1/3/18
Day 8
Woke up and had pancakes! We then went to work with pigs and sheep! We were greeted by cute pups and a herd of sheep. Ruben and Zamir and Dr. T were REALLY gearing up with the white suits and plastic footies lol, and we were all kinda shook for what was to come. We saw the baby pigs and they were so cute. And we saw two bigger pigs that were separated because they had infection? like swollen leg and the other swollen hoof. Dr. T was telling us how the pigs bite each other, and chickens too, when there is a weak one in the herd. Interesting. We then started with the castrations of the younger pigs. THEY WERE SO CUTE. but stankyy lol. There was no anesthesia used and we literally just went ahead and cut. We essentially did the whole thing, cutting and pulling and then cutting with the clamp, and then spraying them with the purple antiseptic.
I definitely don’t know if I could deal with pigs and cows all of the time because their massiveness, when they are full grown is really scary. Feelings that tie over into the next part where we first saw him pull blood from the eye! (that was super cool and scary, also I was afraid that the needle would come right out because they were trashing around a lot when they were wrangling them), but then we wrangled them! And gave all the piggies injections. We grabbed them by the ear and squeezed our legs to hold their bodies but they were STRONG. and they were screaming bloody murder omg. So dramatic lol just for one injection hahahah. But going in the pen, like literally just going in, my adrenaline was so high and my heart was palpitating. Omg. I don’t know how else to describe my feelings lol. Also, pigs stink omg ahahahahah
.
Then we also “wrangled” (not as difficult as pigs haha) and held and vaccinated a small herd of sheep (the one that greeted us before) and got to hold the babies that were adorable :))))
We then changed in the barn lol into our bathing suits and gave our dirty clothes to Dr. T and Ruben cuz they nasty lol and played with the pups.
We went to a super cute waterfall and jumped in, and we climbed the waterfall and I collectedsome green rocks from the top when we climbed. It was super cute a nice to kind of wash off after a smelly morning lol
.
Afterwards, we came back to Midas and Giulia and I scrubbed pig poop out of our boots at the front water spout lol and then we went to Hodes for lunch.
And then, WE WENT TO SEE THE IGUANAS. THEY WERE SO CUTE. The guide, Nigel, worked there for 4 years, and he is so so knowledgeable. He told us that he had worked previously with birds, snakes, turtles, but liked the iguanas the best. He talked to us about how all the iguanas are rescues and how they are endangered in Belize because people hunt and eat them and set them on fire????? and stuff for fun. One of them had metabolic bone diseaseand they named her Kim K lol. The green iguanas are herbivores, and the black are omnivore like vultures almost. They had one iguana that had neurologic problems and was afraid of heights and he ran off into the jungle on “vacation” as Nigel said lol. We thenwent inside and we got to hold them and touch them and it was the most amazing thing ever. I haven’t handled reptiles that much and being able to was so so nice. They really scratched us up though hahahaha. And the two big ones i held kept trying to climb up and sit in my hair LOL. The smaller ones just climbed and chilled on our shoulder of in our arms.A couple of males kept bobbing their heads and chasing each other around while we played with them as well. They are so big and beautiful, and I had thought that they had thick skin and more muscle on their body, but they were actually really soft and I could easily feel their ribs, it was really interesting.
We had to walk back to Midas so we went to pick up food too. At the place, Hannes? we bumped into other study abroad students, and the 3 were in vet school! It was super cool to talk to them and see how their experience in Belize has been going so far. While waiting for food, GiuliaStephanie and Mariah and I went across the street to the clothing shop and played around and then the four of us got our food and walked back.
Also, I’m super thankful to Ruben and Lorena for taking us to all these nice places in Belize and letting us soak up this country, and for driving our butts and dealing with us in general lol. We are a handful for sure, love them both.
Leave a Reply