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.

Battling Technology and Transition

       During the tedious process of packing for my 27 months of servce in Paraguay there were several items of personal technologhy that I deemed essential for my sanity as a Peace Corps volunteer. Along with a mountain of clothings for all types of weather I brought school supplies, medicine, and all sorts of various trinkets I felt I couldn´t live without. In that assortment of goods was also 2 cameras, 2 ipods, a laptop computer, and a Kindle. I never thought that I would end up bringing so much technology with me as I arrived here. To be honest, I had no idea what sort of technology would be common place here at all given my general lack of knowledge about Paraguayan culture prior to my arrival. The more time I spent here the more I realized that the technology deemed essential to me, and my life back in America, was also developing at a fairly rapid rate in Paraguay as well. Many high school students, especially those who live in larger towns, are exposed to computers at a young age. It is common place to see people around my neighborhood carrying around new Sony digital cameras to take pictures of their kids in parades or school events. The youth group I work with recently went on a trip to visit a cheese factory in another community. At the end of the tour we were taking pictures to put on the group´s Facebook page. I was about to take a picture with my black, 8-year-old Sony Cybershot, 5.1 megapixel, 3x zoom camera that I bought while doing an exchange program in Taiwan in high school, when one of the members of the group asked me to take a picture with his. As I took a look at his brand new Sony Cypershot, 12.1 megapixel camera with 12x zoom I thought to myself maybe the amount and quality of my technology isn´t something that people find unfamiliar.
       As I stood there taking pictures with a camera that was the great great grandon of the camera I was holding in my hand I started to think that I might be the one who was recieving the raw deal with the cost of personal technology. Since my arrival I have managed to break both cameras, one still works but the screen broke meaing I have to look through the view finder making my already old camera seem older. My Kindle made it through the first 4.5 books in the Game of Thrones series before succumbing to the elements, and most recently my beloved computer of 6 years that has been with me since before the beginning of college gave into the powers that be. To be fair, I probably could have done a better job of taking care of these important pieces of technology, but then I think to myself that being forced to ride on a standing only bus all over with a giant backpack would eventually cause too much ware and tear for even the most well put together object let alone a computer. In some ways I am sort of glad that those technologies aren´t at my disposal for a time. It gives me a chance to read a physical book, prevents me from checking my email and Facebook constantly, and gives me time to be a bit detached from the dependency I developed on technology. Still though, when I see members of the youth group jumping on their computers, listening to music on their cell phones, and taking pictures with their new cameras it makes me wonder if I am all that different then the average person here?
       It has taken some getting used to not having those links to the outside world.  Especially with the recent changes that have come to O´Leary over the past month. My closest neighbor outside O´Leary, Jimmy, left early to go to graduate school. Kristin finished her extension, and left at the end of July. Most recently, Mike said his goodbyes, and made it home this past weekend. Change is inevtibly expecially amoungst Peace Corps Volunteers. With a new group coming in every 4 months and another group leaving who's around what area is constantly changing. Lucky for me, Mike got a follow up volunteer named Robert, so while it will take some getting used to not having a computer and not having Mike, Kristin, and Jimmy around I have been able to spend time with Robert and with a lot more time with Paraguayan families who seem to sense that things around here are a bit different than they were just a month ago. While the last few weeks have been a challenge adjusting to a bunch of change I am at least able to keep busy. Not having as much access to technology has given me the chance to focus on some things around my house and projects around the community. Keeping busy has been important, and progress on things is steady. We recently finished planting 2,500 trees, have been able to continue the awesome childrens radio program Kristin started, and make steady progress on the trash project. Life is full of ups and downs and while there have been some pretty bigs downs there have also been some pretty big ups. Things sort of keep plugging along, and while it hasn´t been the smoothiest of sailing of late I think that is a normal part of the experience. Look for a new update at the beginning of September with details about progress of the various projects going on in O´Leary.
      

Paraguayan Cuisine

            A question that I get asked often from people back home is how’s the food there in Paraguay? That question can mean a number of different things to me depending on my state of mind at any given time. I think the best way to transition into a conversation about Paraguayan cuisine would be to first share a brief anecdote that happened to me last weekend. I had just gotten back to O’Leary after spending a period of time in Asuncion. For months this older couple named Armando and Augustina had been inviting me over for lunch. They have a kid, Francisco, who goes to the school, and during my time here I have developed a nice relationship with all three of them. The cool part about them is how long they have known about Peace Corps, and the amount of volunteers they have met or interacted with during their lives, so they have these really interesting insights into the challenges that come with living and working as a volunteer in the area. They have been friendly and have said on many occasions that if I need anything all I have to do is ask, so I guess my point in telling you all this is that it was far past time that I went to have lunch with them

            They told me to come over at 11 o’clock Saturday morning. I went over after my first solo radio show with a big appetite. They told me that they would be killing a pig, which for those of you who have never hear a pig squeal when it is being killed let me tell you that the sounds it makes are blood curdling to say the least. Despite the horrendous sounds that emanate from the pig during the brutal slaughter pork is easily the best tasting meat you can get on a regular basis. I arrived shortly after the pig was killed, but got a first hand look at the butchering process. Armando has been raising pigs his whole life, so the procedure went rather smoothly. I even got to take part in the shaving process, which needless to say was a first for me. Now at this point I’m thinking that we are going to be eating the choicer parts of the pig because why wouldn’t we? I should know better because after the pig was fully butchered I noticed that they had removed some less desirable parts earlier, so they could be cooked. When I was told the food was ready Augustina put a huge steaming pile of pig liver in front of me, and said “I hope you like pig liver.” Now I’ll admit that liver is not the worst thing in the world. On the contrary in certain circumstances it actually isn’t that bad. What killed me about this particular situation was that I had a plate that was overflowing with dark brown chewy liver that honestly looked like someone had defecated on my plate and added onions. To make matters more challenging is that Paraguayans rarely to never drink something while simultaneously eating, so if you are chewing on a bad piece, or you want to get the taste out of your mouth, tough luck you got suck it up until everyone finishes and the beverages are mercifully served. When it comes to liver, I tend to eat slowly because I can’t handle large spoonfuls. Not having the aid of a drink makes that strategy all the harder. Thankfully for me I was given a drink before I had to chomp on some of the chewier parts, but the initial plateful was enough to leave my stomach feeling a tad bit queasier than I am accustomed to. It was the first time that I had been consciously served pig liver, and now it joins the ranks with cow, chicken, duck, and horse. I would put it in the middle of the pack with regards to that list for no particular reason except that, as one of my Paraguayan friends recently said, “liver is liver no matter what kind of animal it comes from.”

