The past 36 hours....
....have been very different. But good! :)
So, when I last left you, Holly and I were heading off to the Central Veterinary Hospital (Largest in Bangladesh!) to teach Lawrence how to set up a fecal and use a microscope. We met with 2 women vets and their technicians in the Parasitology research dept. We went through the usual shop talk - introductions, tea, etc. Then we showed them how to do a sugar float. The vets had read about doing flotation fecals in school, but have only ever done direct smears using water!!!!! Dr. Patton would be SOOOO proud (UT vet school parasite prof) to see me teaching Bangaldeshi vets how to use gauze, a small cup, and sugar solution to prepare a fecal. No centrifuge - but we got very good results just the same. They were very excited to learn this 'new' technique. Lawrence learned quickly - he's very interested to start doing research of his own to find out what dewormers are most effective. Flukes are a huge problem here (they have flukes I've never heard of!) and they don't have fenbendazole OR ivermectin in useful/affordable formulations. This makes life difficult. But, they are pretty good at making due with what they have. After our teaching session, we had tea again and talked about what these two vets do. They do 'research' in the parasite dept. Ok. 'Do you compare dewormers to find out which is most effective in treatment?' "No." 'Do you look at a sample, treat the animal, and then re-check the sample to see if it is clear of parasites?' "No." 'So, what kind of research do you do?' "We look at samples and see what parasites are there - then the vets at the hospital (practicing vets) prescribe treatment." This is not exactly my definition of research. Come to find out, these two vets don't even look at the fecals - only the techs do (in our country, it's the same) - and the vets sign their name to the paper saying what parasites were found. That's all well and good - BUT THAT'S ALL THEY DO!!! AND they get paid BY THE GOVERNMENT the SAME salary as MD's!!!!! They complained that they get the same salary as MD's, but not the same status and respect. But they don't do anything more than sign their name to someone else's work all day long. Incredible. Now, my techs read fecals and I sign my name to them - but rest assured that I'm doing plenty of other things in the course of a day. :)
After visiting with these lovely, pristine and clean ladies, we were allowed to visit the actual hospital. (We did ask them what THEY wear out on cow calls - and if their scarf got in the way... they said they wear a plastic apron... ahhh) We saw our first horses here and the first dogs of distinguisable breeds that we've seen (saw a Boxer and a Rott.) FYI - the boxer we saw was no where NEAR as cute as Jenny Cobb's 'Jordan'. :) We visited the head guy for a while (tea) and Lawrence was very surprised to realize that he worked with this guy for 2 years on a huge cattle project 25 years ago!!! This is a HUGE connection for him, for up until now the vets at the gov't hospital have not been friendly or helpful to Lawrence at all. Now he has a connection - for supplies as well as advice. Praise God for His provision! We weren't even supposed to get to visit the actual hospital - but they invited us once we were there. :) We asked the head guy about what he does there, what kinds of anesthesia he has, what kind of diseases they see, etc. I won't subject all of you to those details. :) Then we visited for quite some time with another vet - VERY friendly - very good English. He introduced us to numerous vets as well as a few veterinary students there for an internship (they looked like your typical deer in headlights!) We finally left about 2:30 to head to the vet pharmacy. (No lunch - just lots of tea and cookies and some coke somewhere in there.) Traffic was worse than usual - but we finally made it to the pharmacy and the way people shop here is just the strangest thing!!! Every store sells a specialized item. There are shoe stores, clothes stores, furniture stores, cleaning supply stores, soap and shampoo stores, you get my drift. There are also vet supply stores as well as human pharmacies. The strange thing is that there may be 20 of them in the whole city - but they are all right next to each other - and they all have the same thing!!!! I don't understand that! They are along this alley way - and they are more like booths than shops. You can only see the items - you have to ask the clerk to hand you something if you want to see it. The alley way in between the booths is very small - and VERY crowded. Got a little clostraphobic and hot and dizzy in there. But good news - we found a great product to use as a teat dip - two forms of Chlorhexadine totalling about 4% as well as a small amount of isopropyl alcohol. Lawrence bought 6 bottles. :) Then we left.
