Hospitals, doctors and advice

Hello, I am still recovering from the time that I had in hospital. On Wednesday I spent a really frustrating and upsetting morning, between doctors, with conflicting advice. Finally an agreement was reached, that no operation will be performed until I have healed up from the infection, as that would be too dangerous. I now have to go back in two weeks. It is very difficult going through all this alone. Everybody else is tied up with work, but really I am not alone and Jesus is with me placing the right people at the right time. Please pray for protection for me as I have to make decisions. I have a history of making bad ones.

I am not the only one with problems and now poor Kim, my next door neighbour is really struggling with a sore back. I know how that feels and she is just like me.... you can't keep her down. Please pray for her to be sensible and to rest.

Enough of that!

Now for the positive aspects of our lives here.

Each year the new sixth form tries to out-do the last with their entrance to school. This years group was very enterprising. They found an old, rusty, open top bus somewhere. It did not run. However they worked hard, (keeping everything a secret), and with parental help they painted it red and got it going. To our delight they arrived in it on the first morning, complete with Union Jack. What they were not aware of is that our first whole school project this year is Great Britain, followed by the Olympics. Their entrance was so appropriate and one of the best so far, since they were well-behaved, but had great fun and great taste.

The year started with the usual service in the Cathedral. This year's theme is forgiveness. I will be continuing that theme in the Library as we begin classes. We will be looking at God's Promises for us, but with a particular look at verses about forgiveness.

On the first day there were more parents than children in the First grade, ready for class to begin.

A good piece of news is that our first grade teacher, Raquel Greco has just become engaged. Two lovely Christian people, so we congratulate them.

A long week

It has been a while since I wrote on my blog. I will tell you all the positive things first.

Towards the end of the school holidays I was determined to get away for a complete rest before the onslaught of school again. I decided on a trip back to Santa Maria de Fe by bus, to swing in a hammock reading, to go for long walks and to be fed lovely meals.

Sharon decided to come along. She was not in the same mind as me and she wanted to go about evangelizing. I just wanted to relax. Within two hours I think that the whole village knew her.

It rained quite heavily the first day, so the hammock was not in use. At least the weather was cooled after days of extremely high temperatures. However, we got out with brollies and walked to a local farm.

The rest of the time we went for long walks, as well as swinging in a hammock.

The countryside is beautiful around the village, with undulating hills and pretty streams with wild flowers everywhere. It was such a change from the smog and muck of Asuncion.

On the second evening a troop of howler monkeys came to the square right outside the hotel and we fed them bananas. They were not nervous and came right down to us swinging by their tails and reaching out their hands for bananas.

I spent a couple of days sewing with the ladies in the sewing project workshop. They make pictures of typical Paraguayan scenes and then make articles to sell and send abroad. I made up one of their little pictures with them.

 Then on the last day they came to me in the hotel, having made a purse with my picture and  gave it to me as a gift. They are lovely ladies who talk freely about God and who share the Bible when they are together. However, they are inclined to lapse into the Guarani language so I was a little lost at times as my Paraguayan language is Spanish.


Just before I went there I was told that I have inherited genetic diabetes, like my sister. This was a bit difficult in the hotel so I ordered a salad and some protein most days. Sharon had an interesting breakfast. (Natural vitamins, apparently.)

I never eat lettuce here because it is full of bugs. They therefore gave me raw cabbage with my main meals, which is equally lethal. I did not like to complain as the staff are so kind. The result was a week in hospital.

I came back to Asuncion and my diverticulitis flared up badly. I am now home from hospital but feel very shaky and weak after laying flat out for a week. I am hoping to be back at work in three more days, but have an operation set for a month's time and visits to the surgeon between now and then. It is all a nuisance as I don't like missing work and everbody is extremely busy here so I felt guilty about people having to come miles to visit me at the end of a long day, but when you have been in solitary confinement for days it is so lovely to have visitors. (Cheeky Mags took a photo of me at my best. From thereon in it got worse and I had a drip installed in  my neck.)

