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Published: June 29th 2015
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There’s all sorts of things being sold by the street. Clothes, second hand shoes, meat on a stick (haven’t dared to try yet) and all the fruits and veggies they have here. People walk around with it all, you can literally sit on the side of the road and your entire grocery list will probably pass by. There’s these things I love made with banana and doe, puck sized, pancake like and they come in packs of 5 for like 25¢. I’m going to get a whole bunch before I leave to bring back to Montreal for whoever who comes to visit me to try :P.
Girls listen up! You know what they do with the skinny model mannequins here? They put a hanger at the hip length to make the hips look bigger cause big hips are sexy! Actually, two different nice old ladies at the community have told me I have good legs. Think they are saying I’m ready to bare children!
* * *
So we are officially on our own as of this week. Laura the vet coordinator has left and we are independently managing the project now! Scary and exciting at the same
time, we’re super motivated to get things done! We will be alone until the last week that I am here, where Dr. Claire Card (an amazing super veterinarian, and the VWB Uganda project manager) will be joining to carry on the paravet refresher training and the goat pass-on). With the pioneer training coming up, we have had a lot of work to do, like designing a presentation and a training manual to print bind and translate to give to all our students (I guess I can call them that)! And at the same time we are trying to get to as many communities as we could to get the most testing and vaccinating done.
* * *
The pioneer training finally arrived on the Thursday. We organized everything from making posters, to hiring one of the women from villages to make snacks and lunch for everyone. We also had two of our super paravets come to give a small talk about their experience and how this project has affected them, where they started and where they are now and I think that was very motivating. That was followed by Brittany explaining the main project goals, the revolving fund,
and the roles of each member. I proceeded to explain everything they needed to know about the goat pass-on and how to properly take care of their goats. Finally Sarah gave a quick lesson on goat husbandry and what they will need to start. We gave them a tour of a couple of successful enclosures including Josephs and asked them to tell us what works and what doesn't. They were a really enthusiastic and engaged group and it seemed like they really wanted to learn. I’m super happy with how it turned out and super proud of us. It ran smoothly and I think we really got this new group excited and interested in investing their time and efforts into the project, which is key for it to succeed.
* * *
So we’re taking this acro yoga thing pretty seriously, and Sarah is our official teacher. Apparently it’s big in Montreal and if you want to get a certification to teach in Canada, MTL is the only place you can do it. But I looked it up and there’s none in the west so maybe I’ll get the cert and open a half vet clinic half acroyoga
studio. Could totally work. You can come get Fluffy’s annual check up and stay in shape all at the same place! Already have some slogans ready:
“Vaccinate for rabies, with the yogis”
“Test for brucella, while you do some yoga”
“Kitty cats and updogs”
“Get rid of fleas and ticks, and come learn some acro yoga tricks”
“Check up for your bunny, while you lose your tummy”
“Birth the calves, get some abs”
“Tuna and bones, flag and seated thrones”.
Okay I’m going to stop lol, was having too much fun with this.
* * *
There’s a mosc right in back of the University aka pretty close to my room and they play extremely loud mosc music for what seems like all night. I haven’t found a pattern yet but it will literally be playing at 11pm before I go to sleep, will wake me up around 3, 4 or 5am sometimes and will also be playing in the morning when I get up. It’s really really loud. Sounds like an old man chanting. So that’s fun.
* * *
It’s cool because VWB gets air mile
New friend
This little girl was adorable, she came to sit beside me and hung out the entire meeting just giggling with me. Might bring her home points donated to them every year so plane tickets are basically free except for tax, and cost of living is nothing here (3$ a day for stay and probably more or less 10 $ a day for food). So most the money we raised goes directly to the project costs. Thanks again to everyone who contributed, I’m seeing first hand the differences it has made for people and the opportunities that they have had access to because of the project. Dr. Stiles and everyone at Sherwood Animal Park, Dr. Jean Gauvin, Dr. Odette Girard, Dr. Jim Berry, Iams, Access Driving School, Tara M., my sister Jill and brother in law Wissam, Rola and Joe El hajj, Rola and Hisham El hajj, Mona T., April I., Melanie R., Raphael H., Catherine M., Camille N., Madi A., Marla V., Susanne Louis & Marco CP., my love L-P, Dyana H., Kelly H., Amalia, Louisia S., Hanna, Merad A., Mom and dad, and all the people in my class and school who bought all those brownies! You were all part of the difference!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!
* * *
On Friday we wanted to get a lot done so
we decided to split into two groups and get two big communities done in one full day. Me and sarah went with Joseph on the scooter and Brittany took off with Janet (one of the superparavets) and Shafik (a secondary translator we use sometimes). So on our way, while we’re cruising along a dirt road, minding our own business, this bee gets caught in my ear!!! At least I think it was a bee! I started screaming and by the time the scooter stopped and I got it off, it had taken a chunk of my ear off with it!!!! So that was painful, my first and hopefully last injury in Africa lol. On the bright side, we got both communities done that day.
* * *
So something unexpected happened Friday night. Wanting to reward ourselves for the great work this week, we decided to get a bottle of wine which turned into a bottle of wine and a bottle of rhum, then added some popcorn, banana chips to the mix and watched Amélie (a really cute and quirky movie by the way, a must see for anyone who’s into indie slash beautifully filmed movies, its fun
and original and less Hollywood). By the end of the movie, we were reaally tipsy and didn’t want our night to end so we decided we’d hit up the bar slash club right by our place on top of café ark (that restaurant we always go to). So cheesy enough, the place is called Vegas and blasts English Ugandan hits and Shawn Paul (temperatureeee) all night. Paid 3 bucks for entrance and that covered two drinks. Asked the bartender to make me something strong and good and he just handed me a 205mL of Gilbey’s special dry Gin. I was like okay okay I can work with this. We ended up dancing together all night, had a blast together, ignoring the boys who approached us (some things are the same in every country). We were basically the only white people in the club lol. And just like back home, we had the munchies, so Brittany whipped us up some homemade mac and cheese when we got home which really hit the spot! Ugandan KD, made with noodles, feta and cheddar cheese, yogurt and garlic, we do with what we have!
So that put an end to week
4 of my African adventures. I can check a couple of things off my life list!
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