The most fulfilling summer of my life

As a member of project staff in San Pedro, Paraguay, in 2011, I got to know several beautiful communities and work with young people from throughout the United States and Paraguay to achieve concrete results. This organization challenges you to do what you never imagined, but supports you so that you can succeed. For example, I spent six weeks traveling among four different communities; addressing the health, safety, and mental health needs of eight teenagers; supervising them as they ran educational activities and worked with community leaders; coordinating implementation of community-led projects through material selection and purchase; working with the rest of project staff to review participant issues, organize collective events, and write a weekly newsletter; and hiking the cheerful hills of the San Pedro countryside. While this was very difficult and demanding work, I never felt that I was not able to fulfill my duties because of the support structure of the organization. Constant communication among community members, participants, and senior staff meant that my summer as a supervisor with AMIGOS was the most fulfilling one I've had - and it's been four years already.

Note: Paraguayans speak Guarani as their first language, and Spanish as their second. This makes their Spanish much easier to understand, as they don't talk as quickly as people from other countries.