The normal method of load carrying is the ‘Scotch Cart’. No-one seems to know how it got its name – a small wooden or metal box on two wheels pulled by an assorted number of donkeys. Originally they would have been drawn by oxen – but oxen are for the rich – so now donkeys have to do the work, and using a central pole and other gear better suited to cattle. Never mind, that’s just how it is. The SPANA project there, the Donkey Protection Trust, provides the most basic care for them.
The team have become expert in renovating the Fred Karnoish bits of wire and webbing that pass for harness. With wire cutters, cold rivets, a few buckles and spare straps, they can convert these amazing contraptions into something that will actually transmit the energy of the donkeys into the pulling of the cart, without creating sores and wounds on the animal.
A bit of extra padding, cleaning and dressing any obvious sores, perhaps worming a this one, a good talking to the owner, and then they are on their way again.
Hardly cutting edge veterinary science – but very effective.
Thursday, 23 September 2010
Tuesday, 21 September 2010
It's a tough life in Zimbabwe
It’s rare to see donkeys back-packing here – though I always feel that the poor wretched women carrying huge bundles of firewood on their heads, or twenty litres of water, would have done well to borrow a donkey. Perhaps they’re just too dirt poor. I once tried carrying twenty kilo bags of animal feed on my head when unloading a lorry on the farm. Five minutes of that and you feel as if you’ve been using your head and neck as a pile driver to knock down doors.
What a life rural women have here – and what a service the poor humble donkey provides for the world’s poor.
Monday, 20 September 2010
Return to Zimbabwe
I must admit it came as a pleasant surprise. The last time I came here, the price on the morning newspaper was six hundred and forty million dollars. Honestly. They’d just started printing a new set of bank notes, and the smallest was ten trillion dollars – which would just about have bought you a cup of tea – as long as the kettle took less than ten minutes to boil, prices were going up so quickly.
But this time it’s all changed. The official currencies are now the US dollar or the South African rand – and once again there is food in the shops and fuel in the garages (but only one pump working, obviously).
That doesn’t mean there isn’t still huge poverty – with massive unemployment, especially in the rural areas.
So our little welfare project around Bulawayo is still very much needed. The team travels around, sometimes huge distances, visiting villages or even stopping the carts on the roads, and giving basic veterinary care to the thousands of donkeys still working hard in the African sun.
