Paraguay 2014, Day 7 - Eventually, things get better

[During the second week of service] we went to a church to sort through donated clothes. The clothes are for the displaced families that had to move because of the flooding. Today, we also played with the children in the community and served them lunch. The people were very excited to talk to us, listen to music and play hand games.

From my experiences during the first week in Paraguay, the moment that has been most special to me was staying with the host family in Monte Alto. They were really nice people and treated Cat and me like their own family. My home stay family included a mother and two sisters, ages 11 and 16 named Yeni and Dianna. The family was humble and very generous.

The first night staying with the host family was the hardest for me trying to introduce myself and create a conversation with them. It was weird how Cat and I just sat in their room and they just looked at us from time to time like they wanted to speak but realizing we didn’t know much Spanish stopped them from creating conversation with us. The first 2 1/2 days were uncomfortable but as the week progressed I became settled and got used to the home environment. The second night we taught our home stay sister how to play the card game Uno. The little sister, Yeni, really liked Uno so I decided to let her keep the cards for her to teach her friends.  Our classmate Zakirah also came to our house with her home stay sister and we played a couple rounds of cards.

Throughout the week, Odi, my host mom, cooked great dinners; my favorite was milanesa de carne and mandioca frita. I asked her to make it again before we left. The part that made the stay at the host family easier for me was having Cat there to talk to and a Peace Corps volunteer named Hannah came to stay in the middle of the week until we left. Hannah helped Cat and me translate with the sisters and ask them questions. Dianna, the oldest sister, is also learning English and Hannah wanted us to ask her questions in English for her to respond.

Even though the beginning of the stay with the family was hard, it became a good learning experience and I actually enjoyed myself. Learning about the family and talking to them every night helped make the rest of the week easier and go by quickly. The last day, when we left I was a little sad to leave because I was building a bond with them and I didn’t want to leave. The experience of staying with a family that doesn’t speak the same language as me was a time in my life I will never forget because it taught me that even though being in a different environment feels weird and uncomfortable at first, eventually, things get better and you start to open up to try new things.

Kashmere, 17, E.L. Haynes Public Charter School