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.

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.

When bugs attack part 2.

What is it with bugs in this country? I thought the worst was over with the bee stings now that honey season is over. I was wrong. Ants. Lots and lots of ants.
The other night I went out to my porch and noticed hundreds of grasshoppers, spiders, and other bugs all running around. I assumed that the warm night explained all the buggy activity. I went back inside and was reading for about an hour when I noticed that they were all trying to get into my house. This time when I went to check outside I was greeted by millions and millions of ants. They were EVERYWHERE. It was an ocean of ants that were killing and hauling away any living creature in it's wake. They killed spiders, grasshoppers, frogs, lizards...they even talked dogs, cows and myself! Once I went outside the ants quickly crawled up me and bit away. Luckily they didn't come inside.
The next day I talked to my neighbors and they said those ants are called "Tahyi ne" which means stinky ant. When they come out like that it is taken as a sign that rain is coming. Most people actually like them because the ants clean out houses of any bugs that might be living there.
Here is a little video I took. The quality is not great, but you get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAcBckEVWpk

The schooling continues

Work in the school is continuing and extremely enjoyable. The only frustrations have been in dealing with the teachers and setting up times, as well as their participating in the teaching activities. My way of teaching is different from what is traditionally done in the school systems here and I hope that teachers may see something useful in new teaching methods.
When I first told them I wanted the kids to do a majority of the work in the garden, the teachers were a bit hesitant and told me that the parents do the work. This was the exact opposite purpose of the school garden. It is there to teach children about gardening and then use the produce to make healthy snacks. The garden can also be used to teach other subjects such as science and math. Regardless, I pushed the teachers and more or less demanded that the kids work with me. Needless to say, the kids had so much fun. We prepared seed beds for our tree seeds. Discussed the advantages of making raised beds and giving them a good batch of fertilizer. From there we also prepared our garden beds and vegetable seed beds. We talked about companion planting and started planting some vegetables.
The kids were so much fun in the garden. Not only were they excellent workers, but they showed more interest in the topics and actually wanted to learn about the garden - something I can't say about all the adults I work with.


Cleaning the garden.

Preparing the tree seedbed.

Preparing one of the garden beds.

Students and teachers worked side by side.




Planting Swiss Chard alongside with carrots.

The power of success

That's a pretty heavy title for a blog post, no? It sounds like I'm going to give a lecture to a group of businessmen in a nondescript convention center - "We may be the number 4 wholesaler of paperclips in north eastern branch, but gosh darn it if we keep pushing our products we could make the 3 spot!". Okay, not quite. Hopefully this should be a bit more interesting.
You all know that I work with three woman's committees: two have been around for almost a decade and one is brand new. I have had difficulties with one of the older groups due to a lack of participation in meetings (nobody would show) and them simply asking to be gifted things from myself or other organizations. I had little hope for this group and felt that it would probably fall apart sooner than later. So, we sat down and had a talk. I know I've previously discussed how Paraguayans shy away from confrontation and would do without strong words. I tried my best not to be too strong and direct in the way I said things but still told them how I felt. I told them that they could not accomplish anything without being responsible and showing up to meetings - they all agreed. Then I asked them exactly what it was they expected to gain from being members of a committee. Did they want a place to sit around and complain about neighbors? Did they want to find ways of making extra money? They decided that they wanted the committee to be a place where they could learn new things, and find ways of getting more resources (food, money, etc.) for their family.
With their goals clear it was much easier for me to work with the women; they started showing up more regularly to meetings and actively participating.
Our first project was to make detergent soap. Detergent soap, along with cooking oil, yerba mate, and meat, are the biggest expenses families have on a week-to-week basis. The women and myself both felt that this was an important and potentially profitable thing to learn. All the ingredients could be obtained locally: cow fat (tallow), caustic soda, fabric softener, room deodorant,and water. We also made the fabric softener and the deodorant as a side project before hand. We made around 8kilos of soap and the women were ecstatic. The process was so easy and fast while the end product was just as good as commercial detergent soap.
This got them thinking. They could make these products and sell them to neighbors and other communities. Currently, they want to make more soap and want to expand to bar soap and other deodorants with different colors and fragrances.
I was amazed at how well this simple project got the women so excited. You could see the ideas popping into their heads and they really got enthusiastic about working together as a group.
So, I brought up the garden seeds I had received from the national newspaper. Last year we divided them up and each woman took them back to their own individual garden. I have been pushing community gardens since the day I got here with no success, but I figured I might as well try again. After five minutes of ironing out the logistics, the women decided that they wanted to start a community garden! Before I knew it we were grabbing hoes and rakes and preparing the garden. All this happened within about 15 minutes of bringing up the idea. By the end of the day we had prepared and planted our seed beds, prepared the other beds with manure and planned out how we would plant the garden.
It was truly unbelievable. This was the power of success. The women were so excited after successfully making soap that they felt they could do anything if they tried, especially if they did it together. The one group in my community which I felt would fall apart has now become the strongest,and most active one. I can only hope that this trend continues.

