Animal Thoughts…

2/3/08

Today was the hottest day yet… thank goodness it was Sunday and I largely spent it in the guest house. I’m mastering the art of doing nothing. It’s not that I don’t have stuff to do, it’s more that today, the Sabbath, is a day when I set everything aside and do nothing. I woke up before sunrise feeling rested. The first cock crowed around 5:50 am. Perhaps such sounds seem natural or organic to wake up to, but really, it’s obnoxious. Once they start, hundreds more will be heard throughout the morning from all over the valley. Yesterday morning I found my brain repeating ‘shut the cock up’ over and over again like a mantra. I wanted to ring the neck of the next one I saw!

Animals are simply part of the earth here – part of life. Some of my fellow volunteers have a real proclivity toward them and think they’re really cute. Not me. In fact, I am averse to them. A baby goat came in the living room. My friends all thought the goat was so wonderful, but I begged to differ. He’s cuter outside.

Being here makes me less of an animal rights supporter than I was before. Not that I was concerned terribly much about the issue before, but now I know I’m not. I mean, animals are great and cute, but the people here treat them and use them for their livelihood. Any regulations on how to coral a cow or properly care for a chicken would be taking away a person’s livelihood. I know livestock and Old Mcdonald’s assortment are utilized and processed differently in the US – Farm animals are for industry and feeding millions rather than a family. But I don’t believe the quality of life for an animal is very important. By all means I don’t condone animal abuse or cruelty, but I guess I feel there are more important issues to be concerned about, perhaps more human related like poverty. Speaking of which, I realized yesterday that wrapping my brain around the living conditions and poverty of this area is going to take a long time – I’m glad I have time to think.