Needs of a Community

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           September 27^th marks one year from the time I left my house in Cincinnati to leave for Paraguay. Seems sort of unreal that it was a year ago, but while the days at times can seem really slow the months seem to roll by faster than ever. While my Guarani isn’t quite as good as I would like it to be, it is a hell of a lot better than it was upon my arrival. Looking back to the build up to my departure I have to admit that I had very little idea of what to expect. Peace Corps is in 68 countries as of today all over the world. I personally know of people who are serving or have done service recently in Morocco, Peru, Madagascar, Namibia, Kyrgyzstan, Jamaica, Cameroon, and Guatemala. All of those countries are unique places that I could have been sent to if a few things turned out differently. The question I have been wondering of late is would my experience, if I had been placed somewhere else, be completely different? Instinct tells me that yeah it probably would be, but for more than just the differences in culture, language, and geography. Every Peace Corps post has its own unique identity that creates its own subculture within the context of the country ones serves. A commonly used phrase amongvolunteers from different places is whether your post is Peace Corps or Posh Corps. Many would likely consider Paraguay to be Posh Corps for a wide variety of reasons, but I think that is an unfair characterization that fails to account for different degrees of challenges I face here.

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            Many people are aware of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Basically there are 5 levels of growth that humans will go through depending on whether or not their needs are met. The basic needs are at the bottom of the pyramid known as the physiological needs and go up the pyramid to safety and security, love/belonging, esteem, and lastly self-actualization. I feel strongly that the service and different challenges of a Peace Corps volunteer in a given country are linked to that country’s needs level on the hierarchy. I won’t dive into too many details about the theory itself outside of my context, but if you would like more specifics I would encourage you to read more about it. Here is the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs. Paraguay, and the work I have been involved with to this point, I believe, can be explained by examining the level on the needs scale for Paraguay in general.

Abraham Maslow

            The most basic level is known as the physiological needs. These are what Maslow considered as the essentials for human survival. For starters, Paraguay, while poor, isn’t anywhere near the poorest country where volunteers live and work. The average annual income in 2009 was roughly $4,100 a year per capita (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Paraguay), which might not seem like a lot, but considering I make about that same amount per year and have not once felt I was in a dire financial situation says something about how cheap it can be to live here. Granted I am not supporting a family, and my income doesn’t change if my harvest is poor, but still if you look at the incomes per capita of the poorest nations on earth Paraguay is way further ahead than many other places that are in the developing world. One noticeable indicator is that Paraguay remarkably has potable water throughout the country. It amazes me that I have been able to drink water out of a well without a major bout of sickness. Many volunteers catch giardia, a nasty disease that affects your stomach and digestive system as a result of drinking poor quality water, but it is treatable, if you know you have it, within a reasonable amount of time. Agriculture is the backbone of the economy, and most people know how to produce food, so affordable food is not out of reach. The Itapúa dam is one of the largest in the world and provides electricity through out the country. 15 years ago there were many communities that didn’t have electricity, but now as a result of massive infrastructure development, especially in the most inaccessible rural areas, most communities have electricity for at least part of the day. People again for the most part, have good shelter that is rarely damaged by natural disasters, access to clothing. Paraguay’s population has doubled since the early 1980s, which shows that families are better able to provide the basic needs for their children allowing for a 1.24% growth rate. Not out of control fast, but fast enough to demonstrate that the country can support a growing population. In terms of basic needs, the majority of Paraguayans have them met unlike many countries in other parts of the world.

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            The second level on the hierarchy is safety needs. That includes the lack of “physical safety” as a result of “war, natural disaster, or in cases of family violence, child abuse, ect. –people experience post-traumatic stress disorder” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs)  While there are incidents of crime, for the most part Paraguay is a safe country with the largest cause of death among young people being motor vehicle accidents. It is not a major epidemic like HIV/Aids, or a war related to ethnic conflict or regional struggles related to natural resources to name a few examples. Paraguay has fought major wars against its neighbors, but the most recent was in the late 1930’s against Bolivia over the sparsely populated area known as the Chaco, where large oil deposits were believed to exist. As it turned out those deposits don’t exist, and as a result Paraguay has not fought a war since. I cannot claim to know much about family violence or child abuse other than there is some human trafficking that takes place is an area of concern in some regions. There also are incidents of crime, but mainly minor offences like burglary and petty theft that primarily take place in the most populated areas of the country. Additionally, one could argue that the spike in crime in those urban areas is more a consequence of development rather than a result of internal conflict or political strife. Other than people drinking too much from time to time, and the high incidents of motor vehicle accidents Paraguay is a much safer country than many others where Peace Corps has a presence.

