Becoming a Global Citizen in Paraguay

The first time that Linda took an airplane was at age 17, heading to her AFS Program in Paraguay. Growing up in small town Missouri, she was surprised her parents even let her go! But years later, her valuable experiences in Paraguay have continued to have an impact on her life and those around her. AFS’s goal? To build global citizens who can Pass Peace Forward, creating a more just and peaceful world. That’s the #AFSEffect. 

Guest: Linda Shepard Salzer

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Kate M.
Hello and welcome to The AFS Exchange. My name is Kate Mulvihill. The AFS Exchange is a podcast by AFS-USA where we open the door to hear from members of our AFS family. This is a place to have conversations, exchanges, with AFS host families, students, volunteers, and educators.

During these exchanges, we will hear from our guests on how their lives have been impacted by AFS. What lessons have they taken away from their experience abroad, or their experience with hosted students in the United States?

[Music]

Kate M.
Today I am talking to Linda Shepard Salzer, an AFS returnee who went to Paraguay. She is also a host mother, an accessibility advocate, an environmentalist, and a Spanish speaker.

We are going to hear more about Paraguay, a country in South America that’s about the size of California. It’s landlocked, and surrounded by Argentina, Brazil, and Bolivia. Linda didn’t apply to AFS with the goal of going to Paraguay- when she went in 1980, AFS applicants listed countries or languages that they were interested in, and AFS did the rest. Linda just noted that she wanted to go to a Spanish-speaking country, and AFS found a match for her in Paraguay!

I started planning this episode with the goal of learning more about Paraguay. But I got so much more out of it and had a great conversation with Linda, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with the listeners of The AFS Exchange!

[Music]

Linda S.
My name is Linda Shepard Salzer. I currently live in Boston, Massachusetts, in the US.

Kate M.
And how did you first hear about AFS?

Linda S.
The town I grew up in, in rural Missouri, hosted a number of students over the years. And it was a fairly small town. A lot of times we knew the host families. And the school was small enough that we, you know, we're certainly aware of the exchange students and it was kind of a big deal in a small town.

Kate M. 
So, unlike how AFS works now, Linda did not select her destination herself.

Linda S.
So at the time I applied, at that time you put preference, but you weren't the one choosing. You can put your preference, but there was no guarantee of where you would go. I put my preference as “Spanish speaking” because I had more Spanish in high school than French.

Kate M.
Linda knew a little about Paraguay prior to going on program…

Linda S.
When I found out that's where I was going, I was really excited that I was accepted. And I remembered from Geography class where Paraguay was, in the center of South America. And I knew that they were Spanish speaking, but not exclusively Spanish speaking.

Kate M.
Yes, it’s more than just Spanish spoken in Paraguay. But more on that later…

Linda S.
And that's about all I knew. And that was back in the days when we didn't have the internet. And you looked things up in the encyclopedia or at the library. There was not a lot of information at our local library about Paraguay. Or maybe you'd, you know, read something in National Geographic or something like that. But so I didn't have a whole lot of information. Before I went other than, you know, a blurb that's provided by AFS and then a letter from my host family shortly before I left to go.

I still have it somewhere. With a photo and everything.

Kate M.
In Missouri, Linda was one of 4 siblings. In Paraguay, she was one of 6.

Linda S.
I was 17 at the time I went, and I had five host siblings between 13 and 18.

Kate M.
She was placed in Asunción, the capital of Paraguay and its largest city. The population of Asunción is about 525,000, which is about the size of Sacramento, California or Kansas City, Missouri.

Linda S.
I was from a small town, you know. So that was a change going from a town of 12,000 to a city.

Kate M.
In her home, in addition to her host parents and siblings, there was a maid and driver who would come by.

Linda S.
They basically went grocery shopping every day. No microwave you know, very few canned goods at that time. I think peaches and peas were the only thing that we had in cans while I was there that I was aware of. So most of it was fresh and prepared daily and, and not very much in the way of frozen. You know, washing clothes by hand. My host mother taught at the time, she was a philosophy and history professor at a university and at a nun different high school. And so she worked outside the home.

Kate M.
Please note that this was also 40 years ago, and things are different now, many homes have the amenities of a microwave, fridge, washing machine, etc.

So, Linda was living in Asunción. What was the community like?

