Coming to Paraguay

After travelling for about a full 24 hours, Maria and I arrived to Sao Paolo Airport where we met two exchange students that were also coming to Paraguay; Danish 14-year-old (!) Magnus and Gvoedny, 16, from Faroe Islands. We embarked on our last part of the journey together in the beginning of September 2007 (I don't remember the exact dates anymore) and took the last plane to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay.

When we finally arrived to our destination, there were some local people from the exchange program (AFS) to greet us and take us to the start off camp. I don't remember much about going there, except that it was REALLY COLD. Like ridiculously cold. When you think about a country in South America that shares a border with Brazil, first thing you do is pack your bikinis, not your fluffy winter coat (even though my host sister said that it was going to be cold...) Turns out it was "winter time" in Paraguay, which meant that it wasn't cold when you look at the temperature (which was 15 above Celsius) but Paraguay has 100 % humidity and there for the coldness got it to your bones.

We arrived at the camp and it was already late and dark. All I wanted to do was go to sleep. I was exited and exhausted at the same time, so I didn't even realize what kind of place the camp was. All I remember that I was freezing.

The next day I woke up well rested but still freezing. I realised that this is a country that invest in air conditioning and cooling, instead of heating and furnaces... And also there was only cold water in the shower so that woke me up pretty good.

During the whole weekend we spent at the camp, there were more exchange students coming from different countries (USA, Italy, Norway, Germany, Holland etc). The point of the camp was to get to know each other, the culture of Paraguay and get us ready to meet our host families on Sunday.

We were learning Spanish and Guarani (the second official language of Paraguay), local customs and how does the culture and society work in Paraguay. We learned about their history and their current state and affairs, their economy and all and all we got an introduction to Latin culture.

I made many friends with whom I was about to spent majority of the time during my stay. I had fun but I was also surprised about my home sickness. Suddenly I felt like I want to have all those things familiar to me. I wanted to get rid of this feeling and try to enjoy my time at the camp. I guess I was just agitated from all the hassle.

I met my host family on Sunday. They were there to pick me up: my host mom Erma, my host dad Pedro and my host sister Nadia. They took me to their arms and I immediately felt safe. I knew that these people were going to take care of me. And that is exactly what they did. I had arrived to my Latin home.

-Johanna

P.S. Here you can find some basic info about Paraguay https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/pa.html