Back with my people

I can chalk up another one for "weird places to get stung by bees". We were harvesting honey two nights ago and what that entails is taking the panel of honey comb and cutting off the wax cap the bees put on honey that is ready. While doing this Kai Zakaria and I always enjoy liberal amounts of this honey-laden wax and I happened to accidently eat a bee still clinging to the wax. The bee stung me right in the roof of the mouth. Honestly, it was not as painful as it sounds. Sure, it hurt a lot but there are worse places to be stung, like ankles, hands, neck, and eyelids! The hardest part was getting the stinger out because the skin is soft and the stinger got in pretty deep.

In other news I am still dealing with this tree seed issue. It is unbelievable. I have been calling them up and they are basically giving me the runaround.

First I call and the secretary puts me on the line with an ingeniero who tells me he has no idea where the solicitude is. I give him the receipt number and he tells me to call back in half an hour. I call back and the secretary tells me that he found the pedido and the seeds should be ready in a couple days, can I come to get them? Sure, I said, though they had promised to send them to my pueblo earlier. She tells me to call again because the ingeniero is in a meeting. I call again, the ingeniero has no idea where the solicitude is. "But I just talked to the secretary, she said you had my pedido and the seeds would be ready". So I call the secretary again and ask her what, exactly, is going on. I am very confused. She says that the other ingeniero must have the solicitude, but he is on vacation. I should call back in a week, she says.

Unbelievable.

My frustration had reached a new peak. These people are so incompetent, it is unbelievable. And then I started to think about all the people I have had to deal with that are in organizations like this, or at banks, or in Asunción. All of them make things so much harder than they have to be. It´s no wonder it is hard for people in my community to get anywhere or to feel like they can get anywhere.

I came to the realization, especially in Asunción, that I just cannot associate with these people. They aren´t like those people who I live with and work with every day. The funny thing is that these people in Asunción are more like me when I was in America. That is to say, we are more or less have similar socioeconomic backgrounds, schooling atleast past highschool, etc. Yet I feel much more at home with the people in my community. They are my people. I would rather work in their fields then walk around a mall in Asunción. And you know what? That isn´t a bad thing. To me, the people in my community live more honest, respectable lives than some of those people I have met in Asunción who get by through corruption and taking advantage of those who dont know any better. Am I making a generalization? Sure. But I am frustrated, and the only place that I consistently have found any type of truth or understanding has been in my little community of poor farmers, not a big city with it´s malls, and nice cars, and restaurants. And I dont think I would want it any other way.

Asunción frustrations

I am finally about to leave Asunción tomorrow morning after having spent 3 days here. Usually coming to the city is a nice, relaxing break from life in the campo and while I was able to relax a bit in the hotel, the overall stay has been more unpleasant than expected.
After having such great success with the tree planting project, the farmer's committee has decided to do the project again. For those of you that probably forgot, we were able to write up a contract with a tabacalera (tobacco producers) in the nearest town. We were to sell them 10,000 tree seedlings that they would plant in order to abide by the governments regulations. Tabacaleras must plant trees to make up for all the wood used in the drying process of tobacco. The project was a huge success and the committee made a substantial chunk of change. This year they decided to do it again, but wanted to grow more trees and different varieties as well as produce extra to plant around the community. This is fantastic.
I knew of a government organization (who will remain nameless) who specifically supplies projects like this one with either tree seeds or saplings. So, I had the men draw up a grant proposal with all the right documents and I, myself, wrote one up just as a backup.
I came into Asunción and went to the office of said organization. Once there I was sent back and forth to different offices, getting different signatures and stamps. After an hour of this I was finally sent to where they house their seeds. I made the trek out their only to be told that the forms hadn't been signed by some guy who happened to be out for the day. Could I come back in a week? I was furious. I was sitting in the room with literally tons of seeds and all I needed was one kilo of seeds. This was for an amazing project by a group of very poor people who are just trying to make extra money as well as make their community a better place. I wanted to just shake this guy who wouldnt give me seeds. It felt more like trying to take a loan out than getting tree seeds. The thing that really frustrated me the most was that there is no way a guy from my site with a 5th grade education could ever get into a place like this without being intimidated or understanding all the beauracracy of it all. I sure didn't. But the whole reason for this organization is to give out seeds for reforrestation projects and/or projects that help the development of poor communities, like the one I live in.
So, I left, seedless. I will call them every day until they give me seeds.

