Animal AWARE

I don't even know where to start with an explanation of the past two days. I have taken in so much and my mind has been going constantly at a mile a minute.

I have been in e-mail contact with Xenii (shay-nee), the founder of an animal rescue and education association outside of Antigua called Animal AWARE (http://www.animalaware.org/index.htm), since April. She recently asked me to organize an event for the Day of the Animals (http://www.mascotamigas.com/dia_mundial.htm) on October 4th. Really excited to get to work, I decided to go check out Animal AWARE this weekend.

Just a little nervous, I stalled my way through Friday morning. I had not yet gotten to experience one of the colorful 'chicken buses' (camionetas) of Guatemala that are notorious for burning oil and being held up and extremely cramped. I was frankly a little terrified of getting on the bus full of locals jabbering in Spanish and Kaqichel that was headed down unfamiliar roads to a small town, Sumpango, where I would have to, in turn, walk a half mile up a rutty dirt road to find Animal AWARE. It turned out to be extremely exciting (even the part where the man came on and whipped his not empty catheter bag out of his pants to prove that he truly needed some donations in order to survive). However...I admit...the ayudantes thought I was a bit of a nerd (or a Gringa) squishing between 5 other people into the front seat so I wouldn't miss my 2 stops. While I was sitting in the front though, I did find myself terrible jealous of the driver who was shifting through the gears like he was driving a sports car (he took the turns in much the same way which sent passengers pressed up against the windows much like you'd see in a cartoon).

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I'm not sure exactly why I expected to find a fine-tuned operation with volunteers running the office and frequent educational programs (perhaps it's because CasaSito is very good at this) but, that is exactly the opposite of what I found. It turns out that Xenii (American?) and her husband, Martin (English), started AWARE almost 10 years ago with a few rescued dogs. By 2005 their operation had grown to 50 dogs and a cageful of cats. It was in that year that they set an upper limit on the number of animals they would accept...60. Today they have over 270 dogs, over 100 cats, and presently 2 rabbits.

The operation as it runs today: Xenii cannot say no to an animal in need. She takes them all in. A majority of the animals are from the street and nearly all of them come in with severe cases of giardia (the parasite that is in the water...the reason no one can drink the water in Latin America) and fleas. Many also have severe skin infections like mange and/or some sort of genetic disfiguration (a squinty eye or a deformed leg). She fixes them up, has them sterilized by one of her vet connections, and tries to place them in homes. I was honestly expecting the dogs to be mean but 99% of them are like totally tame although most are extremely fearful and only come near for kibble treats. Every dog makes daily progress though with the help of Xenii and the few helpers that she has. Many of the dogs that Xenii places head off to the USA which is partially a wonderful practice because most dogs will be going to great homes (one dog is in the finals for a pet competition in San Francisco) but it is very, very expensive and does not prove to local people that sterilized street dogs can make great family pets.

Xenii has things very well organized with a few hired staff who feed the animals and let them out twice daily but they are in desperate need of help. They occasionally get a volunteer or two out to help them socialize the dogs but other than that, Xenii and her Guatemalan assistant, Sep, run everything from treating minor illnesses to PR to communication with the 5-10 half-dedicated vets that they have out to help out with surgeries and such.


When I got there Xenii and Martin were out on a food run...can you even imagine how much Purina Puppy Chow and Beneful a pack of nearly 300 dogs eats!? Martin said the pick-up truck full of food would last them no more than 10 days. A good portion of their food used to be donated by Purina but this year they have only recieved about 4 food donations which really puts a strain on their budget which I presume to be entirely donor funded (I asked Xenii about grants and she chuckled and said 'I just don't have the time for writing grants.')

Fun fact: Animal AWARE was the first member organization of the WSPA (the World Society for the Protection of Animals: http://www.wspa-international.org/).

In my conversations with Xenii yesterday and today, I could see that, while she loves what she's doing and has the type of personality that NEEDS to stay busy, she was visibly stressed and is beginning to recognize that she needs help. Her hilarious husband, Martin, who claims his job at Hound Heights is to complain because people always say, 'do what you're good at.' He is expressively worried about his wife who is not young and the future of AWARE. His main concern is that she tries to run the whole show on her own and refuses to hire a manager or anyone who can help coordinate the organization. Being there for just over 24 hours, I am concerned, too. Almost 500 animals are completely dependent on a single dedicated woman.

