World Rabies Day

September 28 is World Rabies Day. We celebrated it a day early here at Tibet Charity with a very nice ceremony and free rabies shots for the dogs in town. I learned some things about rabies... like the fact that apparently 60,000 people a year are killed by it, and 1/3 of those are in India. Tibet Charity's veterinary program was instated a few years back at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama as a way to help control the stray dog population in and around Dharamsala. Every year they sterilize dogs around town; in the Director's speech he stated that they believe the way to control the population is not to kill the animals, but rather to control their reproduction. Tibet Charity also tends to the animals in town, providing necessary medical care. Last year they vaccinated some 700 dogs against rabies, and they are hoping to at least match that number this year.

That monk in the orange standing up is my student Phaivong, and the monk sitting next to him in red is my student Jampel.

Mr. Boom calming down one of Tibet Charity's resident dogs, Tashi. He got a little territorial with all the other dogs around.

Look at the long dog! It reminded me of Jdog...

Panel of experts. Tibet Charity's director, Mr. Tsering Thundup-la, is on the right.

Tashi getting the first vaccine of the day. The other Tibet Charity dog, Paula, was next.

OMG doxie!

Tibetans always have tea and snacks when there are functions.

Yesterday evening I was wrestling with either bad food or a stomach bug that woke me up every two hours. Apparently most people who come to India experience “traveler's diarrhea” at one point or another, which I read before I came, so I was (more or less) prepared. It still sucks when you're just trying to get a decent night's sleep and you can feel every inch of your intestines writhing and gurgling, and then your stomach cramps up, you've got chills, and because you're already so uncomfortable everything else is amplified: the mildew smell in the mattress, the fact that there's no heat in your room, knowing that you're supposed to be traveling in a couple of days and that if you feel this crappy now, there's no way you're going to want to sit in the car for a few hours.

I think I just ate too much oily food yesterday. I had an omelet for breakfast that, while fresh, was a little oily on the bottom, and then for lunch we had noodles and peppers that had a fair amount of oil on them. They were tasty, but I don't think my stomach appreciated it much.

After the ceremony I went back to my place, drank some electrolytes, and took a nap. Thankfully I felt a whole lot better when I got up to go to dinner with Marie and Verity, and tonight has progressed without further incident. We even got a nice, big thunderstorm after dinner – we decided to just ride it out in the restaurant. I think the power went out 4 times.

We are supposed to be going on a day trip tomorrow, so I'll have to see how my stomach feels in the morning. None of us wants a repeat of the last road trip.