Friday, October 12, 2012

Oct. 6 - Veterinary Theater in Kongoli


Another busy day for Liz and Julie.  They had a huge audience today as there was no school.  It got pretty hectic with 20+ patients and twice as many people all crowding around the surgery table at any given time.  We treated 31 patients today, 14 of which were spays and neuters.  There were more to do but we told them to come back tomorrow afternoon after church.  The animals came with various forms of ‘collars’ and ‘leashes’ including ropes, wire, plastic bags and pieces of clothing.  Most of the cats came in feed sacks but one came with a leash made of fabric strips and was tied to its box carrier.  It spent quite a while calmly sitting in or beside its box but then it decided to go for a walk.  The box followed.  So it went faster.  Still the box chased it so it finally ran up a tree, cardboard box and all!  Quite a sight!  Fortunately the owner grabbed the box before it went too high and pulled the frightened cat out of the tree.

Ugandans must be among the most patient people in the world.  Some of them waited 8 hours for us to work on their dogs and some who waited almost that long were told they needed to come back tomorrow.  It was 8:30 when we finished the last surgery by headlamp.  The light was fine but we decided not to do surgery after dark again as Liz was close to frantic with all the bugs attracted to her headlamp.  Hard to swat bugs when you are trying to maintain sterility.  She enlisted Andy as chief de-bugger which helped some.  She was careful not to suture any bugs into the incisions.

Andy made some progress in figuring out what he is going to do with the concrete projects.  He spent a long time talking to a local engineer, also named Andrew, who is familiar with the type of projects.  We did surgery on 3 of his dogs today.  Andy also assisted Julie in catheter placements, got suture for Liz, and took lots of photos.

More wildlife in the hut tonight – a scorpion.

The stars here are amazing at night.  One advantage to no electricity available is the brilliance of the night sky.  We’ve never seen the Milky Way so clearly.

Prayer Requests:
-         safe arrival for Val here tomorrow, Sunday
-         the projects Andy is to work on – plans and $$ for them
-         That we would continue to be a blessing to the people here.

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