What a Whore You Are

I push my bike ahead of me through the 3 foot tall door that´s the entrance to the Baranda´s house when their auto-parts store is closed, and Carlos grabs it from the other side to help. I duck through and their little black poodle Suzi is barking her head off, which is what she does when she´s excited to see people (she also attacks people´s feet if they try to leave), and Daniela yells, "Suzi! I know she smells bad, but it doesn´t matter!" I duck my head to hide my grin, and tell her, "How I´ve missed you!"

Daniela is the mom in my English class family, the Barandas, and quite possibly one of my favorite people. Actually, the whole family is great, and I love all of them, Carlos, Daniela, and their three kids Mauricio, Davíd, and Ivana, all of whom are fairly quiet and serious, except Daniela, who is a smartass to the nth degree and just says whatever comes into her head at any moment. When she says one of her catch-phrases in English ("My butt is perfect" or "What a whore you are"), I get a little teary and bite my fist. "I taught her that," I whisper proudly. It´s just nice to see how my work makes a difference.

Carlos, the dad, asked me a while back if I´d thought he was crazy the first time we met. He´d run up to me on the street after I´d passed in front of their auto-parts store and breathlessly announced, "You´re Angélica, right? We´ve been wanting to meet you." So I had been running errands, but then Carlos said, "Come meet my family," and I agreed.

Over the past year, I´ve taught them English every Tuesday night, gone to hang out at the store with them every time I have a free moment, introduced them to all the volunteers in the area, and basically adopted them as another Paraguayan family. When I mentioned that I´d like to make a bookcase, they offered for me to use the scrap wood in their backyard. When I went over there to start working on it, I found Carlos and Davíd just putting the finishing touches on a perfect bookcase. When I needed my curtains hung, they trooped in with tools and a stepladder and Carlos hung them.
When we built wormboxes together

Whenever I write something professional in Spanish, Daniela corrects the mistakes. Whenever I don´t have food, or even when I do, they invite me over for lunch. We host English lunches once a month and invite everyone we can think of that speaks English to come and have asado (the best was the goat). They are usually 4 hour long events, where we talk and eat and joke around, supposedly all in English (really more spanglish), and play games. Daniela dives head first into English, whether she knows how to say something or not, and Carlos is more reserved (and knows more than he admits), so he corrects Daniela. It goes something like this:
D: She say
C: says
D: She says..."What a whore you are"

English Lunch

We go on day trips and to social events together and they make what would otherwise be torturously boring events really fun. When I got gluten-free flour in a care package, we went there to make cookies.
Natalie and Daniela
She swears that she and her kitchen are mortal enemies, so this was a huge event

Daniela and I are constantly trading smart-ass comments back and forth, and she keeps me sharp in what would otherwise be 3 straight years of talking about the weather. I´ve introduced them to all the volunteers in the area and now they are always invited to what would otherwise be only Volunteer events.
Meli, Daniela, Kristin, Jenna, and Carlos
Mauri, Daniela, Carlos and me at my birthday party
Me and Daniela
Me and Daniela (this picture is the first thing you see when you walk into their house)

All this giving was hard for me at first (I felt guilty accepting so much for doing nothing). Then, once when I mentioned that I was on my way to buy soap and toothpaste, and instead Daniela insisted on giving me soap and toothpaste, and I was protesting, saying I could just go buy it and I had the money, Carlos just looked at me, dead serious, and said, "Why can´t you just accept a gift?" I did and have ever since.

When their oldest son left to give live in Maine as an exchange student, Daniela asked me, "You're coming with us when we drop off Mauri, right? You and Melissa?"
I hesitated. "Isn't that something just for the family?"
"Exactly." she answered without hesitation, "And you are part of the family, which is why you have to come."
Grandma Sara, Mauri, Davíd, Ivana, Daniela and Carlos at airport
Meli, Mauri, Ivana, Daniela (trying to be tall), me, and Davíd
Saying goodbye to Mauri
The whole family watching as Mauri flies off
Daniela, always the supermodel, and Carlos when the truck broke down

After spending the weekend here for her volunteer visit, Ashley, one of the newbies said, "You know, I had my doubts about being able to be real friends with Paraguayans- if I was going to be able to be myself in front of them and with the language barrier and all, but after seeing you with Daniela, I´m not worried anymore. It´s definitely possible. I want friends like that."

Yeah, I´m very lucky to have them. They make everything about being in Paraguay better.