Botswana, Africa Project 2011
April 15, 2011
Our volunteer veterinary “TEAM BOTSWANA” consisted of Jen and Rob, our veterinarians from B.C. and Annette and I, the veterinary technicians, from Ontario. Annette and I met Jen in New York City at JFK airport to continue on to Joburg (Johannesburg) and we finally arrived after a very long day and a half of traveling to meet up with Rob there. The four of us then boarded a plane to Gabarone and then on to Maun to our final stop.  We were met at the airport in Maun but Ally and Yann, two of the hosts from our MAWS (Maun Animal Welfare Society) group that we were collaborating with.  We headed to the “cottage” that we would be staying in that is on Virginia and Yann’s property. It was a very bumpy, twisty, dirt road to arrive at the gates of their compound and we settled in and then had a wonderful welcome dinner on their patio.  A beautiful night and wonderful company. Virginia and Yann have 9 dogs of various sizes and shapes. Wawa, one of the indoor Chihuahuas loved to cuddle on a different lap every few mintues so we all snuggled her throughout the evening. Rob stayed in Virginia and Yanns (V&Y) house and the 3 girls stayed in the cottage. We unpacked, talked late and went to sleep to be ready for our first day of work tomorrow.
April 16th
Our first day at MAWS clinic. We were given the MAWS Venture to drive, getting used to driving on the “wrong” side of the road, sitting on the “wrong” side of the car and a stick shift to boot was entertaining to say the least!  Rob was the brave first driver and we arrived at MAWS without hitting any goats, donkeys, cows or people! Mervyn, the owner of the property and one of the forces behind MAWS, met us and we all sat and discussed the plan for the next few days. We were also introduced to Cephas, a MAWS employee that knows the routine well, and Nation, who works for Mervyn and helps tremendously with locations, needs and does surgery dog retrieval and returns!   Due to CAAT’s experience in field hospital work, MAWS had asked us to assist in setting up their standard operating procedure for the clinic and field work. Over the next two weeks, apart from working as a veterinary team, we are going to assess the protocols already in place and make recommendations based on our experience in other projects we have done and the unique needs in the MAWS clinic.Â
Our first patient was a little Maltese mix that had been brought in by his owner for vaccines but he was a bilateral cryptorchid and we discussed neutering and they decided to go ahead with it.   We didn’t start til later in the day so it was a short afternoon of work. We worked on a puppy with a broken leg and 3 spays and spent time figuring out the protocols, the anesthesia we were comfortable with and how everything worked in general.   Definitely saw the oozing skin incisions caused by erlychiosis with some. We stayed late to recover our last two patients, then headed back to V&Y.    Driving to and from work was an adventure!  On our way down the bumpy twisty road the key fell out of the ignition of the car but it kept running, Rob was turning on the windshield wipers every time we were to turn (turn signal also on opposite side to what we were used to) and the 2 km of dirt road through bush was interesting to navigate in the dark.  We had landmarks to watch for (cardboard on tree, cement on side of road, blue ribbon at the turn, etc) and made it back.  Another great meal on the patio, CAAT meeting to discuss anesthetics and then headed to bed.
April 17
Long day today. We did 13 surgeries, 1 large laceration on a dog owned by a man named “Darkness”, spays, neuters, and an eye socket repair on a lovely orange tabby cat.   Mervyn has 13 dogs that we all loved. You always knew when Mervyn was at the clinic because all the dogs followed her everywhere!  Our last puppy of the day was a sweet little one that the man had found in an abandoned village in the Kalahari, he stopped there for a few days and she glued herself to him so he just couldn’t leave her behind. We spayed her but her recovery was a little slow so we kept her with us and she came to the cottage on IV fluids. She bounded back after an extra hour and was sweet, playful and lovely.
April 18-19
Busy day again. We had our first pregnant dog spay. None of these dogs look pregnant, it isn’t until you are in there that you see they are. We spayed and neutered several dogs and then before leaving for the day, packed up everything we would need to head to the other side of town tomorrow to work out of Bronwyn’s house.
Bronwyn’s house was in a village called Tootomee. We arrived and set up for surgery on her porch and waited for dogs to arrive. Nation goes out to inform everyone the day before and so we had no problem having enough patients!  We had some owners stay until the dogs were ready to go home and our last ones, once they were recovered we returned them to their homes.  It was pouring rain, thunder and lightning tonight when we arrived back at the cottage.  Quite beautiful actually.
April 20
We had a fun ride into work this morning through BIG mud puddles on our twisty, hilly road, almost got stuck but thanks to Rob’s superb skill in driving the MAWS vehicle we made it through it all and arrived at Bronwyn’s again for a day of work. People were waiting for us when we arrived, Â
We saw a dog very infested with lice, learned about flying ticks and Pootsie flies, all gross!   Saw our first “wall spider” in the bathroom, very educational bug day today!  We headed home to a meeting with the MAWS board members to discuss the remainder of our work days. We did 9 surgeries today and have 14 patients ready for tomorrow at the MAWS clinic. Leah, a technician from San Diego, that is going to work with MAWS for 2 months joined us to be able to work with us and learn about “field teching” before we leave.
