http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/world/americas/21paraguay.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=paraguay+&st=nyt&oref=slogin

NY Times whoop whoop...

Opama la Eleccion

and so ends 61 years of single party rule in Paraguay. Thats Lino O neither the big victor nor the big loser, those spots belong to Fernando Lugo and Blanca Ovelar (and especially Nicanor). We have been on alert level Bravo for the last 48 hours, a step up from Alpha, and a step before Charlie, consolidation for evacuation. It was touch and go for a bit there. I watched the news with Feliciano one day as sin techos (the homeless) were marching on Asuncion demanding what they were promised by Nicanor. Violence broke out and the police, who are notoriously pro-colorado had injured several rioters and were riding around on horses and anti riot tanks with water cannons. In the days leading up to the election, Lugo had 33% of the vote, Blanca 28, and Lino O 27. Lugo ended up winning every department and the Colorado party accepted its defeat with relative grace. But now, after over 60 years without change, all of the government ministries are going to have new staff and personel. It will be interesting between now and August when Lugo gets sworn in. As for the day, it was relatively uneventful in the dos. People were getting ferried to and from the polling stations, but otherwise going about their lives. I decided since there was a chance it could have been one of my last days in paraguay that I should make a note of some of it.

I started as usual with the morning Mate and fortunately had half of a coconut leftover to break the fast with. Rikky the dog came over to check out the scene as did a group of Ña Maria´s piglets. I decided that I was just going to be holding down the fort all day waiting for the election results, so I went to the almacen to buy some Kentucky soft packs, the smoke of choice of the Paraguayan campesino. There I talked with Feliciano, the owner about the election, and he told me he wasn´t going to vote because he was embarassed because he is missing the finger you dip in the ink (like the iraqi elections) from a corn harvesting accident. I told him ¨ani ti, enterove oikotevê mba´e¨ (don´t be ashamed, everyone is missing something) and was on my way. I saw Ña Blanca, Antonio Torres´ wife on the way back adn stopped to have breakfast with them, fried flour and milk. They showed me their peanuts that were drying after the harvest. I left. I had recently begun learning the southern (and northern) constellations and decided to bring the star atlas, a book on integrated aqua/agriculture, a New Yorker, and a Brief History of Time to my spot under a tree where I read. I was trying to figure out how many ducks Antonio´s fish ponds could support when, two children came along, Jose Ignacio and another who I hadn´t known and they played while I read. One of them rode my bike around the yard and I gave the other a National Geographic of the 100 best wildlife photos. Iñacâhatâ (literally, their heads are hard, but they say it about children to mean they have a lot of energy) and when they calmed down they started reading the New Yorker out loud and laughing at the ipod Nano advertisement.¨Nderakore!¨ is what Jose said, thats basically like holy shit. They left and I threw Steven Hawking at a chicken that was trying to sneak into my room. I made myself a quick lunch of some vegetables I had bought in Santa Rita (because its only onions and tomatoes in the Dos) and laughed as an old VW minibus cruised by filled with Lugo supporters and followed closely by a Blanca endorsing VW hatchback that was probably smuggled into the country from Brazil by Lino O´s stolen car ring. I did grow bored though and realized it had been raining and that the monte´i (little jungle) was probably buzzing, so I laced up the boots and grabbed my machete and was off. Two big finds:


The first is the blue morpho butterfly and is about 5 inches across and the second is an orchid-like mushroom I found. I headed back and it was starting to get dark. My neighbor, Alfredo, who everybody calls Pombero (the paraguayan boogey man) was leaving


I lend Pombero my bicycle and he gives me ice for my terere. These days the darkness brings the coldness, and since we had been harvesting corn recently, there were plenty of husks and cobs to start a fire with. I built it in a little oven I built out of the extra bricks we didn´t use from the construction of the Barbacua. I hadn´t realized it, but almost all of my days have come to be a lot like this. In the coming week, I will visit Wilfredo, who I got bee equipment for in exchange for some of his honey and him taking the lead with the coop´s future hives, Cristobol to bring him a watering can for his lettuce production (again in exchange for some delicious lettuce), my horse guy who is helping me find a horse (wilfredo´s kids show up to computer class riding barefoot and bareback), Antonio to talk ducks and maybe capybara (i´m crossing my fingers on that), and anyone else who wants to talk about multicropping Leucaena and Mandioca. On the work side, I have to liase between my coop and three organizations, Paraguay Vende (USAID project to connect producers with consumers/export markets), Credicoop (cooperative of cooperatives that gives out credit on fairly favorable terms, which in paraguay is 15% on a short term loan), and Fecoprod (federation of production coops to match our inputs with other coop´s outputs and vice versa). Also there´s another 5,000 kilos of avatì pytâ (red corn) to harvest and the 18,000,000 guaranis we need to figure out how to invest (we´re working towards pig and egg production for the short term, and things like expanding our yerba supply, producing firewood, and getting internet for our long term). But when we´re busy, I have the most fun, because there are a lot of socios coming through and a lot of terere time.
And when we´re just sitting aroundwe have the best times. Good stuff