Today was our first full day in Asuncion, and therefore our first day visiting Santa Ana. For those of you who don’t know, Santa Ana is a small community about 10 minutes outside of Asuncion.
The living conditions are so bleak and the people are in such poverty, that the government refuses to acknowledge it (The town is not on the map of Paraguay). We were all told that the town would be bad, but I really was not in store for what Santa Ana had to offer. The roads were not well paved, the rain was not properly drained, and the buildings were not upheld properly. But the biggest shock for me was when our group stopped in a soup kitchen, or comedor. But it was not for homeless adults like I might have imagined. They were kids. Some kids were comfortable enough to say a quick “Hola” or “Ciao,” but most of the children had looks of blank desperation and hopelessness – a stare that I will never forget. Just the fact that kids could not be fully supported by their guardians really impacted me. There do not seem to be any child service laws in this country. That experience today stuck out at me, and it made me realize how fortunate I was as a child to have the basic necessities to get by.