            That situation got me thinking a lot about food here in Paraguay, and why people eat the things they do. If I had to break down Paraguayan food in 3 words it would be meat, heavy starch, and mandioca (yucca). Vegetables make appearances as finely chopped up morsels whose tastes are usually unrecognizable after the meal has been cooked to completion. Paraguay has a lot of fertil landthat is great for producing corn, wheat, beans and mandioca. Therefore the staple foods in here are usually some variation of the 4 with often time the least choice parts of whatever animal you are eating that day. It is no wonder that Paraguayan’s eat tripe, liver, animal heads, cow udder, and the toughest parts of beef humanly possible because meat here can be very expensive depending on the cut. If I wanted to buy 2 kilos (4.4 lbs) of pork chops that would cost me 22,000 Guaranis (about $5), which is a lot of money when you compare it to 2 kilos of mandioca at a measly 1,000 Guaranis a kilo ($0.22). That is a huge price difference when the average person makes about $380 a month (like I do). When you can get a week supply of pasta or rice for the price of enough pork to feed a family of 4 for a meal of course you are going to buy the cheaper cuts of meat like the liver. People can sell choice meat for a lot of money, eat the parts that don’t go for as much, and get in some cases more protein for less cost. This trend occurs for generations and people develop taste preferences that yours truly isn’t used to eating.

            When I was living with my family in O'Leary, I once asked my host brother Mathias what his top 5 favorite foods were. Here they are in ascending order beans, rice salad, the pizza that I had at the time made for him twice, grilled meat, and first fried cow stomach known hear as milanesa de mondungo. Cow stomach is one of the harsher things I have eaten here and probably my least favorite part of the cow that I have eaten to this point, but it is cheap to buy. If I was fed cow stomach once a week during my childhood I would probably like it too. I think with development comes an evolution in what becomes available to a society. I’m sure that Americans at the turn of the century were more accustomed to eating things that I was never exposed to. Does that mean they ate it throughout their lives as incomes rose and markets changed? I am sure in some cases it did, but I was not served steaming plates of liver and onions growing up and I am likely not going to buy liver at the supermarket when I get home. My grandmother on the other hand always tells me how much she likes chicken livers. Not many restaurants in America still have them, but every once in a while we would stumble across them. She would eat her fill while I can barely get one down. That was something she had growing up and still enjoys to this day sort of like how Paraguayan’s like their liver.

            It is funny to think about that from a development standpoint. If Paraguay keeps growing in wealth will the food change? My bet is it will, but not dramatically. As I said in the last entry Paraguay’s relative isolation in the world makes it difficult to have a large international import market. To get food diversity, infrastructure needs to expand to the point where it is easy to transport goods from the much larger Brazilian and Argentine economies. The fact remains that the largest international highway in Paraguay is only 2 lanes.  If I wanted to get to a major coastline it would take at least 18 hours by bus, so it is no mystery that there isn’t much diversity in people’s diets. What they have is cheap, what they don’t have is extremely expensive. For the record I admit I like a lot of Paraguayan foods. They strangely enough have a lot of pasta and every once and a while make gnocchi from scratch, something I haven’t seen any other country make outside of Italy, which Paraguay has little to no historical ties with.

Making Chipa Guasu sort of a greasy corn bread

            Most of the food is pretty bland overall probably due to the lack of spices native to the region, and the cost to import them. I am not the biggest fan of spicy food, so I have tended to shy away from anything too spicy during my life. That was until I came here, and saw what it really meant to not like spicy food. A bottle of hot sauce in Paraguay would be roughly equivalent to mild BBQ sauce in America. A shockingly high number of people consider ketchup spicy. Every family that I have interacted with tends to have a small bottle of “hot sauce” in the fridge that they’ll occasionally put a drop or two on their rice or empanadas. Any more then two drops and they look at you like you were just served a death sentence. When I lived with a family I would dump the mild sauce on most of my food to give the usually salty bland flavor of the dish as much of a kick as possible. The kids I lived with didn’t understand how I was able to eat after that. On several occasions I saw them spit up their food after putting one drop of the bland concoction on whatever they were eating. The same reaction can be seen with certain types of chewing gum. On several occasions I have received packages containing Dentyne Ice or Eclipse peppermint gum. I would often give it to the kids after they incessantly asked me for hours apiece. They all seemed to like the gum except for the 3-year-old Damian, who would fan his mouth while chewing as if he were trying to fan a fire in his mouth. I can’t recall one instance where he actually chewed the gum for a period of time longer than 5 seconds, but everyday he would ask me for more as if he didn’t remember the day before.

            To recap, Paraguayan meat can at time be a bit tough on the stomach. Food is pretty basic with most dishes containing high amounts of salt or sugar. Paraguayans hate spicy food, and consider what I would consider very bland as super spicy. There are many things, particularly the pastas that I find delicious, but there are a lot of things, like tripe, that I struggle with. Is Paraguay one of the tougher Peace Corps food countries? I’d say no, but lets just say I’m glad that I’m finally able to cook on my own.

