Sunday, October 21, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Fires In Paraguay
In case you haven´t heard there have been a lot of wildfires in Paraguay in the past month. It made international news and someone back in the U.S was able to find an article about it in the L.A times:
Paraguay fires scorch millions of acres
The wind-fueled blazes forced 15,000 people to evacuate. The widespread practice of burning land for agriculture is blamed in part.
By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 15, 2007
BUENOS AIRES -- -- Wind-blown fires scorching the parched Paraguayan countryside have scarred almost 3 million acres of forest, brush, pasture and farmland, officials said Friday, forcing the evacuation of 15,000 people and threatening nature reserves.
A protracted drought and the common practice of burning land for agriculture have contributed to the disaster, which some authorities have called the worst fires in Paraguay's history.
"The complexity of the situation is well beyond human control," Jose Key Kanasawa, chief of the National Emergency Secretariat, told Inter Press Service. "The only thing we can do is contain it, resist it, stop it from spreading and pray that the rain comes."
Authorities have blamed an explosion of separate blazes largely on peasants who routinely use fires to clear pasture and farmland, especially to plant export crops such as soy beans and cotton. Hot, dry and windy weather has fanned the blazes.
But experts cite other culprits: illegal loggers seeking access to protected forest areas, clandestine marijuana farmers and illicit hunters opening paths. Many of the affected regions have few police officers or other authorities.
"These fires are all set in an illegal fashion," noted Maria del Carmen Fleytas, Paraguay coordinator for the Moises Bertoni Foundation, an environmental group. "Then they lose control and the fires spread. It's hard for the state to stop this in vast sections of the country."
Several fires are nearing the sprawling Mbaracayu Forest Nature Reserve, home to numerous threatened mammal, bird and plant species, the foundation said.
Hundreds of blazes have raged in the landlocked South American nation in recent weeks, mostly in sparsely populated regions to the north and east of the capital, Asuncion. Thick smoke has caused some flights to be diverted from Asuncion.
Officials declared a national emergency in four provinces this week amid fierce criticism that the government of President Nicanor Duarte Frutos had failed to recognize the severity of the threat. The current scenario is grave, the president acknowledged.
"The reaction of the government has been very slow," Fleytas said. "Now it's very late, and much of the eastern region is burning."
The specter of smoke and flames has prompted considerable national reflection about using fire to clear land, a widespread custom in South America.
"Paraguay is dry and in flames," the columnist Andres Colman Gutierrez wrote on the website of the newspaper Ultima Hora.
"We Paraguayans were born in a land that appears to be a paradise, but we do everything possible to make it into a hell."
Meteorologists have predicted no letup in the dry and windy conditions.
Authorities in neighboring Brazil have contributed four water-tanker aircraft to aid in firefighting, officials said. The Paraguayan government had also sought to rent a Russian air tanker capable of dropping more than 10,000 gallons of water per flight, but the craft was called to firefighting duties in Russia.
The media have reported only one fatality: Wilder Smith, 40, a farmer who died when a tree fell on top of him as he was trying to put out a fire on his land about 100 miles east of Asuncion.
The other day Peace Corps called me and told me I should prepare myself for evacuation from my site just in case and they told me if i felt unsafe i could go stay in a hotel in Asuncion. I really didn´t realize the fires were that close to Horqueta until that phone call but they never came to Horqueta and things seem to be getting better.
The volunteers in my area and I are doing our part to educate Paraguayans and raise awareness about this topic. Two other volunteers and I have a radio show every wednesday evening. I´ve done a lot of research on deforestation in Paraguay and have gotten a lot of information from environmental education and agroforestry volunteers. I´ve written up a radio show about deforestation and tomorrow we are dedicating the show to talking about the fires, talking about the causes of fires, educating people about why burning fields is bad and what people can do to fight against deforestation en general. It´s not really a topic people talk about. I read that 86% of Paraguay´s original forests are gone now, there are many endangered species here including the jaguar due to lack of natural habitat and many other problems that come along with deforestation. When I told my host mom that i was going to talk about the problem of deforestation, she kind of looked at me like she was thinking "there´s a problem of deforestation in Paraguay?" I got some really good tips from people about how to get Paraguayans to think about the issue, such as making them realize how much further they are having to go to get their wood to cook with and to ask them where the closest forest is and how big it is. When they realize these things are becoming harder to obtain than they were 10 years ago, maybe they will be ready to listen. People watch logging trucks drive through town almost everyday filled with trees that came from protected reserves and they KNOW where they are coming from. What they fail to realize is, what a big problem it is and that it is something they can change. We hope to at least bring up the topic right now in a time when the country is in a state of natural disaster. There is no better time to create change than when people have just seen the effects of their actions, or lack thereof.
Paraguay fires scorch millions of acres
The wind-fueled blazes forced 15,000 people to evacuate. The widespread practice of burning land for agriculture is blamed in part.
By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 15, 2007
BUENOS AIRES -- -- Wind-blown fires scorching the parched Paraguayan countryside have scarred almost 3 million acres of forest, brush, pasture and farmland, officials said Friday, forcing the evacuation of 15,000 people and threatening nature reserves.
A protracted drought and the common practice of burning land for agriculture have contributed to the disaster, which some authorities have called the worst fires in Paraguay's history.
"The complexity of the situation is well beyond human control," Jose Key Kanasawa, chief of the National Emergency Secretariat, told Inter Press Service. "The only thing we can do is contain it, resist it, stop it from spreading and pray that the rain comes."
Authorities have blamed an explosion of separate blazes largely on peasants who routinely use fires to clear pasture and farmland, especially to plant export crops such as soy beans and cotton. Hot, dry and windy weather has fanned the blazes.
But experts cite other culprits: illegal loggers seeking access to protected forest areas, clandestine marijuana farmers and illicit hunters opening paths. Many of the affected regions have few police officers or other authorities.
"These fires are all set in an illegal fashion," noted Maria del Carmen Fleytas, Paraguay coordinator for the Moises Bertoni Foundation, an environmental group. "Then they lose control and the fires spread. It's hard for the state to stop this in vast sections of the country."
Several fires are nearing the sprawling Mbaracayu Forest Nature Reserve, home to numerous threatened mammal, bird and plant species, the foundation said.
Hundreds of blazes have raged in the landlocked South American nation in recent weeks, mostly in sparsely populated regions to the north and east of the capital, Asuncion. Thick smoke has caused some flights to be diverted from Asuncion.
Officials declared a national emergency in four provinces this week amid fierce criticism that the government of President Nicanor Duarte Frutos had failed to recognize the severity of the threat. The current scenario is grave, the president acknowledged.
"The reaction of the government has been very slow," Fleytas said. "Now it's very late, and much of the eastern region is burning."
The specter of smoke and flames has prompted considerable national reflection about using fire to clear land, a widespread custom in South America.
"Paraguay is dry and in flames," the columnist Andres Colman Gutierrez wrote on the website of the newspaper Ultima Hora.
"We Paraguayans were born in a land that appears to be a paradise, but we do everything possible to make it into a hell."
Meteorologists have predicted no letup in the dry and windy conditions.
Authorities in neighboring Brazil have contributed four water-tanker aircraft to aid in firefighting, officials said. The Paraguayan government had also sought to rent a Russian air tanker capable of dropping more than 10,000 gallons of water per flight, but the craft was called to firefighting duties in Russia.
