A Planting We Will Go....

Last week 4 veterinary students from the WCVM arrived here at FAOC to help for 10 days. We had plenty of hard labour planned for them but not all of it has worked out (shocking in Uganda I know). We were able to go out planting though which turned out to be a great day. Our main goal was really to show the women how effective group work can be in reducing time and hopefully can also build relationships. We went to my new favourite village called Nyamuanja. We planted Lab-lab, Leucena and Calliandra which are all good for goats and pigs and are relatively drought resistant (let's hope or else these blisters were worthless). We travelled around to a total of 29 homes digging, watering and soughing seeds.

The highlight of my day was when the women were singing as we moved from house to house. At one point they just all stopped and one woman played the jerri-can like a bongo drum and a small little old woman danced like nobody's business. I was so happy to have had my video camera and got some great video of them singing and dancing. Unfortunately I didn't get to take any snaps of the actual dancing but even just walking behind them, listening to them sing is something that can't really be described. They sing with such feeling and so effortlessly that you just have to smile, take in the moment, and cry ...uhhh I mean SIGH (seriously who could cry at something like that?).

The women were extremely gracious and sent us on our way with paypayas, avocadoes, tomatoes and sugar cane. There is no doubt about it that this was a "Feel Good" day.

Kids....Part 2

So since my first posting on kids was a huge hit I thought I would go for it again. Some of these kids have touched my life in ways you could never imagine possible. When I look through my pictures some of these kids seem to appear almost every second day. Most of these faces I will never forget (especially because I now have pictures as well). So here is the second installment on kids….

Jumper

This is one of the cutest kids I have seen. He was so rambunctious that I had a really hard time photographing him and even with the 10 minutes and 15 pictures I was still unable to get a good one. He kind of reminds me of Eyore from Winnie the Pooh (without the “ho-hum” attitude of course).

Alexander

Okay technically he isn’t a kid but he is really small and besides you can’t resist his curly locks which he is covered in but I particularly like his forelock! Plus if you see the way he interacts with his owner you could almost swear he was a dog. Really quite a character this one is!

Mr. Goat 2008

This has to be one of the most photogenic goats in history. Not only do I have about 15 pictures of him on different occasions but when I was recently on Facebook I noticed that another volunteer from this organization (who was here last year) also has pictures of him.

Weary

This goat cracks me up…..he was really into his food and really scared of me. Everytime I went near him he wanted to run away but his food was just a little too tasty so he would carefully watch me and keep his head just far enough away to be out of my reach.

Monkey

This goat as well as all goats love banana peels so much you would think they are monkeys. This little one was the first one to give me the demonstration of their love for bananas which also include head-butting one another and playing tug-o-war with the peel. I was tempted to try one myself but just couldn’t get there.

Reverse Dalmation

There are loads of these reverse dalmation goats and they always catch my eye. Unfortunately it always seems that they aren’t in our project so I don’t get the chance to take pictures of them. This was not only in our project but also very angry at me that I was not allowing him to be with his mother which was pretty funny (okay that sounded really mean…..I was trying to treat him, besides he was too old to be with his mother anyway).

Whitey

There is something kind of mesmerizing about a pure white goat (maybe I’ve been dealing with just goats for a little too long?). These two were just dying to have their picture taken as you can see from the almost smile on the mother’s face (seriously).

And my number one favourite goat in Uganda is...

HAPPY

This little girl was born about 6 hours ago and I can't begin to describe how "happy" I am that she is here. You see her father is a really sick dairy buck (the first one here in the project) who I wasn't sure was breeding...today I told Reagan that I was sad as all I really wanted to do is see a dairy baby as I wanted to see what the crosses would look like. Today as I was driving through the village this little girl stopped me and says "Doctor, doctor come and see what your Canada (that's his name) has produced." I was ecstatic that I went running to see this baby. I found its owner there proud as could be and she says..."Dr. Kent...it's a girl....I am going to have milk!" I gave her a HUGE hug and told her that I couldn't be happier. She then asked me to name her....the obvious choice was Happy. On top of all that she really is one of the cutest kids I have seen in Uganda.

Ok sorry…I just had to do a post on the other kind of kids here. Kids and kids (goat and human variety) can cause some serious confusion and usually some laughter. Various phrases can be super funny if you assume the wrong kind of kid. For example:

“Is she the one who left her kid outside all night in the rain?” – Goat kid

“She was the one with the kid that hung itself” – Goat kid

“That kid loves to eat pork.” – Human kid

“She shares her bed with her kid.” – Goat kid (yeah you read that right….see how it could get confusing?)

Nonetheless, kids and kids still amuse me on a regular basis. I can’t wait to get back to Canada and have some kids of my own (you be the judge on what kind of kid I am referring to there).

