Paraguay #16: Adiós mi corazón

"I am leaving a piece of my heart in Paraguay" said Joseph at lunch today. This is the last post from Paraguay but not the last post about Paraguay.  All five of us, Luke Stocking, Maria Castañeda, Helen Russell, Elizabeth Stocking and Joseph Maingot, will board a plane at 7:15am tommorrow morning and head for Canada.

The restuarant owners were impatient for us to leave their establishment today.  We gathered in Asuncion with our friends from all five partners of Development and Peace and shared a last solidarity meal together at lunch.  The thank-yous, gift giving, and warm wishes ran long after the restuarant was supposed to close.  We are so grateful for all our experiences! They call Paraguay the heart of America and today as I thanked our partners I told them I now knew why.

It is one thing to know that Development and Peace is working to improve democractic participation in Paraguay and to promote development alternatives.  It is another thing to know in a personal way the people, our partners, who make these goals a reality. "You are the hands and feet," as one of us said.  My Mother shared at one meeting her belief that, "Solidarity starts with, 'Hello, my name is...'" Through the last few weeks we have come to know eachother by name and become friends in the struggle to create a better world for all.

We are eager to share our experiences at home in Canada, to spread the Good News of what Development and Peace is achieving here in Paraguay. We want to tell you what we saw, what we learned, what we felt and we want to tell you why it is important! Please contact us to arrange for a presentation!

I plan to continue to write here about our trip even after we return. So people may think, if they miss this post, that we are still in the country even after we have left.  In a way they will actually be right.






Campesinos of the MCP play during our stay in San Isidro  - A little piece of Paraguay's heart.

Paraguay #15: The Road to Hell is Paved with Bad Intentions

Another Post from Elizabeth...

A road in Banado Norte

We have moved from the red roads of the countryside to the roads of Asuncion. Looking at the first picture you would be surprised to know that it was taken here in the city. Well, sort of... apparently the road Avda. Gral. Jose G. Artigas is the great divide. When you cross over this street as we did with a member of our partner SERPAJ-PY and entered the area of Banado Norte we seemed to step off the city into the neighbourhood of the poorest of the poor. Roads, like all other services are non-existent.

The Great Divide

You have read in this blog that large numbers of peasant farmers have been forced off their traditional farmland and moved to the city in search of work.  Banado Norte is a community where 80% of the residents are from displaced campesino families trying to find a way to survive. Three thousand five hundred families call this area home, some for more than 50 years. The past two days we have met with people from this area as they plan for an upcoming event that will spotlight the problems here. Tonight we stepped out of our taxis to learn more.

Out with Ada and Alba from SERPAJ

Look closely at the final picture.  You will see in the foreground a small lagoon. The lagoon is part of a special bird sanctuary for migrating birds. In the background you will see red soil of turned up earth for a new highway. The highway is going ahead which conflicts with plans for an expanded sanctuary and all this on the land that has been home to the people of Banado Norte. No Environmental Assesment plan here, no fair compensation plan for the people who will be displaced and it would seem there is a divide and conquer strategy on the part of the government and parties involved so that the people of the area have a hard time organizing to protect their rights.  Paraguay wants a sanctuary for its migrating birds.  Where is the sanctuary for the migrating poor? 

Highway on the Horizon...

Paraguay #14: Juan de Dios Salinas has Reappeared

In my post from exactly one week ago I promised to write more about CENFIC and so here we are:

Jose with his father Juan.

In 1976 Juan de Dios Salinas was disappeared by the Stroessner dictatorship. He was killed for his role in the Christian Agrarian League which worked for the advancement of Paraguay's campesinos.

In 1998 he reappeared.  That was the year that his son, Jose Babadilla, began CENFIC Juan De Dios Salinas (Centro Nacional de Formacion Integral Campesina) on 5 hectares of donated land in a place called O'Leary.

Jose explains to us that Campesino leaders from our partner MCP recognized the lack of educational opportunity for campesino youth and realized they had to form the next generation of the movement.  How else could they pass on the values of life on the land? The countryside is bleeding campesino's into the city as large transnational industrial farms gobble up more and more land.  CENFIC is a school designed to help stop the bleeding.  CENFIC is not only educating young people in the practice of campesino cultivation, but also the importance of campesino culture.  Without culture there can be no cultivation.

Centro Nacional de Formacion Integral Campesina, Juan de Dios Salinas

Due to a complete lack of government support at the start, the school only opened its doors 2006 with 25 students.  Today there are 86 and all but 15 board here.  The students must be at least 13 to attend and they complete grades 7-9 here.  If a student didn't complete earlier schooling, they may be as old as 20 by the time they are done (as opposed to 15).  12 different teachers who rotate through are responsible for their education.  I ask one of them, Victor, what the salary is like. It's less than $400 a month.  They don't do this for the money but for the people and the culture.  

Victor Fretes, Teacher and coordinator of Agriculture at CENFIC shows us the school nursery

In addition to the national curriculum, which includes instruction in the Guarani language, students at CENFIC  learn how to compare the pros and cons of industrial agriculture vs. organic sustainable argiculture and are educated in the latter.  The school is free.  Parents, having little or no money to spend on education, will still sometimes contribute food.  A large part of what is eaten here is grown here.  Some is sold to help keep the school going.  We see large gardens on what has now become a larger operation - in addition to the diverse crops there is mandioca, sugar cane, and maize. Students not only learn how to grow crops and raise animals, but also how to care and cultivate the natural Atlantic forest, most of which has disappeared in the rush to industrial agriculture.  We take a walk through the forest on the land and see where students learn to plant new trees.

Planting Trees...

They have really just the most basic tools, no expensive irrigation systems and the well is hand-dug (they are working on gov't funding for a proper one).  I am awed by how a small number of people are able to produce the food here that they do.  The students work very hard.

All the watering done by hand.

"Looking after the Earth", "Keeping a Kitchen Garden", "Natural Insecticides and pest reduction" these are all things that are taught not just to students but even to adult members of the MCP as well, who partake in special trainings for adults here.

The Chickens of CENFIC :)

We share a wonderful meal with the teachers and students and drink freshly squeezed sugar cane juice while talking with Jose about how vital the education of young campesino's is for not just the country of Paraguay, but indeed the whole planet.  All of humanity will benefit from the farming practices of the campesinos that serve to reduce carbon emissions and combat climate change.

We finish our meal and walk towards the van to say goodbyes. Something colourful catches my eye.  Freshly cleaned laundry blows lightly in the wind that sends it breath running through the whole place. Yes, Juan de Dios Salinas has reappeared.