The media have reported only one fatality: Wilder Smith, 40, a farmer who died when a tree fell on top of him as he was trying to put out a fire on his land about 100 miles east of Asuncion.
The other day Peace Corps called me and told me I should prepare myself for evacuation from my site just in case and they told me if i felt unsafe i could go stay in a hotel in Asuncion. I really didn´t realize the fires were that close to Horqueta until that phone call but they never came to Horqueta and things seem to be getting better.
The volunteers in my area and I are doing our part to educate Paraguayans and raise awareness about this topic. Two other volunteers and I have a radio show every wednesday evening. I´ve done a lot of research on deforestation in Paraguay and have gotten a lot of information from environmental education and agroforestry volunteers. I´ve written up a radio show about deforestation and tomorrow we are dedicating the show to talking about the fires, talking about the causes of fires, educating people about why burning fields is bad and what people can do to fight against deforestation en general. It´s not really a topic people talk about. I read that 86% of Paraguay´s original forests are gone now, there are many endangered species here including the jaguar due to lack of natural habitat and many other problems that come along with deforestation. When I told my host mom that i was going to talk about the problem of deforestation, she kind of looked at me like she was thinking "there´s a problem of deforestation in Paraguay?" I got some really good tips from people about how to get Paraguayans to think about the issue, such as making them realize how much further they are having to go to get their wood to cook with and to ask them where the closest forest is and how big it is. When they realize these things are becoming harder to obtain than they were 10 years ago, maybe they will be ready to listen. People watch logging trucks drive through town almost everyday filled with trees that came from protected reserves and they KNOW where they are coming from. What they fail to realize is, what a big problem it is and that it is something they can change. We hope to at least bring up the topic right now in a time when the country is in a state of natural disaster. There is no better time to create change than when people have just seen the effects of their actions, or lack thereof.
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Making a Garden
I’ve always been fascinated with plant life but never really appreciated the beauty of the cycle plant life goes through until living in rural northern California. In northern California, for the first time I could witness real seasons make noticeable changes in the plant and tree life and I could watch many of things I enjoyed eating growing on trees and on the surrounding land. Until living in small town Chico, I had never met people who called themselves farmers and actually meant that they lived and worked on a farm, I never knew that farmers markets were markets that actually sold food that was grown locally. I didn’t know it was possible to supply your fridge with fruits and vegetables for a week without stepping foot in the produce section of a grocery store. I felt ignorant when I realized real organic vegetables aren’t freakishly large and when I realized there were some vegetables I didn’t even recognize because they were grown naturally. Until living in Chico, a world of orchards, gardens, and farming was only something I was interested in but never thought I could be part of. I knew I was always more interested in receiving my food from something that came from a seed rather than an animal or some processed mystery that came in a box but I didn’t have a clue how to grow that food myself. I remember the tomatoes from my uncle’s garden always tasting so much sweeter than store bought ones and I used to love helping my neighbors across the street harvest their vegetables when I was growing up but the world of gardening was always a beautiful mystery to me, until I came to Paraguay.
In Paraguay there are no grocery stores, not like the ones in the U.S anyways. That doesn’t mean there is a shortage of food though. Everywhere you look there are fruit trees in people’s backyards. When I first arrived in Paraguay it was banana and mango season. I was more than fascinated seeing bananas and mango plucked from our trees and put on the kitchen table. I kept telling people “I’ve never seen a banana tree before, we don’t have them in the U.S” and they would look so surprised and a little bit proud that their land was able to grow something mine wasn’t. We laughed when we discovered the only common word between the indigenousness language of Guarani and English was grapefruit, though they continue to tell me I cannot pronounce it correctly the Guarani way. I was completely amused watching Paraguayans peel a grapefruit with a knife so that its skin came off in one perfect spiral, then cut a hole in the top and suck the juice out. It’s taken some practice but I can now eat grapefruits like that too! Just like my neighborhood did at home in Glendora, people share their fruit with their neighbors. During the season of bananas and mangos and avocados there is abundance and it would kill me to see piles of avocados laying the streets because there were too many to be eaten. I tried to pass on the glory of guacamole to this country but sadly most Paraguayans don’t seem to like it but Paraguayans are really great about making lots of uses out of each fruit or vegetable. Here, you eat whatever is in season and you eat it all season. I suppose having a lack of ingredients teaches you to be a better cook because you are forced to be creative.
Many people compliment their fruit trees with a family garden however gardens are a lot more work than a fruit tree and many people don’t have running water so they are difficult to maintain. During training we were encouraged to make a garden because it sets a good example of how to improve nutrition in your community, gives you something to do your first few months in site when you are feeling kind of lost and bored and shows the people in your community that you know how to work. I was given a small manual from Peace Corps with basic information about how to make compost, prepare the soil, pick vegetables that were season appropriate in Paraguay, and how to plant, transplant and harvest. After thumbing through it, I realized gardening was more complicated than I thought. It was more than just a hobby, it was hard work and there was an art to it. Gardening is a way of life and I was ready to begin.
I started by clearing away a place in the yard where my host mom used to keep 30 or so pigs when she was in the pig business. Needless to say it was a messy job. I kept finding a lot of trash when I was digging up soil and when I asked her about it she told me after the era of the pigs they used to put their trash there! For a moment I questioned whether or not I wanted to grow food in what used to be a mini landfill and pig pen! I decided it was my only option and restoring this little piece of land was already very satisfying work.
Once the land was cleared away, I asked Sarah, a beekeeping/agriculture volunteer in my area to make a visit to Horqueta to help me get started. Sarah has a garden at her house the size of Texas and was a master gardener in the states so she was the perfect person to take me by the hand and get me started on my gardening way. Before she arrived in Horqueta she gave me instructions on what to do before she got there. I started by sterilizing the soil. I boiled 4 huge pots of water on an outdoor stove and sanitized the beds with this to kill on the icky living creatures that could harm the baby veggies. My host mom asked my 11 year old host brother, Gino to help me and while we carried over big pots of boiling water to the garden it dawned on me that no one would ever let a child do this in the states! Yet, he did an excellent job of not burning himself and I had a little helper. I decided the fact I was teaching him a valuable skill and was spending quality time with him outweighed the risks. Sarah told me to leave the beds alone overnight and she would arrive the next day to help me plant but I needed one more thing before she arrived.…..manure!
I wasn’t exactly sure where to get manure. I couldn’t just drive down to Lowe’s, walk into the gardening section and walk out with a sack of manure. I asked Francisco my gardening friend at the school where I could find manure and he pointed to a house across the street. I walked over, clapped at their gate and when a young man approached me I said “ I heard you can get me some manure!” He smiled and said he didn’t have any right then but then pointed to a pile of crap in front of his house and said “that right there is horse manure…it’s not as good as cow manure but you can take it if you want”. At that moment I realized tracking down manure in Paraguay was definitely not like buying it in the states. I stood their for a moment pretending to admire the pile of horse dung and mumbled something like “yep, that’s some good horse dung alright” and when he realized I wasn’t about to shovel it into my backpack and take it home, he said “if you really want cow manure my grandpa and bring some to your house tomorrow”. I told him I was going to try to find some that day and that I would come back if I was unsuccessful. I went back to talk to Francisco and Francisco said he would talk to a guy and get me some really great manure delivered that afternoon. Well, the afternoon came and went and no manure was delivered. I assumed Francisco was unsuccessful as well so the next morning I went back to my manure house and told the guy I would love it if his grandpa could bring me some manure. Sarah arrived shortly after and I assured her that I had followed instructions and we would be getting some great manure delivered any minute.
