Bitter sweet ending

This is our farewell blog entry. SO much has happened in the last few weeks of our project, but unfortunately we had no electricity for a long period of time and had to conserve our computer time for report writing, etc.

We have all left Mbarara: Hershel and Rocky are in Tanzania right now and I am currently in Kampala. It is so strange to be away from our ‘home’ for the past 2 months. We had a wonderful time there and I am so sad to be leaving my friends back in Mbarara.

The last weekend was so good: we spent some time preparing to give out goats, and Leanne and Laura started giving out goats. We were also fortunate that Hilda was able to organize some children from the parishes to come and we gave them some clothes, shoes, frisbees and letters from children in Canada. It was incredible: no matter what size of shoe we gave a child to try on, they said it fit immediately, even if it was obviously too large or too small. They were also very excited to play with the Frisbees and were keen to write letters back to the kids in Canada. I think it was a wonderful experience.

We also finished up working with the paravets, having the supertrainers meet some of our partners in town and do a training session at NARO. They were excited, as was I, about partnering with an organization that they could share information with, and do training sessions with in the future when we leave.

I also spoke with Dr. Lagu Charles, the vet at NARO, and he advised me that in the future we should make sure that we talk to the paravets and beneficiaries first before we start a project. He suggested that we ask them how it can be sustainable and how they will carry on the work after we leave, so that they take some ownership of the work. Otherwise, he said that they would think it is the mzungu’s work and nothing would be done after we leave. I think we emphasized this to the paravets, but that it is a key point to pass on to future Vets Without Borders volunteers.

Lastly, in the past few weeks we have experienced Ugandan generosity and hospitality. We were invited to several places for dinner, mostly at the paravets, and they made so much delicious food. And it was very special food, as we were served meat which most people eat once a week, if that. On top of that, they all had gifts for us. It was so touching, and I was moved by their formal speeches to wish us farewell.

It is beyond words how much the people here have touched our lives. We all have such good memories to take away with us, and aspirations to keep in contact and possibly return, hopefully soon, to see everyone again.

Bitter sweet ending

This is our farewell blog entry. SO much has happened in the last few weeks of our project, but unfortunately we had no electricity for a long period of time and had to conserve our computer time for report writing, etc.

We have all left Mbarara: Hershel and Rocky are in Tanzania right now and I am currently in Kampala. It is so strange to be away from our ‘home’ for the past 2 months. We had a wonderful time there and I am so sad to be leaving my friends back in Mbarara.

The last weekend was so good: we spent some time preparing to give out goats, and Leanne and Laura started giving out goats. We were also fortunate that Hilda was able to organize some children from the parishes to come and we gave them some clothes, shoes, frisbees and letters from children in Canada. It was incredible: no matter what size of shoe we gave a child to try on, they said it fit immediately, even if it was obviously too large or too small. They were also very excited to play with the Frisbees and were keen to write letters back to the kids in Canada. I think it was a wonderful experience.

We also finished up working with the paravets, having the supertrainers meet some of our partners in town and do a training session at NARO. They were excited, as was I, about partnering with an organization that they could share information with, and do training sessions with in the future when we leave.

I also spoke with Dr. Lagu Charles, the vet at NARO, and he advised me that in the future we should make sure that we talk to the paravets and beneficiaries first before we start a project. He suggested that we ask them how it can be sustainable and how they will carry on the work after we leave, so that they take some ownership of the work. Otherwise, he said that they would think it is the mzungu’s work and nothing would be done after we leave. I think we emphasized this to the paravets, but that it is a key point to pass on to future Vets Without Borders volunteers.

Lastly, in the past few weeks we have experienced Ugandan generosity and hospitality. We were invited to several places for dinner, mostly at the paravets, and they made so much delicious food. And it was very special food, as we were served meat which most people eat once a week, if that. On top of that, they all had gifts for us. It was so touching, and I was moved by their formal speeches to wish us farewell.

It is beyond words how much the people here have touched our lives. We all have such good memories to take away with us, and aspirations to keep in contact and possibly return, hopefully soon, to see everyone again.

Retrospections

Today we essentially finished our contribution to the clostridial vaccination as the second (booster) round is done. In addition to vaccinating, we have been taking blood samples for Brucellosis testing and distributing seeds. Each beneficiary received a mixed package of fruit and vegetable seeds including, cabbage, carrot, dodo, tomato, swiss chard, and papaya. We also handed out two species of forage trees for goats, to improve future feeding… Funny how human health and animal health is almost identical… You get out what you put in.

