De todo un poco

I will start this off by saying I’m sorry for all those who grew accustomed to my frequent blog updates . My absence these last few months hasn’t been for a lack of thoughts, I have just been extremely consumed by my life here. I will try to recap different things that have gone down these last few months leading up to now.

Present: I have been in touch with one of the heads of recruiting for Latin America in the Harvard admissions office. I am currently working on a project that would recruit exceptional Paraguayan students to study at Harvard and am now an official interviewer.
I had the pleasure a few weeks back of meeting Dr. Benjamín Fernández Bogado: http://www.benjaminfernandezbogado.com/ He is a native Paraguayan who has received degrees in journalism, law, political science, etc. He studied and was a visiting professor at Harvard. He has studied in Oxford, Mexico, Ecuador and done work all over the world. He also is a former Fulbright scholar. He came to Encarnación a few weeks back to present his newest book. I had the pleasure of conversing with him about my experience in Paraguay and motives for joining the Peace Corps. I also had the pleasure of meeting another friend who was traveling with him, Federico. Federico just got back from studying at the London School of Economics (MBA I believe) and is back home starting his career. Myself and Federico will be meeting later this month to discuss a sex-ed campaign he is working with the government to put on in different states.

All 3 of us got the chance to spend some time together and discuss various things in Paraguay. After the book presentation, I hopped in the car with them to a conference on globalization, economic development, and other themes related to Paraguay. There were many people in attendance, and Dr. Benjamín helped me make a lot of contacts. I met the president of cooperatives in Paraguay,( who I will be meeting with later this month to discuss opportunities for the cooperative in my barrio), and various heads of industry throughout Paraguay. I met university students interested in helping me with my projects. I’d say I received about 10-15 business cards that night and have been in touch with most of them about working together on projects. Later that night us 3 traveled to the mayor of Encarnación’s house which is a really big deal. We had some good food, and soaked in good music and had good conversation. The mayor spoke with me about how he was interested in sending computers to the comedor I worked at so kids could study and the community as a whole could have access to them. I ended up later that week going with the directora of my comedor to the mayor’s office and he promised to deliver 20 computers for us! The comedor recently had it’s 3 yr anniversary, I helped work with another teacher to put together a performance by the kids where they sang and danced to the World Cup song “waving flag.” It was hilarious getting them to pronounce words in English. In the end they did a great job and left an impression on many of those people from the government that were in attendance. I am now working to institute a new discipline system in the comedor as there are a lot of problems with behavior and bullying. The teachers sometimes feel overwhelmed and don’t always feel like getting involved. We will be meeting as a staff to discuss solutions and work on classroom management.

Dr. Benjamín came back to Encarn this past Thursday to present his book at the 6th annual book fair of Encarn (librofería). The Dr. asked me to give an opening to his book and so I had to speak in front of various people from Encarn, business men, doctors, college students, professors and others about my experiences as a volunteer working with youth, my time at Harvard, and my hopes for the future. It was completely off the cuff, making my first true speech in Spanish in front of a bunch of news cameras ha. This past weekend, myself and another volunteer (Jess) went to the University of Pilar with the Dr. as he spoke about the importance of making drastic changes to the education system of Paraguay. This time I spoke in front of faculty and students about the importance of establishing the value of education for kids here at an early age. Fellow volunteer Jess talked about teaching kids about the importance of environmental education as well. We returned to Encarn sat night, and got to meet Dr. Benjamín’s wife Lizza Bogado, who is one of the most famous singers in Paraguay. She wowed and amazed us all and it was a wonderful experience. Him and his wife are two truly amazing and inspiring people who have given me a renewed sense of commitment and service to this country. I will be staying with Dr. Benjamín and his family at the end of the month in Asunción.