April 21
We changed the splint bandage on our little broken leg Kalahari pup (he comes out to play with us every morning when we arrive), we completed 13 of the 14 surgeries today. We had our first euthanasia, a dog with TVT (transmissible venereal tumour) that was very advanced and had many other issues. We met Rob Jackson, a local veterinarian, who came by to meet us. Very nice!  We finished our day by packing up for tomorrow to head 2 hours away to the village of Khumaga tomorrow.  We had supper with Rob Jackson at Audi Camp and had fun talking shop.  Rob had some interesting stories about collaring work with zebras, lions, elephants, etc. Talked about Rhino bots, Elephant bots, etc.  Typical vet discussions over dinner!  He has a very interesting practice that is for sure!
April 22
We started out early to head to clinic, packed the vehicles to head out of town to Khumaga to check out the village set up and get things organized to work the next day there, today was to be a half day off to go on a game drive once we organized our set up for the next day.  We were to meet Ally who would drive with us to Khumaga.  Also, the Zimbabwe veterinarian (new grad) that was to join us to learn some tips from our CAAT vets and techs arrived today. His name is Lee-Roy and he is very nice and seemed to fit in well with the group.  He and Leah and Cephas loaded into one car and the rest of us loaded into the other.  We got about 1/2 hour out and got a call to come back. Two of the surgeries from the day before had been called in by the owners with post surgical issues.  Leah continued on to Khumaga with Cephas, Ally and Lee-Roy and Rob, Annette, Jen and I drove back and found both were spays that had pulled sutures out. We resutured both and kept them in the kennels on antibiotics and found some e-collars (thanks to Tana) to keep them away from them.   A feral cat had been trapped so we neutered him while we were there.  When everyone was stable and recovering well, we headed back out again.  Our drive was interesting, we saw alot of livestock on the sides of the road (or blocking the road) and drove through the gates at the vet fence. The vet fence was built to control Foot and Mouth Disease (evidently also caused some issues with migratory patterns in some of the wildlife). We had to get out and step in disinfectant foot baths then drive the car through a dip before continuing on.  We drove on with our hand written map (thanks to Ally’s husband Craig!) and found our way to the village.
Khumaga seemed to be a typical village of small cement block homes and mud huts. We unloaded our gear and left Cephas to set up camp and headed to Leroo La Tau, the lodge that Ally had arranged to have us stay at while working in the area. It was a 6km sand road to get to the lodge and we were absolutely amazed at the beauty of our location!  The game reserve is across the river right across from our rooms, our beds had mosquito netting over them, a deck by the Botetee River, just fantastic!  Despite the two resuture surgeries, the cat neuter, and an issue with a gas cap, that all made our arrival much later than expected, we still had some of the late afternoon to take a break.  A very nice break after several non-stop days.   We went on our first game drive, it was raining but we saw Impala, vultures, Kudu, many, many birds. Evidently when it rains the larger game leave the area but we saw some amazing things.  We watched 4 hippos playing and snorting in the water right off the deck, then they came out of the water right opposite us. Just magical to see!  We retired to our rooms and listened to the sounds of the African night.
April 23
Very early wake up call again, headed to a quick breakfast then off to Khumagi to work.  We arrived at a community centre, cleaned up as best we could and set up for surgery out on the covered porch. For about 1/2 hour there was no one around and then people started arriving with their dogs. We had no electricity or running water but had buckets of water provided and used hand razors to shave the surgery sites!  A new experience for all of us. Â
Todays purpose was to “pave the way” for future visits. I believe we were very successful in accomplishing that goal. Very nice people, discussed future visits and they were very receptive and eager to participate. It was a very windy surgery day and we had to hold down our surgical drapes!   All went well, there were two dogs we want to check on tomorrow before heading back to Maun but we were pleased with the day. We headed back to Leroo La Tau and watched our hippos again, they came back to the same spot at the same time, we sat on our deck in our room and looked at the truly endless blanket of stars overhead and listened to the sounds of Africa again!
April 24
Our first official full day off!  Up for a 6:30am breakfast then off to a 7am game drive across the river. Again, because of the rain the large game was not present, however, we saw Impala, weasel, black back jackal, many birds and beautiful countryside. We returned to an Easter Sunday brunch complete with chocolate easter eggs!  We sat by the pool with drinks, then Jen, Rob and Leah went back to check on the two dogs we wanted to recheck from yesterday (not completely a day off for all!).  All dogs were fine, no issues. We drove back to Maun having thoroughly enjoyed our stay at LLT! On our way back we saw a hobbled white horse that could only take very tiny baby steps to cross the road, very disturbing.  Hobbling of the donkeys and horses is commonplace here evidently but some are hobbled so tightly that they hop on their front legs to move forward. MAWS has it on their list of issues to work on for the future thank goodness.
