So another long day over. Another day of being flexible… Another day of learning that developing a program such as ours is complex.
This morning started off with several gurgling bellies… we went back to wishing Jasmine was cooking. And were grateful for the last minute addition of good quality toilet paper into the supply packs. While food has been available, we are not always sure what we are eating and often wonder later…

The toilet…

This morning we clambered into the 4×4 to head to the first workshop. These workshops are part of Helvetas’ 3 year plan for agricultural improvement in the area. This group has been very active here since 2003, and working on production improvement since 2009. This was one of their education modules (first of 6) for the farmers in a particular zone.
It basically discussed the importance of proper feeding/water/environment, and proper animal choice with regards to successful animal production.

Since this was their first session we simply sat and listened to the discussion, adding in a few suggestions now and then. We had a bit of a downhill hike to get there, which an interesting uphill trek to get back to the truck. We all wished we had the legs of a mountain goat more than once.

Prior to making the trek down

We then came back had a nap and some lunch and another nap before running clinic number two.

Taking a nap

Amanda has become the sheep whisperer… making sure that Jasmine was not a liar when she told the university class that Amanda specialized in exotics animals including sheep. The horses were crazy and numerous…

the cattle were insane and also numerous…

the goats were wimps with their injections… it was a crazy day with almost 160 animals treated in less than 3 hours. We had to stop because it was getting dark and we ran out of medications.

Our last patient was the most stoic horse ever, with a major abscess (and possibly a fractured leg) from a wrangle with a cow horn. He had waited the entire clinic (he was one of Jasmine’s first patients) to be treated since it was going to take so much longer to diagnose. We did a whole diagnostic process on it for our interest, and wound up sending the owner home with oral antibiotics for the horse. Hopefully it works!
We then decided that we should repack boxes, shower and eat… so then we could do a round robin of massages. Unfortunately we all seem to be falling asleep before it’s going to happen!
Hope everyone is doing well!
Lots of love
TRAJ