An unexpected surprise 7/18

Today was the last day before the long four-day weekend, so we were planning on packing up and shopping for Ghanzi, where Janine and I will be returning for ten more days of cheetah trapping. At around 11 we got a call from Andries that he wanted Janine to come to Mokolodi (a nature reserve outside of Gabs) to vaccinate the giraffes that they are translocating to their farm. They hired Mark and Liza, the chopper pilots we met at Andries’ braai the other night, to dart and move the giraffes from Mokolodi to their farm. We drove with Andries and Ziandri to Mokolodi, and met up with Mark (the pilot) once we got there. Unfortunately, the darting of the giraffe didn’t go according to plan, so we weren’t able to vaccinate it. We had brought Botuthrax (combined botulism and anthrax vaccine), since giraffes can get botulism from chewing on bones. We also brought Covexin, which protects ruminants against the clostridial diseases. Since we couldn’t vaccinate the giraffes, it turned out to be more of just a fun and observational day. One of the pilots, Peter, showed Janine and I how the game capture method using a boma works. Basically the boma is a large series of tarps, that starts out wide and narrows like a funnel until it is so narrow that the animals will feed single file into the truck. There are also series of tarps that are perpendicular to the tarps forming the sides of the boma. These are on a track, so that people hiding behind them can close them as soon as the animal runs past them.  The animals are herded towards the boma by the chopper, which rings a series of alarms to scare the animals into moving. There are different alarms that notify the people running the boma how close the animals are, and when to close the tarps. Once the animals go through the final chute and are on the truck, they use plastic tubes heated by a fire to cover the animals’ horns, so that they don’t injure themselves or other animals. They also inject them with a tranquilizer using a syringe that is attached to the end of a long stick. There are small windows on the top of the truck that you can open to view the animals and administer the drugs. Not long after we arrived, Mark asked me if I had ever flown in a chopper before and if I wanted to go up with him. I totally wasn’t expecting to have the chance to go in the chopper, and it was such a treat! It was amazing rising up to the incredible view of the entire reserve, seeing kudu, impala, and even giraffe from above. The chopper is tiny (only a two seater), and is completely open on either side. It is such an exhilarating and free feeling, almost like you are flying yourself. We found a herd of eleven impala (all female and one male), so we started moving them over toward the boma. One of the females ran away from the group, and we tried to move her back with little success. It’s so much fun swinging around in circles to herd the animals; its like a roller coaster ride! We flew around for about 15 minutes herding the animals, before Mark decided he was going to drop me off at the landing pad. He needed as much power as he could get, and the chopper is so sensitive that even having me in it was cutting back on its power. I joined the others, who were watching the whole thing from the top of the truck. When the animals enter the boma and approach the truck, you have to lie down so as not to scare them. Janine also got to ride in the chopper with Mark, so we were both pretty pumped. After Mark decided he was done for the day we all packed up and went to the restaurant at Mokolodi for a few drinks. We all had a round of Springbok shooters (Amarula plus peppermint liquor), which are really delicious. We all decided that we would have the ‘Christmas in July’ party Janine has been planning tomorrow night, so that the pilots could join us. Today was yet another fascinating and amazing experience in Botswana!

Captured kudu on the truck

The boma

Andries,  myself, and Janine

 

 

7/17

I didn’t do much today, since it was mostly an administrative day for Janine. Ant was still in Gabs doing house calls and Mark is doing PDs at Clive’s farm in the Molopo. Lately there has been an issue with getting drug permits (the government requires a permit for every single drug the practice imports from South Africa), which has been pretty frustrating for the vets. The digital permitting system has been down for a week, and for some reason they can’t be done manually. Janine also had to deal with a farmer who wanted measles aged on his cattle being slaughtered today. Vetswana has an agreement with the government vets at the BMC abattoir that they have to give two days notice before they inspect meat, but the farmer didn’t request the service until the day of inspection. I went with Janine to BMC to request permission to enter the abattoir today. Janine was given permission and went back to the abattoir with the farmer around 12:30. Unfortunately, the farmer’s cattle were only slaughtered beginning at 2:45, so she was standing around for quite a while. Ant got back at the end of the day and was exhausted from running around in Gabs. 

