In the following chapters Tonny describes her work abroad. Together with a team of young architects in Oaxaca, Mexico, she assists in a government project to help build schools in remote indigenous communities. This grants her ample opportunity to get to know and appreciate the villagers of Oaxaca, whose scenery and architecture she studies carefully during these years.

Concerned about the vicious circle of poverty that characterizes the Indians’ existence Tonny wondered how she could help improve their circumstances. Just building schools, she thought, was not enough. After several years, Tonny chose to create a design for an Indian market. This would also be her graduation project as a design engineer. In Otavalo, Ecuador, Tonny found a location where she could put her ideas into practice.

Twenty years later she designed a second Indian market, this time for Tlacolula in Oaxaca, Mexico. The design of Tlacolula market became part of an itinerant exhibition: The Lost Paradise.