July 4, 2013. Work hard, play hard! This quote I think fits perfectly with today’s events. Since moving in with our second host family’s here in Asuncion we’ve been working to the bone at the Santa Ana school building a garden, painting their day care and school walls, and just improving the school’s facilities so the children can have the beautiful school which they deserve.
While waiting for the buses to pick us up at Hotel Chaco I felt great exhaustion and tiredness. My legs and arms were sore from working so much the day before, I felt like I was sleep walking. However my teachers Sonija, Alli, Mayra, and Taylor always do a great job at getting everyone awake and excited for the day ahead. It’s important to stay positive and encourage others, this is something I’ve learned since being on this trip. Once we got to the Santa Ana school me and my group began working on the garden. We picked out all the trash and rocks from the ground and weren’t scared to get down and dirty. Once twelve o’clock hit everyone was starving and we headed to El Centro Comunitario to eat lunch.
After a very delicious lunch of pasta and salad most of us students went to the courts to play some soccer and relax for a while. The guys were playing an intense game of soccer with the school kids and the rest were chilling on the stage talking and playing games with the other kids. Back home the people here in Santa Ana would be considered lower class and less fortunate but they don’t think about themselves in that way at all. They have just enough to live off of and are both very nice and very humble. These traits are something all Paraguayans have. Since being here I’ve become humbled and learned to be grateful for what I have.
At 1pm we all walked back to the Santa Ana school and went straight to work. I switched from working in the garden to working in the day care painting the walls. At 4 when we were finished I was covered in paint and sweat. Everyone both worked hard and played hard and you could tell this from looking at their faces. All us LearnServe kids met in a group to reflect a little on the long day. We gave shout-outs to each other and got to share our thoughts and feelings. I was thankful to be able to tell someone that I was exhausted and to know that I wasn’t the only one who was tired from working hard and playing hard.
Me and my host sister then went to her dance practice which was sort of long considering I was just sitting doing nothing and very tired. When practice ended Yanina (my host sister) called her chauffeur to pick us up and take us home. For dinner I had a very good ham and cheese sandwich and some cookies. Since arriving to Paraguay I’ve taken on the native sleeping routine in which one goes to sleep before 10pm which I believe is the biggest difference between people in Paraguay and people in the US. I took a shower around 7;30 and went straight to sleep around 8pm which is also very strange for me to do. I slept like a rock meaning I worked hard, played hard, and slept hard as well.
Leila V., Columbia Heights Education Campus