July 3, 2013. Today was a very long day filled with both hard work, and cases of extreme juxtapositions. Here in Asuncion (city) we are living in a lap of luxury. We have maids, drivers, and chefs that wait on our families every call. We also live in huge homes with complex layouts, and fancy decorations. Many of the kids we live with are blinded about how the other side lives and never really thought they would ever do hands on work in Santa Ana. That explains how in the morning as we were loading into our vans the expressions of both anxiety, and a little fear.
Back in Dacak (the countryside) our families lived very humble lives. They served as there own cooks, drivers, and maids. They were very hardworking people that had everything they wanted and more importantly needed. There is a significant difference on the homes also in Dacak. The homes are smaller, many amenities aren’t present, and there really isn’t anything extravagant or special about them. All they do in their homes is basically sleep, and eat, because they spend the rest of their days outside doing farm work. Even though the people of Dacak didn’t have a bunch of things I still wouldn’t call them poor. The families of Dacak were extremely rich in their concepts of family, honor, and simplicity.
What we saw today in Santa Ana was a major contrast of lifestyles, and the importance of the educational system. When we arrived at the community center of Santa Ana Domingo decided that we should take a tour of this suburb. We walked around for 40 minutes were we saw great changes from the to other towns. In Asuncion during the morning hours you would see no kids outside doing nothing, because they would be in school. In Santa Ana we would see many children out of school roaming the streets. It was also very dirty there. Water flooded many of the streets, and trash was strewed everywhere. The homes also provided another case of the diversity of peoples living in a certain mile radius. Homes were not only smaller but many didn’t have lights, and windows were being covered with trash bags. Taking this tour helped to give us the motivation to push ourselves this week, and to try our hardest to accomplish as many tasks as Domingo gives us. After the tour we were told to separate ourselves into 3 groups regarding your certain interests. One group would be dealing with gardening, art, and childcare. We worked in our group for the entire day, and accomplished many things. We left at 430pm, and still felt as if we hadn’t even left a dent into the community. But we left happy to know that for the next 3 days we will be doing great work in this community that will better them and us forever.