February 2011 Video Update

Battle of Paraguarí

Today is the 200^th anniversary of the Battle of Paraguarí. If you aren't Paraguayan, or connected to Paraguay in some way, the chances are good you haven't heard of Paraguarí and even better that you didn't know there was a battle fought there on January 19^th, 1811.

Cerro Porteño, the smaller hill to the left, with Cerro Acahay in the background, as seen from my yard. The Battle of Paraguarí was fought on the plain to the right.

General Manuel Belgrano, sent by the government in Buenos Aires to deal with the rebellious Paraguayan province, had far superior arms and led professional soldiers. But the Paraguayans outnumbered the Porteños—the term still used to describe people from Buenos Aires. In addition, they were passionately defending their homeland.

They met each other in the valley between Paraguarí and Cerro Mbaé, or, as it is known today, Cerro Porteño. We can see this hill and the valley from our house, located on the south side of the range of hills called Cordillera de los Altos. The battle is also called the Battle of Cerro Porteño.

The Paraguayans won the day, both on the 19^th of January and 50 days later further south at Tacuary. These victories were key events that led to Paraguay's declaration of independence from Spain on May 14^th of that year. This year Paraguay celebrates its 200^th anniversary.

Perhaps just as important as Paraguay's military victory at Paraguarí was the custom of officers of both sides getting together before and after the battles and shooting the breeze. Many of them knew each other—several of Belgrano's officers were even Paraguayan!—and they came from the same privileged class. Through this fraternization the Paraguayan officers learned that Napoleon Bonaparte had replaced Spain's king with his own brother.  Napoleon wanted to retain Spanish possessions in the Americas and the Philippines, but Paraguay now realized that the new reality gave them the opportunity to break once and for all from Spain.

So it became one of the first in the series of South American provinces to declare independence between 1809 (Ecuador) and 1825 (Uruguay). Basically the Spanish empire in the New World disintegrated within 16 years, although Cuba and Puerto Rico still belonged to Spain until the Spanish-American war in 1898. (Guyana didn't get independence from the United Kingdom until 1966 and Surinam separated from the Netherlands in 1975. French Guiana continues to be an overseas department of France.)

There might even be an argument that the events that took place two hundred years ago out in the valley I can see from my front window contributed to the eventual fall of Napoleon. I might need some help from the historians to make my case, though. At the very least, one of Paraguay's most popular soccer teams, Cerro Porteño owes its name to the feeling of victory Paraguayans feel when they remember January 19^th 1811.

December Newsletter

I've posted a link to our December newsletter on the lower left of this page.

We've been in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, since the 27th of November, visiting with Lizet's family. The boys have been having a wonderful time with their tías (aunts) and their abuelito and abuelita. We came for Twana's graduation from high school, which was on the 4th, but decided to stay a couple of weeks. It's been a very pleasant, relaxing time.

I wasn't going to bring my laptop, but at the last minute I decided I would. On the whole, it's been a good thing. I've still gotten plenty of rest, had nice times with the family, and enjoyed playing with the boys. But I've also managed to get caught up on lots of things and been able to stay in touch so that I don't anticipate having to dig through a mountain of emails when I get home to Paraguay on Tuesday!

Good to be Home

What a good feeling to be back home in Paraguay after fourteen months in the US, mostly traveling around. We flew back into Asunción on August 4th and got back to Escobar as soon as possible to find our house and our dog Oso wonderfully cared for by Antonio and Lida Guerrero.

Before we went back to Escobar I went to our cell phone provider to get a phone that I could use, as I was using our Motorola V3 before, to connect to the internet. The salesman talked me into buying a BlackBerry, saying not only could I get email and browse the web using the phone but I could also use the phone as a Bluetooth modem to connect my laptop to the internet as I had done with my other phone.

Lucas and Timmy are happy to be home

Well, salesmen are salesmen everywhere, I guess, and this guy somewhat exaggerated the capabilities of the BlackBerry which, though a good phone and very useful for brief emails and a little internet browsing, is not good at all as a Bluetooth modem. The upside of that is I've been wasting no time at all online. The downside is that some things I really need to do online--paying bills, for example, or updating my blog--I just can't do.

Part of the problem is a very variable cell phone signal at our house. This aspect of the problem I'm hoping to remedy with a dual band cell phone repeater. But there also seems to be a problem with the phone itself as a modem--even when I have a good signal it only connects a fraction of the times I try.

Our neighbor "Abuela" (Grandma) Asunción's house

That's the frustrating side of life. The exciting part of our life is helping missionaries with language learning, and I just finished this week a four-week refresher course with SIM missionaries Jeff and Amy McKissick, who have also just returned from the US. They are super committed to ongoing Guarani language learning and it's always a delight to work with them. Check out Amy's post on their language-learning experience.

Right now we have a couple of days in Asunción. We're celebrating Timmy's fourth birthday today, and tomorrow we'll go back to Escobar and take with us Lizet's mom who is here for a visit from Bolivia. We're staying at the mission guest house, where we have a wireless internet connection, so I'm trying to remember and catch up with all the things I need to do online.

I keep reminding myself that to get to live in such a wonderful place as Escobar, and be involved in the exciting ministry we get to have a part in, we have to make some sacrifices, and if one of them is a reliable internet connection, well, then, so be it! It's well worth it.

July Newsletter

I've posted our latest newsletter on the lower left of this page.

We've finished up our time in the US and will be returning to Paraguay on August 4th. We're looking forward to getting back home!

Don't Forget Haiti

Don't Forget Haiti: Tent City from Ryan Booth on Vimeo.

Caleb and Ben Cameron at the World Cup

The Paraguayan soccer team is getting ready for its first game of this World Cup on Monday against Italy. They are staying in the beautiful city of Pietermaritzburg in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal.

It happens that our friends, colleagues, and former students, SIM missionaries Greg and Vonni Cameron, have just returned to South Africa for furlough and are living in the city of Pietermaritzburg. They went to see the Paraguay team practice at the Harry Gwala stadium. The Camerons were sighted by reporters sitting in the stands with their Paraguayan jerseys on, drinking tereré and speaking in Guarani. They were asked down to the field and interviewed.

Since Greg and Vonnie speak Guarani but very little Spanish, they responded to Spanish questions in Guarani! They told the reporters they had studied the heart language of Paraguay in order to read the Bible in Guarani to people who speak Guarani but don't read it, and to serve the community. The interview was on national television in Paraguay and the photo of the boys turned up in the June 7th edition of the daily ABC Color.