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A month in Paraguay, Come and hang out with us

Book fair – Freedom of expression

Its was the beginning of the 12th , annual book fair. This event is organized by a local university as one of its arms into the community. Publishers, book sellers and authors come to present their books. Until Sunday Sept 11th, kids, professors from different schools will come and visit plaza de armas (city square of weapons) in downtown Encarnacion to learn and interact. In parallel with the book fair, workshops are going on all day, dealing with topics as wide as social media, religion, politics, team work, biographies, and history.



Just to refresh our memory, until 1989 Paraguay had only two universities in the country. The country was governed by a dictator for 35 years. Freedom of expression could cost exile, jail or even death. That’s only about 30 years ago. Today there are 54 universities, but still only about 4% attending university. People are gaining their voice without fear of repression after two hundred years. You can imagine how these open fair events are celebrated in the life of this state and country.

For the next five days I will be sharing more about this event. This event is giving a voice to a new generation of Paraguayans. People suddenly realize they have so much to offer and so much to contribute to the development of this nation. I am excited to be a part of this awakening.

More tomorrow....


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