PDs and an injured stallion 7/16

The original plan for the day was that Janine, Ant and I were going to do pregnancy diagnoses in Lobatse in the morning, and then Ant and I would leave for Gabs after we we finished. Unfortunately, we got a later start than anticipated, and Ant decided he wanted to leave Lobatse at 9:30 to get to his first house call in Gabs on time. When 9:30 rolled around I decided I wanted to stay with Janine to finish off the PDs, since it was likely my last shot at practicing them while I am in Africa. We had about 120 animals to diagnose, and it turned out that only 50% of them were pregnant. This farm had a very successful season last year, with about 80% of its cows pregnant, so it was strange that the rates were so low this year. Janine thinks that it might be the three years of drought catching up with them, combined with the fact that they were so successful last year. When a cow gives birth her body condition score suffers because her energy reserves go into producing and feeding the calf. This farm has Brahman cows, which are known for having low fertility. The other possibility is disease (Tritrichomonas foetus and Campylobacter fetus are the two leading pathogenic candidates) causing early abortion. This might explain the fact that Janine detected some early pregnancies that couldn’t have been more than 8 weeks old (exactly when the bull was taken out of the pen). With disease, early abortions occur, so the cow just keeps getting pregnant and losing her calf repeatedly.  Their bulls are also pretty old (nine), so they are more prone to disease, decreased fertility and arthritis, which can prevent mounting. They plan to test their bulls’ semen soon to see what the deal is. It was awesome to get some more practice doing pregnancy diagnoses, and I feel pretty comfortable with feeling the cervix and uterus, as well as obvious pregnancies (fetus or placentomes). However, it will definitely take a lot more practice to detect the earlier pregnancies and accurately say how far along they are.  We went back to Janine’s house at lunch, which is just down the road from the farm. We each showered outside (I had an interesting run-in with the goat boy, resulting in me ducking for like five minutes) and ate leftovers for lunch in the sunshine. We also found out that Janine and I will likely be returning to Ghanzi next week (after the long four-day weekend) to continue cheetah trapping! I am so pumped! I had no idea I’d be back to such exciting wildlife work so soon, and it’s going to be so much fun being there with Janine. I really can’t wait. Sadly, I’ll get back to Lobatse on the last day of my internship, but I’m trying not to think about that so soon. We were out doing PMs later in the afternoon when we got a call about an injured horse. It was nearly 5 PM, so Janine was clear that they would have to pay an after-hours call out fee. The horse is owned by a family that runs a dairy in the area, so we met them there. He is a stallion that was just moved from Ghanzi a few days ago, and was attacked by the owner’s other stallion. When we got there he was laying on his side, looking pretty painful. We gave him 0.5 mL Butorphenol and 0.5 mL Metatomadine in order to sedate him, in addition to a tetanus vaccine, and Pyroflam (an NSAID). We shaved (and by we I mean Janine, since I am useless with a free blade) and irrigated the wounds with Betadine and surgical scrub. There were a couple really deep wounds right into the muscle. Janine was concerned about the nuchal ligament being disrupted, which could potentially prevent the horse from raising its head. Luckily, the horse raised its head and was eating a bit when we got there, which were both good signs. We ran out of daylight quickly, so had to work using headlamps (they were impressed that we had thought of bringing them which was funny). Janine couldn’t stitch up the wounds since they had waited a long time to call (the fight occurred almost 24 hours before). Janine has an unofficial rule that she won’t stitch any tissue that was damaged more than six hours earlier, since the potential for bacterial invasion is so great and the tissue would likely just die off anyway.

 

