Mission Rabies Ghana – Chapter 11: Getting in the Groove
Tuesday has always been the most nondescript day of the week, and this applies to Ghana as well, apparently, because today really bordered on being “routine”. I guess I’ve really grown accustomed to things here, because objectively it was amazing as usual.
I had an egg sandwich for breakfast, and then went to base camp as usual to load up our bags.
I met up with our driver and Adusei and started getting ready for the day. I convinced Charlotte, the young Ghanaian veterinarian who joined our team a few days last week, to join our team today. I really like talking to Charlotte, asking her about veterinary school, Ghanaian culture, and life in general. I think she also brings out the best in Adusei, too. Along the way, we picked up our community health officer.
Our first stop was that market I like, where I got to say hi and get another picture with avocado lady, and then I went a little further into the market to get these sweet fried donut thingys that I’ve become fixated on.
The area we were assigned to today was pretty close to our base of operations, so we got there fast, and started going door to door.
We really picked up steam, and in no time we were swamped with dogs.
The highlight of the day was the wheelbarrow full of puppies, I suppose,
but really, we saw a lot of everything today: adults as well as pups.
At one home, there was an area off to the side in their yard, and they had a set of cages in which they were raising some kind of rodent.
My Ghanaian team members did not know the English word for them. Colloquially, they call these critters “grass cutters”. Apparently, some people here consider it a delicacy, so these poor critters are going to be eaten at some point. I looked them up on the internet. This is the Greater Cane Rat. I’ll stick to our vegetarian meals, thank you.
I saw a pretty colorful lizard.
I’ve been seeing them all over, but they’re hard to photograph because they move really fast, especially in the presence of people.
The rest of the day was pretty routine for us: drive around, announce that we’re in the area, and then make a second round on foot, going door to door, and vaccinating the dogs we encounter. People who know we’re in the area see our truck and walk over with their dogs as well. We had a lot of those today. All in all, we did over 60 dogs.
On the way back we stopped at that bakery I like, and Charlotte generously bought each of us a loaf of that yummy butter bread. I munched some in the car, and shared some with Peter and Anke. I’m going to save the rest to bring along to supplement my lunch tomorrow.
Got back to the resort early, but again, it was too overcast for there to be a nice orange sunset. I went down to the lake anyway for a photo or two, and to hopefully run into that cute dog from yesterday. No luck on that front, but that’s okay.
Three days left of this amazing mission.