Its been a week now since I left for Paraguay. I didn´t actually get to the Hogar in Paraguay until Thursday, so I haven´t quite been here a week yet.
Anyway, the traveling, though it created a little anxiety in me, was very fun because I met several people along the way. On the first leg of the trip, flying to Houston, I sat next to a guy who was good friends with Brandon Flowers. He grew up across the street from Flowers in Florida. He was flying home after coming to Brandon´s opening game at Arrowhead against the Chargers. I can´t remember the guys name but he said he trys to make it to at least one game a season. What better game to come to right? Go Chiefs! Had to get that out. On the second leg of the trip, the flight to Lima, I sat next to a guy named Jacob Johansen. He´s originally from Columbus, OH, but he teaches math at an international school in Lima. It was really a blessing sitting next to a guy I could easily relate with, especially since this flight was my first big international flight alone. He said this was his fourteenth roundtrip flight between Columbus and Lima this year, so you can imagine he was quite at ease. He gave me his e-mail address and said Matt and I could meet up with him when we return to Lima. Sweet contact! The next flight was to Buenos Aires. I started out sitting next to a old Japanese woman, which was sweet. She didn´t know english or spanish, so we started communicating with body language. But shortly after sitting down a young Japanese lady came by and asked me in english if I wouldn´t mind switching places with her. I gathered quickly that the younger lady was a traveling guide for a group of Japanese people. So, I moved to a seat near the back of the plane. Nobody was sitting next to me in this new seat, but that was really nice actually because I needed to sleep. I slept the whole flight to Buenos Aires. Once in BA I had to catch a bus to the city bus terminal where I´d get a bus that could take me to Asuncion, Paraguay. On these connecting bus a lady named Erika sat next to me. She was an older Argentian lady, but she spoke fluent english. She talked to me a bunch, and I just listened! She apparently lived on a boat for five years as a missionary with her family in the Amazon in Brazil. And she´d traveled all through the Americas, North and South. Wow! We got off the bus at a checkpoint of sorts where everyone took smaller vehicles either individually or with a small group of four or so to their destinations. At this checkpoint I met a lady named Christina. She was a professional classical singer in Switzerland, but originally from Argentina, and she was just coming home to visit her mother. She could speak spanish, english, french, italian, and german. Her and I actually took the same small vehicle with a couple other people. They both looked about my age. I don´t remember their names, but one was a guy from Alaska and the other a girl from Germany. After I got on the bus to Asuncion, I met a lady named Graciela. She worked and lived in Buenos Aires but she was originally from Paraguay and her family including her kids still lived in Paraguay. She didn´t know any english, but we managed to communicate, though with difficulty. I´m very glad I had my spanish-english dictionary! So, those are the stories of the people I met in my travels to Asuncion. I had to write about them because I just found the people to be so interesting, and they really blessed my traveling experience.
After writing so much and wasting time on facebook and catching up on the Chiefs, I´ve been on the computer for a long time, plus it is time to eat lunch. So, I´ll have more to write and pictures to show another day. Until then. Adios from Paraguay!
