Mango- Si ... Guava - No

We departed from the resort pretty early in the morning, around 8am or so. It´s mango season here, so the tropical fruits....bananas, mangoes, guavas, limes are EVERYWHERE! I couldn´t wait to get my hands on a fresh mango. From the resort, we were driven to the the training center where we are to report for language classes everyday. Upon arrival, we met all the teachers and then were immediately thrown into an intro to language class...followed by a ¨treasure hunt¨. The hunt consisted of several doors each filled with something we needed. One door was meeting the local doctor, another getting immunizations, one interviewing for host family placements, another interviewing for language proficiency, etc. The interview for the language proficiency made me the most nervous, but I surprised myself with how much I understood....my problem was responding like a kindergartener lol. I did learn that I was not the least fluent volunteer, which was a relief! The professor that interviewed me was ¨Pabla¨ and she is by far my favorite. On top of being very nice, she is also patient and funny. Once the treasure hunt was over, we were shown how Paraguyans greet one another, so that we could properly introduce ourselves to our host families. Like in Europe, women kiss both cheeks when first meeting. Men and women shake hands and nod a lot. I can´t remember exactly what two men do, but I do know that if a man or woman has dirty hands from working in the fields or washing clothes, they offer their forearms to shake instead of nothing. Finally, we were driven to our communities to meet our host families. Mine consists of a mother Rosa and her son Luis Carlo. Rosa greeted me with a huge smile, helped me load my luggage into her car and immidiately began asking me a million questions. I answered her the best I could lol. When we arrived at her home, she showed me around the house which has hot water and electricity, and my room which has a tv and a large lockable cabinet for my clothes. The house also has a large kitchen, a store in the front, and a gorgeous backyard filled with lots of flowers, a pet bird, fruit trees,etc. It was here I made my first mistake of not throughly washing the fruit from the trees. I had half a guava and threw up almost immediately. I layed down to cool off and rest for a while and before I knew it was dinner time. My host mom insisted I eat..unaware I had thrown up earlier. I attempted to tell her I wasn't hungry but was unsuccessful and I ate anyway not wanting to hurt her feelings. Once again, I chucked it all and felt even worse. I ended up having to call the local doctor who instructed me to take some advil and drink a Sprite. Lesson for the day...don´t settle for a guava when you really want a mango--