Okieinexile's Blog

By Bobby Neal Winters

I had merienda last night with one of my students and his father. 

(Let me take a short time out to explain the concept of merienda.  In the normal course of the day, they label the three main meals here as desayuno, almuerza, and cena, breakfast, lunch, and dinner in that order. Where almuerza is served at noonish, cena is served much later. Eight pm would be considered the early-bird special.  Merienda falls at about five pm.  You can take it as a snack, or you can make it your last meal of the day.  It is treated in somewhat the same way as the English treat tea.)

We met at a gelato place, with all the Italian trappings, that nevertheless serves quite a variety of traditional Paraguayan food.  I had mbeju caprese.  The mbeju part is as Paraguayan as it comes.  You can think of it as a quesadilla, but that’s only about 80 percent of the way there.  

The modifier caprese, I assume, is to some ingredients that have been added beyond the Paraguayan cheese and mandioca flour: Tomato and basil.

It was a nice merienda. 

During the course of the meeting, the father and I talked about how much change there has been in Paraguay in recent years.  My first trip to Paraguay was in 2009, and in those days it was not uncommon to see horse-drawn carts in the streets along with the most modern of automobiles.  I thought of it as having three centuries all happening at the same time.

I do not remember the last time I’ve seen a horse drawn cart.

I’ve written quite a few articles about Paraguay over the years, and I have made reference on more than one occasion to the, let me phrase it this way, uneven quality of the infrastructure. I will now state in the most unambiguous way that I can that, over the course of the last three years, the infrastructure has improved markedly.  I do mean markedly. Projects that I saw beginning three years ago and continuing a year and a half ago, have been completed to an impressive end. The streets are better than they were. The sidewalks have been improved.

Some of these changes may be in my perception as I have myself become a bit less parochial since 2009.  Most of them are objective improvements in infrastructure.

Another change, which is not unrelated to what I’ve talked about already, is the increased commonness of bookstores.

During my first few trips, I couldn’t find a bookstore for love nor money.  This trip, they are everywhere.

This is not an accident.  I sense an invisible hand at work.

Education is a basic part of economic infrastructure.  You have to have people who know how to do the work.  They have people here in Paraguay.  The population is young.  I am almost always the oldest person in any room, shop, cafe that I am in.  They have the people.  For the sake of economics they have to educate the people.

Bookstores are an important step toward the education of the general public.  To see them proliferate here warms my soul.

Given my conversations with different people, I think a lot of this is being made possible through foreign investment.  The world outside of the borders of Paraguay is beginning to realize the value of the people of Paraguay.  The investment comes from the idea of making a profit.  That is the reason people make investments, after all.

However, the  wise man, even when he is buying an inanimate tool, will take care of that tool, will refine it and make it the best it can be for long term use.  In this way, investing in education, encouraging the creation of a culture of reading are a part of self-interest rightly construed. 

In this way, I can see a happy future for Paraguay.  A future in which Paraguayans can take what they like of what the outside world has to offer, but to blend that with their own rich traditional life.

Like Mbeju Caprese.

Bobby Winters grew up near Harden City, Oklahoma.  He teaches mathematics and computer science, does woodworking, and blogs at okieinexile.com.