A few hours later, a horse drawn cart pulled up in front of my house with an entire cart filled with manure! I figured I could just tell the man how much I wanted but when I realized he was backing up his cart in front of my house to dump the entire cart in front of my house I started to panic a little. “how much is this going to cost me?” I asked my host mother and “what am I going to do with all of this manure?” she laughed and said we would just shovel it into sacks and put it in the backyard. I nervously asked the man how much the price was and realized there was nothing I could do if the price was too much. I couldn’t just return my purchase when it came to my house on a horse and cart! When he responded 1o,oooo guarani (the equivalent of $2.00) I started laughing. Sarah and I started making jokes in English about what a good pile of shit this was and started shoveling it into sacks.
We finished digging the beds, then added the manure and mixed it in with the soil. We now had oxygen rich, nutrient rich, and wonderful soil to plant in. I evened out the beds with my rake and we planted various vegetable seeds in pairs ( so that the weak seedlings could be weeded out later and at least one was bound to sprout) We planted lettuce, beats, tomatoes, green pepper, yellow squash, green onion and a few carrots. After everything was planted it dawned on me I had one small problem, chickens.
Chickens like to get into everything and could easily ruin all of my hard work and turn the garden into an all you can eat buffet. I took a quick trip to the hardware store to see how much it would cost to construct some sort of fencing over the top of the beds to keep the chickens from getting in. When I discovered fencing was not as cheap as manure, Sarah came up with an idea for the most ridiculous chicken resistant system ever heard of. She assured me it would be possible to construct something that would confuse and discourage the chickens from entering into the garden beds using only sticks and string. I agreed to give it a try so we roamed around the neighborhood collecting sticks, once again entertaining the neighbors with our weird American ideas. Our invention came to life and we did rig up a very inexpensive web of string that has so far protected my garden from not only chickens, but small children and other house pets.
In another two months I should be filling my plate with food grown right in my own backyard. I cannot wait to eat the first vegetable and I look forward to having such an abundance of veggies I can just graze in the garden like a cow but already I have found gardening to be a very rewarding way to spend my time and energy. Everyday, I start my day by watering the seedlings with my host mom, they are still small but they have sprouted and are growing bigger everyday. It is a great way to bond with her since neither one of us has any experience with gardening. We are learning together and we get to have a small celebration every time we see something new sprout. We usually look at each other and say “what is it?” and the other one responds “I don’t know…It’s probably a weed” and then we laugh and congratulate ourselves for having a successful garden. In fact my host mother has become so proud and so motivated by the garden, she has prepared two more beds in another part of the yard and tomorrow we are going to plant more seeds. I now understand why gardeners are such proud people, and why it brings them so much joy to share their veggies with others. It’s hard work, it’s fun to watch things grow and it’s very rewarding to see the final product of months of constant attention. Gardening is a fantastic hobby that I would recommend to anyone who hasn’t tried it, or to anyone who has tried it and given up. If digging in the dirt isn’t your cup of tea, I at least recommend taking a moment to think about where your food comes from. I recommend supporting your local farmers, and your gardening friends. If it weren’t for them, we’d be eating nothing but freakishly large vegetables and mysteries in boxes.
In Paraguay there are no grocery stores, not like the ones in the U.S anyways. That doesn’t mean there is a shortage of food though. Everywhere you look there are fruit trees in people’s backyards. When I first arrived in Paraguay it was banana and mango season. I was more than fascinated seeing bananas and mango plucked from our trees and put on the kitchen table. I kept telling people “I’ve never seen a banana tree before, we don’t have them in the U.S” and they would look so surprised and a little bit proud that their land was able to grow something mine wasn’t. We laughed when we discovered the only common word between the indigenousness language of Guarani and English was grapefruit, though they continue to tell me I cannot pronounce it correctly the Guarani way. I was completely amused watching Paraguayans peel a grapefruit with a knife so that its skin came off in one perfect spiral, then cut a hole in the top and suck the juice out. It’s taken some practice but I can now eat grapefruits like that too! Just like my neighborhood did at home in Glendora, people share their fruit with their neighbors. During the season of bananas and mangos and avocados there is abundance and it would kill me to see piles of avocados laying the streets because there were too many to be eaten. I tried to pass on the glory of guacamole to this country but sadly most Paraguayans don’t seem to like it but Paraguayans are really great about making lots of uses out of each fruit or vegetable. Here, you eat whatever is in season and you eat it all season. I suppose having a lack of ingredients teaches you to be a better cook because you are forced to be creative.
Many people compliment their fruit trees with a family garden however gardens are a lot more work than a fruit tree and many people don’t have running water so they are difficult to maintain. During training we were encouraged to make a garden because it sets a good example of how to improve nutrition in your community, gives you something to do your first few months in site when you are feeling kind of lost and bored and shows the people in your community that you know how to work. I was given a small manual from Peace Corps with basic information about how to make compost, prepare the soil, pick vegetables that were season appropriate in Paraguay, and how to plant, transplant and harvest. After thumbing through it, I realized gardening was more complicated than I thought. It was more than just a hobby, it was hard work and there was an art to it. Gardening is a way of life and I was ready to begin.
I started by clearing away a place in the yard where my host mom used to keep 30 or so pigs when she was in the pig business. Needless to say it was a messy job. I kept finding a lot of trash when I was digging up soil and when I asked her about it she told me after the era of the pigs they used to put their trash there! For a moment I questioned whether or not I wanted to grow food in what used to be a mini landfill and pig pen! I decided it was my only option and restoring this little piece of land was already very satisfying work.
Once the land was cleared away, I asked Sarah, a beekeeping/agriculture volunteer in my area to make a visit to Horqueta to help me get started. Sarah has a garden at her house the size of Texas and was a master gardener in the states so she was the perfect person to take me by the hand and get me started on my gardening way. Before she arrived in Horqueta she gave me instructions on what to do before she got there. I started by sterilizing the soil. I boiled 4 huge pots of water on an outdoor stove and sanitized the beds with this to kill on the icky living creatures that could harm the baby veggies. My host mom asked my 11 year old host brother, Gino to help me and while we carried over big pots of boiling water to the garden it dawned on me that no one would ever let a child do this in the states! Yet, he did an excellent job of not burning himself and I had a little helper. I decided the fact I was teaching him a valuable skill and was spending quality time with him outweighed the risks. Sarah told me to leave the beds alone overnight and she would arrive the next day to help me plant but I needed one more thing before she arrived.…..manure!