Linda S.
There were a lot of intergenerational activities. So my host family belonged to a local club. And there would be dances and parties where there were, you know, young children and grandparents all out there dancing and interacting. In the US there might be family gatherings where that was the case. When I thought of dances in the US, it was a school dance. There were some chaperones there, but it was mostly a pretty limited age range. And a pretty limited scope of music.

But in Paraguay, there were polkas and waltzes, and fairly recent music in a variety of languages all at the same event, which was different.

I come from a family that's not terribly demonstrative. And in Paraguay, there's, you know, hugging and kissing on both cheeks, every time you say hello, and goodbye to someone practically. And just in general, more physicality. You know, people hanging around with their arm around somebody's shoulder and things like that.

Kate M.
A little more about the culture of Paraguay. So, earlier, Linda had mentioned that Spanish was not the only language spoken in Paraguay.

Linda S.
So there's Guaraní. And there's Spanish, or Castilian, as they call it in Paraguay.

Kate M.
Guaraní and Spanish are the two official languages of Paraguay. For a very brief overview… Guaraní is an indigenous language spoken by people in South America that has been around in varying forms for almost 2000 years. Spanish was brought by the conquistadores in the 1500s and was the only official language until Guaraní was granted status in 1992. It is the only indigenous language of the Americas whose speakers include a large proportion of non-indigenous people. About 70% of the population in Paraguay can speak both Guaraní and Spanish to an extent.

Linda S.
And then the local mixture of the two is called Jopara. And so what a lot of people really spoke was Jopara, a mixture of the two.

Kate M.
Jopara is a language composed of elements from Spanish and Guaraní. The majority of Paraguayans, especially of younger generations and those who live in urban areas, can speak Jopara. Jopara is spelled J-O-P-A-R-A or Y-O-P-A-R-A.

This was all new to me, and I enjoyed learning more about Guaraní and Jopara from Linda during our conversation. I also learned a bit about some popular dishes in Paraguay.

Linda S.
So a very popular food in Paraguay is called Sopa Paraguaya which literally translates to Paraguayan soup. But it's not soup, it’s basically moist cornbread with onions and cheese.
I've adapted that recipe and I make a gluten-free vegan version of that.

And then Chipa is another very Paraguayan food. And some of these, you know, some Brazilians and Argentinians claim that they eat them too. But they're really Paraguayan foods. But, you know, they have their versions. Chipa is sort of like a bagel with manioc, which is also called the yucca, a root vegetable.

Kate M.
Chipa, which looks delicious, is a type of cheese-flavored roll, sometimes formed in the shape of a ring. It’s made with starch from manioc, also called cassava in English.

Linda S.
And there were usually women who would walk around with a basket of it on their head, going door to door to sell chipa. And in the community a bus would stop a local bus and somebody a cheaper salesperson would get on and walk through the bus selling chipa to people as a snack and then get off at the next stop and then go on and do something else.

Kate M.
Linda’s time at school in Paraguay was very different from her experiences at home in Missouri. Uniforms, third-year Physics, and a bus trip to Brazil.

Linda S.
In Paraguay I went to a private all girls school that my host sisters also attended. My brothers went to a neighborhood school. So, not co-ed. Catholic, all girls school, I was not raised Catholic. We wore uniforms there, which was different for me. And in my hometown, you know, we had some choice of classes. That was not the case in Paraguay. Everybody in a grade took the same set of classes. And so I was taking third year physics with never having had physics in English before. I was taking chemistry not having had chemistry in the US. I was taking third-year Latin from Spanish. I was taking French from Spanish, and I’d had French from English. But I had Religion class, I had P.E. class, History of Paraguay, Spanish literature, and Cosmography. It was planets and stars and stuff, which was new to me. I wasn't familiar with the word prior to that.

Kate M.
Yeah, I wasn’t either. According to Collins Dictionary, Cosmography is "the science dealing with the structure of the universe as a whole and of its related parts: geology, geography, and astronomy are branches of cosmography.”

Linda S. 
The fact that we wore school uniforms, we didn't have to worry about what we were going to wear the next day. We had a, you know, summer uniform and a winter uniform. It wasn't like, “Oh, you know, does this top go with these jeans, and who am I trying to impress today?” But, you know, some of my classmates, you know, took some liberties, but we did have uniform inspections every once in a while. And so if you didn't have one of the pieces of your uniform, you're like, passing it through the window to the other class.
So the winter uniform was a white long sleeve blouse, and a gray-green jumper with a belt. And so that was often an item that was not always there. White knee socks and black penny loafers.
And then the summer uniform, which was kind of interesting. Spring and Fall was a short sleeve white pullover top, and then a pleated white skirt.

