From them I learned all Disney songs and how to bake cookies :)

Over the last few days I got to talk to a lot of people about my experiences as a resident assistant at college. I always looooved that position, but it wasn’t until later that I realized how many people I got to know well during my years as an RA, what an amazing staff I had both years, and the huge impact that that job had and has in my life.

Far more than a job, it was a lifestyle. My first year as an RA I had residents not only from the US but also a bunch of international students. One of my first days, I remember stopping by the rooms to say Hi and check on the girls… I stopped to say Hi to a girl from Korea, it was like 2pm, but she was sleeping and asked me why would I wake her up in the middle of the night?! Haha… because of the time difference, she wasn’t over her jetlag and I happened to wake her up at 3am her time in Korea.

Sometimes I was so much of a sweet mamma, where I would cook for the girls anything they wanted, would give them milk for their cereal, would talk to them when they couldn’t fell asleep, or would help them with homework. But other times (most of the times) I would prank my residents with other residents. I would hack their facebook account, change their alarm clocks, put their undies in their freezers, and some other thing I can’t tell because it was hard enough to come up with creative but funny ideas that wouldn’t really hurt anybody and would just make us all laugh. The down side of that is that eventually people figured out that I was pranking them, and even when I didn’t do anything I got pranked back.

One of the best parts of my job was organizing wing events, we could be as creative as we wanted with them, and my wing events went all the way from having Disney nights to making brunch with the girls. Yet, the best part of my job was getting to really know the residents in my hall, my building, and the Res Life staff community.

Each person I got to meet shared a piece of their heart and lives with me, and it’s been an honor to be a part of their lives as well. Now as the time goes by, I see how our lives change and most of us depart to different destinations… but all the laughter and joy, all the good memories from that amazing experience will always stay with me. 

How on earth do you end up HERE?

Ever since I came back to Paraguay a lot of people asked me "what are you doing here?" "Why did you come back?" But today, at work we got to ask these questions to a very extraordinary couple. I'm still not sure whether what happened today was real or not... haha…

Picture this,

We were at the office, getting ready to interview someone for a teaching position, not to mention that we were a little crabby about not having internet and some other technical difficulties. Anyhow, all in a sudden a lady walks in, not sure if she was at the right place, at the right time... we offered her a sit and took our seats as well in order to begin the interview. I asked her to help me pronounce her last name, and she gave a really particular nickname, something in the lines of Mrs. Doubtfire. Then she pulled out her degree certificate and proceeded by telling us all about her experiences as a teacher and her methods of teaching. I honestly lost the sense of time as she was talking, and I found myself and colleagues delighted by her stories. In the middle of her introduction, her husband comes by and we pulled a chair for him as well. I had a sheet of paper that we prepared to ask her questions, but when she was done talking we realized that she answered all the questions without us even asking her anything. 

All in a sudden it turned out to be a privilege to have this person in front of us… all in a sudden we were hoping she would choose to be part of our team and be the teacher we were looking for. The extraordinary thing about this whole story is that this lady came from the U.S. six years ago to Paraguay, without knowing Spanish, knowing anybody in South America and leaving absolutely everything she called home back in the U.S. She is now retired here in Paraguay, and got married to a French man who also came to Paraguay a few years ago. They both seem to be madly in love and one of the happiest couple I’ve met until now.

This couple is honestly among the group of the most inspiring people I’ve met so far. An American lady in her 50s that followed a little voice telling her to go to South America while she was sitting at church; and a French man who –we are yet to hear his story – married this wonderful woman and plays the pipe.

I love it when we come across people like this, it doesn’t happen that often… but when it happens it’s awesome! It also helps me to put in perspective what are the thousand reasons why I’m here in Paraguay… but most important, they taught me that it doesn’t matter how old we are, we can always take courage and do what we are called to do and be who we are called to be.