Centro Cultural de los Pioneros de Tavapy II

Just got back from Brazillian steakhouse. It is rico. Seeing as how what i eat in site is mandioca root, corn, rice, onions, and occasionally meat, all you can eat buffet and a selection of a dozen grilled meats works pretty well...although I am having trouble walking.

Right now I just want to post the project description from the first USAID grant and the project narratives from the Peace Corps Partnerships program I am currently applying for. Bear in mind that the two excerps stand alone without their entourage of budgets, work plans, monitoring and evaluation plans, community involvement plans, calendars, contracts, or any of the nuts and bolts related items. Peace Corps Partnerships is a program through which a link is posted online on the Peace Corps website and all who view it are able (and encouraged) to donate. The only reason I am posting the full bit here, is because at peacecorps.gov, they only post the 250 word overall description and that can´t do justice to the necessity in the community for this project. The post immediately before this one (Ñamono´o) begins to describe the situation, and I truly hope that the following excerpts will help to clarify the situation in Tavapy II and the worthiness of the project. Beginning with the SPA project description:

Proyecto de Reconstrucción de una Barbacua para la fabricación de Yerba Mate y el mejoramiento de la Cooperativa Multiactiva Tavapy II

Tavapy II is a community of approximately 400 houses located in the district of Santa Rosa del Monday in the department of Alto Parana. Founded May 20^th of 1987, the habitants, now small farmers and almacen owners, originally had 10 hectares each but are increasingly pressured but population growth and a systemic lack of work for the 2^nd and 3^rd generations many of whom have had to leave young children behind to go to Spain or Argentina. Basic infrastructure (electricity, water, health center, police, etc) is present but under equipped and generally lacking. The project will specifically help the Cooperativa Multiactiva Tavapy II which has 27 members of whom 35% are women. The cooperative has a robust consejo de administracion and junta de vigilancia but a comite de educacion in name only. Relations between the elected and nonelected members are very equitable and all socios are welcomed to all meetings. The project will address rebuilding a burned down barbacuá to reinstall a seasonal capacity of approximately 300,000 kilograms of hoja verde, and generally will aid in strengthening the cooperative in order to provide more services to socios thereby expanding the base of socios.

The fire was a major blow for the cooperative which sold its last 3000 KG of Yerba to raise just enough funds to acquire materials to rebuild the barbecua, leaving nothing to buy the hoja verde. The cooperative already has the wood and bricks, the two most important and expensive components, but still needs cement, sand, and other various small things which are already provided for in the budget. As for capacity, the socios only have 40,000 KG and the SPA grant would provide for the purchase and processing of the first 25,000 KG of the 250,000 KG in the area, after which sales of finished Yerba will finance more purchases. If the cooperative is able to add value to 300,000 KG instead of 40,000 KG, it would represent the difference between 40 million and 4 million in profit, respectively, (see model at end of proposal) not to mention the effect it will have as a source of work. Whats more, General strengthening will allow the cooperative to expand services and investments through access to capital from the value add process which includes: an almacen for socios, ka´a he´e production, reforestation projects, restarting loans services and expanding into savings accounts, construction of a soccer field to form a youth league, collaboration with the health center and other community groups, and construction of a gallineria to name a few.

Community impact has the potential to be far reaching, immediate, and substantial. The cooperative has demonstrated its concern for women and children through its pursuit of female members and its interest in providing recreational and educational activities for the children.

The cooperative is very egalitarian and is constantly searching for ways to help, but is unfortunately often thwarted by the lack of access to capital. The requested funds would provide the cooperative with the `jump start´ it would need to be in a position to create its own capital and break the cycle of dependency while pursuing a diversified battery of projects geared towards local development be it income generating, educational, or environmental.

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that was for the original Small Projects Assistance grant that I wrote, although above it is in its translated form, as it was originally written in Spanish. I post that, as evidence of the ability of the community to manage large sums of money. The socios of my cooperative are putting the money to good use in an efficient, expedient, transparent, and most importantly, community oriented manner, for that I can vouch. The following will hopefully give an idea of why this project should happen, and how it will be executed:

1. Please write a 250 word summary of the proposed project. This allows potential donors to better understand the project. Describe the project objectives. Explain the community contribution for this project and briefly outline your request for the Partnership Program. Note: This summary will be posted directly on the Peace Corps Website.

