We finished our time with the Lilongwe wildlife center team on the day of the hyena release. Four hyenas had been rescued last year from roaming in the President’s property and these were now to be released to the Liwonde National Park. Alarm in our tent in the Mabuya camp went on at 3:45 am for us to meet the rest of the team at 4:45am. Plan was to drive the hyenas in to the night rooms one by one and then dart there to be then checked, sampled and carried to the transportation crates to recover from anesthesia and to be transported to Liwonde.
After saying goodbye to the hyenas, monkeys and the LWC people we got ready to leave Lilongwe to get started with Mission Rabies work in Blantyre. Before Blantyre we stopped at Liwonde National Park, Bushman’s Baobab for a good bushlife-camping night and some great wildlife sightings. As we were cooking our dinner on the fire next to our tent we saw an elephant just about 20m behind our tent, in the bush, grazing happily. And hippos had their own concert through the night when they were grazing on the land behind the campsite tents. Bushman’s Baobab also has a viewing deck where you can sit and wonder the elephants that walk by, going to have a bath in the river just 100 meters from the reception and dining and lounge area of the lodge. From Liwonde we drove to Zomba Plateu where we enjoyed the views of and from the hills. Driving up the winding roads reminded us all of driving up to Ooty. We found accommodation at a ‘Trout Farm’ – a quiet and rundown campsite-cum-attempt-to-be-a trout-farm where we got a small two bedroom house with a fireplace and kitchen facilities in another building. Worked well for us and the fireplace became really needed when we got back from the Zomba Plateu Stables where we went for a trail ride on the hills and got hit by sudden heavy rains and so we were totally drenched, water pouring out our boots by the time we got back. Sitting there by the fireplace we begun planning Silver Shoe Riding Adventures – having seen now how these trail riding companies operate our girls started thinking how we could start arranging supervised rides on Saturday mornings for the visitors of the area and so raise funds to maintain the shelter and rescued animals. As always I have enjoyed the colours and shapes of vegetables for sale in the markets and roadside stalls. Zomba market was especially beautiful. Three months of monkey rehabilitation and integration work in the LWC was good experience for us, especially for Nigel who learned a lot about studying behaviour and planning integrations of new monkeys in to existing troops. I was impressed by the outreach awareness and educational programs that the center has and really hope that the seeds of conservation are planted into fertile ground and the people who attend or participate in the LWC educational programs will really be able to live the change and resist the appealing way of going by short-sighted profits. Trying the remote capture tools; blow-pipe and dan-inject gun, made me to think that having a blow-pipe could be very useful in India when a semi-wild cow needs to be sedated. Clinically, I’m looking forward to our next monkey rescue case or any wild animal case – the dedication of the LWC team to care for big and small wild animals was impressive and I hope to be able to transfer some of those ideas to our work in ITC and IPAN. The overall project management, especially staff/team management, is something I hope to constantly improve in and again seeing and experiencing different teams, different people and different situations has been good. We have been happy to see how the importance of nature conservation is becoming concrete to Emma and Saara and how they are thinking about ways how they could lead more environmental friendly life and how important it is that we protect wild animals. The video clip 'Sorry' has been a topic in our homeschool session discussions. We also made many new friends in Lilongwe and on our last night there we had lovely Indian dinner with a Tamil family settled in Malawi. As per my wish Benitta had cooked beautiful dhal fry – my absolute favorite Indian food. If I just could do It so well we would hardly eat much else. Emma is rather happy that I can not cook dahl fry to the perfection like I wished. So we don’t eat it all the time. Now in Blantyre we are with the Mission Rabies team, working together with Blantyre SPCA, preparing for the Mission Rabies vaccination month to happen in May. Aim is to get 30 000 dogs vaccinated during the launching month and then the work will continue with spay/neuter and continuous vaccination work. After a good dose of wildlife and conservation at LWC, we are happy to be again doing what we know best and where our hearts are deeply in – rabies control and dog welfare and field surgery missions. Joining Dagmar, Tarryn and May and the heap of work and arrangements and permissions they have on their shoulders to still get done, Nigel has got busy with getting the dog catching nets made and with Dagmar I ended up operating a Boxer that had been in labour for two days to save her from dying because of the dead puppies stuck inside her. Malawi has one vet college that started their program last year so so far there are no graduate vets from Malawi. The few vets that work in this country are government vets educated outside the country and a couple of private vets, equally studied somewhere else. However, Malawi has a paravet-degree, a three year course that gives basic skills to deal with common diseases and conditions – especially with rural livestock - and also allows the paravets to operate male dogs. For anything in the abdomen, chances are much less for the dog owners to find a vet who could do it.
