News and Prayer Requests from Beryl Baker in Paraguay
February 2009

After a long time without hearing from Beryl (server failure at her end, probably), we are pleased to report her latest news. At the moment of writing this, her complaint - “we desperately need many heavy falls of rain as the lack of it is causing all the plantations to shrivel and the water that remains is being evaporated with the intense heat. The daily temperatures remain well above 40^oC - might not attract the sympathy that it ought. Nevertheless we must always be aware of this difficulty.
In a remark that we have not heard before, Beryl intimates that she might “be able to see us later this year”. More when we know more. Sadly, Ringo, her late horse El Dorado’s “buddy” died last week. He died within three hours, but no sign of a snake bite was found.

On the other hand, Beryl writes of Gina, the newest dog to move in, having seven puppies (probably with a German Shepherd ancestry) on her sofa on New Year’s Day. Whiskers, a kitten, was dumped at the gate of the ranch, and she is accompanied by five other tiny kittens found in a box near her Asuncion home. They await new owners. The same applies to the six kittens of Marmalade, the Asuncion cat.
Following this, Beryl mentions that she has a heavy cold which, she hopes, will leave her as quickly as it came. She maintains her priorities!

Christmas Day saw lone dining, but on 26th she enjoyed the company of Tim Curtis and Ed and Marie Brice, as well as Wilhem, a Dutch medical student who has spent four further days at the clinic and wanted to spend another four days the following week. The essential servicing of the truck might jeopardise this.
Another Englishman, Graham Aston, is in town awaiting the container which he needs in connection with his work of setting up libraries at schools for poor children. On a visit to the Chaco he and Jeremiah together watched the DVD of “The Cross and the Switchblade”. Beryl is pleased about this. Prayer is needed for health auxiliary Liberato who, despite recovery from all his other ailments, remains blind for no obvious reason.

The container which left Scotland before Christmas has arrived and when Beryl came to town on Jan. 29th, she found her front garden completely full of wheelchairs and other medical things. Beryl also found in a small parcel, a card, poster (also one for Tim), calendar and diary. Two CDs of the Musicals were also found - unwrapped - and the five items of toiletries were missing. These had been family gifts, one for Aminda and a daughter on the loss of her husband six months ago, and the remainder for Beryl, who (a) probably couldn’t have bought them, and (b) wouldn’t have
bought them for herself under any circumstances. They were meant as a combined Christmas/ birthday present for her, as she has now spent 32 ½ years in the Chaco, exactly half her life.

We were naturally dismayed, as we thought of this package which had started from here late in October, but then we wondered why people would do such things. While not entirely of “bouncing bomb” strength, the package, locked in the container, should have been safe. Were the perpetrators idle, unscrupulous, or just the victims of a way of life which not only condones, but even seems to expect, such actions? Such thoughts were insignificant when compared to that outpouring of compassion which Beryl has delivered to the lovely and the unlovely for so many years in the knowledge of such risks.

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