In 1984, Tavapy II was constructed as three parallel dirt tracks spaced two kilometers apart. During a three year struggle against the Stroessner regime, the original occupants eventually succeeded in attaining title to their land on May 20^th, 1987. Under Stroessner, Paraguayans could not meet in groups larger than three. This, along with a lack of town planning, led to a fractured community in Tavapy II. There is no town center for social gathering or commercial activity. This decentralization is exacerbated by the flight abroad of the town’s second generation. The children are left without a space to play, teenagers without an area to learn, and the town without a sense of shared pride.

This project will provide a rural Paraguayan colony with an integrated cultural, social, and educational community center geared specifically towards the children and young adults. The center will consist of a computer room, library, and general purpose room. Activities offered will range from art class to a youth soccer league. Reference resources will strive to provide general knowledge and also specific vocational skills. The general purpose room will serve as a meeting area for local committees and visiting NGOs. The computers will be utilized to teach computation and to reach relatives more affordably through the launch of a VOIP program.

The community contribution will be denominated in labor and expertise regarding construction. Oñondive, ñande ikatu ñamopu´ãporã : Together, we can make it better.

2. Please provide a 1-2 paragraph description of your community and the community members involved with the proposed project.

Tavapy II is a community of roughly 400 households located 6 kilometers off of Ruta 6 in Alto Paraná. The community members involved with the project will hopefully be all those that have a stake in the project, in other words, almost everyone. However, as we know, it is impossible to work with a group of 400 delegates; the responsibility to represent this quilt of voices will be assigned to a special committee of the cooperative. Community members at large will be encouraged to attend open meetings and their input will be actively solicited by the members of the committee both during these meeting and during trips to the community’s hinterlands. The cooperative is already admirably managing a SPA grant and for this reason, the volunteer believes that they are more than capable of adding this project.

3. Please explain, in 1-2 paragraphs, the merit of this project, and why it is a priority in the community. What happens if the project is not implemented?

Tavapy II, when founded in 1984, was constructed as 3 parallel dirt tracks spaced 2 kilometers apart. This lack of town planning has led to a very disjointed feel amongst the community. There is no town center, no areas for social gathering or commercial activity. This extreme decentralization is compounded enormously by the flight of the town’s second generation to Spain and Argentina. The children (the 3^rd generation) are left without a space to play, teenagers without an area to learn, and the town without a sense of shared pride.

The center could provide for this need in a physical sense, but more importantly in a social and educational one. Classes, activities, and events will all be geared towards strengthening community pride while also broadening intellectual horizons and augmenting vocational skills. What happens if the project is not implemented? Nothing. A few people would be disappointed that a project fell through, but for all intents and purposes the failure of this project to initiate would not be catastrophic, rather it would return the community to the same road it has already trodden. Things would remain the same and the community would continue to atrophy abroad. Whereas, should the project come to fruition, the center could induce people to stay in their home community while empowering them sufficiently such that going to work as a farmhand in Argentina or a maid in Madrid no longer makes economic sense given the marketable job skills they could wield.

4. Describe, in 2-3 paragraphs, how the community is the driving force behind the project. Please discuss who in the community first proposed the project as well as how the beneficiaries are involved in the project’s planning and implementation. What are the roles and responsibilities of the community members?

It is self-evident for anyone who has spent time in Tavapy II, that the residents are proud of what they have and have done. Yet rarely do they have the opportunity to express this pride. The response to the community center idea was overwhelming, and for this reason, the volunteer chose the Cooperative to manage the project simply because it already has management structures in place. As for planning and implementation, the community members involved have already participated and settled on basic function, size, and basic layout. As for roles and responsibilities, the principal actors will be members of the cooperative. They will conduct community outreach while also managing funds and construction. The cooperative has not yet formed this committee for the sole reason that the volunteer believes it best to wait for project approval in order to give non-members a chance to join the cooperative and the center committee.

5. Please describe, in 1-2 paragraphs, the community contribution to this project. Contributions can include the costs of manual labor and transportation as well as contributions of cash or raw materials. Community contribution must total at least 25% of the total project cost.

