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.