7/15

In the middle of the night I woke up to the sound of rustling plastic bags in my room. I thought it might be a mouse in the bag I keep snacks in, so I turned the light on and looked around. I didn’t see anything inside the bag, so I stood there for a minute. As I was about to go back to sleep, a large toad hopped out onto the floor. I wasn’t expecting that! I guess it explains the mysterious puddle of liquid Janine and I found in my room earlier in the evening… In the morning we saw an interesting case. It was a greyhound with Transmissible Venereal Tumor (TVT), which is one of the three contagious cancers in animals. There is also a cancer in Tasmanian devils called Devil Facial Disease, which I actually learned about from Jane at CCB, since she did some work with the disease in Australia. It turns out that the third type is in Syrian hamsters, which is interesting (thanks Wikipedia!). The owner of this female greyhound noticed that the dog had a large tumor on her vulva and brought her in a few weeks ago. TVT is fairly common in this area, since it is easily transmitted via strays and free-roaming dogs. Both males and females can get it and they are infected during copulation. Under a microscope the tumor cells are very distinct from regular skin cells, since they are large and have round, centrally located and actively replicating nuclei. Interestingly, they have fewer chromosomes than regular dog cells (57-64 chromosomes versus the normal 78). The tumor rarely metastasizes (only 5% of the time), but when it does it can be to the lymph nodes, skin, nose (from licking), and some internal organs. At that point it is pretty much too far gone and there is nothing really you can do. If you catch the tumor early enough though, the prognosis is actually really good with proper treatment. The treatment is Vincristine sulfate, which is an injectable chemotherapy agent. It is given to the dog IV once a week, for up to six treatments depending on the size of the tumor and its progress. This particular dog had made great progress, and the tumor had shrunk a lot since the last time Janine saw it. It is extremely important that the catheter is properly in the vein when you inject the Vincristine, or it can cause tissue damage, and potentially eat away at the whole limb, requiring amputation. The drug is actually derived from a flowering herb called the Periwinkle Plant. We also saw our friendly neighborhood thief today, standing way up on the hill staring at us audaciously as we stared right back. After lunch Janine and I went to do some PMs, which were routine. As we were driving up, Janine noticed that one of the calves was sprawled out on the ground looking injured. I got out of the car and saw that the calf was definitely not ok, as it was breathing extremely heavy. Janine suspected that it had been stepped on by the cows in the pen and had some kind of crush injury. It was extremely difficult to watch the poor calf struggling to breath. I was feeling a mix of anger and sadness, because calves (let alone female cows) should not be in a feedlot. We ended up emergency slaughtering the calf, which I could barely watch. It’s one thing to have to watch cattle being slaughtered due to inadequate conditions, but it really pushes me over the edge when it is a young animal. As a vet you have to undergo some level of desensitization and detachment from death, since you have to deal with it on a daily basis. I definitely have grown accustomed to that aspect of the profession to a certain degree, but there are moments where it is very difficult, as I’m sure it is for anyone in the veterinary field.

7/14

Before lunch we saw two injured dogs, pretty much at the same time. One was a Boerbol that had been attacked by another animal (probably a dog). She was really sweet, so it wasn’t difficult to work on her. Luckily, she had a good owner, so she was well cared for and properly vaccinated for rabies. Her owner had left for the weekend and discovered that she had deep bite wounds under her left forelimb when he returned home. We washed the wound out well with surgical soap and Betadine. We also gave her Rimadyl for pain, Ranclav (aka Clavamox in the The States, an antibiotic), and Ecco (high fat canned food), which she wolfed down. It’s always a good sign if a dog feels well enough to eat, so that was promising. Finally, we boostered her rabies vaccine, since the owner wasn’t sure what bit her. The other dog we saw was a Min Pin with a painful paw. Janine gave the dog morphine so she would be sedated enough to look at the paw. Usually dogs vomit if you give them morphine, but she wasn’t vomiting. Her owner said that she didn’t vomit the last time she was given morphine either, so Janine went ahead and muzzled her (there is the worry that she could aspirate if she vomits with a muzzle on). The dog was wriggling a lot so it was hard to get a good look at the paw, but it was evident that part of her pad was cut. We gave her some Rimadyl to take home for pain, and also injected her with Peni-LA and a tetanus vaccine. Unfortunately paw pads take a really long time to heal, so it will just be a matter of time before she starts feeling better.

 

