News from Laurie - 21 March 2011

A quick update as it is late Monday night.

Mr. Chewbaaka is having a very bad day. We just finished with his SubQ fluids and oral nutrients. He is very weak and think that he has a bit of an imbalance going on, possibly lacking glucose. Hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better day. We will keep you all posted. It’s exhausting...he is such a good and kind friend and trusts me so, so much. But, we are not sure if we can pull him through this – his legs are looking better and he had a poop this morning – but, we are winning small battles and the big issue is his kidneys.

Our Earthwatch volunteers arrived yesterday and they are great. One of them is a pediatrician from Germany. He helped us tonight and it will be good to have him here for the next 2 weeks as he can help us with Mr. C. Also yesterday, CCF USA Trustee Jayne Bazos and her sister Kris --both incredibly dedicated through our Chicago chapter, stopped by on their way to Damaraland. They got to meet Mr. C and he purred for them and seemed stronger. I was glad they got to meet him. They will be back here for the next two days.

Namibia is celebrating its 21st Independence anniversary. On Monday Matti and I went into Otjiwarongo, where all the celebrations were held. We were invited to a small dinner with the President and I was able to present him with a Bushblok as a welcome token to the Cheetah Capital of the World. He was glad to see me! Then today, we took all our international course participants, as well as the Earthwatch volunteers, to the Independence Day celebrations. They all enjoyed seeing how our Namibian culture celebrates.

Matti and I were also invited to one of the special luncheons with dignitaries. I was in the President’s luncheon and sat with the Minister of Information and Broadcasting and his wife, who are also our neighbours and had a livestock guarding dog that just died earlier this year. The Minister's wife has been to several of our farmers’ training courses. It was so much fun being with them during this very important day and meeting even more Namibians with stories of their struggle for independence.

Back home our international course students are preparing for their Jamboland presentations. Jamboland is a project around a fictitious community with conflict requiring teams to put all their skills into play to create budgets as well as management and economic development plans. (By the way, we have photos and a press release of last month's course on our web site.) Then on Wednesday they will head off for their major field trip to Damaraland to do conduct survey/interviews. Unfortunately I will not see them after Wednesday as I will be heading to the UK on Saturday.

Just wanted to share with you all what is going on. I hope for better news tomorrow about Mr. C. Incidentally, I have moved my office to the kitchen counter since he got sick several months ago, so I can monitor him from the window/door. So, I am sitting in the kitchen --with Tiger Lily sitting next to me, writing this, and ready to go to bed.

Many cheetah purrs,

Laurie