Anniversary of the Comunidades Cristianas

Santa Maria is split into four neighbourhoods, each of which has its own Christian base community ("Comunidad Cristiana"), a group that meets during the week at the homes of the members. The surrounding villages also have their own communities, which are particularly significant there as they only have mass once a month. 31st May was the anniversary of the Comunidades, which was celebrated with a special mass and an "acto folclórico" and bring-and-share meal afterwards.

Two girls from one of the neighbourhoods danced to "Pájaro Campana". In typical Paraguayan style, the USB stick turned out not to have the right music on it - however, two of the Paraguayan harp students stepped in to play the piece, which of course they happened to know off by heart!

Five out of six! Outside the church.

The girls from my community and I danced to Isla Saka quite successfully, after a series of rather chaotic rehearsals. We were decked out in full Paraguayan traditional dance costume, which was quite exciting. Lelis, who also masterminded the choreography, danced with her water jug balanced on her head.

Preparations

About to start...

Paraguayitas

The end of the road

I have less than a month remaining in Paraguay...

As ever towards the end of a stint abroad, life has suddenly become very busy. The past two weeks have been holidays from the English classes, but filling up the free time has not proved difficult! Apart from a trip across the border to Buenos Aires, I took the opportunity to go and work at two of Santa Maria's cooperative projects, the sewing workshop and the medicinal herb garden.

All this has resulted in a dearth of blog posts, but I am hoping to catch up a bit over the next week (when Thea is coming to visit!). Some will be very out-of-date, but I think still of interest. Watch this space!

Work

I thought it was about time for a word on what I actually spend most of my time doing...

The Santa Maria Institute has its own two-year degree programme - free and open to all - in Food Technology, which is highly employable. It also provides university scholarships for poor students with academic potential. Apart from this (though there is often overlap between the branches of activity) it offers free English classes, taught by volunteers such as myself. Students can enter the adult course from age 13, but must first attend a short course open to all in January and pass a (fairly challenging) exam. This means that the English students are selected to some extent for aptitude and commitment. All classes run every weekday for an hour, and there are currently six levels, ranging from absolute beginners (Class 1) to advanced level. There are also non-selective children's classes which run when there are enough teachers available.

I teach the morning Class 2 and the evening Class 1 (the less advanced classes are taught on two timetables) and Class 6.  The students in Class 6 are working towards the Cambridge Advanced English certificate (having passed KET, PET and First Certificate) and have also gained qualifications in Business English and Teaching Knowledge, which they utilise professionally through interpreting, teaching English and managing the town's small hotel.

I also teach keyboard to several students, a recorder class for children and German to one girl who is going to Switzerland in August with an international exchange programme.

It's an ideal teaching situation in many ways, as the students are generally highly motivated, the classes are fairly small and the daily lessons mean they make clearly perceptible progress. The coursebooks we use are a little dated but an absolute dream compared to e.g. the Peruvian education system I worked within on my gap year, and the Cambridge certificates are qualifications of international value. English - let alone good English - is a rarity in Paraguay, but is and will continue to be important in the country's development.

For more information about the Education Fund and its various projects, see the link at the side under "About the blog", PART 2.

Koki Ruiz - art for the papal visit

The Pope is coming to Paraguay 10th-12th July, and everyone is terribly excited. Koki Ruiz, the artist responsible for the Holy Week procession in Tañarandy (see this post), was commissioned to build an altar / work of art for the occasion. He insisted on creating it in San Ignacio rather than the capital, so his workshop has been open to the public for people to see the work in progress up close.
 

Yours truly with San Ignacio / St Ignatius. Yes, I'm wearing a coat and gloves and scarf - winter has arrived!

 The main images are of St Ignatius (founder of the Jesuits, of whom the Pope is one) and St Francis (whose name he chose). The depictions are composed entirely of seeds, pulses and grains grown in Paraguay (see last picture).

Close-up of the maize and coconut seed designs - like on the columns either side of St Ignatius.

 The pillars and decorative panels are made with ears of maize and coconut seeds. Visiting members of the public sign their names on the green cocos.

With Demetria's son Hector.

St Francis, and a column in progress (she's drilling holes to tie the maize on)

St Francis' finger up close: Sunflower seeds, soya beans, poroto, feichao, locro....all their natural colours.

Retreat

In the first half of this month I spent eight days in the Jesuit retreat house in San Ignacio on a silent retreat. I had more or less zero human interaction for the whole time, with the significant exception of a daily conversation with Pa'i Oscar (a Jesuit and the parish priest of Santa Maria) to discuss my experiences that day and set the Bible texts for me to pray with on the next.

Part of the retreat house garden. This tree reminded me of autumn and spring all at once.

Writing about it properly would go rather beyond my general practice on this blog, so ask me in person sometime if you'd like to know more. Suffice to say it was a truly rewarding and important eight days for me.

My friend the tortoise, enjoying an avocado. I wrote a poem in Spanish about him (see what solitude does to you?)

The room I stayed in.

PUPPY!

Following the sad demise of two out of three of the dogs (Toni and Keke), someone brought Demetria a new puppy! He is small and black and adorable. Oli (the remaining adult canine) is very much enamoured of him and licks and cuddles up to him all the time.

Demetria's new baby

...or is he Oli's?

Grief

Grief in Britain is a private affair. Not so in Paraguay, as I experienced when a friend's mother died recently.

Crowds of friends and acquaintances gather outside the house, awaiting the arrival of the family with the body. When they come, they are embraced and supported into the house amidst wailing and tears, for a prayer vigil lasting all night and into the morning.

Most of those in attendance aren't doing a great deal apart from standing around, but their presence and prayers are a concrete expression of solidarity with and support for the bereaved.

It's heart-rending to see emotional devastation so physically, openly and noisily expressed, yet I can't help but think it seems a healthier way to deal with loss than our repression and stoicism, both for the family and the community.