February 1, 2006: Headlines: COS - Paraguay: Roanoke Times: Two years ago Taylor Beauregard sat in a Salem coffee shop and talked about her immediate future. She was bound for Miami and then for her assignment as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay.
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February 1, 2006: Headlines: COS - Paraguay: Roanoke Times: Two years ago Taylor Beauregard sat in a Salem coffee shop and talked about her immediate future. She was bound for Miami and then for her assignment as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay.
Two years ago Taylor Beauregard sat in a Salem coffee shop and talked about her immediate future. She was bound for Miami and then for her assignment as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay.
Recently, Beauregard sent me a couple of e-mails describing her life as the only North American in Ferreira, a community of 90 houses, 600 residents and one clay through-road traveled by buses to Asuncion, the capital, twice a day, except when it rains. The settlement occupies "a beautiful hill surrounded by fields of sugar cane, soy, corn and beans," she wrote. Mangoes, tangerines, oranges, bananas and papayas dangle from trees, and the residents are "open-armed, loving and generous."
Two years ago Taylor Beauregard sat in a Salem coffee shop and talked about her immediate future. She was bound for Miami and then for her assignment as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay.
PARAGUAY WINS HEART OF ROANOKE COLLEGE GRAD
Feb 1, 2006
Roanoke Times
Two years ago Taylor Beauregard sat in a Salem coffee shop and talked about her immediate future. She was bound for Miami and then for her assignment as a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay.
Beauregard was 26, small and brown-haired and eager to pursue the dream she'd had since childhood.
"I want to open myself up to the experience," she told me.
A few days later, during a snowstorm, she left Roanoke by plane with tears in her eyes.
Recently, Beauregard sent me a couple of e-mails describing her life as the only North American in Ferreira, a community of 90 houses, 600 residents and one clay through-road traveled by buses to Asuncion, the capital, twice a day, except when it rains.
The settlement occupies "a beautiful hill surrounded by fields of sugar cane, soy, corn and beans," she wrote. Mangoes, tangerines, oranges, bananas and papayas dangle from trees, and the residents are "open-armed, loving and generous."
Helping hand
Beauregard majored in international relations at Roanoke College and earned a master of arts degree from Hollins University.
For the Peace Corps, she is a Rural Health and Sanitation volunteer. She has helped the community build sanitary latrines, conducted dental health and nutritional programs and helped plan a community health clinic.
She also teaches courses in reproductive health and HIV and AIDS prevention, among other things.
I told her that my image of Paraguay tended toward stereotypes of old Mexico -- men in sombreros, white adobe buildings, drowsy pack mules plodding along dusty streets. I asked her to correct my misconceptions.
The people of Ferreira farm sugar cane and sell it to the processing plant, she wrote. Some work in the plant but thousands live and work in Buenos Aires and Asuncion and send money back to their families.
Field workers earn $2.50 a day. Three people in town own cars or trucks. Others ride mopeds, motorcycles or family horses and bicycles.
Electricity reached Ferreira in 1992.
The rural farmers wear long pants and long-sleeved shirts in the fields. But most Paraguayans are "a beautiful mixture of the Guarani (Indians) and the Spanish," she wrote.
Outside of work they are so "beautifully groomed and dressed" that they make her look shabby.
The simple life
The gulf between the potential of the town children and the quality of the education has pained the heart of many a previous volunteer, as well as hers. Most children finish sixth grade. Some go to high school in the nearest town, three miles away, or in the cities.
Many young males work in the fields, the sugar cane factory or elsewhere. A few go to college; more pursue two-year teaching or nursing degrees.
Violence is minimal, though the unstable employment situation creates frustrations that lead to alcohol abuse and domestic upheaval.
"Paraguayans are leery of U.S. intentions of establishing a military post or base in the northern territory called the Chaco," she wrote. They fear that the U.S. wants to "steal water from the largest underground water source in the world."
Ninety-seven percent of Paraguayans are Catholic, and religious observances are common.
Her host family has been wonderful, and her labors have taught her much, including beekeeping, knitting, soil conservation and how to teach English.
She has seen her parents, Ted and Debra Beauregard of Buchanan, at reunions in Germany, Mexico, Brazil and Ferreira.
They are much more comfortable with her decision than they were when she left two years ago.
In April, Beauregard will become a Peace Corps coordinator in Asuncion. She'll return to the States for a month, probably next summer.
What else has she learned?
"I have learned that less is more (finally!)," she wrote.
She ardently defends Paraguay and insists that for the country to flourish, "development must be sustainable, in the hands of the people themselves."
Most of the world is poor, she said, but only in material things.
"The most financially needy individuals are often the most generous [and] welcoming," she wrote.
"I won the Peace Corps lottery when I was awarded Ferreira."
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Story Source: Roanoke Times
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Paraguay
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