Let the waterworks begin...

So this morningwhile taking tea Mama Jane asked me when it was that I was going back to Canada. I looked at her calendar and pointed telling her "Today is the 13th and I will be leaving Mbarara on the 29th." She looked shocked and then immediately turned her face from me and covered it up. I was unsure what was going on and then her daughters told me that she was ceting because she doesn't want me to go. I then asked her please not to cry. She told me she knew it was bad to cry but that she couldn't help it. She then told me that last night there was this old man who had seen me on the street and I had gone and had a chat with him like I always do and then he had come into the tea room crying. He was telling her that he loved seeing me in town when he was on his bike as I would wave with such excitement to see him. It is hard to believe what an effect you can have on people. I always just think of my influence here in terms of the women that I work with giving goats, drugs or advice. But when you are in this situation there is no telling how big your sphere of influence really is. My days are numbered here in Mbarara (16 after today) and as I try and see all the people I want to see, buy all the crafts and souvenirs I want to buy I find it hard to believe that in all likelihood I will never return to Uganda (or not at least for a really long time). I guess I just need to live in the moment and not focus on the fact that "this may be the last time I do ______ or see this person". In all aspects of life I try to live in the moment but this will be a big challenge. As long as others don't cry I should be alright.....yeah right who am I kidding? It is only a matter of time before I bawl my eyes out everyday....I just hope there are no cameras around for that!

Happy Mother's Day

I thought I would take this opportunity to introduce you to some of my favourite mothers in Uganda. As I have said before, I try not to pick favourites but sometimes you just can't help it.

Janet

Janet is likely one of my favourite people not to mention my favourite mother in Uganda. She also has my favourite kids in Uganda. She is one of the hardest working ladies you could possibly meet. Not only is she a widow but also a goat farmer, grows matooke, has a garden, has a shop, made some beautiful handcrafts for my mother and now is a para-vet. She never fails to amaze me and always acts as though she hasn't seen me in ages. I will truly miss this woman and her family.

Mama Jane

Mama Jane owns the tea room and calls me her son. As her son she has no problems scolding me for some of my various activities. Which include hanging out on the "Wrong side of the trading centre strip", dancing, and of course watching movies (I know I live such a wild life). But she loves to see me and always tries to feed me some more food so that I can get fat.

Boney

Boney knows essentially no English but I love seeing her as she has the greatest smile and is just such a beautiful person. I can see by the way that she interacts with her children what a great mother she is and what a great job she has done in raising them. Her children make me laigh and have really good English. They had heard that I slept in their village one night and now request that I sleep at their house for one night before I leave. I really hope I get the opportunity as I know it will be really fun.

Chairperson

When I first arrived here in Uganda Susan would only refer to herself as the Chairperson of "Expectant Mother's Uganda". She was "very satisfied" (or full of food) she would always tell me as in Uganda telling people you are pregnant jinxes the baby and you certainly never tell anyone your due date. She worked like she wasn't even pregnant up until the day she popped out Kentina. Yep you read it right they have called their little girl Kentina (maybe after me? who knows? ha ha ha). When they asked what the female form of Kent was I quickly replied.... "Kentina?" The name has stuck and I suppose that is some of the reason why I love Susan so much. But she really is a great lady and she always gives me a deal on tomatoes or carrots, or tries to cook for me. Well now that you habe met Susan you should probably meet Kentina while you are at it.

Of course my own mother remains my favourite mother in the whole world but I have just limited this list to Africa. Hope you had a great day Mom and also all you other mothers out there!

Officially Doctors...

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!

Scrambled, Fried, or Poached...

If you come to my house I will ask you how you want your eggs and then go to my hen house and get some fresh eggs. I have actually had chickens for quite some time now but I have been a little embarassed of them. Well maybe not embarassed of them per se but more of my inability to get eggs from these darn things. You see we started out with two chickens when I arrived here. Hilda had 5 and remained with two....one male one female. She told me that she had got them when they were just chicks and and they were now at least one year old and still hadn't laid a single egg. Me being a vet could see the problems and instantly set out to fix them. #1 - There was no place for chickens to lay eggs, so I made a nest box out of cardboard - easy. #2 - They weren't being fed very often nor were they being chicken feed....just left over Matooke, bananas, rice, etc., so I bought some layer's ration - a $3 solution. #3 - There was no perch for the chickens to sleep on, I found an old stick and secured it about 3 feet off the ground in the hen house - I am such a genius! I awoke the very next morning with the desire for....ahhh let's make it scrambled today. I eagerly went to the hen house to find that they had decided to perch on the nest box leaving all the recently eaten food on top, removed all the nest material and had managed to knock down the new perch. I reached inside the box to find....more of the digested chicken feed. Ok, no big deal let's give them a couple more days. In the following days I heard many sounds of mating and found scattered feathers to prove it so was sure that I would soon be finding eggs. Well about a month in I decided I needed to purchase a laying hen. The new hen came to me strapped to the back of a bicycle for a whopping $4. She was really big and I was sure that soon eggs would arrive. I cleaned the house and nest box, put lots of laying hen ration in the feeder then put the new hen in (and listened to the fighting for a day). The next day I came to the hen house, opened the door and out came the new hen flying like a crazy chicken. She was quickly named C.C. (Crazy Chicken). From left to right you can see C.C., Todd (I don't really know why I called him that...I think because he twitches a lot which is kind of like a nod?) he is almost as crazy as C.C.and finally Helen who is the smartest, calmest, friendliest chicken Uganda has ever seen. She greets me every morning and it isn't uncommon to find her in the house searching for food.

