We got up at 4 am today and despite 1 flat tire, rolled into Moroto at 10:30 am. Karamoja is mostly grassland and scrub with trees here and there but it has some swampy areas also. There are scattered mountains and rock formations as well. We are in the short rainy season so the area is fairly green. We think it is very beautiful here. Birds, rabbits and frogs are very common and we are told there are some antelope and occasional leopards here. The frogs make a beautiful metallic tinkling noise at night which is nice to fall asleep to.
Val was waiting for us when we arrived, and after a short tea break we went to work on cattle, sheep and goats with the US Army. The Army is here for 2 months doing VETCAP they are mostly National Guard and Reserves providing animal health care training, animal treatment, soccer camps and other good stuff to the local people here. Part of the purpose is humanitarian, part PR and part cross-cultural training for the military personnel. They were doing the practical portion of a refresher/advanced animal husbandry course for local animal health care workers. The workers had completed a 6 week course from Val and CLIDE previously. At the end of this course they will receive a certificate and a veterinary kit to get them started in their own business. They often work together with Val as they like to utilize programs that are already set up if possible it is a mutually beneficial arrangement. The army personnel were great to work with very nice, helpful people. There is still cattle raiding and ambushing of vehicles on the road occurring fairly regularly so we are glad for both the US and Ugandan Armies presence.
In the afternoon we went to Iriiri to treat 2 dogs with TVT (transmissible venereal tumor). The male had been afflicted with the tumor for over a year and it was huge and he could not urinate well. Liz slit the sheath open and excised most of the tumor as we thought it would take a very long time to treat it medically. The surgery went well and the dog did not bleed to death! Alfred, the dogs owner, really liked the dog and was very thankful we could help it.
Most people here have dogs primarily to act as warning signals for intruders. Many are handled very little which makes treating them difficult at times. Some people really did like their dogs and considered them companions which made it much more fun and rewarding to treat them. Cats are primarily for catching rodents but many are also enjoyed as pets by the children. Most of them were surprisingly easy to handle.
It was night when we headed back to town, and we got to encounter many drunken people. They grow sorghum here and use most of it to make beer which is fairly high in alcohol content, about 6%. When I asked Val if all the women with large bellies were pregnant or if some were protein deficient she replied that many have liver cirrhosis and ascites (fluid in the abdomen from liver failure) from chronic alcohol consumption. When we stopped to buy diesel Julia and Heidi encountered their favorite drunk man, he kept smiling at them and licking and kissing their window!
We spent the night at a fairly rustic guest house. Liz took a cold water wash in the evening and Julia took one in the morning. Half an hour later the maid showed up with a pitcher of hot water for our morning bath -oops!
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