7/13

I woke up at 10:30 (latest I’ve slept in since I’ve been here) to toast and delicious raspberry jam that Janine made for me. We sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine for a while. Unfortunately the cow from the previous night was still not standing up, and they decided to put her out of her misery. It was really frustrating and unfortunate that we couldn’t get the calf out, but at least she wouldn’t have to suffer anymore. We got a call out to Hervitz to do post-mortems, which were the usual twisted gut and clostridial red gut. Andres invited us for lunch, so we went over there when we got back to the farm. Sharon and Ziandri are in South Africa, but there were some guests staying over that joined for lunch as well. (Another) Mark and his wife Lisa are pilots who translocate game for a living. There were also two other pilots, Thomas and Peter, who work with Mark. They grilled ‘beer chicken’ which is when you put an open beer into the chicken so that it absorbs the beer into the juices. I grilled two veggie schnitzel burgers, and ate some of the mashed pumpkin and cream broccoli, which were great. Per usual I got some critical questions and comments about being vegetarian, but I’m pretty used to it now and I understand that it is just a cultural difference. After lunch was over we went home to take a nap and give Pip a bath. Then we took Pip for a long walk around the farm, during which five of the du Plessis’ dogs joined us. We went back over to the du Plessis’ to watch the World Cup final and to braai around 8 PM. Janine’s friends, Jannie and Craig, also joined us for the braai. We sat around the braai pit outside for a while before the game started at 9, and didn’t end up eating until after 10 (I was getting seriously hungry, but it’s pretty typical to eat really late at a braai, so I should have known better). I had Pap (maize mash) and Chakalaka (tomato and onion sauce to put on the Pap), as well as the bean salad that Janine and I brought over. We were getting really tired, since the game lasted forever. It went into half hour of overtime, since it remained 0-0 for the whole length of the game. Germany finally kicked a goal during overtime, but of course I was in the kitchen for a minute making tea when it happened. It was already 11:30 by the time the game ended, so we went right to sleep when we got home. 

A difficult calving 7/12

We decided we would leave camp around 9 AM, so we could go to the Ghanzi Show for a bit to purchase merchandise from the CCB stand before our long journey home. Jane needed to drive to Gabs anyway to do a week’s worth of fundraising work (she is busy organizing a golf fundraiser), so it actually worked out that she would drive us. Justine also needed to be back in Gabs to fly to Joburg the following day for a One Health conference at Onderstepoort vet school, so the four of us rode together for the 7 hour trip. I bought a T-shirt and a baseball cap, and Justine went all out and bought a fleece, a safari shirt, and a T-shirt. CCB sells some really nice merchandise, and the show is where they sell the most (usually around P5000, over $500 worth). Jane really wanted to buy cookies from the bakery stand, but unfortunately they were closed down. We hit the road around 11 AM, since we had a long trip ahead of us. We stopped in Kang for fuel and to hit up the gift shop, where I got some wildlife postcards and a keychain for Jane. Although I had bought a bottle of Brandy and a box of Cadbury chocolates for the CCB staff, Jane wouldn’t get to enjoy them since she’d be in Gabs for a week. I wanted to get her something to show how much I appreciated her letting us borrow her car the whole time, and everything else she did for us.  We also drove through Jwaneng, the town with the richest diamond mine in the world. The name actually means ‘a place of small stones’ in Setswana. We also stopped for fuel later on and got some food at Nando’s, a semi-fast food chicken joint. They actually have Nando’s in the UK, so Justine knew that they had nice veggie options. I really enjoyed the veggie patty in a pita with lemon herb sauce.  When we finally got close to home Janine phoned and said that she had been called out for a calving at Tania’s farm. She was planning on picking me up from Ant’s when we got in, since Ant was going straight to Gabs for the weekend to see his dad who is home from Malawi. He took a construction job there for a year, so he is only home in Botswana one week per month. We unloaded Jane’s car at Ant’s and said our goodbyes, and Janine picked me up soon after. Tania’s farm is over an hour away, so we had a nice long ride ahead of us (it was already like 8 PM by the time we left). The cow had gone into labor in the morning, but no one was home until the afternoon. At first they thought she had already calved, but later realized that she was still trying to give birth and that the calf was stuck. We got down to business when we arrived, and Tania brought us coffee and Milo (hot malt drink) since it was freezing outside. We had to strip down to short sleeves to be able to palpate the calf inside the cow. Janine had a feel and quickly discovered that the calf’s head was bent completely backwards, and it was definitely dead. We gave the cow an epidural of lidocaine between the vertebrae of the tail, as well as Norotrim (an antibiotic), and Metacam (a painkiller). Janine then attempted to pull the head straight, but to no avail. After a while, Janine and the rest of us (Tania, Bertus, me, and their farm worker) helped to try to pull the calf out. We looped one rope around each front hoof with heavy sticks on the other end to act as a handle. We alternated pulling on the right and left ropes, with two of us on each rope. While it did help pull the calf’s legs out a bit, unfortunately, the head was still stuck in that horribly wrong position. We tried everything we possibly could to get the head straightened out, including using a spanner (wrench) to act as an introducer to loop a rope around the calves neck. We also tried to put hooks in the calf’s eye sockets or a hook through its jaw, but there was just no way to gain proper access to the head. It was such a tight fit against the mother’s pelvis, and there was just no range of motion for our hands to do anything. Another idea was to try to use the embryotomy wire to actually cut the calf’s head off, but that was really dangerous and probably wouldn’t work anyway. After about three hours of pulling and maneuvering around in the uterus, it was clear that nothing was working. The cow sat down in the end, which made it all the more difficult to do anything. Janine decided that if the cow was standing in the morning and looked decent that she would do a C-section free of charge for professional time. She hasn’t done one in a long time so it would be a great learning experience for both of us. Tania’s farm worker was extremely upset that the cow was in pain, which was sad to see but also refreshing that he truly cared about the animal’s welfare (a rare thing to come by in this country). By the time we got home it was already 2 AM, so we both agreed that we’d sleep in late on Sunday morning! 

