r r r-
9
Section
NDY. OREGON THURSDAY. JULY 23. 1981
The Sdndy Post
_
A fC H NCWS
People
Home & Garden
Features
Claudia Richards spent a year
in Paraguay. Now her host
family is paying her a
Return
Visit
P a r ..h r
by MARK FLOYD
Claudia Richards spent a full year in »South
America, living with a family in Paraguay and lear
ning a new culture
Now her Paraguayan family is paying her a visit
Nylda Rodriguez and her two sons, Leo and Dani,
arrived in Sandy 10 days ago on their winter vaca
tion Nylda’s husband, Miguel, remained in
Paraguay to take care of business
he is head of
the accounting department for the Ministry of
Health
The Rodriguez family, and the family of host Vern
Richards, has spent the lime adjusting and trying to
cope with the language harrier Claudia speaks
Spanish well, and Dam has become fairly adept at
English, but the rest of the group usually needs an
interpreter.
‘‘We use a dictionario a lot," laughed Melba
Richards, Claudia s mother "It's hard to carry on
an extensive conversation when you only know a
few words."
The Rodriguez' are just thankful to be here Leo
had trouble getting a visa from the American em
bassy in Paraguay and it finally took a family vaca
tion to convince authorities that he wasn’t going to
take up permanent residence in the United States
"They wouldn't give l>eo a visa for three
months," Claudia said "They were afraid he
wouldn’t come back Leo would like to stay longer
and Dam would like to study here, but he would
have to lose a year He wants to become a doctor ”
Since being in Oregon, the Paraguayans have
made the rounds, visiting Mt Hood, Multnomah
Falls, M irror Lake, the Washington Park Zoo and
the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Trips
are also planned to the coast and Mount St Helens
With the aid of Claudia as interpreter, Nylda said
that she likes the scenery, the trees and the moun
tain Dam would like to visit more of the tourist
g a .h ,r <Mil»Me .hr ho.nr o( Vrrn and Mrlba Richard». From .hr Irl. arr l.ro and Svlda Hodrlgurr. Claudia and Mrlba Richard» and l.ani R.nlriBnr..
spots and appreciated the crafts and music of the
Sandy Mountain Festival
And Leo? He also went to the festival and ap
preciated the beer and the girls, not neccessarily in
that order
When asked to compare Portland w ith their home
city of Asuncion, the Rodriguez' felt the cities were
sim ilar in styles of architecture with the skyline
buildings But they ail agreed the biggest difference
was the roads.
“ The roads are a lot better here," Nylda said
"There are only a few in Paraguay that have four
lanes Most of them are two car roads, like this one
here < Bluff Road), kind of bumpy There are a lot of
trees here and less industry It makes the air
cleaner."
The Rodriguez’ also are impressed with Sandy,
where the houses aren’t so hunched up as in Asun
cion and the people are quite friendly They all en
joyed the Mountain Festival, although they missed
the appearance of Lindsay Wagner, who they have
seen on the television show The Bionic Woman in
Paraguay
Paraguay is a cultural melting pot when it comes
to television, the Rodriguez* noted In addition to the
American shows, such as Different Strokes, Benson
and M A S 11 for example, there are a lot of con
certs, programs from Europe, foreign movies and
live sporting events Most of the shows are
translated into Spanish in Puerto Rico or Mexico,
then sent to Paraguay But the Rodriguez family
saw the American version of M A S.H recently and
had little trouble following it
"People think the country is backwards, but it is
very advanced,” Claudia said "In fact, they’re
building the biggest dam in the world now between
Paraguay and Brazil "
Leo and Dam also recognize most of the songs on
the radio and are celebrating their Americanization
by growing beards, a distasteful custom in
( laudia acts as a translator for Leo and the rest of the Rodriguez fam ily.
Paraguay, according to their mother
Music livens up tin* evenings of th<* Rodriguez
family Dam plays the piano and trumpet and Nylda
teaches singing and dancing in Paraguay
"She’s fairly well known," Claudia said "She's
made several commercials down there The
Paraguayans are very talented people, they do a lot
of singing, weaving and work with leather "
American food has been no problem for the
visitors, although meal tunes have been adjusted
slightly One thing that is different is the price of the
food In Paraguay, beef is plentiful, and good cuts of
meat are sold for about $1 a kilogram, which is 2.2
pounds.
The stay w ill be a short one for Dam and Nylda,
who are returning to Paraguay this Sunday Uni
will stay until September, travel to California to
visit a friend and, of course, look for more girls
"He wants me to invite all my girl friends over."
Claudia said
A true American already
Melba and Nylda look over aome Paraguayan weaving and embroidery.
Nylda. who trachea winging and dancing in Paraguay, performs
the difficult hottie dance for the Rlcharda
photos by Mark Floyd