OK, our vet, Dr Dawit, confirms that there is no mad-cow disease here,
so it's ok -- or at least not panic-worthy -- to feed the ferts food
that includes cow brains and other neural tissue. I was creeped out
about it for a while, but ok, no more.

Tomorrow I go to the meat factory/abbatoire (-- sp?) w/ my
chicken-gravy recipies so we can create a custom diet for the ferrets,
and maybe others for the cats and dogs if I can come up w a replacement
for the corn in the standard mix before I go.

Looks like a typo/error in my last email -- should have said AD, not
BC here: "....the Ethiopian Orthodox (Christian) Church, which I hear
dates back to early in the 1st century BC."

I've also been thinking abt the implication in the James Fox
"Nutrition" chapter that ferrets require carbohydrates. I think that
was based on rat studies. Can't check it now, since I lent the book
to Dr Dawit.

We are still working on the network of elevated wire tunnels for
the ferts. We've got mechnical problems abt joining the segments of
tunnels, but I imagine we'll get it solved soon.

(Next 6 paragraphs are OT for FML.)

Three of us went to the dentist -- Dr Bharat, who'd here fr India and
has becme our friend. Something that cost me $800 in the US will cost
me $20 here. An anti-apnea device. I hope it is a good one.

Abeba and Tsige had their teeth cleaned, w additional work to come --
Tsige to have two stumps removed fr the back of her mouth and then 5
missing teeth restored (I think that will be bridges), Abeba to have a
cavity and front-tooth restoration done.

These are medical-dental-plan expenses of the biz! But the total will
be abt $275. Dr Bharat has 15 yrs experience in New Delhi and elsewhere
in India, also a little time in Kuwait, and he seems to be good.

The dental scene seems more advanced than the medical one here, but we
did investigate "the Korean hospital" a week or so back. One of Abeba's
friends, Teberre, who is very poor came over, with her son of 14 who
looks as though he is 10... He was having major gastrointestinal
problems, and they'd been going on for 6 months. I wasn't too impressed
w the MD who saw him, but lo and behold, the boy is cured a week later!

Teberre is my 4th student in our "sewing school." Four is all I can
handle now, but it is comfortable, and we are enjoying ourselves. We
finished te fabric-color-chosing lesson and are int cutting w/ a rotary
cutter.

Tomorrow I hope to go to the/a best fabric store here to see what tools
and supplies they carry. Saba asked when when I was still in the US ad
apparently they didn't knw what batting or fusible was, wh is a bad
sign, but I am going to go to check for myself.

Speaking of supplies, Check This Out!! My favorite ferret litter in the
US is ShweatScoop, but it was too expensive for me. They have the same
thing here, but it is a food product -- a wheat cereal! I wonder if I
could import it to the US and/or Europe. It costs 80 cents per kilo. 40
lbs of SwheatScoop is -- what? $30? And, oh shame, I forget if a pound
is 2.5 kilos or if a kilo is 2.5 lbs. I think the former.

[Moderator's note: At 80 cents/kilo, 40lbs is about USD$14.50.  BIG]

[Posted in FML 5894]