Thursday, July 17, 2008

Started the day having breakfast at 7 AM and departed the hotel at 7:20 AM to go to local representatives of the Ministry of Livestock. We picked up two of them we had met yesterday, Freddy and Ma Safe and proceeded on hard surface road out of Tanga and then onto dirt road through the countryside to a crush – a cattle dip where cattle were brought for us to work. About three groups of 60 to 80 mixed age cattle were worked with ivermectin and isometamiudium. Amanda Coenen and I worked them from each side of the crush. Got plenty dirty; clearly earned our pay first day. Afterwards we went into Tanga to look for additional needles and drugs at vet supply stores. We were able to find a few additional reusable needles at one store and some aprons to keep the most committed to the job a little cleaner. Amanda and I buy a phone card with some additional minutes for the cell phone she inherited from the MEDCAP folks who were here before us and who she met as they arrived a day before me. I am able to call Twila and leave a message on her cell as she is in New Orleans at the AVMA convention.