Tourism in Paraguay

            Something that has struck me in the time since my last entry has been what makes Paraguay such a difficult country to develop large-scale tourism. I have felt on many occasions that while the potential for tourism, particularly eco-tourism, exists, many of the potential destinations within Paraguay lack many essential infrastructures, marketing, and most importantly international recognition initiatives. This topic sparked my interest of late because of my interaction with an American tourist who has been living and traveling across South America since December.
            The other week I was sitting at home and I got a phone call from another volunteer asking if I would mind hosting a backpacker named Alex for a few days as he headed towards Cuidad del Este. Naturally I said yes after I a brief conversation and I agreed to meet him at the bus stop in O’Leary at 3:30 on Friday. It was really interesting talking to another American my age that is not in Peace Corps about his perspective on Paraguay. Living here and doing the work that I do, at times, inhibits you from realizing the dramatic differences of other countries in South America.  Alex told me that he had been through Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, northern Argentina, and now Paraguay during his travels. For the most part he found Paraguay to be one of the more difficult country’s to travel in despite the fact that it isn’t the poorest. Some of the things he mentioned that really hit home for me were that the food is very basic likely due to the relative isolation Paraguay experiences from international commerce particularly because it is landlocked. He also mentioned that compared to the other places he had been traveling hotels were more expensive Paraguay. That comment caught me off guard for a minute, but then he explained that Paraguay doesn’t have a large amount of international travelers passing through outside of Argentineans and Brazilians, most whom are here on business rather than vacation. As a result, the amount of hostels outside of Asuncion and Cuidad del Este are extremely limited. With regards to travel, Paraguay doesn’t have a domestic supply of oil thus forcing it to import all of its oil from other countries principally Venezuela and Colombia. Since Paraguay no longer has any form of mass transit outside of busses, which require tons of fuel, the cost to travel long distances is much higher than poorer South American countries or very comparable to the costs one would find in wealthier nations like Chile or Argentina. The last thing that really struck me was how grateful he was that he stumbled across Peace Corps Volunteers in his time in Paraguay saying that it would have been next to impossible to see the travel opportunities that exist.

            I would say that the majority of the information I receive concerning places to see in Paraguay comes from word of mouth, or from recommendations by other volunteers. At times I’ll have a Paraguayan recommend a place to go, but the concept of a vacation where one goes to site see something of note far away is an expensive prospect for many Paraguayans. Even within O’Leary, where there is a beautiful lake that is relatively easy to access and convenient for people living out here to see, very few people can say they’ve been in their lifetimes even though it is so close. Alex expressed this point several times during his stay, emphasizing that without the recommendations of volunteers in different areas he would have had no idea where to go, how to get somewhere, or where he could find a place stay for cheap. I couldn’t agree more with that statement for several reasons, but principally what stands out to me about tourism and traveling in Paraguay is the general lack of information the outside world has on the unique places that exist here.

            It isn’t a surprise most people know little to nothing about Paraguay and what there is to see. Growing up I had the opportunity to travel to South America on several occasions with my family spending time in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, and Colombia. In all that time Paraguay never came up as a potential destination for our travels. When I received my invitation to join the Peace Corps the only things I knew about Paraguay was that it was landlocked, the capital is Asuncion, it is close to Yguazu falls, and that its world cup team made it to the quarter finals in 2010. Paraguay has no mountains, no ocean, 66% of the landmass is in the sparsely populated and rugged Chaco, which is essentially a vast wasteland too rough for farming with no natural resources. The national parks are not internationally well known, there is massive deforestation in many of the remaining areas where wildlife thrives, and the eastern part of the country is noted for being a dangerous area because of the drug trade. On paper it seems to be one of the most tourist unfriendly places on earth, but since I have been here I am constantly amazed by the amount of things there actually are to see. If it hadn’t been for Peace Corp, I don’t think I would have made it to Paraguay for the reasons listed above, but living here has given me the opportunity to go off the beaten path and recognize that every country in the world has places where you can be amazed by what you see. To this point in my service I have been fortunate to see many of those places most of which one would not be able to find in any guidebook about South America.

Salto Monday

            As I mentioned, recognition of Paraguay’s travel opportunities is very limited. I have only come across one book that is exclusively a travel guide to the sites in Paraguay. Most books are limited it to 15 pages emphasizing the major cities and certain areas outside of them principally the Itaipu dam and the Jesuit Ruins. A big reason for that is the lack of infrastructure that would provide access to many areas that could attract tourists. For example, to get to the lake Yguazu close to where I live one would have to get off bus on the largest highway in Paraguay, only 2 lanes, walk 3 km down a main road, turn left at a very small sign that indicates the entrance to the lake, and walk another 1.5 km down an even smaller dirt path to get to the lake. That is just one example of the travel challenges. Recently I went on a trip with Mike’s youth group to Salto Monday (Monday Falls) near Cuidad del Este. Using the funds the group had raised we contracted a guy who owned a van to take us to the falls. On the way we managed to get lost on several occasions even though Salto Monday is a well-known waterfall in the area. We ended up driving through more than a few residential neighborhoods, and asked 3 different people how to get there. We repeated this trend again on the way back. Once we got there it was amazing how nice the waterfall and the small park surrounding it was. There was a well built ticket both, the cost was a little over a dollar to get in, there was a good looking observation deck, a snack bar, and tons of old trees that provided plenty of shade for the numerous benches that were put in throughout. It was by no means the biggest waterfall in the world, but it was still impressive. The problem though was getting there. If we didn’t have the driver I don’t think we would have been able to make it. I’ve heard there are busses that pass by, but no one seemed to know what the bus is called, where it leaves from, or the times it eaves. It took a fairly decent chunk of change for us to get privately driven there, so it is no wonder that people from all over Paraguay don’t go out of their way to see it.

            Another relatable example is the trek to see Salto Cristal (Glass Falls) located close to the Japanese Colony La Colmena. In order to get there one has to travel to the city of Villarica (Rich Village), which is roughly a 3.5-hour bus ride from both Asuncion and Cuidad del Este. They then have to catch another bus to La Colmena, which is about an hour from Villarica. Once in La Colmena you have to find someone who operates a taxi service to take you to the area where the falls are. Once you get there you have to walk down an extremely steep rock face. If you manage to survive your there and it’s awesome, but the trek is challenging for anyone particularly if you are coming to Paraguay as a tourist. I have been to both places, but would have never thought to go to either place if it wasn’t for my interactions with other Peace Corps Volunteers. Additionally, both are not as well known as they should be, and both are very difficult to get to both physically and financially. While many of the coolest site to see in Paraguay are like Salto Monday and Cristal there are a couple of notable exceptions of places that are internationally known. Itapu Dam and the Jesuit Ruins are both famous places that are recognized as attractions beyond the immediate region. However, a large reason for those differences is the influx of money and more international acknowledgment that has come as a result overshadow many of the other cool tourist spots like Salto Monday and Cristal, which are both lacking substantial funding and promotion.

