Love and Latrines in the Land of Spiderweb Lace

A voice called to me in a mixture of Spanish and Guaraní, an indigenous language of Paraguay, "Come quickly, Mary Lou." I entered the rural health center's room where the doctor was preparing to perform an emergency C-section with only a local anesthetic. My job would be to hold the flashlight on this dark, rainy morning because the town's generator only operated a few hours each evening. It was one of many new experiences I would have as a health education Peace Corps Volunteer in the mid-1970s. I adapted to life under a dictatorship, laughed about embarrassing language bloopers, worked on an ambitious sanitation project, and appeared on national television to sing "The Hookworm Song" with fellow Volunteer Steve and a group of schoolchildren. Steve and I also developed a "traveling hookworm show" to train elementary school teachers in eastern Paraguay. I made lifelong friends. Almost a half-century later, they are still close to me. I gave of myself and improved sanitation conditions in Paraguay but received much more in return.