When I opened my eyes I was inside the cabin of a truck. I did some memory of how I'd gotten there and the first thing that came to find was of the lovely fire with the joyful children surrounding it, warming up their small breads which they called "coquitos".
While drinking the beer I showed in my last post, a volunteer from an organization called "Remar" had approached me to ask for a song and he told me that they worked with children that lived in the streets. One of the things that had shocked me of Ciudad del Este, Paraguay, was the amount of children in the streets so I was interested in volunteering there as well and walked all the way from Foz to the furthest extreme of Ciudad del Este to reach the office.
The walk was much longer than shown on the map and when I arrived it was already night. I had carried only some food, water, and guitar, so I didn't have much protection to spend the night. While I thought on how to handle this I sat down to watch a soccer game. That's when "Kento" and his crew appeared.
The crew consisted of five kids, a guy near my age, and Kento who was the big father to all of them. We begin talking and I told them of my predicament, to which they answered I could stay with them, so we shared and played music for a while there until the children had enough time for running around.
We mounted the blue old Izusu truck and headed home at full speed (30 km/hr or so), it was a nice ride in the back with the children asking me questions and making me feel very welcome.
The first place I got to know was the big tent which is where everyone shares, most of the cooking and eating goes on here. This is all just the efforts of Kento, no backing of institutions whatsoever, so to me it's pretty amazing.
We arrived to a cozy fire where a few teens were having out. All these children and young boys were being cared for by Kento because they had situations of violence at their homes. Here was their sanctuary where they could be at ease.
This is Kento, drinking yerba mate, something that made me feel like I was back in Chile. Not only that, the folklore in Paraguay is also very similar, which is interesting, bein so far and all.
Some of the kids, practicing guitar. I ended up giving a few classes at a place where they give lunch to children on Saturdays. They have been teaching me Guaraní, their native language that is spoken much more than Spanish, which is a pleasant surprise.
For now, I've returned to Foz, and I'm planning on going back and forth since there is so much cultural diference between both cities despite how close they are. This should help me keep things fresh and avoid the feeling of routine that can become overwhelming for me at times.
It has been a great experience for me to meet someone like Kento because till this point most things had been an exchange of work for stay, or had a time limit for being at the places, however Kento's welcome was just pure uninterested generosity and I can hang out there as much as I want. This is a rare finding in today's highly commercialized society, so I feel very grateful.
Thanks for stopping by 🤜🤛
