Saturday, July 7, 2012

The Aftermath


In the time since Goatgate there has been quite a bit of excitement in the news from Paraguay. The week following the disappearance of Ears, a conflict between landless farmers and the police resulted in casualties on both sides as a peaceful eviction went wrong. Exactly two weeks after my goat was taken, the Paraguayan Parliament impeached the President as a result of a history of poor judgments, within 48 hours the President was out of office and the Vice President was sworn in. This of course caught the attention of international media and resulted in backlash from the neighboring countries in the region. Needless to say Paraguay is experiencing some interesting political times and the future remains uncertain. So what does this mean for the daily life of a Peace Corps Volunteer in the interior? Not much, in fact, it would be hard to tell anything has changed at all. Sure, there are some new conversation topics that come up when drinking terere with the neighbors, but in reality the daily life in Paraguay has not changed at all. I continue teaching, visiting neighbors, shopping in Santani, riding my bike, running, reading, talking with other Peace Corps Volunteers and of course drinking terere (or more likely mate now that it has gotten so cold). The Paraguayans continue to go to school, listen to polka, work in the fields, plant their gardens, drink terere, go back to the fields and of course drink more terere. So while the news abroad may seem quite dramatic, the tranquilo Paraguayan lifestyle has tranquilly prevailed. Personally I have found this Paraguayan attitude extremely refreshing. I have to admit that for several days I was very much the typical American following the news minute by minute expecting the worst and getting myself really worked up to the point of hysteria. Then I looked around to the people who would actually be affected by whatever consequences might come and saw that they were drinking terere just like any other day. These Paraguayans by no means were oblivious to what was going on in their government and most definitely had opinions about the occurrences, but in reality nothing was going to affect their lives that day or the next. I found this approach very refreshing, especially after a couple days of following the news late into the night, it resulted in much needed break from being too connected to the world. This just goes on to support the idea that my Peace Corps service is just like camping. I essentially am outside even when I am not, I sleep in a sleeping bag, bugs are a constant nuisance, cooking is either done with a fire or a gas tank and (if I so choose) I can be completely disconnected.

Currently, 8.000 Bertoni as well as all of Paraguay is getting into another cold spell as winter seems to come and go. Only last week it was in the 90’s and now it is back down into the 40’s. Of course this has resulted in me getting a cold and has even made my cellphone sluggish but to be honest this beats the heat because it is much easier to warm up than it is to cool down when air conditioning is not an option. The best part of the last few weeks has been the abundance of pineapple. I have my piƱa hookup (a 10 year old kid) that comes to my house at least once a week to give me pineapples in exchange for a few sips of water and of course some money. This has made my life much happier as I can experiment with all sorts of pineapple smoothies that mostly include pineapple, powdered milk and water (if I am lucky banana). It is also gardening season and I have spent some time working on my neighbors garden as well as my own and very soon my spinach, chard, cabbage, parsley and broccoli will be ready for transplant and I will be able to eat a bunch of tasty salads. 

This past week was of course Independence Day in the USA and of course the Peace Corps Volunteers had to celebrate our Nation so a lot of us went into Asuncion for the annual picnic at the US Embassy for some hot dogs, hamburgers, Cuban Music and Mexican Beer. My personal favorite moment was winning a door prize! I won a bath kit that including 4 different ways to scrub myself, a bar of soap and a basket. While it may not be as good as the massage that was another prize it will be handy to try and keep my feet pique free and keep my toenails from permanently taking on the red color from the soil. In case you were wondering, pique is probably the most disgusting thing that I have experienced on an almost daily basis. It is a type of flea that thrives in sandy soil (aka my yard) and infects humans and dogs by penetrating into the skin of the foot and then growing as it fills up with eggs resulting in a painful spot on the foot.  While not recommended I prefer to pop them out with orange spines which results in a white pus looking substance coming out as well as the body of the flea. I have gotten so good at this procedure that my elderly neighbors, who don’t see all that well, entrust me to take out their pique for them. Another life skill learned.

Speaking of life skills, a few weeks back I received a phone call from Karai Nelson, one of my neighbors, he says, “Gregorio, come here right now! I just killed two Jarara, come here to take a look.” How could I say no? So I head on over and when I finally arrive to the edge of his forest at the back of his fields I see the two dead Jarara hanging from the fence but I don’t see him.  I take a couple of pictures and go into the ka’aguy (woods) to find Nelson where I find him cutting down some trees. He asks me if I saw the Jarara and of course I say that I had and then he tells me that I have to bring them home with me. I am pretty reluctant but as most Paraguayans he is very insistent and I relent. I ask him if he has a plastic bag around as they are bleeding a lot and I only have my backpack and don’t especially want it to get covered in Jarara blood and of course he doesn’t. Grudgingly, I place the two 6 foot long Jarara in my backpack and take them home (a jarara, by the way, is the Guarani name for Lancehead which is one of the more dangerous venomous snakes in Paraguay).  I now have these two recently killed jarara in my house and am trying to decide what to do with them; my predecessor famously ate a jarara during his service and I decided it would be best to break from this tradition so that Paraguayans don’t think that all Americans just love eating snakes. I decided that the best use for these two dead snakes would be future belts. So I quickly looked up how to skin a snake and then did so. The result: two beautiful 6 foot long snake skins that will someday be transformed into belts once they stop stinking. Life skill learned: I can now confidently skin a snake.

Now that I am down to the last 5 months of service it feels as if life is starting to speed up. School Vacation has just started which gives me two weeks off from my classes and I plan to visit a few other Volunteer’s sites with this free time and before I know it July will be over and then it will be August! At some point I still need to get to Iguazu Falls, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World, and maybe even the Jesuit Missions in Southern Paraguay. This is also getting to be the time where I have to start getting my site as well as some others ready for new volunteers who will replace me when I am gone. My follow-up will likely be the last Environmental Volunteer in my site as there is a three volunteer cycle and I am the second, but new cycles could start up in some neighboring communities ensuring that Peace Corps continues its long tradition in my area. And so the Peace Corps will continue working in Paraguay; each of us as Volunteers are just minuscule pieces of the vast Peace Corps Sustainable Development puzzle.