|
|
 |
|
|
| Veterinary Aid project in Mdumbi, South Africa |
 |
Gday, I recently got back from 3 weeks in
South Africa where I was working on a
veterinary aid project(and surfing ;-) )
organized by my saffa friend Jackie de
Villiers. I was in a rural community/village
called Mdumbi in the Transkei, Eastern cape,
between Durban and East London. The Transkei
was one of the original independant homeland
areas from the apartheid regime and as a
result is dirt poor. 68% of the population
live under the poverty line, the employment
rate is 8% and the HIV rate about 40%.
The area is known as the "Wild coast" and is
remote and beautiful. We were hosted by
Mdumbi backpackers hostel, in their round mud
huts with thatch roofs (rondavels)which are
typical of the area. It's 20km north of
Coffee Bay (which is on the "backpacker
trail") along a washed out gravel road which
takes at least 1/2 hour to drive in a 4wd.
The huts are set amongst rolling green hills
and overlook the Mdumbi river mouth and
associated beaches. At night you could hear
the waves crashing into the rocks and
beaches. From the lookout tower you can check
the waves rolling along the awesome right
hand break and over toward the river mouth. I
hadn't surfed in 4 years and this was the
perfect place to get back into it. The waves
were well formed,long and forgiving, allowing
me to regularly catch rides of over 100m.
These awesome waves were to be shared with
only a few people staying in the hostel and
the Dolphins which were everywhere and
surrounded me on the
board on one occasion. On my last morning,
at sunrise, I saw a pod of at least 50
dolphins, I shit you not, cruising north,
jumping and catching waves. (I was sitting on
the point at the time- not surfing- so I got
some nice video footage of them. Marine life
was abundant so of course there are sharks,
but they are very well fed and never stoop to
eating people. There has never been a
reported shark attack in Mdumbi.
On the vetinary (DAMN, i can never spell that
word) side of things, it was a complete
success.With 3 vets working out of a tin
shack with a 40watt light bulb and with
donated drugs and intruments, we desexed 65
dogs and treated 165 for ticks, fleas, worms
+ vaccinated for rabies, distemper.... and
stuff. It was challenging working under this
sort of pressure/conditions/equipment and I
am a better surgeon for it. On the first day
Darren and I desexed 21 dogs. After visiting
the local school the day before we opened,
when I returned to the hostel from sunrise at
the point, there were about 15 kids waiting
at the front of the hostel with their dogs
(and it was pleasing to see 2 well chilled
cats too). We didnt have the resources for
much after care so when the dogs were awake
enough to walk after the surgery, they
staggered out of the padded recovery area and
walked home!! Ive never done these sort of
operations without gaseous anaesthesia (we
only had
xylazine, ketamine and thiopentone -which
are fairly primitive drugs) yet we didn't
have anaesthetic deaths- very important when
trying to win the confidence of a community
who didnt even know doctors for animals
existed. these are tough dogs. natural
selection ensured the weak ones died out a
long time ago.
In a kraal built in a day we treated over 400
cattle for internal and external parasites,
and castrated about 10 bulls. We also
castrated about 10 horses and treated
shedloads for ticks, flies and worms.
We also treat a number of people- the most
memorable of which were a man with machete
wounds in his head, a boy with injuries
sustained after falling out of a bakkie, and
a guy with a huge abscess on his chin.
What we did was but a drop in the ocean, but
did make a big difference to the community.
We left heaps of drugs and equipment with the
staff of the backpackers who we trained to
continue with animal health programmes. This
was a pilot study and Jackie intends to make
this a yearly project and has big plans for
the future, with the intention of expanding
to surrounding areas. We had a film crew and
journalist there this year and with that
coverage and the success of this years
mission, sponsorship should be more
forthcoming in the future. Jackie is an
organizational genius and my hat goes off to
her.
For me, it was an amazing and rewarding 3
weeks, in a beautiful area, catching
beautiful waves, making a difference in an
impoverished area and meeting some amazing
people. This is a truly wonderful part of the
world, i will be back here- on the way back
to oz from UK at the end of next year I'm
going to spend 6 weeks in south africa- a
good part of which will be spent hiking along
this part of the coast. The Wild Coast.
Tags : south africa mdumbi vet tony nahrung transkei |
|
Affichage : 1183
Durée : 488 s |
| Shannon.AVI |
 |
Activists in the Dallas Fort Worth area of
Texas gathered on November 22, 2008, outside
Dr. Benjamin's vetinary office in Plano to
protest his association with PetLand,
America's number one customer of puppy mills.
Tags : Benjamin Vet Protest Demo Plano Puppy Mills Pets Petland |
|
Affichage : 0
Durée : 47 s |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
