View from the hotel
Today was my birthday and it was the first time I had ever celebrated it out of the country, let alone without my family. My host Didier woke me up at 7 in the morning to have breakfast and get dressed. I had breakfast and we made our way over to hotel Chaco where we would meet the rest of the group. We were late like usual. As the group piled into the bus, I received a number of birthday wishes from my peers. When we reached the Santa Anna center, I walked into the meeting room and immediately the room burst into singing “Happy Birthday.” From that moment I could tell my 17th birthday was going to be an interesting one.
Kids having a laugh
For helping in Santa Anna, I am in the group salud (health). Our main job is walking around to a number of houses and explaining to the occupants the importance of a good shelter, source of drinking water, and so on. I however do not speak the best Spanish but I try to do my best to explain, of course with help from the others. The poverty in this area is simply remarkable. As I walked by houses (or so they were called) made of scraps of metal and children covered in dirt it made me think about my life and how much I take the simple pleasures for granted such as hot water or even a shower. Unfortunately, it rained today for about 15 minutes, but by the time it was done I was soaked.
Happy birthday
We then separated for lunch and like everyday I was accompanied by Darío and Pedro for lunch. This time, the Peace Corps worker Giselle joined us for lunch. We had shell noodles with a ground beef meat sauce. It was delicious. We headed Back to the center to deliberate. This time I played soccer with the little kids in the school. Then it was time to celebrate my birthday. They have many different traditions for birthdays in Paraguay. For one it is a tradition to gang up on the birthday boy and slap him on his back and head. It was all in good fun, though. After that we handed out the cake and sang happy birthday in English and Spanish. I went home and got ready to go to my friend Tobias’ house where they were having a party to celebrate. After the night was over, it definitely was a good day celebrating my birthday in Paraguay.
Jason, a student at Bullis