Return to my Old Home

After Bolivia my travels took me back through Paraguay to visit volunteer friends and reconnect with my community. I had been a bit nervous about returning, wondering what my place would be in Arroyo Moroti after leaving two months beforehand. My work there is done, and there is another volunteer in my place now.

At the end of November I had two despedidas (going-away parties). One was sponsored by my farmers´committee, who killed a pig and chickens and gifted me and personalized leather terere set. My next despedida involved the whole community, or at least the people I knew. MOre grilled meat, more sopa, more dancing, and a drunken fist fight. Both of these parties were touching, but my last dinner with my favorite host family was the most emotional. My host mother, Marina, who has been a bottomless pit of support for me over the past two years, took me in her arms and told me how proud of me she was, and that I have become their daughter, sister, and friend; that I am always welcome in their family. We were all crying, even my 13-year-old host brother, Gustavo, and my shy dad.


I cried again as I watched the sun rise on the bus to the city, and many times after that. It was not only the sadness of leaving people who have become dear to me, but leaving a life that I have been blessed to experience and will probably never have again. Being a visitor to Arroyo Moroti is a definate plan, but I hold no false hopes that everything will be the same.

With these thoughts, I arrived back to Arroyo Moroti, on moto, and I felt completely welcomed and loved. I ate lunch at a different house everyday, a campo fiesta was thrown in my honor, and I felt free to enjoy the priveleges of living in Paraguay without the responsibility that came with working there. After a week, it was hard to leave a second time, as well, but now I know how easy it is to return.


My next adventures take me into the enchanted mountains of Brazil, where I am currently studying yoga. More on that later...