            The next level is love and belonging. My personal interpretation of all these levels is mainly based on my experience in Paraguay; as a result my statements are generalizations rather than in-depth analysis of a larger sample of people and communities throughout the country. I have marveled at the sense of community that exists within the country. Families generally stay together in the same towns they grew up in with many generations living close to each other. People within these communities are very respectful of the people around them, and to me it seems that there is a general recognition among the Paraguayans close to where I live that they want to provide a better life to their children then their parents were able to provide to them. I have been to many community events that take place at the school including: parent’s commission meetings, festivals, and fundraisers. At times it can seem like nobody cares about what happens to the community, but I chalk that up more to the lack of knowledge of how to work in groups and the dictatorship that lasted for over 30 years. Families here are big, they help each other out the best they can, which at times can seem like not at all but that is more a result of their own capabilities to support people rather than their desire not to in my opinion. An example of this in my time here was when I saw a little girl of around 7 break her arm while playing a game. This took place in a poorer area of the country where people don’t have a lot of expendable income for things like expensive medial treatment. Some man, who may or may not have been a member of the family, paid 100,000 Gs. ($23.00) to have someone take that child to the closest health center to get fixed up. The sense of community and banding together is something that at times seems lost to me when I am back home and families are less likely to live together, or even in the same part of the country once you reach a certain age. You could argue that alcoholism is a problem in some areas, that divorce as a result of infidelity is higher now than ever, and more children are born out of wedlock than in previous generations, but I would argue that those incidences are more a result of easier access to information, a much higher population, and infrastructure that has made the country smaller and given people more ability to leave a bad situation. The love and belonging section of the pyramid is very difficult to explain, and obviously varies from person to person. I will say that people around me tend to get married have children and stick together more than in America causing me to argue that the needs at this level are more or less met.

            The areas where Paraguay seems to struggle are more on the higher end of the pyramid than the lower levels. The esteem and self-actualization levels are the ones where I feel my work is striving towards. People need to have self-esteem and self-respect in order to accomplish things that would seem inconceivable at lower levels of the needs pyramid. I cannot count the number of times where something as simple as asking someone for something basic like to borrow a pan to make pizza or to ask a teacher for help is met with I have verguenza (shame). Sure people are confident around their immediate families, but thrown outside of those comfort zones where you have to ask someone for something is met with great resistance. I personally have struggled with that at certain times of my life, so it only natural that it is a common challenge for all types of people in all types of places. Some examples in my time here are mostly associated with working in the youth group. The kids are sometimes, so passive that it makes me want to scream. Even the simplest tasks can sometimes not happen at all because of their hesitancies. A classic case is answering the phone. A lot of people, but particularly kids will not answer the phone when you call them. A big reason is they often don’t have saldo (payment or minutes) on their phone, but a lot if it has to do with not wanting to talk or provide a definitive answer. As a result, I get more and better responses to my questions from text messages rather than a regular phone conversation.  Another example is asking someone’s opinion about something. When I have been doing things with the youth group, which by the way would be impossible to form without meeting the most basic levels on the needs pyramid, with Mike and now Robert I have noticed whenever a question is asked to an individual in the group the response is immediately “no se” (I don’t know). The best way to get answers is to ask a small series of follow up questions that would potentially provide an idea to give them time to think. Often that yields the desired result. It is extremely difficult to get the kids to take their own initiative in doing things. However, it does happen, but takes a lot of building up confidence and congratulating the most minor of accomplishments.

            The whole idea of graduating high school is something that has only within the last few decades been expected and even today isn’t quite at that desired level. Going to a university wasn’t even an option until recently, not because people didn’t want to go, but more because there weren’t that many especially in areas outside the cities. What that all means is the step towards self-actualization where a person can reach their full potential is still extremely limited here. While being able to leave the home town and go study somewhere is more common now than ever, people still need to help support their families whether that be working in the fields, or getting a job in the area of any kind. It is still difficult for a family to send their child to a 6-year university program because of the cost and the time that takes them away from home. In the more rural areas the argument is the same, but at a more basic level of the family not being able to even have their kids graduate high school because of how much work it takes to be able to support a family. As a result many, bright, and intelligent people don’t have the access to meet their potential. Whether you classify that as not being able to complete a certain level of education, or the general lack of opportunity one has to experience things outside their immediate surroundings both inhibit people from accomplishing a certain level of self-esteem and reaching the level of self-actualization.

