top of page
Search
  • Writer's pictureSebastian Spindler

One Day In Hell




It's midnight in Brazil and 4am in Germany. My alarm clock goes off at this time every day, I wake up and call Dita so she can take her medication, which she has to take every 6 hours a day due to her heart condition. Dita's phone rings, she swipes the call, takes her meds and texts me on Whatsapp to reassure me that she has taken her meds. After that, Dita tries to continue sleeping, as long as the dogs don't make too much noise because it has been raining almost continuously for 4 weeks and all the accommodations at our dog farm are no longer safe and waterproof.




Brazil at 6am (10am in Germany), my alarm goes off for the next medication, I call Dita again until she assures me that she is awake and taking her medication. Dita gets up at 6am. She would at least like to have a cup of coffee, but for that you need firewood, a fire and therefore time. But it's raining, and looking for dry firewood in this circumstance is impossible. It is also not possible to dry the wet dog blankets, the dogs now often sleep on the bare floor.




Brazil at 7am, Dita has to start the day and get the dogs fed today. The paths from the city to our dog sanctuary are muddy and sodden. A neighboring farmer has taken pity on Dita to help a little and brings the dry food for the dogs from the city, as well as something to eat for Dita. However, he also gets stuck in the mud with his car and cannot even reach his own farm by car. The dry food is stuck about 300m away from our dog shelters. We need at least 30kg of dry food every day to feed all dogs once a day. For this, Dita has to go down the mountain - where our dog sanctuary is located - through the rain. She slips already without carrying anything, she sinks into the water-soaked ground with every step, it's like walking on fine sand, except that the rain comes down in torrents from above, she gets wet and it's hardly possible with the dry food to take it back up the mountain and keep it dry. She runs to the stuck car and sometimes takes 2 sacks of dry food and walks back the same way with a weight of 30kg, it is correspondingly harder uphill, with an additional 30kg weight it is hard to imagine.




Brazil 9am, Dita managed to carry the dry food upto our dog shelter. While she was fetching the dog food, she had to leave the dogs unattended. In this time there is sometimes a fight between the dogs. Dita sometimes has to drop the dog food, run up the hill to settle the argument. We cannot take injured dogs to the vet these days, and it is also impossible for the vet to visit our shelter. Settling the dispute, Dita realizes that the decay of our yard and the fence that separates the dogs from each other needs to be repaired somehow. The decision whether to bring the dog food to the top first or to start the repairs is made almost daily by the circumstances.



Brazil 12:00, Dita hasn't eaten yet and I make sure once again that she's taken her medication at least. Sometimes she answers right away, sometimes not because she's busy keeping the dogs in check or fixing something. If she doesn't get in touch within 1 hour, I get nervous and I'm extremely worried. Has something happened to her? Is she injured and unable to make an emergency call? She no longer takes her mobile phone outside, it is her only device with which she can keep in touch with the outside world. If it breaks through rain or falls, it's over.




Brazil 2pm, Dita tries to hang up the dog blankets to dry, but where, when it's raining incessantly and not a single building is waterproof anymore. Especially since the humidity of the rain hangs in the air. Dita tries to fix collapsing fences, fill holes in fence floors, call back runaway dogs...





Brazil 4pm, when things are going well, Dita takes the time to eat if she has groceries. She doesn't come into town and deliveries aren't possible either. She also needs firewood for cooking, and remember that it rains almost consistently every day. I don't know myself how she somehow manages to do it all anyway, at least most of the time. We are about to get a used gas stove and gas bottles to at least make cooking easier for Dita. But even to get these utensils to the dog sanctuary it has to stop raining for minimum 1-2 days.




(Video January 10th 2023: cats warming up themselves in Ditas cooking place)



Brazil 5pm, Dita feeds the dogs, in the rain. There are covered places, but the water is on the ground there too, because it flows everywhere. It takes 2-3 hours until she has taken care of all the dogs and cats, immediately after that she starts to “lock up” the dogs for the night as well.




(Video January 4th 2023: rain, rain, rain...)



Brazil 6 p.m., Dita has to take her medication again and I get confirmation that she has done so. Otherwise she would often forget. The connection is bad and my messages are not arriving. I'm worried, has something bad happened? Is she still alive? Did she maybe fall? Does she have problems getting the dogs ready for the night's sleep? The power-supply also often goes off, when that happens it often takes up to a week for the power to flow again. At least for these cases, thanks to the large donation from Mr.Steels Dartbar, we have bought an emergency power generator. I ordered this in Brazil and had it delivered to Dita's father. But he also didn't come to the dog shelter in his 4X4 Ford Ranger last Wednesday, impossible. He had to take the device back to town.




Brazil 9pm, Dita hasn't done all the work the farm has to do, but she needs to rest or she'll collapse from exhaustion. Dita goes to sleep without showering, sometimes for days. She doesn't manage to do everything she needs to do on her own. Dita is the strongest woman I will ever know. There is no stronger woman, and no stronger man. What Dita is doing is admirable, but desperately needs your support. Nobody can keep this up alone forever. That's why my plans here in Germany are changing, I can't say exactly to what extent, but I have to make it possible to be in Brazil for a longer period of time as soon as possible to help Dita on site. Maybe Thomas from Lower Saxony will come along. He is very committed to help us, both with donations and with the willingness to fly with me to the dog sanctuary in Brazil.




Brazil at midnight, I call Dita again, wake her up to remind her to take her medication. Then the time and sequence loop starts all over again. It's been like this for over 3 weeks now. My calls to wake her up for medication is going since 2years now. Something has to happen, we have to change something with your support. We have to support a strong person. Being strong never means you don't need help. And in this case, it is extremely important to support a strong person to stay strong while defying circumstances that none of us could endure for even a day!




The worst thing for me is sitting here in Germany, working, and not being able to be there to help Dita. And what makes the whole situation even worse for me is the fact that here (although I haven't had a TV since 2012) I get the news almost every day, read posts about how people are committed to protecting or promoting something that is not a livelihood at all. People seek support for parties, clubs or whatever... Lives that are about to collapse are less interesting than things, objects or anything material. I actually don't wish the situation we are in with our kennel, let alone the situation in which Dita finds herself. But in order to focus on the essentials again, it would be good to be able to see some people in this situation and see them react.



(Video January 2nd 2023: storm in our dog shelter)



To end this blog on a positive note, I would like to thank the new donors Andrea G., Bea B. and Erik D.! You don't believe how good it is to get some support during this difficult time and we are infinitely grateful for it, even if the current situation threatens to quickly tear us out of this feeling. But be sure, we ARE infinitely grateful for your and every other support!!!


Donation-Link:


written January 15th | 2023

3 views

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page