Not your average after school job

Meet Denis Wagiva (boy in green on right), a primary school student who pays for schooling by raising pigs!
For children to be enrolled at primary school (grades 1 to 8), they must own a pencil & school uniform. Unfortunately, not every family here can afford such items. We have met many children who were turned away from school because their families couldn’t afford school uniforms (one uniform costs around 80 Ksh). On average, farmers can sell a 2-month old pig to a butcher for 500 Ksh. The cost associated with production would vary, as the level of care differs & not all animals are provided with supplemental feedings (and so the net profit also varies). For the most part, the pigs are tethered & left to forage during the day. Few better-off farms also have barns for their pigs. One of the butchers we met, Ibraham, actually had a “grow-finishers” barn full pigs that he had acquired from various farmers. Ibraham tries to butcher the pigs at around 40kg, but that would take around 8 months of feeding for a 10kg-pig to reach that weight. Good luck Denis!

Boot boot boot (here piggy piggy piggy)

6:30am: alarm clock goes off (if we managed not to turn off the cell phone the night before)
7am: Breakfast of boiled eggs and toast
8am: Moses, our pothole-avoiding-mud-driving specialist, picks us up in his safari van

…and thus begins our hour-drive from Buisa to Funyula for a field day!

We met up with one of the village elders, George, and a translator, Edward in the town centre before we headed out to visit the randomly-selected farms in this district.

At each farm, Cate, Florence & Natalie (sheep expert from University of Guelph) conducted outcome mapping with the farmers, while Kathleen & I wrestle with the pigs.

For the pig wrestling, Kathleen and I (and usually with help from one other person), measure and record the length/ girth of the pig, weight of the pig, and note if the pig has any lice, mange, or internal parasites. We finish by ear tagging and giving the pig a shot of ivermectin.



And for the rest of the day, we visit the selected farms on foot, taking in all the sights and smells on step at a time.

3pm: inevitable thunderstorm
3:01pm: race to get into the safari van
3:02pm: hoping (and praying) that the roads back to Busia would not be washed away with the rain

…and thus ends another exciting day in the field.

pictures in the field

Arrivé à Busia

10 mai 2010
Karibu Kenya! (bienvenue au Kenya!)

Après de longues heures de voyagement, plusieurs heures d'attente pour le transit à Amsterdam et une course à Nairobi pour ne pas manquer notre vol de Nairobi à Kisumu en plus de deux heures de taxi dans les rues sinueuses et remplis de géants nids de poules (les québécois ont vraiment rien à se plaindre! nos routes sont vraiment belles!), Vivian et moi sommes enfin arrivée à Busia!! Fatiguées et heureuses d'y être enfin parvenues, nous avons rencontré nos directrices de recherche (Cate, Florence and Nataly) qui nous ont accueillis. C'est bien de voir des visages familiers après ces nombreuses de vols!

Nous avons par la suite planifier les prochaines journées de la semaine! Nous avons un horaire bien remplis!!! Mais ce sera pour la prochaine fois! Nous allons nous couché pour essayer de lutter contre le délai de voaygement. 7h de différence avec Montréal!

à bientôt!
Kathleen Sary.

Flights, check. Visa, check. Kenya - Here I come!

Habari!

My name is Vivian, a 2nd year vet student from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine (WCVM) at the University of Saskatchewan. With only four days left until departure, I am so excited that I'm at loss for words (which doesn't go well with blogging)!
But I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those that made this project possible: VWB, the University of Saskatchewan, WCVM, Western Canadian Association of Swine Veterinarians, Sask Pork, Prairie Swine Centre, and of course, support from family & friends.
Please stayed tuned for more updates & progress on the Kenya Swine project - I'll tell you more about it as soon as I get there!

Tutaonana : )