One Month Left!

I can’t believe it’s already June! I only have one month left in Paraguay and on my exchange year.  My work is amazing and I will be sad to leave.  I think it will be one of the hardest times to leave my family, work, and all my friends here.  I’ve really built myself a second life here and it will always be a part of me.  Even through all the bad and rough times, I never wanted to leave Paraguay.  I will miss many things about it and hopefully share the culture and knowledge I’ve gained when I come back home.

            It’s truly incredible that it has almost been a year since I left my home.  Time is such a weird thing.  One day can seem like so long and a week too, but then there are months that fly by and you don’t know where all the time went.  I am excited to see my family and friends back home but I also think it will be hard adjusting again.  I have changed a lot, as a person, my beliefs, my actions, and my values, and I don’t know if I will have the same interests and like the same things as I did before.  I guess I will just have to wait and see and try my best to accept that I am home and that if I ever want to go back and visit I always can. 

            We had our last going away orientation camp two weeks ago, in May.  It was interesting to hear about everyone’s different experiences and to see how everyone has changed.  Also to hear about how different everyone’s years were even though we are all in the same country.  I love talking to other students who are travelling abroad or who have been abroad, about their experiences and plans for the future.  It will be a hard time saying bye to Paraguay, but I don’t think I will realize I left and am not coming back until I’m at my home in America. 

Happy times

My best friend here in Paraguay, who lives in Asuncion, came to visit me in my new family.  After eating lunch with the family, my mom asked her if she’d ever been to see the ancient ruins about 45 minutes away from my house.  She replied no, of course, because it’s not common here for your host family to take you places (even though they should).  So my Mom and Dad took my friend and I to see the Ancient Ruins and a day trip to some other places.

            It was a perfect day with seeing the ruins and arriving to our final destination to see an ancient church, just in time as the sun was setting.  It was truly beautiful.  We took many photos and learned all about the history of the places.  We also visited a Yerba factory which is what they use here to make the typical drink of Paraguay, terere.  It is kind of like a loose tea called Yerba.  It was interesting to see how old fashioned the factory was but is still running today and exporting to many countries around the world.  That’s typical Paraguay for you, very traditional. 

It was a lovely Saturday and then the next day we went to the families house for a Paraguayan BBQ, an asado.  We were at my aunt’s house with all the cousins and we all went to the zoo in the afternoon. I was thinking it would be a nice zoo, like the one’s I’ve been to in America, with lots of animals and expensive. However, it wasn’t the same at all.  After visiting, I actually felt very sad and bad.  It wasn’t a big place, maybe the size of a gymnasium.  The animals there were lions, tigers, cheetahs, alligators, monkeys, birds, snakes, deer, spiders, and bobcats.  Each type of animal had it’s own metal gated section, enough room to stand up, turn around, and walk maybe five steps, and that’s it.  NONE of the cages had clean water, if water at all, and none had a place to sleep.  The tigers and lions were enormous and clearly needed more space and at the least water! I was shocked to be honest the entire time and after just felt bad.  But the people don’t know any better and if you only have little education, you’d think that zoo was normal and cool to be able to see those animals up close.   A day when I was remembered to not be rude or say something offensive, but just to think in my head and tell myself; they don’t know any better, and it’s not a bad culture, it’s just different.