I have always dreamed of running an organization much like AWARE with a greater emphasis on education and sustainable sterilization clinics (this is presently the topic of my personal statement for my vet school application). AWARE does offer vaccine and sterilization clinics on a monthly basis but they have trouble maintaining an education program since they rarely have long term volunteers. I am partially inspired and partially intimidated by the struggles of this organization. I had thoughts running through my mind all weekend of what I could do to help Xenii...be there to take over the organization for her...work on major PR in the USA and Guate...have everyone I know who is traveling to the US from Guatemala transport a dog or two to the shelters there. Well, these are all grand ideas but, to start, I am going to make up a little flier in search of volunteers for the International Day of the Animal event so I do not have to plan the whole parade and vaccine clinic in Spanish, by myself.
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I spent my time at AWARE working with a few dogs to get used to leash walks (i.e. not totally freak out and/or not pull me up or down the hills) and to sit so they are more adoptable. When I first got there I toured the entire facility, up and down the paths carved into the dusty hills, from kennel to kennel, from literally mangy dog to mangy dog, from little tiny puppies to an old bug-eyed dog...it was incredible.

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There happened to be another volunteer at AWARE this weekend, Anna, who had been working there and with an organization in Antigua from October to April when she headed off by herself for adventures in Argentina. Anna's stories about Argentina were incredible. She just graduated from high school last year and she spend two months hitch-hiking with some happy and scary experiences from Buenos Aires, down to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, then back up to Cordoba (a German town), to Che's birthplace in Rosario, and back to Buenos Aires to finish it up. ...And I felt pretty wild today riding in the back of a pick-up with Anna on the way into Sumpango for some lunch...hmmm...



Anyway, she was just back for a couple of weeks to pick up a super sweet, 2-year old dog, Camilla, who she was adopting to take back to Germany with her. She worked all weekend getting Camilla to not be nervous on the leash and to go in the crate she will need to ride in on the plane...by the end of the day today, I was finally able to pet Camilla.

I spent my last couple of hours at AWARE chatting with a Guatemalan about sexism in Guatemala (which he thought was a characteristic exclusive to Latin American men until I explained otherwise) and the pressures to conform to society through music and social activities. He had endless questions about life in the USA and my opinions on pretty important topics including organic farming and development work. I hope that I learned as much from him as he from me. I am still processing the content of this conversation; he gave me a lot to think about.
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Anyway, headed off to the beach tomorrow for a relaxing day with CasaSito and the housemates!

Gallo Girls

Thursday night the housemates and I went to check out a free concert in the stadium. Turns out free also means that it was entirely sponsored by Gallo (the pride of Guatemala...a super cheap beer). This means that the concert, which was supposed to start at 7, actually began with a TWO-HOUR intro of parading the four "Gallo Girls" around the stage and tossing merchandise into the crowd of 12-16 year old Guatemalan boys who were likely only enthused for about an hour by the Gringa-looking models on the stage. Finally at 9PM a Guatemalan band came on (they were the openers for the main event, Malacates) that opened with an Incubus song, 'Wish You Were Here.' It was followed with 3 other covers one of which was a rather garbled version of Buckcherry's 'Crazy B****.' Now, it was not only the band's fault that they were having empty (or full?) Gallo cans chucked at them...the sound engineers clearly did not know how to turn the vocals up and the guitar down...and...one of the connections was bad so there was a rather loud static throughout the entire set. Somewhat intrigued by the disaster of a concert, we stuck around just to see the headliner after another half hour of Gallo girl torture. They turned out to be a Guatemalan ska band but it was too hard to tell through the terrible sound system so we left for La Sala where it was ladies night and we...attempted to...dance salsa all night (well, I must say housemate Guido and I got pret-ty good by the end). This is us leaving... R->L: Melissa (here 'til November or December), Brian (moving in in a couple weeks), Guido (moving out this weekend).

If I can say one thing good about Guatemalan concerts though...it's that it is always really easy to see the stage because Guatemalans are so short!

Almost a week in...

So, I've been here for almost a week and it already feels like home. I am really excited for the next couple of months.
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Here are some more pictures and stories...
While we were out looking for voluntarios on Monday, I got to stop by CasaAzul which is the other CasaSito house in Antigua. This is the gorgeous view from the room of the surrounding volcanoes. The one on the right is Agua.

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Yesterday morning I had my first meeting with all of the CasaSito music festival staff. It was really long but I could not believe how organized it was. The staff made a 2 month plan at the beginning of the festival planning period with deadlines for each week and outlines for each person . We went through the plan to make sure everything was on track and reviewed the plan for using the voluntarios that we recruited. I am officially in charge of contact with the volunteers for the next two weeks.
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In the afternoon, we got to go out to Santiago Zamora where we will be holding the music festival next weekend. We had a meeting with the womens' organization of the town to finalize some plans. They are selling textiles at the event and have organized all of the food vendors. But, they are also notorious for taking the festival plans into their own hands...they thought we needed a stage for the bands so they got one (although we already had one). This time they decided it would be cool to hire 'gigantes' (those creepy guys on stilts) and tambores (drums and traditional celebration music) for the festival...

