October 2006 Adventures

Karaí Octubre – this is what the local Guaraní folks call October.  It literally means Mr. October.  According to the Paraguayan legend, on the first day of October, the first person to come to visit you will determine how the remainder of the month will continue.  If an old person is your first visitor, the month will be terrible.  If a youth is your first visitor, then the month will be a little terrible.  If a baby is your first visitor, the month will be good.

On an economic level, October is very difficult.  Most of the campesinos (country folk) have spent all their money from their previous year’s crops.  New crops are in the ground and growing, but are not ready to hire field hands to help with the cultivation.  Therefore, campesinos as well as those that work in the fields hoeing are not receiving an income. 

What this means is that crime is higher in October than in any other month – due to either economic reasons or superstitious reasons.

On a personal note, we were robbed twice in the same day!  First, while we were in Asuncion, our cooler was taken from the back of our Hilux pick-up, while Linda was sitting in the passenger’s seat!  We were on the way to the grocery store to buy meats, so we had to buy another cooler that day.  We found out why the cooler was so valuable – a new Coleman 50 quart cooler cost $75!! 

When we returned home to Santani, we found our air conditioner for our bedroom had been stolen – someone had sawed through the metal cage outside with a hack saw, and taken the unit.  That left a big hole in our wall with direct access to the house interior.  PTL, nothing inside was stolen.  However, with temperatures already over 100°, we are unable to have an air conditioner unit in our bedroom since our bedroom wall is very close to our neighbor’s house.  The robber was using the roof of our neighbor’s house as a step ladder to get to our side.  The hole where the AC unit previously was is now filed in with concrete.

On a ministry note, we are currently drilling a well at a precious new settlement called Nuevo Horizonte (New Horizon).  This area has 84 families without electricity and not even any hand dug wells.  The people are drinking water from an organically polluted creek.  Problems have plagued us!  At our first 2 well sites, something was happening at a depth of 17.5 meters – all our water disappeared down the hole.  With a mud rotary drill rig, this is a catastrophe.  We have also dropped 45’ of pipe, including a $250 bit, into the hole – we were able to retrieve all of the pipe and bit, thanks be to God.  We then lost a $300 magnet in the second hole – we hope to recover it soon.  We are now at our 3^rd site and the hydraulic equipment has decided to break down.  We’ve had to return to Santani to have the rig repaired.  The repair went well and we are now back in business.

While we were showing the Jesus film to over 75 people, our generator died!  Just as Jesus was being arrested, after Peter had cut off the ear of the guard and Jesus had healed the ear, POOF, all went dark (and we mean dark with no electricity and a moonless night)!  We took the generator back to Asuncion and it has been repaired.  We are hoping to finish the movie the first week of November.

By southern standards, this well would be considered “snake bit”, but we have faith that God DOES want a well for these good people, so please pray that our troubles are behind us.

 Enough of that – now for a funny story and some photos to share.  True story – since we are drilling in such an isolated area, Linda has had to prepare all the food for ourselves as well as our 3 Paraguayan workers (and whoever else is hanging around at meal time).  The first night we had hamburgers and fried potatoes.  Something simple, everyone in the world knows what that is, all American – right?  One of our workers, Genaro, who is 42 years old, had never eaten a hamburger!  Not only that, he had never had catsup!  He now loves catsup and puts catsup on all his food, from potato salad to eggs to rolls to anything.  It’s been fun to watch him, as well as the others, eat food cooked by a North American.