Paraguay 2014, Day 5 – “Everyone has something to give”

Hello, everyone! It is Friday, so we are leaving our homestay families and heading to Asunción, tomorrow. This blog will be a recap of these last 6 days and fun memories about our homestay experiences. The last 6 days have been very difficult for a lot of people but also contained many great bonding, learning, and very fun moments.

On the first night we got to our homestay families, I was talking to my homestay familia about my family and showing them pictures of my mother and my father. I understood them pretty well I thought until I realized that I had just told them that I had a younger sister, which I don’t.  On the second night I was showing them a picture of my mother and me, from when I was a small baby and then my father asked: “¿Es tu bebé, verdad?”  They thought for the last day and a half that I had a child! I quickly responded “¡No no no! ¡Es mi mamá y yo!” (It’s my mother and me!)  Then we all laughed for a bit and watched more of the Word Cup together in my room.

It has been raining for the past couple days so the kids do not have school which means we were not able to join them for the activities we had planned. Instead we have been bonding as a group. Marnie has been teaching us a lot of games and we have been playing a card game called BS. We are always laughing, playing music together, and singing. Yesterday we went to a comite de mujeres which is a women’s committee and we were waiting for lunch so Marnie suggested we play ‘Honey I love you.’  We all have to sit in a circle with one person in the middle standing. That person has to go around the circle to different people saying “honey I love you” to try to make the other person laugh or smile. The one receiving the “honey I love you”, in order to not become the one in the middle of the circle, must answer “honey I love you, but I can’t smile” without smiling or laughing. Of course all of us had a very hard time not laughing, smiling or crying because we are trying not to laugh. It was a great bonding experience and we had so much fun playing. Besides the game we played, the women shared their cause with us, which was really powerful because even though they were a small group in a every small area they care about making a difference in their community.

Today, we went to the empty elementary school and talked about the differences between Paraguay and the US, specifically the DMV area. We talked about how if it rained this much in DC it wouldn’t really prevent us from carrying out our daily activities like going to school. Most families can’t go to school or work because the roads become impassible due to mud and rising water. We take advantage of things like paved roads, warm water when we want it, a clean bathroom, which are all things that many do not have. Paved roads are something that we don’t even think about! We all complain about how there are so many potholes or uneven and bumpy roads in DC but here, when it rains, they have mini mud slides on their dirt roads which causes half of it to be a couple inches higher than the other half of the road. If I formed a comite, my main goal would be to try and fix the roads by raising awareness on the effect it has on people’s lives.

Even though it is raining, people are happy to share their food and time with us. Every single day the second thing out of everyone’s mouth, after good morning or hey, is what did you have for breakfast/dinner. The food in this town is absolutely delicious. I have had some of the best meals here (Sorry Mother!). We all want to know what we all had to eat the night before. On the first night some had fried chicken, some had empanadas or rice and beans and chicken. Whatever anyone had the third thing they said was it was amazing. I remember I had these noodles and soup and it was the best soup I have ever had in my life. It had chicken in it and I probably saw that same chicken walking around this morning. In the morning, we can’t wait to get home and eat lunch. In the afternoon, we can’t wait to go home and eat dinner.  Kashmere made this joke one day that if this is what we got served at lunch people would get in fights over it. Then when your parents asked you why you got into a fight today your answer would be “Some guy put his fork on my plate and tried to take my food.” That is how good this food is.  A normal day, food wise, would be: Amazing coffee and a sweet type of bread in the morning, rice and beans and chicken, or empanadas for lunch (it is always the biggest meal) and soup or something like that for dinner.

Another great thing I have noticed here is how open the people are. These families are so generous to welcome us into their homes. They have no idea who we are and they’ve gone out of their way to make us feel more comfortable. Some people’s host families made them French fries and fried chicken to mimic American food to make them feel at home. Also, on our first day of activities, we went to a school gathering where some students were selling some local favorites, chipa, sopa paraguaya, and chipa guasu, to raise money. At this gathering they played music, some of which we all knew, and invited us to dance with them. Some 8th grade girls came up to us, took our hand, and dragged us out there to dance. We created dance circles and dance lines. They taught some of us how to do their dances too. They were so outgoing. It was incredibly mind blowing and inspiring to see these kids take initiative and try and include us in their activities even if we were these weird Americans. We all felt very welcomed and ready to spend more time on activities but, unfortunately, this was the last time we saw them due to the weather.

One last example of how we were received by the community is when a lady invited our group in from the rain to stay with her on her patio to wait until our van came.  We are not only here to learn and improve our Spanish but also to take in their culture which also includes their indigenous language of Guaraní. The lady said she has a book that she wanted to give us that would help us learn the language. She had the most beautiful garden and when we told her this, she said that we should take a plant home with us. We had never met her before and she opened her home to us as many others have for us, here. It is amazing to me that they are some of the most open-minded, kind, and generous people that I have ever encountered. They have helped me realize that I should be more open-minded and generous no matter what and that everyone has something to give.

Also, Happy Birthday Momma Cody!!!!!

Iya, 16, Edmund Burke School