Well, so the festival is supposed to be in the open dirt patch in front of the church...much to everyones' surprise, when we arrived in Santiago Zamora...we found the dirt patch had been filled in with a garden and rickety amusement rides.

The garden, I think, will be a nice addition to the festival. The amusement park rides on the other hand...

Notice the shocked stances of my partners (Estima on the left, Paul, and Natalie).

Well, we found out that the rides at least were only in town for the festival of Santiago which is this weekend and they will be gone by next Wednesday. The rides were really scary though. They are all manual and I guess they make the kids go really, really fast. Natalie pushed on the character in front of Shrek in the picture on the right...and they are not attached to the platforms they sit one! They are just like sleds on a wooden platform! The ferris wheel is what really scares me!
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Today I was really excited to go to a natural tie-dying workshop that I had seen in Que Pasa (the monthly magazine with everything for tourists to do in Antigua). So, I got up early and went to a little cafe on the way to the Parque Central to get un plato tipico (beans, scrambled eggs, platanos, cream, cheese, bread, and tea...yes...all that food for Q24<$3). I arrived at the Parque in plenty of time to catch the shuttle...made my first phone call in Spanish(!!!). Anyway, I met some cool people on the bus. One lady is here for 5 weeks just to learn Spanish so she can talk to her ESL students (who often have social problems and she would like to be able to council them). She was traveling with her maestra (the lady who spends every day with her, one-on-one, traveling in Antigua, just practicing Spanish). Anyway, we arrived and paid and it wasn't until the transportation stage of the coffee tour that I realized I was in the wrong place. I learned all about the growth of little shade grown coffee plants and ended up on a tour of an organic farm.

It was actually really cool until they tried to get me to eat a freshly roasted coffee bean...ew. It was not the place for a non-coffee drinker.

So, the coffee workers first have to fill little bags with dirt. Then, they hand splice coffee seedlings together. They take two little baby coffee plants (one that just grows fast and one that's a really good quality...small facts: Guatemala is #11 in the world for coffee production and #3 in quality), cut off their roots, make a slice up the center of each stem, tape the two intertwined stems together, then plant them in the dirt-filled bags. There they grow for a couple of months (2 wks on the right, below) then they are transplanted by hand into big manure filled holes. It takes 3 years for a coffee plant to start bearing fruit but after that they can provide fruit for 40 years.

They have the tall trees Silky Oak trees imported from Australia to provide shade for the plants. The coffee fruit starts as little red fruits that they call the cherry stage. We got to see some in the green stage today, they will be ready to harvest at the end of November (the women have the job of picking the fruit). Then they use lots of water and gas powered machines to take off the red stuff. Then they put them out on big patios to dry for 1-2 weeks and they bag it (this is the man's job). Then there are more machines to husk and sort the sizes and they have a big electronic scanner to pick out the bad beans (or this can be done manually by women on an assembly line in a coffee factory). Then they are usually sent to the destination country before they are roasted. The beans are roasted at different temperatures for different lengths of time depending on the medium or dark roast (this is where he passed out free samples to see the difference between the regular coffee bean and the darker 'espresso' bean). Then, they are put into little plasticy metal bags to preserve freshness but there is also a hole-like feature on the bag that releases the aroma for better sales :) Then you drink it! (yuk!)

Anyway, while the plants are growing for 45 years, you may wonder if they encounter bugs or how they grow so well. Well, this particular finca was an organic farm. (Although, they claim there is no difference in the end product since all of the chemicals would be husked off anyway. Just the detrimental effects of the chemicals on the environment and workers...) They basically use manure and organic leaf material mixed with soil to fertilize. So, how do they get rid of the bugs?...PETA people, beware (see below)...they cut a hole in the top of a two liter, fill the bottom with kerosene, and fill a little eye dropper bottle with alcohol and tape that to the side. The little bugs are attracted to the alcohol for some reason then they get in there, get drunk and fall to the bottom to drown in kerosene.

