First Day at Work

On Wednesday I went to Fundación Dequení to sit in on a meeting about the soccer tournament they run for street kids. I had gotten bad bus directions from a friend and ended up having to call a cab to make it the rest of the way. I arrived at 5 minutes late, but, as it turned out, the meeting had been postponed and the boss, who had invited me, was not expected until later. Only one employee had arrived on time. I exchanged numbers with Robert and he showed me pictures of previous soccer tournaments and other Foundation activities.

Then another employee walked in and Robert told him I was a new volunteer. “Hi I’m Zack,” I said. “Hi, I’m a socialist,” he replied, lifting up his Dequení polo to show me a “Palestinian Liberty Now” t-shirt underneath. “Just so you know,” he went on, shrugging. Robert chuckled and Nelson, the socialist, went around the corner to his desk. The rest of the staff trickled in and introduced themselves, though none quite as memorably as Nelson.

After a half hour or so, the boss still had not arrived and Robert explained that she would arrive later but that if I wanted to, I could go home and come back the next day for the meeting. Nelson leaned around the corner and asked if I could accompany him to his supermarkets. Aside from soccer tournaments, each staff member in that office is in charge of visiting and looking after the baggers in several supermarkets. “The bus is boring, I want some company,” Nelson said.

I agreed and we spent the rest of the morning touring several neighborhoods of Asunción. Afterwards, we bought food and ate lunch in Nelson’s apartment, which looks like my bedroom from high school: walls covered with old concert announcements, band posters, clippings from socialist newspapers, and pictures likening George Bush to Hitler. We ate and debated politics, my broken Spanish not doing liberal-democracy’s cause any favors.

Then I took the bus home, planning to go back the next morning for a real meeting.