I invited the Fundacion Vision doctors back to my site June 5th. Once again they came and did vision consultations and the works. Fewer people showed this time, though the ones that did come were from much farther away. In total, 40 people were seen and 10 bought new glasses. Two will be having cataract surgery for free, which is really exciting. Between the two visits we were able to get 114 people eye consultations and 34 new glasses. Not bad.
Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera to the event so I can't share any pictures.
In other news, the time is really starting to fly by especially with the days being so short. Just a little under 6 months are left in my service, and then it is back to the US. Within the community, and my adviser, talk of a replacement volunteer has begun. The community has to decide whether or not they want a follow-up after I leave. Everyone seems to want to continue on. People have asked me to stay a third year, which is flattering but at the same time a bit sad. It won't be easy leaving this place.
I wish I could give you all some amazing breaking news about incredible work and projects popping up. But it is a lot of the same, but it's all good stuff. The school garden is growing, the tree seeds are planted and some species have started to sprout. The men's committee have prepped the nursery and we planted all the tree seeds. Ah! One bit of new work is a yerba mate project with the men's committee. Another volunteer lives in a community where yerba mate is produced to sell and she was able to get me about a half-kilo of seeds, which is a lot. The seeds look like bulgar wheat, so a half kilo is a substantial amount. After talking it over with the men, we decided to start a yerba maté project. Basically, the idea is for each member to grow their own yerba maté and have a committee run center for drying and processing the mate. It would be used for personal consumption and if there was enough they could sell to community members and/or other communities. Yerba Maté, or Ka'a in Guarani, is a staple in Paraguayan life. It is drunk from sun up to sun down, either in it's hot form known as Maté or Ka'ay in Guarani, or in it's refreshing ice-cold form called Tereré. Yerba Maté is one of the largest weekly expenditures for any Paraguayan family and the possibility of producing one's own Ka'a would save bundles of money.
So, we planted the ka'a seeds and hope they germinate. Sadly, Ka'a seeds are known to be very finicky in their willingness to germinate. Sometimes it takes up to 3 months for them to sprout. Hopefully ours will sprout faster. Ka'a plants are rather nondescript looking shrubs that can sometimes get up to 3 meters tall depending on how often it is cut and harvested. It originates from Paraguay (it's scientific name is Ilex Paraguariensis) and I believe it contains caffeine. There were arguments as to whether or not the stimulant it contained was in fact caffeine, they used to call it mateine, but I believe scientists agree that it is caffeine. For those that haven't tried maté before, I highly recommend it. It is much less abrasive and “jolty” as coffee, while still giving you the boost you need in the morning. It doesn't cause a sour stomach, which coffee can do, and it doesn't give the jitters. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my coffee. I could never live without Espresso. But try adding Maté to your repertoire. Okay, that's the end of my plug for ka'a.
I stumbled upon a statistic about Paraguay that we were shown way back in training. I wish I had posted it earlier to give you more perspective on the situation here in Paraguay as well as the discrepancies between rural Paraguay and Asunción.
On the United Nations Human Development Index, which is a global measurement of the quality of life and access to basic needs, out of 182 countries, Paraguay is ranked #101. The rural areas of Paraguay is comparable to Kenya, which is ranked #147. Asuncion, the capital, is comparable to Israel, which is ranked #27.
Now, I have become quite suspicious of any studies that make a statistic of peoples and countries, but this is a pretty reliable study. However, if you could rank happiness I guarantee that Paraguayans would be up at the top. Regardless, the discrepancies between where I live and Asuncion are staggering. This is mainly due to the overwhelming amount of corruption that is ever present, from the small local police up to the top heads of the government. As you can imagine, this makes any type of social development unbelievably hard/frustrating. Getting help and improving your life/community is less about merit and more about who you know and how much you pay them.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
The eye doctors return
I invited the Fundacion Vision doctors back to my site June 5th. Once again they came and did vision consultations and the works. Fewer people showed this time, though the ones that did come were from much farther away. In total, 40 people were seen and 10 bought new glasses. Two will be having cataract surgery for free, which is really exciting. Between the two visits we were able to get 114 people eye consultations and 34 new glasses. Not bad.
Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera to the event so I can't share any pictures.
In other news, the time is really starting to fly by especially with the days being so short. Just a little under 6 months are left in my service, and then it is back to the US. Within the community, and my adviser, talk of a replacement volunteer has begun. The community has to decide whether or not they want a follow-up after I leave. Everyone seems to want to continue on. People have asked me to stay a third year, which is flattering but at the same time a bit sad. It won't be easy leaving this place.
I wish I could give you all some amazing breaking news about incredible work and projects popping up. But it is a lot of the same, but it's all good stuff. The school garden is growing, the tree seeds are planted and some species have started to sprout. The men's committee have prepped the nursery and we planted all the tree seeds. Ah! One bit of new work is a yerba mate project with the men's committee. Another volunteer lives in a community where yerba mate is produced to sell and she was able to get me about a half-kilo of seeds, which is a lot. The seeds look like bulgar wheat, so a half kilo is a substantial amount. After talking it over with the men, we decided to start a yerba maté project. Basically, the idea is for each member to grow their own yerba maté and have a committee run center for drying and processing the mate. It would be used for personal consumption and if there was enough they could sell to community members and/or other communities. Yerba Maté, or Ka'a in Guarani, is a staple in Paraguayan life. It is drunk from sun up to sun down, either in it's hot form known as Maté or Ka'ay in Guarani, or in it's refreshing ice-cold form called Tereré. Yerba Maté is one of the largest weekly expenditures for any Paraguayan family and the possibility of producing one's own Ka'a would save bundles of money.
