Day 15: Heart of Serving the Guarani People
Hello everyone! We are tuning in from San Alberto and will spend the next five days here in this little town and the surrounding villages. Our first destination was the Akarami village where we had the pleasure to decorate the building of Heavenly Parent's Holy Community. It was a heartwarming sight to see all the Guarani people (natives of Paraguay) and the GPA members working together. The little kids wanted to help and were very enthusiastic. Even if we couldn't communicate due to the language barrier, just sharing warm smiles was enough, as our hearts had no obstacles to connect.
The loud sound of sandpaper rubbing against the wall amid the dusty air illustrated how hard we worked to finish this project. We were decorating the wall inside and outside while making a special piece of mural behind the stage. At the end of the day we were covered in paint and dust but we left with a satisfied heart.
After having lunch with the community we had the pleasure to attend a special occasion. We could witness our group leader and his wife give a blessing to these couples and individuals giving them a new start in their life and relationships. The blessing was for couples to enter in a God centered marriage filled with true love.
The next day things took an unexpected turn as we woke up to the sound of the heavy rain which left the roads covered in mud. Therefore we were not able to go back to the village to continue working, however, we still made the most out of this day. In the morning Mr. Nakata shared his experiences and projects he has been doing in San Alberto among the villages of the Guarani people. Now being here and being able to contribute to his vision by visiting these villages and having the chance to offer service work to them, we can practice deep gratitude and appreciation.
To our joy the next day we could wake up to a clear sky which meant we could go back to the village and continue our work. After around 10 hours of effort and love invested into this project in the past 2 days we finally finished the building. Beside the Heavenly Parent's Holy community we decorated the school's road as well with painted tires used as flower beds. As we finished in the afternoon we were covered in all kinds of colors of paint, dust and soil but we felt satisfaction in our hearts that we could finish this project and offer our hard work.
On Wednesday we headed to another village, the Village of Cristo. The villagers greeted us and after some introduction we were welcomed by a traditional ritual led by the mediator of the community. Wearing colorful feather headpieces and dreamcatchers, the men of the village and our GPA brothers joined hand in hand walking in a circle while the spiritualist was singing in their native language. Soon the women also joined in singing and started hitting the ground with a bamboo rod in rhythm. This act helps to bring God among us. Not soon after the GPA sisters also joined in arms linked, dancing in a smaller circle. It was quite a memorable experience for most of us participating and observing a ritual with our own eyes for the first time in our life.
The spiritualist ended the ceremony wishing us great health, fortune, courage and energy. Even if his words had to go through 3 translators, from Guarani to Spanish, from Spanish to Japanese and from Japanese to English, we could not forget this kind man's most important guidance, to be confident in God. With these special words in our hearts we started working on our first project, decorating the school area with hand painted tire flower beds. We spent the rest of the time playing soccer with the locals.
Thank you so much for keeping up with our time in San Alberto, see you in the next blog!
Generation Peace Academy
Dori Takacs
Blogger, Paraguay