Paraguay “Some R&R”: Nathaniel’s POV

Surprisingly, rest and relaxation are hard to come by on a year long trip in Latin America. Some may think our trip is solely chilling on the beaches, checking out the sweet views and exploring. We do all that, but I would say that it is only about 25% of our time, the other 75% is spent driving, doing schoolwork (or teaching for that matter), planning, playing and even more driving. For my parents, it’s worse, they need to worry about planning, freshwater, gas, car stuff, food, camper cleaning, electricity, safety… the list goes on and on. This makes the times when we do get some R&R very precious. Paraguay was the epitome of rest and relaxation.  We experienced a house, family and friends that cared for us, fun activities and hospitality. All conspiring to Paraguay being one of our favorite stops… the funny part? It was a total detour.

After spending a brief time in northern Argentina and Chile, testing our skills as empanada connoisseurs, my parents made an executive (and last minute) decision to connect with some distant relatives and discover our roots over in good old Paraguay. My mom steeled us for a hot and arid place with most likely no AC. She also told us we would probably sleep in the camper the whole time. To all of our great surprise and joy, this was not the case. When we arrived we were greeted by Veronica and Ferdinand Ekkert who were dressed for the weather, wearing jeans and a light T-Shirt. We drank some terere (an herbal yerba tea, generally shared, a highly important part of  Argentinian and Paraguayan culture) on lawn chairs and discussed our lives while my dad parked the truck. Then, one of the most memorable phrases of the month was uttered in German by Veronica… “Should I show you your rooms?”

The house was paradise to us, it contained a room for everyone, a hunting dog, tons of Lego, AC, two pro chefs (Veronica and Ferdinand, although Ferdinand generally only handled meat-related things), a TV room (“Mommy! Movie night!?- Elias says upon entering the room), and a big property perfect for pellet gun hunting. Everything my brothers and I could wish for. 

The house provided us with a sort of base camp during our stay, a place we could always look forward to after a hot day. And, most of all, some long awaited privacy.

Veronica and Ferdinand made it their mission to show us the whole Chaco region, where the Mennonites inhabit. And boy, did they show us. Our second day after arriving, we were invited to a bull auction. Yes, you heard right, a real bull auction where a bull is pulled into a sort of stadium and people bid on it. But before that, we visited the Kelwa Peanut Factory. Veronica and Ferdinand manage a huge peanut factory that has been passed down for generations, and we decided we could not miss it. It was a great experience and we all learned a lot. My brothers and I especially loved the tasting part of the tour, as well as the huge gift bag of peanut butter, peanuts and peanut bars. After getting some Kelwa swag,  we piled into Ferdinand’s air conditioned Ford Raptor (of which he is very proud of) and headed off for the auction. When we got there, speeches were made for two hours (all in German, causing my brothers and I to almost fall asleep), then food was served (some very good beef burgers). And then, the auction. Everyone took a seat as some hype Mennonite music (a mythical occurrence) blared, the Tererer thermoses and guampas were revealed, and the festivities started. We got some valuable insight on why each bull is valuable or not from Ferdinand’s brother Norbert (more on him later) during the event. The auction lasted for a little too long, so my brothers and I did some target practice with slingshots with a new friend. After the auction, we drove home and kicked back in the AC.

The auction was only one of many fun activities we participated in. One day, Veronica and Ferdinand’s sons took our family go karting, another day we visited with some new found friends at their ranch and went horseback riding! But the best activity was when Ferdinand’s brother Norbert took us Caiman hunting at his estancia. Now, a Caiman, for those of you who don’t know, is a small version of a crocodile. Still vicious and fast, many Chaco inhabitants like hunting them for food. Turns out, they taste like chicken. The minute we arrived at Norbert’s cabin, he loaded up a shotgun and revolver into his old pickup. The next couple of hours were spent in the back of the pickup until, lo and behold, we spotted some Caiman. They were camped on the bank of a water reservoir and seemed to be sleeping (actually caiman always look like they are sleeping, you would know this if you ever visited the lamest exhibit in the Vancouver aquarium). Norbert took the shotgun out and shot at one of the two on the bank.  He missed, and suddenly they both swam into the water. Quickly,  Norbert pulled out his revolver, lined it up on a fence, and hit the smaller one square between the eyes. It was clear he had been doing this for a while and was very experienced. The deep fried Caiman cutlets tasted great and we even used the claws as necklace material.

The actual town where the Ekkerts lived was called Filadelfia.  It was outfitted with some soccer fields, a Co-op grocery store, some leather places and an amazing ice cream shop called Piri. Piri supplies people with truckloads of quality ice cream for a very good rate, and I am very embarrassed to say that we ate Piri ice cream literally every other night for 12 days. Filandia also had a Mennonite church where we attended for two Sundays.  It was always smoking hot but it was really fun. My mom let us draw things while the sermon (in German) happened. After the service, we socialized a bit, then played soccer. It was great. 

A big part of the trip was trying to learn more about our heritage, the Mennonites. We went to museums, heritage sites and listened to story after story. I’ll try not to give a whole history lesson but essentially, the Mennonites are an anabaptist group who originated from Holland.  Due to their anabaptist beliefs they were persecuted and fled under the leadership of Menno Simons. They moved to Russia where Catherine the Great promised them plenty of land to farm and to practice their Christian beliefs in peace.. And farm they did! They loved communally and became quite wealthy because of their knowledge in agriculture and farming. The minute Communism came into power, in the form of Josef Stalin, the Mennonites were again persecuted and forced to flee to the few places who would let them in, including Canada and Paraguay. When Mennonites arrived in Canada, they had to rebuild their lives, but in Paraguay it was a lot harder. The Chaco region, where the Paraguayan government had put the Mennos, was hot, dry, and virtually unfarmable. But people like my great grandmother and great grandfather made it work, their farming prowess and hard work ethic came into play again and they made the Chaco region into a prosperous land that many people now inhabit. So… that’s a very brief review of my history! 

The hospitality of the people we experienced in the Chaco was unmatched. Even Though they live in a literal desert, they made it such a fun part of the trip and one of our fondest memories. We really enjoyed going to a real church, having a family around us, and just overall feeling loved. Paraguay was the land of rest and relaxation, great food, and even greater people.

-Nathaniel Fast