Den ersten beißen die Hunde

An unseren guten, nachbarschaftlichen Beziehungen müssen wir noch ein wenig arbeiten... aber von hier an kann es ja eigentlich nur noch besser werden ;-)

Documentation of incident:
“Watchdog bit person off Kawuku Rd.” on Friday morning, 1st of May 2009

In the night of April 30th to May 1st, due to an unwanted coincidence, our black watchdog “Tibo” escaped the compound and stayed outside of our gate until early morning. David (living down the hill on our road) was walking by on the road that early morning and was apparently bit in the leg by our dog.

David came to us during the morning and told us what happened. By that time, the wound had already closed. We were nevertheless concerned and took him immediately by car to Nsambia hospital for proper medical treatment. After the medical treatment he said he could not go to work, but in fact we found out that he did go to work on that same day.

Our dogs have been examined at least once a year by a professional veterinarian from Kansanga for many years already. Of course they have been vaccinated against common illnesses such as rabies, etc. This is documented in their health-pass. Nevertheless, David got the full rabies vaccination on that same day. This cost 45,000 USh which we fully covered. We also paid the consultation fee of 5,000 Ush. We also paid for his Jeans trousers which was damaged: 15,000 USh. We will also drive him to the next two vaccinations to Nsambia hospital and pay for those vaccinations. Those vaccinations will probably cost another 20,000-40,000 Ush.

Today (Monday, May 4th) David called me and told me he had a lot of pain in his leg, that he could not work, that he might lose his job and that he had to stay with the family and that they were hungry and I should to consider all this. In the background of his phone I heard loud music and many people talking, so he certainly was not at home. I told him that I am taking care about any medical treatment as well as the damage to his trousers, but that I will not take care about him working and doing his job. He got angry about this and told me: “Why do you talk like this? You should consider what I say. If not, I will take the further steps!” Now this sounded to me like a threat, that’s why I am now reporting this to the LC1 Chairman (=Dorfbürgermeister). I would like to add that David apparently gets some “advice” from another person. Because usually, when we agree on something, it is okay, and then some time later, it is not. Apparently, somebody is motivating him to “make some money” of this situation.

Finally, I do see that it was our failure that we did not keep our watchdog on our compound, and we are sorry for this. I am also sorry that David got bit and for the pain and inconveniences he suffered. I am willing to pay a single sum of 20,000 Ush to compensate for this. But besides the ongoing medical treatment, this must be the end of it.

Heute, Donnerstag, habe ich David wieder getroffen. Er wartete vor unserem Gate, um die dritte Dosis der Tollwut Schnellimmunisierung zu bekommen. Er war auch beim Dorfbürgermeister und hat sich die Leviten lesen lassen und die 20.000 USh einkassiert. Damit war alles wieder in Ordnung und er will mich demnächst mal bei der Arbeit besuchen, um "possible business opportunities" zu eruieren. Na, dann scheint ja wieder alles in Ordnung zu sein :-)