Kinda Rhymes with Distress

FuWe Dog has begun her first estrus cycle - in the vernacular, she's in heat. The male dogs are lined up outside the fence, and our PUPPY - she's only 6 months old - is hot to get outside to the fun.

Well, shame on us for not having her spayed earlier. Current wisdom is to have them spayed before their first heat because they are less likely to develop certain cancers. It's just not that easy here in Dangriga. The vet is here every other Saturday afternoon. Some people here do not like him, and say that he is not a careful surgeon, so I need to get more information before we visit him. There are occasional free clinics, but I seem to learn about them after the fact. The ones in Hopkins are regular, but it is not practical for me to take her on the bus - especially bringing her BACK after surgery. We need a friend with a car, a GOOD friend.

So needless to say, FuWe is under house arrest for the next three weeks. We are lucky that we have a fence all the way around the yard. People are always going in and out, however, so we must be very careful of the gate. FuWe's mother was inside the closed gate, and a skinny dog got himself through the bars to hook up with her. Voila - FuWe and six other puppies!

Here I am trying to have a heart-to-heart talk with
FuWe Dog, explaining why delaying sex is the
smart thing to do.

On other fronts we are having good luck with the new girls club. Our first meeting had seven girls who joined together in silly games, learned about Garifuna dress, heard the Gipsy Kings and their style of music, danced a couple of Zumba routines, and devoured a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies and almost a gallon of orange juice. To finish up, they created collages from magazines, different papers, ribbons, other media, that told us about themselves. We purposely did not take pictures at the first meeting so the girls would not feel self-conscious (well, MORE self-conscious). 

This Saturday, we will meet at Why Not Island and should have a few more girls in attendance. We had a last minute day change so three of the girls couldn't make it to the meeting. We will make maracas from the calabash fruit, paint it with pictures of Peace and Friendship, and enter them in a national art contest!

I have this calabash at our house so I can experiment with the paints
before the girls start working on them.
FuWe says HI.

We are making progress with the training manual. More attention being given it by the Ministry of Health. Maybe I should say more VISIBLE attention. I think they always knew it was being created, but now they are giving us some real support, including a PERSON.

We got a great care package today from Larry and Jeannie, my brother and sister-in-law. I'm not sure who threw in all the wacky fun things. They both have a terrific sense of humor.

Item I'm most thrilled about - Hair highlighting kit (Do you think it will make me look young again?)
Item that made me laugh the most - Irish Spring soap (They know I hate it)

On our neighbor's roof. We haven't named her yet.

Happy Fourth of July, Everybody!