Day 7 - Busy Busy Busy

Today has felt crazy busy for some reason. I slept in until 8:45am (WOO HOO), but it still felt really busy. The morning was relatively relaxing, mostly just prep work for the focus groups in the afternoon. I did, however make a monumentally important discovery: there is such a thing as a double macchiato. It's twice as big as the macchiato's I've been drinking!!! My life is forever changed. :)

DOUBLE MACCHIATO

We finished up the focus groups today, with groups of veterinarians and community health workers. The language barrier was more of a problem today, since our translator couldn't be there and the moderators for the focus groups didn't understand very much English. But we made it through, and I think we'll still have useful info once it's translated. Our motto for the trip (as told by Dr. Gebreyes and Nicole) is, "maximum flexibility, minimum expectations," so there you go. The focus groups went great, all things considered. :)

After the focus groups, we met up with the rest of the OSU group to go on a tour of a local slaughter plant. That was an experience, let me tell you. I have toured slaughter facilities, but never when they were operational. We saw everything, from a live cow walking in all the way to the carcass being prepped for transport to the local butcher shop. I am pleased to report that I did not pass out. :) It was also funny to see how they dump all of the internal organs down this chute, but we couldn't see where it went. When we were in the basement, all of the sudden a ton of internal organs came flying out of this hole in the wall (guess we found out where the chute went lol). That's not something you see every day. :) To all of my public health friends: they don't have anything remotely like HACCP. They straight up said, "We don't have any HACCP plans." I really wish Dr. Habing had been there, as I would have loved to see his reaction to everything. We got to look at their records as well, where they listed all of the live animal shipments they had received and the different problems they found during slaughter. All of the vet students/vets in the group were in awe at the crazy parasites/diseases listed, yet all of that meat was still sent on for consumption. It was a very educational experience. I discovered that even though I didn't really enjoy the HACCP lecture, I really appreciate HACCP now. :)

That's all for today! Tomorrow they are having some sort of closing celebration for the OSU professors who are leaving this weekend, so that should be fun. :) Missing everyone a ton!!

Much love,

Joslyn :)

P.S. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous man runs to it and is safe." Proverbs 18:10. I'm so glad I can turn to the Lord at any time and find strength and safety. :)