Not all who wander are lost: The adventures of Barbara, Chelita, and Chiquita

Tuesday, 4-13-11

Just a short blog to talk about how my bird family is doing (short blog as in not much writing but lots of pictures).

Barbara the duck has been getting along well with the two newer members of the family. She is the first and oldest bird. She joined the Pastoral Team back in January and is named after a delegate in Iowa. She has her own guacal (plastic tub) with her name on it where she enjoys taking baths. She does a great job of keeping the yard “trimmed” so we haven’t had to cut it for quite a while (we typically use a cuma or machete to cut the grass). She eventually became tame enough to eat out of our hands. Sometimes she likes to nibble on my fingertips. Barbara used to enjoy going in and out of Kathy’s office to say hello. But due to the large amount of duck poo on the floor Kathy put up a little barrier. Barbara now stands guard at her door during the night. Since Kathy has been gone but her office door has been open Barbara is able to venture inside whenever she wishes. I haven’t found any “surprises” yet in the office but whose knows what the future holds.

Chelita the chicken has matured into a nice, young lady. Chelita was originally given to me in early March as a present when we were at a store purchasing fertilizer in Mercedes Umaña. She is named after me (my nickname, Chelita, means “little, light-skinned one”). She used to spend her time inside because the ladies at the house we worried that Barbara would try to peck her (apparently she had killed a turtle this way). I’d take her outside and supervisor her playtime. From the start she thought I was her mom and has since followed me around the yard. She soon learned to escape from her box and I moved her into a large guacal. Then she learned how to escape from the guacal but only did so when she heard me walk by it. We constructed a little fence in the yard for her when she got bigger. One day she escaped and we discovered that the duck was not going to peck at her. In fact, Chelita started chasing Barbara around the yard. It went on like this for several weeks but they are now friends. I’ve even seen them sharing the same water and food dishes at times.

Chenita the half moon conure, whose nickname is la Chiquita (little one), was also given to me as a gift. She came from the canton of Santa Cruz in late March when we visited to deliver water tanks to the community. For the first couple days she lived in a guacal that has holes in it that we use to air dry our dishes. Then we went to the market and now she has a beautiful cage. During the day she sits outside but at night she sleeps in my room so the stray cats don’t get her. Though she is a type of conure that’s native to this area and known for eating fruit and seeds, Chiquita refuses to eat either. We’ve tried mangos, apples, jocotes, and bananas. All she wants to eat is tortillas. Although I love her dearly Chiquita continues to be a badly behaved bird at times. She likes to dump out her the water from her water dish as soon as I put it in her cage. Today she dumped it out and all the water landed on Chelita. However, she has learned how to give kisses. And very recently she has enjoyed sitting on head and cleaning my hair.

The three are a wonderful bird family and I love that we have some pets at the Pastoral House. Hopefully the two newer ladies will behave themselves when delegations visit and continue to be friends. They are the three musketeers! Los tres mosqueteros!