July 2, 2015 – So today was our 4th day in Santa Ana and we have made friends with daughters of the cooks at the kitchen. We usually help to set up the tables but today we helped make the food for the community. At the kitchen the girls that we made friends with drew a picture of us, and she only put down my name which made me pretty happy and made me feel special. The fact that the girls took time out of their day to make a drawing really shows how much they really value their relationships with us.
Another part of today that surprised me was when we were taking a tour of the school earlier in the day and when we were playing soccer. There was a boy who came up to me and showed me a picture of a really famous Colombian soccer player and asked if I was him and Thomas responded to his question with yes he is, he is just in Paraguay to train with some friend after the tournament. So after he said that a crowd suddenly came up in front of me and Thomas to ask for an autograph because they seriously thought that I was a famous person. And after I told the students that I wasn’t him they refused to believe me and called me Juan Cuadrado for the rest of the day. But the fact that the students actually believed that I was a famous person really shows how naive they are as a group to just believe anything that is told to them which makes them very vulnerable to multiple things as somebody growing up in the real world which could lead to multiple misleading and missed opportunities just because they are so naive and gullible to the word of mouth.
Honestly as the day passed by I realized how much I love the Paraguayan children as a whole because they are some of the most loving people in the world regardless of what you look like they are always just curious and naive. Let’s be honest little kids that are naive is one the most adorable things ever. And they always just want to learn more are just eager little people.
Meron Rezene, E L Haynes Public Charter School