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 piña 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.
