You've got to visit La Bocana. It's this crazy little Peruvian village perched on the sand dunes next to the Pacific ocean, several hours south of Mancora. The whole places looks like it has been blown in with the plastic bag garbage, & one more puff of wind will send the village plunging into the sea.
Yet people CHOOSE to live in this village without mod cons such as electricity, water, sewerage, telephone, transport, preferring instead their goats & donkeys, the pounding of the sea & that ever present wind. Pueblo Nuevo is only an hour away by horse & cart, & the locals there are bemused as to why anyone would WANT to live in La Bocana. They laugh & chastise their backyard neighbours.
We had to bargain hard to get a car to take us to La Bocana. Volunteer Charly eventually convinces a friend to take us in his decrepid wreck of a car, manufactured before brand names existed. One beat up jeep but better than walking. Still cost 20 soles!
I love driving throught the chakras (farmland) to get to La Bocana. Horses pulling ploughs to cultivate the fields for maize...no tractors here! Farmers bent over digging up camote (sweet potato) to sell for 5 soles ($2 oz) a sack. Back breaking work for a pittance. The farmers grumble & moan about the prices to anyone that will listen. Curse the new government, curse the old government!!
Of course, when we get to La Bocana none of the 'officials' or 'professors' that had begged us to come & PLEASE treat the animals are there. A fairly typical occurrence in Peru....god forbid that anyone ever turns up on time, or are where they have arranged to be.
Our jovial taxi driver knocks on doors until that illusive key is founds so that we have a site to set up our mobile clinic. Its hot, dusty, & dirty but we get to work creating a usable space.
A scruffy collection of kids respond to the announcement over the PA system (something that all Peruvian villages have) & run forth dragging reluctant half starved mangy dogs on pieces of string. Doesn't anyone go to school?? Cats are carried in arms, their tails fluffing up at the site of so many canine foe, & the occasional cat makes a break for it, scratching its owner as it streaks out the door. Kids scream & run after the now terrified cat as it darts for home. Chaos it is, no matter how hard I try to maintain order.
Some of the kids that bring their dogs are so young they don't even know their own names, or the dogs... And of course, they have no idea that we are injecting the dog to treat worms, mange, or ticks. But they still come.
And what a bonus when I split open a watermelon & everyone gets a juicy sweet slice.
It is wonderful that the kids care enough for their animals to bring them to us for treatment. Every minute of our time is about educating the kids, "be kind to animals, have respect for animals". Some of the kids are very violent towards their pets, kicking, punching, yelling if they don't behave. I wonder if they get the same treatment from their parents at home. Education really is the way forward.
Soon the donkeys & horses turn up for vaccination against tetanus & rabies, & de worming. Some of these creatures are in pitiful conditon & I pray that the dewormer helps. The odd horse is wild & dangerous, & Cesar needs to apply a lip twitch to divert its attention, as I quickly inject the vaccination into its neck muscle.
At the end of the day; 25 horses/donkeys, & 55 cats/dogs have been treated, & we arrange to go back in 2 weeks to surgically sterilise animals.
Many kids just hang out with Maria Luisa, Cesar & I all day...chatting, laughing, helping. They take Maria & I for a walk down their beach, clutching our hands & pulling us to walk faster, filling my pockets to overflowing with sea shells & other precious treasures.
We find 3 dead & decaying sea lions corpses on the beach. Most likely slaughtered by fisherman because they believe that the sea lions are responsible for declining catches of fish...."its called OVER FISHING you idiots". It makes me feel so so sad, but our director Rosemary Gordon's words ring in my ears yet again..."its all about educating the kids Beth, only through education will the people change". I knows she's right but sometimes I feel like I am beating my head against a brick wall...thud, thud, thud...
Fortunately tomorrow is another new day.
