Wednesday, July 4 – It is kind of strange to spend Independence Day in a foreign country. Your Independence Day is not the same as theirs. In the United States, Independence Day is celebrated on July 4; in Paraguay it is over two days in May, the 14th and the 15th.
It was a warm, welcoming day in Paraguay on July 4th. The day began at CONIN, the maternal and child health center where we had been working for several days. To CONIN’s director, we presented and discussed our ideas for renovating their outdoor space and multipurpose room. To create a bright, colorful play space for the young kids who visit the center daily, each group shared their unique ideas for painting a mural on the walls of the outdoor area. The mural ideas included a zoo theme, flowers with textured sections so the children could touch and interact with the space, and turning one wall into a chalkboard.
One group wanted to create a classroom space for adults in the multipurpose room; their idea started with painting the walls happy colors, like yellow, blue and green, and then adding a sun with the words “CONIN” on one wall of the room. It is difficult, especially when it rains, to walk and drive around the barrio of Santa Ana where CONIN is located, so another group suggested a plan of obtaining two vans that would drive around the neighborhood to pick up the mothers and their children. The director was pleased with all of our proposals and after some deliberation with the rest of her staff, she chose painting the multipurpose room and updating the outdoor space with the flower mural with two “chalkboards”, one for the children and another for the CONIN employees to post announcements, news and other important information for the mothers who visit the center.
After our presentations, we spent the afternoon planning and sketching the final designs and started to paint. Upon leaving the center later in the day, one woman who worked at CONIN wished us a happy 4th of July. We arrived at the hostel and started the preparations for our July 4th cookout. I was in charge of the pasta and the tuna salad. The boys were manning the grill, but none of them knew how to start a fire! It took them 3 hours, yes, 3 hours, to light the fire that blew out in less than 15 minutes. Thank goodness for Sergio, our guide, friend and firefighter, for the past two weeks! He came to our rescue and started the fire that lasted long enough for our food – hot dogs, hamburgers, and vegetables – to be grilled! The best part of the cookout was that we all contributed something, and it ended up being so lit (fun). We ate, danced, and laughed the night away. Even though we did not celebrate the 4th of July in the United States, we celebrated it in Paraguay, which was way cooler.
Joy C., Paul Public Charter School