Sweaty White Girl with Red Face

This week marks the start of another school year and the doors of opportunities are opening themselves up to me again. My days of relaxing and catching up on my people magazines and novel reading are over. I will soon be busy working in the schools again, teaching life skills to young teens. I am actually very excited about this and ready to have my weeks fly by again because i am running around on my bike, preparing lessons and going to teacher's meetings. I am not required to work in schools, i just choose to because it's a great environment to get youth to listen and participate in activities. There are a lot of schools in Horqueta and I do not have time to work in all of them so I was starting to wonder which ones I should spend my time in.

Just when I started to debate which school really wanted a volunteer working with them, which ones obviously didn't appreciate me, which ones were too far away from my neighborhood, etc I became a little overwhelmed with my decision making. I love making my own schedule but I feel that going into my second year of service, i shouldn't waste time in places that don't really need or want me. I should have all this figured out now, but I'm not quite sure that I do.

Luckily, just a couple weeks ago, i met a remarkable woman who REALLY, REALLY REALLY wants to work WITH me. Her name is Maura and she came to a workshop i did with an Education volunteer at another school last November. She isn't a teacher at the school i did a workshop at but she was invited by her friend who works there. I took it as a good sign she came to a workshop that wasn't even at her school, because she was so interested in what we had to teach. Ever since then she's been inviting me over to her house. I finally went to her house after I got back from vacation. She made me juice, showed me pictures, talked about her family and asked about me. AFter 30 min of small talk, she started telling me that she's told her school all about me and they really want to invite me to work there. I asked about the school and found out it is very close to my house, it is kindergarden up through 9th grade and it's a very nice, progresive school. I then found out she is the sister of Pedro, a man i work with at an afterschool program on wednesdays. He is a very nice guy and right away I could tell this entire family was an amazing, educated, well doing group of people. I became even more excited when she showed me her bookshelf filled with books about sexuality, HIV/AIDS information and self esteem books for teens. She said that she wants these things taught at her school and although she works in the administration part of the school, she knows other teachers would love to work with me teaching this. I was in such shock that i didn't have to explain these things to her or why it's important to teach them to teens. She already knew and was actually asking me to help. She then sat at her very own computer and began to type out a plan of action for working with me. I sat on her couch (couches are rare in Paraguay) and watched as she typed out her plan for working with me to "better the lives of youth so they can become useful members of society". I was completely amazed, and watched as she ran around like an energizer bunny, serving more juice, typing at her computer, and running back and forth to her bookshelf to show me more materials. She also has a very contagious, loud, unique laugh and every time she laughed I would become a little scared, but then laugh along with her.

We made a plan for me to go to the school this Thursday and I would meet all the teachers and show them what I had to offer. She asked if i would give a sample lesson on self esteem with the teachers. I was very excited about this, since no one at any other school has ever asked what I am doing with their students and don't seem to care. Ater we talked about business, i met her entire family, who all live on the property and they said whenver I am sad or want to get out of my house, i can come visit them, since they are a happy family. They also have a car, which is extremely unusual for Paraguayans and said they would take me out to their farm someday. Maura and her siblings have never been married, all of them were either going to be nuns or priests but decided that wasn't the life for them and they all pursued education instead of marrying at 18 and having children. They are amazing people and I am thanking my lucky stars that they have come into my life.

I wanted to make sure i knew where this new school was so i could find it on Thursday morning. So on Monday, i biked around trying to find it. I asked several
people where it was and I got several different answers. I rode around, working up a really heavy sweat. It was 4:00 in the afternoon and it was a scorching hot day. When I finally found the school, i got off my bike and decided to take a walk around the school grounds to get a feel for the size and see if they had room to plant trees (thinking a tree planting project would be a fun thing to do with them) and since the school was deserted I didn't mind snooping around. I was wearing my soccer shorts and a grey tank top that was soaked with sweat, especially the middle part where my fat roll created a solid sweat line accross my stomach. The only person I saw was a man mowing the lawn. Then, as i turned a corner I came face to face with Maura, my new friend and contact. She was very excited to see me and said "Jill, what are you doing here?" I explained i was on a bike ride and wanted to see if i could find the school. She grabbed my arm and said "come on over here, i am here with my co-workers" My heart started beating really fast as I realized what my appearance looked like. i crossed my fingers and hoped that there would not be many people around the corner.

As we turned the corner, i saw all the teachers sitting in a circle drinking terere in their nice teach uniforms. Turns out, they were having a meeting outside and someone saw me strolling around. They told me to take a seat and everyone leaned forward and started staring at me, asking questions and smiling. Maura, said "this ist he girl i've been telling you about" And then everyone began commenting on how red my face looked, and doing the typical Paraguayan woman friendly gossip. this is when paraguayan women talk about you like you're not there but it's a very indirect way of talking to you, and it's all done in a friendly way. They said "look how red her face is...looking how much she's sweating, look how wet her shirt is, look even her arms are sweating." they also said nice things like "look how pretty her eyes are, they're green! and what a pretty girl, etc" I took a hankerchief out of my bag and began wiping away my sweat only to have it return just seconds later. Maura sat next to me and served me terere for 10 minutes, without serving to anyone else. I was so embarrased but also knew this would be such a funny story to tell people later, and i am used to awkward situations now. We talked a little bit about where i was from, and what i have done for the past year in Horqueta. Everyone seemed very nice and excited to have me come show them what kinds of things we can do at the school.

I left the school and when i went home and told Mirtha, my host mom about what had just happened she laughed and said "well, at least they'll think you'll look really good on Thursday." I said "yes, that's true" and the teachers were inpressed with the fact I wanted to see the school before Thursday and were also impressed I was riding my bike in the heat of the day. They thought I was so "hard working" haha.

Sweat has never affected my life so much as it has in Paraguay. I sweat way more than Paraguayans and my face turns red. I will never be used to this heat or the fact that whatever temperature it is outside is what it is inside. Yesterday my floor fan bit the dust and I could not stop sweating even though i was just sitting in my house doing nothing. I decided to take a picture of what I look like just sitting in my house on a hot day. Sorry for the disgusting visual but i just thought it would add to the story!

Wish me luck on Thursday and pray that it's not a really hot day!