Hanging out with Peke’s Family

October 4th, 2009

The last few days I have been hanging out with Peke’s family. Peke has 2 sisters and also a cousin who lives with them. One sister is about 5 years old, the other is 12, and the cousin is 16. They are really fun, smart, sweet and very well mannered. I brought my computer over Saturday night, and they got a kick out of looking at my pictures, typing stuff in Word, and trying Rosetta Stone Spanish.

Computers fascinate kids, and they pick them up almost instinctively after having experience with them, which is why access to computers is more of a problem than knowledge of how to use them. That’s why I love the program, 1 laptop per child. I hope their organization continues with the success it has had in bringing laptops to third world children. With computers and Internet, I believe kids could narrow the gap much more quickly because of the wealth of information available online. We are in a knowledge economy, and in that economy, he has the most information and knows how to use it, wins. The Internet, and its vast sources of information levels the playing field a bit. If we could get a laptop in the hands of every child and then extend affordable Internet to those areas, I really believe countries would close the gap between the 1st and 3rd worlds significantly more quickly than the current pace, which is abysmal in some areas.

I brought my marbles over Sunday and taught these city kids how the campo kids get down. It was a disaster...nothing like playing marbles in the campo with lots of space, good dirt, and dedicated kids who are enthralled by and skilled in the game. However, it occupied our time for a little bit, and then we sat under some shade trees and drank T-ray for a while, an activity they are really good at, as are most Paraguayans.

For lunch, Gabbi, the cousin, displayed her chef-like abilities by cooking the best salad and asado up to this point. The bar just gets getting raised...but you have to realize that it started REALLY, REALLY LOW. Haha.

As you can probably tell, there isn’t a lot of diversity in the food around here, but there are variances in quality of preparation.

Overall, I had a great time hanging out with the girls next door and plan on spending more time over there because, frankly, it’s more fun than my house, the children are cooler, it’s more neat and clean, and the food is better.