Spring is rapidly passing through Mahikeng and summer is soon to arrive. Temperatures have been in the upper 70’s and low 80’s although still falling to the 40’s at night. In Seattle we had a saying, “Enjoy the Washington summer; all 10 minutes of it.” I feel like the same can be said for spring and fall here in Mahikeng. I’ve already put away my extra blanket, warm bathrobe, hot water bottle, and long sleeve shirts.
In the clinic, we have
finished the first term and have started the second term. Hopefully we will finish by the end of the
year so it doesn’t drag on into next year.
Since we were unable to do traditional written and practical exams, I
assigned 9 short assignments for the final-year student’s end of term
evaluations in the small animal rotation.
It all sounded good until I realized that meant grading 500 essays and
1000 calculations in two weeks!
Thankfully, there is
usually a bit of comic relief in reading the student’s answers. One of my favorites was a radiographic
(x-ray) description of a fracture (broken bone). The image showed a comminuted fracture with
lots of small pieces. The student said
it was “a y-shaped break causing the bones to look like corn flacks [sic]”. Oh grief, I was wiping tears from my eyes
after reading that one.
One exciting change since
my last prayer letter is a new vehicle.
My little Honda Fit (Jazz) was reaching the end of its reliability and,
after talking with CVM and my missions co-workers here, I decided to upgrade to
a 7-seater vehicle. This means when we
take students on trips (both mission trips and vet related outreaches) I can
bring more students along. It also gives
more options for taking students home after Bible studies (it isn’t safe for
them to walk home after dark). Although
finding a 7-seater was a big challenge during COVID since I couldn’t travel to
the big city, the Lord brought the perfect one just 45 minutes away. It is a 2018 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport and it
is huge!
Having driven very small
cars for the past 15 years, driving a big SUV will take some getting used
to. I’m still very nervous driving it in
parking lots and I don’t look forward to driving in cities. However, it is a much safer vehicle both due
to its size and its safety features.
Since road accident fatalities are a big problem in South Africa, safety
is important. I was just looking at
statistics as I write this and there were 38,000 car accident deaths in the US
last year and 14,000 here in South Africa.
Since our population is only 1/5th of the US we have double the amount of
fatalities. But add in the fact that only
5% of the people in my province even have a driver’s license (versus 2/3 in the
US) and the numbers are even worse.
Probability of being in a fatal vehicle accident here is about 1 in
1,500 vehicles by my rough calculations. Yikes!
On the COVID front, South
Africa has passed 10,000 deaths and, if the tests are accurate, we are 5th
in the world for the number of cases (>500,000). There have been a few cases confirmed in
students and staff here on campus, but not many at this point. Local leisure
travel is now allowed so I got away for a week while marking all those end of
year assignments.
What a blessing it is to
be able to rest peacefully in the Lord during these difficult and uncertain
times. Thank you for your prayers over
the last few months.
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