I made it back. The adventure began with a six hour drive to the campo, cramed in a 4x 4 with two of our guarani teachers, Joti and Fatima, our teach professor and couragous driver Leo, and the four of us: Brian, Lauren, Julia and I. The other 4x4 had the other four of us and Delfina ( guarani teacher) as well as a driver. We bashed our heads on the roofs, windows, each other as we drove through campo paraguaya. After passing through a few fenses, a few rough spots, we made it to the first site where we dropped off our first group. On wards, to the middle of deforested rainforest converted into Eucalipus Forest that SHELL had put up to burn coal and since SHELL has left paraguay is now a source of wood and owned by POMPEO? where many of the locals in Neils town work.
Neil is a Peace Corps Volunteer, who lives with a farming community. We stopped at his house and had of course, Terere (cold mate), in a circle. life is very slow paced and it reminds me of college life, forming circles, and spacing out for hours talking about nothing. But in Paraguay the circle always the conversation starts off with an ice breaker about how hot it is and how many mosquitos there are and they may go into:1) dont you miss your family? they are so far! 2) you arent married and you are HOW OLD???!!. 3) you need a paraguain boyfriend. Do you like Paraguain men? 4) you have blond hair or they may comment on how fat, tall, skinny you are.
We were then dropped off, each of us at a different family. Which went like¨ Hi family, I speak broken Spanish and you basically only use Guarani, here is some groceries for the week. yes i brought vegetables and fruit.. expensive ¨unnecessary¨ odd items. i guess americans are delicate.¨
i shared a bed with Mitra, 24, the most educated, in a house of 9 people.
It feels odd describing a house and a family to people in the states on a blog. so i wont. my only comment is: that the house always had animals in it, this included Pigs, Ducks, Chickens, Sheep, dogs, cats. one night when i was going to sleep, and Mitra and her friend and son were sharing the room, i notice a pig had settled next to our bed. we found this funny, they laughed with the joke that the pig wanted to sleep with the norte and i laughing because this was just a new stituation to be in.
I found the naivity i have when i thought that through my travels ( ive been even to zambia!) i understood what is poverty. i felt before these past five days that i understood poverty as a lack of items, resources and desire. now i realize how complicated the stituation is and how much i dont understand. Health is such a huge part.
I loved helping out the women. Gertude, 18 with her 1 year old, was always home making food, feeding the animals, milking the many cows. she married into the family, the oldest brother of 31. Gertude was always smiling and taking care of her sick child.
Grandma was super woman. she lived across the street and had the ability to get the men off their asses and help out. I went and harvested mandio with her. she came and went in silence, and had an ora of empowerment.
With Rosita, the mom I pealed mandio for us and chopped the mandio and threw it out the window for the pigs, ducks, chicken to feast.
I learned about being constantly uncomfortable in every possible way and letting it go for a moment and look up to a smile of Rosita or Gertude. Once i smiled i felt happier and realized why smiling is so important to the paraguain people. it is a feeling that goes so deep when you are unhappy.
I saw more animal violence in five days than i knew existed. this included the blued eyed kittens, and red marked cows. i felt a need for a closed off environment filled with love which i missed. but then learned how to not react to an environment that was out of my control.
It rained for the first three days, we were not sure if we would be able to drive out, the roads were so slipper that i decided to walk bearfoot through the cow mantue rather than fall.
it was so beautiful......the Eucalipus forest in the background of small rolling hills, huts along the red dirt road.
one night i walked to Neils with Mitra and her youngest brother who i nicknamed Spiderman because Neil had taught him about Speeeder man and this was his first opening up to me. I let him wear my headlamp as we passed under the stairs, passed wooden huts with soft light and loud music. We passed the small store with christmas lights and the men outside drinking cana. we walked to Neils, a 30 minute walk, to ask my professor who was staying with him if i could go with Mitra tomorrow morning to work.
The next morning we woke up at 4:30 which was fine for me, i hadnt been sleeping with the mosquito bites and bed bugs. Leaving at 5 we jumped into a cab of a huge truck that held all the workers in the back. In the cab, we drank hot mate and climbed the hills at the break of day to the POMPEO logging company.
Mitra worked in the office. she has worked there for the passed four years, and does the equilvent of six people´s work in the states. she is the only person working in the office. there are about 167 workers who need to be payed, need their walkees, etc. she keeps track of how much gas they use in their machines and weather they required a box breakfast, lunch or dinner that day to be deducted. the men leave their lunch pails with their names on it in a pile, she writes down their names and the cooks fill them with fried dough or what ever is on the menu.
Mitra works to 5 or 6 or 7 ( it depends) and gets a ride back on the company truck. her office is at the top of the mountain and they have a tower which over looks the many heters of Eucalips to search for fire. each man is paid based on their job: pesticide, fertizer, chopper, etc. and based on the amount they get done, Mitra keeps track of this in her small office on an excel sheet. she has air conditioner and a desk for her boss who was out for most of the time. It is a very nice atmosphere. She has a flush toliet.
Oh! i forgot to mention that the four of us trainees did a lecture on grafting for 6,7, 8th graders. it ended up going well, mixing in spanish and guarani. we had them do a puzzle which was really hard for them. my professor said it was probably the first puzzle they have done. children in schools in paraguay copy whats on the board and memorize and spilt it out for the test. there is NO critical thinking or own creative thoughts (dictatorship!). we were very radical for them and they were a little timid of us. but very interested. calling kids out of a group doesnt exist yet. opinions hardly matter....
We got home yesterday to what we now understand how well off our families in Senda are. My clean bed, a real bathroom and now an internet cafe with air condition in the nearbye town. its almost too much. I am very happy that the roads we passable and we didnt get stuck.
