Last week was Semana Santa. Originally my family was supposed to go to Sao Paulo, Brazil (!) to visit my aunt, but we didn’t have enough time to get a visa for me. Then we decided to go to Pedro Juan (it’s about 6 hours away, right on the border of Brazil) to visit my grandparents, but we didn’t end up going there either. My grandmother told us there is a ton of Dengue Fever there right now, so my mom decided we should go later in the year when there aren’t mosquitoes because she didn’t want any of us to get it. So I was going to just stay around Luque for the week, but on Tuesday an AFS volunteer called asking if I wanted to go to Paraguari with her and I said sure. She was going to work as a missionary for her church and she invited the AFS students to help out and see the town. It turned out to be an amazing trip and I got to experience a totally different way of life.
I packed really quickly Tuesday night and then at 5 in the morning on Wednesday I met up with the volunteer, Lichy, and two other exchange students that went also, Ricarda and Lena (from Germany). From there we took a colectivo (public bus) to the omnibus station in Asuncion. The bus station was packed with people traveling to Brazil, Argentina and different towns in Paraguay to visit relatives for Semana Santa. There were even news crews there filming the chaos. We bought tickets for the next bus to Oviedo and then bought some chipa (yumm) and waited. Once the bus cameit was fairly empty so we got seats and all went to sleep. I have no idea when they got on, but when I woke up the bus was packed with people standing and sitting. Some stood in the aisle for more than four hours! After we got to Oviedo we took two more colectivos to get to Cleto Romero, the town we would be staying in. Our second colectivo was packed. There are no supermarkets or anything like that anywhere close to Cleto Romero, so once in awhile the women will go into town and buy enough supplies to last them until the next time they can get to town. So we were sharing the bus with a ton of people plus HUGE bags of flour and rice and containers of vegetable oil, soap and pasta. The women were like supermoms, balancing their supplies plus taking care of all of their kids. It was kind oflike being in Costco, except the women here would make their bulk products last a month instead of a week and the children were hungry and dirty.
Once we finally got off the bus, I was drenched in sweat from being squished between so many people. First we stopped by the house of the man that runs the church. I thought that my grandma was pretty poor and her house was really basic, but this was even more bare bones. Their house was made of planks of wood, but there were big gaps between the planks where rain and bugs and everything could get in. The floor was just dirt, so when it rained everything got completely muddy. They didn’t have electricity. In the outhouse, their toilet didn’t flush; it was basically just a hole into the ground. And for the baby’s crib they had tied a blanket between two walls like a hammock and put a stick at each end to make it into a rectangle shape. Regardless of all of that, they were extremely nice. They gave us food and completely welcomed us. And I got to help the mom make chipa!
After visiting with them for awhile, we walked about a kilometer to the house we would be staying. In the house there was a mom, a dad, and three daughters. They were also so, so, so nice. Their house was more like my house in Luque, actually a little bit nicer. Throughout our whole stay there I was never hungry because they were constantly serving us food! We ate desayuno (breakfast), mediamañana (mid-morning snack), almuerzo (lunch), almuerzo postre (after lunch desert), merienda (afternoon snack), cena (dinner), cena postre (after dinner dessert). Traditionally, mediamañana is always a salty snack and merienda is always a sweet snack. I felt like every time I finished eating it was time to eat again. And I couldn’t eat just a little at each meal because that’s really rude and the host will think that you don’t like their food. The only thing that saved me was that on Wednesday and Friday we didn’t eat any red meat, so that helped a little. But still, I think I ate about double there than I usually eat.
On Thursday we cleaned the whole church to prepare for a nighttime church service. Conveniently, it was only about a block from where we were staying. We swept, mopped and dusted on the inside then raked the leaves and mopped the patio outside. The daughters of the man that runs the church, Gaby and Liza (we met them the day before when we visited their house), also came to help us out. After all of that work, only five people showed up for the church service that night.
On Friday, Lichy had organized a Pascua Joven for the town. It is traditional during semana santa for kids to go for a day to a Pascua Joven service, which is a program for kids to teach them about the Easter story. About 15 kids showed up. We did crafts, played games, sang songs, and taught them about easter. In the afternoon we practiced and did “Villacruz”. This is another Easter tradition here. It is where the kids act out the death of Jesus (kind of like we do Christmas Pageants in America). I was Mary J We dressed up in these super heavy sheets and walked around the town following led by “Jesus” carrying a cross. By the end of it, I really thought I would die of a heat stroke. Saturday evening Lichy, Lena, Ricarda, Gaby, Liza, the girls, 2 of their friends and I went for a long walk. We saw the cemetery and then just kept walking along the main dirt road until it got so dark that we had to go home. While walking home, there were tons of huge frogs, the size of mixing bowls! When we got back, dinner was waiting (of course!) and we talked for a long time with the family.
Saturday we walked a TON. Lichy wanted to visit the next two towns on the road to talk with the people and visit the churches, so we went with her (Cleto Romero, San Miguel and Sagrado Familia only have about 100 people each). First we went about 4 kilometers to San Miguel, where we visited a tiny little church on the top of a hill. When we got there, the people had heard that we were coming and were expecting Lichy to give a sermon, so she had to make one up on the spot! After that we walked about 4 more kilometers to Sagrado Familia. There, we visited with a few families at their houses and saw another teeny church. After that, it was 2:00 and it was super sunny and hot, but fortunately a man in the town, who had a car, gave us a ride back to Cleto Romero. That afternoon I met a man from Minnesota who is living in Cleto Romero and working as a Peace Corps volunteer. After talking with him, my new dream is to be in the Peace Corps J Saturday night we had Easter church service and we had a reasonable turnout this time, about 30 people. Throughout the service stray dogs kept wandering into the church and by the end there were like 10 dogs “praying” with us haha. There was also little boy named Jesus who squealed with joy every time the Father said his name. Sooo cuteJ.
Sunday morning we caught the bus at the crack of dawn and made the trip back to Luque. I am so, so happy I had the opportunity to go on this trip. I got to see a different way of life and meet incredible people. The town was so different from anything I could have ever even imagined when I lived in America. And the people were a true lesson in generosity. They had next to nothing, yet they still gave us food, opened their doors, and made us feel completely welcome. Before I left, Gaby made me a card that said (translated): “Para Analiz- A joke: Paraguay has two things that Peru doesn’t- The Paraguay Hydroelectric Plant and a cool and quality friend like you. Thank you so much for helping me and my friends. One day when you need help, we will be there to help you. I love you a lot. From Gaby.” Awwww. My only regret is that I couldn’t stay longer.