Primarily, the community contribution will be labor related. A carpenter will make chairs and tables, the electrician will wire the building, and so on. Additionally, the unskilled labor, cement mixers, brick layers, etc, will be provided by the community. Transportation of materials will also come from the community contribution.

Most importantly, members of the community will provide for most of the recurring operational necessities of the center such as cleaning services, running the classes, and monitoring the various rooms.

6. Please present and discuss, in 3-4 paragraphs, the plan for implementing this project. Describe the phases of the project. Define specific tasks involved with the project, the order in which they will occur, and who will accomplish each task.

The project can be roughly divided into three main phases, pre-construction, construction, and post-construction. In the first phase, of paramount importance is gathering community input, as the success of the center is dependent on its relevance to the people it will serve. Secondly, the Cooperative will need to have, in place and ready to work, a system for managing the money that will arrive and the tasks that will need to be completed. This will be accomplished through the formation of a committee from within the cooperative, dedicated entirely to the construction and management of the center. Lastly, the donations themselves need to be corralled. The volunteer has been in contact with various networks of acquaintances from the United States and has arranged for them to assist through personal donations and also organizational efforts for fundraisers and other events.

The second phase, construction, will be contingent upon the input received from the community in terms of basic layout. As for execution, there is sufficient expertise within the cooperative to provide for architectural, electrical, and aesthetic needs. Also within the cooperative is a socio with a truck to facilitate the movement of materials to and from the construction site. The last phase of construction, which could also be considered the first phase of post-construction is the launch of the center. The volunteer believes that how the finished product is introduced to the community will have considerable effects on how it will be used. Because of this we have two alternate launch targets to afford flexibility should any problems arise. The first, 7 months from now during the Christmas/New Year´s holiday season, and the second a full year from now to commemorate the liberation of the land of Tavapy II on May 20^th 1987. The launch will be a chance to celebrate the completion, to usher in a new addition to the community, and to exhibit the various functions of the center.

The post-construction phase is primarily concerned with operation, but also, should the preceding operations run smoothly, with the center´s expansion, both in scale and variety of services. As for labor, the center will require a monitor, a janitor, and teachers and coaches for the various classes and activities that will be offered. Operational costs will include electricity, internet, and replacement of depreciated items and will be covered by a small fee charged for internet use.

7. Please indicate, in 3-4 paragraphs, the skills and knowledge that will be acquired by the community through the implementation of this project. How will the project increase the capacity of individuals and support the community in meeting its long-term goals? Does the community have the resources to sustain the project in the long term?

The skills and knowledge that could be bestowed by this center are kaleidoscopic. How does one quantify the benefit received by a child who has just completed her first water color painting? Generally speaking, the center will serve as a general knowledge repository, a resource center for the schools, a place to have classes that are for the sake of learning not solely for a grade, and a reception area for various events and activities. The volunteer believes that the center will help the community meet its long term goals narrowly and broadly. In the narrow sense, for example, classes at the center could teach about the relationships between cells in excel and generally how to use a computer. But in the broad sense, and in the opinion of the volunteer the more important aspect of self-improvement, the center could facilitate the process of learning, helping participants to express themselves while learning how to be inquisitive. Additionally, the center could serve as a beacon for all to see of what can be accomplished when the community comes together and works as one.

The volunteer does believe that the community has the resource to make this project sustainable. After all, only the initial capital hurdle is prohibitively expensive. After which, many of the costs can be met through voluntary contributions of time and resources, community efforts, and smart structuring of the center’s assets, for example, having a gaming console for a DVD player and charging a small fee for its use instead of having solely a DVD player. In this sense, the volunteer will help the stewards of the center to run it somewhat like a business with regards to efficiency, cash flows, and managing costs.

