Okay more like Para-vets but you get the point (well maybe not yet but you will once you finish reading). Today we had a celebration to officially pass out the veterinary kits, certificates, dairy goats and the new car from Veterinarians Without Borders. It was a really, really long day starting and 6 am and go-go-going until 9 pm. It was a lot of work to organise such an event in the village and of course had its interesting moments (come on it's Uganda...things don't happen "uneventfully"). My first task was to take the truck and pick up the tent, as shocking as it may seem (I firmly state I was not the last to use the truck) it had no fuel and no battery. It took me pushing it a good 500 meters and sweating profusely to realise that maybe there was no fuel. After getting fuel the truck still seemed unaware of my urgency to get going and still refused to start. I ended up asking some random guy on the street if he knew anything about mechanics. He quickly lifted the hood removed some pipes, sucked a ton of gas into his mouth (yes into his mouth) spit it out all over some engine parts and voila...the truck started. People here are so much more resourceful than I will ever be. We then took off to the tent place where the tent was waiting for us and was a little bigger than expected....we used what ropes we could find and strapped it down and then drove over the lovely roads here. I was merely waiting for a disaster to happen. The only thing that happened was me trying to drive under a tree and ramming that tall post right into the trunk of the tree....that'll stop you pretty darn fast!
The actual trek to the village was uneventful and we successfully dropped the tent at the location. It was then time to pick up 80 chairs and pile them in the back of the truck.
You might think...wow that's a tall stack of chairs on your truck, didn't they fall out? Of course they fell out....I mean really, can you stack chairs that high then drive on these roads and expect them to stay? Certainly not. Ha ha ha.
I then left a few people to set up while I went and picked up some of the ladies and once again I filled my truck to the brim....with people. They sang the whole way and it was really fun (eventhough I could see the tires bulging under all the weight). Don't forget the 9 of us in the cab.
We eventually arrived despite me being sure that someone was going to fall out of the truck and die. The ceremony was great and I have never really seen these people so happy. During the lunch break while we waited for the guest honour to arrive we broke out into some dancing, they thought it was hilarious to see a muzungo try and dance like them. In the afternoon we presented each trainee with a kit, certificate and a working apron.
We then also officially passed out the dairy goats and the car.
The day ended with me loading up the car again and listening to the women sing about how great life is and what faith they have in God (at least that what someone translated it to me as). I had an amazing day and eventhough I am now really tired and really broke I feel, like a million bucks!
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