I wasn’t exactly sure where to get manure. I couldn’t just drive down to Lowe’s, walk into the gardening section and walk out with a sack of manure. I asked Francisco my gardening friend at the school where I could find manure and he pointed to a house across the street. I walked over, clapped at their gate and when a young man approached me I said “ I heard you can get me some manure!” He smiled and said he didn’t have any right then but then pointed to a pile of crap in front of his house and said “that right there is horse manure…it’s not as good as cow manure but you can take it if you want”. At that moment I realized tracking down manure in Paraguay was definitely not like buying it in the states. I stood their for a moment pretending to admire the pile of horse dung and mumbled something like “yep, that’s some good horse dung alright” and when he realized I wasn’t about to shovel it into my backpack and take it home, he said “if you really want cow manure my grandpa and bring some to your house tomorrow”. I told him I was going to try to find some that day and that I would come back if I was unsuccessful. I went back to talk to Francisco and Francisco said he would talk to a guy and get me some really great manure delivered that afternoon. Well, the afternoon came and went and no manure was delivered. I assumed Francisco was unsuccessful as well so the next morning I went back to my manure house and told the guy I would love it if his grandpa could bring me some manure. Sarah arrived shortly after and I assured her that I had followed instructions and we would be getting some great manure delivered any minute.
A few hours later, a horse drawn cart pulled up in front of my house with an entire cart filled with manure! I figured I could just tell the man how much I wanted but when I realized he was backing up his cart in front of my house to dump the entire cart in front of my house I started to panic a little. “how much is this going to cost me?” I asked my host mother and “what am I going to do with all of this manure?” she laughed and said we would just shovel it into sacks and put it in the backyard. I nervously asked the man how much the price was and realized there was nothing I could do if the price was too much. I couldn’t just return my purchase when it came to my house on a horse and cart! When he responded 1o,oooo guarani (the equivalent of $2.00) I started laughing. Sarah and I started making jokes in English about what a good pile of shit this was and started shoveling it into sacks.
We finished digging the beds, then added the manure and mixed it in with the soil. We now had oxygen rich, nutrient rich, and wonderful soil to plant in. I evened out the beds with my rake and we planted various vegetable seeds in pairs ( so that the weak seedlings could be weeded out later and at least one was bound to sprout) We planted lettuce, beats, tomatoes, green pepper, yellow squash, green onion and a few carrots. After everything was planted it dawned on me I had one small problem, chickens.
Chickens like to get into everything and could easily ruin all of my hard work and turn the garden into an all you can eat buffet. I took a quick trip to the hardware store to see how much it would cost to construct some sort of fencing over the top of the beds to keep the chickens from getting in. When I discovered fencing was not as cheap as manure, Sarah came up with an idea for the most ridiculous chicken resistant system ever heard of. She assured me it would be possible to construct something that would confuse and discourage the chickens from entering into the garden beds using only sticks and string. I agreed to give it a try so we roamed around the neighborhood collecting sticks, once again entertaining the neighbors with our weird American ideas. Our invention came to life and we did rig up a very inexpensive web of string that has so far protected my garden from not only chickens, but small children and other house pets.
In another two months I should be filling my plate with food grown right in my own backyard. I cannot wait to eat the first vegetable and I look forward to having such an abundance of veggies I can just graze in the garden like a cow but already I have found gardening to be a very rewarding way to spend my time and energy. Everyday, I start my day by watering the seedlings with my host mom, they are still small but they have sprouted and are growing bigger everyday. It is a great way to bond with her since neither one of us has any experience with gardening. We are learning together and we get to have a small celebration every time we see something new sprout. We usually look at each other and say “what is it?” and the other one responds “I don’t know…It’s probably a weed” and then we laugh and congratulate ourselves for having a successful garden. In fact my host mother has become so proud and so motivated by the garden, she has prepared two more beds in another part of the yard and tomorrow we are going to plant more seeds. I now understand why gardeners are such proud people, and why it brings them so much joy to share their veggies with others. It’s hard work, it’s fun to watch things grow and it’s very rewarding to see the final product of months of constant attention. Gardening is a fantastic hobby that I would recommend to anyone who hasn’t tried it, or to anyone who has tried it and given up. If digging in the dirt isn’t your cup of tea, I at least recommend taking a moment to think about where your food comes from. I recommend supporting your local farmers, and your gardening friends. If it weren’t for them, we’d be eating nothing but freakishly large vegetables and mysteries in boxes.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Working in High Schools
After 4 months of observing classes and drinking tereré (yerba mate) with Directoras (principals) of the schools, i finally was able to make a plan to give my charlas (lessons, activities) on lifeskills in one of the schools. The plan consisted of giving two charlas in the morning with two different classes and one in the afternoon. I would start with the topic of good comunication skills, then to self esteem, values, employment skills, etc all the way to sexuality and AIDS education. The Directora seemed very excited to work with me, the students seemed relieved they would be doing something in class other than listening to lecture and copying things from the board and the teachers were probably appreciative they could sit back, chill out and tereré for awhile while I did my thing (even though I would be thrilled if they helped and got involved with what I was doing) I laid out a 9 week plan to get through all the topics, decided on Tuesdays and Thursdays and picked the classes I would work with. I was thrilled to finally be starting work with teens. Since being in site, i have done a lot of work with little kids and while singing songs, having a reading club, making arts and crafts was a blast, I was now ready to take on the challenge of reaching those human beings that are in their most awkward phase of life!
I showed up at 8:20am on the dot to discover the Directora´s office was closed and I could not find anyone to talk to or show me to the classroom. I waited patiently, surrounded by little kids (because this school is an elementary school and high school) answering their questions about where i was from, what language they speak in my country, how old I was, did i have kids of my own, what was I doing here, etc. Finally a teacher approached me and in Spanish of course asked me "are you here to give a charla?" I said "yes, I am, do you knmow where the directora is?" She said what paraguayans always say " oh she´ll be here in a second" which means anywhere from 5 min to 2 hours. She then pointed to a huge auditorium size room and said "they are waiting for you in there". I thought "that´s weird, why would they be in there and not waiting for me in their classroom?" Then as i got closer I could hear the rumbling noise of what sounded like the moments just before a school assembly in the U.S before someone took a microfone and told everyone to shut up and be quiet. I also saw kids piling in the room and I could feel my heart stop and my face turn white. I planted my feet in the ground the way I did when I was a stubborn toddler refusing to take a step further. I looked at the teacher and said "who is they......the senior class right?" Yes" she said...."and the junior and sophmore class too" I told her my charla was not designed for this many people and she assured me there were not many. I don´t know why I half believed her but any hope i had of having the ideal group size of 15-20 diminshed the moment I stepped into the room and saw that 50 or so faces staring back at me. When I turned around, the teacher was gone and so I took a deep breath and tried to look as confident as possible as I walked to the front of the room.
As I stood at the front of the room, it dawned on me that to Paraguayans to give a charla, or lesson means someone is going to stand up and lecture for an hour. There is no concept of what I had planned to do with the students that day. My charla actually consisted of breaking into small groups first for an ice breaker activity. I had made a model structure using matchboxes, two pieces of tape and a paper clip. Each group then gets the same materials and one member from the group is allowed 30 seconds to look at the model. They then return to the group and are not allowed to touch the materials, they have to verbally explain to their members how to build it. I only had enough materials for 3 groups and I did divide them into 3 groups, 3 HUGE groups and somehow the activity worked fairly well, except for the discussion part afterward. Nobody wanted to speak up and talk about what was difficult about it, was it easier for the person giving instructions or for the people building, etc....I ended up answering my own questions and was stared at my a bunch of blank faces.
