I’ve found a way to get the high school kids to pay attention more during the talks I’ve been giving. Some of the kids learned that I sing in Chinese, because and all the kids have been wanting to hear Chinese. So I tell them that if they pay attention and participate, we they will all learn how to say hello and goodbye in Chinese. Now the youth yell “Ni hao!” whenever they see me.

There was a big march in Asuncion a couple weeks ago. 50,000 people were marching to show their disapproval of the actions of President Nicanor Duarte Frutos. Everybody refers to him by his first name, I think because Nicanor is more interesting to pronounce than Duarte Frutos. Nicanor wants to change the Paraguayan constitution so that he can seek a second five year term in office. Also, Nicanor just won the Colorado Party internal race, so that he could be leader of the Colorado Party (which has ruled Paraguay since 1947) and President of the Republic at the same time. The legality of him being able to do this is questionable, but the supreme court ruled that he could. The press has been highly critical of the Supreme Court for this decision.

Paraguayan democracy is 16 only years old. Of course, in highly advanced, 230 year old democracies, the supreme court would never butt into presidential politics. The justices appointed by a candidate’s daddy would never, ever, find it ethically acceptable to make a bizarre ruling for the express purpose of putting that candidate into the presidency. Such a ruling would be immediately exposed as by a free press as nepotism and fraud of the most base kind, and alert citizens would go out into the streets and make sure that the un-elected president never took power. If this candidate somehow did take power, it would be inconceivable, in this highly advanced democracy, that without a mandate he would act as emperor of the world, declare a vague unending war on terrorism, invade countries without provocation, imprison people planet wise without charges and torture people with impunity.

But I digress . . . .

The march was big, much bigger than was expected. Paso Yobai treasurer Wildo Escobar was there, as was Luis Dure, the mayor of Paso Yobai. They are both of the largest opposition party, the Liberales.

The election season in Paso Yobai will be heating up soon. If the mayor wants to legally run again, he will have to resign from his position in May. He still hasn’t announced if he will do so. If he does, Petrona Cardozo, Wildo’s aunt, will be temporary mayor. Her husband, Raul Acosta, will likely run in the Liberal Party internal election against the mayor if this happens. Then they will face a Colorado Party candidate in either October or November.

I’ve been doing more work preparing for the creation of a municipal cadastre. I went to Independencia looking from properties that were part of Independencia but changed when Paso Yobai gained its independence. I also went to Caaguazu, which is in the Department of Caaguazu, but is not the capital of Caaguazu. Coronel Oviedo is the capital of Caaguazu. The city of Caaguazu is a big city, for Paraguay, with around 50,000 people in it. It used to be called The Capital of Wood, and still is, but almost all the trees have now been cut down. So now it is the Capital of Deforestation.

The head of the Cadastre Department of Caaguazu was really nice, and helped me a lot with my work. He’s a young guy who believes that with a GPS unit, tape measures, the right computer program and a good team, a good cadastre can be developed without hiring a surveyor for an exorbitant sum of money. I’m trying my best to get all of these things together, and searching for advice and help everywhere I can.

A few days ago, I came home from the Municipality and everybody was throwing bricks at from a truck, to store them in front of Don Hermes’ store (which I live above). So I threw bricks with them for a few hours. It’s good work, but it chewed up my left hand, making it harder to play the guitar for a few days.

Right after that my friend Guido invited my to take a ride to his Chacra, in his 1990 Toyota Camry. We talked about how reliable old Toyota Camrys are (it made me think of Christine Dektor’s never Toyota that never dies – is it still alive?) The chacra is on the not very good road to San Jose. We got there and met with the family who tends the Chacra (I should remember all their names, but I don’t). We ground corn, mandioca and various things in Guido’s new grinder. Then we talked, drank terere and they gave me beans. English – beans. Spanish almost everywhere in the world – frijoles. Spanish in Paraguay – porotos. Guaran� – kumand�.

We went out to the chacra to harvest a little mandioca so we could experiment with grinding it. At this point it started pouring. We ground the mandioca, the ran into the car, with the little kid who was going into town to visit his grandparents. Guido drove down the road, and we were sliding all over the place. The window totally fogged up and I quickly removed my shirt to keep wiping off interior fog from the window, making it almost possible to see out. It is amazing we didn’t crash.

Eventually Guido dropped me at the apartment. As I feared, the apartment was flooded. And the power was out. And I had left my computer on the table near the window, and important papers, like the maps of Paso Yobai, my chord book, and English papers on the floor. Miraculously, despite the flooding, nothing was badly damaged. (I did lose the Table of Contents for the Chord Book, but it is not really a necessary part – I never use it). I am more lucky than I deserve – no more will I leave important things on the floor! I squeegeed out all water out the door to nowhere by candlelight. Then it stopped raining. Then the mosquitoes got pretty bad.

Our social pharmacy is finally getting off the ground. I am proud to say that I am an essential part of the effort, even though the work I have put into it has not been great. Minimal. First I arranged the visit to Caazapa so that the committee members could see how that pharmacy worked. Then I got a guidebook from the mayor of San Juan Bautista de Missiones on how to run a social pharmacy. Nelida and Yolanda worked hard studying the information of social pharmacies, but the project stalled for almost two months, first because there was no doctor in town, then because every time we had a meeting, nobody would show up. This is perhaps because the meetings were usually organized the day of the meeting. Finally, one Friday, I decided, look, this is ridiculous, we’ve got everything in order to get the pharmacy in order, but it just isn’t happening. I called a meeting for Monday. I went to talk with the new doctor in Paso Yobai Doctora Raquel, who recently finished her training in Cuba, and told her how important was that she come. I also informed some other committee members.

The doctor came, everybody came. I acted as facilitator, with big sheets of white paper on the wall, and we organized exactly what needed to be done, who would do it, and when it would be done. People knew all the information, they’d done the work, they just needed a facilitator. The next week we met, almost everyone had done their tasks. A couple tasks hadn’t been done, and we put that on the new list and will go over that in a week. We now have a place for the pharmacy, a list of medicines, committee approval, an initial order for medicines placed, furniture, an initial budget, and we’ve hired the employees. Today I arranged a training for the employees. It should be operational soon, barring unforeseen obstacles, which, of course, are likely.

Acting as a facilitator with big sheets of white paper, this is quintessential Peace Corps work. This is the kind of thing that we learn about in training. The ideal is to facilitate a few times and then help teach as many people in the community how to facilitate.

And Nelida made me some great soy meat empanadas.

The unbearable heat is over. This is a wonderful development. Paraguayan summer is sophoric.