An hour plus later (and more honking than I can even explain!) we arrive back at the office to take our lunch (4:15 or so.) We ate, took tea, then went to Lawrence's house. We had tea (is anyone else keeping count?) and these wonderful little fried cakes (like a funnel cake, only solid, and no sugar), this warm milk, sweet noodle thing, and 7up. (SUGAR!!!!) An hour later we had some very good, but very spicy food. It's the first really spicy stuff I've had - apparently my face got very red - my eyes and nose were running.... but I ate ALMOST all of it. :) I was just so full! We had so much food in just a few hours!
One bad thing happened, though. While eating some of the rice, I bit down quite hard on a bad piece of rice that was as hard as a bone. I had found several of them while eating, but missed this one. I'm pretty sure I cracked a filling in one of my molars. In a word.... ouch. I'm loaded up on Advil and Ambesol right now - just hoping that I can make it till I come home. Please pray that it doesn't get worse. I can cope with the pain as it is - but I really don't want it to hamper my last few days. Rachael, can you please see if Dr Adams can see me the Friday after I get back (the 25th, I think)? I don't care what time - as long as this gets fixed!
We had a wonderful time with his family - he has a 17 year old son and a 12 year daughter - so precious!!! The daughter sang for us - even though she was very shy. One thing about kids here - they may not speak to us for they are shy. But they start singing - and wow! - they SING! Loud!!!! It's incredible. The son was very shy - but one thing finally got him talking.... Cartoon Network and the Powerpuff girls!!! Once I made that connection with him, he really started chatting with us. In English! Guess TV is good for some things! :) We had coffee (what?!? More caffiene and sugar on a very sore tooth? Boo!) But it was ok. Coffee is quite the luxury - twice the cost of tea. No way I could turn them down. Lawrence got us a cab and rode with us home (safety first!) and we crashed. Well, I layed there twitching for about an hour or so and then fell alseep. :)
Today was church - and it was wonderful. I would like to write more about that, but I'm on the bad keyboard and my fingers are SOOO tired! We went to Prodip's for lunch then finished our shopping. I had pineapple ice cream - the most incredible ice cream ever! Then we came back here for supper and now I have typed for an hour. Time to go to bed!
No new blue? VERY sad face!!!
Matt - you alive? Any phone card news?
So, when I last left you, Holly and I were heading off to the Central Veterinary Hospital (Largest in Bangladesh!) to teach Lawrence how to set up a fecal and use a microscope. We met with 2 women vets and their technicians in the Parasitology research dept. We went through the usual shop talk - introductions, tea, etc. Then we showed them how to do a sugar float. The vets had read about doing flotation fecals in school, but have only ever done direct smears using water!!!!! Dr. Patton would be SOOOO proud (UT vet school parasite prof) to see me teaching Bangaldeshi vets how to use gauze, a small cup, and sugar solution to prepare a fecal. No centrifuge - but we got very good results just the same. They were very excited to learn this 'new' technique. Lawrence learned quickly - he's very interested to start doing research of his own to find out what dewormers are most effective. Flukes are a huge problem here (they have flukes I've never heard of!) and they don't have fenbendazole OR ivermectin in useful/affordable formulations. This makes life difficult. But, they are pretty good at making due with what they have. After our teaching session, we had tea again and talked about what these two vets do. They do 'research' in the parasite dept. Ok. 'Do you compare dewormers to find out which is most effective in treatment?' "No." 'Do you look at a sample, treat the animal, and then re-check the sample to see if it is clear of parasites?' "No." 'So, what kind of research do you do?' "We look at samples and see what parasites are there - then the vets at the hospital (practicing vets) prescribe treatment." This is not exactly my definition of research. Come to find out, these two vets don't even look at the fecals - only the techs do (in our country, it's the same) - and the vets sign their name to the paper saying what parasites were found. That's all well and good - BUT THAT'S ALL THEY DO!!! AND they get paid BY THE GOVERNMENT the SAME salary as MD's!!!!! They complained that they get the same salary as MD's, but not the same status and respect. But they don't do anything more than sign their name to someone else's work all day long. Incredible. Now, my techs read fecals and I sign my name to them - but rest assured that I'm doing plenty of other things in the course of a day. :)
