Hernandarias has two gas stations, a grocery store, some undeveloped land and fields of corn and soybeans. The community also has the Alto Paran Country Club.

Openshaw lives in the country club area, which is a gated community for some of Paraguay's richest families. It is full of mansions with swimming pools and saunas, discos, golf carts on an 18-hole course, and a boat-launch area on a nearby river.

Next door is the reason for gating the community: the bustling and dangerous city of Ciudad del Este. According to Openshaw, the city "is known for having a large assortment of pirated CDs, fake watches and sunglasses. You can buy a fake anything in downtown Ciudad del Este."

The city exists because of the massive Itaipu Dam, the world's second largest source of hydroelectricity. The dam is located in Brazil, but it employs much of the city's population.

The dam exists because of the mighty Paran river, which in turn provides the region's chief tourist attraction: Las Cataratas, the world's biggest waterfall. The waterfall is located in all three countries but cannot be seen from Paraguay.

Openshaw has visited the "spectacular" waterfall once. She took a boat ride down one section called "Garganta de Diabloîó" (The Devil's Throat), an experience she describes as "incredible." Unlike some areas damaged when the hydroelectric plant was built, the land around Las Cataratas has preserved its flora and fauna. Smoking is even prohibited, something Openshaw reports as being rare in Paraguay.

Openshaw has lived with two families since she arrived in Paraguay. Her first host father was the president of her sponsoring Rotary Club. Her second host owns a car wash and auto-stereo installation business. Much of the family works in that business. Their house is staffed by a nanny, a cook and a cleaning person.

Having had a chance to sample much of the local foods, Openshaw said she both hates it and loves it. She dislikes the great amount of beef she is served, but she likes the traditional corn-based foods. She does admit liking their barbeques, however.

Openshaw, the daughter of Steve and Leona Openshaw of Northfield, is one of about 7,000 men and women between the ages of 16 and 19 who study in foreign countries sponsored by the Rotary Youth Exchange program each year. This fall, she will enter the general college of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, and she hopes to enter nursing school there her sophomore year.

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