After that activity we moved on to the topic of what good comunication is in general and with who you comunicate on a daily basis, etc. The main activity required every student to write their own instructions on how to make a PB & J sandwhich (they don´t make those here so I did jelly and butter) After everyone writes their instructions, they are folded put into a hat and two volunteers have to make the sandwhich according to the instructions. So, if they say put the butter on the bread and forget the part about taking the knife......the volunteer has to use his finger. After they get the idea as a class you write instructions that are more specific together and talk about how while everyone knows how to make a sandwhich, if it was something like flying a plane or opertating a computer, you would need to be very detailed.
As the students were doing the matchbox activity, i realized they did not have their backpacks with them, so nobody had pencils or paper. I sent a student to get me some and he came back with one piece of paper and one pencil. I said "we need more" and he said "how much more, like 3?" and I said "no, for everybody" so he came back with like 5 and I had each of the huge groups write 2 instructions.
Two female students volunteered and made the sandwhich and I realized Paraguayans don´t make sandwhiches with butter and jelly any more than they do with peanut butter and jelly so i should have picked something more common in their culture.
Overall the charla went well, they were respectful and one kid even came up to me afterwards and said "we had a really good time" and that made it worth it to me. I did find the Directora afterwards and told her I only wanted ONE class at a time from now on and she made me a promise. I went back in the afternoon and did the same charla with another class and it went really well. The teacher even stayed in the room and watched, instead of considering it her one hour break to go chat it up with other teachers.
I went to the school today for my second day and was told that the classes I am working with took a field trip to the Expo (which is kind of like our state fairs) I smiled and said that was fine, i would come back in the afternoon. Why nobody told me on Tuesday that there would be a field trip on Thursday and I didnt need to come I will never understand. It is just typical of paraguayan culture and I´m getting really good at letting things slide of my back and go with the flow. I smiled because I knew I could now use that time to come write a blog about all of this and that tomorrow I am going to go to the Expo and see what a Paraguayan State Fair is like :)
I showed up at 8:20am on the dot to discover the Directora´s office was closed and I could not find anyone to talk to or show me to the classroom. I waited patiently, surrounded by little kids (because this school is an elementary school and high school) answering their questions about where i was from, what language they speak in my country, how old I was, did i have kids of my own, what was I doing here, etc. Finally a teacher approached me and in Spanish of course asked me "are you here to give a charla?" I said "yes, I am, do you knmow where the directora is?" She said what paraguayans always say " oh she´ll be here in a second" which means anywhere from 5 min to 2 hours. She then pointed to a huge auditorium size room and said "they are waiting for you in there". I thought "that´s weird, why would they be in there and not waiting for me in their classroom?" Then as i got closer I could hear the rumbling noise of what sounded like the moments just before a school assembly in the U.S before someone took a microfone and told everyone to shut up and be quiet. I also saw kids piling in the room and I could feel my heart stop and my face turn white. I planted my feet in the ground the way I did when I was a stubborn toddler refusing to take a step further. I looked at the teacher and said "who is they......the senior class right?" Yes" she said...."and the junior and sophmore class too" I told her my charla was not designed for this many people and she assured me there were not many. I don´t know why I half believed her but any hope i had of having the ideal group size of 15-20 diminshed the moment I stepped into the room and saw that 50 or so faces staring back at me. When I turned around, the teacher was gone and so I took a deep breath and tried to look as confident as possible as I walked to the front of the room.
As I stood at the front of the room, it dawned on me that to Paraguayans to give a charla, or lesson means someone is going to stand up and lecture for an hour. There is no concept of what I had planned to do with the students that day. My charla actually consisted of breaking into small groups first for an ice breaker activity. I had made a model structure using matchboxes, two pieces of tape and a paper clip. Each group then gets the same materials and one member from the group is allowed 30 seconds to look at the model. They then return to the group and are not allowed to touch the materials, they have to verbally explain to their members how to build it. I only had enough materials for 3 groups and I did divide them into 3 groups, 3 HUGE groups and somehow the activity worked fairly well, except for the discussion part afterward. Nobody wanted to speak up and talk about what was difficult about it, was it easier for the person giving instructions or for the people building, etc....I ended up answering my own questions and was stared at my a bunch of blank faces.
After that activity we moved on to the topic of what good comunication is in general and with who you comunicate on a daily basis, etc. The main activity required every student to write their own instructions on how to make a PB & J sandwhich (they don´t make those here so I did jelly and butter) After everyone writes their instructions, they are folded put into a hat and two volunteers have to make the sandwhich according to the instructions. So, if they say put the butter on the bread and forget the part about taking the knife......the volunteer has to use his finger. After they get the idea as a class you write instructions that are more specific together and talk about how while everyone knows how to make a sandwhich, if it was something like flying a plane or opertating a computer, you would need to be very detailed.
As the students were doing the matchbox activity, i realized they did not have their backpacks with them, so nobody had pencils or paper. I sent a student to get me some and he came back with one piece of paper and one pencil. I said "we need more" and he said "how much more, like 3?" and I said "no, for everybody" so he came back with like 5 and I had each of the huge groups write 2 instructions.
Two female students volunteered and made the sandwhich and I realized Paraguayans don´t make sandwhiches with butter and jelly any more than they do with peanut butter and jelly so i should have picked something more common in their culture.
Overall the charla went well, they were respectful and one kid even came up to me afterwards and said "we had a really good time" and that made it worth it to me. I did find the Directora afterwards and told her I only wanted ONE class at a time from now on and she made me a promise. I went back in the afternoon and did the same charla with another class and it went really well. The teacher even stayed in the room and watched, instead of considering it her one hour break to go chat it up with other teachers.
I went to the school today for my second day and was told that the classes I am working with took a field trip to the Expo (which is kind of like our state fairs) I smiled and said that was fine, i would come back in the afternoon. Why nobody told me on Tuesday that there would be a field trip on Thursday and I didnt need to come I will never understand. It is just typical of paraguayan culture and I´m getting really good at letting things slide of my back and go with the flow. I smiled because I knew I could now use that time to come write a blog about all of this and that tomorrow I am going to go to the Expo and see what a Paraguayan State Fair is like :)
Monday, July 30, 2007
The Life of Pigs and Dogs
It was made clear to me yesterday just how desensitized I am becoming as a result of being in Paraguay 6 months. Yesterday I was having a lovely, lazy Sunday in my casita (my little house) all day. Another volunteer, Bee (sarah but i call her bee because she is a beekeeper and there are so many sarahs in the peace corps) was visiting me for the weekend and we were having a great time making breakfast, playing guitar, drinking terere and doing other things that entertain us in Paraguay such as admire my bannnana trees and compost pile when two things happened that made me think how much I had adapted to life here.
First, my family´s dog walked by my yard and was limping pretty badly. When Bee asked why it was limping I said "i don´t know, i think they said it broke it´s leg but I think it´s just sprained" I said it so matter of factly, and though we did sit for a few moments in silence letting out heavy sighs of sympathy and frustration we both just accepted the situation. This family was not going to do anything about the break/sprain and the dog would just have to limp for the rest of it´s life and heal on his own. There are veternarians in town but no average Paraguayan family can really afford to treat their sick animals. Most Paraguayans are struggling to feed their children and themselves. Dogs here are seen as things that provide protection from tresspassers, not as family members. They eat scraps from the table and whatever they can find, they aren´t fed dog food. This is why 97% of the dogs I see are so skinny you can see their ribs and hip bones poking out. My family´s dog is skinny but well fed. Most dogs, even if they are eating a lot have parasites that are causing them to be malnurished.With parasites you will never be well fed because your worms are eating all your food.
