Back to Bolivia and Life in the Campo

Almost a year after our sudden evacuation from Bolivia, I returned to visit my highland home in July with Dan, a fellow Paraguayan PCV. Beginning with a 23-hour bus ride from Asuncion to Santa Cruz (we whiled away the hours reading, sleeping and watching a showing of "The Jackal" in Spanish), we spent three weeks making our way northwest by bus. We spent a few days in my ex-site Sopachuy, of course, and I explained to many of my old pals what I couldn't in the two hours I had on September 11, 2008 to pack my things and bounce: That Peace Corps had been evacuated from Bolivia, I had been living for the past 10 months in Paraguay, and yes, it is very hot there. We were furnished beds and blankets at the Cooperativa San Jose Obrero, ate meals with my friend Valentina and made a bonfire with my old buddies Jorge and Marcelino. I had been nervous about visiting Sopachuy again, because of the sudden way things went down last year, but I found my pueblo and its people as inviting and generous as ever. The beekeeping group, unfortunately, is in rather dire straits because of the departure of its leadership, myself and the Association's president and best beekeeper, Don Valerio, who left to work in Argentina. The group, whose development spanned the service of 3 volunteers over almost 4 years, was relatively strong during my time there, and the goal during my two years had been to leave the group in a state of self-sufficiency (not in need of a PCV's services for training, organization and marketing). In 4 1/2 months, I did not get this done. But the hives are still there in the apiary, the bees are working as diligently as ever, and despite the group's setbacks I still feel that more good than harm was done by Peace Corps in Sopachuy. So that's enough, I guess. I left Sopachuy promising I'd be back again after I finish my service next April. (! Can you believe that?)

It was all tourism from there: We visited the gorgeous Salaar Uyuni, a 12,000 square kilometer salt flat, a seemingly endless white desert, so bright that you must wear sunglasses during the day so as not to scorch your eyes. Then we bussed up to La Paz, hiked through the Takesi Trail (part of the pre-Colombian Inca Trail which curves fearlessly through the Andes), and visited the famous Lake Titicaca. By the end of the three weeks we had spanned the diagonal length of Bolivia, which is the size of Texas and California combined. We left tired, content and with our spirits filled by that beautiful place. (Dan also left with giardia, in retrospect we probably ought not to have drunk that river water when we were camping, but no pain, no gain...)

Now it's back to Paraguay, and back to work. The youth group I'm working with will hopefully soon receive classes in carpentry and ironworking from the Nacional Professional Promotion Service; our modest beekeeping association continues to press ahead; and with my host brother Fernando and an agricultural engineer from the Ministry we are currently planning a series of workshops on sustainable agriculture: In Paraguay that means not burning your fields, when possible not using chemicals, applying natural pesticides, diversification, contour planting, and green manures. When my folks visited in June they helped Don Valerio and me to plant about 1/4 hectare of black oats (for coverage) and lupino (for nitrogen), and when the weather heats up we'll plant another green manure called mucuna. The basic idea: you plant beneficial crops (legumes which add nitrogen to the soil, fast-growing grasses for soil coverage to prevent erosion and maintain moisture and add organic matter) to naturally and permanently improve the quality of your soil, rather than the common practice of heavy tillage, burning, monoculture and purchasing lots of expensive chemicals which must be applied year after year. We are planning the workshops for the end of October, and my personal goal is an audience of 15-20 farmers and as much local leadership as possible. Since I am neither an agricultural engineer nor Paraguayan, my words will have less impact than a local farmer's: I just want to set up the workshops and when the time comes, step aside and let the Paraguayans take over. I'll let you know how it works!

And the pictures?????

Soon, I promise, I brought my camera with me to town but stupidly left the USB card reader in site.

Enjoy the last heat of August and best of luck to all in the back-to-school craziness. And GO ROCKS!

A few new photos from the Paraguayan countryside

"Fishing" with my friends Hugo and Fernando. We armed our bamboo sticks with fishing line and hooks, and walked for two hours to a supposed prime fishing spot. Turns out the stream had dried up and there was virtually no water, let alone fish. Paraguay is also in the middle of a devastating drought, and in my community no one can plant anything now.

