A Lively Update

You might say it’s been a while since I’ve updated, so here’s a smattering of information:

1. Jason Jacobs, the fellow to replace me, arrived from Richmond two weeks ago. He stayed with Oscar and Karen a week and then moved in to the house with me and Christian. So far, everything goes real well. Some of our discussions and adventures in the house might make for a good comedy—“Two Missionary Dads Raising a Christian,” or some bad use of words to that effect. You can check out Jason’s blog to get his perspective at jayzilla.com.

2. A week ago Saturday I took the GRE for my graduate school applications. The paper edition is offered once or twice a year in Paraguay at the CCPA, a sort of American-Paraguayan cultural and linguistic exchange center. I arrived around 8 in the morning to find a very large crowd of Peace Corp volunteers who were also taking the test. Most were from the Midwest and looked eerily like me—light hair, blue eyes, and slightly sunburned all around. I met one girl named Ellen who lives in the San Pedro province and who is keeping bees. Apparently Taiwan donated (thank you, obscure South American country, for your vote in the United Nations) a pile of bee-keeping equipment to Paraguay to inspire new forms of sustainable agriculture, but the only person who interested in the project is this fine volunteer from Wisconsin.


The test room was air conditioned like a refrigerator, but we still all protested that no water bottles were allowed anywhere near us during the nearly four-hour test. The room was also a sort of exhibition hall, and on that day were shown blown-up pictures of violence and war from conflicts of recent memory (read: Iraq, Vietnam, Bosnia, Africa). Needless to say, we were all inspired to do well by pictures of blood and gore and sadness and utter hopelessness. I chose to sit underneath a picture of what looked like grieving Bosnian women wailing around their now-dead son. I thought, perhaps, that they were Eastern Orthodox and might have some symbol of religion or hope in the form of a cross. I realized later they were probably Muslim and without any such comfort. One girl went to sit down in a chair and, when she looked up, was startled back out of her seat again. She had sat below the infamous picture showing a group of US soldiers in Vietnam with their backs turned to a presumably-innocent parade of Vietnamese, including one young female victim crying and without any clothes. Clearly frightened and bothered, the test-taker chose a more comfortable spot in front of some Guantanamo Bay detainees. If any of us do poorly on the test, I reckon that at least we’ll have a good excuse.

3. God-willing I’ll leave for Argentina this Friday. My route will go from Buenos Aires, the lively European-like capital on Argentina’s Eastern coast, to Mendoza, Argentina’s primer wine-making region among the Andes Mountains in the Western frontier, to Cordoba, the quiet, colonial, and intellectual town in the center of the country. I probably will be out of touch, but please say a prayer for my safety and well-being on the trip.

4. After my Argentinean excursion, I come back to Asuncion for a while before I finally fly to the States to be home on December 9. God-willing I’ll find work in Ohio, where I’ll be with my family for at least a half-year before I head on off to grad school at Notre Dame, Boston College, Yale, or Duke, or go back to DC to find a job in the nation’s capital.

Thanks for your prayers in everything. My family especially needs them right now. God bless!