Barely weeks after returning to the USA from a quick run of Philippines-based programs, it was back to regularly-scheduled Around the Worlds business. The next destino was a new one, perhaps surprisingly so, given our history in South America. The truth is, there were hardly any countries left in Sudamérica that had yet to receive our curriculum. Off the top of my dome, Venezuela and Guyana were two of them.

With not many other options left, the only country left standing was the land-locked Paraguay. For years Paraguay had long-evaded my gaze, and perhaps rightly so. The country, up until 2021, had required a visa upon entry for American citizens. Plus, despite nearby past programs in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, the country was admittedly hard to reach – either by bus or plane.

With visa requirements since waived, I had special plans for Paraguay.

We were closing in on country number 60 to receive our programming and I was hoping to stack the deck for that day when it came. That is, the majority of recent programs (in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia) had been largely in Arabic, which is a language I’m hardly familiar with. Knowing number 60 was on the horizon, I had hoped to hit a programming run in a country I could converse a little bit easier in.

“Paraguay is a Spanish-speaking country, how about I go there?” I thought to myself.

Easy enough, right? If it was easy it wouldn’t be part of our story though…

Paraguay actually has two languages – Spanish and Guarani. One is spoken widely by families in the home while the other is isolated mainly to secluded, rural zones.

I crossed my fingers and booked a flight anyway. “I’ll figure it out when I get there,” I told myself. Luckily, the more widely spoken language was in fact, Spanish. Comforted, at least for the time being, I put my head down and the long process of selecting beneficiaries began. A decent amount of research and vetting later, the perfect NGO revealed itself – Fundacion Alda. Their mission of improving access to education for children resonated with ours and as they say, the rest was history.

Proper checks and balances done on both sides of the collaboration, I had a video call with my contact at Fundacion Alda – Lupe. She would be organizing and facilitating the programs once in the country.

“Just give me the numbers and we’ll have the kids ready,” she said. It was a dream partnership.

I laid out our resources – 20 soccer balls, 20 drawstring bags, 24 tee shirts, and 26 Hummel jerseys. Fundacion Alda operates in schools all over the country so Lupe really wasn’t lying that “if there’s football, the kids will come.”

We looked at the gear and decided upon four sessions with various beneficiaries both just outside the city y en el interior del pais.

The first of that long list would be a visit to Limpio’s El Bosque (about an hour north of Asuncion) just beyond the country’s international airport. The kids, part of Fundacion Alda’s programming, would be coming from Hector Roque Duarte School. I needed not ask more about the group we’d be working with besides the number of kids. “26,” Lupe told me beforehand.

I thought back to our resources. “26. We have 26 Hummel jerseys. Size adult XS-M. That means these will be the 12-14 year olds,” went my inner monologue.

All I really could hope for now was that the jerseys would fit. Another Alda contact, Reuben, would be the one to find out. He, along with Lupe, lined the kids up in two single file lines to pass out our matching red and black Hummel jerseys from Vale Sports Club. Donning a similar Hummel polo in navy, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

“They’re perfect!” shared Lupe. Of course, some of the littler kids were swimming in theirs, but as Lupe so perfectly put it, “they’d grow into them, surely.”

Our participants all rocking their new kits, it was time to start. I’ll never forget it… the kids were so excited when they were told the jerseys were theirs to keep… originally they thought I’d be collecting them after, as if haha. Yo dije “Two baggage allowance coming here y tengo solo one baggage allowance leaving so ropa vieja y nada más.”

With 26 of them standing patiently in front of me, I instructed them to divide themselves into groups of three. Then, those groups were each instructed to grab a ball and a cone to initiate our listening drill. Careful not to get too far ahead of myself I designated a captain named Jose. Reuben had debriefed me about three or four boys in this group who were oftentimes called upon to act as ‘lideres’ so I made sure to choose one of them to help me out for the entirety of our 90 minute session.

It’d been about six months since our last Spanish-speaking session (Colombia in September), so I was eager to see if my language skills would all flow back. Plus, I had nearly forgotten just how loved football was in this region, in South America – as if I could ever.

“Profe? Futbol? Jugamos?” a couple boys asked. They wanted to play. Like play play.

I let them off gently. “Amigos, tenemos que hacer unas técnicas y luego tenemos una cascarita.”

Throughout the session, my contacts were quick to notice subtle nuances in my Spanish. For instance, I kept telling the kids “ahorita we have a relay race drill, AHORITA tenemos un partido, etc etc,” a word that is not used at all here in Paraguay. “In fact, it’s very Mexican,” one of my contacts said.

On the other side of the cloth, I noticed some nuances in their Spanish too. Ones that honestly had me stunned. You see, in Paraguay, they typically practice the hard r. It’s crazy because all my life, I’ve worked as hard as I can to get that perfectly rolled r, to really fake my way through an accent. I basically had to unlearn all I’d ever known upon coming here. Putting on my best gringo accent for words like tomar, comer, jugar, etc. What a mind trip though!

From there, we moved over to two teams for our 1v1 at goal drill – which featured a whole lot of grit, physicality, and effort. We capped things off with a round robin scrimmage with four even teams, while Reuben and the Alda crew disappeared into the wings to retrieve some post-program snacks for our young athletes – crackers and fresh juice boxes. The hot Paraguayan sun melting both us and the snacks, we wrapped things up – promising to the eldest boys that they would be in charge of the leftover footballs at the schools so they could play whenever their hearts desired to.

Loading Lupe’s ride back up, we made a detour at another school to visit a number of Alda team members working adjacent to the school’s campus. It was a pleasure to exchange words and minds as one staff member even recalled a time in Uganda and promised to pass along any contacts she had in case we felt called to bring Around the Worlds’ curriculum there ever. A quick pit stop afterwards with Lupe and videographer, Belen, at a local cafe for some comida típica (yuca, eggs, sausage, and more), we enjoyed more stimulating conversation and good company, recounting the program and the positive parts of it – while also taking note of any changes we might make.

Nearly five hours had passed since my day began and yet there was still one more stop, a visit to Alda headquarters to meet other team members, all eager to hear about our first free session in Limpio and to learn of what else we had planned for the coming days.

“Que pena!” said a man my age working in the financial department, fear not though, he meant it well I promise.

“It’s a shame because I know you are super busy with football classes, but if you had time I would’ve loved to bring you with me to watch my favorite team play here in the professional division,” he said. “We just had a game in Copa Libertadores,” he added, with a smile on his face and pride coursing through his veins.

I extended my gratitude for the invite, and couldn’t hold my head down for too long, knowing there was plenty more to experience and even more to be excited about – for my time here in Asuncion was only just getting started.