SWF - Christmas edition

OK, so I've been quiet for a while, but I have time to go over my images from the past month or two in the little bit of quiet time available between Christmas and New Year.

On Christmas Day, we supported a training in Animal Raising/ Village-level Veterinary skills for people injured by unexploded ordnance or family members (such as parents if the UXO survivor is a child). We usually have twenty people in the training but make appointments with twenty-five people, just in case there are 'no shows.' This month, everyone attended, including four people from another province which requires more than a day's travel.

After two days of theory, we have practice sessions in one village, vaccinating chickens in the evening when they have come home to roost, like so:



We were trying to find the chickens in their coop but their owner told us to look up!

On Christmas morning, we vaccinated more animals in their mangers.



The buffalo in the foreground has a newborn white calf. The buffalo in the background was just starting to go into labor. We weren't in that section of the village long enough to see the baby. Water buffalo calfs are really cute, not like the full-sized version.

This cow is wondering whether it's safe to leave.



And I took photos while everyone else was working. I experimented with some HDR after we returned to Phonsavanh. The blue sky over a bamboo trellis and fish traps.



And over a cow pen:



When I told a friend we'd be vaccinating animals in the manger, she asked if that included camels and donkeys. I told her, "of course. Donkeys are the animals with short horns on their heads, get into everything and go 'baaaa,' right? And camels are the slow moving animals with big sweeping horns which are used for plowing." She had to agree with me.

And in case anyone gets the wrong impression that it is always sunny here - the mornings are often very foggy.



I didn't even realize that the cows were under the tree in the middle of Ta-Oi town until I nearly stumbled over one.

This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday, whose members post pictures of the skies around the world. Huh, I guess this is the last one of the year! Season's Greetings everyone!