First day of Clinics

 

Finally!!  Have decent internet connection!  So now there will be more photos and I will try to go back and get more pics into the previous blogs!  Ya-Hoo!!!

Mauritius October 2, 2012 Tuesday

Woke up at 4am and decided to work on lines for the play. Dosed off and once again woke up to lots of birdies greeting the day. It rained off and on during the night. While sitting outside working on the computer, it started seriously raining! Had to move inside, sitting on my bed, staring out at the rain and the sea. Hmm, it is a tough life!

We have a maid, Wendy, (that comes with the house we are staying in) that cooks and cleans for us. She arrives about 8:30 am and makes breakfast, does any cleaning, will do laundry and shopping. In the evening she will make dinner if we have ordered it the day before. She is an excellent cook. Since she arrives later than we need to leave on the clinic days, Karen and Karen made breakfast today. Then we piled in the van and headed off to PAWS for our first clinic day.

The PAWS employees had set up the work stations, then the WV group added our supplies to the mix. I had to have a driver take me back to our house, I had forgotten all of the supplies Blue and I brought from home! Sheesh! It was still a slow start today.

 

Siohban, Lisa and I did surgery in the main building, Jay and Karen worked out in the trailer. Judy helped with reception, Blue and Karen were the techs in the main building. There were floaters doing prep for the trailer, and folks in recovery.

We were able to sterilize and treat about 65 animals today! We had hoped to do about 100, but only 65 showed up. So we did do 100% of the animals that were there! Most of the dogs are a medium size, short hair, long legs and long tail. They all look related… almost like a specific breed… the Mauritius Rocket! A few of the dogs do have a different look, some definitely have some dachshund in them. Most are pretty friendly and easy going. I never saw any really large dogs, or any really little, except for puppies. We did a fair number of cats, also. About a 4:1 ratio, I think.

 

 

 

The weather was nice, in the 70’s and usually a nice breeze coming through the windows. Lunch was traditional Mauritian: a tortilla type wrap (made from ground lentils!) with vegie stuff on the inside, some had chicken. Very tasty. The traditional part that was skipped was the chili sauce. The Mauritians like it hot! Way too hot for us foreigners! Also had fresh green salad and “chips”(fries… the universal food!!).

We finished up about 5pm and headed back to the house. Worked on trying get more blogging done. We have to take about a five minute walk to the main reception area to get to where there is spotty (and slooooow) internet service. The walk is along the seashore… so not a hardship! It takes 8-10 minutes to download a single picture, so that is why the blogs are light in photos…sorry! AND sometimes the internet fails and I have to start all over! Arrgh!

 

 

By the time I headed back to the house, it was dark… then I realized the simple pleasant walk was not so easy!  There is some light from the houses in the area, but not enough to illuminate the very uneven trail… it was tougher to walk back, and a lot slower!  But I made it and was rewarded to a wonderful dinner that Wendy had prepared.  Roasted chicken, salad and roasted potatoes.  It was wonderful! 

Got cleaned up, had some debriefing of the days work and headed off to bed.  Tomorrow is a free day and we are going to tour apart of the island.

Ciao for now!