Kate M.
Linda got to see a bit of South America while she was in Paraguay, including a trip with her grade to Brazil.

Linda S.
And then my high school class took a school trip. And it was a busload of students and a busload of mothers. And we went to São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. And so that was a pretty big deal.
 
It was pretty much students in one and moms in the other. They figured we couldn't get in too much trouble on the bus. But once we got where we were going…
In São Paulo, we went shoe shopping. That's the specialty there. In Rio we went to Copacabana and The Christ the Redeemer statue on Sugarloaf. So we played tourist, ate on the beach.

Kate M.
She also took some trips with her host family.

Linda S.
So typically in Paraguay, everybody goes away Easter Week. They have that week off school and a lot of people have it off work. And so we went across Paraguay to the falls of Iguazu, which are waterfalls on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. We also went to Sete Quedas, which is Portuguese for seven falls, which is also on the border with Brazil. And my host father worked for the hydroelectric dam that was being built, which did away with some of those falls. Which was interesting, but I got to see them before they disappeared.

[Music]

Kate M.
Well, so, that was the 1980s. Now in the 2020s, how has Linda’s program affected her skills and interests today?

First of all, she has maintained her Spanish throughout the years. She has also become more open-minded, and is able to see things from different perspectives. This has been especially helpful in her job.

Linda S.
Yes. So I'm a travel trainer, which most people are not necessarily familiar with. So it means that I teach older adults and persons with disabilities how to safely use public transportation in the greater Boston area. And so there's some opportunity for creativity and communication, you know, figuring out how to, to provide information based on the learning styles of the folks we work with.

Kate M.
Linda provides training to people in the greater Boston area- at schools, senior centers, her office, and out in the community. She gives orientations on trip planning, how to ask for help, how to read maps and schedules, and more. Yes, this is a job! If you live in a city with a public transportation system, there are likely Travel Trainers like Linda who help people navigate public transit safely.

Linda S.
Sometimes I can use my Spanish.  I've got trainees that that's their first language, or their preferred language, all over the area. Boston is an international city, so we've got folks from a lot of different places.
The other day, I was presenting for work to a group of what turned out to be over 40 people. I had no idea there were going to be that many there. And I got there a little bit early. And while I was waiting in the reception area, I'm hearing all kinds of Spanish and it's like, “Okay, I need to do this bilingually.” Normally I would allow some extra time for that. But, you know, I pulled it off and just talked a little faster in both languages, and presented in both. I don't get to use it all of the time. But it certainly comes in handy. And I can switch to it easily. Other jobs that I've had I used it more regularly.

Kate M.
In other jobs, she has worked with immigrants and refugees and been able to use her Spanish.

Linda S.
One of the jobs I had after I came back I worked with immigrants and refugees, many of whom were Spanish speakers, and that's part of how I got that job. I've done some various volunteer things using my Spanish and some subtitles for a couple of movies in Spanish and translated some brochures and information on websites into Spanish on a volunteer basis.
And things like that, primarily related to disabilities, because that's the field I work in. And a lot of times, that type of information may not be readily available in other languages.

Kate M.
But it’s not just the concrete language skills she’s taken away from her time in Paraguay…

Linda S.
Also just being more broad minded, inclusive, and kind of being able to see things from different perspectives. Which also comes in handy with my work, you know, with folks with disabilities. Like, Okay, I need to think about other ways that I can present this information. Or how can I look at it from different angles, and think about how someone else might be perceiving it, or what they might need, based on how they take in information, whether it's a different language, or just a different way of learning.

Knowing how difficult it was, for me at first, even having had some Spanish, if I come across someone who, for whom English is not their first language, and they're needing some help, I'm gonna go out of my way to try to help them if I can, and think outside the box. Maybe I don't speak the language they speak, but can I show them a map? Or do I have photographs that I can share or things like that? Or draw diagrams? Or, you know, how else besides spoken or written language can we communicate if we don't have a common language? Or do we have some common language that's not the first language for either of us that might work?

