Tereré

Its summer time in Paraguay and the temperature is around 100F everyday. The way we combat this heat is to drink a lot of  tereré . Yerba mate is consumed in  neighboring countries, but  here in Paraguay it is consumed cold and without sugar, daily, during our summer months. I was told that the habit of drinking the yerba mate as  cold tereré began during the Chaco War. In order for their soldiers to not be discovered by the smoke, or remains left behind from fires, they began to drink it cold and now we can not imagine drinking it any other way on a hot day!

These are our KITS. We do not leave home without one.
A Kit is the thermos, cup and filter straw used for tereré .

Kits are usually personalized.

This is our newest guampa and is made from a bull's horn .

Here you can see the silver filter straw used for sipping the tereré.
It is called a bombilla.

The yerba mate dried leaves are placed in the guampa.

Cold water is carried around in the thermos and special tubular bags of ice are made for placing in the thermos.You can buy this ice just about anywhere, but often people will give it to you.

The Human Problem

Our Moral Rebellion is at the root of our Human Problem. Human misery is neither a result of Avidhya (Ignorance of our Divinity), nor it is a product of Kama (desire) & Karma ( Past life deeds). It is a result of human refusal to live under the moral authority of our Heavenly Father.
_ from the book, Legacy Of William Carey... Author, Vishal Mangalwadi

The Things I See...

Old photos from my first year as a teacher in Arcadia, Florida

Jungle Mom @ 1980

Gastro-Geographical Linguistic Tour of Latin America

Mexico was the first Latin country I ever lived in. I loved Mexico because they make some great foods! I loved the enchiladas and mole! The tacos and quesadillas. I loved it all! But after  I spent a year in language school in Mexico I assumed I could speak Spanish in any Latin America country and it would all be understood. I made sure to learn the names of my favorite foods, because, well, food is very important to me!

So I knew a 'torta' was a sandwich and a  'tortilla' was a flour or corn flat bread. Beans were frijoles. I love to drink coke so I knew to ask for 'coca'. Pop corn, a good snack, is 'palomitas' which is easily remembered because it mean 'little doves'.

Good to go!

And then I moved to Venezuela. Suddenly, a 'torta' was not a sandwich but a cake! A' tortilla' was an omelet and beans were 'caraotas'. Oh yeah,' tacos'? Those are soccer cleats! Not tasty at all!

I learned new words for my favorite foods. 'Lomito' was  the best cut of beef.' Pasteles' were pastries. 'Perico' was scrambled eggs with onions, tomatoes, and peppers. I loved the 'panes with mantequilla' (bread and butter). Also it is best not to ask for coca! It is sold by the kilo and is a white powdery substance... one must ask for a 'refresco'. And popcorn is 'cotufa', so no more little doves.

Then I visited Costa Rica. I asked for a 'torta' and they said,"QUEQUE" (what? what?). I asked again, "Torta, por favor" and they handed me some cake, but said, "QUEQUE". Oh, like 'Cake' but said in Spanish. Gotcha! And passion fruit is not parchita but maracuya. ok then...

Then I moved to Paraguay where my favorite legumes are not 'frijoles' nor 'caraotas' but...habichuleas or porotos. But 'porotos' confuses me because here the popcorn is 'pororo'  Passion fruit, which I knew as 'parchita' or 'maracuya', is mburucuya. If I want bread and butter, I have to ask for cookies with lard! 'Galletas con manteca' is 'pan con mantequilla' (bread and butter).

Confused yet?

If I want a good steak, I don't ask for a 'lomito' because that will be a sandwich.  And a 'mixto', which in Venezuela would be a sandwich with beef, pork and chicken, is just a plain ham and cheese on  bread here.  'Perico', the scrambled eggs is' Bandera espanola'... but who wants to eat a Spanish flag???

Then we come to the 'yerba'! The 'weed' everyone uses every day in large amount. Its sold on the grocery store shelves and even strangers on the street will offer you free weed. In Venezuela 'yerba' is an illegal substance usually smoked by teens!  And no 'coca' or 'refresco' here, its a 'gaseosa' which sounds a bit repulsive!

And now we come to Argentina where everything is different yet again. 'Yerba' isn't yerba but 'mate' and it must have sugar added!

When my husband went to the coffee shop in Argentina he ordered his usual 'cafe'.

"Would you like that with a  factura ( bill/check)?" they asked him.

"Well, yes, but when I am finished." he said.

"But Senor, don't you want your factura now, while your coffee is still hot?" They politely insisted.

"Ok, but I may wish to order a second cup of coffee and you will have to add it to my bill." he replies.

And then the waiter brings him his coffee and a pastel (pastry) which is called a 'factura' (bill/check).

And yes, it would be best eaten with the hot coffee after all!

Map of Memories

(A note from Yekwanaman)

I just unpacked a hand drawn survey map of the Caura/Erebato river basin in Venezuela, made sometime after MAF first entered Venezuela back in the late 1950´s. It shows the rivers, rapids and different villages, (Chajuraña is on there). Those pilots flew many hours just to record what was down below. Perhaps they were the first to do it. I will be framing it and putting on my office wall here in Paraguay as a connection to the life I will never forget.

It was given to me by a missionary in Venezuela who at one time was with the Orinoco River Mission. He and his wife lived on a house boat with their 6 children  as they traveled to preach in different villages along the Orinoco. They, and others, wanted to go deeper into the jungle, but they needed help. That was when MAF came into the picture.

