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'Odd couple' learn cultural sensitivity as they
teach ecological sustainability in Paraguay

by Justin Mog and Amanda Fuller

After nearly a year serving as Peace Corps volunteers in a rural community in Paraguay, South America (Ruta'i, Caaguazú), we feel fully settled-in and have finally achieved a solid understanding of the everyday life and work of our friends and neighbors here. As we observe the ways that people here struggle to survive, we also learn about the limits of our ability to help.

Coming to understand what kinds of things people can do to improve their lives and livelihoods, things that don't cost much (or anything at all!) is encouraging. These include how many children to have; what they plant on their land (and thus) what they eat and what their animals eat; what they teach their kids; and how they manage their soil, and other resources.

At the same time we are frustrated and horrified with every new observation that a few simple factors, beyond the control of most people, are at the root of the problems we have been sent here to help solve!

Why? Because we can see how Paraguay's social, agricultural, and environmental problems are deeply rooted in the culture itself. Paraguay has clung tenaciously to elements of its culture through a very difficult history of colonization, wars, and brutal dictatorships. We owe it to them to respect that culture. And so how can we broach the topic of poverty reduction and environmental improvement in a culturally appropriate way? We are loath therefore to voice what we think is a…

"Recipe for Poverty Reduction and Improved Environmental Health"

1. Have fewer children.
2. Eat less meat.
3. Plant more vegetables and trees, and diversify crops.
4. Recycle organic matter, instead of burning it, in order to maintain soil health.
5. Distribute household work such that young women can go to school.

However, all of these suggestions, so obvious to us in their environmental and social implications, simply fly in the face of Paraguay's culture. Specifically:

1. Paraguay's prevalent Catholicism frowns upon family planning; many of our friends have more than 10 children!
2. People in Paraguay eat a lot of meat, are proud of it, and are not interested in changing.
3. Doing something different from everyone else seems to incite fear and confusion. And the concept of planning ahead is a rare one, undermined by the continuing tradition of patronage and handouts from the government and charities.
4. Organic wastes (such as the leaves swept up from the patio by the women each day) are not perceived as different from any other form of basura, or "trash." Both are called feo, or ugly," rather than being seen as a potential resources.
5. Women's work and men's work are, for the most part, strictly defined and largely separate. Women who work hard scrubbing clothes while men sit idle, shrug with acceptance when questioned.

Where does that leave us and our Peace Corps work here? Advising people that their cultural traditions are ruining them doesn't go over too well. How dare we?!

Searching for enlightenment, we read Two Ears of Corn, a Guide to People-Centered Agricultural Improvement, by Roland Bunch, a wonderful book on sustainable development. It says that helping somebody change who doesn't want to is not only unsustainable, it's ethically unjustifiable.

Are we relegated then, to work on the fringes, with the small percentage of people who are ready to challenge elements of their own culture? Or are there ways that we can creatively, subtly, show that a better future is possible, without directly offending the culture? Predictably, the answer can only be "little by little."

And here is where we wish we had some concrete examples to share, to end this report on a positive note. Surely the people in our community take note of the oddity that we are: We're in our early 30s and have no children; we don't eat meat; we compost our organic matter (and even cover our garden with it); and every day we work side by side as equals, in the home and outside. If people also see that we live well, work well, eat well, and that our garden does well, does that count for something?

It seems easy for people to dismiss these profound cultural differences because we are from far away. But perhaps some sparks of consciousness change are being lit.... In a nation of struggling people, we hope that positive change, one tree at a time, can someday become a point of pride too, just like a fat cow or pig!

Justin and Amanda, Madison (Wis.) Monthly Meeting, are doing agricultural extension and environmental education work in Paraguay until December 2007. <justinmog@gmail.com>; <abfuller@gmail.com>

Their low-environmental impact wedding in August 2004 in Madison, Wis., was featured in the January-February 2005 BeFriending Creation.