A summer camp we planned with other PCVs around my area. It was an environment-themed camp with games and activities about reforestation and trash management. Fun.

Former Bolivia PCV Helen came to visit me in site, and brought along Kelley. I'm the ridiculous-looking hippie sitting next to the gorgeous brunette. Host brother Fernando is not as isolated as he seems in the picture, we were talking in Spanish all night, I promise. But his English is also pretty good, a rarity around here.

Making chipa, the famous Paraguayan cheesy cornmeal bread, with Don Valerio. A tradition during Holy Week. We made like 200 chipas, and ate virtually nothing else for 4 days. If that sounds rough, you haven't tried chipa. It's awesome.

First batch of the finished product cooked in the brick oven tatakua (Guarani, "fire hole.")

Killed my first chicken. This blog is slowly becoming filled with my various animal assassinations. I actually enjoyed it. I agree with Michael Pollan that, if you're gonna eat meat, participating in the killing of the animal is an essential part of the process. The dog, Cien, is hungry.

My pad. In Bolivia some PCVs were planning a "Peace Corps Cribs" video (for you geezers, Cribs is an MTV show which explores the gratuitous and disgusting wealth of pop culture icons. "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"-esque). The PCV equivalent would be rather humorous -- if you can't tell in the photo, my house is itty-bitty, about the size of the "family room" in our house in Louisville. It's cozy. I store my bike right next to the toilet.

Peace!

Bees and Thinking Small

Happy Easter to all. It has been quite a while since I've updated this sucker, so let me fill you in on recent happenings in my corner of Paraguay.

Well, come to think of it, not a lot is happening now! We have just finished Holy Week, which is a time to rest and be with family. My host brother Fernando, who left site a few months ago to go work elsewhere, came to visit for the week, which was great. In my first few months in site here I really depended on him to help me get to know the community, introducing me to folks and showing me around, and it was tough for me when he left because he and I are not just work partners but close friends.

In terms of work, things continue to develop, (as always) slowly but surely. The tree project we were planning with Fernando has been put on hold for many reasons, and I am recently focusing more on beekeeping. I am working with a few local beekeepers, and also with a farmers' committee whose members recently collaborated to buy a new bee box. I have about a year left in service, which I hope will be enough time for us to learn the essentials of beekeeping by going through a full season, keeping the colonies healthy during the winter and (hopefully) harvesting around October/November. The group of 10-15 members currently has three colonies, which is obviously not much, but the idea is that, by dividing strong colonies and capturing other wild hives, and purchasing boxes with proceeds from future honey harvests, the group can build up a larger number of strong colonies over time. I suggested to the group the possibility of using Kenya Top Bar Hives, a low-cost technology that can be mostly constructed from local materials and an alternative to the expensive and complicated "modern hive," but the members are not, at least for the moment, interested.

Working with this beekeeping group is very different from the group I worked with in Bolivia, which had an 18-hive apiary, centrifuge, jars and labels, all purchased with Peace Corps funds. When I got to Sopachuy in Bolivia, that project was already 3 years old and there was still lots of work to do to make it sustainable (who knows if we might have succeeded). Here in my site in Paraguay we are starting small, with a small number of farmers who are collaborating their own money for the project. From my end I am working with the group just providing training, not (at least for now) money. Because of the unique nature of my service, I have very little time (only a year left in site) to work, and am not certain if I will be followed in site by another PCV. I therefore do not want to start any project that is so big that I will not be able to see it through to completion, or at least to a stage where it is relatively self-sustaining. So I am thinking small, a few farmers, a few colonies. It would be a shame to ask for and receive lots of money from PC, the government or an NGO for a big project when, in fact, there might not be enough time and/or genuine interest to make the project succeed. So we are just focusing on learning the basics of beekeeping with those who are interested.

