A post.

Hello everyone. I'd like to welcome all to my final blog post in Paraguay. Unless something really cool happens that I want everyone to know about, like getting attacked by a rogue jaguar downtown or saving a 4 year old's life by diving in front of a bus. Yeah, it'd have to be pretty big. So this is the conclusion. I think.

Life continues to go here in the heart of South America (that's what they call Paraguay. At least in Paraguay. I tried using the same nickname when I was in Bolivia and people said. No. That's not right.) and a little faster than I like... the last month is going to be hard. With goodbyes and goodbyes... and then some more goodbyes sprinkled in for good measure. So I'll try to keep the farewells as short as possible. Maybe start with 3 days to go. Saying goodbye that is. It's just an awful process. I mean, I was always one to rip off my standard skin colored Johnson & Johnson band-aids in one fell swoop. Do it slowly? That's ridiculously painfully. Only masochists and stupid people do that. But I know it won't happen that way. All my conversations I have with friends at work, at the church, around the neighborhood, eventually drift to the 10 month hourglass that got flipped over 9 months ago.

Friday I got invited by my friend/co-worker/local Brazilian Fernando for some asado (like a bbq) and some convo. Some others were there and I was genuinely appreciative for the hospitality that was showed. We talked about everything and it was great to see him outside of the normal setting, in his life, in his home, with his wife and kids. His wife showed me photos from there wedding, family pictures, kids when they were dancing, kids when they were bathing, kids when they were Tae-kwon-do. I laughed in my head, because it was almost like something from a movie, a dinner date gone wrong as his wife pulled out photo album after photo album of their family. Maybe another time I would have been somewhat annoyed, but in that moment I felt honored. She was sharing their life, there memories, what they'd done. She wanted me to know not just who they are but who they were. So we wound down the evening with laughter, Argentinian alfajores (kinda like Ho-Hos, but 8 times better) and Brazilian coffee... and talking about when I was going, to which Fernando said he wanted to have a despedida (goodbye party) for me and the team at his house. After that I left with Sergio (another good friend and co-worker) and we decided to cruise the streets of Asuncion, waiting for his sister and significant other to finish seeing Russell Crowe kick some Norman tail in Robin Hood. We just cruised and talked about whatever. It was a good Friday night.

Daniel.