Sorry I haven´t been able to post photos along with my blogs, but I´m old school compared to Jen, who is able to blog and upload photos from her iPhone, while I must wait until we have computer access, and most don´t allow for camera card uploads, so you´ll just have to wait until I get back home for the photos.
We´re now in Salvador, Brasil which has been a fun city by day to explore, but it´s quite dangerous at night, so we´re back at the hotel and I thought I´d catch up on blogging and finish some of my thoughts on Paraguay. The politics have certainly changed in the fact that one can now openly discuss politics, and we even saw a small demonstration in Asuncion, but as for real change, vamos a ver. I spoke with the 2 physicians I had worked with (Asuncion & Pilar) and asked them what they thought of President Lugo, and they both said that he essentially has no power. One said he would have been more effective continuing to preach (if it weren´t for those kids he fathered), and they both feel he doesn´t have the political support or savvy to truly effect change. One of the physicians even said that Stroessner´s grandson is high up in the Colorado Party waiting to make a move after Lugo is out. Vamos a ver.
I can´t see a lot of change in the mindset of the people, and a lot of that is still ingrained from early childhood where the education system is still a very closed system, with rote lessons, few or no books, and discipline versus inquiry. I was saddened to find the few deaf students that I had gotten enrolled into school that are now young men in their 30s that still can´t read or write, and are doing menial tasks. However, they are from poor families and I´m not sure if all the members of their family can read or write, so perhaps my hopes and expectations were too grandiose. They at least seem happy and are embraced by their families and the folks in town.
I was quite pleased to find Senora Molina, the mother of 10, four of whom had developmental disabilities, and to see how well she was. She reported that her daughter that dutifully rode Raul, a young boy of 9 or 10 with cerebral palsy to school, every day on the back of her bike and learned the home exercises to do with him, is doing well in Argentina, where she became a massage therapist so she could do the work that Sarah did to help people. She was such a good sister and daughter that it truly touched me to hear the news. Unfortunately Raul passed away about 7 years ago, but his older brothers that I also worked with are doing well, hanging out with the old guys, sweeping the sidewalks and sipping terere.
Jen and I met the two PC volunteers in Pilar, and they are working with the schools and local government, facing some of the same frustrations that I did 25 years ago. Yet they are in a whole new generation of PC, where all the volunteers have cell phones and some even have internet access. Joan talks to her boyfriend back in the states every evening via Skype. I can´t even imagine what PC would have been like with that kind of potential connectedness to the world and home.
Our last night in Pilar, we met an Irishman, Julian Bloomer, who is pedaling all around the world, taking a sabbatical of sorts from his previous teaching job at University in Ireland. He has had quite the adventure up to now, and seems to have the strong legs and easy manner to complete his journey. See the link to his blog on the sidebar.
The one thing I hadn´t prepared myself for and I don´t know why I hadn´t, but I was totally at a loss for words when the first questions from Mami and Marcella were, ``Are you married?`` Rather than replying with a simple yes or no, I stuttered and ended up by saying ``Mas o menos``. It was that old feeling of not being valued because I wasn´t married and didn´t have kids; that despite my work, and my relationship and family that I couldn´t share with them, I was somehow less. At least the Paredes were totally open and accepting, which was quite refreshing and rewarding. Asi es. It has made for some odd experiences travelling, where people never think of us as a couple, we get hotel rooms with 2 double beds, and can not show any signs of closeness. Oh well, es como es.
