Now I have told you all about my chickens, I can tell you about our goats!
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| With Vancouver and Albert |
Amisadai and I were first given a goat by a friend in the stoves group. The goat was brown with a big white spot, so we named her Vancouver White Spot. We then got a male goat called Calgary. Calgary was a black goat. After 5 months, Vancouver gave birth to a kid and we named him Albert (after Alberta, Canada).
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| Milking Vancouver |
When Albert was old enough to be weaned off Vancouver, we tried to milk her. It was actually very difficult! Trying to get underneath her when she was so wiggly was not easy! We had to squeeze her udder from the top down to the bottom so the milk would come out. I didn't really like the feel of it! We didn't get so much milk from her! We did try a little bit to drink; it is quite nice and I liked it. It is a different texture to cow's milk and has a bit of a strange aftertaste.
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| A glass of goat's milk |
Mom took some of Vancouver's milk to the Mamas Group and they made soap with it! They mixed the goat's milk with coconut oil and other oils and made it in pretty moulds. It turned out wonderfully! They were able to sell all of it before Christmas.
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| Making Goat's milk soap |
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| The finished soaps |
In December, when Albert was old enough, he was sent to live in a village called Malya. We gave him to the mamas group there, for them to start a goat project. Mum went to Malya with Julian (beekeeper from England) and John (our new team worker) in the land cruiser. It was a long drive but Albert was quite happy most of the time in a plastic basin in the back! The mamas will buy a female goat with their own group money, to mate with Albert and then they will have kids and milk! They can use their own goats milk to make soap!!
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| Albert goes in style to Malya |
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| The mamas group in Malya with their new goat |
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| Mum says goodbye to Albert at his new home! |
We also now have two Saanen goats! Saanen goats originate from Switzerland and are particularly good for milking. We bought them in June from Ukerewe Island. We named them Victoria and Mr Toronto. We were told that Victoria was pregnant. We realised after five months that she wasn't. Since then we have been wanting to get her pregnant, but Toronto doesn't seem to know what to do and won't do his job. Dad and I have tried to put Toronto on Victoria's back, but he isn't at all interested. I hope she will be pregnant soon!
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| Big Toronto |
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| Here I am feeding Victoria some peanuts |
By the way, the Swahili word for goat is
mbuzi!