Itaipu

            Itaipu Dam, meaning the sound of a stone in Guarani because of the sound it makes when water is running through the causeways of the dam, is one of the world’s largest dams, and is the world’s largest dam, according to Wikipedia, in terms of annual energy generation. It is located on the Paraná River in between Brazil and Paraguay. The amount of energy produced by the dam exceeds the energy demands for the entire country of Paraguay meaning the excess power is sold to Brazil and Argentina. The energy produced by the dam is the single largest individual source of capital for the Paraguayan government. As a result the dam has received widespread international attention including its recognition as one of the 7 wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Engineers in 1995. With credentials like that it is no wonder that the dam is an attraction to behold in Paraguay. Itaipu also has a foundation that will bus students from different schools to the dam for a tour at no cost to the school. Many people, particularly ones around me, have seen the dam for that reason. It is also one of the things many people mentioned as something I might want to see down here before I left America. Itaipu is a very modern marvel, but Paraguay also has a rich history of Jesuit missions during colonial times that especially within the last 20 years have also garnered a lot of international attention.

Trinidad de Paraná

Trinidad de Paraná

            Commonly referred to as the Jesuit Reductions because of the Spanish Empire’s desire to break down the power of the various indigenous groups in the region so they could Christianize, tax and govern them effectively during the 17^th a-18^th centuries, there are 4 notable sites within Paraguay where people can see the ruins of the missions, 2 of which, the Jesuit Missions of La Santísima Trinidad de Paraná and Jesús de Tavarangue, have been listed as UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Culture Organization) World Heritage Sites. As a result of the designation many archeological teams from across the world have spent time excavating the ruins. Along with the excavation large amounts of money have been contributed by the government of Spain, the Paraguayan industry of tourism called SENATUR, and a variety of NGO’s. On the grounds of the ruins there is a visitor center, small museums, tour guides in Spanish and Guarani, and a series of spotlights for night visits. It costs 25 thousand Guarani’s for a ticket (roughly $6.50), and visitors have the option of renting bikes for a day or half day to ride the 12 KM distance between the 2 locations of the different missions. Hands down the ruins are the most well organized and preserved relics of Paraguay’s colonial past. I was amazed by how interesting and impressive the ruins were when I visited. I have been fortunate enough to see a number of World Heritage Sites around the world, so my expectations for the ones here were pretty low at first. I couldn’t have been more wrong. The ruins themselves illustrate the complex history of Paraguay and provide fascinating insight into the many cultural aspects that still exist today.

Jesús de Tavarangue

            All in all I guess I’m coming to the corny conclusion that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Sadly Paraguay doesn’t have many written books whose covers can be judged, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t many fascinating place to see if you just take the time to dig a little deeper into what’s at the end of those country roads. If you’re interested in learning a bit more about tourism opportunities in Paraguay, or reading more about the topics I discussed the following is a list to a few links that might be of interest:

   1.     http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/648

   2.     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itaipu_Dam

   3.     http://www.turismo.com.py/

   4.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqHlMiHDKkk

Disney Grant and Saying Goodbye

            Early on in my time here I wrote an entry about the garbage dump in O’Leary, and what a struggle it is for the community to manage. Around that time I received an email from one of my bosses that had a link to an application for a $1,000 grant for environmental youth projects in Latin America. The grant was through a program called Amigos por el Mundo, a philanthropic branch of the Disney Company. The application was pretty lengthy, and took a lot of time to complete. The hardest part was that Mike and I had absolutely no idea what they money would go towards? Some of the examples of previous projects included things like buying trees or water resource cleanup initiatives. Having already finished the solicitation for our tree-planting project, only 250 left now that I mention it, we were pretty stumped. We thought of doing a recycling project, but the logistics of that were challenging because we weren’t sure who could buy and transport the recycled materials to a recycling plant the closest one being an hour away. We thought of making a playground out of recycled materials as well, but felt we lacked the expertise, and had no idea how we could spend $1,000 for that kind of project. However, that train of thought pushed us to take a closer look at the garbage situation in O’Leary as a whole.

Jóvenes Emprendedores with some of their Sponsors

            A couple of the members of Jóvenes Enprendedores are the children of the Secretary of the Municipality of O’Leary. On several occasions he had mentioned something about trash management and the dump, but considering the amount of money needed to make a significant change to the way the dump is operated ruled out the idea of making the dump more environmentally friendly. I am not sure who mentioned it, but after about a week of brainstorming we sort of combined aspects of all the ideas to create our project called “O’Leary Verde.” The idea was to use the money towards the purchase of 21 metal garbage bins that would go around the town, and would be collected by the trash pickup service. We would also build 6 recycling bins that have separate containers for metal, plastic, and paper to be put in front of major institutions in the town like the schools, the municipality, and the local community college. We also recognized that plastic bags are the biggest challenge in keeping the trash at bay within the community. We figured if we made cloth grocery bags that the local grocery stores could distribute after a purchase of a certain amount that maybe we could get people to bring their reusable bags more than the plastic ones. That is an idea that has grown pretty popular in the states, but in Paraguay it hasn’t quite reached that level because of how useful plastic bags can be for things other than carrying groceries. Who knows if it will actually work, but it seems like a win win for both the grocery stores who won’t have to spend as much money buying plastic bags, and for the consumers not having a massive surplus in their homes that too often then not end up somewhere in the streets or fields. We also had plans to do a community wide clean up and make t-shirts as incentive in participating. Lastly, we said that we would get local support by asking the group’s sponsors to participate by donating money, resources, or volunteering, on the days we are doing clean ups or presentations in the schools.

            We spent a lot of time writing the application and getting it checked over. We submitted it around mid April and were told that we would find out in the beginning of June. Well, the beginning of June came and went and we were still missing a response either one way or the other. I had pretty much put the idea out of my head that we were going to get it. Then on the 29^th of June around 11:30 at night we got an email confirming that we had been one of the projects selected to receive the $1,000. I couldn’t believe it! I knew we had a shot, but had no idea how competitive it was going to be. The celebration was sweet, but kind of short lived because now comes the hard part of getting the actually project from paper to reality. This isn’t going to be easy whatsoever mainly because we have to have it totally finished by September 30^th. Mike will be leaving on August 19^th, which leaves little time for us to collaborate with each other. I hope we can get most of it done before he leaves, but I know that is going to be a challenge given the time needed to get all the materials together. The good news is that we won, and the kids in the youth group seem really excited about the opportunity. I am sure there will be plenty more to talk about this in the future, but for now we are just happy at the opportunity.

