Greetings from Guatemala!

The last year has been quite a rush and it took me a long time to change the dust on my feet.

Living in the US became as intolerable as stupid online drama and it was easier for me just to cut all domestic ties and move on. Other than familial ties, the only ones I care about are international ones for bettering the human condition. That put this forum squarely in the ball park.

It's been another education living at the other end of gun barrel diplomacy. Nobody here trusts the US, not even the rich people who sell their souls to profit. The poor, away in the countryside, are some of the poorest I've ever seen. There's nothing like seeing slave labor in a sugarcane field to wake you the fuck up again.

Nothing like looking at the calloused feet of a 70-year old woman and remembering in shame US United Fruit and over 200,000 dead for a US-sponsored civil war.

Tomatoes! Tomatoes! Buy your Monsanto tomatoes right here!

I love it here because the people are real but there's so much work to do but I've missed you all and spent a lot of time quietly trying to absorb what people had to say. It worked wonders :) Thank you

Hasta Siempre!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqYHeX0i0NU
(that's me in the video. Ok, just kidding. I wish lol)

And again, please forgive me for just posting away without saying hello. It just felt so much like home I forgot.

Glad to see you again Tinoire!

My partner visited Guatemala around 18 years ago and I think he regrets not staying there. His son was still young though, so he came back to the US. I'm happy to hear you've landed on your feet. :)

Hi Starry! I'm glad to see you too but it's not like I missed you, I had all your posts to keep me warm. Great job on the revolution stuff!

Well if you and your partner ever want to come visit, mi casa es su casa. I've got a veggie garden, chickens, fruit trees, and an avocado tree in the front yard. Bake my own bread, wash my own clothes by hand and they deliver beer, milk, seafood and roses here.

My big regret is not having done this much sooner. It's great living somewhere you want walk to wherever you need to get supplies again.

Yep, yep, grab him and come visit when you want. I'll bribe you with all the paches you can eat ;)

http://www.guate360.com/galeria/data/media/268/Tamal_1_copy.jpg

Hello from California! Hey what's that on your plate? I'm hungry now. Argh!

Glad things are going well, Tin. Got any cool pets down there? My last rescue, older Lab, got kidney disease and passed in February. Got a new one - 11 month old that the owners got from a breeder and couldn't handle when he got to 85 lbs. (that's just the right size for my kids to ride on ... or so they think). He's got some energy but he's a lot of fun.

Hello from California! Hey what's that on your plate? I'm hungry now. Argh!

Hi Le Jacquelope! On the plate? That was a "pache" which is a plateful of heaven on earth. It's a really fine tamale made out of potato dough and stuffed with chicken and a saffron/raisin-infused tomato sauce that takes half a day to make. There's a recipe here: http://simcalena.blogspot.com/2008/12/paches.html I paid someone to teach me how to make them then I realized it was easier to walk around the corner and buy them a few at a time instead ;) Where in California?

Glad things are going well, Tin. Got any cool pets down there? My last rescue, older Lab, got kidney disease and passed in February. Got a new one - 11 month old that the owners got from a breeder and couldn't handle when he got to 85 lbs. (that's just the right size for my kids to ride on ... or so they think). He's got some energy but he's a lot of fun.

Hey TBF! I'm so sorry to hear about your older Lab. It's terrible when they leave us :( I have three permanent dogs now. Two that I adopted from my Guatemalan rescue organization when I was living in CA and my baby's one-eyed mother whom I promised over a year ago to spring from the shelter. Our shelter has around 400 dogs now (and about 200 cats). My job is to socialize all the puppies before we send them to the US or Europe for adoption so the yard is usually crawling with puppies.

If you ever need another puppy, you know where to come ;)

Here are my permanent three 66 67

I'm really liking this software! We can upload pics? How great is that!

Trying to post a picture (looks like no preview option for our posts ...) -

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b348/TexasBoFan/dash.jpg

Awwwww. Too lovable! He looks like a big hunk of slobbering love. From the look of it, he'd get along fine with this little scamp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wl6AooIve4

Trying to post a picture (looks like no preview option for our posts ...) -



Hit "Go Advanced" instead of "Quick Reply". You get a full WYSIWYG editor with "preview".