Teaching Photosynthesis

This school year I asked if I could participate more in classroom activities. The teachers were more than happy to give me time once or twice a week to come in and teach both morning and afternoon sessions (school days are half-days in Paraguay). The school is very small, only 57 students in all. Because deforestation is a major problem in Paraguay I have decided to start off with a series of classes on trees and reforestation. Our first class was centered around the importance of trees as well as the current problem of deforestation. The idea of this class was to nail home the importance of trees and develop a deeper appreciation for forests while the children are still young. The most recent class was centered around photosynthesis. This is a tricky subject to teach. Most people in my site don't really understand what photosynthesis is, so to try teaching it to children was a challenge. We first started talking about breathing; why do we breath? What do we breath? What is oxygen and carbon dioxide and where do they come from? From there we went into trees and plants and how they too breath just like us but instead of breathing oxygen they breath carbon dioxide.

Once the basics were established the kids easily grasped how clorophyll captured photon energy and transfered it through the electron transfer chain in the light-dependent reaction thus creating ATP and the full mechanism of the Calvin cycle (ok, not quite).

To drive home the topic we did a little art/science project. The kids did leaf rubbings (which they LOVE!) and we made a diagram of what goes into a plant/tree and what goes out. Using arrows we showed nutrients from the dirt, water from the clouds, energy from the sun, and carbon dioxide from humans going into the leaf, while an arrow leaving the leaf depicted oxygen leaving.

Whether or not all the students really understood photosynthesis is not necessary. I wanted to teach this subject not to increase their knowledge of the workings of plants but as a means for increasing their appreciation and awe in trees and other plants. Maybe that way they will be more inclined to plant more trees, or at least not cut down those that are left.

Work Stuff

Michael (dad) was also able to see what type of work I do in site. It was good to have someone from the outside there to observe and give ideas as well as another take on the issues I was teaching about. He came to check out my demonstration plot. Now that winter is almost here it is time to play my winter green manures. I invited a neighbor (kai Andres) over to help me since he has a rollocuchillo (rolling knife). This is a great farming tool used to cut and press down green manures, leaving a thick mulch. It is a simple farm implement; it is a heavy metal cylinder with blades that, when pulled, cut and press the plant matter to the ground. I used it on my patch of Mucuna, the nitrogen fixing vine. We did this before the plant flowered and set seed so that all the Nitrogen fixed in the soil stays in the soil. Prior to rolling over the Mucuna I seeded the plot with black oats, the winter cover crop that also makes great animal forage and mulch. I seeded before we used the rollocuchilo so that the seeds had a chance to get to the ground. Had I seeded afterwards the seeds would sit on the mulch and not sprout. When I came back from Ecuador the Avena had already sprouted and looks great.


This is a panorama view of my demoplot. The mucuna (on the left side) is what I will cut and use as a mulch.

Avena is seeded by hand.

Kai Andres and the Rollocuchillo.

It turned out to be a good teaching day. He had a lot of questions regarding planting avena and mucuna.

This is the rollocuchillo.

This is what it looks like after being chopped and pressed down.

Update - The Avena has sprouted, though the mucuna mulch was so thick that there are parts in which the Avena could not come through. I plan on planting sunflowers in this patches.


He also came to school with me. I am starting a reforestation program in the school. Deforestation is a huge problem here in Paraguay and the earlier the kids learn about the value of trees the better. I started this program with basics: what do we use trees for, what does deforestation mean, what does reforestation mean, what is agroforestry etc. I will continue with sessions on how to treat seeds and properly plant them in the garden. How to take care of trees, etc. Eventually all the children will take trees back home and plant them.






Finally, he came down to check out one of the womens committees. I gave a short charla on companion planting in the garden. It is garden season and everyone is getting ready. Most people here plant a mini monoculture in their garden; one line of tomatos, one line of carrots, one of lettuce etc. It is a better practice to associate plants of different space requirements and nutrient requirements together. In this way the space in the garden can be used more effectively and also certain associations keep bugs away from plants while others help plants grow even better. Examples are carrots and tomatos, basil and tomatos, beets and lettuce. etc



Finally, this is a beautiful shot of Rubito's year old pineapple field. After talking to him about it for a long, long time he decided to leave all the weeds he took out from between the pineapple lines. The resulting mulch is so thick that no other weeds will grow.