Today is Mission Rabies Tanzania Workday 1, the first day we hit the road and start vaccinating.  

Didn’t sleep great last night. Still getting used to it being so quiet.  I’m up early now, so I’ll start this blog post now and finish it tonight. 

Last night I packed my backpack with all of the items I think I’ll need for the day:  my camera, an extra camera battery, my phone charger, a hat, some sunscreen, some face wipes, a little bottle of hand sanitizer, some snacks, an extra contact lens, insect spray, two Advils just in case, and lots of water.  I’ll be drinking like crazy to ward off any threat of kidney stones.  

Okay… time for breakfast.  Can’t wait to see what this day brings!

I’m back, 10 hours later. Wow, what a day!  After a very early breakfast, we assembled all of the items that we’ll need for the day: our supply box, a cooler with the vaccines, a big banner announcing that we’re giving free rabies vaccinations, a megaphone to announce (out of the van window) that we’re in the area offering free vaccines, a case of 24 bottles of soda that will stay in the truck all week, and a giant tank with water for washing our hands.  Plus, our lunches; MIssion Rabies prepares lunches for us, in Tupperware containers for us every day.  Our team leader Lucy met us, and we were introduced to our driver, Eminoel.  We loaded up our van, and off we went, to the area where we were to set up our “static point” clinic.  A static point clinic is a location where we set up shop for the day, usually a school or church.  I wasn’t feeling very encouraged, as we seemed to be in a very remote area, down some quiet, winding roads.  I was wondering who in the world would come here with their dog. It seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere.  We hung up our banner and stood around, hoping that people would show up.  

Well, I couldn’t have been more incorrect about the turnout.  About ten minutes after we hung our banner, the people started appearing.  In droves.  

It was one kid after the next after the next, often with multiple dogs in tow. The average age of the person bringing us their dogs was about 10 or 11, it seemed. I guess the parents are working, and they send the kids with the dogs.  

Although I spent most of my career treating cats, I do love dogs, and I look forward to these Mission Rabies projects, as they give me a chance to see a lot of them, especially puppies.  Who doesn’t love puppies? 

I ended up seeing quite a few puppies today, in fact.  This kid brought a litter of puppies, along with the mom who was still nursing them.  

People were also bringing cats too,  which is something that I hadn’t experienced in the last two Mission Rabies projects.  I took a nice photo of a kid carrying his cat.  It was very sunny out, and the photo initially looked a bit overexposed and washed out.

But I adjusted the contrast and exposure a bit, and the picture took on a moody, warm glow. It became one of my favorite photos from the trip.  

The parade of dogs was non-stop.  The routine went basically like this: A kid would bring his dog(s). We’d vaccinate, and then mark the head with a red spot.  Lucy would ask the kid his name and the dog’s name, and would fill out a vaccination card for them to take home, along with a brochure about vaccinations and rabies.  Courtnie or I would then enter the client info, along with the dog’s gender, whether the dog has been sterilized or not, the dog’s body condition score, and whether there are any concurrent health problems.  The red spot on the head makes it easy for the post-vaccination survey teams to determine, a few days later, who’s been vaccinated and who hasn’t. If the post-vaccination survey team determines that we’ve fallen short of our goal (i.e. to vaccinate 70% of the dog in the area), we’ll send a vaccination team back to try to get a few more dogs vaccinated.  It’s been shown that if you vaccinate 70%  and achieve herd immunity, it’ll stop the spread of rabies.

It remained busy all morning.  In fact, people had to wait in line.  

By the time we finally got a break and could take lunch, it was 12:15 and we had vaccinated 135 dogs (plus the occasional cat.)  This is my third Mission Rabies project, and today was the busiest vaccination day I’ve ever had.  

While most of the people bringing the dogs were kids,  we did get an occasional adult.  This big tough guy loved his puppies, and couldn’t bring himself to look when it came time to vaccinate them. 

I’m still amazed how the vast majority of the people bringing the dogs in for vaccination are kids.  Not even teenagers. I’d say most of the kids bringing in the dogs are under 13 years old.  Many of them are bringing in dogs that are about as big as they are, and they can’t properly restrain them.  When it was time to vaccinate, our driver or Lucy would say something to the kid, and the kid would immediately straddle the dog and grab its head, like in these photos. 

The kids here in Tanzania are pretty cool.  Very friendly and outgoing. Even the shy ones are pretty curious about what we’re doing, and they all seem to enjoy being photographed.  This kid was being kind of coy about being photographed.  

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Courtnie gestured to him that he should hold up two fingers, so he did, and I got a little smile out of him.

I’m so glad they paired me up with Courtnie.  She’s a veterinary tech (in Scotland they call them nurses) from Glasgow.  We make fun of her very thick accent, but she takes it in stride.  She struck back yesterday by imitating an American accent, and it was hilarious.  She pronounced tomato as “tamaydo”, and it was very funny (and scarily accurate).

I brought my Fuji camera with me to try to get better quality photos, but it was so insanely busy that I only managed to take one or two before abandoning that notion and using my trusty iPhone instead.  I don’t think I’ll bring the Fuji with me on vaccination days.  It’s too hectic, and I really need a camera I can operate quickly.  I’ll bring the Fuji to the safari, however.  

The afternoon did slow down a little bit, but by the end of the day, we had vaccinated 190 dogs and cats.  A very successful start to the project.  

Dinner was a blast.  They set three separate tables, each one holding about 6 people.   There’s a lot of us here: all of us Mission Rabies volunteers plus Amy and Helena,  plus the other volunteers who are doing the concurrent spay/neuter project.  

We tend to naturally break up into little cliques, but I’m going to try to sit with different people at mealtimes, so that I get to know everyone pretty well. Tonight’s dessert was amazing; a really tasty mango cake. 

I hope we get desserts like this every night.  

Okay, time for bed.  Every night has been very quiet, but it’s Saturday night, and even though our Guesthouse is situated a pretty good distance from the main road, I can hear loud music in the distance.  I saw some bars/cafes the other day along that road while we were out exploring, and I’m assuming it’s coming from there.  Fortunately, I have good earplugs, and a good white noise app on my iPhone.  I should have little trouble falling asleep.  Today was physically grueling, and I’m beat!

CONTINUE TO MISSION RABIES TANZANIA – PART 6

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We smashed all records from previous Mission Rabies Tanzania trips, vaccinating 7,657 dogs and 1,229 cats.  Total number of animals vaccinated against rabies: 8,886.  It’s an incredible accomplishment.  To continue to do this kind of work is expensive. If you like reading these blog posts and you support this kind of work, I humbly ask for you to make a small donation if you can.  Every little bit helps.  Thank you.