Goats:
This was the week of the goat. All week we had goat meetings, goat markets, goat distributions, and goats in our yard.
On Monday I went with some MFSP board members to buy some goats. In the POMC 1-year plan was an activity to provide 240 goats to 48 community members who are in great need. Monday we bought the first installment of 80 goats to be distributed to the first group of beneficiaries. This was an experience in and of itself. In some ways it was pure capitalism. All the goat sellers were standing around in one area with their goats (and sheep) in a circle in front of them. People walked up, haggled the price and then decided to buy or sell. All the buyers and sellers were pretty much in one confined space so there were not many “secrets”. It was interesting to see the market respond to such a drastic increase in demand, as the total supply of goats was probably about 100, so our group looking to buy around 80 was a major demand increase. People started to come to us with goats, the price started to rise from Ksh 1,500 ($19) to around Ksh 2,000 ($25) and eventually to over Ksh 2,300 ($29). My job was to write down the price of each goat, the seller’s name and ID and any change that was due us or them. People don’t carry change so all we had were Ksh 1,000 bills leading to lots of change eventually being owed both ways. The group I was accounting for ended up buying around 25 goats which we carried to a holding area behind the buying area (I say area because its just dirt with a small wooden fence around it).
After the buying is done, we count the goats, collect our change and drive the goats out through the market. This was quite the scene as our goats were mixing with other people’s goats and just getting 63 animals of any sort to do any one thing is a bit of a challenge. We had hired a shepherd to drive the animals back to Najile (10km away) which he began soon thereafter.
For the rest of the week the goats would be our neighbors, being kept at the POMC farm and being grazed around our house. We soon realized that not having a gate was a major problem as we now have daily goat (as well as cow and dog) invasions. The problem is we are growing some small trees and starting a garden which is not helped by animals munching on every leaf. So a common exclamation to be heard this week was, “Goat!” or, “we have cows!” Even as I type this blog I see the whole herd munching right behind our fence. Random goat fact: did you know goats sneeze? Such is life in Maasai-land.
Other goat-related activities this week included a large goat meeting with MCC. There is talk about stocking the area with more goats as almost all the cattle have died due to the drought and lots of the goats died due to a disease outbreak. The goal is to buy a whole bunch of inoculated goats and reach a large part of the community. We had a meeting with Ron and the partners about the logistics surrounding such a large project and its feasibility.
Now, the only goat activity left for this week, since the goats have been duly branded and inoculated, is to distribute them. I had expected this to take place on Saturday, but there are still goats here so I’m assuming the distribution will happen tomorrow or Tuesday. This process involves not only handing over goats, but also doing a baseline study of the beneficiary population as well as training on the care of goats and procedures for this goat project (usually the first kid of each goat is returned to the project to be given to another family). So ends the week of the goat.
This was the week of the goat. All week we had goat meetings, goat markets, goat distributions, and goats in our yard.
On Monday I went with some MFSP board members to buy some goats. In the POMC 1-year plan was an activity to provide 240 goats to 48 community members who are in great need. Monday we bought the first installment of 80 goats to be distributed to the first group of beneficiaries. This was an experience in and of itself. In some ways it was pure capitalism. All the goat sellers were standing around in one area with their goats (and sheep) in a circle in front of them. People walked up, haggled the price and then decided to buy or sell. All the buyers and sellers were pretty much in one confined space so there were not many “secrets”. It was interesting to see the market respond to such a drastic increase in demand, as the total supply of goats was probably about 100, so our group looking to buy around 80 was a major demand increase. People started to come to us with goats, the price started to rise from Ksh 1,500 ($19) to around Ksh 2,000 ($25) and eventually to over Ksh 2,300 ($29). My job was to write down the price of each goat, the seller’s name and ID and any change that was due us or them. People don’t carry change so all we had were Ksh 1,000 bills leading to lots of change eventually being owed both ways. The group I was accounting for ended up buying around 25 goats which we carried to a holding area behind the buying area (I say area because its just dirt with a small wooden fence around it).
After the buying is done, we count the goats, collect our change and drive the goats out through the market. This was quite the scene as our goats were mixing with other people’s goats and just getting 63 animals of any sort to do any one thing is a bit of a challenge. We had hired a shepherd to drive the animals back to Najile (10km away) which he began soon thereafter.
For the rest of the week the goats would be our neighbors, being kept at the POMC farm and being grazed around our house. We soon realized that not having a gate was a major problem as we now have daily goat (as well as cow and dog) invasions. The problem is we are growing some small trees and starting a garden which is not helped by animals munching on every leaf. So a common exclamation to be heard this week was, “Goat!” or, “we have cows!” Even as I type this blog I see the whole herd munching right behind our fence. Random goat fact: did you know goats sneeze? Such is life in Maasai-land.
Other goat-related activities this week included a large goat meeting with MCC. There is talk about stocking the area with more goats as almost all the cattle have died due to the drought and lots of the goats died due to a disease outbreak. The goal is to buy a whole bunch of inoculated goats and reach a large part of the community. We had a meeting with Ron and the partners about the logistics surrounding such a large project and its feasibility.
Now, the only goat activity left for this week, since the goats have been duly branded and inoculated, is to distribute them. I had expected this to take place on Saturday, but there are still goats here so I’m assuming the distribution will happen tomorrow or Tuesday. This process involves not only handing over goats, but also doing a baseline study of the beneficiary population as well as training on the care of goats and procedures for this goat project (usually the first kid of each goat is returned to the project to be given to another family). So ends the week of the goat.
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