April 25
We got to the MAWS clinic bright and early and Gwen (from Holland but now lives in Botswana) from MAWS helped us out with packs and cleaning because Cephas was off sick.  Annette took over as our drug dispensing tech so Leah could get some training on the anesthesia monitoring and protocols that she had been watching us do thusfar. Rob and I worked with Lee-Roy to teach him shaving with clippers and surgical prep techniques since he had shown us hand razoring techniques!  We did 13 surgeres today.  We arrived back at the cottage to a twinkle light lit porch and an amazing Easter dinner prepared by Virginia and Yann! Fabulous!
April 26
Today we are heading to Mikalamebete Bridge to another village. Annette has bandaged and gloved her hand and is going to be the drug dispenser again to give her hand a break today. We headed out with Cephas and Nation leading the way. We drove about an hour and then turned off the road into a small dirt track and a clearing in the bush beside the river. We all thought this must be where Cephas and Nation will be camping but were astounded to discover, this was where we were setting up!!!! It seemed literally in the middle of nowhere to us. No buildings, nothing but the road and the river.  Nation assured us it was the “centre” but we were really wondering what it was the centre of!? We set up our gazebo and surgery tables, Cephas and Gwen collected water from the river and magically people started appearing out of the bush with dogs!  Then it started to rain. It rained very hard all day long!  It was absolutely miserable conditions. The surgery and vets were safely under the gazebo tarp roof but the techs had to be on the outside of the tables and the rain was relentless.  We were soaked through and stayed that way all day. Despite the conditions we completed 10 surgeries and recovered them all under a tarp attached to a tree and the truck and they all stayed nice and dry.   We all came home exhausted and wet.
April 27
We headed back to Mikalamebete Bridge today, really hoping for better weather but it was quite drizzly and foggy on our drive there.  We arrived to a very eerie scene of hundreds of spider webs everywhere around the river bank. Can’t imagine the number of spiders it took to build all those webs! Luckily the weather cleared and became sunny and actually very hot! High 30’s C. It is, unbelievably, our final day of work!  Annette is back to teching today, her hand is healing beautifully. We completed 10 more surgeries and 19 vaccinations. Saw donkey carts, dogs, cattle all wandering around throughout the day.   Packed up for a final time and headed back to Maun, said goodbye to the clinic building and headed home to quick showers and a meeting with MAWS group at Audi Camp.
April 28
Our last full day in Africa!  It has flown by!  The MAWS group wanted to make sure we were able to enjoy a day on the Okavango Delta so they helped us to arrange a flight over the Delta to OddBalls Camp.  What an amazing, unforgettable day!  We saw such vast, beautiful, wild country, rode in Mokoras (African wooden canoe type boats) and hiked with bush guides for hours.  Saw a lone bull elephant grazing, tiny painted Reed frogs, green water snake, wart hog mom and babies, Impala, zebra, giraffe (very far in distance), baboons, fish eagles, and herons.  The flight back was magical, our pilot was very accommodating and incredibly good at spotting wildlife!  We saw a herd of elephants, giraffe, cape buffalo and of course, the ever present, Impala!  We landed back in Maun and went to Ally’s for dinner to have a final meeting with the MAWS group to discuss our recommendations for future work protocols etc.   Back to our little cottage for our final night.
April 29
We did a little shopping at local village shops before having lunch and beginning our journey home. It has been an amazing, rewarding experience over the past two weeks. We all want to stay and do more!   We said our somewhat teary goodbyes to everyone and headed home.Â
We have all been so impressed with MAWS and what they have achieved thusfar and we are looking forward to being involved with assisting them in their work.  MAWS has successfully created an organization that serves the animals and people in need in Maun and surrounding area.  It is obvious, from speaking to different people in the area, that their impact on the animal population has been a substantial one.  It is evident that they are working hard at continuing to evolve and do even more.   We were all very impressed by their accomplishments.
Our small CAAT team of four (with the assistance of Leah from SanDiego and Lee-Roy from Zimbabwe) completed 105 surgeries, administered vaccines, dewormings and treated TVT’s (transmissible venereal tumours).   Over the weeks to come we will be continuing to work toward completing the veterinary protocols for MAWS clinic manual based on some of the existing protocols and our recommendations.  We also plan to continue to serve in an on-going veterinary advisory capacity as well as participate in MAWS projects in the future. Overall a very successful, productive and very unique project.  Thanks to all the MAWS group for their incredible hospitality, cooperation, and their insistence in us taking a couple of days to see Botswana! Every bit, work and play, was a truly unforgettable experience.