Ahecha: Tacuatí, San Pedro

Ahecha has been one of the most gratifying projects I've engaged in as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay, both for me and for my community. My students' parents love that their children are getting a chance to learn a little bit about the digital hardware that's now spreading to all corners of the globe. I love having the chance to "equalize" this technology for my community. They see me using my computer and my camera, and teaching computer classes - here finally is a chance for them to not just observe and learn, but to fully use, choose, and decide.

But most of all, Ahecha is great for my students. Aside from the technical skills they've learned, my girls have had a chance to develop their own self-knowledge, sense of beauty, and sense of place in their communities. For them, photography is a powerful tool for learning to step back and really analyze aspects of their lives that they'd previously taken for granted. Being asked why they like one image over another, or composed a shot in a certain manner is a novel experience - both in the sense that it exposes underlying assumptions about "el como debe ser de la vida" and in the sense that very few people care to ask 'tween Paraguayan girls their opinions on any topic. Whether or not this is the start of a life-long love affair with photography for my students or not, our photo review and selection sessions are a priceless opportunity for them to form, evaluate, and explain their own opinions.

When our project cycle is completed, we'll submit our girls' best photos for display in our community and further abroad. We also hope to put some of the photos on permanent display in the new wing of our town hall, as a monument both to life in Paraguay and to how wonderfully perceptive and artistic Paraguayans can be.