Saturday, April 3, 2010

Orion.

So I have returned from IST with my new friend, Orion: a 2 year old, really skinny dog who is super sweet and has way too much energy! As of yesterday, he was not neutered. I decided to get him neutered for a total of 2000 Ts /=, the equivalent of about $1.75. When the vet first told me this price, I was shocked. I was expecting it to cost at least $10. However, as the process continued, I became less shocked. The vet asked me to get a bucket of water, a kanga (piece of cloth), some soap, and a flour bag. The flour bag went of his head, the kanga over the flour bag and was then used to tie him to a post, we flipped him upside down, held his legs, and the vet did his business, as my poor dog was whimpering and flailing and biting (yes, i did get bit once). No sedative. No painkiller. Just a razor blade and flour bag. It was terrible. So moral of the story: in America, you pay for humane neutering.

What amazes me even more is dog's ability to ignore stuff. Like the fact that I was holding him down as the vet cut him open. As soon as the bag came off his head, he was really angry with the vet. Trying to bite him and attack him. But he was super sweet to me. Just like I hadn't been just holding him down as the vet cut out his manlihood. Having a dog has been really fun so far. It's a really great way to meet people. Every morning we take an hour or so walk through the village and stop to talk to people. It's a lot of fun.

So that's about all that's going on with me. Right now is Easter break. I am super busy grading midterms, which is a relatively depressing process. Two of my classes have an average score of about 35 (which is a D) here. The other class has an average of about an 80. Same test. Same lesson. Different motivation. It's frustrating how little some of the kids try. But it happens right? I'll do what I can for the ones that want to learn.

So Happy Easter!

2 comments:

  1. Cheer up, the average in my classes were 26 and 22. Granted, my students are also the ones who failed their form 4 or 6 exams...

    Is Orion an 'inherited peace corps dog?

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  2. Hi Katie,
    Are you willing to help me, a graduate student in University of Minnesota, understand the electrical needs of the people in Tanzania?
    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete