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

Email to family and friends (9/07/08)

To: Family & Friends

A few more pictures from Kenya VETCAP just completed with some thumbnail captions below...hope this is not too big for you to receive or for me to send:

Getting to work in Lamu on our little piece of the Indian Ocean. Never went on call like this before. This is the "command" boat.

Passing a dhow in Lamu. These boats have been sailing these waters for >1,000 years.

"Punda Poa, Kazi Poa" = "Good donkey, good job" (Donkey Trust logo)

"Winning hearts and minds, one goat at at time"

Some cows have more horns than others in east Africa

This young man got his goat.

Cow in dip tank; she learned to swim fast. Not exactly Phelps form but she made it!

All the best!

Jim Floyd

Short Update from Nairobi (8/31/08)

Dear Friends & Family:

Well, the LSU Tigers prevailed last night over Appalachian State (NC) in Tiger Stadium's earliest kickoff in recorded history. As a footnote to that, our Civil Affairs Team is in Nairobi to report to the US Embassy in Kenya on our VETCAP missions in Lamu district, Kenya. Very positive results...over 5,000 animals worked and I honestly think we did some good. Great people in a very unique area.

For your interest, attached are a few pictures for which I'll let you provide the captions.



Please pray for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Twila is displacing east just to be sure that the weiner dogs are safe.

Jim