A Bus, A Man, A Fair.

woke up at 6:30 to catch the 7:30 joy ride on the bus. laura and i were headed to a Fundación Paraguaya office to interview more women about their micro businesses. one of my favorite things in Paraguay are the bus rides. what wakes me up in the morning is knowing i'm going to catch a bus.

these were the women we spoke to.

the committee's name is "Mujeres Emprendedoras" and i interviewed four women. their businesses consisted of selling lightbulb and other electrical equipment, bijouterie (that's what they call jewelry here), and 2 lingerie businesses.

then we took a bus (un colectivo) and got off at an intersection. we were told to stay there and wait for one of the girls from the office. she was going to meet up with us because there was a HUGE fair at a park, and we volunteered to stand and look pretty at the Fundación booth. we got there and waited and waited and waited and waited. after being here for a few weeks, we are now familiar with "paraguayan time."

Paraguayan time - any time between 15 - 2 hours after the time they really commit to.

...and waited. we decided to cross the street and wait there. then a man came up to us who was short, with yellow/bloodshot eyes. he mumbled a lot and then got mad/aggressive and was being persistent in getting money. he kinda scared us so we decided to look for the park on our own. we found the park, and then found out it was the wrong park, after walking and walking and walking, we found the fair. new problem, we had no idea where to start. there was over 100 booths and what seemed like millions of people. we finally found our booth and our friends. Fanny, who was going to meet us was there and apologized for not being able to meet us at the intersection. she wasn't allowed to leave the booth unattended.

waiting and waiting

at the booth

a lot of people came and spoke to us and were really excited we

were from a different country. we made a few facebook friends that day.

and look who we found: missionaries! they were also at the fair

with a booth of their own. i know the blond girl who is on the right of jesus.

we both worked at the BYU bookstore.

after a day like that, Laura and i bought 1/2 kilo of ice cream, it's really amazing stuff.

and i have beautiful skin here. laura told me so.

i wish everyone could touch my hands. they feel so soft.