Paraguay Trip Recap
The trip was amazing. I got to visit my family for the first time in more than 20 years. Everyone greeted us with open arms. In fact, my aunt had pictures up of my sister and me from when we were kids.
My dad was 1 of 10 children. I saw all my remaining aunts and uncles. Somehow they didn’t all get the message so we ended up dropping into their lives - unannounced - after 22 years. My uncle Hermo, the only living male from the family, even left his wife and pregnant daughter (who was expecting any day) for several days so that he could spend time with us and the rest of the extended family.
I met many of my 45 first cousins and lots of their children. In fact, I think I may have the only written record of the family.
We even visited the school that my mom built more than 30 years ago while she was in the Peace Corps.
Heidi is now a local celebrity. Since she’s training for the LI Half Marathon, she wanted to go running while she was there. We were so busy, she only had time to go running one day at the park nearby. That evening one of my cousins came by and said that she had to tell some of her (male) friends to stop looking at Heidi. They said Heidi had already ran 12 laps around the park. They thought she must be a famous athlete. I guess they don’t see many white, blonde girls that go running in the middle of the morning.
Most importantly, I feel closer to my family than I ever have. We’ve exchanged email addresses so I hope we are able to stay in touch.