So with time I assumed C.C. would lay some eggs or at least convince Helen to lay eggs. It seemed it was going to take some convincing. I tried buying eggs and putting them in the nest, I bought a new cage to give more sunlight, I brought them local plant that some woman told me was good for egg laying and still NO EGGS!

All the time I was getting more and more frustrated, everytime I go to the village I see these hens who have no cage, no food, no water, no nothing....well except for the clutch of chicks they have following behind them. Grrrr. I had pretty much given up on getting eggs from these darn things before I left here until the other day. You see I had told some friends that before I left we would slaughter one of my chickens and we would have a feast. Turns out that I have become a little too attached to Helen, I still think that someday C.C. might lay eggs and Todd, eventhough I don't like him, without him there is NO chance of getting chicks (which is really what getting eggs was all about for me). With the price of chickens steadily increasing I thought that I would buy two hens now and save them for when I leave. Turns out that the price already has gone up and I only took enough to the market to buy one.

The new hen REALLY caused a raucous in the hen house and I honestly thought I might wake up to a dead chicken in the morning. Much to my surprise I woke up to.....AN EGG!

I was sooo happy I literally started to jump around and dance. I can't for sure say that it is from the new hen but I can assume it was her (I know what assuming does so spare me the saying...ha ha ha) and for obvious reasons she has now been called Eggnes (Agnes). As of today I have 3 eggs and with any luckI might have a chick before the time I leave.

For those of you wondering why the chicken that was given to me in the village hasn't been included in my story it is because he was a rooster who Todd chased away on day 2 of his time with me. Yesterday I went on a rooster hunt to the neighbouring houses but I failed to find him, but if Dan asks you about him....just tell him he was really tasty!

Uganda Welcomes Dr. Lillian and Dr. Stella

However they may be better known as Dr. Leanne McDonald and Dr. Sarah Stewart. "Stella" and "Lillian" arrived here on Wednesday (they finished on Friday from WCVM and flew here Monday...crazy girls). They came with loads of lab supplies, books, and a big bag of candy for me...is it wrong that I have almost eaten $7.00 worth of 5 cent candies in 3 days? No? GOOD! We have been out in the field for 2 days and they quickly were given new names. A lot of English names are not used here so after telling them your name a couple times they end up changing it to something they know. So Leanne quickly became "Lillian" and Sarah is "Stella"...funny thing is when we introduced Sarah as Stella this one man said "Ohhhh Sarah, nice name!" ha ha ha! You can't win. They actually don't call me Kent either. If I introduce myself as Kent they will say "Pardon me?" then I say Kent again...still nothing. Then if I repeat once more they will sometimes say "Ohhhh Kenty!". Then I say yeah sure. So I have just resorted to trying Kent once and if they ask again I just say my name is Kenty. The funny thing about the word Kenty is that it is the word for a cow. Works out okay for me....they are one of my favourite animals afterall and I have pretty much dedicted my life to saving theirs. So to all you people who call me Kenty in Canada you will be happy to know that I am still Kenty here in Uganda.

Since "Stella" and "Lillian" have arrived we have been busy taking fecal and blood samples in the field.

We then take them back to the lab an analyse them. We haven't made any amazing discoveries yet but we are working on a database relating some of the values which be more useful in developing some treatment regimes. It has been really nice to have some more Muzungos around and I know that my one month with them will be really productive.

Of course it isn't all work. We've taken a little time to tour around town with them and of course snack on some of the amazing fresh fruits as well. Here is "Lillian" enjoying a fresh paypaya we were given by one of the women as a thanks for her dairy goat.

It also seems that "Stella's" extremely long hair has been a huge hit at "Tim Horton's" here in Uganda. I thought they liked to touch and brush my hair but my celebrity status has certainly declined since "Stella" arrived on the scene.