This year Syria has had the best rains in living memory, the fields were carpeted in flowers and the animals looked healthy and happy in the sunshine. Our mobile clinic gets to see it all.
Up in the hills around Hama, the foaling season was on and the fields were full of mares and their young, happily grazing in the sunshine between the showers.
But problems can arrive from unexpected sources: A donkey jenny had given birth to twins in a remote village. As soon as we arrived, we realised that one foal was fine but the other was struggling. The mother had plenty of milk but she was not letting one suckle.
By showing the owner a little trick and stopping the mother kicking the foal, we managed to get her used to the idea of one drinking on each side. Half an hour later, we slipped away with both foals drinking happily a rewarding sight!
It was raining when we drove to Raqqa on the Euphrates to take part in a teacher training course that our Director in Syria, Dr Darem Tabbaa, had organised with the Ministry of Education. Somewhat bizarre to be worrying about floods and roads being washed away in what is normally the driest part of the country. We’d been invited to a kindergarten by an enthusiastic teacher, Mrs Abta Al Hasan, who’d been in charge of one of our Animal Clubs since the beginning.
The children were thrilled to see us, and it was fun to watch them being introduced to a new system of sitting cross-legged on the floor, listening to Diana Hulme, our Education Director, gently probing questions and answers from them about the animals they see around them.
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