SAMANA 2007

Sizzlin’ in Samana!

    To say it was hot last week in Samana, Republica Dominicana would be a bit of an understatement!  Maybe it’s just that most of us were arriving from our wet, cold never-ending spring, but even our Tech from Phoenix acknowledged the tropical conditions!  So as we assembled at the airport there was a rush to get into the cars with  the AC turned up and plunge into the boiling afternoon sun of  this end of the third world.   There were a few missteps due to rearranged and cancelled flights, and we headed to the hotel in shifts.  Some of us got to visit Judy Loggios kennel (worth a visit at www.aaasosua.com )  and see her efforts at animal rescue inspired by her work with Project Samana. We all assembled for a late dinner at the Casa Marina Bay in Las Galeras and get introduced and cooled off before our first work day.  After 13 years of doing this, it’s still exciting to see the new faces and the enthusiasm they bring and the returning faces of the veterans as we continue the work.

    This trip, Bob Labdons SA team was going to do 3 consecutive days in Samana, something we haven’t had to do for awhile.  Seems that a lot of the people in the countryside have found it convenient to drop unwanted puppies and kittens in Samana, increasing the load of street dogs and feral cats.  So there was a pent-up demand for our clinics and we sure wanted to meet it.  The LA team had its usual rounds of outlying communities to visit, but as usual, we started the day by doing a couple of operations in the city park, the Zona Verde.  It’s been the scene of some memorable surgeries in the past and this year was no exception. 

    The LA team on Day one consisted of Kim Beddall, our whale watching, Canadian transplant horse chick and her 1^st mate during whale season Martin (pronounced Marteen!) who is a superb horse handler and has become quite expert in recovering the  newly gelded boys as the Ket/val leaves their systems.  He got plenty of practice this trip and was invaluable.  The routine, repeated 30 + times in the next 4 days was, Arrive, Unload, Exam, tranquilize and then get to work.  The actual operation was the easy part! One day the arrival part involved 3 river crossings and a bouncing back road like we’ve never seen.  The unload part got easier as the team got used to the suitcase method of organization. The tranquilize part always preceded the exam part as doing anything that involved actually touching the patient before he was heavily sedated was life threatening in most cases.  This was also the part that required the most work and time, getting the patient snubbed to a Palm tree, tied securely and given an IV dose of xylazine/dormosedan that would have made Barbaro quiet was a fearsome undertaking.

  After some coaching though, each of our new members got extremely proficient in approaching the task and doing it without incident, though the term ”Drop and Roll” came into use after a particularly reluctant guy tried to climb the Palm tree to which he was attached while simultaneously circumnavigating it! Once sedated, Kim would loose the rope and follow the patient to the ground.  We then would appoint a local to tie and lift the back leg so we could block and prep. The surgery is quick, using power tools there is a minimum of bleeding and it’s over long before he wakes up.  By the second day, we were comfortable at doing several at once, and at one site had 5 down and recovering at once!

      But our visits to each site or village were not just for gelding.  We dispensed and administered worming pastes, treated sore backs and saddle sore, removed tumors and sprayed gallons of tick spray.  We also gave each place a little sense of why we were here.  Shelly Merriam, the trip photographer travels each year with carefully catalogued envelops full of last years beautiful photos (she took 14 rolls last year!)  And passes them out to members of each group we see.  Most of the time, she gets more attention than we do, kids and parents and grand mothers gathering around to see!

 We realized that most of the kids have never seen a photo image of themselves, so often mom has to point out and convince them that “Si, es de tu!” before they’ll take the picture. We have photos of 3 generations of some families now and it’s quite exciting to hear what they’re doing and where they are. One woman comes to mind, a 90 year old lady named Sarah Kelly Green!    She is the 3 rd generation descendant of freed American slaves, sent as a group of “educated Black people, knowledgeable in agriculture just after the civil war, to establish and teach banana, coconut and cacao production on the island”. We’ve been dealing every year with her sons Ishmael and Ezekiel, who both rent horses to tourists and harvest coconuts.   She speaks excellent English, with a faint tinge of old English in her tones and cadence. She said she had a grandson living in Tucson, several others in Puerto Rico and lots still around.  She loves her life, but bemoans the fact as do immigrant elders everywhere the her grand kids have “lost” the English that the family brought and are no longer satisfied to stay on the farm!  We stared coming to this little village of El Limon 10 years ago when there was no electricity, no running water and no outside world to call the kids away. The formerly 2 hour trip from Samana is now about 30 on a smooth well paved road!  The kids have motor bikes, and there’s a bus as well!  She is robust, engaging and supervises a very clean house!

    More and more, the trip is about people.  The ones we meet, and the ones we all become after jumping into their world on behalf of the animals we all serve.  We certainly do our duty as far as disease control and population control, but we have an affect far beyond that.  We have seen our “clients” prosper as their horses get and stay healthier, and we have seen the beginning of a transition to mules.

We saw many more than ever this year and the trend is catching on. Kim has devoted her new Finca (ranch) to raising them and there is a steady demand.  We are helping them to see that healthy animals, large and small, live longer. People of Samana now realize that we’re coming back again and again.

            We’re returning in November, so sign up now!  It’s the trip of a lifetime!

This years Team Samana were, Bob Labdon, DVM, Bill Hobbie DVM, Frank Alfano DVM, Andrea Kellum DVM, Fred Nostrant DVM, Jeff Springer DVM, Jay Merriam DVM.  Students Thea Doige and Jessica Springer Savek  .   Jen Bowden and Sharon Zwyhar RVT  and Shelly Merriam.