The One Person Exercise Group

“I would love to exercise!” said every Señora in town.  But actually every one I asked said some form of that statement.  Which should have been a warning sign, but me getting all excited about my first project ignored all warning signs and went all in.  I started inviting people 3 days in advance for an exercise class at the soccer field at 3 pm on Monday which for Paraguayans is plenty of time because planning just is not a thing here.  For those of you who know me well, they procrastinate more than I do, which at this point is just plain impressive.  Everyone showed a ton of interest so I had quite a few things planned for all levels and was pretty excited. 

I thought of starting an exercise group as my first project for multiple reasons.  One, it is a good project that doesn’t require much language at all so not too much stress there.  Two, if I keep eating fried bread and meat all day every day I’m gonna need it.  Three, it is a good way to meet new people through sharing an experience and being active together.  Four, Paraguayans think only fat people need to exercise and are not knowledgeable about the benefits of exercise at all.  Five, Paraguayans for the most part do not exercise at all.  Motorcycles have become a HUGE thing in the past few years and are rapidly available through a credit system for almost anyone.  Which in some ways is cool because it is encouraging people to leave their house.  But in other ways isn’t because they are so dangerous and people take them for the shortest of runs so walking to the local store isn’t even a form of exercise anymore. 

So with all these reasons I was excited to begin and on Monday at 1pm I went around again to ensure that people didn’t forget about it and got all confirmations that yes indeed, they would be at the soccer field at 3 pm.  The time came around and I walked over to the soccer field and met a few Señoras on the way.   And here are a few responses I got when I asked them if they were ready to go to the class.

Señora #1: Sorry, Señora #2 has a cough and she can’t go.

Me: Oh, that’s too bad. How about you?

Señora #1: I have to accompany Señora #2.

Señora #3: I haven’t finished washing my clothes. A little bit later.

Señora #4: Señora #3 needs help with the soap.  A little bit later.

Señora #5: I’m caring for my nephew.

Me: Your nephew can come too!

Señora #5: I have to bring him to his house exactly at 3 pm.

Señora #6 and #7 fled on their motorcycles to who knows where.  Literally disappeared.

Señora #8:  I have to make dinner right now.

Me: Oh, what are you going to make?

Señora #8: I’m not sure yet.

And so was that.  So I went to the soccer field anyway to do some exercise in hopes that somebody would come next time.  Obviously extreme bad luck (reference last post) in the soccer field but I’m still hoping that this will happen some day.

I talked with one of the Señoras a little about it and she told me that everyone is scared that people will laugh at them.  Exercise is so not a thing here and trying new things or being different is DEFINITELY not a part of Paraguay’s culture let me tell you.  So my class clearly just intimidated the hell out of them and they bailed.  I’ve been making some modifications such as calling it a walking group instead of an exercise class.  So far I have one Señora that went walking with me both Tuesday and yesterday for 25 minutes which is definitely a step in the right direction.  Hopefully this will expand.  Also, I learned that doing it in the soccer field isn’t the best idea because it is so public and the Señoras want it more private.  The community doesn’t have too many places so I’m working on figuring that out too to give a little more privacy. 

It was definitely interesting and a very good representation of Paraguayan culture.  They don’t want to disappoint so they never say no to your face but they are also extremely shy and don’t like change so we’ll see how it goes.  Little by little we’ll be moving along.  One Señora at a time ;-)