The market stand

Here is a series of pictures taken while we constructed the farmer's market. It is done!

Garden and Demo plot

Gardening this year has been a bit slower than last; the weather in the beginning of the season was a bit erratic and I was away on vacation. But still I have a decent gardening going and do lots of interplanting to save space and improve growth/protect from pests.



Tomatoes, lettuce,cabbage, peas, and carrots sprouting all in less than a meter of space.




Things are looking great in my demonstration plot. Last post about my plot I showed the use of a rolocuchillo when we cut all the Mucuna down and seeded the Oats. Well, it turned out that the mulch left over from the Mucuna was so thick that not even the Oats could sprout through. There are patches where the mulch was sparse and the Oats were able to grow, but there was a huge part of mulched land that no weed could grow through, which is amazing. So I decided to plant Sunflowers with my neighbor. Sunflowers are considered a cover crop because they grow rapidly and if planted close enough together they can shade out potential weeds. Also, it is said that they are allelopathic, which means that their roots exude a chemical which keeps other weeds from growing in their proximity. On top of all this Sunflowers are excellent bee forrage and animals and humans the highly nutritious seeds.

Oats in the foreground and Sunflower in back

Mucuna mulch.



Here are the three volunteers from Amigos de Las Americas after building their final fogone and having a mud fight. Wendy, Claudia, and My (from left to right)

No, I didn't forget about the blog..

I apologize for my absence from the blog; things in site have been....time consuming. Where to begin?

Well, this Saturday I said goodbye to the three highschool volunteers from the program called Los Amigos de Las Americas. This was the second year that they came to my site. They spend a month living with families, giving winter camps with the kids on topics like reforestation, nutrition, dental hygiene and so forth. Volunteers also build 8 Fogones (brick and earth stove/oven units) in their community. I was very lucky in having three awesome, very mature and very hard working girls. They seemed to have a great time here and the fogones they built were stellar. Sadly, the process in determining which families would receive the fogones was marred with greed, selfishness, and a general lack of compassion for one's poorer neighbor. Luckily, the girls didn't speak Guarani so they didn't hear what I did. I am not going to get into the whole story because it is too long, a bit confusing, and just disturbing. What I will say is that I have lost a lot of respect and have even stopped talking to some of the people in my community.

Regardless of this, we were lucky enough to receive a small-project grant from the Amigos program. Each year the Amigos have funds for sustainable projects within the communities that their volunteers stay. One project that we have all talked about (women's committees, men's committees, and individuals) has been for a venue to sell their goods – a farmer's market. So I wrote up the pedido (grant proposal) with another woman in site and our idea was accepted! We received funds to build a modest, open-air venue 6 meters by 3 meters. The locale would be where our street meets the main ruta, since that is where the most traffic is. I pushed this project hard so that it would get done before the volunteers left. I went door to door to all 80 some odd families and invited them to meetings. 15 people showed up. I wasn't too perturbed and we were able to form a work committee since the materials were paid for but the labor would be solely volunteer. The first day was great, 7 guys showed up and we put in a full day from sun up to sun down. We had the entire structure up with roof. All that was left was to fill it with dirt, put the floor down and then fix the table in the floor. The next day, however, only two men showed up. I was furious. Regardless, I worked as hard as possible to get it done and could not. We had at least another day of work left. The next day I roused up a couple more men to help and then a stranger from the ruta showed up and helped, and actually knew a lot about putting down cement floors. I made the community pay him for his work.

The structure is done and all that is left is to have a big sign made for the market.

While this whole farmer's market is a wonderful thing - something the people have wanted for a long time, and is the answer to many of their financial difficulties, it has left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

As I said, this is something that the people have wanted for a long time and have talked about for almost the entire time I have been in site. They basically had to do nothing to get the money, since I wrote out the proposal and dealt with the coordinators from Amigos de Las Americas. All they had to do was come to a couple meetings and help build the structure. The turn out for both of these was meager and disheartening. I met an unbelievable amount of resistance in helping build this structure, even from those who pushed for this so hard and kept saying how much they themselves could benefit from it. Getting people to come felt like pulling teeth and I now regret putting in so much effort. I also regret putting in all the effort in writing the grant proposal and in all the dealings with the Amigos. It was not sustainable. Had the community members dealt with the pedido and other administrative work maybe they would have taken more responsibilty and ownership of the project. However, I have seen too many opportunites like these pass by because the people just wait and wait until it is too late, so I stepped in.

So, here I am with mixed feelings about...everything. For one thing the market is done and the people will have their venue to sell all kinds of produce . They will profit from this, I have no doubt. Yet the whole process showed me what it is like when my community members actually get the project they want, and it makes me never want to do another project with them again. In fact, it has made me not even want to go to meetings anymore. I sit through them discussing how they can get this and that, and if only they had these funds etc. and now I have seen that when they finally do get what they wanted they don't do anything!

Maybe I'm being a bit negative and cynical about the whole thing. As I said, my community members now have a means to make a better profit from their labor. But how sustainable was it? That is what bothers me. I'm not so sure this would have happened had I not been here to keep pushing and I am not saying that to brag. The point of Peace Corps work, or any other sustainable development work, is to have the people be empowered with skills to better their lives and communities long after the volunteer is gone.

Well, I guess at this point there isn't much to do but just let it be. I can work with people now on marketing their goods.

I will post pictures soon.

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.