Stanford in Paraguay

Thursday, March 31, 2011

Day 8: Iguazu Falls

In the morning, we got up at 430 again to begin the long, circuitous route to the falls we had been just 20 minutes away from. We drove down to Encarnation, where we crossed over into Argentina only to retrace the same mileage east of the border. More than once I have felt humiliated by the shear inhospitality of the additional security to enter the US portion of international airports, but it was hard not to feel a little bitter about the political points scored from our questionably effective protectionism as we made our almost comical[1] trek.

The most obvious difference between Paraguay and Argentina was the rainforest. Southeastern Paraguay is the soy belt, and is an agricultural monoculture. But we had not been in Argentina for many kilometers before these fields gave way to bonafied rain forests (which seemed particularly appropriate as it was actively raining[2]). Oscar said that thirty years ago Paraguay looked like that, but soy was just too profitable (mostly to non-Paraguayans) and all of the countries forests had been exchanged for farms.

But if the Brazilian government was justifiably disinclined to be helpful with our quest, the weather was. Almost as soon as we passed into Argentina, it began to rain…hard. But the rain stopped almost just as we arrived at the falls, only to resume precisely four hours, minutes after we left. Several times on this quest, I wondered if it was worth it. We would spend a total of 12 hours in that van, driving too fast in the rain, and the cost was non-trivial. There is a moment, about three hours into the drive to Yosemite, when several of the first time visitors who I have brought there have wondered if the winding roads and early rise time were worth it…doubts that have uniformly been put to rest as Half Dome and El Cap make their dramatic, sudden and improbable appearance on the skyline. My experience at Iguazu falls was similar.

I will not be able to describe or depict Iguazu falls. Most of the images would not fit into a single picture. There was one moment that my eyes were literally overwhelmed as they tried to process the data, not totally able to resolve the contours and movements that were in front of me. But here it goes. There are two basic parts of Iguazu falls. The eastern falls is a series of dozens of cataracts (most of which were similarly or more substantial than the one we had seen the previous day). They spread out into the distance as though someone was staging an elaborate illusion with nested reflections.

Then, we got on a little train and a long boardwalk to the western falls.

If the first vista was like an orchestra, the collaborative work of an ensemble of contributing falls, the upper falls was a rock band, bowling you over by the force and mastery of those three ubiquitous chords. Even with the spectacular hydraulic virtuosity we had seen just one day earlier, and my many trips with visitors from our home in Buffalo to Niagara, I had never seen water behave like this. We were too close to begin to capture the scope with a camera and the mist shrouded the bottom from sight adding a air of mystery to the grandeur.

The 8 hours back to Ausuncion were lighter, buoyed by the understanding that the trip had been worth it. Guillermo, Aleix and I discussed the various potential development projects we are involved in and ways we might collaborate to make them happen.

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The final two days in the country transitioned from a class to a workshop. I gave the students sample projects to work on if they didn’t bring their own and ‘set up shop’ at the overhead projector where I entertained questions and helped set up or trouble shoot models. This was really fun, because I love learning about new systems. Most were just starting the modeling process, but there was one young man who had constructed a difficult, clever and high quality model.[3]

Each evening brought us to a new restaurant with most of the class for an extended dinner. This class distinguished itself by its motivation and skill, but the thing that was most unique was that I spent more time with them outside of class than a dozen other classes behind.

The last night they shared some of their favorite Stanglish.[4] Apparently, I often shook my head in dismay as I saw some creative new way to misuse the software and would say, slowly and emphatically “No Bueno.” This became a running joke unbeknownst to me, but I found it highly entertaining and began to use the phrase with intentional abandon. But there were enough running jokes to go around. They had opinions about Guillermo’s occasional unsolicited smirking, Aleix’s frequent use of the word “claro” as he looked pensively into the distance, and our general belief that Chan spent unaccounted for years in the special forces. It was a lot of fun.

I have a lot more Paraguay facts and a few more experience, but I think I will wrap it up here. Professionally and personally, Paraguay was one of the best work trips I have been on. The Itipu folks have the motivation, interest, and resources to pursue further work. So there may be another South America blog in the future. If so, I will definitely brush up on my Spanish. But until then, thanks for joining me. Until then, here are a few final pictures.

A few pictures of the team.

