One of the great privileges of working for SPANA is the truly wonderful countries and places where we work.
Imagine being involved in Petra in Jordan, and becoming familiar, even blasé, with the fabulous sites and structures of the ‘Rose-red city’. We live in a world of hype, where words like ‘fantastic’, ‘incredible’, ‘genius’, ‘unbelievable’ are trotted out daily to describe everything from a bowl of cornflakes to a pop- band that rises like a Phoenix for its fifteen minutes of fame before disappearing forever again.
But surely there can be almost no-one who walks down that stunning 300 foot deep cleft in the mountain, and sees the sunlit Treasury building – ( a hundred million tourist photos of it) , fill the zig-zag slit ahead.- and not have their breath taken away.
But we are here because of the animals.
We hope that with education and a bit of energy and enthusiasm, we might be able to change the attitudes of the local people.
Monday, 17 May 2010
The 'Red Rose City'
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Emergency
‘Cancer’ is a word that still strikes fear into us humans – even though there have been huge advances in surgical and medicinal treatments. It’s encouraging to know that this is also true in the veterinary world.
Last week a middle-aged Jack donkey was brought into the refuge in Marrakech with a huge swelling on its chest. The owner thought it was a blood blister, caused by some minor accident but investigation by our veterinary team showed it was a huge carcinoma. (We must be grateful for small mercies. At least the owner hadn’t tried anything horrific like burning it off with a red hot plough-share. Perhaps we’re getting somewhere).
He was anaesthetised in our new operating theatre and the tumour carefully and gently removed. As the tumour was sub-cutaneous, Dr Boubker (he of ‘Tommy’ fame) felt there was a very good chance.
As an anxious spectator, I was proud that we had the skills, and could offer such care.
