Meeting our sponsored child
Trip Start
Feb 07, 2006
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3
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Trip End
Jul 12, 2006
Asuncion, Paraguay
Friday, February 10, 2006
Arriving into Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay this morning, we were greeted by a landscape that was polar opposite to the one we had left behind in Sao Paulo. Where there had been mazes of concrete, there was now lush green vegetation, a huge meandering Rio Paraguay, and bright rooftops the colour of the cris-crossing red dirt roads.
The goal in Paraguay: to meet Luc's sponsored child, ( Edith )Fabiola, and to spend a little over a week volunteering within her community.
The organization we were to be working with, Plan International, had arranged our hotel accommodation in Asuncion. At $45 a night, the 4 star Hotel Del Sol was a steal, and an answered prayer
Camila and Pollo (chicken!)
! We had a beautiful clean room, but the best part was the grounds. We lazed on the lounge chairs in the jungle-like courtyard (in the shade of course - it was 35 degrees!), swam in the pools, and had naps while being soothed by the sound of the water falls.Thankful to be in a safe city, we took a walk to the super Mercado (market) to get some snacks. We were overjoyed by the selection of fresh tropical fruits, and were even more ecstatic when we went to pay for them. ( Check out the picture!)
Still a little jet-lagged, it was early to bed so we would be in fine form to meet Fabiola the following day.
Feb 10 - "Let's play with them!¨
Augusto, an employee with Plan, picked us up from the hotel at 10:00. We had a full day ahead of us! We drove to the Plan HQ, which was housed in a beautiful mansion in a wealthy part of the city. For as little as CA$100K, we could own such an amazing house here! We met with Chuck, the American director of the organization, who gave us the low down on what the organization is all about. Having worked previously with World Vision, I noticed that most of the policies were the same.
He gave us an outline for our visit, which included, besides meeting our sponsored child, meeting others from the community, harvesting cotton, milking cows and doing other daily chores, teaching at the school and working with local plan staff to do daily rounds, updating their files and taking photos
Cutie
. I was really excited to work with the local people, and find out what life is really like in rural Paraguay. As they had never hosted volunteers before, we were to be the guinea pigs. Chuck asked that we observe and make notes on what we were seeing, so that we could offer another perspective on what makes these families unique, what they need, and what keeps them in poverty.On our way out of town we stopped for some chipa, a local staple bread made from maize flour, eggs and cheese (and can be filled with meat). They are very cheap and filling, something I think we will eat a lot of!
We then drove the 1.5 hours to the small rural village of Quiaca, the home of Fabiola and her family. Leaving the highway, we drove down a red dirt road to the village. We veered to the left to approach the home, driving on a grassy hill with little evidence of prior vehiclar traffic - this was not a road.
Luc recognized her before the van even stopped moving. "There she is!" he exclaimed as we saw two shy little girls sitting with their parents in the shade of a tree. We had brief introductions ... followed by silence. It's strange to meet the little girl in whose name we send money every month, and I'm sure they weren't quite sure how to react either. The fact that we do not share the same language didn't help.
Fabiola (8) and Camila (6) came up to us, hands in prayer position. Not knowing about this ritual, we did not make the sign of the cross over them as custom dictates and they shrunk away
Fabiola and Camila
. Luckily, we had a translator present who was able to explain this to us, so we were able to bless them properly.After some awkward silence, Luc looked at me with pleading eyes and said, "I don't know what to say!"
I said the one obvious answer that came to my mind, "Let's get the toys and play with them! It'll break the ice."
And break the ice it did. We brought them a skipping rope, a ball and a Frisbee, the latter being the biggest hit. We played, along with a couple other village children, on the grass for a long time. Suddenly, everyone was comfortable and it did not seem as if we had just arrived.
Everything really changed the second that I brought out the camera. Being hobby photographers, Luc and I both thrive on getting those perfect candid shots. Boy, is that ever hard work around here! As soon as the kids see the camera coming out, they strike up a pose, and then run to us to see the picture, giggling uncontrollably. I've taken to calling one little local boy "Superstar," for the way he puts his hands on his hips and cocks his head, like some wanna-be-romeo, as if to say, "Oh yeah, look at me. I've got it baby!"