But, there is one good thing that happened out of this trip. Earlier this afternoon I picked up 24 brandnew glasses for the people had them made at the Fundación Visión visit. I am very excited to atleast be able to go back to site with these for my community.

Fundación Visión

This past Saturday I organized for an organization called Fundación Visión to come to my community and do eye checkups for people living in my community and the other neighbor communities. I had heard about this organization through another volunteer and she had great things to say. So I called them up a couple months ago and they agreed to come out and do consultations at the school. Even though it rained we still had a good turn out. The doctors were there from 7am till noon and were able to see 74 people, give out around 20 reading glasses and took orders for 24 new glasses as well as give out eye medicine to around the 30ish people who needed it. The glasses being made are not free, but are extremely cheap compared to getting them in Santani (the nearist town). On average the glasses cost about 30 dollars, that includes a new frame and custom lenses.
Needless to say, it was fantastic. I was thrilled with the way it turned out and was surprised to hear that the doctors wanted to come again within two or three months.
The only thing that the community had to do was supply a location for the consultations and lunch. I talked with all three women´s committees and they agreed to chip in and make lunch. They ended up making a huge meal of chicken, sopa paraguaya, and more. The mens committee picked pineapples and made juice as well as help set up at the school and bring chairs. It was a whole community effort and it was really impressive, to say the least.


The line was already long before 7am.


Eye exams.

Giving medication and trying on glasses.


All ages came out.


The school was packed from 7 to 12.

The Fundación Visión crew enjoying a wonderfully cooked lunch after a long day of work.

Summer Camp!

Last week, I along with two other volunteers, had a three day long summer camp in site. It was fantastic. The idea was to just have something fun and educational for the kids to do on these long, hot, slow summer days. Each day had a theme: the first day was environment, second was health, and third was trash and recycling. It turned out to be a huge success, we had around 25 kids come each day and they all seemed to have a great time. There was singing, dancing, arts and crafts, mini classes, games and activities dealing with the day's theme. Here is a brief run down of each day.
Day 1
Made name tags, went over rules
Singing and dancing
Treasure Hunt
Arts and crafts ( leaf rubbings)
Snack/recess
Games until the end of camp. Duck, Duck, Goose. Sharks and Fish. Redlight Greenlight etc.

Day 2.
Singing Dancing
Class on dental hygene and hand washing
Health related word search
Snack/Recess
Health trivia (winners got prizes like little cars, stickers, bubbles etc)
Dental relay
Games outside

Day 3
Singing and dancing
Class on the difference between organic and inorganic trash
Trivia on the time it takes certain types of trash to decompose
Trash Trivia continued with prizes
Snack/recess
Outdoor games and wrap-up.

The camp could not have gone any better. It all went very smoothly and the kids enjoyed themselves. Hopefully some of the information will stick. So far I have seen kids doing leaf rubbings at home and playing duck, duck, goose on their own. Now let's see if they start brushing their teeth more or washing their hands before dinner!

Summer Camp pictures

Watching the kids go to town on the popcorn and pineapple.

Greg and I talking about trash.

Singin and dancin with the kids

Gaseosa! Leche!

Redlight Greenlight, but instead it is Gaseosa y Leche.

Giving Nidia a hint.

No cheating, Ladies!

Word search.

Greg and I brushing our teeth with the kids. Greg gets so into it!

Greg telling the kids how to play fish and sharks.

Duck, Duck Goose!

Eladio demonstrating his "look ma, no hands!" brushing technique.

Brushing teeth after snack.

Ladies drawing.

Drawing during recess.

Geraldo showing off his My Little Poney drawing.

Profesor Miguel and Daughter Jessica making leaf rubbings.

Eladio making a beautiful leaf rubbing.

Greg demonstrating how to do leaf rubbing.

Winners of the Treasure Hunt.

The Things I do for my fellow Volunteers...

I just got into Asuncion. There is a Seed Bank meeting tomorrow that I had to come in for because, if you all didn't already know, I am the President of said Seed Bank (I dont know if you all know this, but....I'm kind of a big deal) But in all seriousness, the Seed Bank was founded by volunteers and is completely run by volunteers. The bank is set up so that farmers in sites with volunteers have a source for green manure seeds that they might not have been able to find around where they live. The seeds are given out as a loan and the farmer has to sign a contract and pay back 110% of the debt in clean seeds. So if Don Fulano wants 10kilos of Mucuna seeds he has to sign the contract and the next year pay back 11kilos of Mucuna. This keeps the system as sustainable as possible. The end goal of all of this is to potentially have seed banks created in every community. We also have garden seeds which are usually used by volunteers in the gardens as a way of getting new vegetables on their plates as well as get Paraguayans to experiment with less known vegetables etc.