Another  missionary family with ORM was in the village of Chajuraña traveling in and out by canoe. They loved the MAF plane and the pilots. They helped us with advice and counsel on our way there 20+ years later .

I see places on the map in the jungle where I slept, where the men went hunting, and rapids where some of my friends died.

To touch the map is like touching almost 60 years of missions history, most of it will be forgotten in a few decades and the world will never know of the pilots, missionaries and tribal people who lived in that region. But the people who have lived and worked there, who know Jesus Christ as their Savior, will one day be reunited as family. We will eat Washadi ,(Tapir), Cawaadi (Deer), casabe (manioc bread) and waddue (hot peppers sauce) and drink as much manñoco and Yucuta as we possibly can.

And we will laugh like Ye'kwanas. because it is so much fun.

Yep, I am gonna frame that map and hang it to remember.

Planking in Paraguay

 WHY? It annoys my adult children.

Please Pray for Anonymous!

I have interacted online with 'Anonimo" for over a year. He is not a believer and has had a difficult life. He wrote me of going through a battle of cancer several months ago and I have had no word from him until today!

Please join me in sincere prayer for him as he battles cancer and is contemplating eternity!


Here is his message :

Anonymous said...
I know you ask for me some time ago.

I still alive.

My tumor was removed along with my adrenal gland. Went to the Hospital with blood pressure of 230/ 135 and the surgeon saved me, despite all the problems I had.

Now, I just lost my friend of 45+ years. A friend that had ugly scars in his face and was object of many jokes. What people didn't know was the he had 4 purple hearts couple of silver stars and countless other commendations A Viet Nam veteran, exPOW and victim of torture. I'm still crying and I miss him so much. He just left prematurely. I'll soon will join him. We all go the same into eternal sleep. I still dont believe in heaven but I know that we are energy and energy can not be created of destroyed. when we die we just turn into something else.

There was an Honor Guard and only four people. No member of his family to recieve the flag. It was given to me.

You must know the pain.

I dont know how to pray. So I ask you to elevate your prayers for him. At the end He had no one, but a couple of friends. The service was short but I couldnt help noticed a couple of service men in the honor guard running tears for some one they didnt know.
Please pray for him. Unlike me, he was christian and is possible that no one is praying for an American Hero.

ANONY.
jan. 1st. 2012

Gracias, y si reso por mi durante el tiempo que estuve ausente le doy las gracias. Yo no entiendo el por que la gente ora. Tal vez sus intenciones sean buenas. Pero para mi es imposible comprender por que lo unico que e conocido en esta vida a sido dolor, traicion, humillaciones. Heridas fisicas morales y sentimentales.
le deseo suerte en su mission y que logre lo que se dispuso a hacer victoriosamente.

ANONIMO.


Jungle Mom comments:

Dear Anonimo, I have prayed for you and had thought perhaps you had left this earth and I would not have a chance to hear from you again. You can not know this, but finding your comment gave me great joy this morning!As a believee , I am so glad you have not departed this world unprepared to face eternity and the Creator.

You are correct, we do not just disappear and go away, our 'energy' which I would call 'soul', lives on forever.

As a Christian I base my faith in God and who He is but most atheists have no objective evidence on which to base their faith in “no God”, must resort finally to philosophical objections. And this problem of suffering is the greatest of these.

They will ask, "How can a God of love permit such things in His world as war, sickness, pain, and death, especially when their effects often are felt most keenly by those who are apparently innocent? "

Atheism does not answer that question either, because even though there is much evil in the world, there is even more that is good. This is proved by the mere fact that people normally try to hang on to life as long as they can. Furthermore, everyone instinctively recognizes that “good” is a higher order of truth than “bad”. Why would this be so?

Anonimo, why are you fighting so to hang on to life when it has been so miserable? This is the question you must ask of yourself.
The Bible teaches us that there really is no such thing as innocent suffering, because we have all sinned. Since “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23), there is no one who has the right to freedom from God’s wrath on the basis of his own innocence because of man's rejection of God's law, the entire world is under bondage. " the whole world groaning and travailing together in pain” (Romans 8:21-22)

The Good News is God, in His mercy, provided a way for the individual to escape this pain!
The Lord Jesus Christ, who was the only truly “innocent” and “righteous” man in all history, nevertheless has suffered more than anyone else who ever lived.

And this He did for us!
Anonimo! He did this for you!!!!
“Christ died for our sins” (I Corinthians 15:3). He suffered and died, in order that ultimately He might deliver the world from the Curse, and that, even now, He can deliver from sin and its bondage anyone who will receive Him in faith as personal Lord and Savior. This great deliverance from the penalty of inherent sin, as well as of overt sins,  also assures the salvation of those who have died before reaching an age of conscious choice of wrong over right. The only true innocents without sin.
The sufferings of the unbeliever are often used by the Holy Spirit to cause them to realize their needs of salvation and to turn to Christ in repentance and faith.The sufferings of Christians should always be the means of developing a stronger dependence on God and a more Christ-like character which we use to show the love of God to the unbelievers.

God is loving and merciful, even when, “for the present,” He allows trials and sufferings to come in our lives.

“For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28).

I do not know you and yet, I have a deep yearning in the hopes that in some way our online communication may bring you to the knowledge of the grace of God and His willingness that you need not suffer eternally. Perhaps He put me and my little blog in your life path so that at this moment you might act on that faith?

 Please, accept this message in the most sincere manner in which I offer it , from a heart that wishes you the happiness and eternal joy I know I shall experience and would love to run into you in the here after!