 The trouble is that they all make me laugh and next time I will be literally in stitches. I must say that Mags and Gwen and my neighbours the Hickmotts were real troopers last week, bringing me mountains of pears to keep me going. The hospital food was atrocious. I was brought grilled chicken, (which was so dry I could not cut it) and rice five meals running. It is important for me to eat regularly to keep my sugar level, so the surgeon was not pleased when I complained about the food and refused to eat. Breakfast and snacks between meals was four cream crackers. I never want to see another cream cracker! I am not sure how I will survive another week of hospital food. Of course, looking on the bright side, I have lost weight.

I went down to look at the Annexe School when I arrived home from my holiday and it had been finished. It is looking lovely. All it needs now is the computer equipment.

School has now begun  for the staff. The children arrive next Wednesday.

We have a number of ex-pupils on the staff now. Some are teaching in different areas and some are classroom assistants. We even have two who are psychologists and one who acts as a secretary.

All the heads of department met at Mags' and Gwen's before term started.

Finally, this is the first year that I have missed being in the staff photograph, which was taken at a retreat held in the cathedral on the first day of term.

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Now am I complaining? No way! I just love being in 40+C whilst pottering round, doing jobs and walking to the shops at about 2.00p.m. What is it that they say about "Mad dogs and English......"? I constantly remind myself about frost and snow in UK.

I love holidays and the time to do what I need to do. This was supposed to be "sewing" week and "laze about". Neither has been accomplished as I would wish. 

The problem started with my fridge/freezer going on the blink. That has meant two afternoons out, the first transferring stuff to a temporary replacement whilst mine went for repair. (It took an hour and a half to clean it once emptied!) and then I had the same in reverse today.

All I need now is to find the repair a typical Paraguayan repair and I will have to start all over again.

I have lost track of days so I will just say, "The other day." The other day I decided to tackle my front garden before the sun became too hot. I have had no lie-ins because jobs need to be done early, or the heat means that they don't get done. Having just spent a half hour on my treadmill exercising, I then went out to hack the plants. I cannot say that I prune because really I don't have a clue. I just take the shears and secateurs and hack. I then pull out anything that looks suspicious. The result is very pleasing and I have received good comments from the neighbours, so it was all worth the effort.

A few years back I bought a little rose bush to put in. I did not expect it to last as the sun blazes on it all day. However, it has flourished and it gives me such pleasure. 

Last week I went out with friends to an outlet shop that sells locally made, cotton fabric at knock-down prices. I bought enough for four pairs of cut-off trousers. I had bought some trousers in South Africa that had pockets everywhere. They are great for travelling in South America, where your pockets can get picked at every turn. I had found a pattern and decided to make more. It is a long story that took five hours in the making, but at the end I had a pair of trousers that would fit an elephant. I tried some swift alterations but with so many pockets in different places, I then ended up with a pair of pants that would be great for a giraffe with a crutch round its knees.
Now I ask myself, "What am I going to do with the other three pieces of material?"

Some of you may remember Beto, on the right.
I posted this picture of him and his friend Mauricio in 2010, when they came to our church. They were both addicted to alchohol and drugs. Both started coming to Sharon's Bible study across the road. However, they both slipped back into addiction. Now a miracle has happened and Beto has kicked his habits. Mauricio is still a victim of alchoholism, which is his escape from the reality of living in poverty, with no hope. Beto is coming along to the group regularly, but he is now in bad shape physically, due to malnutrition.

Please pray for Beto. His life is a tremendous struggle. He is in his thirties, intelligent and articulate, but he has never been able to get proper work. He comes from a family with horrendous problems. These guys just plod on, living one day at a time, trying to make sufficient money by cleaning car windows at an intersection with traffic lights, to buy enough food to survive. They lose hope of any “normal” future with a job and a family.  However, the Lord is now using Beto to bring others for prayer, counselling and to accept the Lord into their lives, which is a real encouragement for us.

Annexe update

The metal roof and guttering is now on, the walls are plastered, the flooring is being laid and they are now working on getting ready to put in a false ceiling to cushion noise when it rains.

They are making a new entrance to the old library area.

They are keeping everything clean, even the sand pit/adventure area.

