Life Without the ‘Ol Snip Snip; A Case for Spaying and Neutering

It’s 4:40 AM. The nights have gotten colder so my fan/white noise maker is off, and every dog near my house (at least 20) are barking. Now I don’t know if this happens every morning since my fan is usually on but my God, how can people live like this! Laying in bed I was motivated to write this blog, and why not, I won’t be sleeping anytime soon.

We North Americans are fortunate to live in a world where spaying and neutering is not only accepted, but in some cases mandatory (like when adopting from a shelter). Most people agree with it knowing it keeps the population down and dogs and kitties off the street, away from starvation, disease and wreaking havoc on the native bird population. Here is a different story. From the many talks I’ve had with Paraguayans I have learned that: I have yet to find a word for spaying (I just say ‘cut the equiptment’ and add gestures) people do have a problem with street dogs but don’t care to do anything about it, there is a shot you can give female dogs every six months for $2, they think castrating a male is bad (machismo society here) and/or people don’t care about the lives of dogs and cats. This last one I can understand, if you’re poor and barely have money for your family why should you care about dogs when you’re just trying to get by. But I live in the city, and there are many well off people here yet the story is the same. They have them mostly to guard the house (usually about 2 or 3 big Sheppard like dogs) but there are also pet dogs too; usually the little, hairy kind who are treated much better than their guard dog counterparts, aka allowed in the house, but just the same usually given rice, mandioca and bread as meals.

What it’s like to live in a world without spaying and neutering…

1. Obviously, there are dogs everywhere you go. In the schools, in the plaza, on every corner (this is also true for chickens and cows except maybe not so much in the plaza or schools, here in the city at least. God knows what it’s like in the country). I’m sure there are many cats as well but they are good hiders.

2. Most of the dogs I see are males because no one wants females. They are either cast out in the streets or fields or killed.

3. Giant dog testicles cannot be ignored. It is not enjoyable.

4. This means that there are a bunch of testosterone crazy males runnin about and things can get a little weird. The other day I had to walk past two male dogs humping on the sidewalk, and I don’t mean the kind of humping to show that one is more dominant than the other. This was different.

5. And so when a female in heat is present there are about 49 males around her going nuts.

6. More aggressive males, more likely attacks.

Which brings me to my story.

I was at my friend Lauren’s site for the night with another friend Julia. Lauren inherited a sweet little girl dog named Luna from the volunteer she followed up. She’s a medium sized dog, golden in color, a little overweight and cute half pointy half floppy ears. That night we watched a movie and hung out, Luna enjoying all the company. The next day it was cloudy, grey and cold and we weren’t sure where the bus would be coming since it was Sunday so we decided to play it safe and walk a little ways down the dirt road to a spot it was sure to go by. Luna was so psyched to go out with us, all we had to say was jaha Luna! (let’s go) and she was jumping all around and spinning in circles.

As we set off we weren’t sure if she should be walking with us because of other dogs, we tried to make her go back but she wanted to come and kept following. Mostly, the other dogs just ran up to her and greeted her, body language alert and curious, sometimes playful. The farther away we got though, the less dogs she knew. As we neared the bus spot we came across this one house that had a chain fence around it, and thank goodness to because inside were three very big German Sheppard males barking at us and very angry. Luna stayed on the other side of the road not wanting to get near. The next house had a smaller dog who started barking but was not in a fence, he started to run over and stopped a little in front of us. Suddenly, from an open part of the gate, came the three Sheppards at top speed. Oh @#$%. The first one got there, body language dominant but not overly aggressive and started to sniff Luna, but a second after that began the smaller dog, having become brave with his 3 bigger pals there, attacked.

After that it was four against one. They all went after our poor girl at once. She cowered, trying to be as non threatening as possible but they wanted to kill. I just rememnber seeing her on her back as they pulled at her skin. We were in shock! We obviously were not about to jump into that and couldn’t find any rocks near us to throw at them. After what seemed like a minute but was probably 7 seconds, Julia yelled “Throw your shoe!” and began taker hers off. At that same time I saw a branch with lots of twigs on it, almost like a broom. Julia threw her shoe as I brandished the branch around my head and threw it. This got their attention and they ran off.