Today, we tackled one of the largest parishes and went around in three separate teams even though we only had 2 vets. One of the paravets was so competent last time, that we sent that one out alone to complete some vaccinations. This paravet is HIV positive and hasn’t been well lately. When I asked that paravet how s/he was feeling, a “comme ci comme ca” impression was given. Minutes later, we went to the local drug store where one of our beneficiaries was flat out on an IV quinine drip for malaria and very ill. All around us are reasons why people don’t live to the ripe old age of 70 something that Canadians enjoy. Instead, here, survival is a challenge physically, mentally and biologically. Impermance is a reality that we all must come to accept at some point in our lives, whether we are religious or not.

Francis and I finished our section early and went to his birthplace (in Kasaana where we were) where a “give away” party was being cleaned up. A bride was given away as property, as they have been for a long time. I sat down with the locals in Francis’ uncle’s house and greeted them in Runyankore and they thought I could speak their language briefly. After eating some cow’s hoof and matoke, discussions broke out. One young man asked me for a job and I told him that I could provide no job, but one idea is to get his hands on a device that can squeeze the juice out of sugar cane… Coca cola seems to be the only one capitalizing on that here and now. Then, I asked the men (women busy working) about their thoughts on drinking goat’s milk, as I knew this was a touchy topic. Some laughed, but after the young man, which I’d previously discussed it with went off listing reasons, they listened quietly in a drunken daze. Some benefits of having dairy goats are that people on small farms (most Ugandans) can raise a dairy goat with their land’s productivity whereas, they couldn’t a cow. Goats can handle dry conditions better and can eat a wider variety of food… The milk is just as nutritious as cows’ milk and they are easier/safer to handle. As I mentioned, these men were drunk and likely contribute little to the farm most days. It seems overwhelmingly true that in general, the women do the work here. Of course, there are exceptions.

Nemesis Overpopulation

Yesterday in Kitooha I was driving some of our paravets towards the next beneficiaries house and I asked them some questions to gain an understanding of the local mentality. I asked, “What do you think will happen if each woman continues to have 10 children each?” They replied that everyone would be more impoverished. I then asked how many children they each want to have and their answer was as many as possible. Francis described the Kasaana parish to me as it was when he was a child, as a jungle with few people and buildings in good shape . Now the landscape is dominated by matoke plantations and grass hilltops for grazing. Essentially, the only standing trees are for fruits or fire. What is the carrying capacity of this land and what future do these people have if their goals are to have as many children as possible?

They described how a man will leave a woman for another if she doesn’t produce many, many children. There are many underlying social norms that drive the culture here and only as we finish our time here are we beginning to understand the complexity.

Vets Without Borders with Hilda (Ugandan), Global Vets and of course Max the dog at FAOC.

Grim days

This morning I began to realize that everything is not really how you perceive it. I was running along the road, with the word mzungu ringing in my ears wherever I went. And usually when I am running during the week I see children walking to school, and they smile so widely when I greet them in the local language. Some of them even run alongside me, laughing because everything us mzungus do is strange. Of course they are not out of breath as I usually am running up the hills, and they are usually running in their bare feet!
This morning, however, I saw many people, unsmiling, and several of them who had disabilities and some who did not seem to be mentally present. I noticed the tattered clothes and worn condition of the children’s outfits. It seemed that all the negative aspects of the living conditions were highlighted to me this morning. They were probably there before I just didn’t notice it!
My friend here in Uganda asked me if I would really like to know everything that goes on in Uganda. We are here, only for a short period of time really, and we have seen only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many undertones of every day life that we are not aware of. I had to think when he asked me that question. Do we really want to know what’s going on, or do we want to see things from a personal perspective of how they should be?
It seems as though each day your outlook on life determines what you see. If you are in a positive frame of mind, everything seems to be right with the world, and when you are in a negative frame of mind you find a lack of hope in the world.
Often times we have the feeling that we work and work and still we see no results. But if you think this way, you will give up and not pursue further action. When we are running our training sessions, even if one beneficiary gets something out of it, I think we are making a change. We have to start somewhere.
Compared to home, things happen a lot slower here, but we must not underestimate the impact we are having, although having a realistic perspective is also key. It is the same as at home; you are not going to change people’s minds and attitudes overnight, it takes a lot of convincing and good solid evidence before they will change their management practices.

The Goat Train

One of the objectives of our project is to identify people and their families who will be next in line to receive goats, and then provide goats to them. So far mostly local meat goat breeds have been distributed. Last week 16 of these local meat goats were given out to 8 beneficiaries.

