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PROJECT SAMANA
I grew up in New York City, so I thought I would be comfortable driving anywhere. That thought changed when we drove from the Puerto Plata airport to the hotel in Cabarete. Adults and children walked on the sides of the road, dogs slept on the street, motorcycles appeared from every direction and pickup trucks with coconuts and people piled in the back caused me to hold my breath. I was in the Dominican Republic, and the taxi-cab dodging skills that I honed in NYC would be very handy over the next seven days.
I went to the Dominican Republic as part of Project Samana. Our group consisted of four veterinarians, two vet students and two techs. Two local vets and one local tech scheduled the clinics for us and helped us immensely with the language barrier. We ran clinics for four days. In that time, we sterilized more than 50 dogs and cats, castrated more 20 horses and provided basic medical care to many other animals. I think we dosed everything we could get our hands on with anti-parasitic meds!
I am very proud of the work we did. This trip gave me a new sense of pride in my profession, and introduced me to some wonderful colleagues I may have never met otherwise. It also reminded me to appreciate and respect many skills I take for granted because I consider them routine. Our clients in the Dominican Republic did not consider our work “routine” at all: they were so very appreciative of the services we provided for their animals.
The country is beautiful and its people very lovely. I am looking forward to returning next year, after I review some Spanish, and would love for some Penn vets—or future Penn vets—to join us! For more information, or to donate supplies or money, please contact Dr. Bob Labdon, Veterinary Associates of Cape Cod, at 508-394-3566. You can also find out more about Project Samana here, and I would be more than happy to answer any questions. I can be reached at catemcmanus@hotmail.com.
Catherine McManus, V'02, MPH, Dipl ACVPM, is a veterinary epidemiologist who works at the Virginia Department of Health's Division of Environmental Epidemiology.
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