We rolled in on Tuesday in our cars. I came with 4 new volunteers, and some old timers who drove us there. There were a lot of people there, many of whom I began training with. It was great to reconnect with people as well as get to know the ‘new ones’, of whom at least a quarter of the camp was part of only 2 weeks ago.
To my relief, I came back to learn that Riley was no longer part of our community. After waiting for the Fire Department to remove him, we got hold of a friend called RJ who lives in the area and is an expert at snake removal. Riley was taken away from us, and dumped off in another part of the desert where he will hopefully keep his slithering and hissing and tail rattling to other animal life. Hopefully also migrants, Border Patrol and other people traveling through the desert will not run into him.
However, the campground is still full of snakes and where Riley used to lie and hiss and rattle at everyone passing by, there was a new one. More on Rudy later, and how he met a tragic end. For every rattlesnake you see in the desert there are an estimated 10 or so that you don’t. The Fire Department and RJ do remove snakes, but they say “if you call us everytime you have a snake in the area we’ll stop coming”. Rattlesnakes are an unavoidable part of desert life, and one just has to be careful and hope for the best. While rattlesnakes are venomous and can be deadly, they fear people more than we fear them and don’t go out of their way to hunt us down. Still, it is possible to accidentally step on one and many have innocently done that. Others yet have been bitten because of sheer stupidity. One of our volunteers knows of people who have had a drink too many and got too close. Reportedly some memorable things people have said before being bitten include things like “Hey, watch this” and “Hold my beer, dude”. Fortunately alcohol is not allowed at camp.
Another important tidbit of information I learned, a good way to tell if you are being dehydrated. May sound weird and kind of disgusting, but good to know. Basically, the thing to do is observe your urine. If you are getting enough water in a desert environment, you should be having go at least 4 times a day. Also, your urine should be of a clear or near clear colour. If you are peeing yellow, that is okay but it means you need to be drinking more water. If it is brown that is definitely not good and you should see someone for medical help.
I am looking forward to these next 8 days.
S., one of our new volunteers. In addition to being super cool, he also teaches at a university and knows cars really well.
This cool little trailer stores some of our camp "goodies" like snack bars and powerade powder, as well as is one of the places people who do not have tents can sleep. It is called Destiny's Child, which I think is pretty creative and hilarious.
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