Paraguay - Caaguazú

The first border crossing of our trip is actually easier than expected! Take the bus in Foz towards Ciudad del Este in Paraguay, get off the bus before the border to get a Brazilian stamp, march across the friendly border bridge 'Puente de la Amistad' and get the entry stamp in Paraguay. Done -> journey through country number 2 can begin :) 

The most noticeable thing at first is the change of language from Portuguese to Spanish, which of course makes traveling easier for us, even if we continue to say 'Obrigado' to the first Paraguayans.. You quickly get used to a few words. We jump on the next bus to the bus terminal and take the long-distance bus in the direction of Caaguazú. The buses here are clearly older and we haven't seen them stop every few meters to let people selling mobile chargers, chips or bingo tickets get on, as we did in Brazil. But that's exactly what makes traveling to foreign countries so exciting, and so we enjoy the bus ride and look forward to meeting our sponsored child (through the donations organization Plan International) the next day. 

At 7:30 am we are already picked up by a Plan employee, make a stop at the supermarket to buy gifts and sweets for the children. Then we continue to the Plan office. There we are told about the projects in the area and that over 9,000 children are supported in this region. Mainly it is about protecting children, supporting education and promoting equality for girls. After that, we go to a school where a surprise awaits us: the children are standing at the door with self-painted German flags and there is a craft poster on the wall: 'Bienvenida Mrs Lauroesch'. Very touching! And then the little one comes running and doesn't want to stop hugging us :) Then we go to the schoolyard and the children also perform a dance for us! After we have distributed the gifts and talked to the principal, we continue with our sponsored child, her grandmother and the Plan employees to a very beautiful park where we spend the rest of the day. Due to political guidelines to protect the children, it is no longer allowed to hold the meeting directly in the village or house of the sponsored child, so they meet at a neutral location nearby. We have a very nice day together in the park and get to know each other better. even if our Spanish skills are not enough to understand everything and we have to ask again more often, it quickly becomes clear to us that the little one has actually been counting the days since May - when she found out about our visit! After lunch, we drive back to the Plan office and say goodbye. The future letter contact will become much more personal!

On the way home, we treat ourselves to a chocolate shock in the form of ice cream and end the evening on the terrace of our accommodation. Here we meet some Paraguayans and Jan's long-awaited wish comes true: he finally gets to play the guitar again!! :) :) :)