My portable modem thing has been broken for nigh on two months now, and I've been nigh on flat dirt broke, so internet access has been difficult to come by. My host brother knew about this whole North Korea thing before I did, and everyone is asking me for details, which I cannot supply. (Not that I've really been that connected with the world at large anyway... the last movie I've heard about being in theatres is "Alice in Wonderland.")
So, here's a quicky update on what's going on in Ka'itá, Paraguay.
Summer vacation doesn't technically start until Tuesday, the 30th, but in all reality there hasn't been class for the last three weeks. The past week and a half has been "exam week", and now that that's over very few kids come to school at all. (In fact, even during exam week a lot of kids didn't come. They know they won't fail. I've suspected for a long time that the grades my school submits to the ministry are all fabricated. I'm almost positive now.) Up until now, working at the school has been nothing short of miserable. The kids are great, for the most part. There's a small group of *@#%s, but I suppose that's normal in any school. It was the teachers and the principle that were getting me down. For a long time I thought that it must be something that I was doing wrong. Did I come on too strong? Have I been committing some kind of cultural taboo that I am unaware of? Have I just not been trying hard enough? Well, the more I thought about it, and the more advice I asked from my host family, neighbors and other PC volunteers and staff, I've realized that it really is as I had most feared. It's not me, it's them. You see, if it is something that I am doing wrong, then I can change and fix it. But if it is them, then I'm kind of stuck. (I must mention here, that there IS one good teacher in the school. The fourth grade teacher, who has family in Ka'itá, is a good teacher who is genuinely concerned with his students. It's a shame that the other teachers are just as awful to him as they are to me.)
Paraguayans are, in general, very open and friendly people. I hear that said about nearly every people of every land, but it's often true. If your glass is half full, maybe you could even call it human nature. But my coworkers in this school are unmistakably cold, closed and occationally downright malicious. I'm not the only one who thinks this. In all the time I've lived in this community, I've never heard a single good thing said about the school. Especially since none of the teachers are actually from the community, they don't have any interest whatsoever in its wellbeing. I even had one teacher answer, being asked about the high student illiteracy rate, answer without blinking "Well it isn't my kid." Wow. Just... wow.
I have left behind the notion that my evident failure in this school is my fault. I have really done the best that I am capable of doing. I have come to a decision that I long feared, but has to be made. Even my supervisor pressed me to make this choice. I am not returning to the Ka'itá school next year. To be clear, I am not changing sites, but I am going to be traveling to other nearby schools, whose teachers are willing to utilize what I have to offer. True, I will have quite a strenuous bike ride ahead of me every morning at 6:30 am. (For those of you who know me well... well,... yeah that's gonna be hard.) But I am willing to put in the extra effort in order to work where I am welcome.
Ever since I made this decision, everything is different. It's like I just took an enourmous deep breath of fresh air after slowly suffocating in a tiny, dark airtight box. The rest of my service, which previously looked rather dreadful and bleak, now looks hopeful. I am actually quite excited for the next stage in my service. The closest school to me is San Antonio, but that is a rather well-to-do school with good teachers, so while I will likely be working with them sometimes, I doubt they will be my main focus. A bit further away, but still within an hour's bike ride is Acosta Ñu. I have visited this school before, and met several of the teachers. They are already good teachers, but were none-the-less eager to work with me. Reaching this school (which requires riding up and down several enormous hills on unpaved roads) and maintaining a presentable teacher-appearance upon arrival is virtually impossible, but I'm sure I will find a solution. The preschool and third grade teachers seem particularily interested in working with me. I see many possibilities here, that may (MAAAAY) even spill over into Ka'itá, if I'm lucky.
Apart from Acosta Ñu, I am also looking at working in two other schools that are closer to Oviedo, some 15 km to the west. Escuela María Auxiliadora is as poor a school as I've ever seen. The parents, after years of not receiving promised government funds, built the school themselves out of scraps of wood, plastic sheeting and corrogated tin. Two large rooms hold six grades, and their bathroom is a hold in the ground under a three-walled shack with no running water. I met the Director and some of the teachers, and they were very welcoming and curious as to what my work entails.
The second school I have yet to see. My host family has ten children, but only one daughter. This daughter, Reina, is a teacher in an asentamiento in a barrio of Oviedo. ("Asentamiento" translates roughly to "slum" or "shanty town".) She is a wonderful teacher, and mother of an exceptionally bright four-year-old girl, Estrella, who thinks that brown is the most beautiful color. Reina asked if I could come work in her school as well, and of course I agreed.
I have also just three days ago started a fogón project. A fogón is a type of brick oven with a stovetop, an oven and a chimney. The majority of families in my site, including my own, cook their meals over an open fire on the ground. This causes two main problems: first of all, these families, especially the mothers, spend their whole lives cooking in smoking kitchens, causing chronic eye and respiratory problems. Nearly all the moms in my site have a kind of puffy, yellow scarring on the sclera, or whites of their eyes. Second, all of their food that is not boiled is fried. Obesity, heart disease and high blood pressure are all considered normal, since it is next to impossible to prepare healthy food that is safe to eat on an open fire. Even though building fogons is considered a "Health Sector" project, my community needs it, and I have already talked to a dozen families who are interested in participating. Early last week I talked to the current mayor of Oviedo, and the newly-elected incoming mayor, and they are both very interested in supporting my project. I am starting with building 11 ovens in the poorest area of my site, but I intend on constructing between 40 and 50 fogons in Ka'itá, Santa Lucía and La Victoria by the end of my service. With nearly the promised support of the mayor (and they have supported volunteers in the past) this is a very exciting project.
It's a wonderful thing to feel able and powerful again. I am not going to abandon the Ka'itá school, since I do have one great teacher, several wonderful students, and a personal, moral obligation to the place, but there are so many other schools and communities who need – and WANT – my help! Even though I have been a volunteer for almost seven months now, I feel like my real service is just beginning.
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