You also get a spell checker (the button with "ABC" over a checkmark). If you are using Firefox, hitting the button brings up the built-in spell checker. In Microsoft IE, it asks to install IESpell and then uses that from that point forward.

this helps alot. Thanks!

Awwwww. Too lovable! He looks like a big hunk of slobbering love. From the look of it, he'd get along fine with this little scamp
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Wl6AooIve4

Yes - they would dig up the whole yard together!

Yes - they would dig up the whole yard together!

Lol, yes they would indeed! You should see the hole he dug in front of the chicken coop trying to get to KentuckyFC. Thank God he's not too bright and only dug straight down.

TBF, I'm kind of depressed now. The vet down here thinks he might have an autoimmune disorder- her conclusion based on no bloodwork btw. He's under a 2 week regimen and then we'll see. I'm hoping it's an allergic reaction to the whey I so stupidly fed my dogs twice. Or the peanut butter cookies. Something, anything but not this. He's only 2 and a half and holds my heart in his paws.

How do they do this to us? Make us love them so lol.

Hey TBF! I'm so sorry to hear about your older Lab. It's terrible when they leave us :( I have three permanent dogs now. Two that I adopted from my Guatemalan rescue organization when I was living in CA and my baby's one-eyed mother whom I promised over a year ago to spring from the shelter. Our shelter has around 400 dogs now (and about 200 cats). My job is to socialize all the puppies before we send them to the US or Europe for adoption so the yard is usually crawling with puppies.

If you ever need another puppy, you know where to come ;)

Here are my permanent three 66 67

I'm really liking this software! We can upload pics? How great is that!

Hey Tin. Good to see you. I have missed our talks.

I thought you were going to be Red Astrakhan?

TBF, I'm kind of depressed now. The vet down here thinks he might have an autoimmune disorder- her conclusion based on no bloodwork btw. He's under a 2 week regimen and then we'll see. I'm hoping it's an allergic reaction to the whey I so stupidly fed my dogs twice. Or the peanut butter cookies. Something, anything but not this. He's only 2 and a half and holds my heart in his paws.

How do they do this to us? Make us love them so lol.

It's hard to tell without bloodwork. We thought our last Lab had an ulcer until the meds and dietary changes didn't seem to work. At that point we did a full work-up on blood and urinalysis and discovered the kidney disease. Of course we also had no clue how old he was. I hope it's something less severe with your guy - he's so young!

Hey Tin. Good to see you. I have missed our talks.

Hi Mike! Good to see you too. Anytime you want to talk some more, just head on down here. I'd enjoy talking to an intelligent two-legged being who doesn't bark in reply.

Check this out- I'm missing it all but there's always next year:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ySYuhExiFU


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mylio6WSi-s

I got to see two churches last week and here are some pics. What a trip! Chickens, roosters, rabbits, doves, turtles, lizards in a Church beautifully arranged as an offering. The food is for the poor and the animals all get freed on Easter. Something tells me the only safe ones who'll see any real freedom are the doves.

It's hard to tell without bloodwork. We thought our last Lab had an ulcer until the meds and dietary changes didn't seem to work. At that point we did a full work-up on blood and urinalysis and discovered the kidney disease. Of course we also had no clue how old he was. I hope it's something less severe with your guy - he's so young!

A new clinic associated with our rescue organization is opening up here next week and I'm taking my guy in. A wonderful volunteer vet in Michigan donated lab equipment so I'll get his bloodwork done. For the last week he's been on antibiotics and Prednisone (cortisone yuck). He was in great shape when I got home and frisky enough to steal an entire loaf of bread. He's got 6 more days of tapered cortisone treatment left and that coincides nicely with the new clinic's opening. I hope it's nothing serious too- the worrisome thing is the depigmentation on his nose & muzzle. Kidney disease? Poor thing. What do you need to do for that?

Unfortunately for kidney disease the prognosis is usually not good. We did a special low-protein diet and that helped for awhile. Sometimes they do blood transfusions but he had other complications (heart disease) so it seemed like his internal organs were just worn out. He may have been older than the rescue group thought, and he also had heart worm before we adopted him so that may have done some lasting damage. Mostly we just took him for slow walks, played with him, and kept him comfortable until his kidneys stopped functioning completely.

Stealing bread is a good sign though - I'll be thinking of your little guy and hoping for the best for him.