down on the farm

i took a weekend trip to the colony Canadiense 2 (canadian 2) and stayed with the Falk family.

it was nice to be in the country and enjoy the slow-paced lifestyle. the food was delicious (cake at every meal!), the weather beautiful, and the family was very friendly. the father spoke spanish, but the women of the family did not. still we managed to get by. i have had 10 months of being the awkward foreigner who doesn´t really understand what´s going on, so i´m used to it.

here´s their house.

the falks are from a group of colonists who moved from Paraguay over 40 years ago. they had been extremely poor and life had been very tough for a long time, but now they are successful. they own land, cattle, milk cows, and are part owners of a store. they milk the cows twice a day and sell it to Pil, the national milk company. they all have hands the size of plates and can milk a cow with lightning speed. before i tried/failed milking, all i could think was "man i wish i had practiced this in wisconsin so i could impress them" but nope i am just a city slicker. after pushing the milk back up the cow for a couple minutes, i managed to get a weak stream going.

Sunday was their annual dankfest, or thanksgiving celebration for their church. the falks are part of an evangelical church, not the colony church, that has been around for almost 2 years. i helped clean the church saturday afternoon and the youth group decorated it with real fruit creations. there was a morning service, lunch, and then an afternoon program. the sunday school sang some songs, recited bible verses, and played the piano. then leaders of the community went to the pulpit and talked about the move from Paraguay, colony life, conversion experiences, and funny anecdotes. i really wish i could have understood what they were saying. a woman who knew english would randomly translate for me.

after the program we had a feast of fresh fruit. delicious! a volleyball net was set up and the youth played. plenty of chatting and tereré drinking. a few english speaking women found me so i had some pleasant coversations and felt welcomed. it was a long day, 9am-5pm. so i crashed when we got back and missed the milking! and i headed back to santa cruz monday morning with the trufi taxi service.

it was a good experience, i´m glad i went. but i´m also glad it´s over with. even though i didn´t speak low german and the mother knew a little spanish, we still enjoyed each others´company and shared matté. and i got to see a glimpse of what life is like for the people that come into Centro Menno. and it was nice to not be the only big white person in church haha!