January 22 & 23 - J.E.E.P fundraiser & Family arrives

January 22 was spent preparing for the arrival of Meagan and Lyndon and for the big Jaltemba Equine Education Project (J.E.E.P) fundraiser.

January 23, I went to J.E.E.P. with other friends from the park at noon to volunteer to work at the fundraiser.  We set out the silent auction, T-shirt sales, set tables, managed animals, etc to get ready for the arrival of several hundred guests.  Luckily the food was all done by Los Compadres restaurant who donated it and served it.  Lily and I worked the T-shirt and liquor ticket sales from 2:00 to 6:00, called cabs for people (through the cabbie I use to get to J.E.E.P. on Saturdays), and helped clean up.  One cat got a home.  In the middle of all this prep, someone brought in 5 newborn kittens all the way from Sayulita so George the guy who runs J.E.E.P and owns Los Compadres actually drove out to find milk for them.  The event was a great success and everyone had a fantastic time.

The Cora indians beaded the skull of one of the original horses that were brought in starving many years ago when J.E.E.P was formed.   The animal has to have died naturally and you must have permission from the chief to have the skull beaded.  The Cora call themselves náayerite (plural; náayeri singular), whence the name of the present day Mexican state of Nayarit. This skull was auctioned to raise funds to support J.E.E.P.

Shadow's skull beaded by Cora Indian

Horses the kids would ride in races.  

Kids racing in front of stabled horses they represent

 There were horse races with the local kids racing.  Each horse represented one of the live horses in the stable.  Horse and rider were auctioned and the buyer whose horse won got half of the pot.  There was also betting on the horses.

Selling T-shirts and hats, my line was "make a 200 peso donation and get a free shirt or hat!  Hey it worked!

Spanish dancers

Clean up time, horses looking on from their stalls.  Tables had been set up in the horse arena.

Around 9:00 p.m. Meagan and Lyndon arrived in the park!  We rented 2 nights in a large 5th wheel (much fancier than our abode) in the park and then they move into a room in Rincon.