February 10, 2002

We made it to Paraguay on Tuesday, Jan. 22 as planned, and thanks be to God (gracias a Dios), all our trunks made it as well! We had 6 large trunks with us, several of which were oversized and overweight, but American Airlines did not seem to care – what a blessing. It is a challenge to try to decide what to pack when you are going for at least a year without coming home, and will be staying 4 years (or more) in all. The fact that the electric current is 220 volt rather than the 110 that we have in the US helped a little – so we did not have to pack small appliances. Ed's brother, Cliff and his wife Barbara came up from Milledgeville, Georgia to give us moral support while we finished packing, and then took us to the airport.

The flight is overnight and takes about 17 hours, so we were a bit tired when we arrived. We were met at the airport by John and Colleen Eisenberg, our Team Leaders with the Mission Society and Rev. Pablo Mora, who is the head of the Paraguayan Methodist Church, and his wife Claudette. It was great to see them and to be so warmly welcomed. We had dinner at the Mora’s house and they gave us flowers to welcome us to our new country.

We are staying in a small “maid's quarters” room behind John and Colleen’s house – it is small but private and quite nice. It has it’s own bathroom, so we feel like we have our own little place to call home for now. However, it is not air conditioned, and the temperature has been getting up to around 100 F. We take a cold shower before we go to bed, and we bought a fan on a stand (our FIRST purchase!), which keeps us somewhat comfortable. It reminds us growing up in Valdosta (for Ed) and south Texas (for Linda) as kids, sleeping on top of the sheets.

John & Colleen Eisenberg's house -

it is a duplex and they live on the left side

View into the back yard at the "maid's quarters"

where we stay

Our bedroom - cozy but very nice.

The area outside our room - we call it "the veranda"

We have made one trip out into the country side to visit some of the rural churches near a small town called Yrybucua. We got to see some of the places where they want us to drill wells, and met the Pastors. We had a great time, and also got to see some of Paraguay – it is a much prettier country than we had thought.

Beautiful sunset on our trip to Yrybucua

We had a great lunch that Linda and Florenzio whipped up from rice, beans and mandioca (yucca root), the local staple.

(L-R: Linda, Rev. Florenzio & John Eisenberg)

Methodist Church at Quinta Linea

Shallow hand dug well behind the church -

used by the Pastor's family and the school

Well at Pastor Felipe's house - 100 feet deep and does not produce sufficient water

Methodist Church at Yrybucua - one of the strongest Methodist churches in Paraguay!

We also bought a truck (thanks again to the great folks at Cannon United Methodist Church who donated most of the money)!! The church was going to sell a Toyota pickup like what we wanted (4 wheel drive, diesel, crew cab/4 door), so we bought it. It is a bit older than we wanted (1991 with 298,000 kilometers), but it has been well maintained by a very good mechanic, so we went ahead and got it. We are going to do some work on it and get it in "tip top" shape. It rides very “stiff” (Linda says – “like a truck”), but is very strong. We took it to Yrybucua and it pulled us out of some very nasty looking mud holes after a heavy rain storm.

Transitioning to Paraguay has been easier in some ways than we expected. They have beautiful fresh fruits, the people are wonderful, and there is a McDonald's and a Pizza Hut. However, many other things have been a challenge. The currency here is the guaraní, which has a current exchange rate of about G4,800 to the US $. That means our McDonald's which cost G19,800 was really only $4.12. Our first big grocery bill was G195,705, or in dollars $40.77. We pay for most of our bills in cash, so we have been millionaires several times! Beef is very inexpensive here - it is one of their major exports. We bought 2 small steaks for only about $0.50. Chicken is higher than beef, fish is from the river and even higher. Salmon is imported from Chile. Vegetables have been difficult to find and the people here rely on yucca (mandioca) as their main vegetable. Green beans are considered an import from Brazil. Chocolate is also imported from Brazil and is very good. We see very few American brands in the stores here; whereas in Costa Rica American brands were very easy to find.

Only about 50% of the streets here in the capital city are paved. (Well, I guess you can call them "paved"!) The other streets are sort of cobblestone, except the stones are pieces of basalt rock - very bumpy. The city and country side is much cleaner than cities in Central America. The people are poorer than Costa Rica, but not as poor as Honduras. Most of the children on the corners offer a "service" for your money instead of just begging; i.e. washing your windshield or selling fruit. There are many varieties of mosquitoes that are eating on us all day and night. We saw fire flies in the country, and many, many stars in different locations than in the Northern Hemisphere.

We both have gotten our Paraguayan driver's license. Pablo had an "expeditor" help with the process. The cost was G280,000! Initially a shock, but that's only about $60 for both of our licenses. We did not have to take a written, driving or medical test. We also both have a "Professional B" rated license which will allow us to drive the 6 ton truck that the Paraguayan church uses to carry work teams and freight. Driving here has been similar to driving in other major cities of the world. However, streets change to one-way with no warning. We were going downtown to buy auto insurance and suddenly we were on a very busy street lined with street vendors all yelling at us to turn around! The street had changed to one-way (the OTHER direction)!

We still have not decided where we will be living once we get all our paperwork submitted for our residency visa – but it will likely be north of Asuncion in the country, maybe even in Yrybucua or in a small nearby town called Santaní. We are healthy and happy, and are feeling very blessed to finally be in the field. We are making progress on the drill rig (hope to have it here in 3 to 6 months), and planning to work with several short term mission teams (as translators and drivers) over the next couple months. Thank you to everyone and please keep us in your prayers.

However, if you are sending anything larger than an envelope, please address it to only Ed. These packages we have to pick up with our passport at the central post office. If both names appear on the package, then we both have to be there with our passports.

1. We ask for your prayers in making the decision as to where to live in Paraguay.

2. Please pray that all our paperwork for our residency visas is processed smoothly.

3. We ask for your prayers that we will BOLDLY proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ at all opportunities.

4. Please pray that we will each meet a national who will be our friend while in Paraguay.

5. Pray for the health and safety of all the missionaries here in Paraguay and abroad - especially those witnessing to Muslims.

6. Pray for the peace of Jesus Christ to be poured out upon Paraguay and the United States and all of her allies around the world.