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so that is verbatim from the application. My officers from Peace Corps have told me that they are in agreement that the project has worth. And here I make our case. The community of Tavapy II is a beautiful place. Speaking for myself, I love it and will never forget it. I admire and respect the habitants and regard nearly everyone I have met as a close friend, a surrogate family member, or an aquaintance that I have unfortunately not yet had the chance to get to know better. They have worked diligently and suffered nobly to be in the position in which they find themselves today. Theirs is a community of tranquility, peace, and sustainability, a beacon in one of the darker corners of the second most corrupt country in the world. Ciudad del Este and the vast expanses of Brazillian and German soy act as sirens to live life for the material. Yet traditional customs endure. And although many have had to answer the call of duty to their families and go abroad to work, where they are frequently treated as sub human, the original spirit endures. However, it is gravely threatened. However bravely these young adults venture out into the world, their absence remains poignant.
Every few months a new parcel of land is bought, the trees are cut, and the one time exemplar of agroforestry is turned into another expanse of biological desert, the sole occupant being genetically modified soy. Slowly and inexorably, these losses have accrued. One of my deepest fears is that someday, the last acre will be sold, and Santa Rosa del Monday, the namesake capital of our department, and the self proclaimed ¨Capital de la Soja,¨will permanently extend her reach. This is a land of abundant fertility. After the jungle ceases to exist. However the nagging problem of tropical soils that offsets their many advantages is their fragility. Ultraviolet rays destroy the soil ecosystems that were once protected, stands of exotic Eucalyptus turn the soil acidic, and the large scale farmers use their John Deere tractors to spray abundant amounts of Monsanto chemicals which are slowly choking the rivers and streams and contaminating the Guarani Aquifer, the largest freshwater resource in the world.
They say that the ancestors of the Guarani indians left their amazonian home in search of paradise. They stopped in Paraguay in the Bosque Atlantica. However, this paradise also offers one of the highest soy yields in the world. And the soy world works as such; a priveleged person has the capital to get the equipment, the soy goes to pressing plants in Brazil and returns as expensive oil or the bean´s residue is shipped to china to feed their growing cattle herd. I do not mean to paint a hopeless picture, just a cautionary tale. Additionally a cultural center will not solve these problems, but increased use of agroforestry practices, introduction of alternative crops and animals, and initiation of value-add projects (like the yerba mate factory) can help them to raise their productivity, provide for more jobs, and afford to stay. I believe the center can help them be proud and happy to stay. For this reason we initiated a project that at face value will have no bearing on their yearly income (although the center will strive to provide job skills and a venue for visiting development workers). Small contributions can make worlds of difference. 20 dollars coveres three books; 100, one thousand bricks; 500 another computer. Although some weeks will pass before we will receive the URL for the donation site, I wanted to write this appeal now, with close proximity to the town´s day of liberation (May 20th, 1987), and with the emotions I felt that day at the event fresh in my heart and mind.
Thank you in advance to anyone who has read to this point or generally to anyone who takes a peak at this blog and maybe shares my feelings for these people and friends.

Graciamante,

Andrew Wilcox

Ñamono´o

We Harvest

The harvest started Wednesday. The day after we added the final touches to the new factory. The day my boss and his assitant came in the morning and a trainer and language teachers came in the afternoon to see my site and to place trainees to stay for a week in July. That day saw just under 3000 kilos of green leaf (hoja verde) pass. The next just over that number. Today, we should have about 4000 arriving for processing. And when I get back to site we will probably work until about 2 in the morning before we leave the full barbacua to toast the yerba slowly for the next 24 + hours.

La ka´a oime kokuepe ha lo obrerokuera oikyti la partehovynte yvyrahegui. Ha upei ha´ekuera omohënuhe petei camion ha ogueraha la ka´a fabricapeve camionari ikatuva oraha 5000 kilopeve. Ha oñepyru omonandihina la ka´a camionhegui. Uperire la ka´a ojupi petei cinta automatico ha ho´a tataari. La ka´a okai sapynte. La tatahakuiterei ojavyhatä la ka´a ha oipë´a 50% la y yvyraroguehegui. Ha upei, la ka´a osë la sapecador ha petei carai omoi la ka´a barbacuape. La barbacua oreko petei tatakangyi. Ha kotata ojavymbegueiterei. Upeare, la ka´a oikotev´ë tiempopukuite ohoopahagua. Ha 24 horakuerarire, lo obrerokuera oipë´a la ka´a ha koaga la ka´a orekonte 36% ygua. Ha´ekuera oikytïjey la ka´a ha ojapo ka´a mborovire. Ha upea opytata ikotype petei te´ä mokoi año ha oïma ho´uhagua.