Once we got to the gift shop (where I spent way to much money for being a non-cafe drinker), I asked about my tie-dying workshop.
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When I got to Indigo Artes Textiles y Populares they said that 5 people didn't come for class so they weren't going to hold it anyway. They took my name to call when they have enough people. (Meanwhile, I found out that it would cost Q400...a fortune here...about $50.) They still gave me a tour of all of the textiles and the foot-powered and belt weaving machines, a gallery of textiles from Coban (they are all pure white but they use a green liquid to bleach them...almost makes sense), and the natural dyes.
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Anyway, applied for another job today...Kafka (this bar/restaraunt/hostel) was looking for bartenders and waitresses. The average pay here is Q8/hour<$1. We didn't have water tonight so we went to Kafka for dinner. A friend of a housemate works there so he taught me the ins-and-outs of bartending. I think I'm ready to serve Ron Zacapa y Cuba Libres.

Vacation is over...they put me to work!

After a long weekend of working on vet school applications, planning trips to Tikal and Lago Atitlan, and studying (yes...studying) for my online genetics course, I was finally given some work today!

I will be helping with a music festical in a nearby village called Santiago Zamora. The festival will have a choir competition in the morning where 5 of the schools supported by CasaSito and their partners will send a choir from their music program. Each program will receive a small donation and a musical instrument for their growing collections. On the afternoon of the festival, we have found 3 local bands to play some indigenous, salsa, and rock music. Local women will be selling textiles and organizing all of the food for the festival. Several local NGOs will also set up booths. This festival is not a fundraiser for CasaSito, rather a way to get our name out there.

So, today, I went arond to local Spanish schools where tourists take classes while they are in town. We are looking for volunteers to help us set up and work on the day of the festival. We are having a mass meeting tonight for volunteers interested in helping out. Then, after lunch, I went back out to the Parque Central and passed out fliers. I felt like I was totally profiling...1) only talked to white/non-Guatemalan looking people and 2) started by asking if they spoke English. At times I placed myself next to the many people on the streets passing out fliers about various tours and shuttles...everyone just walked right by them but paid me full attention when I asked for it. Totally not fair, I know. If only the travel agencies would hire white, English speakers, they would get a lot more attention I think. I'm actually really excited to do some more advertising. Anyway, I got to meet a lot of cool people including some Peace Corps volunteers, a dude who plays in a drum circle in the Parque Central on the weekends, and a girl who's been working at an orphanage for children with AIDS.

Anyway, that's all the time I have. Off to the meeting to see if we can get some volunteers to help us with the awesome music festival!

Your donations are officially official!

Thank you so much to everyone who donated to my CasaSito letter drive. I sat down with Alice on Friday and discussed where all of the donations will be going, being sure to specify those donations that had specific purposes. For those of you who checked "wherever it is needed," the donations will be supporting CasaSito's scholarship program.

Learning more about the scholarship program. In the morning I awake to really slow, basic sentences, half in English and half in Spanish in the room next door to mine. Volunteers are here to help CasaSito's scholarship recipients practice English before and after their school. School here is only a half day so they either come before they go to school or after. Students come Monday and Wedesday or Tuesday and Thursday. The funds of the scholarship program help support students from the villages outside of Antigua so they can come to school in Antigua. One of the main reasons that students do not continue their education is that they cannot afford the transportation to Antigua where the education is offered. Part of CasaSito's funds support their transport from their home villages to CasaSito.

So, I officially handed over the donations to Alice today! Two giant wads of money (it looked like a lot a lot because the exchange rate right now is 8 Quetzales for 1 USD...so I had 8 times the amount of bills I would have otherwise had!)

Thanks again to those of you who dontaed. If anyone else is interested in making a donation toward the work here in Guatemala, please visit CasaSito's website at www.casasito.org (or send me an email and I can tell you more about it: cricketd33@gmail.com :))

USA gets recognition

There are so many things here that make me feel like I'm still in the US. It all started when I disembarked from the plane at the airport in Guatemala city. The airport had developed immensely since my last trip to Guatemala when it was basically empty. Since, they have added not only a McDonalds but also a Pizza Hut. And they added ambient music...and by that, I mean cheesy '80s hits.

Even in Antigua, it's inescapable. The pre-packaged food, the Coke trucks,

the McDonalds (the only difference is that the McD's here is guarded by a soldier with a big gun like it's the most important establishment in the city),

the Michael Jackson legacy living on as the subtle music playing in every tienda and every other travel agency....

Then, I am reminded of the strong local culture that peeks through the thick blanket of American and European offerings that are in place to please tourists. A majority of the women on the street sport the indigenous garb and there is a GIGANTIC mercado on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays where hundreds of families emerge with fresh fruits and vegetables and meats for sale, huge bags of beans and rice and corn, cheap clothing and shoes, and the local artisan goods like handbags and jewelry. The market is expansive and quite impressive. Be sure to show up on a market day though or you'll be sold expensive fruits imported from the United States (just when I thought I could get away...).

