Today we visited the livestock projects that CTPH has started by purchasing a few cows or goats for a community in order for them to have a steady income for their community as a whole.
We began at a goat project in the Bujengwe Parish. The shed for these goats was a good size however the family failed to sweep away the feces under it often enough to prevent parasites. Two of their goats had died, but they did not inform CTPH in a timely fashion, so there is no way of knowing why they died. Many of the young goats had parasites, so they were treated with ivermectin injections.
The second project we visited was also a goat project. All of the goats were healthy, however the shed they lived in was too small. This was a good problem because their goats had reproduced quickly!
Our final visit was to a cattle project. When we arrived at the community, tourists had just gotten back from tracking. The community had arranged a youth group to perform for them in order to raise money. It was exciting to be greeted like this as well! We were welcomed into the home of the community leader for the livestock project. He offered us tea and hard boiled eggs. We tasted the both an egg from a local chicken and an egg from a caged chicken, we found that the local egg tasted infinitely better than the caged! Because he was also a CTPH volunteer who informed his community about public health, his living room was decorated with anti-sex posters and young childhood development tip posters. After this lovely and refreshing snack, we went to go see the cattle.
Two of the cows had miscarried, so we were there to investigate. Stephen took blood samples from each, along with dung samples. The second cow had not relieved herself while we were there, so Stephen had to retrieve a sample from the cow. It was so difficult for him to enter that he made the cow tip over as he was pushing.
On our way back to the car, we saw a woman give birth on the side of the road. The average family has 7 children in Uganda; it could not have been her first because it seemed much to easy. The baby came out a very light color, but we found out that it will darken shortly.
Once back to the camp and fed, we went to purchase crafts for Dr. Gladys. She will be speaking at a symposium by San Francisco in October and needed crafts to sell. We have made good friends with this shop keeper in the past few days!
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