by Myroslava Mykytyn
Marcelo examines his own head lice!
A year ago I was in awe of visiting South America. I wanted to be a paediatrician and, even though I had never visited before, my dream for a long time had been to work there. But, I knew I had to experience it first. My plan was to work with a children’s organization to gain experience. I had already learned some Spanish for a journey to Spain.
My father suggested I look to Susila Dharma for opportunities to volunteer abroad. After having contacted many organizations throughout South America, I came across Benita Gavilán in Paraguay. She is the director of a small organization called Vida Plena in Fernando de la Mora, a town just next door to the capital Asunción. Vida Plena’s efforts are directed towards helping impoverished children within the largest market in the city, the ‘Mercado de Abasto’ (the Supply Market), to obtain better lives than their parents, many of whom are illiterate.
At a warehouse rented by Vida Plena, children are given a healthy diet, basic clothing, medical attention, and academic support. Above all, Benita provides the children with a loving and caring environment for them to achieve their full potential and to find refuge from the daily stresses imposed by family and school. Benita very generously and openly invited me to stay in her home, living with her family in their Spanish style house, with the white stucco siding, red shingled roof, and big open patios. (Even though I was given ample warning not to drink the tap water, I suffered no adverse effects.)
The Microscope
Because of my science studies at the University of Ottawa, Benita asked me whether I would be interested in teaching biology to the children. I accepted eagerly and began to search for donations of microscopes, science equipment, and children’s books. I first contacted my university. I knew they had recently renovated the labs and I thought they might have some old equipment left over. But they had already donated the equipment to local elementary schools. My professor suggested that I contact the companies that manufacture the educational science equipment and ask for donations. After writing to numerous companies in both Canada and the United States, one very generous manager from Boreal Northwest offered me two microscopes! He organized an entire package full of science equipment and even included posters on the life cycle of the butterfly. After this success, I contacted local book publishers in Ontario. Tundra books from Toronto very kindly sent me a collection of Spanish books they had in stock. I came to Paraguay with a large suitcase packed tight with scientific lab material. You can imagine how much interest the customs officials had in me!
When I arrived, everything was a culture shock, especially being a visible minority. Unlike Brazil, where skin colour ranges from the deepest black to the fairest white, in Paraguay all the locals are fairly dark skinned, and, given the lack of diverse ethnic groups, any foreigner stands out like a sore thumb. Being a Caucasian female, the unwelcome attention and verbal harassment was at times excessive and difficult to ignore. It took me a while to adapt and become familiar with my surroundings. I was overwhelmed when I first met all the children (aged three to early teens), as there were so many of them. The warmth and innocence of the children was obvious, but some were barefoot, had the sniffles, and some had teeth so rotted they were black. The economic situation of each child varied. Some children had to wear the same clothes every day, while others were always well dressed and clean. I quickly found that many children didn’t have a single parent to come home to, let alone two parents, as many were left with members of their extended family.
The children’s centre is located in the market, which was rowdy, fast-paced, crowded, and littered with pregnant cats and dogs running all over. The garbage dumps were overflowing and children rummaged through them in search of treasures to sell. There were aisle upon aisle of only fruit—you can’t imagine how many different types of citrus fruits you could buy!—plus herb ladies, smelly meat vendors, chickens galore, decadent pastries… and all dirt cheap. You had to be wary of some vendors, though—the quiet elderly woman was usually a safer bet and was less likely to sell you caramelized sugar instead of pure honey. In this rather industrial area you might not expect to find a children’s centre, but I soon came to realize that this was where it was most needed.
Some of the children live directly within the market where their parents work. Their main form of activity is soccer and they play it barefoot in spite of the glass and cut wire on the ground; yet, anyone who falls and hurts himself usually bounces back up, shrugs it off and keeps playing. These kids are tougher than I could have imagined.
I took to them rather quickly, trying to learn everyone’s name and what background they came from. Some had abusive parents, some didn’t go to school, some worked in the market throughout the night, some had more than a dozen brothers and sisters, and some were the eldest in their families and responsible for their younger siblings, some of the children had to walk many kilometres to get there every day, some did badly in school, while others excelled, some spoke Guarani while others could not. None were of completely indigenous background. Looking at my microscopes I admit that I thought, ‘This is the last thing these children need right now.’ Almost none had good shoes or a warm sweater to wear but I realized that these children had other priorities.
Nevertheless, the weeks went by and I slowly introduced all the materials: binoculars, magnifying glasses, goggles, test tubes, beakers, books, coloured markers, crayons and pens, then finally the microscopes. I attempted to get the kids to draw on their own, instead of using colouring books and to the use their own imagination—a blank sheet of paper without limits. We collected dozens of different specimens to cut open and examine under the microscope. Everything went over very well and the children were enthusiastic.
Learning to Appreciate
Sheyla loves to draw.
At first there were some difficulties sharing, so things broke or went missing; but the children soon learned to appreciate the materials. Meanwhile, as I got to understand each child individually, their likes and dislikes and what sort of activities we could do well together such as baking, making and flying kites, reading books, learning the alphabet, face painting, playing tag, making puzzles, cooking lunches, taking photographs and playing soccer, I became very attached to them.
Each day was a mixture of events. I did not structure a lesson plan for them, but let their curiosity drive their learning. All I had to do was guide them. Some days all we did was read children’s books. Other days we played in the kitchen baking chocolate chip cookies or rice pudding. Most of the children were fluent speakers of both Guarani and Spanish, but few were fluent readers and none of the younger children knew the alphabet.
Over the months, ten-year-old José became quite an avid photographer. I would lend him my camera periodically throughout the day. I found that eight year old Sheyla was a phenomenal artist. All she needed was blank paper and a pen. Four-year-old Marcelo never used to smile at me, but when he saw his own lice crawling under the microscope, he couldn’t help but laugh. Jessica, twelve, was a wonderful cook and took on a leadership role in delegating jobs to everyone in the kitchen to help prepare a snack for the whole class. Each of these children had an underlying gift, not necessarily discovered yet, but with time I know they would be.
During my stay I improved my Spanish tremendously and even gained familiarity with the native language, Guarani, which the children would try to teach me, while I, in turn, taught them some English. I grew to love the Paraguayan culture very much. The people were the best part. Those two months in Asunción were probably the most meaningful of my entire life and I hope to return one day to see those same kids again.
Myroslava Mykytyn
Myroslava is a 22 year old Canadian who recently graduated with an honours degree in Biology, specialization in Physiology. She is taking a year off to work on a farm training horses and take some interest courses while considering a career in medicine, architecture, animal physiology or ecological conservation.