From Merry Christmas a Feliz Navidad

Although ostensibly a religious holiday, Christmas has long lost its religious significance for many in affluent parts of the world. It has become a celebration of capitalism and our power to over-indulge ourselves on gifts, turkey,and chocolate cake (not that it isn't all appreciated). Yet, millions continue to rejoice without such material goods. As I spent the 25th of December in Paraguay this year, I had the unique opportunity to experience the holiday through the eyes of a Paraguayan family.

Rather than spending the holidays alone in the intern house, I trekked to the suburb of San Lorenzo to celebrate with a co-worker and her family. After I arrived, we spent most of the next few hours lounging around in the intense heat and sipping on terere. In addition to being delicious, the iced tea provides a welcome chill in the absence of air conditioning. Even if they had air conditioning, it wouldn't have been much help; we lost electricity twice that night without reason and water at least once that I know of.

As midnight approached, we sat down to dinner beneath the stars. It was far from calm; reggaeton beats and Christmas carols wafted from nearby houses; neighborhood children launched fireworks in preparation for Jesus's birth. Suddenly, about 5 minutes before midnight, all went silent. We quickly went inside and gathered around the nativity for some prayers and a toast to Jesus's birth. Interestingly, the toast only consisted of a small sip of champaign. The remaining contents of our glasses returned to the bottle to be saved for another special occasion.

Every moment, the neighborhood regained a little of its earlier liveliness. After finishing our dinner, I served the chocolate and galleta cake I had struggled to produce the night before. Not one of my better creations, but I'll blame the gas oven in the intern house. How am I supposed to make culinary magic happen when I don't even know the temperature? Yet, I'm glad I brought it; as there was no other dessert, we would have celebrated a chocolate-less Christmas without it.

As the clock approached 1:00 AM, the conversation began to dwindle and the girls and I began to prepare ourselves for a night of dancing and laughter with their friends. Within an hour, we were walking towards a friends' house in our most elegant attire. Too bad our trek aligned perfectly with the nightly downpour. Regardless, it was an excellent night ending with a beautiful sunrise while walking home.

Unlike past Christmases when my entire family bounded out of bed at the first rays of sunlight to see whether Santa though we'd been naughty or nice, no one arose before 11:00. Once awake, we spent the day lounging around, drinking terere, and visiting neighborhood friends. Interestingly, terere culture extends to all beverages in Paraguay. Rather than using several glasses when sharing a bottle of soda or wine, all just pas one glass around the circle and refill it whenever necessary. This serves as an excellant means of uniting strangers; unfortunately, it's also a great way to share germs and start and epidemic.

Saturday morning I finally returned to my own home via the cities buses. Unlike the Santiago system, they rarely seem to be overflowing with people. Unfortunately, I managed to time my trip home perfectly; the bus was too crowded. Regardless, the driver continued allowing more people to board so I ended up hanging out an open door as the bus bounced along the dirt road. Terrifying, but, on the bright side, the constant breeze kept me from overheating in the throngs of people.

Tired from the past few days, I spent the majority of the day absorbed in a book, running, and otherwise relaxing in the spacious intern house. I considered trekking to Mercado 4, but ultimately decided to delay my trip in favor of spending more time there on Sunday.

Thus, I dragged myself out of bed early Sunday morning to journey to the famous market. Located about twenty minutes from my house by bus, the sprawling open-air market spans for several blocks and features just about every item imaginable. Munching on fresh pineapple and peaches, I meandered for hours awed by the market's sheer size. I shouldn't have been surprised though; upwards of 50% of Paraguayan work in the informal economy.

Slightly sunburnt and dehydrated from the heat, I eventually returned home and began running other necessary errands. These brought me to Mariscal Lopez Shopping, an upscale mall less than 10 minutes from my house. The contrast with the earlier market was striking; it was more orderly, less congenial, and more overwhelmingly Americanized as its most popular outlets seems to be McDonald's and Nike (an odd pairing if you ask me). It's certainly an interesting contrast and as Paraguay develops, it seems likely that the open air markets will be replaced by more generic shopping malls. Unfortunately.