The other side of Paraguay

            This past month I went with other people from AFS to see the Chaco, or the north part and most poor part of Paraguay.  We all met in Asuncion and from there took a 9 hour bus ride to the chaco.  My friend and I got to the terminal in Asuncion to meet everyone else and a volunteer from the trip to take us to the office of AFS where we will leave from.  As typical Paraguay, the volunteer never showed up so there was 12 of us waiting at the terminal.  After about an hour and a half, we decided to take a taxi to one of our friends from AFS too to his house and chill there while waiting about 5 more hours to be at the office. We all show up at his house without him knowing, and his mom who is so nice and welcoming, of course let us all in to talk and sit and drink terere. We were there for about an hour and then decided to meet everyone else who was going on the trip at another house and go have dinner, then all together walk to the AFS office. We all left walking with all of our luggage to the other friends house, 15 blocks. If you’ve been to Asuncion, you would know the city is dangerous and not very good for people holding rollie suitcases due to not having smooth sidewalks, if any at all. Those 15 blocks felt like forever but eventually we all made it.  We met at the other friends house with everyone else and from there walked about 2 blocks to a bus stop.  The city bus comes to the stop, and all 28 of us get on with our luggage and luckily it was quite empty. The driver looked confused and a little happy he was making so much money. He started to play his music loud and it was a fun bus ride to the restaurant.  Once at the restaurant, we all ordered dinner and then walked to the AFS Office to leave for the Chaco at 11pm. 

            The bus ride to the Chaco was long but since it was nighttime it was okay and we all slept a little.  The next morning we arrived to the only city in the chaco and went to see museums and a milk factory.  We ate lunch and visited many more museums and historical places. It was all very interesting. We then drove to our hotel, a very nice hotel, and went swimming, ate dinner, and partied the night away.

            The next day was Sunday, which is a day I will remember for the rest of my life. This day, after breakfast, we started driving home and stopped in the middle of the chaco at one of the traditional villages where the poor people live. We all brought clothes and shoes to donate.  As the tourist bus stops on the route in front of the street to enter the village, I looked out the window and started to see people running from every way possible to the bus. Kids, adults, babies, dogs, teenagers, everyone.  We all got off the bus and the kids of the village were standing in a group and started to sing us a song in their language.  Paraguay has two official languages, Guarani and Spanish, but there are also dialects that the poor people speak in some parts of Paraguay which is what they were singing in.  We then passed out our clothes for them and their faces were as if they just got 1,000,000 dollars.  It was incredible to see.  Then one lady invited us into the village to see their houses and explain a little to us.  We accepted the invitation and started walking.  There were two different types of houses. One was made of cement and had one room and an outdoor place for the kitchen and table, and the other was made of wood and was a box with a tarp for the roof.  All of them had water tanks next to them because all the water they use in the Chaco is from the rain. So they have to store it and use it sparingly.  Then in the middle of all the houses was one little wooden port-a-potty.  That was the bathroom for many people in the village.  We then walked a little more to see the place where they have their village meetings.  It was a circle in the dirt with a cement platform.  The lady rang the bell seven times which means that the people can come to the center because we were there. Some came and were talking to us and mainly just hugging us and saying thank you.  While walking back to the bus, I started to cry a little just by thinking what it would be like to live like that even for one day.  It was sad yet amazing to see how happy and appreciative they were when we gave them our donations and just to see us.  It was a day that really changed how I think about my lifestyle, others, and who I am as a person. 

Importance of Host Families

I’m so sorry I haven’t written in a long time, but here are some I wrote earlier but haven’t had internet to post them.

In my family, I truly feel at home and it is the best feeling ever. Your host family during your year abroad can really make or break your entire experience.  It is really important to have one that you feel comfortable in and can talk to them about anything.  During your year, there are ups and downs and you will experience every emotion you’ve ever had to great degrees.  With learning a new language, being in a different culture, and living far away from your family and friends, there is a lot of pressure and emotions flowing through you at every moment. They call this the wave or the roller coaster.

Sometimes the waves come week to week, sometimes day to day, and sometimes in time periods of months.  It really depends on what’s happening around you.  You will have the worst and best days of your life and the worst moments and bests. You will question yourself why you ever came, why this was a good idea, and what the hell am I doing here at times.  And at other times you will think to yourself that you never want to go home, keep traveling forever, and eventually move to your new country.  At the low points, it is common to have mental breakdowns like a three-year old don’t worry, the day will pass.  It is important to prepare yourself for these time periods and to know that the best days of your life are awaiting you and that bad day will be over before you know it.  For these highs and lows, ups and downs, it’s very important to have a host family you feel comfortable in and feel like they truly are your second family. 

