Thankfully something interesting happened! So I can feed the blog monster. I thought I’d include the previous to show the mundane nature of many of my days, but luckily today had a bit of what you all like – the mounting of horses, the crossing of roaring rivers on foot, the arms-up-a-cow’s-arse type of day. And I’ve got photos of it all! Gustavo – coordinator of education project, but actually a vet, has a farm a bit outside Yali. He had a few things to do there, mostly involving cows, and was happy as larry to take me especially as he’d like a few pictures of his farm. Most of the track to the farm is not good for motorbikes, so the plan was to leave it in the main carretera. A good job, as we ran out of petrol just as we got to the turn off… (that problem was dealt with much later, and by then I’d hopped on a bus back!)
The guy who works on his farm was waiting with a horse, so we took it in turns being on the horse, or being the one wading through newly-swelled rivers on foot. And on the way back we also shared the horse with a trussed up chicken, who had to wait until Yali to be put out of its misery. Nice… You can just make her out from the red bits on the right of the horse on this picture…
In between the river wading there was milking of cows… (all by hand in these parts, the calf is away from its mother a bit before milking and then gets used to start mum off, but then stays with her some of the day)…
the checking of cow’s innards…
the injecting of cows to make them more likely to get pregnant… (this resulted in some quite annoyed cows so they had to be trussed up to a tree for the event. They had good reason to be livid)…
and meeting a baby.
Aaaaah. And all on my neice’s birthday!!! Happy Birthday Kate.
3 comments:
Very 'James Herriot'! Glad something's happened - but could you get someone to take a picture of you on the horse or wading a river - or mixing with locals!
Much love, D.
I'm with D. I don't beleive you're there at all! No mixing with the local too much though.
More proofs please!
L x
Sadly Volunteers' Week didn't present any opportunities to stick my arm up a cow's bum, but we did rename it National Stupid Week, due to the inordinate number of stupid phone calls and e-mails we received! Thank goodness it's all over. 54 people came to the lunch, and all in all, it was great. Hope you enjoyed your Volunteers' Week certificate. Keep on wading!
Cx
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