Fortunately Luna was more shocked than anything, the worst of her injuries being a bite on her hip which wasn’t bleeding to bad but made her limp. Poor girl was saved by her fat and loose skin, which was all they were really getting a hold of..and us of course. The worst part of it all was that the people in the house didn’t do a thing. I saw one just sitting and looking out from the window and another come out and close the gate after we all passed. It made us pretty infuriated at the time. After that any dog that came up to us we acted as bodyguards throwing rocks and making the noises that makes dogs go away (yes there are noises here dedicated to that purpose, one is a kissy noise and the other is one of the most ugly noises we can make with our vocal cords. If I accidently make it to your dog when I come back to the states I apologize now!)
I’m happy to report that Luna is doing fine now. They brought her back home and gave her a bath and disinfected the wound. She spent the rest of the day sleeping.

Dogs don’t just attack other dogs, these guard dogs are known to attack people walking by, especially when it gets darker out. To fend them off you make the appropriate noises and throw rocks.

This is what life is like, and it makes me wonder at point does a society make the switch from dog as neglected house protector to dog as much more. I write this more about dogs because, well there isn’t a problem really with cats running out into the streets and attacking (unless rabid of course, but I have yet to see that) or barking or night, and you can’t really see their testicles. Also, here it’s more common to have dogs than cats, I’m still baffled by the amount of women I’ve seen shying away from kittens (how is that possible?) and when a cat does have kittens they are usually killed by dogs anyway. Sad but true. I got my kitten because she was a female and no one wanted her, also there was no way I wanted a dog. The cats stay inside and on the patio, the dog would have to go out on the street where all the other dogs roam free, ready to defend their territory. Oh the stress!

But let me leave you with a happier story! Last night my friends Dan, Emm and Thomas slept over for Dan’s birthday. I was in my room, Tom was on the bed in the living room and Dan and Emm were on a big mattress on the floor. The next morning I go out to the living room and sit on the end of the bed. I look down and see this weird black figure on the floor. As I got a closer look I realized it was the carcass of a tarantula, its legs strewn about beside it, and looked to be headin in the direction of Tom’s bed! One of my cats had killed it during the night and thus saved Tom, Dan or Emm the hiivie jeevies from waking up because a tarantula was slowly crawling up their body. Way to go kitties! And yes, they will both be getting spayed…as soon as I can find a vet who doesn’t just work with cows.

here's a pic of the dead tarantula going for the bed and the mighty huntress


***update***
So as I finished this blog everyone sleeping in my house woke up so we could get into Asuncion. As we were getting ready the dogs were still barking, so much so that it made us wonder. Finally Tom looked out the window and there were about 10 male dogs surrounding this poor female in heat, all of them try to get at her. The poor dog’s neck was all bloody from all the males grabbing her by it and she was just trying to get away. Then my two neighbor dogs who live together, one German Sheppard one some pointer mix, were GOING AT IT. They were going to kiiilll each other! They are the same size but the pointer is much younger than the Sheppard (named Oso) Oso was bleeding by the ear and they just kept snarling tearing and blood was everywhere, it was aweful. Of course no one else came out of their house so we ran out and were beating the pointer with a huge plastic tube we put poster paper in, throwing bricks at him point blank. Nothing. He would not stop tearing up Oso, but Oso wasn’t’ leaving either.
A person finally came out of the house that Oso and the pointer belong to and tried hitting them with a stick. Then another neighbor came out and took off his belt and whipped them, that finally made them stop. It’s aweful. Please spay and neuter your animals.

CHIPAAA, CHIPA RICA CHIIIPAAA

....is what you normally hear coming from the mouths of the chipa sellers on the bus or the street. Chipa is very famous here in PY; as a mid day snack (marienda), or in the morning with some codico or mate. Sometimes it takes the form of a yellow bagel, a mini loaf of bread or, in the event that I’m making it, stars and smiley faces. Now I don’t make it often, in fact I’ve only made it once, and that was this past Wednesday the 31st of March or chipa day. The 31st of march is the day that all of Paraguay is making chipa. Now why would everyone be slaving over a hot tatakua when you can just go out to the street and find someone selling it? Because it’s tradition. It’s like us coloring eggs, it’s done every year for Semana Santa (Easter). The reason is that Friday, the 2nd, no one eats meat, so there must be chipa around to sustain and nourish the body for this day.
I, of course, wanted to get in on the activity of some imposter bagel makin, so I headed across the street to the neighbors house to check things out, laugh, get laughed at and share some semana santa traditions… specifically, chipa making.

We started in the kitchen…like ya do, first my neighbor Maria started with mixin of the chipa mix.