My family now, is truly incredible and I couldn’t have any more luck.  My friends from AFS are jealous of my family and tell me that I am so lucky, which is all true.  I have two brothers, and a mom and dad.  My brothers are really the brothers I’ve ever wanted and we do everything together.  My parents always go out of their way to make sure I have the best experience I could ever have and make sure everything’s okay all the time.  They are open and talk to me as if they were my birth parents.  I couldn’t be happier and my year completely flipped around in the past five months.  I can now honestly say that I don’t regret my choice of coming to Paraguay and I have made memories here that I will never forget.  

Difficult, amazing, and new experiences

To start off on a good note, I MET THE PRESIDENT OF PARAGUAY! This past month has had a lot of celebrations in Encarnacion because it’s the 400^th year anniversary of this city.  There’s been festivals and parades, and the president came down to Encarnacion to say hi and celebrate the 400^th years.  My work is a new center and benefits all of Paraguay.  People from all over the country come to the facility for the help they need.  So when the president was in town, he came to visit my work and check it out.  We all made a human pathway for him to walk through when he entered and all said hi. It was truly amazing! I have never seen that many different types of police, security, and army guards. As he passed me in the line, the president of Cenade (my work), stopped him and in front of everyone said to him, “Here’s a special girl that I want you to meet.” So I walked over and he gave me a hug with kisses on the cheeks, and then asked me some questions.  It was on TV and the radio, I was actually quite embarrassed haha. But he was very nice and we had a good conversation.  It was an experience of a lifetime.

A new experience I’ve had this past month is art class. My Mom loves painting and studied it a while back but stopped due to work and other things. The last time was four years ago but she wanted to start again, so I said I’ll do it with her. We go every Tuesday night and it’s mainly a painting class.  It’s really fun for me and I want to keep up with it when I come home.  I’m so glad my Mom is so nice and really feels like a real Mom to me. I got very lucky.

Now, a bad experience.  About two weeks ago, I was walking home from work for lunch at 11 o’clock in the morning.  I was walking on a busy road in front of the costanera. People walk here all day and night and is known to be a generally safe place to walk.  I was walking against traffic on the sidewalk and a motorcycle that was coming towards me, with two men, started to slow down and pull over. In that moment I quickly thought to myself, Oh my god, I’m going to get robbed. In a split second one of the men got off the moto and pulled a gun out of his waist band and was waving it at me.  I froze and didn’t do anything.  He came closer and pushed me against a fence and put the gun to my head.  I had a small bag that was across my chest and he was telling me to give it to him but I couldn’t since he was over me.  When he got off I gave it to him and he left.  I froze and then fell to the ground and couldn’t move and started to cry.  A few minutes later another motorcycle came up to me with a mom and two kids in their school uniforms. She offered me a ride to my house and I would never take a ride from a stranger, but from the shock I did and to be honest don’t even remember the ride home or anything. Unfortunately for me, that morning before work I went to the ATM, so I had my wallet with me with all my money and cards in it. I normally leave this wallet at home, unless I am going to the bank.  However, the money and items I could care less about, it’s the value of all the photos that were on my IPhone in the bag, and all my photos I had in my wallet that I care about.  Anyways, the first week was difficult and it still is and that has definitely changed me.  I can finally sleep again which is good and recovering slowly. People now ask me, “Don’t you want to go home? Isn’t Paraguay a terrible place?” And you know what, it’s not! It is still a beautiful country with many amazing people, and this can happen anywhere. It was just bad timing and luck. I actually feel bad for the guy that he feels the need to do that to someone just because he has nothing or can’t get a job or that’s the only amount of money for him to have food.  So that was my bad experience but I’m sure there’s many other good ones to come in the next 3 months! See you all soon :)