            That is what is going on in the work world for now. All the schools in Paraguay are now on winter vacation, which means no school for 2 weeks. In some ways I am happy about that considering all the upcoming work we have with the O’Leary Verde project, but I still am struggling to hit my stride when it comes to a consistent schedule at the school. I am teaching English, doing supplementary work with the garden, and ramping up the library project. Nevertheless, all those projects haven’t occupied my full attention since coming to site. Recently I did have a really successful presentation about my ideas for the library secession with Claudio, which is leading towards a grant application. The school has started doing work to prepare the empty building on the school grounds to make it part tool shed and part library. There are numerous organizations that I can solicit to donate books, but a few of them don’t pay for shipping, so that is where the grant comes in. I will be sure to mention more about this in the future, but for now it is just nice that the community is on board. I’ll have plenty of time over the next few weeks to work on the grant, and collaborate with Kristin who sadly is leaving the 29^th of this month.

            In the meantime I still struggle with my house. A few weeks ago I woke up to find that there was a dead cat in my kitchen that had frozen to death. It wasn’t fun getting it out of the house one bit. Of late, I have come to discover the many intricacies of my water pump. It will not pump water when it is too hot, sometimes it won’t pump anything for days until I pull in all the way out of the well then lower it back it. When it does flow it is at a very slow rate that takes a long time to fill the tank. The most frustrating problem of being a homeowner in Paraguay has unquestionably been my electricity. The best word to describe the system is shoddy. 2 wires with metal hooks are attached to the main power line that runs down the small road close to where I live. They are about 9 meters up in the air, which means every time there is a strong gust of wind, a truck, or frankly whenever wants to it goes out. That means I take a 10-meter bamboo poll to the road to fiddle with the wires in order to reestablish the connection. It is quite the site to see, and when I first moved into my house every time it happened I would have to get a neighbor to help me out. That was until I actually saw what they were doing, and realized I could do the same. There have been many occasions that I have tried to make the connection secure, but I always run into the same problem. No one has a ladder tall enough to make it stay better. It is really frustrating that I cannot seem to figure out how to make the connection more stable. Maybe someone can help me out one of these days, but until then I sort of just have to deal with it.

            My personal garden is making slow progress as well. Due to a lack of time I have spent far less time than I would want to building the fence and planting the things in my garden. I am not too far from completing the fence, but I still have about a third left before I can successfully finish it. Overall, things are good. The only sad stuff comes from the departure of my site mates Kristin and Mike who will both be gone by mid August. There is a chance that Mike will get a follow up volunteer for his community especially because of the recent developments with the Disney grant, but it won’t be the same at all without them. The coming realization that 2 people close to you are leaving has been one of the most challenging parts of my service thus far. The ability to walk to fellow volunteer’s house, speak in English, and collaborate on projects is amazing. It has made my first 6 months in site seem like it went by in the blink of an eye. I’ll probably have more opportunities to write about stuff before they leave, but I think seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of their service is crazy to me. I am sure I will go through a similar series of emotions when I am in their shoes, but for now I am sort of just plugging along. I still have a long time left to complete my service, so I wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors. 

Parading, San Juan, Campo Communities, and my Birthdday

       On June 13^th I completed 25% of my service. For me, that feels like a huge milestone when I think about everything that has happened in that time. Since I last wrote a ton of things have happened, but for whoever reads this entry I would like you to keep in mind that almost everything I am about to write about has in someway, shape, or form convinced me that 2 years is hardly enough time to enact noticeable changes within my community and beyond.

            On June 12^th Paraguay celebrates Paz del Chaco commemorating the signing of the peace treaty that ended the Chaco War fought between Bolivia and Paraguay from 1932-1935 over the arid, sparsely populated region called the Chaco. The Chaco makes up roughly 67% of Paraguay’s area, but only contains about 3% of its population. Despite being outnumbered Paraguay managed to win the war that was primarily motivated because of oil speculation in the region. As it turns out, the Chaco contains no oil at all and the war, at least from a contemporary perspective, seems to have been fought for nothing other than pride. Despite the history of the war and the reasons that it started, it is still a national holiday that people celebrate, at least in O’Leary, by closing all government offices and holding a giant parade that students, teachers, government employees, and any other body that wants to participate can march in. I was pretty excited to see what the fuss about. Having marched in my share of parades campaigning for local politicians in Cincinnati I was eager to compare my experiences.

            Now parades in America, particularly Memorial Day and the 4^th of July, tend to have big floats, cars, and tons of candy. It comes off as something that is supposed to be fun for both the marchers and the people watching. I was trying to explain what parades are like in the states to a couple of high school kids, Denis and Roberto, over dinner one night. I asked them what they did in the parade? Roberto was much more eager than Denis in explaining that each practices the proper marching steps during the weeks proceeding, and lines up according to their title in the school or institution carrying wither a flag or a sign indicating the name of the group that follows. His explanation of how things were going to happen the next day, to me, seemed very rigid, highly organized, and definitely missing candy. I then asked if it was fun? A simple question that I felt warranted a honest response. Roberto held up his had twisting it back and forward and said “Sí más o menos” (Yes, more or less). Denis on the other hand had a look of mild displeasure after he heard Roberto’s response and simply replied “no.” That had me laughing pretty hard, so I was really excited to see what it was all about the next morning when I went to the parade. When I arrived, I ran into Julio who had a look that can only be described as anguish on his face. I asked him if he liked the parades, and the look I got from him seemed to say “would you like to do this if you had to do it twice a year every year for your entire professional career?” When I thought it like that I saw his point rather clearly. The parade lasted for about an hour, and unsurprisingly started an hour late. Precision was key and the marchers were sharply dressed wearing their finest outfits, as the pictures will hopefully indicate. The thing that made me think that the parade was more hoopla than anything else was when the majority of people would leave after their son or daughter passed by. That indicated to me not too many people cared about the meaning of the parade and just wanted to get it over and done with. I had a great time, and as luck would have it wasn’t the only unique tradition that I would see in the month of June.

