Come and See

I happily report to you that I've accomplished two of the goals I mentioned in my last post: 1) I've changed my work schedule to allow for more effective lesson planning and social time, and 2) I've started volunteering at a refuge for street dogs here in Xela, Asociación Amigo Fiel. Actually, I think it may be the only one in the city, not to say that we couldn't use about twenty more of them here. My homeless canine neighbors have been on my mind since I arrived to Guate-- a somewhat unwanted memory from my month-long stay here in 2010. Consistent with this memory, the street dogs (chuchitos) hold their posts in the parks, both in and outside of the street markets, and on claimed sidewalk corners. And when you walk on those sidewalks, they pass you by, often swerving sideways to create more space between you and them, occasionally glancing up to meet your eyes. Some live in packs and clearly look to one dog as the group's leader, and others appear to be loners. It's just as easy to tell when a female dog is in heat; she jogs down the street with several male dogs following in her wake. All of them are thinner than your average american Sparky, with the exception of those who are pregnant or whose stomachs are swollen for disease-related reasons you don't want to think about. To put it another way, upon returning home, all of them would be showered with exclamations of "Why, you're nothing but skin and bones! Let me fix you something good to eat." Yes, this is what people would say..that is, if these pups had homes to which they could return. 

I don't paint this grotesque, Sarah McLachlan raise-funds-for-the-animals-TV commercial picture to have you pity them because, honestly, they already have plenty of that. Love, not pity, is what they need. As much as we crave a way to change this reality, they crave our love. It hasn't taken me long to realize that the volunteers who spend time at the shelter cleaning up after, playing with, and feeding the dogs understand this two-fold desire. To really internalize the conviction to fight for change, you have to know the beneficiaries. You have to scratch their ears, clean up their poop, and refill the water bucket they've dirtied for the fifth time with their muddy paws. It's like any other passion-developing process: you have to "come and see," in the words of Mother Theresa. Certainly not everyone feels called to go and witness the same tragedies, and they could not possibly be expected to. Really, there are too many good causes in our world for us to know about and stand by them all. But I hope that sharing my first impressions with you now, as well as other thoughts on this in the future, teaches you something new and reminds you of why you have the passions that you do. Many of you have shared stories with me about projects in which you've been involved, things you've seen that have touched your hearts. I'm inspired by it all, but I can't possibly give of myself to each and every one of those causes. That's okay, though, because it doesn't matter who's doing the giving..it just matters that someone is.