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Ajoimme Kande-beachille koska siellä oli mahdollisuus ratsastaa ja tytöille oli luvattu maastoratsastusretki – ja joo, kyllähän mullekin maastoretki aina sopii! Ratsastimme metsissä ja pelloilla ja kaislikossa ja hiekkateillä ja mutapoluilla. Saaralta sujui ison hevosen selässä ravi hienosti monta sataa metriä ja Emman kanssa pääsimme laukkaamaan pari puolen kilometrin pätkää hiekkatietä ja ruohoniittyä. Ratsutilan päärakennus oli iik-ihana ‘englantilaistyyppinen?’ tiilirakennus, jossa kivilattia-keittiö-toimistosta päästiin heti satulahuoneeseen ja molemmista pihalle missä oli juuri sellainen tiilikiveys kun meille halusin ja ulkokeittiö ja näkymä talleille (ulkokarsina-katos-systeemi), kentälle ja laitumille. Saara haluaa tänne töihin pitämään välivuotta lukion jälkeen (sic!).
Kande-horse African horse trails kohokohta oli kuitenkin hevosten uittaminen. Tuuli oli aika voimakas ja aallokko kova, joten ihan uimaan-uimaan asti emme päässeet mutta tyrskyjä päin kuitenkin ratsastimme kaikki kolme. Seuraavana päivänä ajoimme Nkhata Bayhin joka on pieni kalastajasatama. Katselimme veneitä ja juttelimme yhden veneen omistajan kanssa. 40-50 matkustajaa otetaan kyytiin ja sitten lähdetään kohti muita rannikon pikkukyliä. Kalaa myytiin joka paikassa ja mekin söimme kalaa lounaaksi. Lähiruokaa. Niin ja söimme me lähikalaa edellisenäkin päivänä kun Nigel oli ostanut pari kalaa kalastajalta meidän tyttöjen ollessa ratsastamassa ja sitten saimme ne vielä ilmaiseksi perattua kun poika sitä ehdotti että saisi palkaksi kalan päät itsellensä illlallisaineksiksi. Kande-beach-Nkhata Bay -reissu oli taas telttareissu ja ruoka valmistui tulella. Nuotio-ja grillimestariltamme tämä sujuu hyvin ja tytöt ovat jo taitavia teltan pystyttäjiä. Matkaseurana siis sitä parasta. Viime viikolla oli kiiretta. Avustin ‘primate medicine’ –kurssilla ja siksi vaihdoimme Nigelin kanssa osia; minä olin kokopäiväisesti töissä ja Nigel oli ‘kotona’ tyttöjen kanssa. Juuri ennen kurssin alkua, maanantaina, uuteen laumaan integroitu orpopaviaanilapsi ‘Bo’, joutui lauman isomman uroksen hampaisiin ja aika huonoin seurauksin. Vaikka epäilyksenä oli että Bon jalat olivat halvaantuneet, päätimme kuitenkin leikata jotta saisimme vatsaonteloon ulottuvat puremahaavat ja tyrän korjattua ja toivoa että jalkoihin palaisi tunto. Nyt viikko leikkauksen jälkeen haavat ovat parantuneet hyvin mutta Bo ei valitettavasti vieläkään kävele ja ennuste alkaa olla hyvin huono.
