Tacuati

December 2

It’s such a fascinating place. I’ve lived here over seven months now and I still am learning more and more about it. Some things are interesting, others surprising, some impressive, and most make me wonder how I’ll ever truly understand this place. Some examples:

My friend Clara and I are trying to start a little walking group to walk for an hour or so each evening. Sounds great except that there’s always some excuse not to do it, and she’s embarassed to walk through the center of town so I have to go stop by her place and then we walk down some crazy path to get to the river. It’s not that she won’t walk alone, or that it’s too far, or that she’s embarassed to run of everyone watching (which I am, I’ll admit), or thinks they’ll laugh at her workout outfits because she just wears her regular clothes anyway. She’s embarassed to simply walk down the street. It makes no sense to me – Clara’s a super independent woman, 30 years old and unmarried, owns a clothing store and is about to open a cell phone store, lived in Buenos Aires for 9 years, she’s no campo girl. But she won’t walk down the street.

Yesterday I walked with my host mom Elisa and she told me about how Tacuati was when she was a kid. She had to go to high school in Concepcion because there was no high school here, and there also were no roads, just one path leading up to Horqueta. So to get home from high school for the weekends, she would ride in a truck from Concepcion to Horqueta, all dirt road (today it’s a major paved highway), and from Horqueta she would have to ride a horse the 40k to Tacuati. Now there are buses, and the roads aren’t paved but they’re passable. A group of guys from Asuncion is about to open a computer center here and will offer basic computer classes. They won’t have internet connection yet, but they will someday (hopefully within the next year and a half!!). It’s amazing how quickly things can change, how much change Elisa has already seen in her lifetime, and what more is to come in the next years.

And yesterday I was surprised to learn about a church-sponsored program called Pastoral de los Niños. It’s a neighborhood health group, with a city-wide leader and local neighborhood leaders who go door to door to help parents chart their kids’ growth, remind them about vaccinations, talk to new moms about the need for stimulation with newborns, etc. I stopped by my neighbor Ña Christina’s just to chat and saw the women poring over child growth charts. These neighborhood leaders have gone through something like 40 hours of training, and could explain to me all sorts of early childhood psychology, such as how newborns need black and white colors but then infants see best with primary colors, and how moms need to talk to the babies even in the womb. I was totally impressed, and asked how I could learn more about this group, and they invited me to their meeting which fortunately was today. So this morning I sat with 5 señoras and one man (interestingly, he’s the town coordinator) as they discussed this year’s work and plans for next year, which include a community garden and forming neighborhood mother’s groups to help disseminate health information. It was incredibly impressive, and I hope I’ll be able to work with them more. With groups like this that are already formed, I’ve been having a bit of difficulty figuring out how I can insert myself in and support what they’re already doing, so I’m not sure how it’ll turn out, but I’m excited even to participate in this model organization. There are also Pastoral groups out in the poorer settlements, and while I can’t go to tomorrow’s meeting out there for lack of transportation (I know, I know, I need to get on that bike!) I think it’s probably much more necessary there.

As I mentioned, this group is run by the Catholic church, of which usually I would be wary if not downright cynical. Missionary work is not my thing. However, the Catholic church here in my experience has been an important force for development. They’re the only ones running camps for kids in the summer; with this Pastoral program they’re working on the health education and prevention that’s lacking since we only have a health center with nurses that can do basic treatment; they’re the only sort of youth group or extracurricular activity available for kids. And from what I’ve seen, these things may be religious at times, beginning with prayers or something, but it’s not a religious crusade in a way that would make me uncomfortable (or mad). Who’d have thought I’d be wanting to work with organized religious groups?? Yet another surprise for me in Paraguay.