The capibara is actually the world's biggest rodent, but this little guy is a lover. He is only 7 months old and was brought to the sanctuary after spending his first 6 months sleeping in a child's bed. Thus, he loves people and loves to be petted. I know I probably shouldn't be petting him, but he basically climbs into your lap and snuggles up. And who wouldn't love this face?
Leo the spider monkey loves climbing on people, he is so sweet.
Was not a huge fan of him hanging by his tail from my neck though. Man their tails are strong!
He is quite the fan of bananas and papaya. (:
I fell in love with Peanut, the squirrel that will eat out of your hand, he climbs all over you upon cage entry, and has a penchant for sunflower seeds.
Work that week varied, typically the mornings were spent feeding the animals and afternoons were all about manual labor.
I was able to shovel dirt/mud with other volunteers to level out the ground for a new enclosure.
We made the most of our time by sharing jokes. Lesson learned: my jokes do not translate well!
Two of the days I had to go to the local sawmill down the road to fill bags of sawdust for the pathways in the sanctuary and ground inside of animal enclosures. To be fair I was warned by a long term volunteer that it is a shock to the senses, but even though one is warned, reality presented itself as an assault to my senses and mind.
The images, smells, and sounds pounded on me from all directions, as I looked around and realized I am only spending hours here, that for some people, they will spend their whole lives there. From children ages 11 and up working the saws, with no protective gear, wood chips flying everywhere, my ears crying because it was so loud, to plumes of smoke billowing through from the burning discards pile. The second time I went I brought earplugs and those helped, but it didn't do anything to assuage my feelings of sadness for the employees who are probably making next to nothing, to the trees that are illegally harvested from the forests of the Amazon. The earplugs put me in my own bubble, one in which I could focus on the work at hand and try to ignore the reality of the situation. Life is like that, we often walk around with our own earplugs, or our own bubble of reality, yet when a wood chip flies into your face, your realize you really aren't so insulated after all.
The long term volunteer pointed out that the wood was harvested from the same place that a lot of the animals are from. Ironically now they walk on it in their enclosures. The tree that the macaw could have perched atop with the forest very distant below is now a part of the cage that will keep them flying only in circles.
I know that I could have refused to go, but I signed up for this gig, and I was not going to back out because I felt uncomfortable. Would me refusing to go have made any difference to the founders that received my money? No. It would have just made more work for the other volunteers. I seek to see as much as I can in life, and life is not pretty nor pleasant for a lot of people; this trip has shown me many sides of that. Does this mean that I want to see everything that is horrible and depressing? No, but if an opportunity presents itself I will see it, document it, and carry it with me, never to forget.
How often do we think about where the wood for our floors, tables, and furniture comes from? Whose hands cut it down from the forest? What was the age of the person who pushed it through the saws at the sawmill? Who owns the company that shipped it to the US and who is the CEO who is benefiting? What politicians family does this company feed? All questions worth pondering in order for us to be fully conscious consumers.
After the sawmill one of the days I helped to build a shelter for one of the animals, was able to practice my machete skills once again! Wonder if a machete could be brought back with me???
Thursday evening the group of us went to a place called the Casa de Arbols- well it was interesting. They have a gigantic tree on site that they built platforms around, you can climb up 13 floors and receive beautiful views all around.
While trying not to think about the fact that there are no building regulations here and that you can feel the floor shaking. The view was gorgeous.
On site there are walking trees, apparently they move 3 cm a year towards sunlight.
Try as I might, I didn't see them move.
In addition to the tree house there was a pool, with strange statues all around. I am guessing that in their summer season this place must be really popular, but to me it was just creepy.
Witness: where does one procure a statues such as this?
Upon leaving I saw that they had a pet monkey. Garh. The owner gave us a ride back to town (which he charged us for of course) whilst on the ride he ranted about the place we are volunteering. he stated that because they are a foundation they are allowed to keep animals in cages, yet they do not rehabilitate any of them. Why shouldn't he be allowed to keep monkeys out in the open then? At least they aren't in cages. I could see his point, and I did agree with the non-rehabilitation part, but keeping an animal with others of it's kind has to be better than keeping it at your house. It is the lesser of two evils I think, and evils of both of which I am not a fan. Yet here I am supporting them each in different ways.
Friday all of the volunteers but me left in the morning after breakfast, thus I thought I was in for a quiet day. Until I realized that my roommate left the door open and a monkey got in my room, stole my blush, and tore up 20+ tea bags all over my stuff. That evening as I was feeding the animals she (bad monkey)tried to steal food, I gently nudged her in the swamp/lagoon, and went in right after her. Not on purpose of course, but for the next 2 hours I had one really slushy boot.
As I was feeding the coaties, aka baby owl killers, one of them took a swipe at my hand, now I look like I have been in a fight with a wolverine.
After that I was stung by a wasp and had a biting ant attached to my scalp that I had to have a friend removed. Literally its pincers were in my scalp.
Next on the agenda was feeding the donkey, wherein which I was followed by the resident sheepdog. En route to feeding the donkey which is down the road a bit there are vicious dogs that live at the neighbors. Typically the neighbors are home and call them off. Of course not that night! As I was returning from the donkey one of the dogs charged me and I fought him off with the buckets in my hand, what did the sheepdog do? Tried to hump me right after. Was it a full moon?
After all of those adventures we fed coconuts to the monkeys, they loved them! It was a great way to end my time there.
Said goodbye to the zoostuarty on Friday evening, will miss Benji the most. He was a bright sunlight upon my days.
Next stop; the beach for the weekend. Picked up some water en route, because a baby drinking out of a plastic water bottle is totally natural right??? Right.
2 comments:
try to relax and spend your time in thoughtful introspection-where is the beach from quioto?
Cute capybara...always wanted to see one of those (well, I have, years ago in a zoo).
As long as we are murderous, rapacious, greedy species (as well, as a kind, generous, loving one) this food chain -- child labor in the Amazonian forests to Wall Street executive -- will exist. We -- as you are trying to do -- just need continue trying to make the people aware of the price that is being paid.
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