The Bus Ride

The rest of our journey to Tukuyu was hair raising to say the least. Our instructions were clear: wait by the side of the highway, pickup the Sumry but as it comes in, make sure it is going to Tukuyu and it will cost you around $20. But alas, this was not to be..

After waiting for the bus for quite some time, while turning down unmarked car rides to Mbeya and overpriced tickets in the process, we managed to see the Sumry bus, full, driving past us.

We managed to run up beside another coach bus as it came through weigh station and pay the right people. Before settling in for the long journey ahead.

In short, our ride was the equivalent of a Greyhound bus speeding down a single lane road with large potholes, going 100km/hr, passing other industrial trucks at high speed. Throw in a cliff and you have two terrified Canadian vet students. It is not surprising then that the coach buses turn this into a sort of race in which our bus came 2nd (oh joy). We also managed to pass two serious accidents involving industrial trucks and an oil tanker that took up ¾ of the road. But that wouldn't deter us, as we never slowed down and squeezed between the accident and the drop off.

With offers to Malawi, Zambia and South Africa abound, we managed to find a minibus to take us to Tukuyu (2hrs away) from Mbeya. They buses seat ~24 people and we had about 40 people on the bus. Because we had our bags we had no leg room and it was very claustrophobic! I'm glad I had a window seat. All things considered, we may just take a quick peek to determine how reasonable flying would be on the way home. All in all we arrived in Tukuyu alive, albeit a little wiser and experienced but most importantly in one piece, ready to get to work.

Cheers,

Monica and Adam

At the vet school..

We have just spent a week in Morogorro at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA). This school is home to the only Veterinary Faculty in all of Tanzania so it was definitely a unique experience to gain some perspective before our work begins. We had the opportunity to go on field calls with the 5yr vet students. An example of our calls were: an umbilical abscess on a calf, a farm with high chicken mortality where we did a necropsy to discover it was New Castles disease, uterus treatment on cows that have problems conceiving, dogs with potential parvo virus and TONS of external parasites and an adult cow dehorning. It was clear from these visits and our experience at the school that, regardless of limitations of resources and finances, the theory involved with veterinary medicine is fairly consistent. Not surprisingly, its application can be very different and this is something I am sure we will encounter quite frequently in the coming months. . We got a tour of their school (anatomy labs look the same as ours – just more bones of rhinos and elephants!) and saw their school veterinary clinic. We were also lucky enough to see a few dog cases come into the clinic (a hit by car injured leg, and an injured eye due to a dog fight).

Along the way to Tukuyu (our project site) we had the chance to drive through Mikumi National Park. There we saw many of the exciting wildlife of Africa (you can't come all this way and not see some!) including impalas, giraffes, warthogs, elephants, wildebeests, zebras and lots of birds. The lions were clearly scared of us which is why they chose not to say hi.

Cheers,

Adam and Monica

First Days...

So...

A brief intro for those who will be following our blog during our travels. Monica and I are second year vet students from Calgary and Guelph respectively, who are involved with a poultry project taking place in the south -west part of Tanzania in a village called Ilima. More information about the specifics of the project is available on this blog and on the VWB website. We will try to post updates and some pictures of our travels as often as possible.

Monica and I have both now arrived in Dar Es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania. I got in late Tuesday night and have been spending my days getting things organized for the coming months with the help of Dr. Gimbi, a faculty member at OUT (the Open University of Tanzania). Dar is a busy city with many little shops and stores scattered around the area- traffic is a nightmare. It can be a little overwhelming having people constantly coming up to you but nevertheless, our experiences here thus far have been enjoyable. We are staying at a guest house run by OUT with a Danish women who lectures at the main campus. Between setting up cell phones, visiting the University and going to the eye doctors (I forgot extra contacts- first of many things I am sure), we have been quite busy.

Last night, we had the opportunity to visit Dr. Minga's house (who works out of another of the University's offices) to discuss in a little more detail about the project. We will be heading to Ilima later on next week after a stop at the vet school in Morogoro. We are looking forward to meeting some of the students there and getting started on the project (as well as fully adjusting to the heat/time change). We will keep you posted on how it goes!

Cheers,

Adam & Monica

Well, I'm trying out this blog for the first time before I leave for Tanzania to try and get the hang of it. I leave on Wednesday night. Only 4 more days to go! I`m getting excited. I think I`ve got everything in order: vacc - check, back pack- check, emergency contacts and phone numbers- check, VISA- check, camera with an 8G memory card- check. Now I`m just trying to squeeze in all the things I like to do in Calgary before I leave, one last hike in the mountains yesterday (there still thigh deep snow!), dinner with friends last night, more coffee and dinner with friends tomorrow night.

For those people that don't know much about the project: I'm going to Ilama, a village in Tanzania to help improve poultry survival and production. Our team had a conferance call last week to set some clear goals and make sure we are all on the same page. Now I'm really excited that I know what we are doing! Our main goals are to try and set up a regular vaccine protocol for New Castle and teach the students of the Ilama secondary school (and a few farmers) how to care for chickens. I can do that.

We also get to visit the agricultural school in Morogoro. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone involved in the project and learning about how they live.

To warn you guys, I've been told that it's very difficult to get to internet there, so the rest of my blogs are likely texts from a cell phone. I'll do the best that I can to keep you updated.