Last day of cheetahs :( 7/11

Justine, Ant, and I accompanied Jane to Dudley’s for the last trap check of the trip. Unfortunately there were no cats there or anywhere else on our very last day. It would have been awesome to catch more than four cheetahs, but four is definitely better than none! And it’s amazing that we have all three brothers in a coalition, which will be incredible for obtaining data concerning group-hunting techniques. While we were at Dudley’s we used the portable antennae to make sure that it was picking up the pings from the cheetah collars. On the ride back into town we stopped at the Ghanzi show, to help pitch CCB’s tent. After we worked to set up the huge canvas tent, one of the men in charge came up to Max saying that we had to move it. It was in typical Botswana style, since Max had specifically asked if that spot was okay before we started. We ended up leaving it where it was, since it would have been a huge ordeal to move the entire thing. After we were done, I walked around with Justine, showing her the booths since she hadn’t yet been to the show. We also sat down to watch the livestock show, which was small ruminants (goats and sheep) for the day. I was impressed with the fact that they did not use halters in the show ring, and actually moved the goats around by just gripping their horns. The goats kept wriggling out of the grasp of the showman, and ended up running around the ring, which was pretty funny. Ant and Justine got beers from the Windhoek beer stand, and some girls walked up to me and asked if I could take their picture, which actually turned out to be a really beautiful photo. We planned to return to Thakadu, the game reserve where we took the bushman walk, for a farewell dinner. Jane’s friend Michelle was leaving for Gab’s the next day to stay there before having her baby, so her friends had planned a farewell dinner for her there as well. Unfortunately Michelle wasn’t feeling well, so she couldn’t make her own dinner, but it was still nice meeting everyone. Kevin Grant’s son, Stuart (who I had met a few days earlier), and his family were there in addition to the entire CCB crew (including Carl, Jane’s fiancé). Justine, Uyapo, and I all ordered the vegetarian lasagna on my recommendation (Uyapo REALLY wanted lasagna, but they didn’t have any with meat in it). Dinner was really yummy and I tried a hard cider as well. Justine and I asked if they did any hot drinks with alcohol in them, but they said they could only do Irish coffee (I didn’t really want to stay up half the night). Later, Justine had the idea of having Milo (malt drink) and Amarula, but I was too full by that point, especially because I decided to continue with a chocolate brownie. After dinner the ‘more mature’ folk left, while the rest of us stayed for some more drinks by the fire. Ant ordered Sprinboks for all of us, which are shots of Crème de Menthe with a layer of Amarula on top. They were so good!  We took a bunch of pictures with each other for memory’s sake on our last night, and eventually headed back to camp. 

