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IAVH Slovenia exam report by Peter Gregory, UK
Many of you may know that veterinary homeopathy is thriving in Slovenia; the local association Slovensko Veterinarsko Homeopatsko Društvo, is led by president and IAVH National Representative Mirjam Blatnik, whom many of us have met at recent board meetings. For those like me whose geography of the former Yugoslavia is shaky, Slovenia is a country the size of Wales, which has borders with Croatia to the south, Austria to the north, Hungary to the east, and Italy to the west. Its western border also includes exactly 46.6 km of beautiful Adriatic coastline. Under the tutelage and nurture of Stefan Kohlrausch 14 members have attained CertIAVH and with the latest course finishing last year the necessary examinations were planned for March 2020.
Putting the examinations on a more formal basis, when in Bogota last October I was invited to participate with Stefan. The invitation was delivered by Mirjam and the rather persuasive group of candidates whom I was pleased to
meet up with again in Slovenia. As is the custom, I was invited to join the rather impressive list of speakers to deliver a seminar before returning home. So while Mirjam organised travel and
accommodation,
Stefan and I set to organise the exams. I have to say I’m amazed how much work Stefan has single-handedly put
in over previous years to deliver these exams and I did hope it would be a more enjoyable experience to do it together. For those who are unaware of the process, each candidate has to firstly submit ten case histories. These have to be deemed satisfactory to qualify to attend the exams in person. On the appointed day, there is a multi choice exam of 50 questions – I was given the opportunity to select the questions of the written exam from the 100 in IAVH bank. Having passed that examination they are presented with 3 paper cases, which they must analyse, repertorise and select an appropriate remedy. In this case we used a mixture of cases from Stefan’s and my experience. Finally there is an oral examination during which they may be questioned on anything arising from their case histories, particularly their analysis of the paper cases, and anything else, which the examiner may wish to investigate. So all the parts of the exam in place, we all prepared for the big event on 13th and 14th March.
As Mirjam lives close to the border with Croatia, it was most convenient to fly to Zagreb and stay with her overnight before heading for the venue early the following morning, picking up Stefan from Ljubljana on the way. In January my partner Jane and I moved to a small holding in West Wales – just the 5 hrs train and bus ride to London Heathrow, so flight times had to take that into consideration. All went well on the way out, the only glitch being a signalling problem, which meant having to wait for half an hour on the Welsh side of the Severn tunnel and an hour-late arrival at the airport. At this
time, on March 11th, COVID-19 was erupting in Italy and restrictions were being put in place in a few countries around the world, though not in UK, so I didn’t really foresee any problem for me to perform the necessary tasks in Slovenia and getting home again the following Monday, leaving Zagreb at 16-30. However one hint of what might be on its way came in the form of the 2 kilometre-long queue of lorries, many of them from Italy, waiting to cross the border into Croatia near Mirjam’s home. On the morning of 12th, Mirjam took me for a day out in Ljubljana; on the way I received a message from Stefan that he couldn’t make it – his flight from Spain involved a change in France and he feared he might not be able to get home. We decided we could involve Stefan by internet and that with Mirjam’s help we could manage to put the exams on. The small matter of Stefan’s introductory lecture on homeopathy on Saturday evening was easily solved by a quick search on my computer
So on Friday morning we duly set off for the very comfortable Hotel Salinera, right on the coast at Strunjan. The sun was shining. We arrived in good time and at 10 o’clock nine brave souls sat down in the allotted room and spent the next hour or two ticking abcd or e for each question. The venue was perfect, although there was a little noise from outside where a group of young German footballers had had their matches cancelled so did what young footballers do best – drink! Exam finished, Mirjam and I set to marking the papers and I’m pleased to say everyone passed well.