Here in Paraguay, going to the store is no piece of cake. Last night, my husband decided he would try to make some chicken & shrimp jambalaya. I needed to run to the store to buy some shrimp, chicken breasts and Thyme that the recipe called for.

I got to the isle with the dried herbs. All of the herb names are in Spanish and I had already bought the herbs I thought I would need for cooking last week; such as ajo (garlic), hojas de laurel (bay leaves), canela (cinnamon), estragon (Tarragon), etc. I could not remember the Spanish name for Thyme. So, I had to use process of elimination. I knew I had not bought Tomillo, "maybe that's it," I thought. "It begins with a T!" I got home and looked in my Spanish/English cookbook to find that I had bought the right herb, thank God!

Going to the store is very time consuming here on the mission field. Having to translate things into English and hoping you are buying the right thing and sometimes not getting it right can be very frustrating.

By the way, my husband's jambalaya turned out delicious. If only I could get him to cook more often!! :)

For more stories about living in Paraguay and the joys (and some frustrations) of the mission field, keep reading my Blog.