right. so last post i mentioned how i was off to see a healer of bodies for my hobbly hip. truth be told, i'm still not entirely sure what kind of healer she is, but i felt better and not worse at the end of it so i suppose it was good. i was a little leery, though, when she stepped outside the room to get the assistance of another lady in holding parts of me down while other parts were being twisted and pulled. one can't help but feel something in these situations, and for me it was sort of a pervading sense of "oh boy, this one's gonna hurt".
still alive,though, and ready to embark on a four-day boat trip up the river. we leave tomorrow morning with a youth group of some sort that is making stops at some of the poorest communities on the river. at these villages they distribute food and... haircuts? oh yes, that is where i come in.
should be interesting, considering that i have heard separate stories of said boat either having to be towed back to shore, or bailed out by hand. i swim as well as the average boulder so my usefulness in any sort of water-based crisis may be limited. but it's all part of the adventure, i suppose!
already paraguay has surprised me: flying in i expected to see a barren wasteland, but instead i found a beautiful patchwork of colours from yellow fields, green forests and brown soil, hemmed by red dirt roads and muddy, winding rivers.
the city is equally as vibrant, with colourful gates and houses standing out against the terra cotta bricks of the roof. people's yards are adorned with such things as cherry, mango, grapefruit, papaya, and banana trees, complemented by hibiscus flowers, cacti, and succulents of every variety.
cars, motorcycles, horse-drawn carriages, people of all shapes, sizes, and hues, fill the streets with a vibrancy that speaks of Life.
all this in only a matter of days, bodes well for the next few weeks....
talk to you after the boat