It has been a while!

Hello everyone! Sorry I haven't written in a while. Things haven't been extremely busy but I haven't had a chance to get to the internet cafe. I just want to say thank you for all of your e-mails and comments -- it feels really nice to get to the cafe and have messages. My blog is being featured on UNC's Center for Global Initiatives website. How cool! If you found this blog on that site, thanks for reading!

Last week we worked with an nyala with a hernia, captured kudu, gemsbok, blesbok, impala, and sable, and tracked buffalo. Not an extremely medically oriented week but exciting. While we were waiting for the helicpoter to come back Faye and I actually sunbathed on top of the lorry. I took a nap over belsbok -- oh how I love Africa. Oh and Africa time! Everything here is so much SLOWER than back home. For instance, if someone says they will be back in half an hour they mean an hour and a half. It took me a while to get used to it, but now I really appreciate enjoying the moment and not worrying about getting anywhere at a specific time. I have decided that one of my favorite things to do in the entire world is to sit in the bed of a pick up and drive through the bush. Luckily for me, I do this practically every day.

Yesterday we treated a sable with a huge lump on its neck. Turns out it was a tapeworm cyst -- one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Niel made an incision where the worm was and pulled it out with the fluid pouring everywhere. It was like a large clear sack with little white balls all around it (actaully heads). I gave it an injection in its bum, just some vitamins to help it recover.

This morning Angela and Niel castrated a horse because, no joke, the horse was going after the sheep. The setting was making me laugh so much. We were in this small run down stable with sheep all around, a sheep dog biting the tail of the horse, chickens running everywhere, and cattle calves trying to get a piece of the action. And the horse was so stubborn! It would not go down with the anaesthetic, but giving a horse an anaesthetic is a tricky thing because one doesn't exist solely for horses. Niel had to make a conncoction of four different anaesthetics. While I didn't get to be very ahdns on with the operation, I was the time keeper! Hey, you have to start somewhere.

I am having a small crisis with my camera. There is dust in the lens gears so it was stuck parcially open. The camera shops told me the only place to get it fixed was in Joberg -- 3 hours away. Hopefully though, the nice gentleman who works fixing computers at the internet cafe is trying to see what he can do -- he used to fix cameras. He actaully just brought it over and showed me the lens fully extended. Oh I hope he fixes it because I have to take pictures my last two weeks.

Well, we are about to capture a rogue giraffe. But I will finish with a funny, disgusting story. The week before last was the buffalo crisis -- in the end we had to dart 12 buffalo at one time in a pen to give them penicillin and vaccines. Can you say nerve racking? One refused to go down and actually was chasing Kathryn. I hid behind a tree. Going back to the story, we had to do a third post mortem because a third buffalo had died. To do this you must cut the front and back legs out of the way, peel back the skin, then the muscles, then carefully pop the rumen to let the bloated air out. Well, the farmhand cutting the muscles popped the rumen a little too soon, and it sprayed like an almost empty can of whip cream all over Faye's and my face. And in our mouth. Let's just say I will never make the mistake of standing in that spot ever again.