A wonderful suprise

Wednesday 24th October

Summer and I had a surprising visitor this week, Dr. Julie from Vermont, USA. She has been in Uganda working with Dr. Val (a vet also working with CVM, see other posts) for almost a month. I had met Julie when I was in Soroti with the CVM team there (see 'Surgeries' post).

 I got a call from Val, Monday afternoon as we were leaving our Bible study in Kasiapus village. We didn't have a translator that day and I was, at that moment, so happy because I had just managed to lead the study predominantly in Ngakaramajong (the local language here), God is good. Anyway Val calls me and tells me that her fiance, Waffle (yes, he goes by Waffle, don't judge)  had just arrived in Uganda to see her and had been in a car accident coming up to Karamoja! But amazingly, Bob Wright and Jesse Van Gorkom, missionaries with Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Namalu, a town an hour from where we live in Nabilatuk, happened to be in the city and came across the accident, recognised Waffle from a Facebook picture he once saw, and stopped to help!

 Val then asked if Julie could come and visit Summer and I for a few days while Waffle recovered and Val cared for him. Without asking Summer, I yell "Yes, yes of course we'd love to have her!", knowing that my team-mate is always up for visitors! So come Tuesday, the exchange had taken place, Bob had Julie from Val, and Val had her Waffle. Summer and I picked up Dr Julie from OPC and spent the rest of the week having great fun. Waffle had broken a few ribs in the accident but is a very brave man, barely complaining, just happy to be here.

On Wednesday, we all went to Okutoot village for a Spray Day. Okutoot is another village where we have started a Bible study with a few people, as a spin-off from the Bible storying; a more in depth look at God's Word together.

So we sprayed the animals for ticks and got to do many, many treatments for sick cattle, goats and sheep. One of these days I'm hoping to get a donkey case!

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

It was a particularly productive day, spraying 564 cows and goats and treating around 70 animals. Scarily, all of those animals really needed treating, many with fevers of over 41 degrees Celsius! We saw a number of East Coast Fever calves, wormy cows, cows with trypanosomiasis, contageous bovine pleural pneumonia and anaplasmosis - so it's a good thing we tick sprayed so many of them as many of those diseases are tick-borne.

It was great to have a vet with me, even if only for a short time.