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Published: March 14th 2010
Rocky the Mapache
one of my favorites, and one of the most hygenic animals i´ve ever seenWell here I am in Oaxaca, actually about to leave in a few hours. I've been working on another WWOOF farm for the last 2 weeks north of the city in Santiaguito, Etla. This farm is way different than the last one I was on - this one is on ranch land (meaning few trees), and there are LOTS of animals. Primarily because it is an educational farm for kids to come learn and be exposed to different animals. Really it's more like a zoo, except that the animals that live here were brought in injured or rescued from the black market, etc. They are animals that can't be returned to the wild (much as we'd like them to survive out there) and they range from crocs to spider monkeys, an ostrich, emu, a pregnant horse, donkey, owl, falcon, guinea pigs, rats, mice, raccoon, turtles, iguana, geese, ducks, chickens, turkeys, phesant, peacock and hen, other birds, goats, 2 cats, and 7 dogs.
Victor Hugo is the owner, and what a man of compassion. He used to be invloved in the zapatista movement until an accident left him paralyzed from the waist down and in a wheelchair for the past 26
The pavo real
brilliant when tail feathers are spread years. So he decided to make educating children his revolution. He has no formal veterinary training but has learned by doing and experience, and really has a way with animals too. This place is barely on the edge - we go to the market not only to by the food we eat for the week, but to pick up all the scraps that vendors throw out in order to feed the animals. When the governors wife learned about this place, instead of donating some money, she gave him another animal to take care of (the raccoon) without any money or food to take care of him. Jeez...but the place functions on volunteer help and very few grants. We as the volunteers do most of the feeding and caring of the animals and it's been quite an experience getting close to a lot of animals in ways that I've never done before - for instance we play with the raccoon like a dog (i would never have imagined this, coming from dealing with Rocky Raccoon's vicious relatives in CA). And I'm understanding the temperaments of the spider monkeys - their story is that they were raised by humans from babies but
The owl Melo
slowly gaining energy back were treated poorly. The female was only fed alcohol instead of water so she became an alcoholic and when she came to the farm had to kind of be in rehab...terrible! So now we try to show them that there are good humans out there, and they really like to be touched and held. Really, every animal here has it's own story and own personality - sometimes I feel that it's animals day-care because they each have different needs and want attention! But I think the bottom line it's learning about compassion and devoting time to make this project work when there are hardly any resources. I just think of Victor and his bottomless pit of energy for the farm - even though he's in a wheelchair he projects like he's 6 feet tall, easily a personal hero.
Other than the animals here on the farm, we're close with our neighbors that work the land next to us and have cows...which means they sell us super cheap fresh (we come during milking time) RAW milk!!! It's amazing, and we also know the guy to whom some of the milk goes to and he makes fresh cheese, crema, and BUTTER!!!
Force-feeding the owl
cuz it doesn´t have a mum to feed it anymore... AHhh it's so good to have people like that next to you, and extraordinarily friendly too. We also do adobe building here (similar to cob but instead of soil we use horse shit)...I mean if you like getting your hands dirty in a mixture of horse shit, sawdust, and sand, this is the place for you. And there is a garden too, but doesn't get much love...yet 😊
Oh yeah and there are black widows, but the philosophy here is that we can't kill all the black widows in the world so we just make a note of where we see one and tell others, and so far nobody's gotten bitten. Fortunately there are no black widows in my room, BUT there are a ton of daddy-long-legs, like 1000's literally (see the picture when they nest during the day). I don't mind em cuz they're harmless. And woohoo for me and everywhere I go I can find a hula hoop!! So glad other people are into this too - and another volunteer travels with her slackline so I've been getting some slackline practice in too.
Other things:
-From handling all the animals (and probably not washing food properly)
The avestruz
one of the funniest animals i´ve seen up close, though i wish it had more space to run I´ve gotten sick a bit, but I´m definitely good to go now, and my stomach is probably the better for it.
-Mexicans LOVE to party, and drink, my goodness! There are fiestas all the time, random fireworks in the middle of the night, and mezcal (hard alcohol similar to vodka but REALLY strong and made from the maguey plant) everywhere. not to mention beer, beer, and more beer. it´s difficult telling people i´m not much of a drinker 😊
-Went horse-riding with the intention of going to Monte Albán but didn´t quite make it. We ran into a party outside of a church in a small town where everyone was giving away fruit-waters, horchata, ice cream, etc. because apparantly it was the 4th friday before easter and the bible says
someone from lothlorien in madison!
so hot during the day
It´s hard to leave this place in particular, especially when there is so much work to be done - mostly with improving infrastructure like composting bathrooms and fencing to keep out the dogs. It´s also a sad day for me to leave because this morning the dogs got into a pen and killed a sheep and badly wounded the
The spider monkeys
Elvira and Cuco, my favorites, who love to be touched and held. baby goat. I loved this goat a lot and tried to care for it today but it passed away. Ahhhh I guess that´s how it is sometimes, life and death. But it´s hard to watch that in between stage - I thought that goat might survive because it was eating, but then started to slow down, poor thing.
Anyways, I´m hoping to return to this farm in the future - I´ve made a lot of cool friends with the townsfolk here and am also attached to the animals. But for now I´m off to catch a bus to Chiapas to meet my friends and travel around for a week! Will keep ya posted! With love and apple empanadas,
Mon
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