My Last Great Move: Urban Farming

It’s looking pretty official: I’m moving work sites again. As you may have read in my blogs of late, my work with the National University at their agriculture education center has been a total bust. Since my arrival in December, they have given me zero hours of work to do. In fact, I didn’t even see the engineers I was supposed to be working with until my PCorps coordinator heard my concerns and went to the university to see why they were leaving me hanging. Even then, though, the “work” they offered me for the next 3 months (“get to know the neighbors”, and try to convince them that they need the running water project the engineers want to start) was absolutely incomparable to the incredibly detailed, day-by-day calendar of classes, visits, planting, harvesting, and investigating that they had sent to PCorps back in November. So PCorps’ visibly irritated decision was clear: get me out of there.
It was also clear that we needed to either find me new work in my current location, or move me to the capital (just about the only place you could expect to find a furnished apt) given the expense of towing all my furniture and appliances in the name of a mere 3-month sojourn. Piribebuy, where I am now, is commercial and touristic; it was clear right from the start there were no other serious agriculture project happening here. So we started searching the capital. Fernando, the new ag sector assistant in the PCorps office, was super attentive to my situation. Still, lead after lead on an ag organization that needed a volunteer worker turned up fruitless. Meanwhile, I was wasting away day after day alone in my 2-room apt, counting the hours til I could legitimately prepare another meal and dying for some project to dedicate my energy toward. Things weren’t looking too good.
Then an idea struck me. The PCorps director had at one point suggested me doing a study on big-money development projects (like the university’s education center) and their actual effectiveness. He had mentioned that it might be a basis for my grad thesis later on. And while that particular subject wasn’t interesting to me, the idea of using a thesis study to fill my last 3 months in Paraguay was not a bad idea at all. And it turns out I still remembered SOMETHING from training: the permaculture farm we visited in the outskirts of Asuncion. 1/4hectare intensive farming system with very few inputs and enough outputs to provide most of the needs of the 10-person Paraguayan family that runs it. And my proposed thesis research? Design a permaculture system that subsistence Paraguayan farmers can implement using the resources available to them to improve their quality of life. BINGO!
Pretty much everybody loved the idea. Peace Corps, as it turns out, has been wanting to make permaculture and animal husbandry a bigger part of training, and needs an information manual on the subject to give to volunteers. The family, when we got in touch with them, reported back that they have been wanting hard data on their farm’s operation for years, and on top of that are particularly in need of an extra pair of hands right now. And Megan, of course, just wanted to do something positive work in Paraguay, and maybe start her grad thesis to boot.
As I write, I am surrounded by 2.5 years of life packed up and stowed away. Enrique and his sister (Mirna) will come with a truck from Asuncion this weekend to take my bed, wardrobe, tables and chairs, stove, fridge, and dishes. They will, no doubt, put them to excellent use. Many of my clothes and knickknacks will go to the neighbors. And then on Monday, my suitcase and I will head to the big city. And though this time there’ll be bus lines running nearby, I’ll be once again living in a small room surrounded by farm animals near the home of a family I don’t yet know, sharing their table and waltzing through their house in a bathrobe. I wonder if any of them are vegetarians (haha). Imagine that! By the time I leave, I will have lived in more parts of Paraguay than most Paraguayans, now 4 cities in 3 different provinces.

For those of you who take an interest in the doings of my Paraguayan family, I’m not the only one on the move! After 5 years of residency, Mirna’s landlady unexpectedly asked her to be out by April 15 (no rental contracts in Paraguay, people. This is actually a very common event and happens to PC volunteers ALL the time! Relatives of landlord come back from working in Argentina or Spain, need a place to live and BOOM you’re on the street.) so she is moving this weekend to a spare room in a family home. This will be an excellent situation for a young lady living alone in Paraguay, and it will also shorten her commute. Positive change!
As for Enrique, Mirna moving to a single room meant his jig of searching for work in Asuncion was up. In fact, he was about to take a bus back to his parent’s house in the country this past Monday when suddenly he got a call: finally, finally, he got a JOB.
You or I would see commuting 45minutes each way to work 40 hours a week for minimum wage on the packaging line of a large medical laboratory as a miserable, dead-end, fruitless life. But in a country where many people NEVER earn an income, and most earn less than minimum wage, that kind of opportunity opens new horizons. It’s enough to eat good food and buy attractice clothes. It’s enough to go out with friends. If you’re careful, it’s enough to start a savings account. Take English or computer courses. Pay for an a university degree. Eventually, pay for a passport and a plane ticket. It’s enough to start changing your life. It is HUGE.

Everything is changing.