musings on one year in La Novia

It’s been harder for me to keep a schedule to blog lately. Maybe it’s the unpredictable and dubious weather, maybe that I seem to be juggling a lot of different projects and tasks and I’m busier. Either way, I decided to take advantage of being cooped up in a thunderstorm (with the power back on, yea!) and update this thing J

October came and went, and the legend of “Mr. October” in Paraguay didn’t seem to show his face. Apparently because October is one of the longer months and in between winter and spring it is considered one of the harsher times of the year here. People commemorate this by eating beans and locro (corn) for lunch on October 1^st, and that meant at least three families invited me to eat with them. The vegetarian oddity I represent in PY has been working to my advantage lately – it means lots of yummy meat-free meals with families that are happy to share their “ultimo recurso” or ‘last resort’ food with me.  

I didn’t celebrate Halloween this year, and I was just fine with that since it’s not my favorite holiday. I did however celebrate All Saints Day in Paraguay with a family in another community, and we lit candles in honor of their loved ones that passed away. Essentially kids do trick or treat here, they just go to the cemetery for candy and snacks that families bring along to hand out to kids. They also tote fresh flowers, adornments, a new coat of paint, candles, etc. to decorate and fix-up tombstones and gravesites. It was an interesting experience, and the cultural practices around death and remembrance have given me a lot to think about here. 

This year I generally feel like I clumsily found a place here, and I’m still figuring it out. I also realize there are families who are still confused what is it is exactly I do here. There’s no easy way to do development – and it’s not any easier to convince the subsistence farmers I live with and work with that they can live better if they actively participate in the development process.  I’m trying though! I started a couple major projects that will carry me through this next year of service.

One is a gardening project with the women’s committee I work the most with – which is made up of some quite hardworking and impressive women. Hopefully soon you will find on the Peace Corps website a Partnership Grant for a garden shade cloth and metal fencing funding proposal. These are expensive items that most people I work with cannot afford on their own. We are in the middle of a 6-part bio-intensive gardening workshop series and committee fundraising projects. Families will not receive materials unless they already have a garden, and have put into practice at least three different organic gardening techniques. My last two attempts at holding a workshop (on water management) this past week failed, however, due to a death in the community and then the threat of what turned out to be an intense thunderstorm and torrential downpours. I wont be meeting with these women until after I get back from vacation, but I guess that is how it goes.

(Oh yeah! Side note: In the next three weeks you will find me wandering the vastness of the south as I set off for an 8-day trek in Patagonia, adventures in Chile and Argentina, 5 days to relax on the beach in Uruguay, and a couple days in Buenos Aires before heading back to PY.)

This garden project ideally will have a 30% community contribution both financially and through labor and natural resources. We have started a small savings group within the women’s committee, and at every meeting each member gives about $1 to our fund. Once we have 400 mil guaranies (or about $90) we can open a savings account in a local bank. A current fundraising venture is selling dish detergent we made after the last garden workshop. It’s slow going - but I am hopeful that this will be successful. One thing that has been rewarding so far is seeing the brand-new garden of a committee member in Nueva Londres that utilized almost all of the practices we’ve covered in previous garden workshops. She is excited about starting a worm bin after the last workshop on worm compost, and I was blown away by how much the whole family was involved in the garden construction.

The other project is community-wide tree planting, but unfortunately I will miss out on a major part of the process this time around. I have learned my lesson – don’t rush projects before taking vacation! I have been trying for the past month or so to get tree seedlings donated from a local nursery and because of a number of things, the trees won’t be getting delivered until the earliest this Thursday. I will not be around to help facilitate the distribution and planting of the native trees, which is a bummer. However, I organized a workshop the other week with forestry specialists from the national forestry institute and they are interested in working with La Novia and Nueva Londres in a major reforestation project that we will work on in March, after the summer has well-passed. There are a handful of families very interested in planting large plots of trees. One family I work with and love is already doing a ton of agro-forestry on their land, but they want to do more.

There’s constant movement in my life right now, and I’ve been struggling to make time for stillness, in many sense of the word. I think the summer (after getting back from the coldest parts of Argentina/Chile) will bring any excessive activities to a halt. It is far too hot in this country between December-February and from 11am to 4pm to do anything but practice stillness. And of course drink the ubiquitous, cold, herb-infused terere.  Oh, and shower at least 3 or 4 times a day in cold water.

Exactly a year ago I was visiting La Novia for the first time, during my ‘future site visit’ and I remember being bewildered by it all – the food, the bugs, the families, names, the cultural practices. Now, this place is my second home where I find my friends and family. I get choked up thinking about saying goodbye to this place I have carved out for myself here – and goodbye to the people that have loved me fiercely and unconditionally. The love I experience (both in giving and receiving) in this country is something I didn’t quite expect, and will stay in my heart forever. For now, I will focus on living in the moment, continuing to fall in love, and soak it up as much as humanly possible.