la chacarita, Asuncion, Paraguay
In 2006, I traveled to Paraguay to do linguistic research for an Undergraduate Honors Thesis for the University of Kansas. I expected to see many shocking and exotic things in my travels which I was excited for, but what I actually experienced was quite beyond what I had imagined. My biggest surprise came when I was more or less left to fend for myself in a foreign land with limited ability to communicate. I really was well taken care of, but the whole situation was so abrasive to my current state of comfort at the time that I felt more than vulnerable…helpless. This was a blessing because my discovered state of depravity in my situation allowed me to not only see what I before could not but also to be impacted deeply in compassion for the reality being lived by the many street dwellers and parentless children roaming Paraguay. This striking reality in my heart transformed my spirituality, my personality, and my career goals in life.
I have since been processing the physical problems of poverty and how to solve some of those issues in a practical and simple manner, keeping in mind ‘teaching a man to fish, instead of giving a man a fish’. This includes at the forefront shelter and food. In researching housing with the criteria of 1) build-able by the average person 2) using available and inexpensive resources and 3)forming an efficient and acceptable living standard I stumbled upon straw bale construction, which excellently satisfies all my criteria. After reading up, I was sold on this method. I don’t believe it is the only one, but it definitely works for me! So, in procession, I decided to test how do-able this building method is and gain some real experience myself in the meantime! I was successful in this straw bale shed project of actually building myself (with many volunteering hands to help me) a rather inexpensive, good quality space in a short amount of time (approx. 3 months). My hope is to use sustainable construction methods, likely straw bale, in my future endeavors in whichever impoverished country I intend to find myself in in the future!
Citi Soleil, Haiti
the bronx, New York City, New York
