I was Born a Farm Girl

My students find me strange for a variety of reasons.  One of the main things is that I have absolutely no exposure to raising animals.  Most Basotho (especially  in villages) have livestock.  So children grow up raising a variety of different animals.  They also grow up growing various vegetables especially maize (corn), the staple food.  In fact this is so amusing to my students that the agriculture teacher in my school joked that I should take the Form A agriculture test with them to see who does better.  This post is to not only show some of the animals I have now been exposed to but also to show off some of my new found knowledge on animals.

Chickens

One of my family's chickens and her babies.

My school had a small chicken project where the school bought a few hundred eggs, raised the chicks until they became chickens, and sold them as meat for a small profit.  I learned a few things in this project: 1) There are different breeds of chickens and each one has a specific purpose such as one is meant for laying eggs while one is bred for meat. 2) Chicks become chickens within

Another one of my family's hens.

a few weeks. 3) Chicks do not need to be raised by their mother unlike mammals (this I actually learned while teaching my Form As about classifying animals).  My family has chickens (which are the ones I took pictures of).  The chickens are free grazing.  I'm sure in America this has another meaning for in Lesotho it means that during the day the chickens wander wherever they want, all over the family's property.  No cages, no fences.  But as nightfall comes my little brother runs after each one, stuffs them in a bag, and puts them in a store room for the night.  The chicks follow the bagged mother in to the store room and they are safe from the possible dangers that roam the village at night.

One of the older chicks.

One interesting thing about watching chicks being raised from hatching is watching them grow.  I feel like when we learn about baby animals in school is almost seems like they go through a metamorphosis from cute yellow chicks to multi-coloured chickens; but there seems to be three life cycles in a chicken's life.  The yellow chick phase, the larger, in-between phase, and finally adult hood. The chicks slowly lose their fuzzy yellow feathers to get darker feathers and they slowly lose their chubiness, the necks start to get longer, and they start to look more like thier adult counter parts.

Cows and Sheep

The family's one cow.

 Many Lesotho boys grow up to become herd boys.  As the name suggests herd boys take care of the herds whether it be sheep or cows.  Therefore all animals in Lesotho are free range.  My family only has one female cow.  Apparently they used to have more but they all died of a disease and this is a new cow my host father purchased recently.  He is trying to get it pregnant which is a process unto itself.  He has to pay another owner of male cows to use the male cow to spend some time with the female cow so that it may become pregnant au natural.  So far he has not been successful.  Most male cows are castrated so male cows that are able to reproduce are not very common.  From what I understand these males are often kept separate from most of the herd to control the reproduction process.

Our sheep grazing outside the house.

I'm not sure why Basotho raise so many cows.  I don't think most Basotho drink cow's milk so I assume they raise the cows for mainly for its meat.  Basotho love meat and this itself is an understatement.  Meat is hard to come by especially since most Basotho do not have refrigeration units to keep meat cold.  This means that meat cannot simply be bought from your local super market and kept in the freezer until you are ready to eat it.  Meat is also very expensive.  And if you are raising your own animals it takes time for an animal to grow up so that it can be slaughtered.  Therefore meat is a delecacy.  I should also mention that Basotho eat every single part of the animal: feet, heads, intestines, hearts, stomachs, ovaries (my family slaughters a chicken that was just about to lay an egg so my family ate the egg too), testicles, you name it.

Sheep are very similar to cows in that they are raised for slaughtering.  My family has many sheep and because there are so many my family has hired a boy to watch over the sheep during the day.  During holidays my little brother watches the sheep too.  One funny thing I noticed about the sheep: they seem to give birth in the winter and not in the spring.  Recently I have seen a lot of lambs.  I wonder why...I should also mention that Basotho do not use the wool from sheep for anything.   Sheep are also very easy to steal especially when you have a large heard.  So it is important to keep a close watch on them.

Dogs

Family Dog.

The two puppies a little older.

The two puppies when they were very young.

Dogs have a lot of uses for Basotho.  First, they guard the house when it is night.  They act as a form of security and bark at anything (and I mean anything) that moves at night.  Therefore, all night long, I hear the sound of dogs barking.  Every house has a dog and on larger properties, the more the better (and the bigger the better).  Secondly, dogs often accompany herd boys to help them herd sheep which have an uncanny tendency to wander off.  Thirdly, dogs eat any scraps the family may have from bread that has gone bad (that's what I usually feed the dogs) to bones of any meat the family has eaten.  Unfortunately dogs are usually very skinny for they are not fed very well.  Our family dog is so skinny you can see her ribs.  Recently she gave birth to two puppies who together probably weighed more than her.

The remaining puppy.

A harsh reality you realize in Lesotho is that animals (and people) die quite often.  Veterinarians are only found in town and I would assume that they are quite expensive.  So if an animal is sick you have to find a way to get it to town and the money to spend to get treatment.  And unlike the US there is no concept of vaccinating animals for common diseases. Therefore it is quite common for animals to die unexpectedly. That happened to one of the puppies.  For some reason it stopped eating and in a few days it would not wake up from its sleep.  It's an unfortunate reality you have to deal with in a developing country.  When there are barely enough resources to get people to the local clinic (again usually in town) then animals are simply not a priority.  Most likely the female dog will become pregnant again and give the family more dogs.

Cats

The male kitten crying from his mother.

The female kitten hiding from humans.

Mother. son, and daughter eating.

The last animal I want to talk about in the post are cats.  Like dogs they have a variety of uses.  They are very handy for catching rats.  And like dogs they will also eat leftovers readily. 

The two kittens feeding.

My family currently has three cats.  The first one has been with the family for years.  It has produced many kittens which my family often sell for a small profit.  But recently this cat's age has started to show and it no longer catches rats.  It also kills small chicks.  It has therefore become a liability.  Because of these reasons my family has decided to keep its latest litter consisting of two kittens.  Unfortunately these kittens are deathly afraid of human and will run as soon as they see one.  Therefore we are trying to tame them.  They spend most of the day crying for their mother.  Also the mother has not weaned the kittens though they are more than old enough to do so (I have done a lot of online research of cats and pregnancy because I have had more than more pregnancy scare with another cat).

Nap time!

I have one more cat to speak about, definitely my favorite cat on the compound; one that has gained the love and respect of all the members of the Mokote household. She is considered to be an expect rat catcher by my host parents.  My host siblings love her for her cleverness and overall playfulness and friendlyiness which makes her a very entertaining cat to watch.  And for me she is simply my little cat who never fails to make my day.  She has grown so much since I got her.  She is a good companion who catches bugs for me (but only after playing with them first) and is very entertaining. She loves to cuddle and sleep on my lap no matter how inconvenient it may be for me.  She also loves milk and string.

I think all of this makes her the best animal on the compound.  Wouldn't you say?