A glimpse into what I call life...

Hello guys!!

So I’ve only been in Paraguay for three weeks and I already feel at home. It’s weird by the second day most of us felt like we had been here for months. The families have gone above and beyond to make us feel comfortable. My Paraguayan mom is such a great person. I spend most of my time at home with here. My siblings are great too, Annie, Cesar, & Suli. They all have very different personalities but we get along great. My oldest sisters is married and has a daughter, Helen. Helen is awesome, she’s 7 and has always wanted a sister. It’s funny, even though I am older than Annie (18) and Cesar (20), her tio and tia, she has adopted me as her older sister.

Lunch is the big meal here. During training we are given about an hour and half for lunch (I know shocking!). The hour and a half is supposed to be enough time to have lunch and take a short siesta. My family likes to talk during lunch, which is nice but it doesn’t allow time for my siesta. I’m hoping that soon I’ll feel comfortable walking away to take my siesta.

So illnesses. Since I’ve been here I have had diarrhea, a cold, and have been the meal for many insects. My first week here I got diarrhea, I want to say it was the over consumption of meat but can’t really say. My second week here I got a cold, can you imagine being sick in 100 degree weather!?!?!? That lasted for about a week, some people actually thought I was faking it to get out of drinking terere. Terere is a cold tea that often has medicinal yerbas. It’s pretty good, some people like to drink it all day. Oh, and the trick is that everyone shares one cup. It’s a big part of their culture down here, for example, if you have a terere date with a boy everyone would assume he was your boyfriend.

So being in a subtropical region of course there are going to be a lot of bugs. In the states I rarely got bit, but down here these little insects love my blood!!! Omg I’ve probably been bitten over 30 times since I’ve gotten here. The crazy thing about it is that I sleep in an air conditioned room, so they all get me during the day. Now I am the silly American walking around with bug repellant and anti-itch ointment constantly spraying and rubbing her body. Omg, and ants are worst! I have developed such an anger for them since I’ve gotten here. I have no idea what kind they are but they are huge and leave the worst bites. I find myself constantly looking at the flood for rows of ants and then trying to kill them all.

Ok, so that was a little glimpse into my life in Paraguay. I hope you enjoyed it!!!

I hope that everyone is well and I miss you all very much!!!