Dogs are everywhere, wandering the streets and though i want to save them all, i would go insane if I tried or if i constantly thought about how sad their lives are here. They are not petted, not loved and played with and therefore their personalities are so much different than dogs in the states. They have no personalities, they are shadows of what a dog should be. They cower in your presence because they´ve been kicked so much, they can be very aggresive for no reason, they are just more.....wild. Think dogs in the pound......times 3. Don´t get me wrong, some Paraguayans do treat their dogs really well and similar to we do in the states, and even if they treat them the way i was just describing there is a bond between the dog and the families, it´s the only connection they´ve ever known. If i blamed Paraguayans for the way they treat animals I would go insane from this as well and would be incredibly unhappy living with these people. That´s story 1.
Story 2 begins a few hours later when the pig screaming started. I am so used to pig screaming now, because well, my family and many families around my neighborhood raise pigs. Though my eyes got big and I stopped mid-sentence and had a very squeemish look on my face I calmly asked her, "do you think they are killing it or selling it?" (When a pig is killed, 3 men usually hold it down while one stabs it in the throat/chest area. The screams are horrible but eventually they end, because well..... the pig dies. When they sell a pig, the pig is held down by 3 men and it´s legs are tied together and it thrown into the back of an ox-drawn cart and hauled off to a family that will most likely kill it that day or soon after for someone´s b-day dinner or other special occasion. The screaming when they sell it is almost worst because it never stops until the cart is far enough away you can´t hear it anymore. ) So....Bee being the stronger one says "do you want me to go look and tell you?" I said I did so she went outside and for a moment had a puzzled look on her face and i kept asking her "what, what?" She finally said "they are castrating it". There were 3 men holding it down and she couldn´t figure out why the man with the knife was at the other end of the pig. I know now what is worst than selling, or killing.....chopping the poor pig´s balls off with a kitchen knife!
The entire day the poor pig looked miserable and the blood running down it´s legs broke my heart but at the same time I totally accepted the situation. In order for the pig to be able to roam free and come and go to the house as he pleases for the next year he needs to not be tempted to go off looking for ladies. He needs to know this is his home and feel loyal to it instead of his hormones. I debated slipping the pig some pain relivers but decided against it. I can´t always be the crazy white girl doing weird things. I am already made fun of for trying to save puppies and for crying when they die. (i had two month old puppies that both died last week)
Nope, no crazy, out of the norm behavior for me. I will never like it, I will never agree with it and it will always be sad to me but it´s dawned on me that it´s not affecting me as much as it did 6 months ago. I am hardening up a little bit, more than i thought my vegetarian, animal-loving soul ever could to situations like this. I really am worried about what I will be like in 2 years, I mean, what will I be used to 21 months down the road?? I see it in other volunteers when i hear stories about volunteers actually being the one to kill the pigs or twist the necks of the chickens just to experience the culture and integrate more! Americans in my opinion shouldn´t try that, since most stories end with "yeah....i kept twisting it´s neck but i was doing it so slow, it wouldn´t break and finally my host mom and to grab it out of my hand and finish!" Or worse stories like my friend Chris who tried to kill a pig for the going away party of another pig and he kept stabbing it but wasn´t reaching the heart (since there is no easy way to reach a pib heart) and so the poor thing kept gurgling and gurgling till it´s slow death came to an end. The stories are great to tell I suppose but for Pete´s sake people, we don´t know how to kill pigs, most of us grew up in cities and we buy our meat pre packaged in the grocery store! That will never be me since I won´t even eat the damn things!!
I´m going to try to get another puppy, hopefully one a little older and I´ll try motherhood again. I will treat my dog like gold and being an example that it can be another way and a dog can learn tricks and be trained and fat and happy is the only thing i can do to cause change in a very small, unoticable way. And of course my diet has always been my peace of mind about the way animals are treated both here and at home. I may be becoming more and more savage and immune but I still have a concious......
Time to end this blog now and get home for lunch....i think we´re having pig balls....
First, my family´s dog walked by my yard and was limping pretty badly. When Bee asked why it was limping I said "i don´t know, i think they said it broke it´s leg but I think it´s just sprained" I said it so matter of factly, and though we did sit for a few moments in silence letting out heavy sighs of sympathy and frustration we both just accepted the situation. This family was not going to do anything about the break/sprain and the dog would just have to limp for the rest of it´s life and heal on his own. There are veternarians in town but no average Paraguayan family can really afford to treat their sick animals. Most Paraguayans are struggling to feed their children and themselves. Dogs here are seen as things that provide protection from tresspassers, not as family members. They eat scraps from the table and whatever they can find, they aren´t fed dog food. This is why 97% of the dogs I see are so skinny you can see their ribs and hip bones poking out. My family´s dog is skinny but well fed. Most dogs, even if they are eating a lot have parasites that are causing them to be malnurished.With parasites you will never be well fed because your worms are eating all your food.
Dogs are everywhere, wandering the streets and though i want to save them all, i would go insane if I tried or if i constantly thought about how sad their lives are here. They are not petted, not loved and played with and therefore their personalities are so much different than dogs in the states. They have no personalities, they are shadows of what a dog should be. They cower in your presence because they´ve been kicked so much, they can be very aggresive for no reason, they are just more.....wild. Think dogs in the pound......times 3. Don´t get me wrong, some Paraguayans do treat their dogs really well and similar to we do in the states, and even if they treat them the way i was just describing there is a bond between the dog and the families, it´s the only connection they´ve ever known. If i blamed Paraguayans for the way they treat animals I would go insane from this as well and would be incredibly unhappy living with these people. That´s story 1.
Story 2 begins a few hours later when the pig screaming started. I am so used to pig screaming now, because well, my family and many families around my neighborhood raise pigs. Though my eyes got big and I stopped mid-sentence and had a very squeemish look on my face I calmly asked her, "do you think they are killing it or selling it?" (When a pig is killed, 3 men usually hold it down while one stabs it in the throat/chest area. The screams are horrible but eventually they end, because well..... the pig dies. When they sell a pig, the pig is held down by 3 men and it´s legs are tied together and it thrown into the back of an ox-drawn cart and hauled off to a family that will most likely kill it that day or soon after for someone´s b-day dinner or other special occasion. The screaming when they sell it is almost worst because it never stops until the cart is far enough away you can´t hear it anymore. ) So....Bee being the stronger one says "do you want me to go look and tell you?" I said I did so she went outside and for a moment had a puzzled look on her face and i kept asking her "what, what?" She finally said "they are castrating it". There were 3 men holding it down and she couldn´t figure out why the man with the knife was at the other end of the pig. I know now what is worst than selling, or killing.....chopping the poor pig´s balls off with a kitchen knife!
