Farmers Helping Farmers Veterinary Student Blog Week 2

This past week we were joined by three Nairobi veterinary students who are also in their last year of school. We are all working together in the area of Meru with the Thubuku Dairy, as well as the Muchui and Ruuju women’s groups to help them learn about their cows’ health and improve their milk production. It has been a great to work with the Nairobi veterinary students and learn about their school experiences, as well as their personal lives. It doesn’t hurt that they also can help us diagnose some of the foreign animal diseases that they see here in Kenya but we don’t really hear about in Canada. We have been able to see a great variety of cases while here in the Meru region and the people are interested in learning and enjoy the seminars that we teach.

The entire farmers helping farmers team worked together yesterday to survey the Ruuju women’s group about their water tanks, gardens, and farm animals. It was a great time visiting the women and their families at their homes and discussing the benefits of the water tanks, such as a reduced risk of waterborne diseases and reduced amount of time boiling water and fetching water from a river. They also were happy to take pictures with us as long as they could view them after – which they always thought was pretty funny. The children are always excited to see us, especially the older ones; there have been a few days where we are chased in our car by yelling and waving kids – quite the experience!

As the week comes to an end it is hard to believe we have only been in Kenya for 2 weeks with all of things we have seen and learned. We will be heading out on safari in Samburu park this weekend, and then heading back to the Nyeri District to work with the Othaya Dairy again. It will be sad for the week to end as the Nairobi vet students must return to school as they have exams next week, but we can look forward to seeing them again before we leave as we are going to be visiting their vet school just before we fly out next Friday. Stay tuned for updates..