            At this point I have rambled for a good 3 pages, so I am sure you are probably asking yourself what is the point in me telling you all this? My point is that the work I do isn’t trying to fulfill a basic need like water, food, simple sanitation, a better sense of security, or relationship counseling for people to find love. My job, at least what it feels like to me, is to expose whatever I can to as many people as I can to get them to attain the needs of self-esteem and self-actualization. Doing a massive tree planting project to provide shade and make certain areas look nicer is not a priority for someone who is dependant on wood to survive. Yes Paraguay is the number one consumer of wood for personal use, and large amounts of forest have been cut down to sell timber and to make charcoal. However, there are interest groups that are trying to replant trees, and many people recognize that planting trees is an essential part of protecting their livelihood in the future. People can do that for reasons that aren’t purely out of necessity, and proof of that is in the number of tree nurseries that has sprung up as a result of people’s recognition of the importance of trees. A similar argument can be made about trash management. People burn their trash because there are no dumps or waste management services in the rural country side. Yes there are better ways to dispose of garbage other than burning them, but I ask if you had a ton of garbage piled up in the back of your house next to your fields with kids running around and no way to get rid of it that is quick or safe for the environment wouldn´t probably burn your trash too? The whole point of the garbage project we did with the kids was to provide the community with trash cans so a better option exists to get rid of ones trash. If there is a trash can that means you don’t have to throw it on the ground. People need that convenience otherwise what else are they suppose to do? You can’t find me a kid here that doesn’t realize that throwing your trash on the ground isn’t good, but if he doesn’t have access to a municipal waste management service that will pick up your garbage and take it far away how is he suppose to know what to do?

            The challenge I have faced in my time here has focused on getting people to realize that they have the potential to do great things that can increase their standard of living and gain a better sense of their capabilities. If a farmer is constantly planting the same things in his field year in and year out, the soil is going to deteriorate. That is going to decrease his income and place his needs at a lower level on the pyramid. On the other hand, if he uses a small portion of his income to invest in green manures that he can plant to improve the soli quality and therefore his yields, he will be in a better position to focus his time on other things like personal hobbies that can lead to the acquirement of more skills or better yet allow his children to gain an education they otherwise wouldn’t be able to. Different people will have a strong desire to do different things based on where they lie on the hierarchy. Convincing people that changing or investing in one aspect of their lives can change things forever is the hardest thing I have ever done. After all I am a 24-year-old American who has never farmed, never planted trees, never taught in a school, and never had to provide for my own family. Who am I to say that I know what is best? Hell I can barely speak the languages well enough to express those ideas! It is easy to look at those barriers and give up. I could spend my time doing nothing but sit in my house and read books, but I strongly feel, and that is not to say my opinion won’t change a year from now, that getting that one person, family, group, community ect. to try out one thing that brought you to this place at this time makes the Peace Corps service worthwhile regardless of where you are, what your project is, or what level that country may be on the hierarchy of needs. I guess what I am getting at is that every individual who joins the Peace Corps will have their own unique experience despite many perceived similarities between your service and someone close to you. I cannot claim I know what is going on in Thailand, Mongolia, Uganda, or Panama for the volunteers there. I wouldn’t even venture a guess, but what I will say is that individual’s classification of how easy a country is to live in is based off of what I see as the level that individual is surrounded by on the hierarchy. That doesn’t make ones individual service harder or easier than someone else’s. If your challenges were associated with your community not having access to water, there was a breach in safety, people wouldn’t work with you because of a lack of human companionship, they had too much personal loathing to think outside the box, or if they were unable to realize their own potential are all challenges that cause different degrees of frustration. Certain people handle those difficulties in different ways; all I know is that my struggles in Paraguay don’t put me in the same category as a volunteer anywhere else in the world. They put me in a certain position that has led me to this point, and ushered me into the work I have done and will be doing.

Cleaning up O´Leary

          Sine the tragic death of my computer last month updating the blog on a consistent basis has been a challenge, but thanks to my friend Julia I will now be once again able to give regular updates on a slow but functional computer until a more permanent solution can be found. A lot has happened since my last update mainly revolving around the $1,000 Disney trash reduction project. I wish I could say that things have been going smoothly, but that would be a lie for a number of reasons that I think provide keen insight to how small businesses function in many Paraguayan communities.

            As I had explained in previous entries, my former site mate, Mike, and I along with the members of his youth group wrote an application to receive $1,000 from Disney Latino America’s Amigos por el Mundo program in late April. The parameters of the project were pretty straight forward in that the project simply had to be a youth environmental initiative. We were supposed to find out whether or not we won at the beginning of June and receive the money by the beginning of July. Well it didn’t quite happen that way. We found out we were one of the projects selected at the end of June, and didn’t receive the money until the beginning of August. Mike and I worked really hard to get as much done as possible before he left on August 19^th, but a lot still remains to be completed despite our best efforts. The good news is that Mike received a follow-up volunteer named Robert who has quite literally walked into the middle of a project three months in the making at its most hectic time.