Kambás

           On the 22^nd, at my school, the school put on the annual San Juan Festival. It took me most of the day and a good portion of the evening to understand the significance of the festival, so I think the most effective way to tell this story will be to write what I saw then describe the meanings of it all afterwards. I walked over to the school around 8:30. Again, I had no idea what to expect. I noticed that the teachers and some parents were cooking food, a giant 10 meter tall log covered in pig fat, a scarecrow filled with fireworks, a suspended hoop wrapped in oil soaked cloths, and a cow skull attached to a rickety wooden frame with oil soaked cloth horns. Confusion was setting in pretty quickly. As the morning progressed I noticed that a large portion of the 5^th-6^th graders were dressed in frayed clothing with horrifying masks and empty bottles of caña. I learned that they were the Kambás, whose jobs, from what I could deduce, were to run around scaring the all the smaller kids. Around 10, the festivities, or should I say pyrotechnics, started. The first activity was the ring of fire, where the aforementioned oil soaked suspended ring was lit on fire, with a little added help from gasoline, and the Kambás took turns diving through the ring. There was a sack race right before the bull candle where 2 of the Kambás grabbed hold of the wooden frame as its horns were lit on fire and chased everyone around the school. Then someone lit a cloth ball on fire that the kids kicked around until it was extinguished. They broke a ceramic vase that was filled with candy and mandioca flower, which is supposed to celebrate a peasant wedding. Following that they burned the effigy by dousing it in gasoline. It went up in seconds, and thankfully didn’t too much damage to the electrical connection given that it was hanging right next to the electrical cables that provide power to the school.

Judas

Greased Poll

            The icing on the cake was the poll climb where the kids try to shimmy up a 10-meter poll that is insufficiently stuck in the ground to try to claim the prizes of candy, chips, and soda. Sadly, the kids were unable to climb the poll despite climbing on top of one another for the better part of an hour. Instead, the shook the poll down and swarmed after the candy. While all this was going on the parents were making food too sell and watching the festivities. I have to say that I have never seen anything quite like it, and kept thinking to myself the whole time what a crazy tradition this is. To make things crazier, nobody seemed to know exactly where the traditions started or the exact reason for the celebration. I was able to deduce a few things about the celebration by going online and asking a few of the teachers at the school, but I am still quite in the dark as to how it evolved into what I witnessed the other day. Through those inquires I figured out that the celebration has something to do with St. John’s Day and the summer solstice, but because Paraguay is in the southern hemisphere that doesn’t quite make sense. I did figure out that the burning of the effigy is supposed to be Judas, but that was the only thing I could get consensus on from Paraguayans. In the evening I went to another San Juan Festival at the big elementary school in town. It was essentially the same thing except with a lot more people and a lot of booze. Instead of having candy on top of the poll they had caña and money. People were pretty drunk, especially the Kambás, so it had a very different feel than the one at my school. If your interested in reading more there is a good Wikipedia article in Spanish, but can be translated into English if you use Google Chrome as your web browser, that explains how the Guarani customs and culture here has made the San Juan festival in Paraguay: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiesta_de_San_Juan#Paraguay.

Land Bridge

            Changing subjects completely, I recently had the chance to go out and visit the site of my friend Jimmy Henderson. Jimmy sector is crop extension and he lives in a very small rural community, campo in Spanish, called Zapallo (Squash). Unlike Jimmy, I live in sort of a semi-campo site. It’s not a city, but I have easy access to supermarkets and most enmities. Jimmy lives about 3 KM of the main highway that forces anyone visiting him to cross a land bridge, which depending on the amount of rain, is submerged for about a 150 meter distance. I have visited Jimmy twice since I moved to O’Leary. The first time I had to walk about 5 meters across a submerged log with all my stuff on my back to get to the end of the dock. That was during a huge drought, so the bridge was mostly above the surface. However, with the winter came the rains, and despite the local municipality’s best efforts to make a more stable bridge, Mother Nature had different plains. Always an exciting trip while I was walking there I had a couple of kids ask me how to say Mickey Mouse in English. That question got me thinking about the differences between Zapallo and my barrio in O’Leary. Both sites speak a lot of Guaraní, and both are close to the highway, but despite how close they are to each other geographically, only about a 10-minute bus ride and an hour walk, the level of development and the town identity are utterly different.

            The further off the highway one goes the more Guaraní you are likely to hear. Where I live people speak a good mix of both, so I can get by on either, but in Jimmy’s site it is Guaraní or bust. People really struggle with Spanish, and it was quite challenging to talk to people there during my visit. The reason I went in the first place was to help him with an art camp at a very small school that sits on the banks of a gorgeous lake. I was in charge of balloon art and mask making. It was shockingly difficult for me to explain in words what I wanted the kids to do, so I just showed them. Other activities included macaroni art, bench panting, and leaf tracing. It turned out to be a great day, but it is very evident that the location of the school and the community limits its accessibility to resources. They get supplies and learning materials months after they are supposed to and sometimes not at all. People grow their food, build whatever they need to build, and are pretty self-reliant. The richest guy in town seems to be the police officer because he has the nicest house and is the only one who drives a car instead of an oxcart. Despite it’s poverty, Zapallo is easily the prettiest place I have been in Paraguay. There are rolling hills that flow into a stunningly expansive lake. There are fruit trees all along the main paths of the town, and fields that seemingly go on forever. I could sit here and knit pick about the problems of the town, but I think it is important to recognize that while there are many places like Zapallo throughout Paraguay that have many challenges with isolation, lack of resources, and general poverty, it is those places that most effectively illustrate the identity of the Paraguayan landscape. It amazes me how dissimilar it is from my home in O’Leary despite the proximity. Then I think that just 20 years ago where I live now was probably a lot like Zapallo and that the only difference was the influx of commerce associated with the international highway that flows through O’Leary. If that road had somehow gone through Zapallo, wouldn’t I have been writing the same thing just with the towns reversed? I think this is the first time in my life that I have been able to see how economic development impacts communities in the developing world first hand, and the rate in which it happens is quite amazing.

