My Rotting Rabbit

Its been a little over 2 months since I have arrived at sight. My first encounter with my rabbit was during site visit when my mom told me we were going to eat him when I came back to start my service two weeks later. Well, thank goodness, we did not eat him. But I remember conejo, the rabbit´s name (it means rabbit in english, they don't name their pets, its always gato, conejo, perro, etc.) as being nice and plump. We could have eaten him if we wanted to. Conejo would always visit us during meal time, sitting underneath the counters and tables in my kitchen, waiting for food to be dropped so he could have something to eat. Or he would come downstairs from the roof where he lived to be found munching away at a sweetpotatoe he´d managed to get out of the big bag of fresh produce my mom had just brought from the market. Occasionally, sweet little conejo would get in trouble for eating a hole in the bag of the uncooked noodles and tearing them apart. He never did any harm to us. Even though he never let me pet him bc he´d run up the stairs faster than you could say his name, he always had a fond memory in my heart.



But now my view of conejo is changing. He is no longer fat and easy on the eyes. Poor conejo is rotting away. First, all four of paws began turning brown and then began losing their hair. Then it started happening to his nose. There is almost a hole where his nose is. But today was the saddest of all days. I saw poor conejo downstairs in front of my room, a place he has never been before. There are stairs that lead from the door outside my room to the kitchen, then more stairs to the roof where my buddy lives. Conejo was trying to get up the stairs to the kitchen but seemed to be having trouble. I just stood there, watching him for a while, witnessing the sick rabbit trying to get to his home. He was stretched out between two stairs and his body was as delgado as ever. He´d lost so much weight, he looked like a baby rabbit. But then, he tried to hop from one stair to the next, and he couldn't´t make it. This sent him rolling slowly down the 3 stairs he´d just climbed and he landed at the base on his side. Yet he didn't move. He layed on his side, stretched out, for 5 minutes. I patted the ground next to him so see if he´d move, but he wouldn´t. Usually, if I got with in two feet of him, he´d scurry away. Eventually he got up and hopped into my room. But I was not too happy with this. I am not sure what kind of disease this rabbit has, but I don't want him giving it to me. He was hiding in my corner, and after countless attempts to shoo him away with an empty box, I ended up having to call my sister for some help.



Poor conejo is sick as can be. I give him 2 days before we find his lifeless body or begin smelling the stench of yet another dead animal... Poor, poor conejo. RIP.

Its time to shower when those flies are swarming

I wake up this morning to the sound of a mosquito buzzing in my ear. That is the worst sound in the world. I hate it. And I find I have about 6 new bites on my arms that are itching like crazy! I usually do not get bit at night, but I think it was probably the lotion I put on before bed. Thanks mom for sending that. I should probably think about putting up my mosquito net soon.

I could not get back to sleep though. It was 4:00 a.m. I heard this dripping sound in my kitchen. It was only one drip every 4 or 5 seconds and it was annoying the heck out of me. I had no clue what it was, but after investigating it, I find out it was watering dripping into a bucket. It rarely rains here, and last night it started to rain. But only softly. Anyways, the smell was amazing, but that sound I couldnt deal with! The bucket was not full enough so it wasnt water dripping into another bucket of water, it was water dripping onto plastic. So I just decided to put my ipod in and read myself to sleep.

What else is new...I saw my pig get castrated the other day. A vet comes to our house and asks if we need anything, and the next thing I know, he is asking me if I want to watch. I hesitantly say yes. He has the kit with him with all his meds and vet stuff and also a little girl. He says she is his nurse, even though she is only an 8 year old girl who doesnt go to school and wants to learn about animals so she tags along with him when he does jobs. Well the alarming part of this was, she was holding these needles for the vet and running around with them. I know this girl wants to learn, but goodness!

Well the vet first hog tied our chancho to the pole that it sleeps tied to in our backyard. The sound of a pig getting hog tied was horrible to hear! Goodness, it was worst than the actual castration. After he hog-tied it, he gave it one shot, slit open its put with a new razor, then did his thing. Afterwards, he squirted a ton of alcohol up in side the pigs butt and pushed it up in him. Omg, I felt so bad for that poor pig. He also spray painted its butt purple (at least that is what I think that stuff is). The vet said though that we couldnt eat the testicles because the pig was over 6 months old.

And for some reason it is bad to eat them if they are older than that. I also asked why he was castrating our pig and he said it was bad to sacrifice a pig unless it wasnt. Dont know why, but okay! My mom told me yesterday we were going to kill the pig today so we can eat em, I told to let me know when so I could watch.

Dia de los Muertos

Yesterday was Dia de los Muertos. On this day, everyone goes to the cemetery at night, brings flowers, lights candles, and sleeps until the morning at the tombs of their loved ones. It was really beautiful. People build forts around their graves in order to get some privacy and to block the wind. There were probably about 50 forts in all. Our cemetery was built on top of this hill, on the sand, that overlooks my town. Some of the bodies are in tombs that are on top of the ground, and some buried in the ground with only a wooden cross marking the spot. You had to be careful walking around because it was dark and very easy to trip over the crosses. We walked around for a bit just observing everyone. The ritual is to light candles, some people brought pictures, and sit around with your family and pay respects.

