Matthew Helt, at left, and friend in Paraguay.
Matthew Helt, a SNRAS graduate student who is serving in the Peace Corps in Paraguay, sent this letter for Christmas 2009:As you know, it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere, and it’s true, the sun does shine brighter in the tropics and sub-tropics. While those of you on the East Coast are digging out of an amazing snow storm (one that I’m jealous of right now) and those in Alaska are frozen to the bone (also a touch jealous) it is incredibly hot and humid here. I can’t believe I’m gone and we get a white Christmas back home! It’s probably in the upper 90s today and of course with what must be 100 percent humidity. While you can put on layers and turn on the heat, I can only take off so much and don’t have AC!
It’s been a while since I last sent out an update e-mail, so there is a lot to fill you in on. Unlike last year, we’ve had rain or an electrical storm nearly every couple of days and my computer cord was fried. You might have seen it in the news. Paraguay co-owns two of the world’s largest hydroelectric dams, Itapú with Brazil and Yacyretá with Argentina. They produce all of the electrical needs of Paraguay with the rest being sold to the co-owners. Well, the Itapú Dam’s electrical distribution system was hit by lightening and blacked out a quarter of Brazil. I actually didn’t even know (power outages are common here) but my Dad called to see if I had power; he’d heard the news on local Virginia radio. Luckily Brazil has gotten their power back and I’ve just found a new cord that works with my computer.
Work continues to be slow coming. My community hasn’t been too receptive to new agricultural practices or tree planting. I enjoy living with my neighbors and believe they enjoy having me around, unless I start talking about green manures, contour planting, or trees. Luckily there are a few people who have taken interest and I can just concentrate on them. We’ve planted green manures with their corn and cassava (the staple Paraguayan starch) and are planning to relay crop another with cotton (the cash crop in my area). In May or June, hopefully hundreds, if not thousands, of trees will be ready to out-plant. Please keep your fingers crossed, pray, or do whatever you do for me. It will be my last planting season and I’d really like to leave a “recuerdo de Mateo.”
The youth group has continued to take trips around Ybycui. We’ve now hiked the nearest and tallest mountain, Cerro San José, and traveled to one of the most remote sections of Parque Nacional Ybycui to see a beautiful set of three 15-foot waterfalls. On the way, they even saw the police collecting money from the illegal loggers in the park. Some of the youth have been invited to a Gender and Development youth camp sponsored by Peace Corps. It’s being held at a nature reserve near one of the hydroelectric dams and will focus on developing future community leaders.
The master’s work is slowly, very slowly, coming along. Not having the computer has put me pretty far behind where I’d like to be. So has the Paraguayan bureaucracy. If you thought our government was big and bureaucratic, you’ve got no idea. To make a request for tree seeds I had to go to Asuncion and ride a bus for an hour to hand deliver a very formal letter, have it stamped, initialed, and numbered by one of the five people who works at the same front desk of the ag school. Then I had to walk another 30 minutes in jeans and a nice shirt (so to look presentable) to take that piece of paper to another lady to pay 20 cents to get a hand written receipt and then take that back to the front desk so that they could then call me when my seeds were ready, only to find out that I could only get seeds for 10 varieties and have to do it all over again in the new year. Mind you, it was well over 100° when doing this. Let’s just say the computers, faxes, and e-mails, which they have but don’t use, are amazing inventions. Of course it was the same weekend as the Daddy Yankee concert in Asuncion. So we were fortunate enough to see the most famous reggaeton artist of the moment. He’s a Puerto Rican and gave a shout out to the Paraguayan soccer team for making the World Cup, and then to his American team. I might have been the only person out of 20,000 to cheer for the US team.
In the month of December, Paraguay becomes very religious. The country is 90 percent Catholic with the other 10 percent being mostly “evangelical” Christians. This term covers everything else, from Church of God to Presbyterian to Mormons (there is a full Mormon Temple topped by a golden angel in Asuncion). Needless to say, each has its own Christmas celebrations. I participated in the two most traditional Catholic pilgrimages, Día de Caacupe (six hours walking ) and Día de Itape (three hours on a bus). They’re a cross between a big party and a religious pilgrimage. Due to the daytime heat, most people start walking in the evening, arriving and celebrating all night long, waiting for the morning mass. Or in the case of my host family, we just bussed, went swimming in the river, and then went to a disco and danced and drank (not me) all night until mass started in the morning. It’s an interesting and truly Paraguayan twist on religion, that’s for sure.
Christmas was much better this year than last. The Korean KOICA volunteer came to my site to celebrate. Paraguayans celebrate on Christmas Eve and recover from the night before on Christmas Day. We baked carrot cake and squash cake to bring to my host families and then distributed toothbrushes to the kids. I’m really trying to push tooth brushing, hand washing, and wearing shoes with the children. We then went back over to relax until midnight dinner. Unfortunately it started raining so we didn’t get to dance all night but we still had a great time and I was invited to visit some relatives in Buenos Aires. For Christmas Day we biked two hours with 50-pound backpacks and had a little Peace Corps Christmas dinner/going away party/birthday party for the people who live near my pueblo.
We’ll I’ve got to get back to my garden, as the watermelons, pineapples, cantaloupes are needing to be picked and the goats fed.
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Graduate student assigned to Paraguay, SNRAS Science & News, Dec. 12, 2008
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