Belated Beginnings

It has taken me a while to get off my butt and start posting. As most of you know, I have not been sending out any emails worth reading since I have been down here. I write a lot, at home, sitting alone in my house at night. But it´s mostly crap. So I never bother to type my letters to you all, I just don´t like them. So I have taken to writing poems ... Short summaries of my days here in Paraguay. So what you will see here is a mixture of poems that I write out at site, and of spontaneous letters such as this.

Ok, now, to clue in the uninformed. I am a peace corps volunteer serving in the country of Paraguay, and I work in thagriculturere sector. There are about 200 volunteers here in Paraguay at any given time, working in a variety of sectors from health to education to government to agriculture. My service started aroud December 16th of 2005, after three months of language and technical training.

I live in the department of Cordillera, near a town named Altos, which is roughly 60k east or 3 hours from the capitol city Asuncion. My site is very poor. Some people assume that since I am closer to the capitol, people will be wealthier. This is untrue. In fact, the closer you are to Asuncion, the less land you are likely to have. The family I live with scrapes by on growing beans for self consumption. I have yet to see any income generation save very, very small amounts. For example, there is a variety of the palm tree here in Paraguay that grows nuts about the size of golf balls. My host family spent about 3 months harvesting the coconuts which brought in about $50. They harvest coco because they are locked into a mentality that tells them that there are no other options. That is why I am here.

I am a third volunteer in this site. Peace Corps Paraguay does not send more than 3 volunteers to one site until a lot of time has passed. And although I am a third volunteer, there is little to suggest that two volunteers have been there before me. The first girl had a boyfriend in the city near our community, so she was hardly actually at site. I see no results of her having been there. The second volunteer did provide a slight legacy, in that he brought in farm equiptment which should give the people more options. However, they don´t use what he brought. The big thing which he accomplished in terms of development was that he got a grant to buy what is called a "rolling knife," which is used a critical tool used in a sustainable approach to agriculture. This rolling knife is basically a machine which when dragged by oxen, chops up plants in it´s path. Then the organic plant material and rest on the top of the soil and decomposes, maintaining soil moisture while also providing natural fertilizer. Incorporating these methods along with others can help to increase cyieldsilds, improve soil quality, fight erosion, and lessen the work load of the farmer.

But they just don`t use it. If they choose not to listen to someone who spent two years of his life living with them trying to help, who broughtequipmentment, then why did they ask for another volunteer. I am starting to think that they care not for agricultural advice, instead they just want an American around. The last one built a house. He brought things that they had not seen before, he had friends over, he brought his culture.

So I am at a frustrating point. They do not want to listen to me, the senor of the house has the final word, and he wants to grow beans again. Because we need to eat beans everyday. They lack money management and they lack the ability to take risks. Opportunity is there. They choose not to take advantage of it.

My poems should provide a better glimpse into my daily life. Some of them will be up in a couple weeks. I have to go to a week long in service training where we get some more language class. This is nearly a fully bilingual country, with Guarani and Spanish. Occasionally I find an old man out in the country who does not speak Spanish. And rather often I find the rich Paraguayans in Asuncion refuse to learn Guarani. I was taught Spanish during training, though for my work Guarani is what I need.