August 9th officially marked my 3 month anniversary in site, so although this post is belated, I thought it prudent to provide the American taxpayer with a little progress report. No matter your opinion on current tax policy, I’m sure we can all agree that Daddy needed a new bike. Before you ask, yes, it’s Chinese. I’m sorry. I would’ve bought American but our budget was threatened with a rather large cut recently. Call your reps.
On May 9, 2017, I arrived in what will be my home until May 9, 2019 ish. Let that sink in a little bit. I’ll tell you about the place in the meantime. My town is located in the southern department of Misiones which is known for -you guessed it- missions. The ruins of Jesuit reductions in the area span far and wide here and even extend down into Argentina. I think there’s a movie about them if you’re into history and great casts but I won’t bore you with the details. Weirdly enough, Misiones in general is a lot like rural Texas. It’s usually damn hot with gently rolling hills, there are lots of mosquitoes and ants and pine trees, and a lot of folks speak Spanish and drive great big-ass pickup trucks and grill a lot of cows. I appreciate these similarities greatly and felt obliged to memorialize my gratitude a few weekends ago with a slightly gravelly karaoke rendition of the old country standard “All My Exes Live in Texas.”
So at first glance my town, aptly named Santa María, really has got it all. There’s excellent health clinic, a police station, a hotel, a Jesuit history museum, a horse racetrack, a small landing strip for crop dusters and the like, and a long-awaited ATM was just recently installed. I might mention also that I’m not the only foreigner here by a long shot. There is a very successful English language charity smack in the center of town that is run by a retired English journalist and staffed by volunteer teachers from the UK and the US and word on the street is there’s a Belgian university student around here somewhere as well.
Why am I here? That’s an excellent question. The Paraguayan Ministry of Public Health and Social Wellbeing (rough translation) has, together with the Peace Corps Community Health sector, identified three main areas of work. As a result of diet/nutrition and lifestyle, noncommunicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, lung disease, and heart disease are becoming increasingly prevalent and contributing to quality years of life lost throughout the country. Additionally, maternal and child health are a high priority as rates of teen pregnancy rise along with pre and postpartum complications. Finally, teen health and education are being prioritized to ensure that future Paraguayans are physically healthy and mentally well-adjusted citizens. While sexual health and drug abuse are frequently discussed topics, savvy financial decision making and gender identity are also addressed by many Volunteers.
In most cases, a Volunteer’s presence must be requested by a member of the community or by a previous Volunteer. In my case, the doctor in charge of the preventive care unit of the local health center asked for a Community Health Volunteer to work in health promotion and education. To that end I’ve been riding along on house calls in the community, observing patient visits, and dipping my toes into charlas or educational talks in the health center waiting room, local schools, or on the radio.
Santa Maria is also home to a suboffice of SENEPA, a service of the Paraguayan Ministry of Health that focuses on vector control and surveillance of diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, leishmaniasis, chikungunya, and Zika virus disease. I’ve been going out with their team on rastrillaje which taken literally means raking, but in this context refers to house calls around the community to identify and physically destroy mosquito breeding habitats. It’s with this group that I hope complete my final credits at Boston University School of Public Health and in so doing earn my degree of Master of Public Health.
In the near future I’ll be doing trainings with the health center staff on physical fitness and diet as well as organizing a Zumba class for a number of interested parties. I’m also hoping to run a wilderness/survival/outdoors appreciation camp in the distant future depending on the amount of buy-in I can extract from area youth.
Finally, I owe Peace Corps and Santa María in general a document called a Community Needs Assessment that is essentially a report on the history, geography, social demographics, human and natural resources, and health needs of the community. This will in theory serve as a guide for the remainder of my service, allowing me to determine where and how to focus my energy and effort.
I know what you’re thinking.
Ah yes interesting stuff, sounds relevant and time-consuming, hope he has enough peanut butter, hope he’s not making an ass of himself in two additional languages, etc.
While I can guarantee that I am tapped out of the greatest food product in human history and am the butt of many a joke both of my own making and not, you may recall that in a previous post I touched on differences in time and being “useful” or “productive.” Since writing that, I’ve had the chance to speak with a number of people about concepts of work in other cultures. I’m reasonably convinced at this point that the go-get-em attitude that characterizes many US citizens (according to pop culture and public sentiment, anyway) is pretty unique to a handful of “developed” countries. Rather, great importance is laid upon developing relationships private and public.
To this end, a fair amount what passes for work up to this point has been spent drinking terere and more recently its hot cousin mate. When drinking terere or mate, an insulated cup called a guampa is filled with the yerba mate tea herb. Hot or cold water is then poured on top depending on the weather at the moment, left to soak for a moment, then sipped through a brass straw called a bombilla. This ritual/ceremony/daily occurrence is in a sense a cornerstone of the Paraguayan social experience.
Think of it like this. In some jobs people engage in team-building via fun ropes courses and company outings. Others build relationships by playing golf. We drink tea. And we’re good at it. Peace Corps even gave us special cups as proof.
Thanks as always for reading and for your love, support, and well-wishes.
Figure It Out, Get It Done 