Hello All,

It sure has been a long time since I last wrote you all.  It feels as though it has been as long as months, years, even decades, but I assure you "the Blas and his Paraguayan Saga" live on.

As some of you already know, I was in the USA at the end of last month.  I want to thank everyone who I was able to see and for all the kind words and thoughts expressed in regard to my parents.  Going home made me realize how special and genuine my parent's family & friends are.  Tami and I had a wonderful time visiting the city, and I believe Phoenix will be a perfect place to call home for the short run.  Thunderbird University lived up to all my expectation and I really look forward to starting classes in the fall.

So how are things in Paraguay?  Well, to be honest things don't change much in the campo.  It is still very hot, but everyone talks that winter is slowly creeping upon us… g-d do I hope they are correct.  The cherry tomatoes are starting to come in season, so that means I will be eating lots of pasta soon, and my campesinos are still selling their sweet corn, so hats off to the agro-industry.  Every afternoon my boys are at the concha (little soccer field) playing until the sun goes down.  You know those afternoon games will be one of the things I will miss most when I leave Paraguay.   Unfortunately, in the United States, the idea of pick up games has almost been lost; on the other hand, I would bet in any rural or urban community in all of Paraguay, when the clock hits 5 p.m. and you are near a soccer field, you will see little boys to grown men lining on up on the midfield line waiting to be chosen for there respective teams.

It surprised me how everyone that I saw at home said I physically look good.  Let's be honest, I have lived off of pig fat and mandioca the last 20+ months and weekends in the city includes fried meats and big barbeques.  I think I have gained about 10 lbs. while living down here and if things go the way that they are, I don't see my fiancé letting me lose any weight anytime soon.

Work wise I have been the unofficial representative of the Peace Corps in meeting with numerous NGOs and government organizations on how to get Paraguay up to date with technological advances.  To be honest, after meeting and speaking with numerous aid agencies I am starting to think that most of these aid agencies actual do more harm than help.  To begin with, before I came to the Peace Corps I believe one could never be involved in too many organizations or fight for too many causes.  I truly believe that people who choose to volunteer their time or money are always trying to do it with their best intentions and I applaud them for participating.  Without the financial donations from philanthropic individuals most organizations would never be in existence.  After working with many organizations over the last couple of months to help bring technology to the developing world, I think I have finally hit a wall on wondering on what we are doing is really making a positive difference.  Since my arrival in Isla Ybaté, I have seen almost 15 different NGOs come in and out of here promising things from medicine, to clothing, to religious information, and finally computers.  In the city of Carapeguá, the closest city to my community, there are three different NGOs all working on bringing computers to the high schools and local municipal services.  Each of these NGOs has time to talk to me one on one, but no one has time for all of us to sit down and strategize.  Also, each of these organizations has their central office in Asuncion, and a local branch in Carapeguá. 

This is where I point out the first problem that I have seen with development aid work.  Not to brag about the Peace Corps, but we are the only international or local aid agency that devotes 100% of our time living and working with the people.  Mohammed Yunus, the Nobel prize winner, once said, "Development work cannot be accomplished from an office… lets move the World Bank from New York to Dhaka…."As stated previously, most aid agencies or NGOs have their central office in Asuncion and then have local institutions where they workè Ok, I like this, but big decisions tend to be made at the central and carried out through the local branches.  Also, these local branches, especially in my case, hire all employees from the surrounding communities, and leave them in charge to carry out these new projects with all funds provided by the central office.  In theory this is great, and this is how most multinationals work in the developed world (local nationals is the development term).  But lets get back to the reason why I am aggravated, I have finally realized that development decisions cannot be made from the office with visits once a week to the people you want to help; in the interior of this country rural cities are still very different that rural villages.  So my conclusion, to where I have gone off on this extra long tangent, is that AID agencies need help, they need a UPS business-form to come into a country and do the logistics on where and how each organization can help the people.  In fact, in Paraguay I would make that another ministry, The Ministry of Logistics for Foreign and Local Aid.                

The computer school is going through its typical ups and downs.  Classes are starting to thin out due to number of reasons: students finishing their studies, students losing interest in the computer, and mainly because student's families are leaving for Argentina since there is no work in Paraguay.  My teachers are also starting to show signs of burn out.  They continue to love using the computer, but they have gotten into a routine of teaching at a below par level, and the affects of their lackadaisical teaching methods is starting to show up in the students desire to attend classes.  Also, we saw high uses of Skype over the holiday period and leading into Easter weekend, due to all the Paraguayans returning home and being on vacation, but as they have returned to Argentina, our phone business is starting to die down.  The school has stopped making a profit and we are starting to see signs of us struggling to break even.

Over the past nine months I have had a lot of time to think what I have done right and wrong on this project.  Looking back on the project I feel as though I am an entrepreneur, who with the help of the local community, helped start a new business.  Like any other international development project, the main goal is always sustainability.  How does one make a project sustainable?  Text books can give you theory after theory, but I am having a hard time figuring out what is correct.  I have done a time line assessment on where the group started and where we are now.  Over the period of time, we have had some pretty astonishing results.  Since November 2006 the group has met each week (72 meeting in total) and paid a membership fee of 20.000 Gs per month (8,120,000), people pay 10.000 a month for water in my town (pretty amazing that they pay more to be in my group than for water!!!).  We have built a computer center that was appraised for 24,000,000 Gs. and have about 15,000,000 Gs of computer and technological equipment in the center.  We have had 98 students at least attend one month of classes and about 40 of them will finish the entire program.  For the nine months that we have been in service, eight of them have been profitable.  After analyzing this, one would think things are going really well, and in reality we have made huge progress, but with so much work and effort put into the project were starting to lose the battle. 

The battle I see us losing is similar to the macro problems in Paraguay.  Yesterday, an ex archbishop, with left wing and socialist views, won the Presidential elections.  Not only did he win, but he won by a landslide against the party that has been in control for the past 61 years.  For Paraguay, this is huge news; the people were ready for a change.  As I have mentioned in several blog entries, about 25% of the population of Paraguay now lives outside of the country and ever growing number is continuing to leave.  The people complain that there is no work, no opportunity, and no future; these complaints I have learned to agree accept.  I have discussed this subject with many people and pretty much the educated and uneducated people say the root of the problem has to do with Paraguay's dismal infrastructure system, lack of separation between the government and the Ministry of Education that results in an inefficient education system, and the results of a 35 year dictatorship.  I agree all three of these problems can detrimental to a society, but after starting this project I am starting to have a different opinion.  With my community, we worked on the computer school without influence from the local politics, we created work for people who were in need, and we provided a service that was both beneficial and nonexistent in the community.  The project has taken on a lot of success, but as I stated earlier I am finding that when real work needs to begin, no one wants to work and when changes need to be made for future existence, no one wants the responsibility to decide.  What this basically comes down to is, my guys are content with the past two year's success, but they really do not want to work anymore.  It is mind boggling for me; but in reality it is so much easier to complain and blame the negativity, than to work and create positive change.

I know this blog may seem long, opinionated, and at times pessimistic, but as I am starting to close out on my service, I am trying to reflect on what I have done with my life for the past two years.  I realize I do not even mention stories about wild animals (frogs in my bed and toilet; chickens going poop on my computers; the everyday nuisance of the pigs), long exotic journeys (I have made friends with the bread truck and vegetable truck so I am not riding anymore horses), or the common deaths and disease that still occur; I guess you could say I have become immune or assimilated to it all.

Best regards,

Blas [Brad]