Oh and one more thing...I know how it feels to be scouring the internet looking for blogs before you depart for staging. So I would feel remiss (sp?) if I didn´t put this next nugget of advice out in the universe for whomever wants to devour it....on the subject of hair. I´m an African-American and I have relaxed hair. When I studied abroad in Panama, I could find beauty salons to relax my hair because there is a much more diverse population in Panama, there are black Panamanians, White Panamanians, and Mestizo Panamanians. I assumed that since Paraguay was so close to Brazil that that would be the case here too....Nahaniri (NO)!!!! Like I said in a previous post, they´re not used to seeing a lot of Black folks here adn will assume you are from Brazil. The word they use for peeps with dark skin is morocha/o. They don´t mean any malice, it´s just a descriptive term. Paraguayans are generally very friendly to everyone.

But back to the hair situation....if you are about to depart for Paraguay, have relaxed hair, and are not planing on going natural over the course of your service....arrange for your family or someone back home to ship you relaxer kits. Or right before you depart for staging, mail a package to yourself. Find someone back home that will mail you periodic shipments or you order some yourself off of Amazon. Be careful though because not everyone ships to Paraguay. You will not find any in Paraguay.

We may now return to previously scheduled programming.....