The First Batch of Goats

“If I had told you 6 months ago that we’d be in a beaten-down flat-bed pickup truck driving to a goat market in Ruhengeri, Rwanda, what would you have said ?”.
“YOU CRAZY !”

Yet here we were. It was 10am and Teste (Cathy’s husband) and us were in a rented truck on the way to the goat market to pick up 20 goats to distribute to needy families in the province. We set the limit at 20 for the first visit, as buying, loading, offloading and containing more than 20 goats at a time might be a bit of a larger challenge than we're cut out for.

The morning had gotten off to a rather exciting start as we had a big feast at the school thanks to a contribution of $600 US from an Australian whom had volunteered with Cathy before (and had traded emails with me about PREFER when I was doing my research). The feast consisted of apple juice, rice pilao and a goat curry. The goat was a male goat from the garden in the back of the school which had been used to impregnate many of the female goats that had been given to needy families previously. This goat is now a personal hero of Dave's as it's given it's life so that many others could live....and was a total stud in his lifetime. The feast was enjoyed by all the children and cost only about $150 meaning there's money for 3 more !

Later that day, we went to the to the goat market to pick up our first 20 goats for distribution. Like most things here, it's controlled chaos. As we parked our truck, we were quickly swarmed by goat vendors who were pleased to hear that we needed 20 of their finest. The process was as follows :
* Once they figured out the 'muzungus' couldn't speak Kinyawranda, most of the vendors directed their attention to Teste
* Teste began negotiating with the vendors for their goat..he would make the goat turn around to confirm it was female and then sized it up with his eyes
* Dave would pat the back of the goat because his friend Elson advised that some vendors would overfeed their goats prior to purchase hoping to secure a better price; however looking for a solid wide back was an indicator of a healthy female. Did he know what he was feeling for ? No..not really
* After about 2 minutes we were able to secure a pen and paper for Teste where he recorded the vendors name and the negotiated amount for the specific goat
* Each selected goat was given to a guy to hold and Dal supervised him to make sure the count was correct (Dal valiantly tried to hold some goats herself but was quickly out-weighed at goat number 5)
* After all 20 goats were selected, Teste read out the name of each vendor one-by-one and Dave paid him the negotiatied amount
* We then loaded the goats onto the back of the truck and headed for the school and unloaded the goats and tied them to the school fence around noon. Dave road in the back with the goats.
 At 3pm, the selected families would meet us on the school grounds to receive their goat

Before leaving the school for lunch, one woman, who had walked 20km to get to the school, arrived at the grounds. When told that she would have to wait until 3pm to get her goat, she smiled and took a seat on the ground with her baby.

At 3pm we came back to the school to find 17 of the 20 families present. With us was Augustin, the govt official who provides the names of these needy families, and ensures the right people are getting their goats. The crowd consisted mostly of the mamas in each family, some of them with their little ones securely tied to their backs. They let Teste know they wanted to come up and say 'hello' to us.

Hello consisted of several hearty thumps on the back - these African women are STRONG! We handed out goats one by one - it was clear to see how happy and grateful they all were, thanking us profusely. We made sure to let them know the names of the people in Canada who had purchased their goat for them, as well as the goats names. We took a photo with person, their goat and a piece of paper with the donor and the goat name which we'll email to all of the donors when we have a faster internet connection !

Once done, they strutted off proudly - Teste told us that this goat would make a massive difference in their lives, and they would likely walk by all the homes in their villages to show everyone their new possession. In fact, one of the mamas there has her 'adopted' son at the PREFER school (by adopted, I mean the little guy was left on the ground by his mum who took off with a solider. Another woman in the community took him in, in spite of being quite poor herself)

Goat day was totally fabulous - and we get to do it all again a few times, as we get through all the goats on our list. Next time Dal will NOT pose for pictures with random African men who want to hold her hand. 

Click on the photos below to enlarge.