Still tired from the Christmas festivities, I collapsed in my bed early Sunday evening only to be jolted awake by my alarm far too soon. Time for another day of work spent translating documents for Kiva and uploading client forms and bios. Sounds monotonous, but I actually enjoy it. Tomorrow I'm traveling to the countryside in order to see rural microfinance firsthand. Pictures and reflections coming shortly. With the correct date on the entry for a change?

1800 Kilometros al Comienzo Nuevo

When discussing my plans for 2009-2010 school year, I often say that I moved to South America. This statement, although obviously true, is a bit misleading in that it completely ignores the immense differences between my two homes on the continent. Chile is arguably one of the most developed nations in the world as evidenced by its recent admission into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It possesses adequate infrastructure and services in most parts (but not all), although it certainly should improve access for poor citizens. On the other hand, Paraguay remains nation in the midst of development. Roughly 1/3 of the population falls beneath the poverty line, although I've read articles claiming that the real number is actually significantly higher.

Regardless of its struggles, Paraguay has proven to be an excellant home. In addition to sweltering temperatures (46 degrees Celsius or 115 Farenheit at La Escuela Agricola on Friday), it boasts some of the warmest and friendliest individuals I have ever met. Some tourbooks attribute this phenomenon to the lack of foreign visitors, while Paraguayans suggest that it stems from a sense community created by the nation's small size. After all, it is often nicknamed the "nation of amigos" by its neighbors.

Not only have I had an excellant time meeting numerous Paraguayans, I have also enjoyed my internship at Fundacion Paraguaya. This microfinance organization operates throughout the country and has allowed countless of small businesses to grow by providing access to credit markets for poor Paraguayans. Fortunately, it has been successful in many of its endeavors including the creation of Committees of Women Entrepreneurs. These groups of about 10-15 women receive credit as a group for their businesses and are responsible for repaying it collectively and attending financial training sessions. Not only have they been incredibly successful monetarily, but they have also added further evidence to the proven hypothesis that female borrowers invest much more of their earnings in their families and communities than their male counterparts.

More recently, the Foundation has opened a self-sustaining agricultural school to teach impoverished children in rural areas various methods to maximize their crop production and use of animal products. Interestingly, many students do not simply return to the farm after graduating. Many continue onto the university and study subjects such as agronomy and later use this knowledge to help their childhood communities.

While the Fundacion has obviously had great success with both of these initiatives throughout the past twenty-five years, poverty remains rampant in Paraguay. Thus, it recently embarked upon a new initiative known as "Proyecto Ikatu" (Ikatu means "Yes, I can" in Guarani, Paraguay's other national language). This program has identified 50 indicators of poverty and is attempting to address each individually in an effort to further improve the lives of borrowers. These range from illiteracy to a lack of sanitary restrooms.

As an intern, I will be working with Proyecto Ikatu while concurrently learning more about microfinance in general. Specifically, I will be developing a program to address one of the poverty indicators: the inability of many poor women to assert their human rights. Ideally, I'll also help conduct some training sessions with the Committees of Women Entrepreneurs before returning to Chile.

My time in Paraguay has not, however, been all work. On Friday, the entire organization consisting of upwards of 270 individuals descended on the agricultural school for the annual end-of-the-year party. Deep in the absolutely stunning Paraguayan countryside, we sang Christmas carols, honored the most successful workers from the past year, and gourged ourselves on traditional Paraguayan dishes including Sopa Paraguaya (it's corn bread...go figure) and queso con dulce de leche. Fortunately, the calories were quickly sweated away throughout the next few hours as we played volleyball, soccer, and danced in the 46 degree heat. Eeek.

Saturday marked my first day in the city without any work obligations. Although I enjoy my internship, I was eager for the opportunity to explore Asuncion. The other intern and I began by roaming through various artisan markets. Obviously, I enjoyed seeing the crafts, but the highlights had to be my long conversation with a begger (typical Paraguayan hospitality) or discoving that I am absolutely horrible at bargaining. If you have a child nearby who even vaguely looks undernourished or stereotypically poor, I will most likely agree to pay whatever you ask.