In other news, I am working with my youth group on creating the first community library in my barrio. We have a space in the school that the principal is letting us use to create it. We have begun to raise money, selling artesanía. We are in the process of sending out requests for books and other educational materials, as well as book shelves, tables, and chairs to various institutions. Thanks to support from Dr. Benjamín, we already have Paraguayans interested in donating lots of books and internet access to our library! I am also working with the head of the national library in Encarnación to go about receiving resources for our library. I cannot stress enough how important libraries are to Paraguay. Books here can be pretty expensive and there simply isn’t a culture here of reading. Bookstores are small often times and families simply do not have the money to buy books and often time the values to educate their children outside of the classroom. Libraries here also generally do not let people check out books because they have had problems with people returning the books. Sometimes when I am on the bus going into the centro reading, I notice the weird stares people give me when they see me reading. Some of my students have even asked me why I’m reading, claiming, it isn’t enjoyable or fun. I remember a specific moment where I was reading Dreams from My father, completely engaged in the beautifully written work, and I looked over at a teenager who was playing a video game on his cell phone and I thought about how big of a knowledge difference there is in a society where people simply aren’t reading. I’m learning something new every day and yet there are so many following the status quo, not being challenged or exposed to new ideas. I hope to establish reading clubs and perhaps discussions with older youth to encourage a passion for reading. Many kids are embarrassed about their reading level and are ashamed to pick up a book.

At the end of the month I am headed to the capital to talk with several Harvard alums about how we can work together to recruit more Paraguayans to Harvard. I am excited to see what possibilities we will have for a successful project.

I am also still working with governor’s office to put together a youth employment program right now. We still have to do a study of the market and see what demand there is for companies in the region and what kinds of things young people need to be trained in. I will be meeting with the NGO sponsoring the program at the end of the month to go over details. I am also in the process of working on another youth vocational program called Proela (through Fundación Dequeni) which provides youth with work, life skills and leadership training.

English classes in my community have been a great way for me to get to know more youth from my barrio. The kids are really eager to learn and we are having a great time. You learn so much more about your language when you have to teach it.
I have been continuing to work in the high school at night doing life skills and vocational training. A few weeks ago I had the chance to travel with the 10th grade to the Entidad Binacional Yacyreta, which is the dam responsible for displacing people from their homes along the Paraná river and the reason why my barrio exists. It is a massive dam and it was interesting to learn about its history considering all the politics I hear about.

Lastly I am starting to help out my friend and environmental ed volunteer jess, who has started a zero waste campaign in 10 schools throughout encarn. She just got back from the governor’s office and he will be throwing a bunch of money at her project so she can implement it in more schools throughout the state! I helped her out with one leadership charla so far and look forward to working with her more in the future.

Old posts:

Winter here can be BRUTAL. Any hubris I had developed from enduring New England winters has disappeared. While it only gets to about 30s at night here, it might as well be 0. When you have no heat and houses are made to ventilated air for summer, times can get tough. You really can’t escape the cold. Think about in the states how on the coldest days you may walk around a bit, but anywhere you go there is heat. Now imagine that cold when you’re in your bed…when you wake up it’s still there, while ur cooking the hawk is still out…while your teaching you still shiver… haha builds character I guess. Luckily there is a very old space heater I had found in my house that works ok and I try to put it as close to my face as possible. Its crazy I can skype my family or that people can have computers in their homes, but heat is still something almost no one in my barrio has.

World Cup fever was once-in-a- lifetime. It was incredible to witness how much conversation shifted the last few months. I already had tons of soccer conversations since my arrival here, but this year’s world cup took it to another level. It was a great experience especially because Paraguay went so far this year. I watched the Japan game in the comedor with the kids and teachers, where the teachers were in tears as Paraguay won on penalty shots and for a moment it seemed like everyone forgot about the difficulties in their life and just basked in the success of the national team. People honked their horns throughout my barrio, blasted music and kids ran through the streets screaming and playing with a joy I haven’t seen for some time. Paraguay was showing the world what it was made of, it wasn’t some insignificant country and that it too mattered. It never ceases to amaze how sport can unite. As someone who always invested a lot of my time and energy into playing sports and being a fan, it is truly a sight to behold and simultaneously discouraging at times to think about how we invest a lot of our time living vicariously through our athletes like a long drawn out movie with a protagonist we identify with. People spend money on jerseys, make down payments on televisions and yet since I’ve been here, have almost never seen someone reading for pleasure. Sports are beautiful in a lot of ways; in my opinion, most importantly because they can build character and teach life lessons. Too often however, I don’t see sports being used in that way. Kids all want to be pros without reflecting on what achieving that dream means. Hard work isn’t their understanding of greatness, fame is. Sports can be such a great tool to motivate and inspire and hopefully during my service, I can use the passion youth have for soccer to teach them about something more.