We have also been trying to identify beneficiaries that want and have the capacity to care for dairy goats, which require more intensive management. Milk from dairy goats can provide much needed dietary supplementation for children, women, and immunocomprimised or HIV positive individuals. When well managed dairy goats can be used to produce wealth for beneficiaries when extra milk not consumed by the family is sold or via selling dairy goat offspring, which command a higher market value than meat goats. In our parishes, there is a stigma against drinking goat’s milk (versus cow’s milk) mostly because it is largely a novel concept for most people in Uganda. For different reasons, dairy goat introductions to the parishes have been met with challenges and varying degrees of success. Some beneficiaries have simply not been managing the animals well – feeding them improperly, failing to keep them zero-grazed (bringing all their food to their pens to reduce disease acquired during grazing), or failing to keep breeding records or failing to even breed them at all.

Just as beneficiaries have been selected to receive goats, the paravets that we are training have been selected by their communities to help them manage their goats into the future. Like the beneficiaries, the paravets are community members, but in addition to receiving goats themselves they are also trained in livestock husbandry and then equipped with tools to manage their own goats as well as those of their community. Beneficiaries and paravets are often widowed parents, usually mothers or grandmothers, often with orphan children. Many of the paravets are widowed as a result of AIDS and some are HIV positive themselves.

One HIV positive paravet recently stepped down from her position as she was too busy with other pursuits. The other day I paid her farm a visit to inspect the dairy goat that she was given. In most cases dairy goats given out to beneficiaries have not yet been producing any milk either because they have been too poorly managed, are simply not being bred, or are still not mature enough to produce milk. This dairy goat was a welcomed successful exception. The paravet had been taking excellent records of her goat. Five months earlier her goat kidded a healthy male and has been producing milk ever since. She kept daily record of morning and evening milkings that showed that during the first few months between 2-5 litres of milk a day was being collected. Not only was this milk an important supplement to her own diet, but also for her many children.

It has become evident that despite all our efforts here with our Ugandan goat project only a little of what we accomplish may actually be sustained into the future. But it is stories like that of the paravet above that give a glimmer of hope that what is being established here by our efforts, from those before us, and by those that will come to contribute in the future, will continue to provide benefit to the local communities long after we are gone.

Pig training day with Purinari, Hilda, and company.
Dancing with the beneficiaries after training session in Kyera.
Goat pass-out ceremony.

week 5

This week we had a lot of fun! Things have been moving along well, but it still feels like we have a mountain of tasks to tackle. On Monday, I went to Kaberebere to seek out some goats to give to beneficiaries. It was more of a wild goat chase, but still fun to be out in the field working with our co-workers Joseph and Hilda. I also worked with the global vets girls on a silage project. They worked all day chopping grass by hand, and at the end of the day I, Hilda and Joseph spent about 3 hours helping them. We chopping napier grass with a machete on a tree trunk into ¼” pieces and we only filled less than a quarter of the silage pit with chopped napier grass. I felt like it was a lost cause, but the girls filled me with ambition and hope.
On Tuesday, we had training on how to manage dairy goats in the morning, and then a celebration for the day of the African child in the afternoon. Three schools participated and we had some speeches, the kids sang some sad songs about losing loved ones to AIDS, then we had some fun games at the end. I organized a relay race where the children put on two articles of baggy, adult clothes, and had to carry an egg on a spoon to the end and back, then switch with their teammate until all four team members were finished. They were shrieking with excitement and it was hard to keep them under control.
Wednesday, Rocky and I spent the day in town while Hersh did the dirty work in the field. We got supplies, did some brucella testing of the goats we were to buy for the beneficiaries, and visited our friend Godwin, a principal of a local primary school.
Thursday we did meat goat training in the Kyera parish. It was also a rewarding experience, as the beneficiaries had a lot of knowledge and we had a lot of fun doing skits for them, and interacting with them. The ladies sang and played the drums after we arrived, and were waiting for everyone to show up. In Africa, you set the time to start as 9am, and some people don’t even show up until 11am! It is amusing and also difficult when you are planning an event. We gave out two meat goats each to 8 beneficiaries in the Kyera district, the newest addition to the project. They were so grateful and we had a ceremony where formal speeches were made, we said a few words to the women, and as is tradition, we participated in some dancing and singing. We met a very smart boy (man) of 21 years old who knows a lot and can speak many languages: in addition to many Ugandan languages he knows French, and he knows English better than I do. He taught me a few sayings including ‘be good to your friends on the way up, because you will meet them again on your way down’.
On Friday I spent the day with Innocent and Purinari in Nyamuyanja looking at pigs with them. It was also very rewarding to work with the paravets as they had no previous training in pig medicine. I am looking forward to the next week and to find out what adventures/challenges we will meet.