#rufframbles

Well hello there,

So I have now officially been living in Africa for just under a month. And I can say without a doubt I have experienced things I would never have imagined.

Our organization works in two main areas so we bound between one of the largest cities in Tanzania, and the smallest village I, or my supervisor (who has been coming to Tanzania for 20 years) have every lived in. The city has markets and shops everywhere, public transit called DalaDalas which fit an impressive amount of people into tiny van type vehicles and a variety of restaurants where you can experience different foods and meet lots of lovely people. Within this village we cannot buy meat (unless you want to slaughter a chicken yourself), bread, veggies, or fruits; the exception is guava, avocado and occasionally bananas. This village is so remote that you cannot buy maize flower, an absolute staple in Tanzania, unless you mill it yourself. You can however buy pasta, rice, biscuits, sugar, salt and lots and lots of pop. We are a resourceful duo currently living here and we have befriended the farmers in the area as we try to integrate into the community and now buy eggs, dried fish, and a deep fried pastry called mandazi, from them. We have learned to stock up whenever we head back to the city. This village has mastered the art of growing enough food to feed themselves and just surviving day to day. It is so unlike the world back home. It's important to note too that the people here are incredibly nice and everyone gets very excited when you attempt to speak kswahili, or purchase the traditional clothing like kitenges.

That’s a lot of experiences and I haven’t even mentioned what it’s like to work with the farmers and animals... wait till you hear about that.

-🐍

Well hello there,

This comes a little late since I have been done finals for a week now but... oh boy oh boy did finals week kick my butt. Seven exams back to back, by the end my desire to study for them was just non-existent. The worst I think was that there were exams that I should have gotten A’s in, that I read the questions in and I KNEW the information and that I studied it and yet... I could actually hear the crickets in my brain. I was just so tired of wiriting exams and constantly studying and not getting a decent nights sleep...

However despite all that. Despite how tired I was I actually ended the semester pretty well. Anatomy was better than I expected and I didn't have to resit and exams (I had classmates that did unfortunately) I did not do as well as last semester and not as well as I would have liked but I’m not too disappointed.

I guess over this past year what I’ve learned is that sometimes you just have to let things go. If I wrote a poor exam I just need to step back, ask myself why and then try better. Not focus on it. You can’t change what has already happened.

So that’s that. That is how I finished my first year of vet school.

Well hello there,

I did it guy! My lectures are officially done for this year and I passed my OSCE with flying colours so no re-sit exam. 

These last two weeks of classes have been a little crazy. Last week we got to dissect snakes and lizards in anatomy, and let me tell you that has been the most uncomfortable I’ve been doing a dissection to date... they just looked like they were sleeping. Even though I knew that was not the case I was still a little put off. I love reptiles almost as much as birds. Then this week we got to see a ‘fake colic’ surgery on a horse cadaver and it was amazing. I really don’t think I will ever be a horse surgeon.... it just seems like everything can go wrong before it can go right. Still great to see first hand

We had a wonderful lecture on oncology, I learned so much and realized how little I knew about chemotherapy in animals. I always assumed it was just as bad for them as it is for people and it’s not. This made me thrilled. However I learned that now that my lovely pupper is over 10, and due to his breed, he is prone to hemangiosarcomas which is a little scary.

Tuesday we had a pathology review put on for the 1st years by the pathology club. We were in teams of 4 and played jeopardy and we all had to bring pathology food. Food selections included ‘sheep with flukes, equine dystocia and sickle cell anemia’ and those were just the desserts. Can I just say we sucked hard at pathology jeopardy (oops) but we had lots of fun.

I look back at what I knew 31 short weeks ago and I am beyond amazed at how far I have come. While going through the process you often feel like you’re not learning anything, like everything is speeding past you but let me tell you that you are taking things in. Things you don’t even realize. 

Well hello there,

This week was pretty unimpressive, the weekend however was a total right-off... but was it ever a good-er. 

Friday night was our annual Trade Fair where different veterinary clinics, drug companies and food companies come down to the school to visit with the students. We had good food, a bar and got lots of free stuff from all the companies (I have my pen supply for the nest year). I have been responsible for helping organize the event over the past few months and had to set up the whole thing the night before so I was really excited to see it all come together. 

Saturday were our MMI’s for all the potential veterinary students. It was crazy to be on the other side of this very stressful event. It was such a mess in the morning, times got mixed up and things weren’t really organized but we all pulled through. The questions this year were tough but everyone in my group remained calm and collected, at least on the outside. I can’t believe that some of the people I met will be my future classmates (here’s looking at you class of 2021).

Finally on Sunday we got to go on a snow showing trip put on by one of the clubs at the school. Two of the professors took us out, discussed what you need to have with you in the back country, and showed us some wildlife tracks and birds calls. My student mentor was there and I haven’t really spent a lot of time with her so we had a snowshoe race for some ‘bonding’. It was really tight... I lost, but only because she jumped and belly flopped into the snow at the finish line. The professors also took us out for beers afterwards and it was awesome to just sit with them and chat about everything and anything without being in a school setting.

That was really the best part of the week, we had anatomy three times last week and another three times again this week (as opposed to our usual two times)... but I did get my physiology mark back and despite how bad that test went... I passed.