A couple downtown pictures

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[1] More than one student laughed or simply returned a look of shock as we explained how we managed to see the falls.
[2] As it rained, the rivers began to swell and run orange with the red earth.
[3] Which, thankfully, I could answer.
[4] I coined this term because it would actually be an affront to call it Spanish.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

A Brief Butterfly Interlude

So Iguazu Falls was pretty incredible. But before I post about that…I took enough butterfly pictures to warrant its own post. I am not sure why there were so many butterflies at the falls. It might be that this was a standard tropical sampling of butterflies, or the mist of the falls might create a higher diversity of plants that require butterfly symbiotes. But I have never seen so many. This is only a small sample.

This one looked like a leaf and traveled around on Guillermo's hat for several minutes. It was very cool, though I can't say much for its taste in hats.

And I saw this enormous moth at my hotel, but it kind of fit the Lepidopteran theme.

Day 7b Of Jesuits and Nazis

The Itaipu trip ended at the falls and we arranged a tour guide for the next part of the trip. So as our friends prepared for the trip back to Ascension we got in the van, met Oscar, and drove for several hours to the border of Argentina. On the way we talked to Oscar about what we wanted to do in addition to the falls, and Alixh and I definitely wanted to see the Jesuit ruins. At 8:30 we finally got to our hotel exhausted, but our driver pointed it out and drove on by. When we asked where we were going, he said, the best ruins are just 10 minutes away. We were confused. It was dark, which hardly seemed like the best time to see anything.

But when we got there we could see them in the distance lighted up, and it was a beautiful night (with heat lightning lighting up the sky) so it seemed pretty cool. Then all the lights went off. Someone said there was a power out. But the site tour guide led us by the light of his blackberry screen and started the tour anyways. He gave us a bunch of back story, but it still seemed weird that we were going to tour ruins in the dark. Then we heard the sound of a child singing from inside the ruins, and then music started and one by one, the buildings began to light up. As we walked through the complex, the music followed us and new buildings lit up.

The air was cool but heavy and there was a wind blowing a storm in. The whole thing was moving and meditative and, everyone agreed, a perfectly peaceful end to a crazy day. Now, I recognize that the place of the Jesuits in history is complicated at best. Their legacy is tainted by the heritage of colonialism. But I like them. I am especially a fan of the early Jesuits…to the point that we are naming our son Xavier after one of the original seven. This tour was decidedly pro-Jesuit. The guide argued that the Jesuit’s main goal was to protect the indigenous people from being enslaved by the Europeans. This is why the Spanish kicked them out , because they were impeding with the colonial hegemony.

Anyway, I am going to watch that movie “The Mission” again because between the similarity of the Jesuit story and the waterfalls, I am pretty sure it must have been set in this part of the world…and I remember it being a pretty good film.

After the mission we returned to the hotel, which was essentially a German chalet. Our guide explained to us that we were in the middle of German Paraguay. When I asked him when the Germans came to Paraguay, he said, “the 1930’s”. Yup, Nazis. Over 300 Nazis came to Paraguay including the infamous Mengalay to evade the Nazi hunters (and justice) after the war. It was a little strange to have a nice German dinner at a restaurant that was the legacy of these settlers, but the desserts were really good.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Day 7: (Part 1) - Itaipu

I finally got to bed around 1:30, so 4:30 came very quickly. We got on a bus for the five hour trip to Itaipu dam and all of us slept most of the way. I did a little reading and watched some of the countryside, but it was mostly agricultural land that, apart from the red soil and local trees, could have been mistaken for my rural childhood home. When we arrived at the dam we got an animated and eccentric tour guide that people seemed to enjoy, and a translator for Chan and I. The dam is incredible. While not the biggest dam anymore (Three gorges has eclipsed it) Itaipu still produces the most power in the world because of the year round water supply. Ten percent of the production produces all of Paraguay’s power and the rest fulfills 20% of Brazil’s power needs. It actually approaches 1% of the total world’s power production. It is an impressive and seemingly improbable edifice.

Today the spillway was spilling. At current flows, the dam can only use about half of the water for generation and has to spill the other half (to keep a safe pool elevation). So about 300,000 cfs (50% more water than flows over Niagara Falls in a given day) was flowing down the spillway.

This generated vortex dynamics at the downstream end of the spillway that I had never seen. It was like some sort of science fiction special effect. We all had to take off our name badges because they would get sucked into it.

