Hello Samu,
I am Facu, I am already 18 years old and I am one of the beneficiaries of the scholarship provided by Parafina. Apart from thanking you, I wanted to tell you how this first academic year was at UCSA, the university I am attending following a degree in Computer Engineering. I started university by attending in person for about 4 days, then the rest was spent in
in a virtual way because the pandemic was declared in Paraguay, this brought with it many difficulties for the correct development of content, sometimes I had a hard time understanding the topics given by some teachers and this happened to me a lot with programming, partly also because I did not have a base in computer science. It bothered me a lot that the teachers did not explain and simply threw a pdf with the theory which was not at all well clarified, which forced me to investigate on my own on YouTube and Google among other pages.
The first semester, which ran from March to July, I studied from my home in Trinidad, where I lived alone, because as you know, my parents are in Argentina with Luchito, although we did manage to get Gustavo Mongelos to come and keep me company at home and help me with the housework. During this period, I didn't have many complications with my studies because I managed to understand almost all the subjects and I dedicated between 5 and 8 hours to each one.
When the final exams came, I had a complication because the exams were paid for separately and I did not have money at that time. I made a request to my work so that I could go to work despite the pandemic in order to pay for my exams, which they agreed to. In the second semester, things got a bit complicated; some teachers did not explain the more complex subjects... Another tragedy, unfortunately, was that one of our teachers died from Covid.
Halfway through the semester, due to family issues, I moved to my grandmother's house, where I am currently living. My daily routine consists of going to work in the morning and returning at noon to dedicate myself to my studies. I also help with household chores so that I am not a bother to my grandparents. And now that I am finishing my studies, I realize that many things happened this year and we managed to overcome them. Also, and no less important, it is thanks to you that we have been given this wonderful opportunity to fulfill our dreams and to be able to study what we like, in my case. Thank you very much, Uncle Samu!
Another positive thing is that we are still continuing with the youth ministry, we are taking many courses to be able to train ourselves as leaders and be able to return with everything after this pandemic, and we even got a few new leaders, after losing others, although the doors are always open for them to return if they want. In short, this year was phenomenal with all its ups and downs, and thank you very much for all the effort you make for us and for the trust you have in us, I miss you and I hope you can come back one day to make a delicious stew.