John Simons

Ten Days and Counting . . .

Yesterday marked ten days until departure.  The details are all falling into place.

I sent this e-mail out to those who have supported my trip, and to several friends who have encouraged me in taking Josh on this adventure: › Continue reading

Tags: Faith, Family, Missions, Paraguay

Google Sky - Who needs a telescope?

I recently read about Google Sky - a new service from Google to show the stars and other objects in the night sky. Who needs to invest in an expensive telescope? Now you can explore deep space objects any time of the day from the comfort of your own computer.

My only gripe about the service, is its view of constellations. I learned to enjoy stargazing and spotting constellations while on a mission trip to Honduras. My brother and I spent a month on the Island of Roatan. At night, they would literally turn off the electricity. We were living in a rented house, where we happened to find a book about the stars. So, for most of our trip, we spent the evenings out on a dock on the Caribbean, looking at the stars and trying to identify all of the constellations. It is amazing how bright the night sky is when there is no light pollution.

My brother and I have a few other stories about stargazing. Some involve the secret stargazing spot, at least one involves a nice conversation with local law enforcement when we were inadvertently trespassing. But, those stories are better left for another time. In the meanwhile, check out Google Sky and see what the heavens look like.

Tags: constellations, Google Sky, Honduras, Roatan, stargazing

Spanish and Me - a History

Since I am preparing to head to South America, I have come to realize that my Spanish has gotten very rusty. Once upon a time, I could speak and understand Spanish fairly well, even if I was never really fluent. Of course, before that I really hated the Spanish language.

For starters, my mom was a high school Spanish teacher. She even went and did an exchange program while she was teaching. She went and spent a month (I think) living with a family in Saltillo, Mexico to improve her Spanish. My dad knew a little Spanish, but really not very much. My mom always wanted my brother and I to learn Spanish, and I can remember her giving us impromptu lessons while she cooked dinner, or at other times during everyday life. At that point, neither my brother nor I were particularly interested in learning a language that we didn’t see much need for.

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Tags: English, Language, Paraguay, South America, Spanish, travel

Mission Trip - Language Barrier

Josh has begun compiling information about the Guaraní language. According to Wikipedia, Guaraní is an exception in that it is a native language that has not succumbed to a European colonial language in prestige. In fact most Guaraní-speakers are not of indigenous ethnicity. You can even browse the Guaraní language Wikipedia, if you are so inclined.

Josh is going to compile a list of phrases in Spanish and Guaraní to help us communicate with our hosts. However, I plan to rely on the translator for most of my communication. Beyond that, I will have to hope that my rusty Spanish will be enough to communicate the basics. I have a long, and not always pleasant history with the Spanish language. But that is a story for another time. . . .

Tags: Guarani, Language, Missions, Paraguay

Travel Health - Information Overload

Yesterday was our appointment to go to the health department in Gainesville so that we could get our Yellow Fever vaccinations. It is probably a good thing we didn’t go there before we signed up for this trip. Otherwise, we might never go. We spent more than two hours talking to the nurse, who specializes in infections diseases for travelers. She was very friendly and had a lot of information. Maybe too much information.

We learned about Yellow Fever, the vaccine, how effective it is etc. We also learned about the following diseases that have vaccines: Typhoid Fever, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, and several others. We learned about Rabies. (Josh: don’t pet the capybaras.) We learned about illness from food and water (dysentary, typhoid, hepatitis A). We learned about deep vein thrombosis. We learned about diseases that come from mosquitoes: yellow fever (there is a vaccine), dengue fever (no vaccine, no cure), malaria (you can take pills, but we don’t need to). We learned about fungal infections and parasites (schistosomiasis - stay out of the water). We learned about a few more, as well.

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Tags: Family, Health, mission, Paraguay