FBC Missions

Winston Arblaster: July 4, 2007

Today was our day off. In light of our American holiday, Dan and Daryl decided that the 4th would be a good day to spend just on ourselves. After breakfast we were scheduled to visit La Cancha, our main activity for the day, to do some personal shopping. La Cancha is South America´s largest open-air market, spanning nearly 100 city blocks. It is made up of a seemingly innumerable amount of private vendors, each having a small stall with which to sell their product. The market sells almost anything you could think of from clothes, furniture, bicycles, electronics, food, or even live animals. Dan and Daryl arrived with three other English-speaking friends to act as guides for the team. We all split into groups of two, each with a guide. Tony and I were paired with Dan, who being very familiar with the market informed us of the dangers that awaited us there. La Cancha, being highly populated, is notorious for pick-pockets and some zones of the market are more dangerous than others. Dan, in about 2 hours, only showed us a small fraction of the whole, but in that time we saw artisan shops displaying musical instruments, taylors of suits, a meat market, an aisle dedicated to witchcraft (or natural medicine), and all the other ammenities described above. When Dan showed us the section with the live animals, I saw chickens, guinea pigs, ducks, parrots, and rabbits. Dan said that sometimes they sell monkeys even though they are technically illegal to sell. I convinced myself that I would buy a monkey if they had one, but there were no monkeys to be found. Tony and I purchased a few seuvenirs for ourselves walked back to the Batist Union.

A few hours later, some other team members informed me that they saw some monkeys. Soon after, Tony, Ty, and I caught a bus back to La Cancha and found the monkeys which we had missed the first time through. Tied up and sitting on a cage, was a tiny little monkey. I asked the vendor how much he was selling the monkey for and he said that it cost 180 Bolivianos (roughly $25). I bought the monkey. The little guy is about the size of a squirrel and only a month old. I picked him up and he immediately grabbed onto my shirt with his little hands and buried his face into my chest. He sat on my shoulder until we found a cage for him and then we walked home with him. I named him El Mono (Spanish for, ¨The Monkey¨) I did some research tonight and found out that he is a Black-capped squirrel monkey native to Bolivia. Squirrel monkeys live in trees and are usually part of large monkey families. These means that El Mono was very lonely. I realize that purchasing a monkey in a third world country was not a good idea (who knows what kind of diseases El Mono has), but I couldn´t resist. Tomorrow we have some free time and I would like to take El Mono to a vet to get him checked out. If he sick, I want to make him well again. After only having him for six hours I am very attached to the little monkey and am very sad that I can´t take him home with me. The CDC has very strict policies on importing primates. Johnny has said that he would like to take El Mono when we leave. Johnny is a very nice guy and will give him a home far nicer than the one he had at La Cancha.

In the evening the team had an American dinner on American flag plates back at Dan and Daryl´s. We had foot-long hot dogs, hamburgers, and baked beans. After the delicious meal Ty led us in worship and Dan led us in a powerful service focusing on the Eucharist. We broke the bread before the meal and after the service we drank and reflected on the meaning of Jesus sacrifice and resurrection. The whole evening became one unifying Eucharistic meal. Afterwards, we celebrated the day with some fireworks which frightened both Heather and El Mono, but amazed Benji (Dan and Daryl´s son) who saw some of the biggest fireworks of his life. Altogether, shopping, eating, fireworks, communion, and a baby monkey made for a pretty spectacular 4th of July.

Please pray for the health El Mono and myself that I don´t contract AIDS or any other dangerous disease in the next few days.

-Winston

UPDATE ON EL MONO:

Heather, Cara, and I scoured the city looking for a vet who would look at El Mono, but because of strict laws against the treatment of primates, no vets were will wanting to look at him or even give us advice.  We walked around the city with El Mono for what seemed like hours going from vet to vet.  After receiving a tip from the third vet, we took a taxi over to the other side of the city to our fourth vet who said he would look at him.
For negligible sum, I was able to pay for El Mono to get some medicine.  With Cara translating, the vet informed me that the monkey was sick and had been malnourished and mistreated.  He was 6-7 months old and remarkably underweight.  We got the monkey the shots and medicine he needed and took the taxi home.
Later, Cara and I were able to get in contact with an Bolivian animal rescue organization who were willing nurse the monkey back to health before releasing him back into the jungle in a wildlife park.  A few hours later, a representative from the organization came by to pick El Mono.  It was a sad parting, but I felt really good that El Mono was going to be taken care of and eventually taken back to his home in the jungle.  Thus happily ends a saga of a neglected disenfranchised monkey.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 at 8:53 pm and is filed under Bolivia 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.