Although I am happy to be back, I was happy there. Ill forever remember small Grandma with a hat and plaid long shirt, hearding twenty cows with her stick and UUUUUU noise. The smiles of Rosita, Gertude´s maturity, and Mitra ability to prevail.
Neil is a Peace Corps Volunteer, who lives with a farming community. We stopped at his house and had of course, Terere (cold mate), in a circle. life is very slow paced and it reminds me of college life, forming circles, and spacing out for hours talking about nothing. But in Paraguay the circle always the conversation starts off with an ice breaker about how hot it is and how many mosquitos there are and they may go into:1) dont you miss your family? they are so far! 2) you arent married and you are HOW OLD???!!. 3) you need a paraguain boyfriend. Do you like Paraguain men? 4) you have blond hair or they may comment on how fat, tall, skinny you are.
We were then dropped off, each of us at a different family. Which went like¨ Hi family, I speak broken Spanish and you basically only use Guarani, here is some groceries for the week. yes i brought vegetables and fruit.. expensive ¨unnecessary¨ odd items. i guess americans are delicate.¨
i shared a bed with Mitra, 24, the most educated, in a house of 9 people.
It feels odd describing a house and a family to people in the states on a blog. so i wont. my only comment is: that the house always had animals in it, this included Pigs, Ducks, Chickens, Sheep, dogs, cats. one night when i was going to sleep, and Mitra and her friend and son were sharing the room, i notice a pig had settled next to our bed. we found this funny, they laughed with the joke that the pig wanted to sleep with the norte and i laughing because this was just a new stituation to be in.
I found the naivity i have when i thought that through my travels ( ive been even to zambia!) i understood what is poverty. i felt before these past five days that i understood poverty as a lack of items, resources and desire. now i realize how complicated the stituation is and how much i dont understand. Health is such a huge part.
I loved helping out the women. Gertude, 18 with her 1 year old, was always home making food, feeding the animals, milking the many cows. she married into the family, the oldest brother of 31. Gertude was always smiling and taking care of her sick child.
Grandma was super woman. she lived across the street and had the ability to get the men off their asses and help out. I went and harvested mandio with her. she came and went in silence, and had an ora of empowerment.
With Rosita, the mom I pealed mandio for us and chopped the mandio and threw it out the window for the pigs, ducks, chicken to feast.
I learned about being constantly uncomfortable in every possible way and letting it go for a moment and look up to a smile of Rosita or Gertude. Once i smiled i felt happier and realized why smiling is so important to the paraguain people. it is a feeling that goes so deep when you are unhappy.
I saw more animal violence in five days than i knew existed. this included the blued eyed kittens, and red marked cows. i felt a need for a closed off environment filled with love which i missed. but then learned how to not react to an environment that was out of my control.
It rained for the first three days, we were not sure if we would be able to drive out, the roads were so slipper that i decided to walk bearfoot through the cow mantue rather than fall.
it was so beautiful......the Eucalipus forest in the background of small rolling hills, huts along the red dirt road.
one night i walked to Neils with Mitra and her youngest brother who i nicknamed Spiderman because Neil had taught him about Speeeder man and this was his first opening up to me. I let him wear my headlamp as we passed under the stairs, passed wooden huts with soft light and loud music. We passed the small store with christmas lights and the men outside drinking cana. we walked to Neils, a 30 minute walk, to ask my professor who was staying with him if i could go with Mitra tomorrow morning to work.
The next morning we woke up at 4:30 which was fine for me, i hadnt been sleeping with the mosquito bites and bed bugs. Leaving at 5 we jumped into a cab of a huge truck that held all the workers in the back. In the cab, we drank hot mate and climbed the hills at the break of day to the POMPEO logging company.
Mitra worked in the office. she has worked there for the passed four years, and does the equilvent of six people´s work in the states. she is the only person working in the office. there are about 167 workers who need to be payed, need their walkees, etc. she keeps track of how much gas they use in their machines and weather they required a box breakfast, lunch or dinner that day to be deducted. the men leave their lunch pails with their names on it in a pile, she writes down their names and the cooks fill them with fried dough or what ever is on the menu.
Mitra works to 5 or 6 or 7 ( it depends) and gets a ride back on the company truck. her office is at the top of the mountain and they have a tower which over looks the many heters of Eucalips to search for fire. each man is paid based on their job: pesticide, fertizer, chopper, etc. and based on the amount they get done, Mitra keeps track of this in her small office on an excel sheet. she has air conditioner and a desk for her boss who was out for most of the time. It is a very nice atmosphere. She has a flush toliet.
Oh! i forgot to mention that the four of us trainees did a lecture on grafting for 6,7, 8th graders. it ended up going well, mixing in spanish and guarani. we had them do a puzzle which was really hard for them. my professor said it was probably the first puzzle they have done. children in schools in paraguay copy whats on the board and memorize and spilt it out for the test. there is NO critical thinking or own creative thoughts (dictatorship!). we were very radical for them and they were a little timid of us. but very interested. calling kids out of a group doesnt exist yet. opinions hardly matter....
We got home yesterday to what we now understand how well off our families in Senda are. My clean bed, a real bathroom and now an internet cafe with air condition in the nearbye town. its almost too much. I am very happy that the roads we passable and we didnt get stuck.
Although I am happy to be back, I was happy there. Ill forever remember small Grandma with a hat and plaid long shirt, hearding twenty cows with her stick and UUUUUU noise. The smiles of Rosita, Gertude´s maturity, and Mitra ability to prevail.
Oh, Marianna, I am very moved by yr observations and yr humility. And the courage it takes to be there and to keep going. Thank you for sharing these experiences with us.
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