Paraguay

Dad and I got to Paraguay this last Monday and it's been quite the week already.  I'm here working on a film highlighting the culture.  I hope the film will be used by the missionary department to help missionaries coming to Paraguay acclimatize more quickly to the culture here and therefore be more effective teachers.  Here are a couple of shots we've taken over the past couple of days.

This women sells flowers outside of a rather large cemetery here in Asunción.  She's been selling in this same spot for over 60 years!  I asked her if she thought she knew the area well, she said yes.  She was super fun to talk to and when we tried to buy some flowers from her to "give" to the important women in our lives back home she refused to sell to us and gave us a super nice bouquet.  We printed this picture and gave it to her and she was pretty shocked that we'd do that for her.  She was very cool to get to know.

I wish I knew this women's story.  I took this picture using my 70-200 from across a 4-lane avenue. 

This is me and Niko. Niko's from Boston and is an intern down here.  We were walking down the street coming back from one of the churches and we got caught in a little rain storm.  It was perfect because just earlier that day when I asked an Elder what shocked him when he got to Paraguay he said the rain storms and he said I needed to film one.  Ta-Da!

I did this time-lapse the first full day in Paraguay.  We went to a big avenue and there was just this little tiny island in the middle.  I set up there and did a 8.5 minute time-lapse of the traffic and clouds.  To be honest it was a little scary because there's not really a speed limit here in Paraguay and some of those cars passed really close to me going super fast.

This was lunch today.  After church the branch president asked if we wanted to come over.  We're Borens and will therefore never say no to a good meal.  We had beef, rice with milk and queso paraguayo, mandiuoka (I'm not sure how to spell it), bread, and a really tasty orange/apple juice.  I love the folks in Latin America, they are super kind and the food was simple and satisfying.