red soil, trampolines, dialects and more

As promised, I would like to reflect a little bit more upon my experience of visiting my family in eastern Paraguay. It was one of those life experiences where it's really incredibly fascinating and important but at times, from moment to moment, also incredibly boring! The challenge for me of course was language where the majority of the conversation was in low German and my mother and I traded roles as translator and one in need of translation. The most interesting aspect of the language piece for me was finding that, not surprisingly, the men were the ones who spoke Spanish while the women had little opportunity to learn Spanish because their lifes were centered in their German colony with little interaction with Spanish-speaking Paraguayans. So here I was in a culture that still separates the men and women more than my own culture, only able to communicate with the men. I really enjoyed my conversations with my cousins, especially the sons of the cousins we were staying with, but it felt really strange to be cut off from direct communication with the girls. Although I think I managed to still bond with the youngest cousin through games and random faces!

while on the gender theme, one thing I noticed here in the Paraguayan Mennonite communities, as well as in the indigenous communities in Ecuador was how women were the ones who maintained traditional dress. The men in most of these communities showed the most signs of westernized dress. And while the Old Colony community had started to allow things like cars and cell phones, as far as I know, nothing about the position of women in the colony had shifted. I'm sure there are essay length reflections in here so i'll just leave it at this basic observation.

I learned quite a bit more about how the colonies work and they certainly are much more communal than we are. Dairy farming and cattle are primary vocations in this region and we got to see one of my cousin's yogourt/milk processing factories - yummy! 

Our visit to Iguazu Falls was fabulous - a wonderful day. We started the day with a boat ride that took us to both sides of the falls and at the end took us 'into' the falls. Needless to say we got soaked but it was a great time and we got to see the falls from views that wouldn't have been possible from anywhere else. Along with various trails and lookout points, the park has a long, long walkway that you take to the point where you are literally feet away from the top point of the falls where the water begins to rush over the edge. Phenomenal. That section is called 'Devil's Throat' although it's more dramatic in spanish I think. 

We were hit by an incredible cold spell our second night in Brazil so I was ready to get back north to get warmed up! Since most of the buildings don't have heat we had two night of layers of blankets and staying curled up to keep warm. Once we were back in Paraguay the temperature almost hit freezing! Apparently this is very unusual even for their winter.