So'o kavaju

I kind of hate to say this, but there were many times in my nearly 6 months where I thought I would leave Ayolas crying tears of joy. But I was actually really sad to leave. My last day in Ayolas I visited all of the members and a lot of the people I met with. I haven't said goodbye to anyone in a really long time and I realized how horrible I am at goodbyes. I'm too quiet. I sort of just expect it to happen. But I'm the one that actually has to do the whole "yeah until we meet again rigmarole." 

It never really hits me that I'm leaving until I'm actually gone.

I left Ayolas at the same time as two other elders left the district as well. One of them I've gotten to know really well. We came into our areas together when he was a new missionary. It was definitely the end of an era. You could just feel it. We ate one last time at the gran comedor. I got a milanesa de pollo and loaded it with some chik-fil-a sauce this one elder's mom sent. It literally took me back so far. It's so weird to think that it was 2 years ago I was in high school and not just one.

I got moved to an area called Carepegua. It's a branch that covers a group called Acahay. It is famous for an urban legend that some of the meat that is sold here is actually horse meat or so'o kavaju in Guarani --and I have definitely had some strange tasting meat here. Also this area sells a lot of hammocks. It's the first place I've been in Paraguay where you can actually see the 4 mountains (hills) that are here. Looking around at the crowded streets and seeing the green hills and everyone selling artisanal stuff reminds me of Boone or Blowing Rock. It's a nice place even though it does have a weird smell to it.

Our apartment is nice but strange. I left the door open to my bathroom last night and so it's now a mosquito farm. I haven't had to deal with this many bugs since I lived in Encarnacion. Also our kitchen and our bedroom are separated by a 30 ft outdoor walkway so it definitely sucks when its raining outside. And it has been raining a lot. On the other hand our church is super nice. Even though it doesn't have a sign yet. It's kind of hard to tell people where church is. The good news is that the church building is right behind the biggest supermarket here. I don't know how the people in charge of finding buildings to rent for our church meetings always get the location right. Like in Ayolas it was so easy, "Oh yeah,  church is just in front of the rapidito." Here it's just like, "Oh yeah, just find us next to the new H and V" and everyone's like, "Ohhhh yeah I know where that is!" There's also a famous nightclub near there called Dr. Francia so yeah, it's a pretty popular spot. That also reminds me that our outdoor walkway terrace thing is right next to a bar which plays music really loud on the weekends. Luckily if you turn on both the fans it kind of drowns out the noise. But lowkey some of the music slaps so no complaints yet.

There are very few active people in the ward so I'm kind of dealing with the same problems as Ayolas but worse. It's good to know that some things probably won't change. Also my companion will go this transfer which will leave me as the Branch President here. Which means I think I'm in for another 6 month ride. But I'm a lot closer to Asuncion and a lot closer to the other missionaries in our Zone. We have already met up like 3 or 4 times. The collectivo system actually works here and it is a lot cheaper to get around. So as of right now I'm pretty happy here.