The whole crew at Thakadu

 

Amarula, Chibuku, and S’mores 7/10

We were all very eager to get a cat on the second to last day of trapping. Two cars went straight to DQ, so as many of us as possible would be present in the event that there was a cat or two. We had previously set up a second trap at another marking tree nearby to the first one (just across the pan). We picked up Phale from his house in town, and had a nice ride to DQ discussing our opinions on wildlife conservation, meat consumption, and hunting with Max and Phale. When we got to DQ we saw that the traps were still open, which was a real bummer since we were all hoping on catching the two boys there next. To make it even worse, there were spoor everywhere around the newly set trap and the camera pole had fur all over it, meaning the cheetah had rubbed against it. Justine checked the camera cards on her laptop, which showed pictures of one of the cheetahs approaching the trap, but turning around just before stepping inside it. We were so close!! It’s so unfortunate that we have to disarm the traps today, since there are hunters visiting DQ. We really felt like we could have gotten these brothers if we just had one more day. Since that one trap was newer, they may have just been getting acclimated to it, taking a few days to make sure it was safe to enter.  Such a bummer. After DQ we went straight to Edo’s, which was a treat since none of us have been there yet. We stopped at the main camp and met Andy and Charlsie, who were very friendly. He is Italian and his dad owns the farm, and I think she is half American/half something else. The grounds were really beautiful, overlooking a pan. Even the toilet was amazing, in a little hut with a suave sink and swivel thatched door. It is a game reserve where people come and stay to hunt. We also checked out the small gift shop that is stocked with crafts from Ghanzi Craft and locally made clothing. There was a neat ostrich egg with figures of antelope etched into it. Sadly, there was nothing in the trap at Edo’s. We did enjoy walking around the pan, taking pictures of the beautiful forms of the dead trees adjacent to the water. There were also a bunch of vultures and some Marabou Storks feeding on a carcass just across the way. I also found the beautiful blue and purple feather of a Lilac-Breasted Roller. On the way out we checked the two camera tracks on site, and also stopped for Phale to tell us ‘the hippo tale’. Back in February, the pan at DQ flooded and Jane was checking the bottom of the pan for one of the cameras. All of a sudden she looked up and was eye to eye with a hippo. At first she ran for the shore, but realized she wouldn’t make it, so she switched directions for the tree. She ran up the tree, and ended up staying there for three hours. She had just found out she was pregnant, so ended up nicknaming her daughter ‘Kubu’, which is the Swana word for hippo. She’s definitely lucky to be alive, but has a pretty cool story to tell for it! We also checked the two camera traps on the property, which hadn’t been looked at for a couple months. We saw all kinds of awesome animals on the card including: Kori bustards (the national bird), cheetahs, ostriches, a caracal (!!), and jackals. After checking the traps we went into town, so Ant could try to sort out his residence permit. Even though he has lived in Botswana most of his life, he was born in South Africa and has been having a lot of trouble obtaining residence here. He had his passport overnighted to Ghanzi from Lobatse so he could bring it to the immigration office. We figured he would be waiting in line for a while (immigration always takes forever), so Jen and Justine and I decided to walk over to Spar. We got ice cream at the counter, which was only 7 Pula (less than a dollar) for two scoops, which was pretty impressive. Back at immigration we were waiting in the parking lot when a man approached us. He said Jen’s cheetah tattoo had caught his eye, and he was wondering if we were doing cheetah conservation. We had an interesting conversation with him about CCB’s conservation work, and farming and hunting in general. He was genuinely interested in our work and was clearly an intelligent guy, so it was cool getting the chance to listen to his opinions. When Ant was done he said he wanted to buy us a bottle of Amarula (a liqueur made from the marula fruit, which tastes similar to Bailey’s) for waiting for him, since Justine wanted to try it. We stopped at the bottle store, and after that Max said we had one more stop to make. Earlier in the week Max was telling us that we should try Chibuku, a local alcohol made from fermented maize and sorghum.  Pretty much he said it’s extremely cheap and extremely disgusting, but that we had to try it if we wanted to get a taste of the local culture. We were all keen to do it, and Ant said he would buy it for us. It is sold at a little booth that only sells Chibuku, and it’s 7 Pula (less than a dollar) for a liter-sized carton. It was a really funny experience, since I don’t think the locals are too used to white people buying Chibuku. Ant got some strange looks and laughs as he ran in and asked for a liter. To make matters worse (and funnier), he said there was a heated sex scene playing on the TV when he walked in. At camp we went back to Ark to shower and eat dinner before lighting a campfire to drink the Chibuku and make the rest of the S’mores that were left over. We ended up making the fire outside the kitchen at Ark, since Reggie and Uyapo had come over to our camp to take showers anyway. We passed the Chibuku around the circle, each having a sip and documenting the expressions on everyone’s face as they drank it. I was actually surprised it wasn’t much worse than it was; it sort of just tasted like weird beer. I think it was the little floating pieces that made it pretty gross. We didn’t go to bed until around 11, but wanted to head out early the next morning so we could get a head start on checking traps for the last day of trapping.

