9:00 am The journey continues north. We make a few stops along the route to admire the wildlife of this region, especially the many species of birds that stay here all winter.

12:00 pm Arrival in Paí Pukú village, where we learn more about the history and commitment of this beautiful place. The María Medianera Comprehensive Training Centre, better known as the Pai Puku School in Chaco, is unique in its kind. Since June 1965 it has been on km 156 of the Transchaco route in the Benjamin Aceval district in the department Pdte Hayes in operation. It offers full education to low-income students. Of the 550 students and 60 teachers, almost 90 percent live there thanks to their self-administration during the school year. Their mission is to contribute to strengthening educational work, human and Christian support. It covers an area of six hectares and its large complex is made of materials from Chaco, such as karanday and palm trees. The centre was “baptized” by the residents as the “Pai Puku School” in honour of its founder, the Belgian priest Pedro Shaw.

For its part, the “Pai Puku Foundation” was born out of the idea of ??a group of local farmers and friends of Shaw who had joined together with the main goal of supporting the initiatives and activities of the school. It includes polyprofessional education for children and teenagers from the Paraguayan Chaco, although some students come from the eastern region, but only because their parents work at Estancias in the Chaco. However, all students come from low-income families. A speciality of this educational centre is its self-administration, in which the students themselves are protagonists. They also work and produce beautiful furniture on an industrial scale. They have four organic gardens run by very young people, in addition to cutting and sewing activities, housekeeping, rural health promotion, hairdressing, typing, computers, electricity, beekeeping and plumbing. At 3:00 pm we retake the journey back to Asunción.