Goat Training

Well, we finally found 18 of 20 goats and figured we could give out the ones we have and get the next 2 asap. So we scheduled the training for 2 yesterday afternoon. We arrived at 2 and there were just a few women there. I asked the lady in charge where everyone was and she said 'well, I told them 1 and thought they would show up at 2 but then everyone was here at 1 and since they're fasting they all went home to sleep until you came at 2.' We called everyone and it was still 3 by the time everyone got there, so we started a little late but that was alright. We thought it was cool that they were so excited that they actually came to something on time!
It was mainly the women that came because the men were fasting. Women can't fast if they're pregnant or nursing and, when it's normal to have 10 kids, they have very little 'opportunity' to observe Ramadan. We had a vet come in and teach them just a few of the most important things about caring for the goats.
Then we handed them out. It was pretty much mass chaos. Since it was just the women they had a hard time carrying around 2 goats and we didn't bring any rope to make leashes because, even after all these months of planning, we just didn't think of that detail. Can you find me in this picture?

Once someone managed to find some rope order was restored. The women were just elated and were doing the ulululul really high pitched celebratory sound that they make at weddings and graduations, etc.

The little kids were so funny to watch. They loved the baby goats and just wanted to hug on them so we had all these 3-5 year olds chasing these terrified babies around. Then they were scared of the bigger ones so they would barely touch them and then turn around and run away laughing.

Overall it was a very successful day. We are so excited to have started our project and look forward to spending time with the participants and seeing how all of this plays out!