Kampala, Uganda - October 16, 2008

Dear Family & Friends:

We have completed our month-long VETCAP (Veterinary Civic Action Project) at Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Gulu & Umuru Districts and are now in Kampala awaiting transport back to Camp Lemonier, Djibouti. We worked at 41 sites over 20 treatment days in this, the third VETCAP in northern Uganda this year, the 1st in Jan-Feb and the 2nd in Mar-Apr. The response to the cattle treatments at the initial missions was excellent based on a sampling of weight gains estimated by heart girth measurements.

Our U.S. military team from the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa was joined by faculty and students from the veterinary school at Makerere University and Veterinary Officers from the Uganda Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry & Fisheries. We treated a total of 78,604 animals including 23,903 cattle (sleeping sickness prophylaxis, deworming and external parasite treatment), 23,394 poultry (individual birds vaccinated against New Castle Disease Virus, primarily chickens but also many ducks), 14,061 goats & sheep (deworming and external parasite treatment), and 2,400 pigs (dewormed as individuals). We also vaccinated about 4,000 dogs for rabies.

CPT Amanda Coenen and I were the two U.S. Army Veterinary Corps officers on this VETCAP. We concentrated on preparing the pharmaceuticals at our two sites, Amanda with "Team A" and I with "Team B." Both of us focused on cattle since that was the most labor-intensive part of the work at each site, involving herding and physically dealing with animals ranging in size from less than 50 kg up to >500 kg, many being Ankole cattle with LARGE horns.


There was a surprisingly large number of intact males. Bulls are used as plow animals and relatively few are castrated. The "cattle crushes" in which the treatments were administered were constructed at each site by the villagers in the IDP camps from local materials, primarily logs and limbs from trees held together with nails, rope, and in some cases bark. It goes without saying that this was a challenge.


This area in northern Uganda has been contested between the Ugandan Peoples Defense Forces and the rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony. The LRA is still active in the Southern Sudan and neighboring countries; they have abducted thousands of children as "child soldiers," causing the rural populace to move into IDP camps so that the UPDF could protect them. In addition to armed attacks, ambushes and raids, during the conflict mines were used by both sides, resulting in the loss of life and limbs by the people.



Many of the people are now moving back into their former homes and the population of domestic animals is increasing, but the IDP camps still have many people in residence.

I will attempt to attach a few pictures but the number will be restricted because of internet limitations until we return to our base in the Horn of Africa.

All the best!

Jim

Countdown in North Uganda

Dear Family and Friends:

We have 9 mission days to go, over the half-way point on the Gulu, Uganda VETCAP. Today is the Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan so we are not working; make up for it by working this coming Saturday. Yesterday our team processed 1562 cattle and hundreds of goats/sheep and poultry in Lalogi. The other team did about half that number of cattle, but it all depends on how many the people bring at each site and how efficient we can get them through the villager-constucted working facility.


This is a picture of Stella, one of the vet students from Makerere University working with us. She was holding her own during a lively discussion during a break.


The animal in the "crush"/chute looks about like I felt yesterday after too much sun and too many trips up and back along its length. Not exactly like a Temple Grandin-designed working chute in a western Kansas feed yard, to say the least! And this is one of the better ones we have used.

Hope the pictures get through. Internet connection is dicey here; have to use a cell phone connection and purchased air time minutes.

All the best! Things going well here and the cattle and other animals have really benefitted from the U.S. efforts provided through USAID, the U.S Embassy and the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa.

I can't respond to all email messages because of the iffey connection but hope you are getting the pictures and messages as I can get them out.

Jim

From VETCAP in Gulu, Uganda (9/21/08)

TO: Family and Friends

Have not had internet access for over a week until today when I figure out how to use an air card and use the cell phone network. I may be able to send brief messages from time to time using this method but since I'm technologically challenged, it may not happen often!

We will be here doing many missions in Gulu District for next three weeks as we did last week. We are on track for treating over 40,000 animals in this area which was severely affected by an insurgency at the hands of the Lords Resistance Army until a short time ago. Things are much more stable now and we are working in Internally Displaced Persons camps that have people leaving and returning to their villages. This is the third VETCAP in this area and our heart-girth measurements of weight gains have shown a truly remarkable response to treatment of cattle for trypanosomiasis (Sleeping Sickness spread by Tsetse Flies, AKA "Nagana") and other conditions. Previous work by others like COL Vic Adamson who did the groundwork for this mission is really paying off now.

We took a trip to Murchison Falls National Park yesterday and this morning on our weekend off and managed to see giraffes, elephants, hippos, cape buffalo, babbons, crocadiles, Jackson Hartebeestes, Ugandan Kobs, Oribis, Abyssinian Hornbills, Black Bellied Bastards (my favorites!), Pata monkeys, egrets, cranes, Grey Billed Kingfishers, and Black Headed Weavers. Apologies for misspellings as I have no reference and hope my phonetic spelling is close. We topped off this morning by seeing four female lions next to the Albert Nile, also in the park.

Work resumes tomorrow on VETCAPS. Will try to send a picture or two but may not be able to until we get back to Kampala in mid-October.

All the best!

Jim

Update from Kamala, Uganda (9/12/08)

Dear Friends and Family:

We arrived here on Wednesday and leave tomorrow, Saturday, for Gulu, Uganda where we'll be doing a VETCAP with cattle, goats, sheep, poultry and dogs..and perhaps a few pigs. This will be involving a fairly large number of animals, estimated to be >40,000 based on previous work in that area. The work centers around Internally Displaced Persons camps that have been there since fighting in northern Uganda uprooted many thousands of people years ago. All stable now and peaceful but the people still are there and livestock is a big part of the economy for them and others.

I have attached a few pictures taken here in Uganda since we arrived. Tree perching storks are not uncommon in urban east Africa and Kampala is no exception - the attached was taken from the window of a restaurant not far from the Uganda Parliament building.


The sign is at the Entebbe airport where the rescue of the hostages took place in 1976.


All the best,

jf

Thursday, August 28, 2008

I am leaving Lamu, Kenya tomorrow to return to Nairobi to participate in outbriefs to the Kenyan Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries Development, and to the U.S. Embassy Kenya-US Liaison military office. We then head back to Djibouti for about six days before heading out for another month "down range", this time in Uganda. I suspect that I will have little to no email access then. This is very interesting in this part of the country since the islands are fairly remote and the livestock are for local use only.