23rd February
by Dr Kimia Safaei
7:30am This is the dreamy view I wake up to every day.
Today, the Yoga class was held in the queen’s corner central area because last night some predator was too curious to visit our pool… I hope the camera traps we placed do a good job and the visitor is not camera shy.
8:30 am Breakfast is the best start to the day. Although I usually don’t break that fast, instead I break long and heavy as my Indian friends do.
10:00 am Dr Tony Sainsbury led the discussion on what we do before starting a pathological investigation which includes free-living wildlife. At the end of the session, we were randomly assigned to 4 groups. Each group’s focus was on a different body system and went to the park to start investigating the death of a wild boar.
On their way out, we delayed the newlywed couple, who had kindly invited us to their beautiful wedding, to take photos and a gift.
It definitely takes effort to be cheerful before doing a postmortem on a wild boar full of maggots but here we are!
Now to business, we spent our afternoon doing something we vets know how to do; cut! It really is much more than that and we learnt so much from a carcass that was already so rotten (believe me!). Every group was given different responsibilities and it tested our teamwork and communication skills.
Each day is different and it keeps us on our toes. In the evening, we were asked to discuss in groups, our plan to investigate an outbreak which would be simulated. After an hour of brainstorming with our group, we all had a general discussion where we presented our plans. With so much going on we are just thankful that the entire IWAH mentors help with our stuff and keep us smiling (Thanks Stuart!)