            To change subjects completely again, on June 19^th I celebrated my 24th birthday, the first one I have celebrated in Paraguay. I had the pleasure of having the celebration during my 6^th month training secession that Peace Corps calls Project Design Management (PDM). I have to be honest when I say that I was not looking forward to celebrating my actual birthday during PDM. I really struggled trying to find someone who wanted to go, and when I finally did I was already mentally worn out before we even left. Essentially, PDM is a way for volunteers to demonstrate to a community contact the steps in making an idea into a reality. I was able to take my good friend Claudio, who is a 17-year-old high school student who is going to graduate in November. Aside from being one of the few kids his age in my barrio, he is highly motivated and very hard working. Together the 2 of us went to a Peace Corps sponsored library workshop, and in the month since have been planning to put a small community library at the school that I work at. Although we had already done our own project design for the library, it was really nice to have the chance to show Claudio the step by step process of recognizing an opportunity, identifying the needs, ways to involve the community, the implementation, and the evaluation that goes into many of the projects that volunteers do. That in and of itself was a rewarding enough present for a birthday, but it is a bit boring and if you know me at all you’ll know that I wasn’t about to be content with a good feeling for my birthday.

            Over the previous few weeks to make things a bit more fun for my birthday I had encouraged all my friends who wanted to buy me something to make sure that every gift given was bought on a bus. That may seem like a ridiculous request except for the fact that Paraguayan busses are regular convenience stores with everything from fresh fruit to DVD’s on sale. While riding busses I have seen cooking oil, socks, fingernail clippers, CD’s, toys, books, cookies, glass bottle soda, sandwiches, porno, and scolding hot cocido all sold. There are many theories as to why so many items are sold on busses, but the answer that I seem to find the most believable is that people selling things on buses can buy goods wholesale avoiding taxation to then resell on the busses for double the wholesale price, but cheaper than a supermarket that has to pay tax on all goods. It makes the busses a regular black-market for daily household needs. True to my request all the gifts I got were purchased on a bus and included: a child’s toy helicopter that has wheels and a handle attached to a plastic stick that you push along the ground its tongue to stick out, a plastic dog whose head bobs up and down when you move it or touch it’s head, a half eaten pastry, a small bottle of caña, and a pack of cookies. All the gifts were wonderful in their own special way and I couldn’t have been happier when everyone at the workshop sang Happy Birthday first in Guaraní, I didn’t understand a word, and then in English. It was a great birthday and has been a crazy couple of weeks. Upcoming I have a presentation about the library to give in front of the parents commission at my school, a potential biodigester project that would create sustainable fuel for a local farmer, and a 4^th of July celebration in June, so look for another update soon.

Living Poor

            At the suggestion of my site mate Kristin, I recently started reading a book entitled Living Poor A Peace Corps Chronicle by Moritz Thomsen. I had no idea who Moritz Thomsen was until I managed to get a copy of his book at the Peace Corps Technical library in Asuncion when I was there last week. I’ll be sure to get into the book in detail a bit later, but I wanted to start off by saying that this book is unquestionably the most accurate account of a Peace Corps Volunteers experience that I have come across to date. If you had to classify the book I would say that it is sort of a biographical account of this man’s experience as an Agriculture Extension Volunteer in the small costal community of Río Verde Ecuador from 1965-69. Moritz Thomsen was a 48-year-old, single, farmer from California who one day decided to join the Peace Corps. Admittedly, there are many differences given the 45 year time period since the start of his service and mine, including the training, way more intense back then, how one finds a site, they basically were given a region and told to go find work on their own, and the ability to communicate. For some those might seem as though the experiences in no way could find commonality with all the 21^st century technology that the average volunteer now has access too, but what makes this book remarkable is how despite the different country, language, climate, resource availability, and time period his interactions with people and the struggles he faced when trying to live in his community have uncanny parallels with my own situation.

            Peace Corps Volunteers, in most situations not all, today have significantly more assets at their disposal than the volunteers that came before, but if you put aside all the bells and whistles of the current times and boil the job down to its most fundamental levels one finds that the people to people interactions are still the foundation of any successful service. The support of a community and the need to depend on the people around you transcends when you served or where you served. I think that all volunteers struggle to enact real mentality changes and living practices regardless of ones contact to the outside world. This is not because the areas where many of us live are in community’s that have not changed drastically for long periods of time. The habits, customs, economic climate evolve over time, but extraordinarily slowly. Getting people to change those habits or try something new is something that will always be taken with a grain of salt by the people within because the whether you are a first time volunteer in your site or a 5^th you are still a foreigner that has never lived in that community or in most cases that country. How am I suppose to know what’s best? I realize that comes of sort of cynical, but those are the fundamental challenges that I struggle with on a day-to-day basis. Each culture and community has his or her own identities within the context of the society at large. Juan E. O’Leary is just one example of a small community like Río Verde. Granted the level of poverty is drastically different, but the engrained ideals and internal struggles are astonishingly similar.

            There is a particular scene in Living Poor that has stood out to me recently given my current work in the school garden. Basically, Thomsen wants to plant gardens in people’s individual houses so they diversify their diet and get essential nutrients that their daily meals lack. The people of Río Verde subsist, when they are unable to get anything from the sea, on plantains, yucca, rice, beans, or potatoes. Not a lot of nutrients in those foods. Thomsen decides to plant a garden in his house, in the dry season, to demonstrate how easy it is to do. He gets into trouble because he runs out of water in his rain barrel and is forced to purchase water that is brought from another place. He rations his water and is able to get the garden going successfully, but despite all that he is still stuck in getting people to follow his example. Thomsen writes, “to my disappointment there was no rush to plant a garden after mine turned out so beautiful. The sad fact is that hardly anyone liked radishes, chard, or squash.” He goes on to describe a particular garden that he helped start with a school out in the jungle:

"The problem was that most of the vegetables were strange to people. The radishes were like tennis balls…The eggplants were enormous, but no one knew what they were for…The summer squash, too, had reached its peak a month before and was now quite inedible. The string beans were dead and drying on the vines. I argued with Oswaldo [a school teacher] for five minutes about the necessity of harvesting the beans when they were young and tender, but when he realized that the whole bean was suppose to be eaten he simply refused to listen to me. ‘This is a civilized country,’ he told me ‘Here we only eat the good part, the heart of the fruit’”

After I read those passages I could help but reflect on my gardening situation. While the idea of starting a garden is far less crazy here than it was in 1960s costal Ecuador,  I frequently run into the same problems with when to plant my own garden. I tried to plant a garden during the summer. I was told it wouldn’t work not only by Paraguayans, but also by Peace Corps, but I didn’t care, I just wanted something to do so I could show the people around me that I wasn’t totally useless. Needless to say, the garden was an utter failure. The few things that came up died because of the heat, and no amount of water could fix that. It was a classic example of how I thought something could be done easily, but proved to be much more difficult than I expected. For Thomsen, he tried to start gardening projects shortly after the success of his garden with people in the community, but like the scorching summer sun here, the rainy season in Ecuador washed all the gardens away. People told him this would likely happen, but he didn’t believe that it couldn’t be done because of a bit of rain.