            The grant stated that the kids would spend the $1,000 on the construction of 21 garbage cans, 5 recycling containers, 100 reusable cloth bags, 35 t-shirts, and 4 cloth banners to be hung around the community to promote the project. Additionally, the group would do radio programming to inform the community about the project, raise about $200 independently through their local sponsors, and do several community clean up projects with the two schools in the center of town. Mike and I knew when we finished writing the proposal with the kids that if we somehow managed to win that the project would be a very challenging to complete not because any one thing is particularly difficult to accomplish, but more because of the number of people we would have to depend on to get the project completed by the September 30^th deadline. For the rest of this entry I will breakdown step by step each component of the project and how it was implemented.

            The first thing we wanted to get done was the t-shirts. There are no places in O’Leary where t-shirts can be made. We knew this before hand, so our plan was to get them made by a place in Asuncion that has worked with countless volunteers needing t-shirts. This part of the project required the contributions of the group’s sponsors because only a certain percentage of the money was allowed to go towards things like shirts. After getting a design figured out we brought it to the kids in the group for their approval and color suggestions. That proved to be a mistake mainly because nobody could agree on the colors. I am pretty sure every member of the group that day expressed some opinion about the shirt, but nobody was willing to say what specifically what they wanted. Easily the most frustrating part of working with kids in my time in Paraguay is the indecisiveness regardless of how important the decision is. A classic dialogue goes something like this, “What do you guys think about the t-shirt design?” unanimously the response is, “It looks wonderful” followed by me asking if everyone is sure? Then I’ll get individual responses that go something like this, “I think the shirts are really nice, and I like everything about them, but I think that it might look better if they were in grey instead of white, but this is just an idea I really don’t know what would be better?” At that point several other people will respond expressing similar statements before I would prompt a question like, “So you guys want to change the color?” their response is normally “no, I think it is good, whatever you think is best.” At this point I am pulling my hair out because for one it is not my project, and the decisions for how the group wants to do things should be based on what they want, but nobody has the balls to flat out say something because they don’t want to offend anyone in the group, so what ends up happening is an hour long dialogue amongst the members where because nobody wants to make a decision we end up with the original design unchanged. A decision that could have taken 5-minutes takes an hour. We ended up getting the shirts from Asuncion the following week with minimal problems, but the process to get to that point wasn’t easy. I realize that a lot of that is because I am working with young kids who regardless of country have a hard time making up their minds, but that sentiment is magnified in Paraguay not just with kids, but with everyone. It is important to understand that pretext as I continue to tell explain the other facets of the project.

            The next thing we did was the cloth bags. O’Leary has several places that sell cheap fabric to make the reusable bags that have from what I remember, become commonplace in American grocery stores. The process of finding someone who could make the bags was easy, the process of getting someone to give us the answers we needed regarding price and how long it would take wasn’t. It took 4 meetings with the owner of O’Leary’s largest textile producer to get the bags done. Every time we went we asked how much the bags would cost, how long it would take, and whether they had enough of the material to make 100. Every single time the answers we got warranted another trip back the next day to get some partial answers to our questions. Eventually, we were able to determine that we could get the bags made for $1.50 each, and that it would take 4 days to do so. We also asked if we could put on a logo that reflected the name and idea of the project “O’Leary Verde”. She said no problem, and that we should come back the next day to get the bags. As luck would have it we ended up coming back a bit earlier the next day to check on the logo. What we saw imprinted on the bag was a green, 3 leafed plant that said O’Leary Verde. At this point Robert had moved to O’Leary and Mike was in his last week. We all thought to ourselves that this bag looks like we are promoting the use of marijuana throughout the community rather than the reduction of trash. Mike mentioned this to the lady who got a giant laugh out of it, and while I admit that I was laughing too, it was more of a panic laugh knowing that we caught the problem in time before we wasted our money on 100 bags that looked like something that someone would by at a medicinal marijuana store in the States. We definitely dodged a bullet on that one, and the next day picked up the revised bags with a much more appropriate recycling logo on the front in place of a drug leaf.