I look forward to learning more about the culture and finding ways to dig through the American and European influence on the city. I got to see a Guatemalan funeral procession on Thursday. It was surprising but encouraging to see. Rather than a line of cars with lights and flags, it was a long scattered line of people following a set of ushers carrying a casket. They were solemn but still chatting among themselves.

In the meantime...here are some photos of CasaSito's Volunteer House where I am living...

From time crunch to time crunch...who handles it better?

As my anticipation to arrive in Guatemala was escalating, my excitement and desire to experience a new culture was growing without bound. Leaving the country I realized why this break is much needed. 1) Even in my last conversations with my family, I found myself arguing about pointless details. 2) The Americans in the airport were visibly 1000 times more stressed than the Guatemalans. 3) On the plane I sat next to an uncle and little boy who spoke English and Spanish so interchangeably that sometimes they were speaking every other word naturally in both languages. This is a skill I am terribly envious of but I find myself wondering if that child actually knows the difference between the two languages.
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I'm officially here and am already busy and learning a ton. I got the airport and through customs in no time...walked right out of the airport into a shuttle which had me to Antigua within 45 minutes. I got to sit in the front seat of the van so I got to talk to the driver who didn't speak English rather than the Americans and Irishman in the back.

Got to CasaSito where I will be working and no one was there! Luckily some of the other volunteers showed up within 2 minutes and they showed me my room. Super tiny but I have already spread out and flooded the entire room with my stuff. By the time I was half done packing, another volunteer came so I went out to talk to them. It turned out that they were 3 of the 4 people I will be working with on a music festival in a nearby village.

The music festival will be on August 2 and it's mainly a choir competition. There will be 5 choirs competing but each will win a donation toward their music program and a musical instrument. After the competition, there will be live music. There will also be some local artisans and food vendors set up. The goal of the festival is to promote extracurriculars in education and to get publicity for CasaSito and the local womens' orgs that will be setting up booths. We'll be advertising a lot this week for it.

Anyway, the other volunteers were practicing for a presentation they were giving tonight for a big Antigua Network meeting where all the NGOs in Antigua get together and update each other on their work and their needs. They warned me not to go because it would be long and boring and they almost had me convinced...then Alice (the head honcho at CasaSito) came and started introducing me to the volunteer's house and she said I should go with them.

I'm really really glad I did. They had presentations from almost 20 orgs in Antigua..some were less interesting but there were a few sustainable development, education, and health programs that were pretty interesting. Afterwards, there was a snack and time to network with the other groups.

I talked with one group, CREA, that does almost the same work as Health in Action (the UM org that I work with...plughia.com) and I started asking the presenter about how he decides what the community needs. He will be a really valuable resource while I'm here I think. He started to explain that they spend about a month or two getting to know the community putting on fun programs for the kids and adults to really gain their respect and confidence. Then, they set up a town meeting and it's easy to get them to tell you what they need and want. CREA offers what they can and serve as a link to the resources the community needs to get their other problems solved.

Another group put out pamphlets (but they didn't present) on the Estufas Mejoradas (the reason I got the grants I got) so I have contact info for them and another organization that uses them and water filters. Hopefully I will be able to get in contact with them while I'm here and they will be a really good resource for HiA as we move into our planning for next year.

Another set of guys work for a group called Encountours which links US university students to volunteer opps in Guatemala. They're also good resources because they know about a lot of the projects going on. For example, they just sent a group to Xela to start the construction of the radio station training center where EGL and I will be going in August. I asked them about how it works...meaning are they just doing construction work or do they be able to get something more out of the experience. They said the group that just got back had an excellent experience and they loved the coordinator. I guess, they got to hear endless stories about the history of the war between the indigenous populations and the newbees. The coordinator even set up a 'guerrilla lunch' where they ate what would have been eaten during the war and got to hear all about the history and talk to a lot of local people. So, I'm really excited for that program.

Anyway, finished with that and back at the house now. Just met the other girls living here. We're going out tonight to an American bar where it's ladies night and they have lots of salsa music.

Tomorrow, I'm going to take the morning to get acquainted with Antigua, do some grocery shopping and stuff. Then in the afternoon, I'm going to check out one of the girl bands who may be playing at the music festival.

There's a lot of flexibility to do what I want so I need to make sure I can keep myself structured. I will work on that tomorrow morning too...start to set some schedule. Let me know if you have any suggestions.