Girls who asked me to take their picture at the Ghanzi Show

Food stalls at the Ghanzi Show

Justine and Murphey

My reaction to trying Chibuku

 

 

Ghanzi Show 7/9

Last night was so cold that I slept with my sleeping bag over my face. I think it was around 35 degrees, but I’m not exactly sure. I actually heated up water to wash my face and wash the dishes for the first time, because I couldn’t bear the thought of using cold water like I normally do (resulting in frozen fingers!).  I geared up like I was about to go skiing, which was a pretty funny thought later in the day when it was hot and sunny. Jane and I went to check the trap at Kevin Grant’s farm first thing. We seem to have become roadtrip buddies, and I am the official gate opener. I don’t mind it, since it’s good exercise and keeps the ride eventful.  Jane is also a really fun and interesting person to talk to and plays great playlists (no radio signal here). There was no cheetah at Grant’s, and nothing on the SD cards from the camera, meaning nothing had even visited the trap. Back at camp we got the word that there was nothing at any of the other farms. Jane decided that she wanted to get her hair done in town around 3:30, so we decided to tag along to check out the Ghanzi Show. The farm show is one of the biggest events to happen in Ghanzi, and draws a big crowd of locals and farmers who travel from around the country. We have all been wanting to check it out, since it is supposed to be an interesting experience. There are a lot of Afrikaans farmers there, but also a lot of local black Motswanas. It was definitely an interesting mix of people and events. There was a large show ring, where workers were showing bulls. Today was beef showing day, and I think tomorrow will be goats and sheep, and then Saturday is a horse race. We were actually surprised that there weren’t more people and the show wasn’t bigger, since everyone seems to make such a big deal out of it. We watched the bulls in the show ring for a while, which seemed to be divided up into breeds (it was all Charolais bulls in the ring then). We checked out the few food stalls, where Rick and I bought some homemade cookies. There was also a stand with interesting jarred pickled foods, and Rick got some honey mustard. There wasn’t really much in the way of crafts, which was kind of a bummer since that is always what I am most excited about at fairs. The group got split up for a bit, so Rick and I decided to check out the rest of the grounds. There was a section that seemed to be run by the locals. One section was the ‘food court’, and another area was more merchandise. As you walked by the food booths, the people would tell you what they were selling; one man announced that he was selling goat meat and the next man cucumbers. The merchandise was an odd mix, with one man selling crappy dollar store toys and the next selling expensive wrought iron dishware. Back at the main area there were little Afrikaans boys running around shooting fake guns and farmers drinking beers. We decided to go back over to the ring to watch the bulls. All of a sudden, this man approaches Jen and asks her for her Coke. It’s not that uncommon for people to ask you for food or money here, so at first we weren’t really surprised. He was extremely insistent though, and even put his hand around the can. He started shouting. “I’m begging you” and actually grabbed the can and squeezed it. Jen finally gave in because she didn’t want to make an even bigger scene than he was already making, but she was clearly disturbed. The man definitely had some psychological issues, and was shouting incomprehensible things at the top of his lungs. He even walked up to me, and started shouting while looking me straight in the eye. It was a bit scary, especially when we finally walked away and he followed us. Later on, the cops actually had to escort him out because he was making so much of a ruckus. We saw Hennie and Laticia, who had just arrived in order to be able to show their sheep tomorrow.  Clive Marshall was also at the show, and it was nice to see some familiar faces from Lobatse. Once back at camp we decided to head right to Ark, since it is easier to build a fire for the showers when there is some daylight left. I made beans and rice with peas and cheese for dinner, which was actually really tasty. I’m getting the hang of camping food, and even mastered the near impossible type of can opener they use here. None of us could figure it out for about a week, so we like to joke that it took three college degrees and two cuts to get it right (I took a small chunk out of my thumb the other day, but it was worth figuring out the mystery of the stupid can opener). 

Brahman bull at the Ghanzi Show