Traveling with cats!

I just spent 9 days traveling from the village thru Maralal to Nairobi and back again for the main purpose of a need for a veterinarian and a dentist.  Over 1000 km journey for access to good medical services.  That is the nature of things in Northern Kenya.  Yes, there are government and private clinics with medical and dental services in the North.  Yes, there are veterinarians in the North.  But are they reliable?  Will they cure or make things worse?  That is always the question. I remember one “dentist” attached to the Government Sub-county hospital where we lived for a while that was notorious for pulling teeth.  That was the only treatment he gave for a tooth issue.  The worst thing was, several people died of sepsis infections from not have a clean tooth pull.  Horrible.  So, I would rather travel 520 km each way just to be sure, than use local services and have a high chance of a poor outcome.  It is expensive and time consuming.  I am lucky to have my own means of transport.  I feel so for those who have the need but not the means to travel out to get medical services, especially in emergencies.  One thing that PEAR Innovations does quite a bit is to give financial support to those seeking medical help at better facilities “down country”.  

Back to this trip.  The mission was to get my two young cats spayed and neutered and my daughter to the dentist.  As we were in the village and the cats in Maralal, we first made the 200 Km trip and stayed a night there to pick them up.  The next day, off to Nairobi, a 320 km trip, with two not very happy cats in the car.  It took them about 80 km to settle, but they eventually resigned themselves to their fate of being stuck in a noisy moving container and wedged themselves into secure sleeping positions.  One night at our Nairobi apartment and they were dropped off at the vet.  The veterinarian I use in Nairobi, St Austin’s, is very good.  It was the clinic who helped me save my dog Bruin’s life when he was ill for over 4 months from December 2021 through January 2022.  Now after finally getting good treatment since January, Bruin is fat and sassy.  The picture of health, if a bit overweight.  We are working on that!  So, the cats.  They were operated on, spent an overnight at the vet surgery and we picked them up on the 8^th.  Dentist day was on the 9^th.  We hung out in Nairobi till 12^th to let everyone recover and do various errands and other important stuff.

The main important event was the launch and opening of the Africa and Middle East Office of Too Young to Wed.  This is an organization that my Rotary Club of Maralal is partnering with on a project in Samburu called The Butterfly Project:  Empowering Girls in Northern Kenya.  We are in the proposal stage working to get funding for bringing together at-risk girls in local communities and giving them peer groups, literacy training and financial resources to enable them to have greater power over their own lives and bring more value into their families for who they are as individuals rather than just objects to be married off at too young an age when the family needs resources.  Too Young to Wed has already been working in Samburu County for many years and the work they do is impressive.  I’m excited that we are going to be working together with them in the coming months and years on this pilot project for empowerment to a greater level.  Their Nairobi launch event was fun and informative with girls from several communities coming to share their stories and songs with the guests. 

The next day after the event, we traveled with the cats back to Maralal.  The cats again were totally unhappy with the car ride, but oh were they ecstatic to get home again.  They missed being able to go outside and immediately went to reestablish their dominance of my Maralal dogs…haha. We stayed a couple nights to make sure they were settled and their incisions healing well, then off to the village again.  

The drive here on the 14^th July was fabulous.  We came by some of the more back roads through remote forest and bush.  The wildlife we saw along the way was so cool.  Grevy Zebra, Kudu, Ostriches doing the mating dance and a family of half-grown chicks.  

We also saw other cool birds like the Secretary Bird which I’ve always loved with the “punk hairdo”. Haha.  What I loved about this drive and all the wildlife sightings is that it was just our normal road home.  No National Park or special wildlife protection areas.  Just public roads and lands that are wild and free.  So many zebras and ostriches.  So many.  Like deer in Wisconsin..haha. 

Speaking of Wisconsin, we have one more week here in the village then traveling again to Nairobi.  This time to fly to USA for the end of the summer.  So much to do before I go.  Will leave it here until next time….Peace and Joy to you all!!!