The dam was amazing. It is a joint Brazilian and Paraguayan project, so at one point in the tour we crossed over into Brazil for 90 seconds. This poses the question: Have I now been to Brazil? It doesn’t really fit my criteria for claiming to visit a country or state (which is having a meal outside of the airport). Afterwards we went to the physical model of the dam. I have seen a number of very large physical models, but I have never seen anything quite like this. The downstream model extended about 200m below the dam. The model was in mild disrepair, but they have just awarded a contract to refurbish it to investigate the potential for inline turbines.

After the model we went to the “zoological park.” This is basically just a zoo for now, but there are plans to expand it into something much more dramatic. This is part of a new “holistic watershed approach” that the powers that be have been perusing since about 2003. The dam flooded a lot of habitat for the dense biodiversity that had little to work with before. Now, I have written before about how much I like zoos, especially zoos that specialize in local species…but my new ecology background makes me much less hopeful than the guide that the attempts at mitigating diversity losses . The story of the great contemporary extinction event is pretty grim. Many of these creatures are not just endangered but doomed, as their genetic material and required habitat structures have been irrepribly lost (a phenomenon known as extinction debt – where the animal has not yet been lost, but the damage is irreversible).[1] None the less, it is very encouraging to hear talk about holistic management, and not only species diversity but allelic diversity.[2] Also, there were a half dozen pigs that are the only known population of that species extant, and they were thought to be extinct for 30,000 years.

[3]

After the zoo, we stopped by a waterfall. Now, they charged a dollar to get in, so I was not expecting a lot, but the falls we saw were comparable to Letchworth, the grandest sight in western NY. At that point I though, Hmm, if I knew we were going to see this, I wouldn’t have paid to see Iguazu falls tomorrow (but I didn’t really know what I was talking about…more on that in a couple posts).

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[1] Conservation ecology gets pretty grim. The field is pretty pessimistic (I am going to write about this a little next week in my main blog ). I guess this is why I am a “restoration ecologist.” It might be Quixotic, but the restoration crowd strikes me as a much more hopeful crowd. The very task of trying to reverse processes, even while the rate of damage far exceeds the rate of restoration, seems to change the outlook.
[2] Avoiding the genetic degredation (e.g. the Florida panther which is essentially inbred to the point of imbecility) the minimum sustainable population size
[3] Known only from the fossil record.

Day 6

Note: The next 4-5 posts (not counting this one) will follow our weekend adventures and will likely be the most interesting.

This was the last day of class (Monday and Tuesday are ‘working sessions’ where students bring in their projects and we help them) and it was Chan’s day to teach, so I got some work done and helped with the workshops. After 4 days of being the main teacher, it was a welcome reprieve. Our host planned a field trip to the dam the next day which was slated to start at 4:30 am, yet evening festivities were not planned to start until 8 (and did not actually start until 9). It was a fun evening, but a short sleep. First our host took us on a little tour of downtown. Our hotel is in the newer and safer part of town.

Downtown definitely feels less secure, but it is more interesting. It is attractive, clean, and scattered with art, parks, historical buildings and monuments. One thing I have noticed is that the book I am reading is not a very good gage of Paraguayan perspective on the country’s history. Most of the Paraguayans I talk to have a modicum of respect for their past leaders. Gimlette (Author of The Tomb of the Inflatable Pig) seems far too cynical. He sees very little that is beautiful or redemptive in the Paraguayan story.

We stopped by this seemingly unremarkable pub:

But it overlooks the Lopez Palace, the centerpiece of downtown:

After a little downtown tour, we made our way back to new town to a bar/restaurant. Over half of the class eventually showed up. This class has been unique in a number of ways…but mostly that we are hanging out with the students every night. It was fun despite the fact that very little English was spoken.[1] I find that in these situations, I try my best not to be an impediment to conversation by trying to remain engaged and pick up as many words as possible, even though the conversation eludes me.

I have a strange relationship with the Spanish language. I studied it in high school, but was so bad at spelling that I did pretty poorly. I got an 18 (out of 100) on a major test about the time I was diagnosed with a learning disability,[2] giving me the excuse I needed to give up. I dropped out of Spanish 2 via the ‘fine arts’ loophole that said if you took enough art and music classes you only needed one year of foreign language. But I was so disgusted with myself for giving up that I retook the class as a senior[3] and got an A. I have been surprised at how much of this very modest background, untouched for 15 years, has come back to me. I think next time I teach a class in a Spanish speaking location I’ll try to study a little before I go to see if I can make some progress.

