduated before me, but now she is the one that has to work while I get to claim student status and vagabond around South America. Not that I´m really vagabonding, the buses are really nice. Maybe I´ll feel like I´m vagabonding when I ride the ¨Death Train¨from Santa Cruz to Corumba or on the boat ride down the Paraguayan river.

I was going to post some of the pictures that I have taken so far, but I just figured out that this computer not only doesn´t like titles, it also doesn´t like pictures. So I will find a different computer today and will do another post and put up some pictures. By the way, La Paz is at 15,000 feet. I think that is the highest that I have been while still touching the ground. I have a little bit of a headache and everytime I blow my nose it is a little bloody. But other than that I feel fine. Just had to think of a way to end this post while talking about boogers. Ciao

From Lima!

Hola dese Lima! I´m here and safe and sound and happy. Right now it is about 12 thirty, I leave for Bolivia at four oclock.

Here in Lima it is wintertime, and everything is very foggy. It is not cold, though. I am right in the center of Lima at a kind of walking mall with 2 friends from Germany. My flight got in at midnight last night and the original plan was to stay the night in the airport but it was so crazy that I decided to just get a room for the night. I saw two other guys with backpacks and asked them what they were doing for the night. They were cool and I wasn´t getting a creepy vibe from them, so we decided to look for a place together. We found a place in Miraflores, which is kind of a suberb of Lima for $10 each. It was great, it was more expensive than other places in the guidebook, but we had our own bathroom and everything.

One of the guys is a policeman from a little town called Memmingen in Bavaria. Memmingen is the town I stayed in when I went to Germany with Randy two years ago! The other one is going to be a math and religion teacher in primary school.

It is so nice to be able to talk to everyone! The taxi drivers, people on the street, everyone is so friendly. I will tell you next time about the Panamanian lawyer and the Columbian synchronized swimming team that I sat next to on the plane ride down. We have to go right now, but I will do another post soon! Ciao!

A quick note

I rode our scooter up to campus to return some library books that I had checked out and stopped to do this blog entry on the way. Jill and I are running around trying to get things ready to go. We had a great morning today, we slept in till 9 then Jill made a great omelet while I cleaned up the house. My flight leaves tomorrow at 7:00 AM so we are trying to get in all the together time now that we can.

Last night Jill and I drove up to my sister Colleen's house to see her family and my other sister Jacque, who had driven down with her family. Kelli, Colleen's daughter, gave me a paper airplane that she had folded and decorated so that I could give it to one of the "sick little kids on your trip, to cheer them up." It was quite sweet and I for sure will take it down. There were amazing hamburgers, the requisite board games, and lots of playing with the nieces and nephews and the dog Liberty. I have a great family, and am sad to miss my other sister Annie and her family, who drove out from Maine to see Mom and Dad in Wyoming this week.

I guess taking this trip has helped me to realize how much there is to do all the time. As in, now that I am going and can't be here, I am all of a sudden thinking of all these things that I would like to do, like go camping in southern Utah, hang out with family more, hang out with my old roommates more, and probably stuff like study for the MCAT and stuff like that should be on the list too. Anyway, it's kind of funny that getting out and doing something big makes me miss all of the little stuff that I don't do often enough while I can.

I am excited for the trip, though. Thanks Mom and Dad for the comment that you posted. I love all you guys and please watch for the next post, which will be coming from the Southern Hemisphere. Ciao.