            I also find the struggles he experienced with getting people to try new foods extremely challenging as well. Here in Paraguay, like in Ecuador, yucca, or mandioca as it is known here, is a principal foodstuff that is served with every meal. Rice, beans, corn meal based foods, and in recent decades pasta are also staples. It is very rare to eat something that is immediately recognizable as a vegetable. In all the soups, pastas, and rice dishes the vegetables are cut up so finely that you need a microscope to find them. They are also not used in abundance, 1 tomato, 1 pepper, half an onion, 1 carrot are the norms if people have them at all. There are salads, principally made out of cabbage, but they often add copious amounts of mayonnaise that greatly diminishes the nutritional value. Eating an uncooked carrot is unheard of; making a salad like we would eat in America is crazy. I know kids hate their vegetables no matter where someone is from, but here the same seems to go for everybody. People know it is important to use vegetables, but cannot seem to implement them in new ways.

            This past weeks gardening activity I did at the school was a prime example of what Thomsen talked about. I was able to get a series of vegetable seeds about a month ago from a national newspaper called ABC Color. They give packets of 10 types of vegetable seeds to schools that write a solicitation letter. Most of the seeds are things that are commonly grown or eaten, like carrots, tomatoes, and onions, but there are a few like radishes, broccoli, and cauliflower that people simply don’t know anything about. On Friday, I spent some time with both the 5^th and 6^th grades going over what broccoli and cauliflower are and they ways we can eat them. Nobody, including the teachers had any idea how to eat in or foods you can use them in. The funny part is that the parent’s commission planted every single vegetable seed they were familiar with, with the exception of a few I asked them to save, and left the broccoli and cauliflower seeds alone to have me plant. I can only imagine what we are going to do when they actually come up, but something tells me that they won’t be the most popular vegetable grown in the garden.           

            My experience with the garden is just one of the analogous parallels that I have found within Thomsen’s book and my own experience. Another one that struck me recently is related to physical health and diet. Modern medicine has grown leaps and bounds since Thomsen lived his experience. In O’Leary there are multiple pharmacies with easy access to whatever medicine one needs. We are not limited by location, nor are we extremely isolated like some of my other volunteer friends are in their sites. With that being said, I still marvel at people’s general well being. Ever since motorcycles became affordable and abundant the obesity rate in Paraguay has grown exponentially. People are eating the same foods in the same proportions, but are no longer forced to walk to work, the store, or wherever. You can just hop on the moto and go. While this is great in terms of the flow of business and general economic growth it has profound impacts on individuals health.

Thomsen tells the story of a young baby girl who is the daughter of one of his closest friends. She is constantly sick, and is severely malnourished. He is constantly harping on the importance of improving her diet so she can get the nutrients she needs to be healthy. Specifically, if the family made and fed her orange juice, she would be able to maintain a steady degree of health. The famil,y instead of listening to Thomsen’s suggestions, would feed her natural herbs when she fell ill rather than treating the blatant malnutrition problem preventatively. I have run across this same problem with my contact and friend Julio, who I lived with my first 4 months here.

 Julio is overweight. He knows it, I know it, and his wife and kids know it. Therefore it is no surprise that he has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart problems. During the first month I was in O’Leary I went on a trip to Cuidad del Este, Paraguay’s second largest city, to visit the regional hospital for government employees. After taking a cat scan the cardiologist told Julio that he needed to lose weight immediately to lower his cholesterol. He immediately started to walk around the house at night for about a half an hour, a task that left him very winded and exhausted by the end. I continued to live with him in the months after he went to the doctor, and would occasionally comment on his diet as a contributor to his health. I would suggest cutting back on the oil in the cooking, stop drinking soda at meals, and limit your portions. The response back was normally a blank stare. I did notice that he was loosing some weight, but I couldn’t tell if it was a result of him working construction jobs for a month in Cuidad del Este, or if it was because of a new diet and workout regiment. I wanted to believe the later, but I knew it was the former.

Once school started he went back to the way he was before. Despite the fact that the school is a 2 km walk that can be done in 20 minutes he was still always on his motorcycle. I noticed no real changes in diet, and sure enough he got really sick recently prompting the doctor to prescribe more medication with a reemphasis on diet and exercise. If he made some simple changes in how he lived like walking to school, or being more conscience about his diet, he could probably resolve the majority of his health problems. This realization could be said about almost anyone anywhere in the world that struggles with obesity. However, the difference here is that, unlike in America, ones options are limited by the resources available. People are not accustomed to diet and exercise regiments seen in America. Going for a jog is weird, eating a salad with just vegetables is crazy, and walking to work when you can hop on a moto is insane. These are just some of the societal differences I’ve noticed. Obviously malnutrition vs. obesity is quite different and is a product of the times, but the individual’s responses are similar. Long-term consequences are rarely visualized and the way people seem to look at their problems is almost exclusive viewed in the present. I hope Julio realizes that, but it is also a learning process for me. I guess it is just tough seeing a friend go through all that when the situation is very preventable.

            Needless to say reading Living Poor has had an indelible influence on how I think about my challenges of late. I just cannot seem to get over how much of what he wrote is somehow reflected in my own writings and experiences. It has really made me think about the work I am doing and the people I am doing it with. I’ll be sure to write a bit more about my recent work in the next update, but until then I encourage anyone who wants to read a great book that tells it like it is to pick up a copy of Living Poor A Peace Corps Chronicle by Moritz Thomsen.