Hello hello!
Day 14
Today was our last full day in Belize, but we all made the most of it. After our cow-palpating, pig-wrangling day yesterday, we were all pretty wiped out, but we still had a great time on our last day. I don’t think I’ve talked about our breakfasts yet, but I’ve got to include just one mention of the wonderful morning meals we got at the hotel. Thank you Midas staff!! A popular breakfast item in Belize is the fry jack, which is absolutely delicious; it’s a bit like a hollow, thin empanada that you can put jam or honey on (sort of like how we to on toast).
After breakfast, we headed to PAWS clinic to give our presentations. We were given free rein to cover any topic related to veterinary medicine in Belize, and I decided to focus on tick-borne illnesses. We saw A LOT of ticks during our time in Belize (and got bitten by a lot of ticks), so one of the first things I was worried about was Lyme disease. However, I was informed by the PAWS clinic team that there is no risk of Lyme disease in Belize (yay!). I also heard some owners at the spay/neuter clinics saying what a bad year it had been for tick fever for dogs, which further piqued my interest in Belizean tick borne diseases. In my research for my presentation, I learned that the reason there isn’t any Lyme disease in Belize is because the species of ticks that transmit Lyme aren’t here (again, yay!). Also, there are only 3 main tick borne animal illnesses of concern in Belize: Erlichiosis, Anaplasmosis, and Babesiosis.
After our presentations, we had our surprise alumni meeting! This was so much fun; we all got sheets of paper to use as “yearbooks” where we got to write little messages for our classmates, which was such a nice experience. It’s amazing how close we all got after just two weeks, and we’re all hoping to keep our group chat alive! We also got postcards to send home, stickers, and a fun powerpoint of our adventures the past two weeks.
Then we took the final, which was, well, a final. But it was really nice to see how much I learned in just two weeks! After the final, we celebrated with a dinner with the PAWS crew. Thank you all for an incredible two weeks!
This marks my last post while still in Belize, but you have one more to look forward too soon!
Until next time!
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