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.