I´ve been living in my community, trying to promote sustainable agriculture (or at least pass the days), for fourteen months. I have hoed fields, taught classes, organized events, endured endless questions, and have made a general ass of myself (purposefully and unintentionally). After all this, however, I only just a few days ago was able to successfully explain what it really is I´m supposed to be doing here. I was sitting around one evening with my host family, a few members of my farmers´ committee, and six construction workers who had been hired by the Ministry of Agriculture to build a business-scale henhouse in my community. I had brought my guitar over, and we were taking turns singing songs in English and Guarani. The workers, who are not from my community, were curious about what I was doing there. I gave them the classic ¨teach a man to fish¨ explanation of community development. If you don´t know it, it basically says that you can either give a man a fish, so he won´t be hungry that day, or you can teach him to fish, thereby giving him the power to provide for himself. I am attempting to do the latter. As I explained it, I saw the members of my community, with whom I´ve been working for over a year, nod their heads in sudden comprehension of my job. I couldn´t believe I hadn´t explained it that way before.