Ingredients: mandioca or some other sort of starch
Eggs
Milk
Butter or fat (Some make chipa w pig fat, you can because when you bite it it squeaks)
Salt
Queso Paraguay (PY has it’s very own cheese… they love it and are v proud of it, I have yet to Share their enthusiasm)

Directions:
Mix and mash and fold it all together until a Paraguayan tells you it feels right (to my untrained hands it felt the same the whole time, like playdough)

Mold it into a traditional bagel shape or mini loaf of bread or if you invite a
Norte (me) over they might make untraditional shapes like hearts and fish.

Next have some lunch

Then a siesta

Then heat up the tatakua (brick oven) by starting a fire in it and letting it get
really hot, while it’s getting hot have some terere and make a broom out of a
long branch and leaves

when the tatakua feels like bowels of hell, spread it about so it’s just hot
coals and sweep them out the side of the tatakua with the long tree broom

Then put in the trays of chipa into the hot tatakua and cover the entrance so they can cook.

Apparently you just know when they done

Next take them out, let them cool, eat some, give some to other people and
and save the rest for fri (the day of no meat, except fish, and chicken, all the meat is eaten thrusday night for the last supper)!!

It’s a very nice tradition involving many family members, also neighbors come as well because some don’t have their own tatakua






















Easter Sunday isn´t that big of a deal here as it is up there, i think. It´s called pasqua and everyone is just supposed to be happy that jesus came back from the dead. zombie jesus. and today you are also allowed to hit ppl your age and younger since during the other days of semana santa you couldn´t. So you can get it all out of your system today. Praise the Lord!

Dia del Agua

OMG. I´ve typed it out twice now and both times it´s been erased! Blogger, why didn´t you save it in the drafts!¿? Peace Corps office internet, why do you just stop working?!¿...

3 times the charm, this time I’m writing this on my laptop with my pendrive.

Monday March 22nd is Dia Mundial de Agua or World Water Day. This is not a day to reenact the movie Water World with Kevin Cossner but instead a day to recognize one of the most important elements known to man, water. What I used to teach to the students for survival class when I worked at Fairview Lake YMCA was the rule of 3’s. On average a person can live 3 minutes without air, 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food (and it takes 3 hours to build a good shelter, so, think about that for the next time your lost in the woods).
So, only three days to live without water.. I’d say that it’s more important than gold! Our planet has a lot of water on it but only 3% of it is freshwater in rivers and lakes and aquifers underground. That’s not a lot for a planet with more than 6 billion people on it and unequal water distribution. And unfortunately, like the masochists we are, we’re doing a good job of contaminating what little freshwater we have! We’re using it and contaminating it faster than it can be purified and replenished by the water cycle. When the rain falls from the sky (after being evaporated up there of course) it gets purified by passing through swamps and tree roots that help decompose those toxins we put in the water and air; but with us chopping down our trees and filling in our swamps our water stays contaminated.
Agriculture, I feel, has the biggest effect on our water. Huge amounts of pesticides get washed into our streams by rain, animal waste products from factory farms get dumped into our rivers not to mention that the production of one pound of beef uses 2500 gallons of water. There is much this world can do to not waste so much precious water, and that’s what dia del agua is about, raising awareness about water. Please hold while I get off my soap box.
So what did I do for DDA? I went to the schools of course! I had planned a 3 day event with the vice director with the 4th 5th and 6th graders, morning and afternoon session (Paraguayans only go to school for half the day, so there are 2 different sessions each day. So everything I did I had to do it twice). The first day I planned a charla (lecture) about water, where it comes from, what we’re doing to it and how we can help cuidar (care for) it. I stayed up until 2 am the night before getting it ready, making a lindo (pretty) charla paper, getting ready my demonstrations and writing out a script I could look at. The morning of my charla I got up at 5:30am, was at the school by 7 and was told by the vice directora that instead of doing it with the 4th 5th and 6th graders I’ll just do it for the whole school (k-6) right after announcements. In the morning the whole school lines up in front of the flag pole, so after announcements she had them all sit down where they were and I had my audience, about 200 kids. At this point I had realized I’d forgotten my script at home and realized I had to wing it, and so I did. It went really well, my first charla in the school! The students and teachers alike loved the demonstrations (one involved my pouring a glass of water and putting something in it like dirt or soy sauce pretending to be oil and asking if they wanted to drink it, they especially loved when I put the cow poo in it). I did the same charla for the afternoon group as well.
The next day was games and activities. I had three different games and split the kids up into three groups so they could go to one station and switch to the next when it was over. The teachers helped me with that which was awesome. The last day (Monday the 22nd DDA) the directora had a 15 minute movie that we decided to show the kids. Since there were a lot of them we had to split them up into groups and they came to this other building where we had a projector set up. I hadn’t seen the movie before but after the first time I thought ..oh no.. It was so boring!!! Not meant for 4th – 6th graders!! I had to watch it 7 different times too. This prompted me to ask the library at the PC office if we had movies to rent out, educational ones that would hold kids attention. We don’t. PC doesn’t buy them so they would only be there upon donation. I’ll have to get that planet earth series in Spanish or something next time.
So it was kinda exhausting doing everthing twice (and I’m doing it again with another school, only one days worth of stuff though) but it felt good to finally start doing something. The next project the school wants is to start a garden. Many schools here in PY have gardens to meet the requirement for the trabajo and technologia class (work and technology). I haven’t gotten to do anything with it yet though since it’s been semana santa (Easter) and we’ve had a five day vacation (wed-fri no school).


