Second Wind

Titus looks better today. He is alert and eating. The group is rallying around him. Ihumure is MUCH better - even playing a bit with his brother. We are cautiously optimistic...




This is my life here in Africa. Things look like they are going in one direction, then there is a 180 degree turn - so you learn quickly to be flexible! To not dig in your heels. To not necessarily count on things happening the way you think they should, or even the way someone told you they would...

I went to a "model farm" partner's house today with John Huston - the PhD candidate from Mississippi who is the MGVP livestock health guy. He's teaching people how to better care for their animals to make them more productive. This serves 2 purposes - helps keep PEOPLE healthy if their livestock is more productive, but also helps prevent disease drift into wildlife populations. This partner's "farm" is really just his backyard (about the size of our driveway at home...), where he has 4 goats, a young heifer and 2 penned pigs. Crazy crowded, but the animals were all relatively healthy! All are slightly dehydrated - there is no running water in this community, so ALL water is carried back and forth from the well. That means the animals rarely have drinking water - they have to get all their moisture from the forage, and this time of year everything is dry. But the rains are coming, and everything will rehydrate. Plants, livestock, people.

Then we visited the home of the administrator for one of the local human clinics. His wife is the head of the local women's cooperative - this co-op makes clothing, baskets, etc, for sale to tourists and locals. So they are a relatively wealthy family. Their home has glass windows and doors that lock. When we went inside there was a lovely old push peddle Singer sewing machine that Angel, the wife, uses for her sewing. The floor was dirt and stone, and there was very little other furniture - a table and chairs. A Mountain Gorilla poster on the wall. We really don't need much to live comfortably. We Americans have so many unnecessary possessions - I hope I can hang onto the memory of Angel's house when I get back to the states. But when I got back to my home in Ruhengeri I pulled a cold Tonic out of the fridge, turned on my computer and i-pod, nibbled on my new bag of Goldfish (THANK YOU BECKY!!!!) and settled into my padded office chair.... I sometimes feel so very colonial, and don't quite know what to do with that.

Here's me with Titus and Ihumure. Fingers crossed for them both!!