Volunteering to help animals that desperately need help is the dream of many. So is the idea of traveling around the world full-time.
Few people get to experience either one, let alone both. But Jamie Davy and Jess Bercovici have made a point to combine the two whenever they can. Jess has a degree in anthropology with a background in Mesoamerican archaeology, while Jamie spent a year volunteer teaching in Honduras — so it made perfect sense that a recent five-month jaunt took them through Mexico and Central America where they backpacked, visited Mayan ruins and volunteered for a couple of weeks at a time.
They blogged about their trip at Adventures of Cloud People, and devoted numerous posts to the time they spent at Animal Aware in Sumpango, Guatemala, about an hour from Antigua. The shelter is run by Xenii Nielsen, who helped found Animal Aware in 1998, and her husband, Martin Leadbitter. Guatemala is one of the poorest countries in Central America, and the shelter’s 300 dogs and almost 100 cats are rescued from harsh lives on the streets in a culture that readily abandons them when they become sick or a hassle to feed.
Jamie describes a typical day: “With almost three hundred dogs at the shelter, 90 percent of the work that has to be done is simply, cleaning,” he says. “We also took Los Locos — a/k/a The Crazies — for a walk.” Los Locos are five dogs that don’t mix too well with the others and are full of energy, so we took them along a path far from where the calmer dogs were walked.
“Then we’d head over to the clinic to see who and what needed to be cleaned and feed the animals there,” he continued. “Each day varied slightly and the weather dictated how much and what type of work could be done. It was rainy season while we were there and the downpours were ruining the roads, so we spent days digging and clearing out trenches. Another day we covered all the cat perches so they’d be easier to clean. We also spent an entire afternoon taking heaps of trash to the dump. Lastly, we also devoted quite a bit of time to photographing and filming the animals for donation purposes.”
Jamie realizes that not everyone can take time out of their lives to volunteer at a shelter in another country, but he says there are plenty of things people can do in their own backyards. “Education is one of the most important aspects of stopping animal abuse, and I hope that our actions inspire others to heighten awareness in their own communities,” he says.
Jamie and Jess fully intend to combine their love of travel with volunteering the next time they return to the road. “Traveling is essentially a pretty selfish endeavor where you’re constantly asking yourself what are you going to see or do today, so to take a moment out from your journey to give something back, however small, helps put a bit of balance back in the equation,” he adds. “We’ve also found it’s a great way to maintain focus on the important things in life when we’re back home.”
Photos by Jamie Davy.