For the most part, the adults were paying respects and the kids were being kids, running around treating it like a party. They do not really understand and appreciate the importance of the day. There were also a few men drinking, but not very many. That was good to see. Sometimes it seems like the men just have this culture of drinking, and their values do not stem too far from that. Many days that’s all they’ll do, drink. Drink from sunrise to sunset.

Well my sister and I arrived at 9:30 p.m. There were many circus like tents set up selling coffee and sandwiches, and also other stands selling hamburgers and french fires. It was kind of like a carnival, minus the rides. So we walked around for about 3 hours, and then I start to get tired. My body was tired and I was sleepy. Rocio told me like 30 minutes earlier that we would walk around for a little bit longer and then leave. She had also told me the day before we would not stay night. So I was not expecting to stay the night. Well when I am tired, I being to get crabby. I told Rocio I was sleepy and she said ¨oh, just sleep here¨ pointing to the tomb her whole family had gathered around. Now I would not have a problem sleeping there, but she had already told me we were not spending the night. Rocio is cool because she understands I want to experience their culture, but I cannot spend hours upon hours at events like these. So this irritated me a little. I said no, I don’t want to sleep here and she asked why. But she knew why.

I had enjoyed the night, and usually I do not like being out late. But I realized it was an important day in their culture and I wanted to experience it with them. Maybe I am in the wrong for not spending the entire duration of the event with everyone. I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s normal for me to be like this or if I am just not emerging myself as much into their culture as I should. I mean when they have town fiestas, I usually go. But only for an hour or two. When there are quinceneras, I usually go, but only for an hour or two. We will stay until about midnight and then I will say I am ready to go. These events will last until 4:00 to 5:00 a.m. and if I don’t say I am ready to go, we will be there until at least 3:00 a.m. I feel bad sometimes that I get tired of being at these events because that also means I get crabby and don’t like to talk as much. I do not like to stay up all night at these town functions. I am not Peruvian. This is not my idea of fun. That sounds a lot harsher than what I mean. I want to go to these things, but I cannot go as long as they do. They do it because it’s their culture; they have been doing it their whole lives. I wonder if they realize it’s difficult for me and that I am trying. I don’t know. I don’t think this is something I am ever going to get used to and think is fun to do. This is not my culture. There is only so much I can do. Should I feel bad, should I feel as if I should be integrating more into the community and culture and stop being selfish?

Dia de los Muertos

Yesterday was Dia de los Muertos. On this day, everyone goes to the cemetery at night, brings flowers, lights candles, and sleeps until the morning at the tombs of their loved ones. It was really beautiful. People build forts around their graves in order to get some privacy and to block the wind. There were probably about 50 forts in all. Our cemetery was built on top of this hill, on the sand, that overlooks my town. Some of the bodies are in tombs that are on top of the ground, and some buried in the ground with only a wooden cross marking the spot. You had to be careful walking around because it was dark and very easy to trip over the crosses. We walked around for a bit just observing everyone. The ritual is to light candles, some people brought pictures, and sit around with your family and pay respects.

For the most part, the adults were paying respects and the kids were being kids, running around treating it like a party. They do not really understand and appreciate the importance of the day. There were also a few men drinking, but not very many. That was good to see. Sometimes it seems like the men just have this culture of drinking, and their values do not stem too far from that. Many days that’s all they’ll do, drink. Drink from sunrise to sunset.

Well my sister and I arrived at 9:30 p.m. There were many circus like tents set up selling coffee and sandwiches, and also other stands selling hamburgers and french fires. It was kind of like a carnival, minus the rides. So we walked around for about 3 hours, and then I start to get tired. My body was tired and I was sleepy. Rocio told me like 30 minutes earlier that we would walk around for a little bit longer and then leave. She had also told me the day before we would not stay night. So I was not expecting to stay the night. Well when I am tired, I being to get crabby. I told Rocio I was sleepy and she said ¨oh, just sleep here¨ pointing to the tomb her whole family had gathered around. Now I would not have a problem sleeping there, but she had already told me we were not spending the night. Rocio is cool because she understands I want to experience their culture, but I cannot spend hours upon hours at events like these. So this irritated me a little. I said no, I don’t want to sleep here and she asked why. But she knew why.

I had enjoyed the night, and usually I do not like being out late. But I realized it was an important day in their culture and I wanted to experience it with them. Maybe I am in the wrong for not spending the entire duration of the event with everyone. I don’t know. I don’t know if it’s normal for me to be like this or if I am just not emerging myself as much into their culture as I should. I mean when they have town fiestas, I usually go. But only for an hour or two. When there are quinceneras, I usually go, but only for an hour or two. We will stay until about midnight and then I will say I am ready to go. These events will last until 4:00 to 5:00 a.m. and if I don’t say I am ready to go, we will be there until at least 3:00 a.m. I feel bad sometimes that I get tired of being at these events because that also means I get crabby and don’t like to talk as much. I do not like to stay up all night at these town functions. I am not Peruvian. This is not my idea of fun. That sounds a lot harsher than what I mean. I want to go to these things, but I cannot go as long as they do. They do it because it’s their culture; they have been doing it their whole lives. I wonder if they realize it’s difficult for me and that I am trying. I don’t know. I don’t think this is something I am ever going to get used to and think is fun to do. This is not my culture. There is only so much I can do. Should I feel bad, should I feel as if I should be integrating more into the community and culture and stop being selfish?