Another thing that I think came out of my AFS experience is an interest in the environment, and how it's all connected. You know, everything we do affects the whole planet, as far as that and so, you know, helping people use transit, if they're able to, you know, is also maybe taking getting some cars off the road or reducing some trips as far as the environmental piece.

Kate M.
While these small changes do make an impact, Linda knows that it will take a lot more to effect lasting, positive change on our environment. And that means cooperation.

Linda S.
And with climate change, it's affecting us all. We can't do little piecemeal things here and there and expect to make a difference, we have to work together. And the more that we have practice working together, and interacting in positive ways for whatever purpose, that will help. People that know other cultures and other languages can be the leaders in the things that require global cooperation and efforts.

Kate M.
Linda has contributed to making positive change by being a host parent. Her brother’s wife is an AFS volunteer in Wisconsin, and a few years ago she shared a profile of a student from Sweden who she thought would be a good match for Linda’s family.

Linda S.
And so she would see the profiles of the students that needed host families. And with our first AFS daughter, she was like, we've got a student that you need to look at the profile. We think you guys should host the student. And we looked at the profile. And she's also gluten free and I'm gluten free. And they knew that it might be difficult to find a host family that understood her diet. When we got the information about her it was about a month before they were supposed to arrive. And we talked about it, and surprisingly my husband said okay, And so things went from there.

And so we hosted her, and some of my concerns going in, you know, why we hadn't applied to host sooner was, I kind of felt like, mostly they were looking for families that had siblings in the same school to help them, you know, meet friends and find their way around and things like that. And I discovered that that was not a requirement.

Kate M.
Yes, having a teenager in the home… is not a requirement for being a host parent! Families can look like… a couple with no children, empty-nesters, or parents with children in the home. Members of the LGBTQ community can be host parents. Single adults and single parents are also welcome.

Linda S.
And I also thought the fact that we were vegan, that they might not be excited about placing someone in a household with a special diet. Our arrangement was that our household would remain vegan. But when we went out, or when she was hanging out with her friends or at school, she could eat whatever she chose. If we were going out, we were obviously going to pay for her meal, whether it was vegan or not.

Kate M.
When this student returned to Sweden, she became a vegan. And, years later… she moved back to the US and ended up marrying a friend she met during her exchange year!

Linda S.
And you know, he was one of her first friends that she met at school.
Then we took a year off after that, and then we hosted again. Again, it was my sister in law, who said, “Oh, we got another profile that we think you should look at.” Our second daughter, from Finland, also had a special diet; she was vegan. And so that was a good match.

Kate M.
So my final question to Linda was “Why do you think intercultural exchange is important?”

Linda S.
Just to broaden everybody's perspective, and to understand that we're not the center of the universe.
You know, just learning about their own culture more, because a lot of times you'd learn about things by sharing it, or teaching, sharing it with others, or teaching it to others.

Linda S.
I got asked some interesting questions, “Is it true that families in the US have robots?” I got questions the other way, either coming back, or when I was about to go “Do they live in houses?” and things like that. Part of the part of the process too, is when you come back, sharing information. So most of us at that time would come back and do a slideshow for the local, you know, Lions Club, or Gowanus Club, or Rotary or, or, you know, whoever, or the church group.
And so, you know, having the experience yourself, but also sharing it when you get back. Like, “Hey, I'm local, and I did this, and this is what I learned.” It might encourage other people to go on exchange, and it's very different from being a tourist somewhere. Because you get to know the real people in their daily lives, and that sort of thing, and not just the person that works in the hotel, or the person that serves your meal and things like that. So that's a huge piece of it, it’s really becoming part of the community.

[Music]

Kate M.
That was Linda Shepard Salzer, an AFS returnee to Paraguay, based in Boston. A big thank you to Linda for chatting with me about her experiences in Paraguay and how the skills she learned on program are still relevant 40 years later. I hope you also learned a bit about Paraguay- and its history, languages, and culture.

[Music]

Kate M.
Well, thank you for listening to The AFS Exchange! I’m Kate Mulvihill. 

Are you interested in going abroad with AFS like Linda did? Or hosting a student with AFS? Head to afsusa.org to learn more.

Let us know what you thought of this episode by sending a message to podcast@afsusa.org. You can also rate and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe there as well! Season 2 of The AFS Exchange will bring you conversations with hosted students, educators, host families, volunteers, and more. 

This podcast was created by Kate Mulvihill. Social media by Julie Ball.