The sun will eat you up.

Day 2: CLAW (Community led animal welfare) and Soweto

The above quote was said by Chris, our driver and knowledgable guide at the breakfast table. We had also heard this from other South Africans. After this warning, we loaded up on sunscreen, water, a hat and our Ecolife coveralls and then set out to Soweto (short for "South West Townships"). Soweto was formed during the days of apartheid - a way of moving nonwhites out of the city in order to control their movement and keep them close to be used as workers for the wealthy whites. We then met up with Cora and Jen from CLAW (www.claw-sa.org/). Cora is the director of CLAW and Jen is an AHT. CLAW is a veterinary clinic sponsored by IFAW, who offer free vet services for the animals in the township. They get up to 10 dogs/cats in 1 day which gives you an idea of how many animals are at the shelter at one time. Many suffer from biliary disease caused by the protozoan Babesia and Erlichia (both tick borne diseases), some from malnutrition, mange, and abscesses from fighting. The worst was a dog named Phoenix who was set on fire and now has burns along his body as well as a lack of ear tips as they fell off. He seems to be doing well in the shelter and now needs a home! We were actually suprised by how well the animal's conditions were, rather than being worse off, they were fairly healthy. We could see how much these animals meant to the local people. We set up a day clinic in the township and did physical exams, vaccines, deworming, tick treatment, recording and education. We had to tell them why sterilizing was so imporant (less unwanted puppies, less likely to roam, etc). There is a rabies outbreak at the moment, a 6 year old girl was bit over a month ago and died around the area. So, rabies vaccines and education is very important here!
After a whole day of vaccines and treatments, we had the privilege of seeing the children in the community practice their dance. Then we took a walk through the streets of Soweto to visit an after school program and deliver colouring books to these children. The people are poor, this was made evident by their housing and the garbage and sewage running in the streets. But they are happy and we felt a strong sense of community. It made us feel very lucky to have what we have.
Cora as a director of CLAW, dispells rumors that they "old wise man" in the village tells everyone. Some examples are, if dogs eat spiders they will be strong, and if a dog eats canned fish it's skin will fall of. It was interesting to see that this is what people beieved and how this influenced their care of the animals.
After this, we packed up and went back to the B&B - we are happy to report that the sun did not eat us alive, yet!