and to you, welcome back

The last few months I have been absent from my blog for a variety of reasons which are too many and too complicated to explain here and now. But my most recent excuse is that I was on vacation. After staying put for over a year, I finally got the opportunity to go on vacation with my aunt and uncle. We visited both Brasil and Argentina before doing a very brief tour of Paraguay.

In Brasil we stayed one night in Sao Paulo and four nights in the Pantanal, the largest wetlands of the world. Of course you can`t see much of a city in one night and you could spend a lifetime in the Pantanal and still not see everything. I felt like our time was far too short to see everything that I wanted to see. It was an incredible and fantastic place... except they didn´t speak Spanish or Guarani and they didn`t drink any terere. I felt slightly displaced. After seeing an abundance of animals in the Pantanal, we headed to Iguazu falls in Argentina to see an abundance of water. It was at this point in the trip, my uncle informed me later, that I stoppped speaking English. I don`t think I was fully aware of what I was doing because it came so naturally, but I was told that if there was another person present, I spoke only in Spanish, even when that other person could speak in English. I completely forgot that my aunt and uncle couldn`t follow the conversation and sometimes turned to them as if they would jump in and add a comment but was quickly reminded by the looks on their faces that I would first have to translate. I would translate and then without noticing it, slip back into Spanish.

I didn't fully realize that I missed Pagaguay until we were getting ready to come back and I defnitely hadn't expected to miss it in the week and a half that I was gone. I thought I was sick of Paraguay and sick of the people, yet I found myself longing for both. It wasn't just the language that I was craving, although that was a key part of it. I was aching to sit around and drink terere and joke in Guarani. I wanted to stain my feet again with the red dirt on my street and greet every person I passed. There was something about the land that I missed, as if it had become a part of me.

On the day we left for Paraguay from Argentina, we were picked up by a driver and guide to escort us across teh Argentina border into Brasil and across the Brasilian border into Paraguay and finally drop us off at the airport. It just so happened that both the driver and guide were born and raised in paraguay and before I knew it, the guide and I were talking about Paraguay and its culture. I think we were mostly talking in Spanish, but t be honest, I couldn't tell you which parts of the conversation were in which language. Being from Paraguay, the guide also spoke Guarani and was shocked to hear that I did too. We made a few jokes and I finally heard the sounds coming from my mouth that had been absent for the last week and a half. It felt so good, yet strange after the time off, as if my mouth was scared to speak it again.

Eventually we came to the bridge that connects Brasil and Paraguay and I eagerly leaned forward in my seat, as if that would help us cross faster. As we crossed over onto Paraguayan soil, our guide turned to my aunt and uncle and said, "Welcome to Paraguay! And to you," he turned to me. "Welcome back."