On another note, the Spain game was truly a once-in-a lifetime experience. Me and some friends went to a bar/restaurant rocking our Paraguayan jerseys. Once people realized I wasn’t Brazilian they cut me some slack it seems haha. We cheered on Paraguay with all our hearts, letting out gasps at near goals and screaming at the television as if the refs heard our complaints. At key moments I found myself hugging strangers and cheering with a fervor that was a flashback to my childhood when sport was like a battle between good verus evil. I can’t recall being so emotionally invested in a game since I was playing high school sports. The /Brazilians have an expression of playing beautiful (joga bonito) to describe the creativity and style inherent in their game as they go on to victory. It could be said that Paraguay lost beautifully. They played with all their hearts and came up short in the end a lil luck for spain here and there made the difference. Men, women and child alike let out tears, but everyone was so proud of their team and it showed. People cheered and clapped for their team as Paraguay enjoyed its best world cup finish yet. They showed the world what they were made of and people felt more important because of that. An interesting back drop to the game was the racial undertones that had been brought to the forefront due to the Spanish press attempts to insult Paraguayans based on their indigenous heritage. It was fascinating to see how belittled and angry people felt. I found myself having conversations with them on the basis of how people did not like feeling inferior or discriminated against… I definitely used it as a tool to discuss the reaction many Paraguayans have towards people of darker color to explain that many of us suffer the same things from Paraguayans. There is always an in group and out group. If Spaniards claim superiority to Argentina then Argentina does so to Paraguay and so on… People never stop to think about how it’s all just a vicious cycle of racism.

In terms of work in schools things slowed down for quite some time. There was a teacher’s strike for about a 3 week period that went right into winter vacation which is another 2 weeks. Teachers wanted a salary increase that was promised to them by the government. It’s tough because so many kids were missing out on a lot of school and have little to do. I was also just starting to get my feet wet, working with teachers and getting to know so many students who were eager to learn and work together. While the strikes were going on, I had been working in the comedor planning out a bunch of activities with the teachers. I am working with the teachers to come up with more dynamic ways to teach subject matter along with making games more fun and establishing a better way to discipline..

At the women’s center, many of the students are getting up to speed on how to use a machine and I’m looking forward to teaching on gender in the upcoming months. I am working with one of my contacts to implement various programming for our youth group. We want to have meetings regularly that are based in leadership and community building. We have the support of the organization junior achievement to get things rolling with project implementation.
I am hoping we can work together with the cooperative to have a nice computer lab where kids can come to study. I have also been in touch with various NGOs and people about trying to bring vocational training here for youth where they can have internships with companies that may be interested in hiring them in the future. Right now I am working on a study to understand the bigger labor demands by the businesses in my region to see if we can come up with some partnership to empower youth. Once I have a better understanding of which sectors are looking for hires and what kinds of skills they are looking for, I am hoping our community can work with government and non-governmental orgs to help work with businesses to incentivize training. Many programs like this exist in the capital of asuncion, and now it is just a matter of decentralization.

Lastly, I hope to work with other volunteers on diversity training as so many youth here have little exposure to people of other cultures, races, ethnicities, and ideas. Some of the questions I have gotten here speak volumes about how little is being done to address this need. Along with that, gender is something I want to really dedicate a lot of time to. I find that various orgs are trying to empower women but not doing a solid enough job of gearing more gender education at men. Guys need to learn about the social constructs that have come into play about what it is to be a man or woman. The machismo here is unlike any place I’ve ever been and men need to own that and work to change. It’s disheartening that there aren’t more men out there teaching about how we all have to work to improve as human beings and citizens.

Having my sister Sam come visit me was great. It was the longest stretch I had gone in my life without seeing a member of my family and it was be cool to just hang out and catch up. I have a new house and she got to know my community and comprehend what PC life is like.

It was a nice treat to return to Buenos aires, a city that I love with so much culture and things to do. I went with a few PC friends, my sis, and a friend of a friend from the states. I caught up with old Argentinian friends. A friend from college is there killing that game on a fulbright. I also had the pleasure of meeting up the director of the Harvard internship program in BA (I did the program 2 yrs ago). She asked to speak to a group of Harvard Students about my experiences in BA and Latin America in general. I got to pub Peace Corps a bit and and how important it is that more students take that intellectual capacity they have and consider at some point doing something that challenges your whole existence. There are tons of different Peace Corps experiences to be had in big cities, rural communities, and small towns.