Wildlife Refuge and Cooking Corn on the Cob in Hot Springs

Apr. 19^th, 2010

I slept well last night except for the occasional itching and my stuffy nose.  I had a good visit and scripture study with my family.  Joseph was able to figure out what was wrong with his laptop so we chatted for a while.  He is very good with computers.  He started out with Grandpa Jay’s laptop and whenever he had problems he would work at it until he had them solved.  His tenacity has given him a very good education.

Boran embryo recipients at ATARC

Abera and I drove to ATARC and found the heifers just going through their vaccination.  I liked the facility much better for working cattle so we just used it to give the PGF shots.  The heifer that we were going to put an embryo in wasn’t ready so we just left her alone.  On our way out we had a glass of hot milk.  I like drinking the milk when I know where it comes from and how it has been handled.

We met with Dr Hailu in Ziway to review the progress and our plans.  He also gave me a draft of his proposal for improving the cattle in Ethiopia.  He will be presenting it the same day that we have the embryo workshop.

Ostrich at the Wildlife Refuge

On our way back we stopped at the wildlife refuge and saw some ostrich, antelope, a fox, a wart hog, and a lot of beautiful birds.  

The beautiful blue waters of Shala Lake

We also drove down to Shala Lake which is a very large and deep partly salty lake.  It is fed in part by hot springs.  The water comes out of the ground in some places boiling.  I estimated with my thermometer that it was about 200 degrees Fahrenheit where the people cook their corn on the cob. 

The locals throw corn in for a couple of minutes to cook it. When they are done they throw the cob back into the water .

The area would make some fantastic beach front property or a great resort.  Instead the land is overgrazed and suffers a lot of erosion in the rainy season.  Many people come to bathe in the lake and use the spring waters for medicinal purposes.

We stopped at the compound to check on the milk cow and discovered more issues with her.  They were purchasing the two ingredients for the concentrate mix separately and instead of feeding them together they would feed one ingredient one day and one the next.

Abera and I started going over the numbers at dinner but my sinuses were draining so I told him to go home and we would tackle it in the morning.  I am glad that I have some allergy pills to take. I took one a couple of hours ago and it seemed to help some but I am still very drippy.  To make matter worse I ran out of toilet paper and it took two trips to the front desk and half an hour to get some more.  Toilet paper is one of those luxury items in Ethiopia.