The entire day the poor pig looked miserable and the blood running down it´s legs broke my heart but at the same time I totally accepted the situation. In order for the pig to be able to roam free and come and go to the house as he pleases for the next year he needs to not be tempted to go off looking for ladies. He needs to know this is his home and feel loyal to it instead of his hormones. I debated slipping the pig some pain relivers but decided against it. I can´t always be the crazy white girl doing weird things. I am already made fun of for trying to save puppies and for crying when they die. (i had two month old puppies that both died last week)
Nope, no crazy, out of the norm behavior for me. I will never like it, I will never agree with it and it will always be sad to me but it´s dawned on me that it´s not affecting me as much as it did 6 months ago. I am hardening up a little bit, more than i thought my vegetarian, animal-loving soul ever could to situations like this. I really am worried about what I will be like in 2 years, I mean, what will I be used to 21 months down the road?? I see it in other volunteers when i hear stories about volunteers actually being the one to kill the pigs or twist the necks of the chickens just to experience the culture and integrate more! Americans in my opinion shouldn´t try that, since most stories end with "yeah....i kept twisting it´s neck but i was doing it so slow, it wouldn´t break and finally my host mom and to grab it out of my hand and finish!" Or worse stories like my friend Chris who tried to kill a pig for the going away party of another pig and he kept stabbing it but wasn´t reaching the heart (since there is no easy way to reach a pib heart) and so the poor thing kept gurgling and gurgling till it´s slow death came to an end. The stories are great to tell I suppose but for Pete´s sake people, we don´t know how to kill pigs, most of us grew up in cities and we buy our meat pre packaged in the grocery store! That will never be me since I won´t even eat the damn things!!
I´m going to try to get another puppy, hopefully one a little older and I´ll try motherhood again. I will treat my dog like gold and being an example that it can be another way and a dog can learn tricks and be trained and fat and happy is the only thing i can do to cause change in a very small, unoticable way. And of course my diet has always been my peace of mind about the way animals are treated both here and at home. I may be becoming more and more savage and immune but I still have a concious......
Time to end this blog now and get home for lunch....i think we´re having pig balls....
Monday, July 23, 2007
Land Of Parasites!
Today as I was walking all over town, I felt a dull pain in the bottom of my foot. It felt like a splinter and a thought came into my head that I may finally have what everyone has been talking about. Something no one likes getting but that sometimes is unavoidable no matter how much you wear your shoes and scrub your feet. Something that finds you, especially when it´s been really dry and there´s no rain to wash them away. Something that is a little painful but it´s not the pain that bothers you, it´s the fact that it invades you and makes a nest out of your foot......a parasite called Pique. (prounounced Peekay)
Pique is a tiny black insect that crawls into your foot, whereever it wants. It plants inself below your skin, makes an egg sack and then lays it´s eggs in your foot. When the eggs form a white circle around the black spot and this is how you know you have it. When the eggs hatch, they crawl out of your foot and find new hosts to lay more eggs. This is why it´s always a good idea to never go barefoot. I don´t think I have gone barefoot but it is still possible to get them wearing sandals.
When I got home, i took off my shoes and inspected my foot. I was disturbed to see the black dot with the white egg sack but kind of excited at the same time. All the fear and suspense of getting this dreaded parasite and here I finally had it and it wasn´t that bad after all. I went into my host family´s house and showed it to my host mom. She started laughing and said "yep, it´s pique, i´ll take it out for you". I debated whether or not i should let her take it out or wait until i went into Asuncion next week and have the Peace Corp doctor take it out. I decided with 5 kids she must be pro at taking these things out so i let her.
She told me not to worry because i had it in the best possible spot, the middle of my sole. Between the toenails would be a lot more painful. I steralized a needle and within a few min she had the the little sucker out. I put some neosporin on it and am parasite free once again. There was something very satisfying about taking it out, and I almost kinda liked it. I am not going to go out of my way to get more but i have heard about volunteers having competitions to see who can get the most! Animals carry these little parasites and the fact that we raise pigs tells me it´s very likely i will be getting many more during the next 2 years.
My host sister actually has pique right now as well but doesn´t want to take it out yet. She wants the eggs to grow a bit bigger so she can see it puss out when she takes it out! Pique can be very entertaining when there is nothing to do for fun around here.....haha. If there are any volunteers reading this right now in Paraguay.......Pique competition anyone????
Pique is a tiny black insect that crawls into your foot, whereever it wants. It plants inself below your skin, makes an egg sack and then lays it´s eggs in your foot. When the eggs form a white circle around the black spot and this is how you know you have it. When the eggs hatch, they crawl out of your foot and find new hosts to lay more eggs. This is why it´s always a good idea to never go barefoot. I don´t think I have gone barefoot but it is still possible to get them wearing sandals.
When I got home, i took off my shoes and inspected my foot. I was disturbed to see the black dot with the white egg sack but kind of excited at the same time. All the fear and suspense of getting this dreaded parasite and here I finally had it and it wasn´t that bad after all. I went into my host family´s house and showed it to my host mom. She started laughing and said "yep, it´s pique, i´ll take it out for you". I debated whether or not i should let her take it out or wait until i went into Asuncion next week and have the Peace Corp doctor take it out. I decided with 5 kids she must be pro at taking these things out so i let her.
She told me not to worry because i had it in the best possible spot, the middle of my sole. Between the toenails would be a lot more painful. I steralized a needle and within a few min she had the the little sucker out. I put some neosporin on it and am parasite free once again. There was something very satisfying about taking it out, and I almost kinda liked it. I am not going to go out of my way to get more but i have heard about volunteers having competitions to see who can get the most! Animals carry these little parasites and the fact that we raise pigs tells me it´s very likely i will be getting many more during the next 2 years.
My host sister actually has pique right now as well but doesn´t want to take it out yet. She wants the eggs to grow a bit bigger so she can see it puss out when she takes it out! Pique can be very entertaining when there is nothing to do for fun around here.....haha. If there are any volunteers reading this right now in Paraguay.......Pique competition anyone????
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Life is Fragile
Yesterday I got up at 5:00 in the morning to walk about 5k to another volunteer´s site to help out with her winter camp. I did an activity/lesson on self esteem and had two groups rotate through my activity. It went really well. I cut out a big piece of paper and made a sad face out of it. All over it, i wrote insults such as "you´re ugly, you smell, you´re stupid, etc" Of course all in Spanish. I had the kids read them out loud and then asked them "is Fulano, happy or sad right now?.....why is he sad?....are these things nice things to say or mean things.....?" Then, i tore off the pieces of paper that had the mean things written on them and handed them to a few kids, I even went on to say how now Fulano was an incomplete person, etc....I had the kids write on the other side nice things to say to Fulano and then we pasted him back together and when he was taped back together he was smiling because his self esteem was higher. I then passed out blank pieces of paper and had the kids draw themselves and write words or draw symbols of things they liked about themselves around their body. At the end of the activity we got in a circle, held hands and i had them say something nice to the person on their left.
As most teachers probably know....things never quite go excatly as you planned.
First of all, Paraguayan school systems teach kids to copy and not to think creatively or independently (this goes hand in hand with the many years of dicatorship which one day I´ll write a blog on). So the kids loved the fact they got to color but they pretty much copied my example. I drew a tree on mine to symbolize my love of nature and all the kids had trees on theirs! I drew a big heart on my body and they all drew big hearts on their bodies! I was still happy they all shared their drawings with each other and understood the message of Fulano...that you shouldn´t say mean things to people and if you do, apologize and say something nice!