Bueno. The yerba is in the field and the workers only cut the green parts of the tree. Then they fill a truck that can carry up to 5000 kilos and bring the hoja verde to the factory. There they begin to harvest the yerba of the truck. After that the yerba goes up a conveyor belt and falls over a fire. The yerba burns for a second. The very hot fire burns the leaf with force and removes 50 percent of the water of the leaves of the tree. And then the yerba leaves the sapecador (the first over) and a guy puts the yerba in the barbacua. The barbacua has a small weak fire. And this fire burns the leaf very slowly. Because of this the yerba needs a very long time to finish. And after 24 hours the workers take out the yerba which now has only 36% water. They then cut the yerba again and make mborovire (coarsely chopped yerba) And it will stay in its room for one or two years and then is ready to drink.

so that may read weird, but that is because i tried to write it in english with structure more like the paraguayans talk guarani. And that is actually jopara, which is the guarani word for mix, because one never speaks pure guarani unless you visit the actual indians in their few reserves. Or by the side of the road in garbage bag tents or in the plazas of asuncion when they go to protest their land being stolen because some person has a piece of paper that says the land was sold to them fairly from public lands. But thats for another day.

The process at the factory is incredibly dramatic. The fires consume about 10 cubic meters of firewood. Fortunately, the socios manage the forest on the land, like most campesinos but unlike the 200 acres mechanized soy lots that have cut all of the trees except for usually the tajytu´ichave to serve as a reminder of what was there. That is the national tree of paraguay and grows over hundreds of years and once a year explodes in butterfly frequented yellow blossoms. During the winter when they bloom, the forest that remains, is dotted with them as they emerge above the canopy. But again, I digress. It is an incredible sight to see them cleaning the forest. One day, all the socios showed up with machetes and i was like what are we doing today. Limpiando...cleaning, and they still spoke to me mostly in spanish to help with my understanding. So i grabbed my machete and we got to work. Then, it all looked the same to me, and they were just chopping away. So I started and they stopped me and were like andres what are you doing you cut down a tree! because they all looked like weeds to me. But what they were doing was going through and cutting all but the one and two year old saplings out of a jungle. Now, because they´ve taught me, we walk through and see the mbokaja, yvyrapytä, tajy, oveñia, apepu, kurupa´y, paraiso gigante, aguacate, mandarina, guayabi, inga, and the rest. Fortunately a handfull of those either produce edible fruits, leaves you can put in your terere, bark you can make tea out of, firewood for the factory, construction materials, and so on. And I called them weeds what we cut, but they´re really not because they use about 50% of them as remedios. I haven´t taken medicine in 11 months. My throat hurt so I put Tororatï (the seed looks like a bull´s horn) in my mate in the morning. I had flu like symptoms so vervena went in that morning and i drank apepu juice. I had a rash at one point and i used the leaves of the ambay (which have a rough surface and exfoliate) to clear it up. You have to drink the root of the vine mbarakaja py´ape (cat´s paw because the little claws it uses to climb tree look like a feline nail) in your terere if you want a healthy urinary tract. Pynoguasu makes you hungry and has stinging leaves and you smash the roots and wood of it and put it in terere as well. Right now, i´m drinking my terere with lemon grass (kapi´i cedron), coconut tree root, cat´s paw, pynoguasu, and a fifth that i can never remember the name of and always just point to at the herb lady´s stand...its like momombo´u or something in that neighborhood. I only describe that in such dull detail because the yerba is important here. Its part of their livlihood and also what they, and i drink hot as mate every morning (usually husband and wife at about 4 in the morning talking about the upcoming day; me by myself), and twice a day every day cold as terere with groups of friends talking about the weather, whats going on, why venezuela and ecuador want to fight with columbia, and so on.

