Spicing Things Up

Class started late today [9:30] and we only had a few lectures to cover before we were done for the day.  Dr. Emma talked about careers in veterinary medicine and the need to go beyond clinical practice by pursuing things such as environmental medicine [to study disease of populations], and biomedical research [to help doctors and pharmaceutical companies develop new drugs etc.].  We also discussed reproduction and biosecurity [it was mostly review for me].

Lucky for us, we had a free afternoon to go river tubing through the jungle.  Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans [this IS the rainy season here in Belize] and forced us to take an impromptu trip to one of the more expensive gift shops in Cayo.  While I wanted to buy practically everything, I practiced self restraint and only purchased a gift for the Fun Nazi, I mean my mother [I forgot to mention that I bought a Hammock while I was at Xunantinich. It will look so sweet next to my Empire Strikes Back poster].

On the way back to the lodge, we decided to stop off at one of the local hot sauce factories to check out some of the flavors for sale.  They had some cool tasting things to sample [Habanero Peper Fudge Anyone?] and had some really good tasting honey.  We convinced Hot Sauce to have a photo shoot in front of the signs or else we would be sad and despondent forever.

[Where Hot Sauces are born and raised]

One final stop at Sweet Ting [don't judge us] to pick up cake [Chocolate Mint Creme], and we headed back "home" for dinner.  While we swore we would only watch ONE episode of Gossip Girl before we worked on our projects, we ended up watching two [we would have watched three if Hot Sauce didn't kick us out of the room].  I'm doing my final presentation on Foot and Mouth Disease-a virus that causes blisters in the mouth, tongue, teats, and feet that eventually burst causing excessive drooling and inability to stand correctly [there feet become extremely painful so they sway from side to side or lie down].  There was a major epidemic in the UK in 2001 where the agriculture industry was nearly destroyed [the virus is EXTREMELY contagious].  The only way to prevent the spread of disease is to burn the carcass of the dead animal, making the English term 2001 as the year of the pyre.

[Burning FMD cow carcasses.  Looks like something out of 28 Days Later]

Tomorrow we are off to Central Farms to practice rectal palpation [aka sticking your hand up a cow's butt] and get lectured on Large Animal nutrition. 

Cheers!