This past week, Alex and I traveled to Ghanzi (pronounced with a throaty cough at the beginning) with the wildlife vet, Erik (or Fred as we now prefer to call him). On the way there, we were embarking on a 7 hour drive. Erik decided we should stop at a gas station in Kang where he knew the owner and we could chat and get some dinner, which happened to be a cheeseburger larger than my head. On the way out, he suggested we get some snacks, and his definition of snacking is buying every type of junk food in the store. We had jelly tots (my personal fave) and caramel covered popcorn, and "enerjelly babies," and that is just the beginning of the list. It was a pretty awesome week filled with tiring amounts of junk food!
We would arrive at the farm later than we had originally intended, which meant we would be driving at night, something Erik hates to do. It's actually pretty dangerous because herds of cattle/donkey/goats are all wandering around due to the drought and they often cross the road without warning. Nevertheless, we trudged through. It ended up being an awesome drive because Erik was pointing out a ton of wildlife for us, and by the end I was telling him which was a Duiker and which was a Sternbok (this is no easy task, let me tell you). He even turned the car completely around because I thought I had caught a glimpse of a porcupine and he wanted us to get a good look. These creatures are seriously huge! I would not want to battle with one that is for sure. Apparently they are a lion delicacy however.
We finally arrived at the farmhouse of Kworbus and his wife, Arletta and their three adorable children. The next morning, we were up at sunrise...literally because the roosters were crowing right outside our window. Rusks awaited us on the kitchen table (which are a bit like biscotti and very tasty dipped in morning coffee). Then we were off, ready to get very and I mean very dirty. Check out what we looked like by the end...oye
.....and this is my clean side!
Pregnancy Diagnoses are by no means easy. In fact, it is easily one of the most difficult skills I have attempted to yet master in vet med. It is done entirely by feel...which means your entire arm is deeply plunged into the rear end of the cow. It's pretty tight in there and I am desperately feeling around for the cervix, uterus, and most of all a fetus. I was seriously terrible at it the first day (and the second day for that matter) calling several cows "empty" meaning I thought they had no pregnancy and Erik would rush through saying "yepp, this one is 6 months" a fetus I should have easily felt. Oh well. Day one over, and we came home to an awesome bath, backyard fire, and delicious dinner. This was also one of the nights of the supermoon, which was really awesome to see.
Day 2 my skills were getting slightly better, but still not great. It was another day full of mud (see below us completely covered along with Erik). Again we came home to an awesome dinner and fire. It was a lot of fun listening to Erik tell stories of when he was in vet school. It made me reflect on the fact that I am a very tame student compared to him. In fact, his stories reminded me a lot of my dad's college stories, so I enjoyed them a lot.
Day 3 we finally started to get the hang of things....and when I say that I mean I think my accuracy may have improved from maybe 30% to maybe 55%? I would call that slight improvement! Erik informed us that we had finished early and would heading home the next day (meaning he had felt 1500 cows, and we had probably felt max 300). I was actually really sad. This brief view of farm life had left me with the sense that this is something I have been missing. I really felt like I could have spent forever there, with that family and all those cows. I had such an awesome time and it felt like home to me. On the way back from the day's work, Erik said we had some time, and since we were so close to the Namibian border, we should just "go check it out." So we did! Ha here we are pointing to the next country over and we are filthy!
We headed home the very next day and I was really sad to watch the farm disappear from view as we left. At least the ride was eventful as Erik and I discussed the politics of my country, his country (South Africa) and Botswana. I have learned so much about the political system here and how things work. Talking to Erik is like talking to an encyclopaedia of knowledge, he knows so much! Hopefully I will be off traveling again with him next week, I can't wait!
We would arrive at the farm later than we had originally intended, which meant we would be driving at night, something Erik hates to do. It's actually pretty dangerous because herds of cattle/donkey/goats are all wandering around due to the drought and they often cross the road without warning. Nevertheless, we trudged through. It ended up being an awesome drive because Erik was pointing out a ton of wildlife for us, and by the end I was telling him which was a Duiker and which was a Sternbok (this is no easy task, let me tell you). He even turned the car completely around because I thought I had caught a glimpse of a porcupine and he wanted us to get a good look. These creatures are seriously huge! I would not want to battle with one that is for sure. Apparently they are a lion delicacy however.
We finally arrived at the farmhouse of Kworbus and his wife, Arletta and their three adorable children. The next morning, we were up at sunrise...literally because the roosters were crowing right outside our window. Rusks awaited us on the kitchen table (which are a bit like biscotti and very tasty dipped in morning coffee). Then we were off, ready to get very and I mean very dirty. Check out what we looked like by the end...oye
Pregnancy Diagnoses are by no means easy. In fact, it is easily one of the most difficult skills I have attempted to yet master in vet med. It is done entirely by feel...which means your entire arm is deeply plunged into the rear end of the cow. It's pretty tight in there and I am desperately feeling around for the cervix, uterus, and most of all a fetus. I was seriously terrible at it the first day (and the second day for that matter) calling several cows "empty" meaning I thought they had no pregnancy and Erik would rush through saying "yepp, this one is 6 months" a fetus I should have easily felt. Oh well. Day one over, and we came home to an awesome bath, backyard fire, and delicious dinner. This was also one of the nights of the supermoon, which was really awesome to see.
Day 2 my skills were getting slightly better, but still not great. It was another day full of mud (see below us completely covered along with Erik). Again we came home to an awesome dinner and fire. It was a lot of fun listening to Erik tell stories of when he was in vet school. It made me reflect on the fact that I am a very tame student compared to him. In fact, his stories reminded me a lot of my dad's college stories, so I enjoyed them a lot.
Day 3 we finally started to get the hang of things....and when I say that I mean I think my accuracy may have improved from maybe 30% to maybe 55%? I would call that slight improvement! Erik informed us that we had finished early and would heading home the next day (meaning he had felt 1500 cows, and we had probably felt max 300). I was actually really sad. This brief view of farm life had left me with the sense that this is something I have been missing. I really felt like I could have spent forever there, with that family and all those cows. I had such an awesome time and it felt like home to me. On the way back from the day's work, Erik said we had some time, and since we were so close to the Namibian border, we should just "go check it out." So we did! Ha here we are pointing to the next country over and we are filthy!
We headed home the very next day and I was really sad to watch the farm disappear from view as we left. At least the ride was eventful as Erik and I discussed the politics of my country, his country (South Africa) and Botswana. I have learned so much about the political system here and how things work. Talking to Erik is like talking to an encyclopaedia of knowledge, he knows so much! Hopefully I will be off traveling again with him next week, I can't wait!
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