On August 7th, my sister Karen married her partner Joel in the rural outskirts of La Colmena, Paraguay, a small community located 2.5 hours southeast of Asuncion, the capital city.  Karen and Joel met in Paraguay several years ago while serving as volunteers in the Peace Corps.  After a year of readjusting to life in the United States, they returned to the setting of their relationship’s nascence to confirm their commitment to one another.

La Colmena was founded during WWII by a group of Japanese immigrants.  The community today is inhabited by both Japanese and Guarani people, whose cultures remain distinct and visible.  During his time in the Peace Corps, Joel lived and served on the outskirts of La Colmena, promoting sustainable agriculture by planting demonstration crops, starting a community garden, and hosting a local radio show.  He primarily worked with the community’s Guarani inhabitants, who tend to have lower income levels and fewer resources than do the Japanese, who remain well-supported by the Japanese government and relatives overseas.

The cast of characters who attended the wedding ceremony were as diverse as our surroundings.  Joel’s parents traveled from Humboldt county, California; Matt and I came from the Bay Area.  Our two sets of parents and my little brother hailed from rural Illinois.  Karen’s Peace Corps host family traveled six hours by bus and foot to attend the wedding.  Joel’s Peace Corps host family also hosted the wedding: they prepared hundreds of empanadas, butchered and roasted a pig and a cow, made dozens of pans of Sopa (delicious cornbread prepared with lard), and readied the grounds for the celebration.  Several current and former Peace Corps volunteers attended, including Bo, a friend of Joel and Karen who traveled from Florida for the festivities.  In addition, approximately 80 community members joined the celebration, drawn by the promise of a good party.  Add to this mix a polka band, a mischievous goat, and sweet, grapey wine mixed with Coca Cola, and you have a proper Paraguayan wedding.

At their wedding, Joel and Karen brought together a tremendous diversity of individuals; they relied on the hospitality of Joel’s host family and strong relationships built during their time in-country.  They prepared for the wedding remotely and during two weeks in Paraguay leading up to the event.  Despite the challenges inherent in this feat, they managed an occasion that was joyful, inclusive, and unique — a fitting culmination of their service in Paraguay and representation of their wedding vows.

In the days leading up to the wedding, I watched Karen and Joel sip terere (cold yerba mate tea) with their host families, joke with community members, and — in free moments — coordinate the details of the event.  As Peace Corps volunteers, Joel and Karen completed their missions by adapting to their environments, embracing new experiences, and building relationships that spanned gaps in experience, language, and culture.  These same gifts enabled them to host a Paraguayan wedding with grace and love.

As family members, we were given passes into this community based on the time and effort that Karen and Joel had contributed over the course of years.  We enjoyed pre-dinner tastes of roasting meat, embarked on galloping polka dances, and were treated with warmth and respect.  Joel and Karen’s desire to unite two distinctive portions of their lives enabled their families to share a life experience that otherwise would be inaccessible to us.  Their generosity and inclusiveness are only several of the reasons why we love them, and they each other.  These shared qualities undoubtedly form the basis of a relationship that will be both enduring and adaptive over time.

Thank you, Karen and Joel!