It was even more amusing to watch them compliment each other. This is a very indirect culture and Paraguayans are not used to saying things to each other bluntly. My example to another volunteer was "i think you sing and play guitar really well". Yet, all the kids gave the same 3 compliments. "you´re nice, you´re a good person, or i like your shoes". It was still really great to see them saying these things to each other and overall the camp went really well.
After the camp we had lunch with Ellyn´s host family and then we went to the house where the puppies were. I picked out my puppy amongst 5 very tiny cute little creatures. When i say tiny, i mean smaller than you would ever take a puppy home in the U.S. The mother is not feeding them anymore and they are all full of fleas so I know the puppy was better off going home with me but i still felt it was way too small to be separated from its family! We had just come from a house where there was another litter of pups and two had been thrown down a dry well (the mother would not have been able to nurse them all anyways but yes it´s still horrible) so i didn´t hesitate to take her home. She is dark brown with white feet and a black face. I can hold her in one hand! I carried her in my jacket all the way home and she slept the entire way. I noticed the fleas crawling in and out of her furr and bought some flea shampoo. When I got home, a volunteer that was staying with me last night helped me bathe her. We spent two hours getting the fleas off of her and I still don´t think i have gotten all of them off. I have never seen so many fleas on one thing and she is so small. The poor thing looked so miserable she actually fell asleep when we were picking them out of her furr. After she was clean I fed her some milk and she fell asleep in my arms. I was starting to feel pretty good about saving this little girl and giving her a better life. I shouldn´t have congratulate myself so soon!
I handed her to my friend and then went to my bathroom. A few min later i heard a thud and a very frightened voice that said "oh no....oh no....i think something is really wrong" I came out of the bathroom and saw my puppy lifeless with her tongue sticking out, not breathing, with no hearbeat! I stared at her for a moment, feeling for a pulse and said "she´s dead!" I couldn´t believe it! Turns out my friend had placed her on the bed, turned her back for a moment and she fell off and died. I immediately put my mouth over her snout and started giving her CPR. I administered breaths while my friend pumped her heart. After what seems like forever...she finally took a breath and continued to struggle for life for several minutes. We were successful in reviving her and she still seems to be doing fine. It was a terrifying, yet beautiful experience to witness. I am being extra over protective mom with her now. I can´t wait until she gets fatter and bigger so i don´t have to worry about her so much. My friend feels terrible, yet we were able to actually laugh about it later. I will forever be able to give her shit for it when I want. I said if people ever say you look like someone killed your puppy i can say "well, someone did".
I named the puppy Pilsen. That is actually one of the two main and only brands of beer here in Paraguay. I thought long and hard about cute names in Spanish and Guarani and English and decided Pilsen was a perfect combination and universal language of all 3. I think it´s actually a German beer. I know I am an Urban Youth volunteer and should not be having children repeat a name of a beer when they call my dogs name but Paraguayans appreciate the humor in it and crack up every time i tell them the name. In this culture humor works extremely well with the integration and I am reminded that here no one will get offended about it. The same day I brought my puppy home my family found another puppy in the street and brought it home. They are thinking of keeping it and naming it Brahma the other main beer in Paraguay.
In one day I experienced enough accomplishment, joy, stress and sorrow to last me for awhile. I have my winter camp this afternoon and hope nothing comes close to death afterwards.
As most teachers probably know....things never quite go excatly as you planned.
First of all, Paraguayan school systems teach kids to copy and not to think creatively or independently (this goes hand in hand with the many years of dicatorship which one day I´ll write a blog on). So the kids loved the fact they got to color but they pretty much copied my example. I drew a tree on mine to symbolize my love of nature and all the kids had trees on theirs! I drew a big heart on my body and they all drew big hearts on their bodies! I was still happy they all shared their drawings with each other and understood the message of Fulano...that you shouldn´t say mean things to people and if you do, apologize and say something nice!
It was even more amusing to watch them compliment each other. This is a very indirect culture and Paraguayans are not used to saying things to each other bluntly. My example to another volunteer was "i think you sing and play guitar really well". Yet, all the kids gave the same 3 compliments. "you´re nice, you´re a good person, or i like your shoes". It was still really great to see them saying these things to each other and overall the camp went really well.
After the camp we had lunch with Ellyn´s host family and then we went to the house where the puppies were. I picked out my puppy amongst 5 very tiny cute little creatures. When i say tiny, i mean smaller than you would ever take a puppy home in the U.S. The mother is not feeding them anymore and they are all full of fleas so I know the puppy was better off going home with me but i still felt it was way too small to be separated from its family! We had just come from a house where there was another litter of pups and two had been thrown down a dry well (the mother would not have been able to nurse them all anyways but yes it´s still horrible) so i didn´t hesitate to take her home. She is dark brown with white feet and a black face. I can hold her in one hand! I carried her in my jacket all the way home and she slept the entire way. I noticed the fleas crawling in and out of her furr and bought some flea shampoo. When I got home, a volunteer that was staying with me last night helped me bathe her. We spent two hours getting the fleas off of her and I still don´t think i have gotten all of them off. I have never seen so many fleas on one thing and she is so small. The poor thing looked so miserable she actually fell asleep when we were picking them out of her furr. After she was clean I fed her some milk and she fell asleep in my arms. I was starting to feel pretty good about saving this little girl and giving her a better life. I shouldn´t have congratulate myself so soon!
I handed her to my friend and then went to my bathroom. A few min later i heard a thud and a very frightened voice that said "oh no....oh no....i think something is really wrong" I came out of the bathroom and saw my puppy lifeless with her tongue sticking out, not breathing, with no hearbeat! I stared at her for a moment, feeling for a pulse and said "she´s dead!" I couldn´t believe it! Turns out my friend had placed her on the bed, turned her back for a moment and she fell off and died. I immediately put my mouth over her snout and started giving her CPR. I administered breaths while my friend pumped her heart. After what seems like forever...she finally took a breath and continued to struggle for life for several minutes. We were successful in reviving her and she still seems to be doing fine. It was a terrifying, yet beautiful experience to witness. I am being extra over protective mom with her now. I can´t wait until she gets fatter and bigger so i don´t have to worry about her so much. My friend feels terrible, yet we were able to actually laugh about it later. I will forever be able to give her shit for it when I want. I said if people ever say you look like someone killed your puppy i can say "well, someone did".
I named the puppy Pilsen. That is actually one of the two main and only brands of beer here in Paraguay. I thought long and hard about cute names in Spanish and Guarani and English and decided Pilsen was a perfect combination and universal language of all 3. I think it´s actually a German beer. I know I am an Urban Youth volunteer and should not be having children repeat a name of a beer when they call my dogs name but Paraguayans appreciate the humor in it and crack up every time i tell them the name. In this culture humor works extremely well with the integration and I am reminded that here no one will get offended about it. The same day I brought my puppy home my family found another puppy in the street and brought it home. They are thinking of keeping it and naming it Brahma the other main beer in Paraguay.
In one day I experienced enough accomplishment, joy, stress and sorrow to last me for awhile. I have my winter camp this afternoon and hope nothing comes close to death afterwards.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)