Kurssilla teimme apinoiden terveystarkastuksia, keskustelimme vankeudessa syntyneiden leijonien sopimattomuudesta luontoon palautusohjelmiin, harjoittelimme puhallisputken ja nukutuskiväärien käyttöä, tutkimme kakka- ja verinäytteitä ja opettelimme intuboimaan lintuja yms. Kurssi päättyi retkeen Kuti-wildlife reserveen, jossa jo aiemmin olimme telttailemassa. Tälläkin kertaa ihailin ihania seeproja jotka eivät täällä juuri välitä ihmisistä ja päästävät aika lähelle. Huomenna lähdemme Kande-beachille, ratsastusvaellukselle ja sen jälkeen palaamme takaisin Lilongween auttamaan kun LWC:n neljä hyeenaa palautetaan luontoon ja sitten jatkamme matkaa kohti eteläisempää Malawia ja Blantyrea ja Mission Rabies –projektia. Tänään oli ihan huippujuttu se, että saimme postia! Vasta viime viikolla ymmärsin että Malawissa ei postia jaeta asunto-osoitteisiin vaan postia varten pitää olla postilokero postitoimistossa. Meillä ei tietenkään sellaista ole ja Mabuya-campin ‘fyysiseen’ osoitteeseen lähetetyt kirjeet eivät olisi meitä saavuttaneet jos emme olisi viimein käyneet postissa kysymässä että olisiko joku meille lähettänyt jotain. Ja oli! Tytöt saivat hurjasti kirjeitä koulukavereiltaan ja myös Ronjan ja Mamun ja Isoäidin kirjeet ja kortit tulivat perille. To celebrate the World Wildlife Day (2nd April 2015) many wildlife conservation organisations as well as general public marched in Lilongwe to also demand an end to the wildlife crime in Malawi. The highlight of the march was supposed to be the burn of the Malawi government’s ivory stock in front of the Parliament house. This event would have been historical in Malawi and thousands of people have been waiting for it to happen, petitioning the government to make this decision. However, the burn got postponed to some day in the future when all the rest of the government stock that wasn’t available at the moment because of ongoing court cases, would be available to pile it up and burn all together. This news was of course massive disappointment to all the people who had been preparing for the day and for the concrete action to stop ivory trade.
Last week I was working full time, assisting on the primate rescue and rehab course at the LWC so couldn’t go to the march but Nigel and the girls marched along with members from the LWC team and went to see the pile of ivory, waiting to be burned. The President of Malawi gave a speech to promise that the ivory will be burned and more resources will be allocated to the prevention of wildlife crime. You so hope that this will happen and change the situation of wildlife in Malawi at the moment, poaching being rampant. Thankfully, there has been some rain so we hope that the corn harvest won’t be a total failure. Last week we have also celebrated the 7th birthday of Saara - in the ‘Frozen’-movie style by the Mabuya camp pool. This was fathers and daughters – party because I was at work in the LWC on that afternoon and the friends who came, came with their dads, their mums also being at work. But to compensate for my absence from the pool party I had made blueberry pie for breakfast. And yes, last Sunday we had our own swimming gala (Hebron school swimming gala would have been on Tuesday, and we wanted to do our own as well because the kids were missing the school swimming gala this year) with snacks and roasting marshmallows by the pool. And girls and their friends swim-racing and cannon-ball-jumping and having wonderful time. We will miss Mabuya camp pool as we move forward soon. |
AuthorOlen Ilona, kolkytjarisat eläinlääkäri ja kahden ponitytön äiti. Tulin Intiaan yli kymmenen vuotta sitten vapaaehtoistyöhön ja jäin sille/tälle tielle. Blogissa kerron elämästämme ja eläimistämme Intiassa. Archives
September 2020
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