More clinics....

So, last week we held our 3rd spay and neuter your pets clinic in Guadalupe which is a really small neighboring community of La Palma (it's where Deivin is from). I learned some good lessons from the clinic; first, not all communities are ready for the spay and neuter concept. The people in Guadalupe are mostly not there yet (though of course some are). Second, people is La Palma know me really well by now and so it's a lot easier for me to hold the clinics in La Palma because more or less the people find me, I don't really have to look at all. Third, without support from someone in the community, it just makes the whole thing really difficult. I had to clean and take care of everything by myself while in La Palma I have a really strong support. So, all that being said, it was still really successful, we spayed or neutered 12 dogs and one cat. This week we will hold another clinic in La Palma and from here on will hold one per month in La Palma. So far we have spayed or neutered 46 cats and dogs and if you think about, that's a pretty big dent in the population. Depending on how things continue with the donations, I should have enough to hold one per month until I leave and if we go over at all I want to try to rescue a few street dogs, clean them up and find them homes as a side project.

In other news, I have finally figured out how to make the coin purses out of recycled coffee and chip bags and am currently teaching people here how to do it. The hope is that this will be an income generating activity in the community. It's a pretty time consuming process so my hope is that for every 10 people that I teach maybe 1 will take to it and actually make them. I'm going to teach Deivin's family how to make them as wells so they can begin to sell them in the hotel down the road from them. Hopefully at least one person will make and sell them.

For the past couple of months we have been officially in the rainy season. Last year we really didn't have one at all, I think it rained for 2 weeks and that was it. Now, it's raining almost everyday and we have had many days when it rains all day long. I really prefer this as it makes it a lot cooler. I've even been cold a few times! I think it was around July that my body finally acclimated to the heat, previous to that I was a nonstop sweat factory and always hot, now I feel pretty normal. Thank God that happened, other wise it would have been 2 pretty uncomfortable years.

Hello Everyone!!!

Sorry for the lack of blogs, I'll explain.... I got back to CR from my trip to the states and was exhausted. On my last trip home in December I arrived in San Jose and went to Acosta to re-group before making the long trek to La Palma, this time I went for the straight shot and it was a very long day. I arrived in SJ at 5:00am and made my way to my bus stop and waited in a soda for a couple of hours for the bus to leave at 8:00 am. I was sooooo incredibly sad to see that bus drive arch nemesis was going to be the driver of the trip, my heart sank. There are a 4 bus drivers that always make the trip from La Palma to SJ and I have made the trip many many times so you can imagine that I know all of the drivers by now. There is one that I just can't stand, it has nothing to do with him on a personal level, I'm sure he's a great guy. It's just that with all of the other bus drivers the trip is 7-7.5 hours long and all are happy. With this guys your looking at 8.5-9 hours in the bus! It drives me crazy! Okay, so long story short after 9+ hours in the bus I arrived in La Palma totally exhausted after 20 hours on the road or in the air or waiting to get on the road or in the air. I was very pleasantly surprised by Deivin. He took the day off and cleaned and organized my house and had lunch/dinner all ready for me when I arrived. It was a really nice surprise and I was able to eat, shower and sleep by 7:00pm.
Almost as soon as I got back I had people calling me about english classes and Guias y Scouts. It turned out there was a Guias y Scouts training in a week in the nearest city (5 hours away) and they wanted me to go. I didn't want to go, but I knew it would be valuable so I went. Also, the Micro finance bank called me to see if I would go to another training right after the Guias y Scouts training for 4 days. It was really the last thing that I wanted to do, but so it happens in the life of a volunteer. So, all of that is to say that I'm just now back and still after 2 weeks here trying to get back into the swing of things. I have a ton of work to do with Guias y Scouts and 2 spay and neuter your pet clinics coming up in August plus I may be starting Junior Achievement in the high school which is a program that teaches basic business skills and how to open a business to high schoolers. I'm wondering how I'm going to make it all happen, but I'm sure it will work out. That's pretty much it for me, I'm hoping to not leave La Palma until the next Peace Corps activity in late September. I'm ready to be in one place for a while.