Saturday was hot, but not oppressively. There was not a cloud or a breeze, the broad-leafed trees were in full bloom and provided shade. I sat sipping the cold-steep tea that is a cultural icon and waited for Ceveriano and María to return home. The 20 minute trip had taken 1½ hours to get there, the Christmas holiday reduced the number of buses. It was another hour before they returned.

María is the director of a community center that serves the workers and residents that live in the city garbage dump. She and her husband Ceveriano are each just a little more than 5 feet tall. Her round face and round eyes evoke the moon rather than the sun, the emotions emitted touch only those that pay attention until there is a spike. Ceveriano's brilliance dominates as does the tropical sun, his passion level shifts predictably only as does the weather. I am something the river brought into town and it was time to take stock. I will soon jump back in, to leave with the eternal flow.

Too urgent to ignore are the string of broken promises to build homes for the people that live in the garbage dump. And the prospect of a premature end to funds to create sustainable jobs looms, the administrative entity has a history of funding initial start-up and putting the rest in their pockets. Everyone in positions of power are functionaries and officials in the political party that has ruled for 70 years.

After a resident burned to death in his plastic and cardboard tent, we organized a series of meetings with public officials. Each meeting was videotaped and the edit included the ongoing documentation of life in the garbage dump. The turnaround was one or two days, each time the product was shared with the residents and the next agency staff. The final outcome was a firm commitment by an international authority to fund the housing, pending approval by City Hall. The official word is that it is on the agenda, but a date for consideration has not been made public.

There is a legend and iconic figure, “The Virgin of Caacupe”. A resident told me she has kept her statue in every home she has ever had, so I asked María and Ceveriano if this might be a symbol that could bring pressure on City Hall. My reference was César Chavez and the constant presence of the Virgin of Guadalupe in the early organizing of the United Farmworkers Union.  María responded that not everyone adores the Virgin of Caacupe and that the Spaniards that fund the project (and exercise ultimate authority) are set against religious references. Ceveriano observed that the average Paraguayan that has the icon hopes their prayer for a specific thing is granted; and any pressure on City Hall will be answered with a punitive counter-punch. Why did we organize intense pressure previously? Ceveriano replied:

“The goal has never simply been housing. When I began organizing in the dump more than two years ago, the people rejected me when I suggested that they could leave the dump. 'We have homes and work here.' When the homes are built, many will be sold for fast cash. The misery in the dump has damaged them so much that the pestilence and filth doesn't bother them. There are two objectives: rejection of inhuman conditions by the residents themselves and a team of workers with genuine solidarity. The video is indespensible because the people do not remember yesterday and cannot imagine tomorrow. Beyond death and permanent damage by diseases, that is the crime of poverty.”

Health and human services in the U.S., including the agency that brought me to Paraguay, counts things to justify budgets. The procedures commonly employed ignore all statistical principles for reliability and validity, nonetheless the myth of rational management is ubiquitous. How do you count a change of consciousness among people that the society discards as garbage? When it isn't counted, what is its value?