Development work is complicated. As many Volunteers learn, you don't just go to the 3rd world and "help." Conversely, you can't just send money from the states to "help," without responsibly researching your charity of choice to find out exactly what kind of program you are supporting.

Okay, this post is getting a little long, so let me just say that I am doing well, have lots of friends in site and other PCV friends as well, and am smack in the middle of one hell of a journey. More on the personal aspects of PC life, and hopefully an update on a planned fish-farming project, next time. Sorry for taking so long to post this entry.

Peace.

Skinnin´ Alligators

Greetings all and happy 2009! That´s me, drinking terere, yerba mate with cold water and herbs. Everyone drinks like 5 liters a day of this stuff, no kidding.

During the Thanksgiving holiday we visited some Jesuit ruins near Encarnación.

Fernando, my host brother, work partner and best friend in Acuña.

The tatakua, a traditional wood stove. You make a big fire, then you take out all the firewood and the residual heat cooks your food. Very cool, very hot.

Watering my huerta. No rain for forty days makes for 8-inch high sunflowers. But the brandywine tomatoes I´ve got growing under my shade structure seem to be doing pretty well.

Christmas dinner with the host fam. If you can´t see the snow in the picture, it´s because it was dark. And also because the temperature was 100 degrees.

The centerpiece of this photo exposition, the alligator we hunted, killed and ate day after Christmas. Don Valerio, the father of my host family, told us about a big lizard he´d seen sleeping under a tree, and asked if we´d like to kill and eat it. He didn´t have to ask twice. We didn´t even know it was an alligator until after Don Valerio had speared it. The gator was about 2-3 feet long. I delivered the death blow with a machete to the neck. It was the first time I had killed an animal. Raise your hand if you´ve ever killed an alligator? Nope, didn´t think so.

I rule.

Skinning the jakare. If you´ve never had alligator you are missing out. It is delicious, especially when you killed it yourself!

Me and my host dad Valerio ¨Willy.¨

The turkey is sort of the policeman of the house. He patrols around, puffing himself up, and gobbling. The gobbling is cool at first but it gets old real fast.

If there´s anybody out there still following this blog other than my parents, sorry for the sparse updates. There´s no internet in my site so I only get a chance to update now and then. But I did, at least, get to see the video of that guy throwing a shoe at W.

A merry merry Christmas

And a happy new year

Let´s hope it´s a good one

Without any fear.

- John Lennon

Virgins and Benefit Concerts

Greetings from the surface of the sun. It's been a while (is awhile a word, or is it necessary to divide it in two?) since I updated my blog, again I will shamelessly use the old "I have no access to the internet where I live" excuse. I'm in Asuncion today because I'm playing tonight in a benefit concert, with other Peace Corps bands and some Paraguayan groups too. It's no Farm Aid or anything, but it should be a good time.

Life is good in site. Last week was the annual festival of the Virgin of Caacupe, a 9-day event attended by 3 million Paraguayans (half of the country's population). The tradition is to walk to Caacupe to honor the Virgin, but we sort of cheated and took a bus halfway there. We still had to walk about 20K though, nothing to sneeze at. The festival is supposedly a religious event, but with hundreds of thousands of people present the cathedral and the happenings there receive little attention. The rest of it is a giant market, with hundreds of food and souvenir vendors. It's sort of like a State Fair. My sister would have loved it.

Work is rolling, too, slowly but surely. My friend Hugo and I are making a bee smoker, and the tree planting project is rolling along steadily. Hopefully we'll get some seedlings in the ground by March or April, if the municipality gives us the funds we need.

Hope everyone is enjoying the cold weather, I sure miss it. Peace...

My New Site

Friends,


I´ve been in my new site, Acuña de Figueroa, for about two weeks now. It´s a beautiful place located about two hours from Asunción. I´m living, for now, with a host family, and my host brother is also my principal work contact. His name´s Fernando, and he´s a beekeeper and a great guy.