After doing some shopping, I began visiting the typicsal tourist spots: pantheon de los heroes, plaza uruguaya, plaza de los heroes. Eventually, I continued down to the river to see the port and the various government buildings alongside it. The cabildo and President's Palace were absolutely stunning with the piranha-infested river as a backdrop. Unfortunately, this image was marred by the shantytowns creeping alongside the buildings. It's a shocking and somewhat upsetting contrast; the grandeur of the government institutions and the too-skinny, desperately poor families that administration has failed to protect. However, this image can also be seen as being representative of Paraguay and too many other countries across the globe.While some enjoy excessively opulant lifestyles, others wonder if they can find enough food to serve for dinner.

Hypocritically, I spent awhile considering the scene outside the government buildings and then proceeded to eat far more than was necessary after meeting some friends at an incredible tenedor libre asadito. Salad, pasta, and prime slabs of beef abounded along with wedding guests; a couple was celebrating in the restaurant, so we too had the chance to enjoy the festivities and an incredibly entertaining wedding singer. Afterwards we ventured to a bustling Paseo de las Carmelitas to explore the nightlife in Asuncion and the company of some awesome Paraguayan acquaintances.

Like in Chile, Sundays in Paraguay can be described as dead. There is no one in the streets and only a few people in the shops that are actually open. I did a little exploring, a lot of organizing, and met the gringos for some ice cream. It was such a good time; it really is too bad that Hillary forgot her cell phone. Or maybe not?

Monday was spent researching human rights abuses and influencer theory in Paraguay. As both obviously interest me immensely, the day passed quickly. Before I knew it, I'd returned home to meet with the Gringos for the last time before they continued onward to Peru. They brought some Paraguayan and Argentine friends and we soon started playing Cranium - Latin American Edition. So hard. But fortunately, as predicted, the girls pulled off the come from behind win so it was definately an overall success. Especially when we finished the night with a delicious homemade dinner and watermelon. I'll be eating left-overs for days, which should be delicious when I add a dessert of the strange and unknown fruits I found at the farmer's market today.

"Not All Who Wander Are Lost"

Did I simply forget? Have I become too lazy to post regularly? While there are millions of excuses from my lengthy hiatus from this blog, I'd like to think I've simply been too busy living. The past few months have overflowed with adventures, laughter, and work. Blogging, unfortunately, just hasn't been a part of my world.

Recounting several months of la vida cotidiana seems almost impossible. Where to start? Classes ended, finals happened, and my internship consumed much of my time and mental energy. Yet, the workload never proved overwhelming; perhaps due to the excitement interspersed throughout the monotony. Weekends brought white water rafting, an excursion to La Serena, my two left feet struggling to dance la salsa, and wanderings through places as varied as Persa Bio-Bio and La Vega. Moreover, it was a time of celebration. The Gringos brought Halloween and Thanksgiving to the southern hemisphere and we celebrated each with elaborate costumes or pumpkin pie respectively. Even Christmas made an early appearance when we decided to celebrate with cookies, secret santa, and some fabulous holiday tunes.

The excitement has not abated as the end of my first semester approaches. For the past week, I trekked through Torres del Paine, a Chilean national park that we affectionately dubbed "The Middle Earth" due to its uncanny resemblance to the home of Bilbo, Golum, and the other beloved characters from JRR Tolkien's popular series. We meandered through this world of immense rock towers, shimmering glaciers, and icebergs with all our gear strapped to our backs. With blistered feet, unshowered bodies, and lots of GORP (gold old raisins and peanuts), we sang and laughed our way through an indescribably wonderful week in one of the remotest places on our planet.


To the nine other members of our own little fellowship of the ring,
I reckon I could use heaps of words in an entry about the trip and never fully explain its wonder. From the first 4AM sunrise in Punta Arenas to the crazy gaucho with his slightly oversized meat cleaver, each moment was absolutely unforgettable. Maybe it would be best to just say that it was "so good." After all, that lovely little Australian phrase has forever infiltrated all our vocabularies and sometimes less truely does say more.

And, yes, if I could marry a trip, I most certainly would have "put a ring on it."