As for my superiors being here, things went well. They got to see the coop going about its business and the community. Fernando, our boss, told me that paraguayan colonies are so dispersed because stroessner would follow a pattern. The people would get restless and he would divy up portions of land and assign them to loyal colorado subordinates. They then would split up a parcel of about 5000 acres into 10 and 20 acre parcels and only give them to people who had previously displayed loyalty to the colorados. The grand design of it all was to put the houses in the middle of their plots so that any attempt to meet and organize required 3,4, 10 kilometer walks. And Stroessner, the megalomaniac that he was, not only prohibited the people from gathering in groups of larger than 3 (as enforced by the police who would arrive and beat the people, unless of course they were from within the colorado machine), but when he did grant them permission to be together, for birthdays, funerals, anything, he made them hang up his portrait in the locale of the gathering. It was fucked up. And the thing that makes me so sad about that, is that paraguayans love eachother´s company. They don´t want things, they want enough to have a pig killed for a rico asado for grandma´s birthday or for weddings, or for a girls quince (they have sweet 15´s here). And when you´re sitting around drinking terere under whichever fruit tree is in bloom or the tree that has the best shade, everyone is laughing, telling stories, new jokes. They never use the word no. When offered something that you don´t want, it is considered very rude to say no. If you don´t want it, you use one of the excuses, the best of which is i just ate watermelon, because they think water melon is worse than pop rocks and soda, the only problem being they´ll ask you why you didn´t share your watermelon. And thats how it is among them, in my experience at least. If you have something, you share it. And with really good stuff, paraguayans know how to enjoy it. With watermelon, everyone gets a spoon or a knife and takes turns going to town on half a melon. With barbeque, they´ll cook it on a spit and you get a knife and cut until you´re full. Which reminds me of the funniest spanish expression i´ve yet heard. All you can eat is said ¨tenedor libre¨ which just means free fork (but libre is generally used to mean free like freedom, not free without cost) , which strikes me as hilarious. Apuka ahendujave upea...I laugh when I hear that.

Back to the land distribution by Stroessner, that ugly legacy is what makes my site Tavapy II special. The mid eighties were marked by the movimiento del campesino, in which poor farmers seeing this land redistribution, which wasn´t only to colorados, but foreigners loyal to vidella and pinochet as well, began squatting on land and calling the tierra colorada theirs. The first people in the Dos, los pioneros, arrived in 1984. The land belonged to a chilean and was all jungle. They lived there, with the women and children sneaking into tavapy uno at night to carry back mandioca and the men working to build houses and school and bridges out of the wood they could cut with their axes and machetes. Periodically the national police would make raids. The people would hide in the forest, in predetermined places where they also held meetings to organize. Se dice...oje´e...they say that the only reason Stroessner didn´t send in the cavalry was because his regime was beginning to draw international attention and whisking 500 people into a plane for one last flight was no longer an option. Maybe it was because they hid well. I´m not sure of the exact chronology of the last chapters, but I know the campesinos, the pioneers, organized at some point and decided to board flatbed trucks and go to Asuncion and demand title to the land. And on May 20th 1987 they won it. The say ¨ganemos la lucha¨ when they tell me about it, we won the fight. And they are always quick to point out that at no point did they use violence, even when harassed and at times tortured. Some of Stroessner´s methods were as foll0ws; electrical shocks, tying men to unbroken stallions, dipping them head first into vats of feces, and of course the various iterations of murder. Fortunately noone in the Dos was subjected to the latter two. So we had a rightous celebration Tuesday. The whole town turns out, people from Tavapy Uno, and also people from all over the country, for as Fernando told me, the fight for Tavapy II is regarded as one of the critical moments of the movement and Stroessner´s loss of total control that culminated with General Andres Rodriquez walking into a cabinet room with an unpinned grenade in one hand and the pin in the other and the subsequent flight of Stroessner loyalists to the other general´s side. Se dice no más. It might be difficult to find that one in a text book, but during training we had a lecture from a paraguayan history professor (who told us that story) whose grandfather saved stroessner´s life in the chaco war in 1934 when they were both leuitenants in the army. And Stroessner sent his family a case of Dom Perignon every year at Christmas with a handwritten note and every year the man sent it back. This continued while the grandfather´s son (an active liberal) worked for the opposition and was sequestered. News of his son´s kidnapping induced a heart attack in the grandfather and yet the champagne kept arriving.

But the fiesta was fun. Some people donated meat for barbecue, there was volleyball, bingo, the whole town celebrating its right to exist; people who have gone to Buenos Aires and Barcelona found a way to come back and see their mothers and sons, fathers and daughters. And I played volleyball with the director of the school and we served some muchachos some pancakes. But, i was the only one eating them that night, when my last working brake on my bike stopped working on a hill and i had to bail. Fortunately i tucked and rolled out of it, but my camera doesn´t have such abilities.

Unfortunately my wrists can´t tuck and roll out of how tired they´re getting. so thats about it.