Installing solar panels in an indigenous community in Caazapá, Paraguay
How do they live in such silence? The silence is deafening, the darkness oppressive. We make our way through the forest, seeking the warmth and safety of the light coming from the headlights of the pickup truck that we left by the main road. After an intense day of work, we finally finish installing 21 solar panels in the indigenous community named Yvytymi, in Caazapá.
At midday, we started our work. If we talk about the middle of nowhere, this community is farther away than that. The pickup truck had to park in the soy fields 2 kilometers behind, and we started walking, swerving around trees and dancing with mud threatening to kidnap our designer tennis shoes. The woman guiding us walks quickly, her bare feet liberating her from the concern of leaving a shoe behind; she’s familiar with the path through the forest, across the river, up a small hill, through a corn field owned by a big multinational to the clearing where she and her family live in three small structures.
Our team arrives, panting from the heat and the balancing act performed in carrying the solar panels: one long pole with the panel itself and a second long pole awkwardly balanced with the battery. Resting our cargo on the deep red dirt that surrounds us, we take a breath and look around: Bright blue sky, void of pollution, corn stretched as far as you can see, and not another structure for kilometers. Looking up to the sky, we discuss with the family the path the sun takes on its way home to the horizon, and get to work.
With both poles firmly rooted in the rich red earth, we begin to show the family how to turn on their new lights. The small thatch-roofed, wooden structure has no windows and a 2 by 4 for a door; it lets in almost no light. We all crowd in; anxious to witness the first time this family illuminates the life around them. The switch is flipped; light washes over the grass mat bed with its thin sheet, over the remains of the fire set inside the home last night when the temperature was less than 10 degrees Celsius, over the few carefully hung pieces of clothing, hanging to dry after being washed this morning at the river a kilometer away. The family talks amongst themselves: the Guarani chatter I do not understand, but the smiles communicate better than words ever could.
With this last house in the rolling hills of Yvytymi, the Fundación Paraguaya, with the support of Bunge Paraguay, completes the mission of illuminating the lives of 100 indigenous or extremely poor families that had previously never had access to electricity. On Saturday, April 22, 2017, light arrived to this community in Caazapa, at the hands of 21 solar panels and 14 volunteers from various departments of Fundación Paraguaya. Led by Nancy Ramos, who with an inexhaustible spirit and a huge heart, channeled our willpower an strengthened our commitment to continue working for the development of these families, of our society, we started work: some with strength dug the holes needed, others hung lights with precision, and others, with deft management in Guarani, applied the Poverty Stoplight Survey. Using the Poverty Stoplight, not only the use and importance of electricity was explained, but also the potential to improve the quality of life in various aspects that resides within each family.
While the experience left its mark on our hearts, we leave wondering about the mark it has left on those families and their futures. Could it be that these light bulbs mean that children have the possibility of doing school work at home, or that the old woman can move more confidently about her bedroom, or that the family can extend the usable time in their day, both for daily work and quality family time?
Although having two lights and a charging station for cell phones will not change the fact that these families cannot read, have no modern bathroom, may not have more than US$ 3 per week, and have little idea what is going on more than 20 kilometers away, they have accepted a first step towards dreaming a little bigger and improving their quality of life. These people opened their homes, their lives to a huge change, and opened their minds to any other opportunity that may come their way.
By Kelly Jones and Telma Alvarenga
