Friday, 31 August 2018

Day 4 - NEVER wish for a quiet day

The main islands of Kiribati. Tarawa is the 2 sides of
a triangle in the top left quadrant

I completely lost any credibility that I was hanging onto today. We started out pretty much on time with our shopping list of petrol, banana bread, superglue and a stop to visit the hospital pharmacy on the way. I said that we would drop into the hospital 8-8.30am to pick up our much needed disinfectant, then we would be on our way to Tanaea at the Agriculture division of MELAD (Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agriculture Division).
Buying bananas - they are wonderful!

In previous years Tanaea had been a long way from anywhere and no-one knew we were there, and we never managed to do much surgery there. So I was not keen we spent much time there but agreed we should try a day. So I wasn’t in a big hurry to get there at 8.30am as arranged. So when Helen suggested that we visit the hospital emergency department to ask what dog bite statistics they had, we thought it would be no problem to stop for a chat while we were in the hospital environs.
Waiting owners with their dog
Tanaea is on the edge of a channel running between
 the ocean and the lagoon
So the chat turned into a visit to the hospital statistician as we discussed the merits (and current limitations) of obtaining data on the number of cases presented for dog bites to the hospital or clinics. This turned into quite a long (and interesting) chat....


So around 10am we finally appeared at our clinic destination….to find 5 dogs waiting for our services and soon plenty more appeared. In recording the “clinic admissions” for the day I was delighted that most people had heard of our presence and services on the radio. They had mostly travelled in their own vehicles or with the help of friends. We even had 2 previously desexed dogs come to visit for ”medicine” (worming). Long story short we didn’t stop for lunch until 4pm, as more and more vehicles turned up with their animals!

Selfies - Paddling in the channel at the end of a busy day


Kids playing nearby

Needless to say we were pretty tired again but satisfied with a very encouraging day. Current tally stands at 80 dogs (52M, 28F), 5 cats (2M, 3F).
 
Annaliese took it out on a coconut
And won after some sweat!!



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