Read the Summer 2012 issue - the University of Maine Alumni ...

the dominant language there, but is largely
spoken only in the capital city, Asuncion.
My two kids went native really quickly
and loved it there,” Sylvia asserts.
The family returned to the farm in
Bradford after five years in South America
and started building a “normal, usual”
family life. George went back to work for
the State of Maine as a forestry specialist
and Sylvia returned to teaching special
education in local schools, ending her
teaching career recently at the Mary Snow
School in Bangor.
Coping with the unthinkable
Jeremy went on to complete school and
graduate from the University of Maine in
2005. Andrea became involved in the usual
activities like Girl Scouts and school sports
Above:
Andrea and Jeremy in 1984 at home in
Asuncion, Paraguay
Opposite page, clockwise from top:
George and Sylvia Ritz
Andrea Renee Ritz clinic at Kaaguy Kupe
opened in 1998
Dr. Laurel Parker ’05, George Ritz, and Dr.
Jack Forbush, at the inauguration of the
clinic at San Blas-KM 16
Dr. Laurel Parker and patients under the
“Gathering Tree” in Mby’a settlement at
Tacuaro
Paraguayan family
Mby’a children experiencing clean,
running water for the first time in their
settlement at Tacuaro
George and Dr. Laurel Parker with mem -
bers of the Mby’a tribe at their settlement,
Tacuaro, after receiving donated jackets
teams, making many friends in the closeknit
Bradford community.
Then the unthinkable happened.
Andrea developed sudden onset Type 1
diabetes and died of complications at age
12. It was a parent’s worst nightmare come
true for George and Sylvia. Friends, relatives,
and members from their church
made contributions to a fund in Andrea’s
name and the Ritz family had to decide
how to use the money to best honor
Andrea’s memory.
“We spent a great deal of time thinking
about what would be the best thing we
could do to honor Andrea. We wanted
something with a lasting, direct impact.
There were many options,” George
explains. “Then we thought of Paraguay, a
small, landlocked country wedged
between Brazil and Argentina. Andrea had
grown up and been happy there playing
with the native children. We knew firsthand
just how great the needs are there. So
we decided on building a clinic in a remote
village with the funds.
“We got a start-up grant from the Peace
Corps. We also held additional fundraisers
with the help of friends and family. I sold
everything that was non-essential. And
then I reached out to my contacts with the
Peace Corps in Paraguay and asked them
to solicit 10 proposals from villages that
displayed enough commitment to see the
project through. In 1997, I took a leave of
absence and traveled down to make the
selection and start the building project,”
George continues.
Overcoming primitive conditions
The primitive conditions and logistical
challenges facing him came as no real
shock to George Ritz. He already knew
about those. no electricity. no roads. no
transportation except horse, mule, and ox
cart. no communication. no clean water.
no accommodations. Very much in
evidence was the people’s deep distrust
that promises made to them would be
kept.
“In the end, I couldn’t decide between
two proposals and so we decided to build
two clinics. These two villages are strategically
located at crossroads for their region.
There are about 500 people in each village,
but today the clinics serve thousands from
the surrounding countryside.
“Quite literally, we had nothing to work
with except hope and faith. To make
matters worse, we had much skepticism to
overcome. In their parlance, outsiders were
all liars. Many had come, made the
villagers a lot of promises, and then disappeared.
Worse still was the fact that the
villagers had no tradition of working as a
group. The 40-year-long dictatorship in
Paraguay had helped maintain its control
by prohibiting the assembly of more than
three unrelated adults for any reason,”
George asserts.
“And here was I proposing to build
health clinics for people with no experience
of modern medicine and this deeply
ingrained distrust due to the multitude of
previous disappointments they’d suffered,”
George elaborates. “I would have to train
and educate my workforce as I went along,
before we could accomplish very much.”
George brought his know-how from his
UMaine training and his years in the Peace
Corps, an ability to speak Guarani’ and
Spanish, a lot of patience and determination,
a chain saw, and not much else with
him into the jungle. All the tools and
supplies had to be hauled in from the capital
before work could begin. Local people
donated trees for lumber. George cut them
up into useable lengths and used the
branches and waste material to heat the
kilns where they made their own bricks for
the project. Then they had to dig the foundation
by hand and haul water uphill from
the river to make the cement.
George elaborates with a story on what
it was like building that first clinic. He had
instructed the villagers to come the following
morning, shovels in hand, and be
prepared to dig the hole for the foundation.
When he arrived the next day, he laid out
the boundaries, but no one came to help
dig. So after about an hour’s waiting,
George began digging the hole himself.
Finally, someone else showed up and
began digging too. Soon there were 50
shovels hard at work. When George asked
what the hold-up was, the workers told
him that they needed to see that George
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