Little black dresses and watermelons on the Chaco

I received a book yesterday and started reading right away.

The book is called Mennonite in a little black dress, by Rhoda Janzen. You can read a review of the book here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/books/review/Christensen-t.html

Some parts of the book are hilarious, some are exaggerated, some are a little vulgar.
But what I wanted to share with you today is so funny, I really laughed out loud (LOL). The author describes her childhood in a mennonite family and how her mother would tell her to eat the raisins in her stale "Schnetke" because, "Starving children on the Chaco wanted those raisins!"

First of all: you say IN the Chaco and not ON the Chaco. I've been living here for 27 years, I should know.
Second of all: her mother could have been misinformed about the situtation here. To give you a better picture, I'll copy a paragraph from her book here:

"...I was terrified that God would call me to become a missionary to the Chaco. The Chaco was an arid stretch of high-altitud land in South America that defied profitable farming. The Mennonites of my youth had reached enthusiatic consensus concering the Chaco, with its many indigenous non-Christian peoples: it was ripe for mission work. I'm still not sure of what goes on on the Chaco, but as a child I suspected that it involved proliferating weevils and manioc root. From many Sunday-night-church slide presentations, I learned that a missionary organization called Word Made Flesh often summoned Mennonite missionaries to plant churches on the Chaco. When I saw ths slides, I privately concluded that what the Chaco needed was not church planting, but a better selection of fruits and vegetables. Forget church planting: just get busy with watermelons. A juicy sweet watermelon could kick the ... of any manioc root. Probably!..." Quote ends here.

Listening to the author, you would think we live in the dark ages down here, playing with stones and eating manioc. (Which, by the way, prepared correctly is very tasty)

I know the passage of the book, or even the whole book is not to be taken seriously, but doesn't it crack you up somethimes, to read something about your hometown in a book? Especially if the picture is painted in the wrong colors.

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the free time! Soak up some family time! Find something in the sermon on Sunday, that you will use in the coming week!

Trip to Asuncion

First of all: Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. The girls decorated our house with red heart shaped ballons. And they wrote clever things on the ballons, too! (Love it:)

And for Valentine's Day, we got a wonderful rain of 60 mm on Friday, and another 70mm while we were in Asuncion, Monday - Tuesday.

This is all we could see sometimes driving the 450 km trip to the capital.



I met this HUGE pig at the gas station at Pozo Colorado. He was enjoying the rain.

Rain over the capital of Paraguay, Asuncion.

I got my hubby to try out a new restaurant: T.G.I.Fridays. The food was great, but we were sitting right next to a group of 14 year-old girls, celebrating a birthday. They were so loud! And rude!

This is a stained glass dome in the hotel we stayed at: Portal del Sol. It was lovely there...

very nice furniture...

nice pools too, but it rained almost the whole time we were in Asuncion.

The reason we went to the capital, was to pick up Marv's uncle from the airport. He only had 1,5 hours delay. Thats ok, if you are used to 12 hour delays. ('member, J?)

A sewing day...

I spent a lot of time in my sewing room today. My sewing machine was finally fixed and because of my rotator cuff injury, I was trying to take it easy on my shoulder. Sewing is one of the few things that doesn't make it hurt worse.

I started and finished this top in one day. I just love the material, because it reminds me of a good friend. Turquoise makes her smile. L"

I have another blouse cut out and ready to sew, maybe I can do that one tomorrow.

Now I'm pooped! Going to take a shower and relax. Good night!

We have a winner!

Congratulations, Julie from Encarnacion, Paraguay!

Julie is a missionary in the southern part of Paraguay.

Check out her blogs here:
http://kurrles.blogspot.com/ and here: http://juliespages.blogspot.com/

I've contacted Julie via e-mail, and will be sending her bag and some baked (and safely packed) goodies next week.

Thank you to all of my blog friends and other friends that participated in the giveaway.

Have a blessed weekend!

Crafting projects

I finally finished the lap afghan I was crocheting. It actually only took me about 3-4 weeks. Its called "Urchins and Limpets" and you can find the free downloadable pattern here:

http://www.knittingdaily.com/media/p/31030.aspx





I had some wool lying at home, so I went with a whole different color mixture. One of my favorite colors is dusty rose, so this is what my lapghan looks like now.

















After I finished that, I was looking for something smaller to work on. In an older (1991) crocheting magazine I found an interesting potholder. I find it too bulky to use as a potholder, but it would work as a hot pad. Here it is:

If anyone is interested in the pattern, I could scan it and send it via e-mail.

Even the older magazines still have some usable patterns in them.

The next project I started (last night) is still in progress, but here is a sneak peek. Can anyone see what it will become yet?

There is still time to enter the giveaway from last week, just post a comment on last weeks post. I'll post the winner tomorrow.

Have a good weekend, get a lot of rest and family time in!

For friends in the Chaco, cool down!

For friends up north, snuggle up to a loved one!