Perryville, AR

In Perryville, It Takes a Village

With 1,458 residents, some consider Perryville, Ark., little more than a village. But few passersby guess at Perryville’s true identity as gatekeeper to a global community encompassing such exotic destinations as Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

In fact, as one of three educational centers for Heifer Project International—a Little Rock-based, nondenominational organization fighting world hunger—Perryville’s 1,100-acre Heifer Ranch with its Global Village hosts approximately 30,000 visitors annually. Some volunteer their time and talents; others learn the hows and whys behind the majority of the world population’s struggle to survive. All come away with a better understanding of what they can do as individuals to ease world hunger.

Twenty-four-year-old Christian De Vries is one of those individuals. As an Americorps volunteer, De Vries (whose father is director of Heifer Project International) has chosen to spend a year leading visitors through life in the Global Village, a series of structures symbolizing homes occupied by millions living in underdeveloped locations.

Just past the “Peace Pole” marking the beginning of the wooded trek into the village, De Vries comments on the world population’s distribution of wealth. “Seventy-five percent of the world’s resources are used by North America and Europe, but we’re only 25 percent of the world’s population.”

The 30 or so youth and counselors who’ve traveled from Louisiana and Tennessee to spend a week working on the Perryville ranch listen intently as De Vries guides them down the path to their overnight stay in the Global Village. Appalachia House—a one-room shack without running water or electricity—is the first of four sites the group encounters. “We placed Appalachia on the trail first to remind people that we still have poverty in America,” says De Vries. On this night, four or five volunteers will call Appalachia House home.

At the far end of the trail lies Africa, represented by a round house of mud bricks and a thatched roof. Four visitors set up camp for the night there with a supply of bottled water, cornmeal, and milk. “We don’t distribute food fairly in the Global Village,” De Vries tells the congregated travelers. “You’ll have to barter for food tonight.”

The six who draw lots to stay in Guatemala’s three-room house are the richest in the village. A vegetable garden surrounds their hilltop home; and a rabbit will fill the stewpot they set on their stove.

Down the hill, within sight of Guatemala, is the barrio, a collection of shanties where most of the groups’ members will pass the night. Their allotment—a quarter cup of uncooked rice—necessitates that they live by their wits. “Over 50 percent of the world’s population lives like this,” adds De Vries, as he bids the villagers farewell until morning’s debriefing.

Outside the village’s confines, Helen and Bud Suggs are finishing their shifts. Recent retirees, the Suggs signed on for a three-week stint at the ranch, traveling from Florida to Arkansas. As a Visitor Center hostess, Helen explains the project’s role in “passing on the gift” of heifers, dairy goats, llamas, honey bees, water buffalo, and sheep to underdeveloped communities—a concept initiated in 1944. The project—like the ranch itself—has grown to global proportions, assisting more than 4 million families in 125 countries with gifts of animals and agricultural training, by which they learn to become self-reliant. The project expands each time one of these families donates one of their animals’ offspring to another household.

Educational tours showcase the kind of animals Heifer Project passes on to those in need. After more than two weeks in Perryville, Helen Suggs is on a first-name basis with most of the ranch animals. “There’s Rajah,” she says, passing one of three camels.

The next morning, De Vries asks the previous night’s visitors what they learned in the Global Village. “I have everything in the world,” one Appalachian homesteader chimes in, “and it’s hard for me to be thankful sometimes.”

De Vries nods. “You’ve been given a gift—the gift of knowledge. We ask that you pass it on.”

Margaret Dornaus is a frequent contributor to American Profile.

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