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Helping Guatemala

January 18, 2009 2:10 am

Two area women left their local animal-care jobs and headed to Central America in December to join a coordinated program serving native people in and around a small town in Guatemala.

Dr. Meredith Vargas, owner of Culpeper Animal Hospital, and Beth Hamilton, director of the Orange County Animal Shelter, were part of a volunteer effort to bring services to the people and animals of Panajachal, a small town on Lake Atitlan.

Dr. Vargas headed a four-day veterinary clinic that spayed and neutered 88 animals, gave 45 rabies vaccinations and provided varied vet services as needed by the street and domestic animals. In addition, $6,000 in donated supplies was left with the local Mayan Families Healthy Pets program.

Spaying and neutering cats and dogs is not a common practice in small Central American towns and the population of homeless animals is often controlled by placing strychnine where the abandoned dogs and cats will eat it. Children have often eaten the deadly poison, as well.

Vargas and her husband, Juan, a native of Mexico, have owned the veterinary hospital since 2003. They spent five months in Panajachal as foster parents to Nicolas and Rudi before adopting them in 2007. Both children are now 2 years old, but they were not related before they were adopted.

During the process of fostering and adoption, Meredith and Juan became close friends with other adoptive families and have since supported the efforts of the local helping organization, Mayan Families.

Helping Mayan Families was formed as an offshoot of Mayan Families and is supported by the adoptive families who wish to stay connected to each other and the native people of the area.

"Being a part of Helping Mayan Families shows that we're still connected with the country," said Vargas. "We don't think of it as giving back. We are part of a group of adoptive families staying in touch and helping."

Beyond pets

The vet clinic was part of a larger effort put together by the group Helping Mayan Families. During that week in December a medical clinic served 400 patients; 1,000 tamale baskets able to serve 9,600 meals were distributed; and parties for 850 schoolchildren and 25 orphans provided food and gifts. There was even volunteer computer support that will help with the office work and Web sites.

Twenty-six volunteers made the trip to Pana, as it's nicknamed, and arrived on Dec. 6. They were greeted by officials of the Mayan Families organization and the next day worked packing tamale baskets.

Then, Monday through Thursday the individual groups worked at their service projects.

At the vet clinic, Vargas worked with the local veterinarian and seven veterinary students doing spay and neuter surgery on local dogs and cats.

"Our goal was to do 125 spay and neutering surgeries," Vargas said, "but we did 88. In addition we brought pain medications, deworming drugs for people to take home and lots of flea and tick products. People had donated lots and lots."

The vets performed an eight-minute spaying surgery that required only a small incision and a minimal recovery time that allowed the animals to be released quickly.

After surgery all the four-legged patients were under the watchful eyes of other volunteers.

Beth Hamilton, who has headed the animal shelter in Orange County for six years and is known locally for her very successful efforts in animal adoption, worked on the surgical recovery team. She tended to the anesthetized cats and dogs, monitored heart rates, applied bandages and turned her patients to avoid fluid buildups.

"We needed to keep the incisions closed to minimize the risk of infection and avoid post-op complications," she said.

She and other volunteers also gave rabies and antibiotic injections, deworming medications and applied topical flea medications.

"When the animals woke up, in 30 minutes or so, we could release them to their owners," said Hamilton. Street dogs were kept overnight and released the next day.

not all work

When the vet clinic ended Hamilton and her fellow volunteers were able to go sightseeing. Pana is one of many small towns located along the edge of Lake Atitlan and the area is home to three active volcanoes.

On Saturday the group went touring and Hamilton returned with beautiful pictures of the indigenous people's colorful crafts, the luxuriant native plants and flowers and the local sites and scenes.

"We saw monkeys in trees and five of us jammed into a little cart for a ride around a local preserve next to a coffee plantation," she said.

"There was a festival going on and the local church was getting decorated for Christmas," she added. "Tree branches for laid against a large cone-shaped wooden form. When it was finished it served as a Christmas tree."

It was Hamilton's first trip to Central America and she returned with countless pictures and lasting observations.

"The bathrooms were hysterical," she said. "You got your toilet paper before going in, you don't flush and you put the used paper in a bag taped to the wall!

"You don't eat the fish or the meat or the salad and you drink bottled water," she added. "But the guacamole was rather fantastic."

Other local women who accompanied Vargas on her trip were Lena Stock; April Nelson; Kerri Williams; Francine Begli and her step-mother, Gail; Charlotte Butts, Vargas' mother; and Kerry Hilliard.

Robin Knepper: 540/972-5701
Email: rknepper@earthlink.net