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Published: August 18th 2007
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The End Of The Road
The journey home begins in the Jakarta International Airport Well, I hate to admit it, but this long strange trip is finally at its end. I'll be waking up in a few hours so I can get in a taxi and arrive at the Bangkok airport by 4am in order to catch my flight home (via San Francisco). The last three months have gone by in a flash, but have left me with memories that will last a lifetime. Here's a brief update on what I've been up to for my final few weeks abroad:
The drive from the Jakarta International Airport to the neighbouring city of Bogor was a little like wading through soup; hot, humid and smoggy enough to completely cloak the outline of Jakarta in a dense fog.
After a couple hours in gridlocked traffic, we arrived in Bogor, Western Java, at the offices of the Center for Indonesian Veterinary Analytical Studies (CIVAS). The office consisted of a converted house in suburban Bogor and would serve as our home for the next two weeks. The people at CIVAS, which is the only veterinary NGO based in Indonesia, were extremely hospitable host and made us feel right at home, save the fact we had to shower
Chicks, Chicks and More Chicks
Chicks on a Sector I (i.e. industrialized) poultry breeding farm in the Sukabumi region of Indonesia using a bucket and that we were encouraged to eat everything (including rice) with our hands.
CIVAS is dedicated to improving the health and welfare of human beings through the improvement of animal health, animal welfare and food safety of animal origin. The organization has strong leadership, but is made up primarily from a group of relatively young Indonesian veterinarians. During our stay with them we visited many farms in the nearby Sukabumi region. Some of the farms were large, commercial and industrialized, in basic principle not unlike those from North America, but others were nothing but a few chickens in someone's backyard. We helped collect blood samples that would be used to analyze titer levels for a vaccination trial, and spoke with representatives from the KEPRAKS organization that are focused on making the village farming systems sustainable in the face of economic and disease related challenges. We also had the opportunity to visit a busy small animal clinic in Jakarta while we were in the area.
At one point, my travel mate Jessica got quite sick (E. coli poisoning, apparently) and was hospitalized for a few days. A few liters of IV fluids and some antibiotics later
Blood Collection
Laetitia draws a sample from a duck on a small holder farm to monitor titer levels for Avian Influenza vaccine trials she was feeling much better, but unfortunately was not well enough to make our 3 day trip to the Kediri Regency in Eastern Java. Laetitia and I kept on trucking and spent a memorable few days with a group of students from Airlangga University who were in the midst of a field course. Accommodation was a little rustic there and I ended up spending my nights on the floor of the common room along with 25 other male students. This wouldn't have been so bad, but we had the misfortune of being located in close proximity to one of the loudspeakers that punctually started blaring Islamic prayer music at 4:30am. Needless to say, not the best sleeps I've had in my life. Going to the bathroom was also fun, and required that we cross a small dirt yard strewn with banana trees and clothes lines before passing through the neighbour's smoke filled kitchen. Many of the bathrooms in Indonesia do not have flush toilets, and require that you use a bucket to scoop water from a small reservoir and pour it down the toilet. This bathroom was no exception, but had the added bonus of no running water (i.e. the
small reservoir usually filled by a tap had to be filled from the well) and the reservoir had a couple resident fish which were supposed to make quick work of any mosquito larva that tried to take hold. While we were in Kediri we had the opportunity to vaccinate some chickens against avian influenza during a nighttime mission and to do "keswan" in the local village, which consisted of visiting many small farms, doing brief exams on cattle and goats, and administering minor treatments.
After completing our stint in Indonesia, I whiled away my last couple of days on Bangkok's Khao San Road, a mecca for Backpackers in SE Asia. Just enough time in town to visit the Grand Palace, do some shopping, watch a little Muay Thai and write this blog. But that time is up now, so I will leave you here. Thanks very much for following along with this blog over the last few months. I can't wait to get home so I can see you all in person and show you the other 1,000s of photos I've taken! Until then...
Mike
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