the infamous daughter of little red riding hood and the big bad wolf

At this point in my adventure I would be remiss if I did not tell you about Marlene. Katie lives with Marle in a flat in the city center, and Marle works at the language institute where Katie and Jana are volunteering. She has welcomed us all like family and includes us in all of her social activities. After two weeks we all want to bring her back to the states with us. She has an acute sense of the ridiculous and has the tendency to make hilarously inappropriate comments in awkward situations; naturally we felt an immediate kinship with her. She took us all to an asado with her family--the Paraguayan version of a cook-out. Her family is gracious and just as colorful as Marlene. Her brother is studying to be a lawyer and loves to read classic literature. Her father is a lawyer with a mischevious smily and terrible jokes. Her mother is an adorable four-and-a-half foot tall dance instructor. At the barbeque we learned that her parents first met during a childhood production of various fairy tales. So Marlene is quite literally the daughter of little red riding hood and the big bad wolf. I cannot say that I am surprised. With such a beginning there can be no doubt that she was destined for greatness.

When Marle was thirteen years old, she was quite the little Ricky Martin fan. (She still is, in fact, and we have watched him on DVD to get some dance moves). When Marlene found out that Ricky was coming to Asuncion to perform, she became obsessed with one overarching goal: to meet Ricky Martin in person. She figured the best way to to this was to start a Ricky Martin fan club, just a few days before the show. Her mom was the secretary and the only other member. But this fact did not stop Marle from going to the news station and introducing herself as the presidend of the Ricky Martin Fan Club of Paraguay. The station immediatly put her on live national television, and she was interviewed on the Paraguayan equivalent of Good Morning America. While on the air Marle gave out her home phone number for the Fan Club headquarters, and her house had received more the 700 calls by the time she got home. The secretary was very busy taking messages. A few days later the same news station chartered a bus for the fan club, decorated especially for the event. Marle got to greet Ricky as he got off the plane and introduce herself as the president of his fan club, the first official fan club ever in Paraguay.