Also, on the topic of Spanish, Amanda and I are having trouble deciding where to send our daughter to school. There is an excellent elementary school very close to our house. It is on my way to work and you can get there by bike, on the green belt without crossing a road. It would be incredibly convenient. But we also have a Spanish immersion school that is about a mile out of the way.[4] It teaches exclusively in Spanish through grade 6. Immersion students lag average test scores for the first three years, but exceeds them by grade 6 and children come out fluent in Spanish. With so much emerging economy and so many interesting cultures and opportunities to serve Jesus in South America these days, I think that the decision to open this 20% of the world up to my kids could really be in their interest.

Anyway, back at the bar, Chan had a birthday on Wednesday and had forgotten about it. Word got out, and everyone agreed that it was not ok that they missed the opportunity to celebrate. There was a birthday tradition that involved a ceremonial drink of sorts. About an hour later (midnightish) our host left and Guillermo and I left with him. Chan and Alex stayed and eventually joined a crew who went dancing and got back in time to shower and catch our bus. The weekend was eventful and I’ll have a lot to write about it, but first, a couple…

Paraguay Fun Facts

As I mentioned, Paraguay is the only officially bilingual language. Everyone speaks Spanish and Guarani, the indigenous language, and seem to prefer the latter. This makes them the only country in the world that still speaks the language of its original inhabitants. Some of the students have said that after decades of wanting to be more like their neighbors, there is a movement toward the things that make them distinctly Paraguayan. Guarani is described as an extremely expressive language. For example, the Itaipu dam was built at a place of the river known for its rapids, called ‘the rocks that sing’ – Itaipu.

But it also seems to be an extremely precise language. In particular the Guarani had an amazing number of words for specific animals. Because of this taxonomic precision, the use of Guarani for the scientific names of species is second only to Latin (pictures from the weekend zoo visit).

Paraguay is the only country in the UN with a flag that has a different pattern on each side.

In the last 150 years Paraguay has fought all of its neighbors including “the bloodiest war modern man has ever known” according to Gimlette.[5]

Paraguay reminds me a little bit of Alaska. Because Alaska is hard to get to, out of the way from everywhere, has plenty of room to spread out, and early on was accompanied by tumors of gold and riches, it collected an eclectic group of people who did not belong anywhere else. Paraguay was hard to get to for years. Not only did you have to cross the ocean, but you had to spend nearly as long navigating the great southern rivers of the continent. So it attracted second rate conquistadores and later, communities as diverse as Mennonites and Nazis, each seeking the anonymity of isolation.

I will talk about the Nazis later, but there seems to be broad respect for the persistent Mennonite community that seems to be making a living out of the notoriously unproductive Chaco region by ingenuity and shear tenacity.[6]

Students from each country represented (with the possible exception of the Brazilians and Chilean) bring a special regional drink to class. The concept is similar to tea, but the herbs are packed into a cup, water is added, and the drink is consumed and filtered thought a special straw. Apparently the Paraguayans drink it cold and everyone else drinks it hot. It is nearly as common to see someone carrying around a jug/cup set like this as it would be to see someone carrying around starbucks.

This post was written while driving too fast, in hard tropical rain, through the jungle, in Argentina listening to Rise Against.

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[1] I think that if the restaurant is loud my friends are less likely to try English because it makes it harder to understand. However, more English is spoken deeper into a night after more drinks are consumed, because most of them speak much more effectively than they think they do, so mitigating inhibition is all they need. One guy in particular was aware of this declaring “My English gets better with beer.”

[2] Which I am not convinced, in retrospect, was real…but I did spell on a 4th grade level when I graduated high school.

[3] I was in my brother’s class.

[4] Which seems inconvenient until I think about how I used to ride the bus 45 minutes to school.

[5] Not exactly a “fun” fact, but a remarkable fact none the less.

[6] And it doesn’t hurt that they have a modest expectations about what constitutes ‘a living.’

