A Peek at Another Culture

This Monday I got back from visiting the Aché (ah CHEY) Indians of Paraguay. The picture above is a monkey peeking out of an Aché home.

The Aché are getting help to expand the farm. Among other things they have milk cows. They are working to become more self sufficient. With the milk they make cheese and yogurt.

My first impression of the Aché community was that it was a village and a farm at the same time. The missionaries are doing an almost impossible task of bringing a hunter/gatherer based culture into the 21'st century as an agricultural people. Teaching them to fish is not good enough, they have to be taught to run heavy agricultural machinery and modern milking methods. 

The next generation is already learning about this all from a young age. These boys will grow up farming while their parents grew up hunting and mid-life started farming. They still do go hunting once a month but as the rain-forest shrinks they rarely bring back anything. While I was there, they came back from their hunting empty handed.

This guy's Aché name is Loro, Parrot. He actively seeks opportunity to learn from foreigners. Everyone has a Spanish name and an Aché name. My Aché name is Jukugi which means Lion. I will be working on another blog post soon with more pictures. Until then God be with you.