Whew I did it! 3 times the charm!!

LEAVES

So i´m swingin in my hammock in my patio, enjoying the tranquilidad, when my across the street neighbor aka my landlady starts to wander out from behind her gate toward my house. uh oh. she doesn´t usually leave her house...

so i say hello and make my usualy comment on the weather (haku! siii hakueterei.) Then she mumbles something about coming to look at the suciedad (dirtyness) in the street. This isn´t the first time she´s commented on the garbage in the street.

The first time I was by her gate getting another garbage bag (rice sack)when she said "look at all the garbage in the street". I looked. I looked a little harder. I saw nothing. Perplexed I went back to my house when I remembered "oh right, leaves are considered garbage here". I went back out and looked at the street in front of my house and realized through here eyes there was a toon of garbage!! Leaves everywhere! So I raked them to the sides of my house and onto these other leaf piles thinking about organic materials and biodegrading and science and let it be.

So back to my tranquilo hammock swinging...she comes out and comments on the dirtyness again!! This time i knew she meant the pile of leaves next to the house, a little later i hear someone outside raking and I knew what would come next... bonfire! I went inside.
This morning when i went out of my house there were two charred marks, one on either side of my house, of burnt leaves. no biodegrading allowed here! It´s interesting because they will leave a field, or street, full of plastic bags and bottles and wrappers..but if there are any loose leaves about..SUCIEDAD!! It´s like a trigger goes off in their heads: leaves leaves! garbage! must rake! must burn! burn burn!!
At Lauren´s site her host mom told her that they have to get up really early to sweep the leaves since they live on the road, people will drive by in the morning and look at their yard and talk about them if it´s full of "garbage".

this is silly, lets all compost these leaves! but what would they think of that, a giant pile of leaves just ready for the burning! And I think "Is it posible to change someones mentality about biodegradable "garbage"?" i sure hope so...
anyway, i gotta get home and sweep up the garbage my mango tree produces! What will the neighbors think!

Site Presentation

I have now been formally presented to my site! Now I can work (as the vice director at my one school said). My school really helped me out in organising it, they created a list of who to invite and even wrote and printed AND delivered the invataions! I had it in the morning at 8:30 and almost everyone was on time (except for my APCD -the person in charge of the enironmental sectore-and her helper). But everyone waited patiently and when she arrived we did a little icebreaker and comenced with the presenting.
Teachers from a couple different schools were there as well as a lady from the municipalidad and the library. Eli (my APCD) said she wanted EE to work more with the community and not just the school, she also talked about ideas we could do and just baisically what peace corps is. Afterwards we had some soda and cookies I provided so people could chat. Lauren from a site close to me came to my presentation for support, and I would do the same for her. But first we all went to my house to drop off my bike (!) and my bags from long term storage, yes, more stuff. Where does it all come from? Good thing i have a big house...
then we had some pizza for lunch (paid for by Peace Corps thanks) and went to Lauren´s site.
Her presentation was a big different from mine since she lives out in the campo and the community is much much smaller. She had about 25 people show up and Eli went through the presentation and then the community members had a nice little semi heated discussion about the volunteer before Lauren. One woman said he should have worked more with the community not just the school and everyone else defended him and said he did many things outside the school(he was well liked). She baisically said that he should have went door to door asking what people wanted while another person said no, we had invited him, we should have went to him if we needed help. That´s good thinking and I´m glad they think that way, should be helpful for Lauren. It was a good community discussion though that prob wouldnt have happened otherwise.