Safe transportation

Yesterday was my birthday, a day to relax???
First I had breakfast outside, sitting in the lovely sunshine before it became too hot. I noticed how grubby my patio was so I attacked it, scrubbing and polishing.
Exhausted, I decided to relax and read. However, plans changed. My fridge/freezer has been defrosting itself regularly for the last three months, causing a real mess. Yesterday was the day that the maintenance team brought a temporary replacement while mine is repaired. Whilst I was pleased, that created another three hours work for me, changing things over and giving mine a really good clean before it went off for repair.

The men came down with the fridge on top of the school combi. It took five men to bring it! Two were sat on the roof holding it in place so it did not fall off. Whatever happened to ropes?

Mad dogs and English women.....

I must be mad.
Today I woke up very early. I looked at the temperature and it was a relatively cool morning at 25C. I therefore decided to go and grab my shopping trolley, a cool box and then went to find a bus to take me over the border to Argentina. I was lucky. A bus came almost immediately and I climbed on. However, there were no seats left. It is a one and a half hour to two hour trip with a dirt track road across the Chaco for the last half hour.

Eventually a grandmother took pity on me and she moved her grandaughter onto her knee. In the end we took turns at having the child, who was a sweet little thing. (Not one of theses "macho" men would give up his seat for a grey-haired "old" lady.)

I was in Argentina just after nine, so went straight to the supermarkets. The exchange rate is well in our favour so I stocked up on cheese, real ham (as opposed to plastic sealed ham) a huge amount of washing powder, some 70% chocolate for making mousse and eight bars of Dove soap. I was peeved that I could not get my toothpaste as they did not have it.
By eleven my cool box and trolley were full, so I went back to the bus station. There was a bus in but it was full so I hung around for the next one.
As it pulled in I could see men moving stuff around on the bus. I climbed on to get a seat near the front. All the seats in the bus and under the seats was full of stuff, from sacks of rice to cans of beer and bottles of cooking oil (all contraband bound for the market in Paraguay). The driver told me to sit on top of a box. I and another lady (who was 85) sat doubled up in an almost foetal position on boxes. My shopping trolley was removed and placed behind the drivers seat along with a several sacks of stuff.
Eventually other people piled onto the bus. By then it was getting very hot. The driver was not going to leave until there were as many people as seats on the bus... no matter that they were stood on boxes in the aisle because there were no seats actually available.
The lower windows on the bus had no opening mechanism so there was only air coming in at the top through a vent. I was sooooooo hot! I have been on a few buses from the border, that had contraband under the seats but this was amazing. The bus had a distinct list to the right because the weight was unevenly distributed. (I was sitting on the left. Ha! Ha!)

On the way back we were stopped at the International bridge. The driver had to climb out of his "cocoon" in the driving seat (It was surrounded by stuff) to tackle the police. Eventually, after some arguments he handed over a fistful of guaranies (bribe!) and we were sent on our way.

When I got near to my road I yelled at the driver to stop. There was then a major problem extracting my trolley from under what had now become a pile of sacks of rice. Finally a kind man did what was needed and I was set down with my shopping onto the pavement. I was "dripping" and very tired.

I will now wait until the Autumn and cooler weather before I attempt that journey again. Living in Paragauay can never be called "dull".

Progressing fast

I popped along to our annexe school at the end of our road today to see how the new computer room is progressing. These guys work fast! It was around 39C and they were beavering away. Bear in mind that they wear no hard hats, scaffolding is crude and at a minimum and most of them work in bare feet or with flip-flops. Where are the safety nets? They just trust Jesus!

The walls are now up and wood window frames are in, ready for windows later. That is the gutter sticking out, which they were about to install prior to starting on the roof construction.

Internal plastering is underway. (No rain is forecast for the next ten days or more.)

The old library is being redeveloped.

These men run along the top of a wall like a monkey.

Where is the Health and Safety executive?!

The Annexe School is funded partly from the tythes on fees for our main college and partly by the government. However, this project is being funded from the UK. Keep up the good work all you fund-raisers and prayer supporters.