So, we planted the ka'a seeds and hope they germinate. Sadly, Ka'a seeds are known to be very finicky in their willingness to germinate. Sometimes it takes up to 3 months for them to sprout. Hopefully ours will sprout faster. Ka'a plants are rather nondescript looking shrubs that can sometimes get up to 3 meters tall depending on how often it is cut and harvested. It originates from Paraguay (it's scientific name is Ilex Paraguariensis) and I believe it contains caffeine. There were arguments as to whether or not the stimulant it contained was in fact caffeine, they used to call it mateine, but I believe scientists agree that it is caffeine. For those that haven't tried maté before, I highly recommend it. It is much less abrasive and “jolty” as coffee, while still giving you the boost you need in the morning. It doesn't cause a sour stomach, which coffee can do, and it doesn't give the jitters. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my coffee. I could never live without Espresso. But try adding Maté to your repertoire. Okay, that's the end of my plug for ka'a.
I stumbled upon a statistic about Paraguay that we were shown way back in training. I wish I had posted it earlier to give you more perspective on the situation here in Paraguay as well as the discrepancies between rural Paraguay and Asunción.
On the United Nations Human Development Index, which is a global measurement of the quality of life and access to basic needs, out of 182 countries, Paraguay is ranked #101. The rural areas of Paraguay is comparable to Kenya, which is ranked #147. Asuncion, the capital, is comparable to Israel, which is ranked #27.
Now, I have become quite suspicious of any studies that make a statistic of peoples and countries, but this is a pretty reliable study. However, if you could rank happiness I guarantee that Paraguayans would be up at the top. Regardless, the discrepancies between where I live and Asuncion are staggering. This is mainly due to the overwhelming amount of corruption that is ever present, from the small local police up to the top heads of the government. As you can imagine, this makes any type of social development unbelievably hard/frustrating. Getting help and improving your life/community is less about merit and more about who you know and how much you pay them.
Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera to the event so I can't share any pictures.
In other news, the time is really starting to fly by especially with the days being so short. Just a little under 6 months are left in my service, and then it is back to the US. Within the community, and my adviser, talk of a replacement volunteer has begun. The community has to decide whether or not they want a follow-up after I leave. Everyone seems to want to continue on. People have asked me to stay a third year, which is flattering but at the same time a bit sad. It won't be easy leaving this place.
I wish I could give you all some amazing breaking news about incredible work and projects popping up. But it is a lot of the same, but it's all good stuff. The school garden is growing, the tree seeds are planted and some species have started to sprout. The men's committee have prepped the nursery and we planted all the tree seeds. Ah! One bit of new work is a yerba mate project with the men's committee. Another volunteer lives in a community where yerba mate is produced to sell and she was able to get me about a half-kilo of seeds, which is a lot. The seeds look like bulgar wheat, so a half kilo is a substantial amount. After talking it over with the men, we decided to start a yerba maté project. Basically, the idea is for each member to grow their own yerba maté and have a committee run center for drying and processing the mate. It would be used for personal consumption and if there was enough they could sell to community members and/or other communities. Yerba Maté, or Ka'a in Guarani, is a staple in Paraguayan life. It is drunk from sun up to sun down, either in it's hot form known as Maté or Ka'ay in Guarani, or in it's refreshing ice-cold form called Tereré. Yerba Maté is one of the largest weekly expenditures for any Paraguayan family and the possibility of producing one's own Ka'a would save bundles of money.
So, we planted the ka'a seeds and hope they germinate. Sadly, Ka'a seeds are known to be very finicky in their willingness to germinate. Sometimes it takes up to 3 months for them to sprout. Hopefully ours will sprout faster. Ka'a plants are rather nondescript looking shrubs that can sometimes get up to 3 meters tall depending on how often it is cut and harvested. It originates from Paraguay (it's scientific name is Ilex Paraguariensis) and I believe it contains caffeine. There were arguments as to whether or not the stimulant it contained was in fact caffeine, they used to call it mateine, but I believe scientists agree that it is caffeine. For those that haven't tried maté before, I highly recommend it. It is much less abrasive and “jolty” as coffee, while still giving you the boost you need in the morning. It doesn't cause a sour stomach, which coffee can do, and it doesn't give the jitters. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my coffee. I could never live without Espresso. But try adding Maté to your repertoire. Okay, that's the end of my plug for ka'a.
I stumbled upon a statistic about Paraguay that we were shown way back in training. I wish I had posted it earlier to give you more perspective on the situation here in Paraguay as well as the discrepancies between rural Paraguay and Asunción.
On the United Nations Human Development Index, which is a global measurement of the quality of life and access to basic needs, out of 182 countries, Paraguay is ranked #101. The rural areas of Paraguay is comparable to Kenya, which is ranked #147. Asuncion, the capital, is comparable to Israel, which is ranked #27.
Now, I have become quite suspicious of any studies that make a statistic of peoples and countries, but this is a pretty reliable study. However, if you could rank happiness I guarantee that Paraguayans would be up at the top. Regardless, the discrepancies between where I live and Asuncion are staggering. This is mainly due to the overwhelming amount of corruption that is ever present, from the small local police up to the top heads of the government. As you can imagine, this makes any type of social development unbelievably hard/frustrating. Getting help and improving your life/community is less about merit and more about who you know and how much you pay them.
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