The Chaco region of northern Paraguay has an abundance of interesting plants, animals, and birds. The most stunning creature I saw was a handsome pink flamingo flying overhead. Unfortunately I wasn’t able take a photo. The salt lakes (Riacho Yacare) where herons, flamingos, and other birds flock is not too far off the highway.... read more

Since I read the children’s book called “Henry’s Red Sea” (1955) by Barbara Smucker as a youngster I’ve been fascinated by the place where these refugees settled fleeing from Stalin’s cruelties and the terror of World War II. Mennonites settle many places and move again, but one the strangest places where they made a community is in the Chaco Region of Paraguay. It’s 250 miles into the wilderness and then the wilderness continues another 500 miles across the border and into Bolivia. Filadelfia is the place I’m staying in the Mennonite Colonies in Paraguay. Some pioneers first came from Canada to the Chaco in 1927 to nearby locations, but Filadelfia was settled by German speaking refugees from the USSR starting in 1934. A flood of refugees joined them fleeing the suffering of World War II, and ... read more

Yesterday when I arrived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia for an overnight transit en route to Paraguay I heard rumors about some sort of civil unrest to stop traffic scheduled for the next day, but I didn’t pay much attention it them. In the morning when I got into the taxi the driver said that the road to the airport was blocked, and he would take an alternate way to the airport. He turned on a narrow side street which became a more narrow street then changed to dirt then changed to a lone lane track through the grassland. I started getting nervous then changed to frightened then changed to looking for a place to roll out of the taxi on some soft grass. I sized up the driver and realized that he was a pretty big ... read more

Today the students in the class of five year olds where I volunteer took class promotion photos. They will “graduate” in December since that is the end of the school year and the summer vacation begins then in Peru. They dressed rented caps and gowns for the photo—group photos and then individual ones for each student. They sure looked cute all dressed up and smiling. Pachamachac which is the big Inca site near Lima. It’s quite impressive spread out over a big area. The Inca always built their cities and temples on unproductive land and saved the flat areas near the rivers to grow crops. The CCS Home Base is more active this week. Nine volunteers from the Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical joined us to volunteer. Eli Lilly sponsors its employees to volunteer in CCS locations around ... read more

Martin and I left the CCS Home Base for the three hour drive north of Lima with a group to Caral, the important historic place that no one knows about. Caral was the location of a civilization that was contemporary with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The civilization developed without metals, wheels, or ceramics; but it was developed many centuries before Inca civilization about 5,000 years ago. It is amazing that the place we visited has only been known as an important archeological site since 1994 when an archeologist began excavation. Fabrics and other structures from plants, which were preserved since it almost never rains on that part of the coast of Peru, allowed carbon dating for the site.... read more