Friday, March 25, 2011

Days 4-5: Food Adventures

The first few days in Paraguay had almost no down time, so I these blogs will blur together a little bit. We have enjoyed some excellent food here. Because of work and a slow metabolism (courtesy of Graves Disease and thyroid adventures) I have been limiting my meals to a small breakfast (a little fruit and a piece of prosciutto on scrambled eggs) and dinner. The first night, Chan, Guillermo and I ventured downtown to a restaurant the hotel recommended. I let the waiter order for me (which has become my custom in new cities) and it paid off again. The meal pictured below is a local fish wrapped around shrimp and the sauce was amazing.

After the first night, we had the odd cultural experience of negotiating multiple invitations to dinner (between two groups that roughly seemed to break down into the out of town Paraguayans and the Brazilians[1]). The first night we joined the Paraguayans at a restaurant that had been around for decades (I forget how many, but definitely >30 years). It was described as ‘typical Paraguayan food.’ It came out in a steaming pile of meat including conventional (ribs, steak, chicken) and less conventional (for me – blood sausage, tongue, and intestines) types. It came with ‘soup’ which was, in fact, not liquid but a sort of dense corn bread. It was all excellent.

The next night we joined the Brazilians (and one gentlemen from Uruguay, who I spent most of the evening talking to). We went to an upscale, outdoor pub, and had ‘bar foods’ but with a distinctly South American flare (essentially a plate of bite sized fried meat and bite sized grilled meat). I also had a ‘typical Brazilian beverage.’ The name eludes me but I took a picture. [2]

One of the fun stories from this night was that I learned that Guillermo’s Spanish was from his high school years. So I asked if he had an English accent. They were picking on him and said, “Stan’s English is easier to understand than Guillermo’s Spanish.” It was a joke (also, for the Brazilians, Spanish is second languages – thought more of a 1b), but afterwards they asked where I was from in the US because they really did find my English easy to understand. Guillermo was very kind, suggesting that it was because I am a clear communicator, but Amanda says we have heard this before. I said that I was from everywhere in the US (growing up in the East, living in the Midwest and West and spending a lot of time in the South). They also said they thought the lectures were very funny, which, again, is kind, but also a bit of a relief that at least some of them were laughing with and not just at me.

It seems like other countries look a bit askance at Paraguay as somewhat of a South American anomaly. Both Paraguayans and their neighbors (as well as the book I’m reading and another American I talked to in the Sao Paulo airport) seem to think that Paraguay’s relatively tragic history affects the country. They fought in two devastating wars last century[3] which created the conditions for decades of totalitarian rule. One dictator acquired the ‘distinction’ of the second longest reign among dictators in the modern world. But all of them share bemusement about Guyana.

One of the questions I commonly get is if I have been to South America before. I respond that I have been to Guyana twice which has often been met with bemusement (including questions about the location of this strange place). This was clarified in a more detailed conversation where one of the students told me ‘we are all very curious what those countries are like – they seem very strange to us.’ It seems that the tendency for Guyana and their neighbors to consider themselves Caribbean rather than South American is somewhat reciprocal, which is understandable because the cultures I am interacting with here have far more in common than any of them do with Guyana.

Also on Thursday night, the Badgers were playing in the Sweet 16 (I don't want to talk about it). I have been unable to find anywhere playing it, but while we were looking for a cab we passed a two story Hooters/TGI Fridays that had TV's playing the game. "How much do you love the Badgers?" asked Guillermo. Not enough. I was embaressed to be an American. One of the highlights of the trip has been interacting with engineers and scientists from so many interesting systems. South American geography is so diverse that just about any hydrologic conditions you could imagine. The most interesting insight is how hierologically similar Chile is to California. The Parana is the 5th largest watershed in the world[4] and the word “Paraguay” itself means “surrounded by Rivers.” Tomorrow I will try to do a “Paraguay fun facts” post and then this weekend we are taking a road trip to the dam, which should provide ample blog fodder.

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[1] Our suggestions that these groups merge were unsuccessful, even though most of them lived just across the river from each other.
[2] At the end of this meal, the waiter handed me the bill, which everyone enjoyed (“He gave it to the gringo who has all the money.” One of my companions joked.)
[3] One against Bolivia that one author describe as ‘over 250,000 hectares of desert’ that killed 80% of their soldiers and most of their male population. The second was against Brazil, Argentina and Uraguay simultaneously, and that ended about as well as you might expect.
[4] But dwarfed by the neighboring Amazon. This reminds me a little of UC Davis, which is a top 10 university but no one thinks of it because Berkley is 1 hour away.