Spring Break in the Chaco

Arianna and John both happened to have a few days off from school and work at the same time so we decided we wanted to get away for a couple of days.  One area of Paraguay that John and I have wanted to see is called the Chaco.  Wikipedia refers to this area as " semi-arid and with a very low population density".  In addition to the different climate/terrain, we were intrigued by the fact that this area has a proportionately large German speaking Mennonite population.  Until recently, this group has been autonomous, having made an agreement with the Paraguayan government before arriving here that they could function in this way.

It is hard to describe the sensation of seeing the colony (as they are called) of Filadelfia for myself.  We stayed in a hotel where almost ALL the guests were speaking in German.  Before our trip to the Chaco, I thought these people had migrated to Paraguay from Germany.  But it turns out that many of them came from Russia, Ukraine and Canada.  BEFORE that they came from Germany and had maintained their low German language.  They are very focused on education and the students are also taught high German in school.  And as a group, they began arriving in Paraguay in the 1920's, but have clearly maintained their cultural heritage and a cooperative economic system.

This whole opportunity for the Mennonites is closely linked to Paraguayan history.  Between 1864-1870 there was the War of the Triple Alliance which pretty much decimated the male population in Paraguay.  I think that Paraguay's regionally low population can still be traced back to that time.  So the government here was eager to welcome immigrants (and the Mennonites were not the only ones they welcomed).  Soon after their arrival in the Chaco there was another major war here - the Chaco War which was basically a territorial dispute with Bolivia. The fact that the Mennonites had arrived was a contributing factor to that war - although the Mennonites are pacifists and as far as I know did not fight.

Anyway, by the time we arrived on Thursday of Semana Santa (Holy Week), the place was pretty much shut down.  Between the holiday and the closing of a local zoo we had a few disappointing moments on Friday.  But by Saturday morning things were a bit more up and running so we were able to visit a museum with stuffed animals of the Chaco and a salt lagoon where we saw a great variety of birds.  In fact, the birds that we saw all during our time driving there (it was a four and a half hour trip) were amazing.  One of these days I'm going to post a lot of photos to my Shutterfly sight, but in the meantime here are a couple of videos:

It was quite windy and VERY sandy on Friday, as hopefully you can see from those videos. 

Paraguayan Bicentennial

It is very cool that we are here for the Paraguayan Bicentennial.  There are two official dates - today is the day that Paraguay declared independence and tomorrow is the day it is officially celebrated.  It also happens to be Mother's Day (which is on a fixed date here - not always a Sunday).

We hope to go to a parade of nations later this afternoon - assuming that the rain stops.  It has been sunny and hot all week, but a storm rolled through this morning and brought in a cold front.  That should actually make going to a parade more enjoyable, as long as the rain stays away (it looks like the sun's trying to come out).

Yesterday the girls and I went to a folk dance celebration at the American School.  We had fun seeing the kids dance - I think we know someone in every grade (it was just elementary).  Here's a video of the group that several of Abigail's friends are in:

 

And a couple of photos of some kids in their outfits: 

Many of the buildings are decorated with banners and it is quite lovely to drive around and see them.  If you look at this building behind the trees you'll get an idea of what we see:

 Happy 200th Independence Day Paraguay!!!

Divas de la Guitarra

Wow, it's been a long time since I've done an entry here.  We've had lots of things going on, but this week was so inspiring I just had to write a post.

This month is the Bicentennial celebration for Paraguay.  While that in itself is pretty cool, this week the US Embassy cosponsored a festival of guitar performances that featured four female soloists.  One of them is Sharon Isbin, who soloed with us at the WVSO quite a number of years ago.  I was very impressed then and bought some of her CD's - one of which has had a lot of play time at our house (Journey to the Amazon in case you want to check it out).  So, when John and I heard she was performing we were very excited.  We almost missed out because we didn't get tickets early enough, but fortunately John regularly plays tennis with someone who was able to get us tickets.

As we were asking about tickets, I realized that the festival was actually two nights of concerts, with soloists from China, Croatia and a native Paraguaya in addition to Sharon Isbin.  We were able to go to both nights of concerts, which were fantastic.  The organizer of the festival was a young local lawyer who works in the government here, but is also a guitarist.  She brought her own Paraguayan flair to the event which you can get a glimpse of in this photo:

The staging and lighting were incredible!  Part of the drapery is representative of the local Paraguayan lace, Nanduti.  The first night of concerts featured Xuefei Yang and Ana Vidovic.  One of the things that I was surprised about was the fact that people were taking flash photographs and recording the concert all over the place!  Fortunately, a little while into the concert the hostess came out and asked the audience to stop the flash photography.  The second night, all photography and recording was prohibited, with a warning of being escorted out!  (Although there was still some of both going on).

A big bonus of this life is that I occasionally get to do something really cool.  At our recent monthly luncheon I was talking to the Ambassador about this concert and mentioned that I had actually performed with Sharon Isbin.  She (the Ambassador) had just met the soloists and was trying to put together a luncheon.  So, I got an invitation!  It was a lovely event at her house and I really enjoyed listening to Sharon talk about some of her musical experiences.

  

During the luncheon someone asked if Sharon had heard the Paraguayan harp, which she hadn't.  I have gotten to know a local harpist who has put out several recordings of his own, and knew that he was playing at lunch time at La Mission (the hotel we stayed at when we first arrived).  The Ambassador called the hotel and the owner (whom she knows) said that Kike Pedersen was still there and would wait if Sharon wanted to go over.  I went over to La Mision with them and enjoyed some more music and impromptu jamming (as well as a little dessert!):

 

Sharon Isbin and the owner of La Mission 

  

Daiana Ferreira Da Costa (the Artistic Director for the Festival), Sharon Isbin, Kike Pedersen and the Chefs from La Mission

It was a day in Paraguay that I will remember!