Travels in Paraguay reveal a beautiful but impoverished country

One afternoon last spring I found myself staring out of a window in Mr. Heilman’s English class, admiring our gorgeous, forever green soccer field, taking for granted the amazing sports facilities our school has. Then, a few weeks later, in a barrio in Asuncion, Paraguay, I found myself mesmerized by an entirely different kind of soccer field, one that also was green but for an entirely different reason. There I was, standing on an abandoned field that consisted of fermented sewage and mounds of decomposing garbage.
No longer a soccer field, it was now a gathering place for impoverished children hunting for scraps of clothing and food, competing with filthy, smelly wild pigs who have taken over this area where the kids in this barrio once would have played.

In June and July, my classmate Christina Kemper Valentine and I were extremely privileged to have had the life-changing experience to Paraguay, hosted by Learn Serve International (LSI.) This group is a nonprofit cultural immersion program in which two dozen or so students and teachers from the DC, Maryland and Virginia area embark each summer on a two-week mission to a developing country. In Paraguay, our goal was to gain a better understanding of poverty, learn how to promote lasting change and, most importantly, discover how we as individuals can truly make a difference.

As rising 11th graders over the summer, Christina and I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to apply the leadership skills and creative ingenuity we have gained during our many years at the school, and use them to benefit several communities in Paraguay. Not only is Paraguay one of the poorest nations in the world, it also is my birthplace.
I decided this trip would be a golden opportunity to give back to the country where I was born, and return to the United States with the satisfaction of knowing I have impacted, even in a small way, the lives of my people. Christina and I now have a better understanding of what poverty really is, and we have learned to appreciate even the littlest things in life. What I did not expect was how much this experience would change me and, further, how much we were able to help, even in such short time. For two weeks we not only got to visit Paraguay, we became Paraguayans, stepping into the lives of the host families who greeted us with open arms and warm hearts.

LearnServe’s planning for this trip was impressive. Even though it rained for several days, and we had outdoor activities planned, we still found productive ways to work with the communities indoors. On days it was not raining, 28 students and teachers split up into five groups, each taking on a project in healthcare, environment, computers, art and sports. Within these groups each of us discovered we had new talents, and we shared our knowledge with Paraguayans from five to 25 years old.
For example, in Carapeguá, a small town a couple of hours’ drive from Asuncion, the capital, the group Christina and I joined visited several schools, where we designed murals with environmental themes, taught health-related classes and painted trashcans, color-coding them so they could be used for recycling. The goal was to teach kids the importance of recycling, the irreversible effects of pollution, and to brainstorm about ways to reuse everyday materials. We also got to bond with these kids by singing, dancing and laughing with them. It was truly an experience I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Later, Christina and I were assigned to the health group when we worked in the impoverished community of Santa Ana, a barrio of Asuncion. While in Santa Ana, my colleagues in the environmental group planted 100 trees and taught kids the importance of keeping their community--and the earth that we share--green.

Our health group also worked in an even more impoverished barrio named Santa Rosa, where on a typical day we knocked on the doors of several houses to make thorough inspections of living conditions. The houses were simply made of scraps of metal with thatched roofs. Entering these shanties was heartbreaking; so was the 30-minute walk just to get to their front doors. I have traveled quite a bit in the Third World and this was among the worst examples of poverty I have encountered. It was here that I stepped onto the abandoned soccer field with its mounds of trash and wild pigs. To make matters worse, behind the soccer goal was a little river, in which I spotted a dog caked with mud. The dog was dead, but nobody in the community seemed to care. Finally, we arrived at an elderly man’s house (he was about 60 years old but looked more like 80 because of the hardships he has endured) and learned he had not eaten for almost a week.

The main goal of our health group was to explain to residents of this slum the importance of clean water and personal hygiene. However, all this talk made me realize that all the knowledge we in the United States have about basic hygiene is taken for granted. Most people in this barrio had no idea that drinking water from the pond out back could give them a parasite or disease, or that walking around barefoot could give them leech-like parasites, that are commonly found in sewage water in Paraguay. The old man we visited was starving, yet no one had checked up on him in months. It was our mission to provide him with food and clothing so he could make it through the rest of the week. But I worried what would become of him once our group left.

Our health group also helped clean another old man’s house, taking apart his bed and cleaning his foam mattress. We washed his sheets, which were horribly stained, dusted the entire house and picked up broken glass and cigarette butts that were everywhere. I had the task of hand washing the old man’s clothes. One of my LearnServe colleagues, Nevasha from Central High in Capitol Heights, Md., later wrote on the LearnServe blog: “Participating in these various activities made me think about how the people living in Santa Ana make the best of what they have. Even though they are not in the best situations, they still try to make the best of it.” A good example of this was seen in the barrio’s community center, where young artists kept their paints in soda cans they cut in half. They seemed embarrassed by this and continuously apologized for their lack of materials.

The last day of our trip was “Dia de Salud,” or Health Day. This was a very special experience because it was a cultural exchange involving the LearnServe participants, the Santa Ana kids, and students from an elite private school in Asuncion. I don’t think we will ever forget the sight of a five-year-old girl walking all alone in the sweltering heat, wearing a ratty ponytail and a thick sweater. I wondered why she was wearing this sweater on such a hot day. Later, we learned that the sweater was almost plastered to her body; the zipper was sewn shut so she couldn’t take if off.

\ How long had she had this sweater on? Where was her family? Who, if anyone, was taking care of this little girl? One of the group leaders, Nathan from Bethesda Chevy Chase High, had to cut open her sweater to get it off. She began crying, and as I took her to a sink to wash her hair, I noticed her ponytail had been matted and was crusty from filth. She continued to cry. It took us a while to convince her we were only trying to help. Finally, she allowed us to wash her hair. And, then, for the first time, we saw her smile. She left all of us speechless.

This fall, as I gaze upon the soccer field at our school, I think back to the garbage-filled field in Santa Ana and see the faces of these struggling kids whose challenges--much greater than most of us will ever know--continue each and every day.