After visiting with these lovely, pristine and clean ladies, we were allowed to visit the actual hospital. (We did ask them what THEY wear out on cow calls - and if their scarf got in the way... they said they wear a plastic apron... ahhh) We saw our first horses here and the first dogs of distinguisable breeds that we've seen (saw a Boxer and a Rott.) FYI - the boxer we saw was no where NEAR as cute as Jenny Cobb's 'Jordan'. :) We visited the head guy for a while (tea) and Lawrence was very surprised to realize that he worked with this guy for 2 years on a huge cattle project 25 years ago!!! This is a HUGE connection for him, for up until now the vets at the gov't hospital have not been friendly or helpful to Lawrence at all. Now he has a connection - for supplies as well as advice. Praise God for His provision! We weren't even supposed to get to visit the actual hospital - but they invited us once we were there. :) We asked the head guy about what he does there, what kinds of anesthesia he has, what kind of diseases they see, etc. I won't subject all of you to those details. :) Then we visited for quite some time with another vet - VERY friendly - very good English. He introduced us to numerous vets as well as a few veterinary students there for an internship (they looked like your typical deer in headlights!) We finally left about 2:30 to head to the vet pharmacy. (No lunch - just lots of tea and cookies and some coke somewhere in there.) Traffic was worse than usual - but we finally made it to the pharmacy and the way people shop here is just the strangest thing!!! Every store sells a specialized item. There are shoe stores, clothes stores, furniture stores, cleaning supply stores, soap and shampoo stores, you get my drift. There are also vet supply stores as well as human pharmacies. The strange thing is that there may be 20 of them in the whole city - but they are all right next to each other - and they all have the same thing!!!! I don't understand that! They are along this alley way - and they are more like booths than shops. You can only see the items - you have to ask the clerk to hand you something if you want to see it. The alley way in between the booths is very small - and VERY crowded. Got a little clostraphobic and hot and dizzy in there. But good news - we found a great product to use as a teat dip - two forms of Chlorhexadine totalling about 4% as well as a small amount of isopropyl alcohol. Lawrence bought 6 bottles. :) Then we left.
An hour plus later (and more honking than I can even explain!) we arrive back at the office to take our lunch (4:15 or so.) We ate, took tea, then went to Lawrence's house. We had tea (is anyone else keeping count?) and these wonderful little fried cakes (like a funnel cake, only solid, and no sugar), this warm milk, sweet noodle thing, and 7up. (SUGAR!!!!) An hour later we had some very good, but very spicy food. It's the first really spicy stuff I've had - apparently my face got very red - my eyes and nose were running.... but I ate ALMOST all of it. :) I was just so full! We had so much food in just a few hours!
One bad thing happened, though. While eating some of the rice, I bit down quite hard on a bad piece of rice that was as hard as a bone. I had found several of them while eating, but missed this one. I'm pretty sure I cracked a filling in one of my molars. In a word.... ouch. I'm loaded up on Advil and Ambesol right now - just hoping that I can make it till I come home. Please pray that it doesn't get worse. I can cope with the pain as it is - but I really don't want it to hamper my last few days. Rachael, can you please see if Dr Adams can see me the Friday after I get back (the 25th, I think)? I don't care what time - as long as this gets fixed!
We had a wonderful time with his family - he has a 17 year old son and a 12 year daughter - so precious!!! The daughter sang for us - even though she was very shy. One thing about kids here - they may not speak to us for they are shy. But they start singing - and wow! - they SING! Loud!!!! It's incredible. The son was very shy - but one thing finally got him talking.... Cartoon Network and the Powerpuff girls!!! Once I made that connection with him, he really started chatting with us. In English! Guess TV is good for some things! :) We had coffee (what?!? More caffiene and sugar on a very sore tooth? Boo!) But it was ok. Coffee is quite the luxury - twice the cost of tea. No way I could turn them down. Lawrence got us a cab and rode with us home (safety first!) and we crashed. Well, I layed there twitching for about an hour or so and then fell alseep. :)
Today was church - and it was wonderful. I would like to write more about that, but I'm on the bad keyboard and my fingers are SOOO tired! We went to Prodip's for lunch then finished our shopping. I had pineapple ice cream - the most incredible ice cream ever! Then we came back here for supper and now I have typed for an hour. Time to go to bed!
No new blue? VERY sad face!!!
Matt - you alive? Any phone card news?
posted by Leslie @ 8:52 AM
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