Articles by mgedwards

Five generations

Tonight I’m posting a photo of five generations of my family.  The photo is a collage that includes my son, me, my father, grandfather, and great-grandfather.  Five generations of boys.  My grandmother passed away last year, and my aunt sent me an assortment of her photos, including of my great-grandfather I had never seen.  (His name was "Greenup," which is fitting for a man who was a farmer his entire life.)  I located and shrunk some of our best photos and strung them together.  Do you see any similarities between us?  I made the collage for my son, who will not remember his grandfather.  He passed away in 2006 when my son was very young, just as my grandfather died when I was very young.  This is a collage to hand down to posterity.  I’m not a big genealogy geek, but I do enjoy preserving history.
 
 Five generations
 
Over the next few weeks — assuming I find opportunities to update this blog — I’ll post some photos of our time in Paraguay.  I am way behind on my posting.
 
Blog Note:  We finally settled on a birthday place for my son.  We found a place much cheaper than the other options.  Cheap wasn’t the only factor — it offers pretty much the same amenities as the expensive places without the high cost.  We’ll probably do a small birthday barbeque for him in addition to the birthday party.  I’m glad the option we chose is affordable and minimal work.

The birthday party

My, my, my.  I posted a blog entry three days in a row.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me. 🙂  Maybe I’m finally getting a life.  Or perhaps it’s because the Paraguayan election ended last Saturday.  Either way, it feels good to back writing away.  I missed this blog.  I always had it in mind to come back and write but did not have the wherewithall to do it.  So here I am at long last.
 
Our son’s birthday is coming soon, and we’re in full birthday planning mode (I’ll write a family update entry soon).  My wife and I talked about what to do for him.  Of course, she has been taking the lead on the birthday preparations; bless her heart.  We’re finding the options prohibitively expensive.  She told me tonight that the option she was looking at will cost over US$600.  Another option would cost about US$800.  I love my son dearly, but common sense tells me that that is a lot of money.  The weakening dollar does not help matters.  Two years ago the U.S. dollar was 50 percent stronger against the Paraguayan guarani than it is now, so the options are much more expensive than in the past.  Granted, Paraguayan children’s birthday parties tend to be lavish affairs (depending on your income level).  Girls’ 15th birthday parties (quinceaños) are especially grandiose.  For US$600, one can rent an entire building–there are quite a few "fun places" that host birthday parties.  Chuck ‘E’ Cheese and McDonald’s Birthday Room they are not.  You get far more here for your money.
 
Still, I do not relish keeping up with the Duartes.  The people that host these lavish birthday parties tend to be more affluent and have a lot of discretionary money to spend.  Interestingly, they tend to spend the money without trying to one-up each other.  My son attends birthday parties three or four times per month and goes to the same "fun places" with the same 30 or so children over and over…and over.  I’m not interested in having a birthday party to please my son’s friends or their parents.  I would rather give my son something more memorable that costs a lot less.  Last year he had a wonderful birthday party in our apartment complex in Virginia.  I am leaning toward having a more intimate party here at home with a barbeque, presents, cake, prizes for the kids, a piñata, and "globos locos" — large, blow up amusements.  My son will have a party he won’t forget if for nothing else than it will be different than the overpriced ones he attends almost weekly.

Lugo wins presidency

This is already old news, but I should document for posterity that Fernando Lugo of the Patriotic Alliance for Change (APC) won the presidency April 20, defeating Colorado presidential candidate Blanca Ovelar and National Union of Ethical Citizens candidate Lino Oviedo.
 
 
The Colorado Party, which had occupied the presidency for the past 61 years — a world record — lost for a variety of reasons.  Lugo had been the leading presidential candidate for over a year since I before I heard him speak at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and was favored to win.  However, Lugo had to overcome the weight of 61 years of one-party dominance capped by 35-years of rule by former dictator Alfredo Stroessner.  Over 2.8 million Paraguayans voted in the election, and Lugo won over 40 percent of the vote, tapping both opposition voters as well as dissatisfied Colorado voters.  The mood in Asuncion on Monday — helped by a nice dose of good weather — was one of elation for many people (but not all–most of all the Colorados who lost).  One Paraguayan told me in astronishment, "This is the first time in my life that the Colorados haven’t been in power."  That’s a true statement for most Paraguayans.  In the United States, we talk of the Republicans or Democrats being in power for too long, but we measure this in years.  In Paraguay, party rule is measured in decades, where the Colorados ruled for 61 years, and before that, the Liberals ruled for 40 years.  It remains to be seen whether Lugo will have a successful presidency and set up the APC and Liberals for long-term rule or whether the Colorados will regroup in time for the next election in 2013.
 
I’m just happy to have been in the front row watching history happen.