Cold and dreary in June.

Yup, cold...and cloudy. The weather has been hovering around the lower 40s during the day and night. It is weather you don´t really want to do anything in. Regardless, I have a rather big project I am working on that keeps me busy. Even though it isn´t in my 'field' of work, I have decided to put on a health fair at the school. I got the idea mainly because I was struck by the lack of knowledge my community members have regarding living a healthy life. This has to do mainly with their diet, their dental hygene, and sanitation. So my idea is to invite all the children in the school along with their parents to come for a fun day of charlas, games, songs and other activities. The other volunteers in my area have agreed to come help out. We will have a rotation of classes: a dental hygene class, a handwashing class, a parasite class, and a nutrtition class. I also went to the local medical office in my area and they said they would send either a nurse or doctor to give a charla on the flu and/or possibly give vaccinations to all the children. I have also been able to procure toothbrush and toothpaste for all the children and will start an in-school dental program where the children brush their teeth everyday after recess, when they usually eat a bunch of candy. After a month or two, ifthe program works well I will hopefully get them all toothbrush and toothpaste for home. So thats my Dia de salud. I think it will be good.
Other news. I will be coming to the states in August. I have a quick stopoff in LA but will then head to NC the 3rd of August and be there till the 12th so mark it down! Let me know if you all will be around, I would love to see everyone. Email me or comment on this blog.

Pictures

These first set of pictures are of my demonstration plot. I have planted black oats, which is a grass that gives great coverage and when dead creates a thick mulch, lupino which is a legume that adds nitrogen to the soil, and nabo forrajero, which is a long and thick rooted plant related to the radish. It helps break up the hardpan and bring nutrients up from deep in the earth. Notice my plot compared to my neighbors, he planted lupino but used no type of cover crop as well so he has plenty of weeds growing along with it.







This is my neighbors garden. She is amazing. When we first met he garden was in shambles, nothing growing but weeds, but she had interest in a lot of the things I had to say. Basically, I acted as a catalyst, or a seed crystal, and she took over the rest. It all started with me advising her to use a green manure in her garden to enrich the soil and produce edible beans and forrage for the pigs. She planted them and then she just took over. She came back with more questions on how to plant certain things and was completely open to new ideas, like companion planting. In the pictures you will see a nice mixture of cabbage, peppers, green manures, onions and herbs used in conjunction to help each other grow stronger and protect each other from pests. After that she kept planting more green manures and tried new combinations of companion planting. She is one of my favorite people in my community, not only because she is next door and like a mother to me, but because she is a perfect example of what happens when people are willing to experiment and try new things. She had no idea what a compost pile was, but she made one anyways to see what will happen. I can´t say that everyone I have worked with is as amazing as my neighbor, but that is pretty hard to top. I am incredibly lucky to have someone like this in my community. Whenever other neighbors come over and see her garden they always compliment her, she blushes but I can see she is extremely proud and that means the world to me. Living in poverty, in a tiny community, these people have very little and their work almost always goes unseen but people see what my neighbor does. Also, she now advises others on how she has been successful, she is like a PC volunteer but better because she already has the respect of her community and she speaks the language a lot better than I. She is a true success, and the greatest part about it is that it was always in her from the start...and I think I helped her to see that.

Finally, two nice shots from my garden. Mine is nothing compared to ña Maria, my neighbor´s, but it gives me what I need!.

Where am I???

Yesterday I took the early bus into Asuncion for a couple days of R&R. The oddest thing happened though when I got into Asuncion. I popped into the mall to pick up a few things needed for my time here and I was shocked…I was experiencing culture shock in the same country! This probably has a lot to do with the past week in site, which I will get to later, but I was in total awe of everything in the mall. The people….they were well dressed, beautiful people…women with all their teeth! The mall was warm; it smelled of perfumes and body lotions. The clothes being advertised were beautiful, I was awed by them. This is totally not me though. In the States I hated malls and was never one for those clothes. But living in the campo my clothes have all become rather shabby; either they are warped from hand washing, stained, ripped or all the above.
I had to take a seat on one of the mall benches- it was all too much! I was staring at people….who ARE these people? And for that matter, where AM I? In a three hour bus ride I had been totally transported to a new world. I feel bad now for staring the way I did in the mall, but it was the most incredible of sights.
A lot of this probably has to do with the past week or so in site. For starters, my electricity has yet to be connected by the local electric company. When we finished the house a couple guys rigged the electricity for me. As one can imagine, it wasn’t the best rigging job and lately it hasn’t really been working at all. We had a storm come in and the wind knocked a couple of the wires around so that the connection is faulty. Currently, if I were to have the light on in my house and be listening to my radio the power would flicker. However, if the fridge started cooling itself, the power would just cut off. Then I would go outside and throw a stick at the wires to hopefully get a connection back. This works relatively well, but not great. I have kind of given up on the electricity and essentially am living without any. This was quite a bummer for a number of reasons. First of all, my water is heated by an electric water heater in the shower head so that cuts out hot water. Secondly, I cook with a hotplate type contraption so my cooking has been minimal. Finally, I can’t really store food in my fridge or it will spoil. On top of this, the entire week was cold (50s during the day, 40s at night) and rainy. The sun would not come out. However, I was able to keep my spirits high. I go outside behind the house and start a little fire with wood from the forest, boil my water for tea or whatever and cook over the fire. I also boil water and use that for bucket bathing. Bucket bathing isn’t terrible; it is just slower and colder. The first night, however, when I was in the middle of a semi-warm shower and the power went out I was left with two options: take a ridiculously cold shower, or get out still soapy. So, I held my breath and took a very, very cold shower. One can imagine what my neighbors were thinking when they heard my screams when the cold water hit me. You may think I am weak, but you try taking a cold shower when your house is 40 degrees! The funny thing about cold showers is that they put me in a better mood. Maybe it’s the comical nature of the yelps I let out when that water hits me? Could it be the refreshing and restoring powers of cold water? Or maybe the better mood is the first sign of hypothermia!
Either way, I am now in Asuncion. I have a hotel room to myself, a hot shower, a package filled with goodies from the states. I finished one of my all time favorite books – The Botany of Desire, and just started a collection of short stories by Mark Twain. I am going to a nice farmers market today and supposedly they have good Japanese baked goods and Mediterranean food. How is this possible? Just the other day I was watching my neighbors boil pigs skin for dinner and today I will go eat stuffed grape leaves. I was pooping over a hole the other day next to a colony of stinging red ants (not fun!) and today I have a toilet AND a bidet. Is this the twighlight zone??

Garden pictures!

Finally, garden pictures! This is my garden. I like to pack the plants in for a number of reason. First of all I am pressed for space, second of all companion planting works better in my experience. The plants benefit from each others company through growing and tasting better, as well as keeping most bugs away. Finally, growing them this close creates a green carpet that helps keep weeds at bay.


Companion planting at its finest. I have Lupino, a nitrogen fixer on the left, beets, lettuce, swiss chard, and marigold in the back.


beets, cherry tomatoes, swiss chard


My garden from another view, 8ft sunflowers in the back. It is hard to see but there is tomato, lupino, chilies, sweet peppers, onions, garlic, nasturtiums, basil, lettuce, beets, swisschard, green onions, chrysanthimum, parsley.

This was the first beet I harvested, it was delicious! I cooked it up with a local squash, brown beans, beet greens, and a bunch fo spices. It was delicious.

This is my garden a month ago in the sun.