The first few months of service are about getting to know one´s site, talking to people, making friends, getting a sense of what the community´s interests and needs are. Fernando´s been taking me around to meet neighbors, attending community group meetings (a young persons´ group and a farmer´s committee, for example); and I spent much of my time in the first week preparing and planting a vegetable garden. This week, though, it´s been raining cats and dogs (note: I said that in Spanish and Fernando thought it was a ridiculous phrase. When you think about it, it really is.) and I´m afraid my plants are drowning... luckily Paraguayan soil is really sandy and drains well.


The group of jovenes (young people, mostly high school age) and I are tentatively planning a big tree-planting project: Acuña is all dirt roads, but there is a big road construction project going on now, and in the process lots of trees were cut. We want to plant trees on both sides of the roads throughout the community. It would be a big project, but a worthy one, and the group really seems to be excited about it. I´ll keep you guys posted.


That´s all for now. There´s no internet in my site, so I will be checking e-mail and making updates probably with less frequency than in Bolivia, but I´ll do my best.


Finally, please note the disclaimer at the right column which affirms that my comments do not necessarily reflect the position of the Peace Corps, etc. etc.....


OBAMA!!!!!!! OBAMA!!!!!! OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Safe, Sweaty and Happy in the Paraguay

Hey all. A couple of weeks of R & R on the home front were excellent. It was great to see my people again, drink bourbon whiskey, laugh and cringe at Sarah Palin, sit down at Heine Bros. and listen to the schizophrenic bearded guy pontificate... just like old times. Now, back to work.

I arrived in Paraguay last Thursday and it is hot here. Ridiculously hot. In fact, the other day I actually had a CSNY ¨Almost cut my hair¨ moment. (But I didn´t, and I wonder why, I feel the need to let my freak flag fly...) Anyway Paraguay is gorgeous, in a completely different way from Bolivia. Gone are the striking mountains, the vibrant indigenous Quechua culture; but here it is green and lush, the soil is brick red, and everyone just sits around and drinks cold tea all afternoon. It is beautiful and I am happy to be here.

Fellow Bolivia PCVs Andy and Natalie arrived with me, and the three of us have a two-week intensive orientation. We`re getting an intro to Guaraní, the indigenous language spoken by 97% of the Paraguayan population, as well as technical classes in our respective fields. I`m staying with a very nice host family -- incidentally, my host dad looks like my Pappy and even has a belly scar like Pappy did, from an emergency surgery last year. (I know, only a few days and he`s already showing you his belly scars? He walks around without his shirt on a lot. Did I mention it`s hot here?)

Paraguay`s agriculture program is impressive. Their crop extension program includes some really neat techniques, like green manures and contour planting, which I`m excited to try out in site. But the beekeeping component is the coolest part: In Bolivia, my biggest frustration as a beekeeping volunteer was that the modern Langstroth hives we were trained to work with are expensive, and require a lot of costly inputs. As a result, it is very difficult to work with poorer folks in the campo that can`t afford that equipment, unless one applies for a grant (and even that is restrictive, since your grant will probably only cover a few individuals). But Paraguay`s beekeeping program also trains volunteers in construction of Kenya Top Bar Hives (KTBH), which with a decent saw can be made locally, from most forms of sturdy wood. The Beekeeping Extension program also trains PCVs in construction of smokers from materials like tin condensed-milk cans, and bee veils from plastic netting and fabric. The bottom line is that Paraguay`s focus on low-input technology makes it possible for anyone who`s interested to participate, not just those who can afford the equipment or the few invited to be included in a project. Key word in Peace Corps: Sustainability. Check.

Sorry to ramble on, for those of you who are skimming just know I am safe and healthy, and looking forward to these next 18 months.

I guess it`s a strange decision, after being pulled out of Bolivia, to sign on for another year-plus in another South American country. What can I say? I guess I`m a Maverick.

In fact, one might say that the 3 of us Bolivia-Paraguay PCVs are a team of mavericks.

Peace.

Que viva la Pachamama,
que viva Cuerpo de Paz,
que viva mi patria Bolivia,
y que viva el Paraguay.