This post is a part of a series from my travels with friends Hazel and Ami from back home who are currently travelling South America. We went on a 3 day mission, camping at Ybycui which is “3 hours” by bus south of Asuncion. Then we went onto UNESCO classified Jesuit ruins of Encarnacion, located at the southern tip of Paraguay. These posts go to show that Paraguay is a travel destination that is more about the adventure, the experiences and people met, “it’s all about the journey man”! Enjoy.

OK, I know you’re all getting bored of me telling you how friendly people are over here. Well just encase you didn’t quite comprehend it the first hundred times I told you, I will tell you again.

We met Melo on the bus from Asuncion as we were drinking our bottles of cola bought from a street vendor, which on closer inspection saw that the seals had been broken. The suspicion was confirmed when we saw the old man who had sold us the bottles picking up bottles off the street. A great little business, getting used bottles and filling them up from a 2.5 litre bottle – that’s 3^rd world entrepreneurship at work.

Anyway, back to Melo, we believe that he was attracted to the vacant seat beside me due to the picture of Jesus with wide open arms on my t-shirt that said “put down the drugs and come get a hug”. Melo was a friendly Brazilian missionary who was working with the local impoverished of Ybycui.

When we got to Ybycui we found out that the collectivo (small local bus) that was going out to the camping area 26 km out of town was supposed to be “leaving” in an hour. Melo invited us back to his house for lunch.

In the house lived a family and other missionary types. Their hospitality was second to none, and after grace we were treated to a tasty feed of sausages and rice that would probably mean they wouldn’t eat for the next 2 days. Following this we were shown photos of their church back in Brazil and told many great things about what their church does. I had the feeling that they were waiting for the guy with Jesus on his shirt to tell them of all his Religious achievements, little did they know that today’s grace that was said doubled his grace experiences.

Before we knew it, it was time to leave the believing beaming Colgate smiles and go wait for the collectivo and feel a bit inadequate at how much we contribute to the world. But not before a pray was said for us, asking god to look over us in our coming travels. Thank you Melo and friends, another humbling experience that let’s you know the world is full of good people and not just the twisted excuses of people that appear on the 6 o’clock news– Oh and a shout out to Jesus, cheers bro.