Plastic Bags in Paraguay…A love story

I must write about something that I deal with daily, Paraguayans and their love of plastic bags. The more plastic bags you can put around individual things, the better! Every time I go to the supermarket down the road I have a tiny battle, sometimes I win and sometimes I come home with 8 more plastic bags. Today for example, Emm and I went to buy some tomatoes, lettuce, bread, bananas, yogurt and a pineapple and today was a day I lost because I forgot to bring some of the 600 clear plastic bags I have at the house with me. To buy fruit here you have to put each kind in a clear plastic bag, bring it to get weighed and a price sticker goes on it. Apples in a bag, bread in a bag, lettuce in a bag, bananas in a bag, pineapple in a bag..even the yogurt comes in a plastic bag. Then when we get up to the counter we have to battle again. I tell them no, I don’t need a bag I’ll put it in here (my canvas one) they just look at me while they continue to put my stuff in a plastic bag. Sometimes I try to beat the bag guy to it and throw everything in my canvas, other times I just give in. They are getting better, the one cashier knows I don’t want it and will tell the bag guy, she’s a ally in this battle. Others, they just can’t understand why this crazy Norte wouldn’t want lots of plastic bags. Guess what’s going to be included in my trash lessons…..

Febtober

The schools have started. I’ve been in my house for a month. I still am figuring out what my role will be here. Being a third time follow up volunteer has its advantages and disadvantages. Pretty much we come in three’s, if the first volunteer thinks there is more to do in the site then a follow up is requested, if the second volunteer still has projects going on and thinks more work can be done then a third time volunteer can be requested. Usually it’s only up to three that they will send to one site in one sector, so I’m the 3rd EE volunteer in Carapegua in a row. Unfortunately, I never got to meet the volunteer before me since he left a couple months earlier than normal, but he did leave me a bunch of projects I can continue. This is a perk of being a third time volunteer, having projects right off the bat, also inheriting lots of stuff (i.e. my house and everything in it!) It’s pretty difficult for some people to find houses so I’m lucky. Plus the community already knows what Peace Corps is. What I’m finding as more difficult at the moment jumping into these projects the other volunteer left. People lack motivation or someone has moved jobs and no longer wants to have anything to do with a project they headed before. So, for now, I’m going to start in the schools and branch off from there. Being a third time volunteer, my job technically is to assist the people in continuing EE practices we’ve been showing them but taking a step back to make sure they can do it themselves and it will be sustainable after I go, since I’ll (supposedly) be the last EE volunteer here in the centro for who knows how long.
Last week I went to two schools and handed out little survey papers to find out who wanted to learn from me and work with me in their classrooms. I told them to bring them back to the director’s office when they were finished and I would collect them at the end of the week. When I got there Thursday only one person had handed it in and the directora told me to go around to each classroom and ask for them. People said they lost it or would have it later but I was able to collect 2 more. The directora said this was typical; it’s just the way people are here. Well three is better than nothing. Tomorrow I’ll go to the other school to see what they’ve got for me.
New house news though… I got myself a kitty. Actually 3 but 2 will be moving out soon. The Peace Corps Office in Asuncion had a cat living there and apparently PC offices can’t have pets. She was technically not a pet since she decided to move in there on her own terms and comes and goes as she pleases, but someone found out and said she had to go… so I took her. She’s adjusting now pretty well except for the two 1 month old kittens I brought home yesterday. She hates them and hisses and growls at them, not very motherly of her since she just had her own kitten a month ago (don’t know what happened to it, yes I will be getting her spayed). My friend Emily is staying at my site with me for the moment because her site is being moved and so she’s waiting for it to be ready (idk maybe it has to bake longer). We were walking in the market and came across the two kittens abandoned and hungry so I took them home betting that I could find someone to take them. Eve (what I named the PC cat, short for All Hallows Eve because she looks like Halloween) has made it clear she does not want them here but I have found a taker for the 2 cuties with the leopard print bellies.
So in a matter of 3 days I went from no responsibility volunteer to crazy cat lady collecting sand off the street with a yogurt container. I have always wanted a cat though and now I’ve got the opportunity, many of them. The other day on our walk the cutest little white puppy with silly big pointy ears and very cute eyes bounded over to Emm and I. She was so friendly and happy to see us, then the woman across the street said the dreaded phrase “ella no tiene dueña, puedes lluevarle” meaning “she’s got no one and lives on the street, take her”. OOOooooo. I don’t want to deal with a dog here and Emm doesn’t have a site yet so we had to walk away, but she did think about it (and still does). If I had a 5,000 Guarani every time I’ve been told to take a puppy or kitten ….

Watched the movie 2012 the other night…It was so awful but we still finished it, those long PY nights..