            Once the bags were completed we talked on several occasions to the owners of the largest supermarket in town to see if they would be willing to distribute the bags to customers who bought more than 50,000 Gs. (roughly $12) worth of goods. The owners said that would be fine, and even contributed 100,000 Gs. to the project. We told them that we would promote the event on the local radio over the next 2 Saturday’s given that our theme for each program would be trash. The kids organized themselves on the day of the big event. I explained on several occasions what we were going to do, and told them to make sure that they came out in force. We were supposed to do the presentation of the bags at 2:30 on a Saturday; it didn’t happen until 3:30. The kids were supposed to give the owners the bags and explain to them, for the 3^rd time, what the purpose of the bags were for, and let the checkout employees distribute the bags. What ended up happening is we got to the store and the kids looked like a deer caught in the headlights. Not only were the people in the grocery store not expecting them, despite telling them on several occasions, but they also kept looking at me and Robert to tell them what to do. I was livid because of how much time I had explained and gone over what they were supposed to do previously. Thankfully Robert calmly explained the idea of behind the project, got them to tell the owners, and had them give the bags to the checkout ladies. Naturally nobody brought a good camera, so the few pictures that do exist don’t give a great perspective about what is happening. At the end of the day they did do what they said they would do, but it was anything but smooth. I wish that I had better pictures to chronicle the event, but I resign myself to the fact that it did get done even if it wasn’t in the fashion I expected.

            Easily the most difficult aspect of the project has been the building of 21 trash cans and 5 recycling containers. When we were planning the project we got into contact with a blacksmith who had previously made the recycling containers for the elementary school in town. He quoted us a reasonable price with the agreement that they would be done within a week given we provided all the necessary materials. We thought everything was in order, and obliged the request of the blacksmith to provide all necessary materials. That was over a month ago. The first sign of trouble was 3 days after we had given him the metal barrels that he planned to cut in 2 to make 2 trash cans. He was supposed to of had the majority of the barrels cut and ready. When I went to talk to the blacksmith that day about his progress he was nowhere to be found, and his wife gave a flurry of excuses ranging from his sister having a baby to the fact that it was the weekend. To be honest, I didn’t care that he hadn’t done it. It was still early in the project and we had plenty of time. What frustrated me were the excuses. I am not saying they weren’t true, but I am saying that I didn’t care to hear them. If he told me straight up that he was really busy and couldn’t get it done I would’ve have been understanding. Instead his wife sat there telling me all the reasons why he couldn’t do the job we hired him to do in the timeframe he told us. It ended up taking him a month to get everything done he promised. Not only was he several weeks behind what he originally said today Robert received a message from him asking why he wasn’t paid yet because he had just finished that morning. It wasn’t a message informing us that it the cans were finally done, but an inquiry as to why he hadn’t been paid when he expected to be paid even though he did not once mention when he would be done.

            Having lived in O’Leary for 9 months, and Paraguay for a bit over 11 I am still amazed at the culture of commerce. The method in which a job gets done is like playing a giant game of chess. Even if you state directly what you want and when you want it done the odds that it will happen are highly unlikely. There are many reasons for this, but the one I keep coming back to is the fact that most business in smaller Paraguayan communities are family run trade businesses that operate outside their homes. Family life and professional life are therefore combined more intimately than they are back home. If you have a problem with the good or service you buying if you choose to confront the issue you are not just dealing with one person but rather an entire family. It is not like a major company that has customer service representative. The amount of options if you need something specific is extremely limited, so if you burn too many bridges tough luck you’re out of options. If there is a family emergency the business is closed, if the family goes on a trip your order gets completed after they get back, if it rained twice that week everything get pushed back. This culture forces one to set more time aside to complete tasks that under a different context could be done in half the time. In many ways the culture of family owned business being the primary source of commerce creates a stronger sense community, but it also a lead to more personal grudges if someone is unreliable or bad at what they do.

            What makes this culture all the more challenging is that we are foreigners who clearly don’t know how this system works upon our arrival. I am still unaccustomed to this way of doing business, and while I am slowly adapting to it I still cannot believe how long it takes to get the simplest tasks done regardless of the amount of preparation. In America work life and family life are frequently interconnected in a variety of ways, but rarely does someone have a trade that they do independently outside their house where people independently seek their specific services. If I wanted to go buy trash cans in America I wouldn’t have to find the local blacksmith, discuss how much it would cost, and wait for him to get it done. I would go to major hardware store and buy it that day with out having to negotiate price or anything. It could be done in a day. This project could be done in 2 days in America, but it would not an impact because litter and waste management isn’t the same problem as it is here. We are working within the confines of a developing community with limited resources and a deeply rooted society of family owned and operated businesses. Work and family life are intertwined unlike anything I was used to before my arrival here. To wrap up all I’ll say is that the project is slowly coming along. It will get done. I am not sure when exactly, or how for that matter. All I know is that by September 30^th I won’t be working on this anymore, and I’ll be very happy when that day arrives.