So. I had some time on my hands and what does every good Jewish boy do when he has time on his hands and lives in the middle of nowhere in Paraguay???? Obvious. He makes Bagels!!!

I don't know what was going through my head, wanting to do all this baking in my tiny house when it is well over 100F outside. I guess I have just been on a Sourdough kick and wanted to bring goodies to share for the meeting.

The bagels are Honey Cinnamon Raisin Oat Rye Sourdough. phew. Try saying that 5 times in a row. And yes, that is the honey I paid so dearly for in my last excursion with the bees.

It doesn't stop with the bagels. I made two batter breads. The first is Whole wheat Carrot Ginger spice sourdough.

Not the prettiest, but it makes up for it in taste.

Finally, I made a Roasted Jalapeno and herb cheese (homemade) cornbread (also sourdough) it is probably my favorite of the three.

This is the cheese. It was very easy to make, you just boil milk then add either vinegar or lemon juice to make it curdle. Strain and add salt and whatever else youd like.

And now I am off to eat.

Summer Demo plot

My demonstration plot is in full swing and decided to give a little lesson on summer green manures in Paraguay. Let´s begin.

This is my demonstration plot. I couldn´t quite fit all of it in this picture, so I have broken them up according to the green manures.

This green carpet is Mucuna Ceniza, related to Kudzu. This is a quick growing vine that fixes nitrogen as well as covers the soil very quickly, creating a green mulch. It is just as rampant as its cousin Kudzu, but luckily for Paraguayans the plant dies completely with the onset of cold weather. It is hard to tell from this picture, but the mucuna is about waste deep and not a single weed is growing in it because the mucuna grows so fast that it outcompetes everything. When using it in conjunction with other crops one has to take this into account and plant Mucuna towards the end of the crop cycle. For instance, when grown with corn, Mucuna has to be planted just as the corn is flowering. If they were planted at the same time the Mucuna would take over.

This is what it looks like underneath the green canopy. The dead leaves keep the soil moist and cool as well as break down relatively quickly adding more organic matter to the soil.

This is Kumanda Yvyra´i, I believe it is called cowbean in the states. It is a small shrub/tree that grows for about 4 years. The beans it produces are very nutritious as human food, chicken feed and pig feed. It fixes nitrogen and drops plenty of leaves to create a good mulch. The wood can eventually be used as firewood and in some instances, like my neighbor, the tree can be trained to provide shade in summer gardens.

This low-lying vine is called Dolichos Lab-lab. It is not that common around here. It has similar growth habits as mucuna though not quite as fast nor aggressive. This plant is a bit more hardy than Mucuna. It´s leaves and vines are a bit thicker and can withstand cooler temperatures, which makes it suitable for perennial crops like pineapple and yerba mate or citrus. It fixes plenty of nitrogen and once it gets going outcompetes weeeds.

Millet. This is a grain which also serves as a greenmanure due to its ability to grow well and quickly in low nutrient soils. It outcompetes weeds and produces lots of organic matter. It can be pruned more than once a year and will grow back. The seeds are edible for both humans and birds.

These next three pictures are of Sorghum. Also grows the same as millet, though much thicker and taller. The plant itself resembles corn, but like Millet needs little nutrients and can outcompete weeds. In fact, it is alleopathic, which means it secretes a chemical into the soil which inhibits the growth of plants around it. The plant is good cow forrage and pig forrage, the seeds are used to make flour and there are some varieties in India in which Syrup is extracted from the plant.

This is what a normal plot of land looks like if it were to be allowed to go fallow. These are weeds just from this summer. I hoed my plot only once before I planted the seeds. The plants did the rest, I have virtually no weeds and have to do little to no work to keep it in order.

This is mucuna in action. One farmer wanted to grow it with his corn as a way to enrich the soil since corn is such a heavy feeder. We planted this just as the corn was flowering and now it is taking over!

This is corn without any green manures. Not the best picture, but you can see that it is just all weeds in between the corn.

The mucuna loves growing up the corn. Right before the mucuna sets seed we will use a rollingknife, a big cyliner with blades to cut and crush the mucuna/corn residue and leave it as a mulch for the next season in an attempt to do no-till farming.

A bit off topic. This is Ña Maria´s garden. Her summer garden is looking better than mine! The right side of the garden is a big lush jungle of lima beans. She is very excited about her garden, as am I.