Adventures of Zawadi #5
Maaaambo!
I hope you are all well. Zawadi here, that 6yr old dairy goat from Tanzania who keeps skipping her hooves across the keyboard to send messages across the globe!
Although I’m 6yrs old according to human measurements, in goat years I’m actually almost 50! So, the Swahili lesson for the day is that if you are younger than me, you don’t greet me Mambo, you greet me Shikamoo. Shikamoo is a Swahili greeting of respect reserved for those older than yourself, but I still say Mambo to you.
Now, down to the ‘mud in the hooves’ of the story. I’d like to tell you the tail...I mean tale (always get those confused). There’s tails and tales, and tail wagging and chin wagging - English! Suffice to say I love both tail wagging and chin wagging, haha!
I’d like to tell you the TALE of how I came to live with the Matumani’s. You see, I wasn't born on this farm, way back when I was a little kid, I lived a LONG journey away. One day, a nice person came to visit my farm, and some other farms too.
Maaama told me to be looking my best coz that's why this person was here, to select the best looking goat to give to new families. She also told me what an honor it was to be selected. I stretched as tall and as long as I could, and I didn't play in the mud and the dirt (well, Maaama wouldn't let me), so I was all shiny white. You guessed it, I was picked! The nice person put a shiny yellow earring in my ear with a special number on it. I was so proud, strutting around showing the other kids on my farm.
The truck came the next day and I said my farewells, there were other pretty looking goats in the truck too, all with the shiny, yellow earrings. We travelled many many hours. We then stayed overnight at someone's house as we had to have some vaccines and worming medicine before we met our new families. Once the sun came up we got tied near a big pile of maize stalks and got given some water and some medicine. It was nice to have a break from the travel...and REALLY nice to be eating some maize (I think you guys call it 'corn').
The following day we were loaded up again and off we went. I missed my family, but I was so excited to be apart of this project. The meeting place was at the church, the new families come to the church and then we walk home with them. When it was my turn to be picked, I stood tall and long like Maaama said and looked my best, and that was it, the moment I met my new family, the Matumani's. I'm not sure who was more excited, me or them, and I skipped all the way to my new home!! That my friends is the tail end of the story...or the end of the tale...whichever way you want to put it!
New goats don't all travel from as far now, some of them come from older families who have had a chance for their goats to multiply (goats are very good at math), but that is my tail...tale! Thank you so much for being a part of this project, without you, I wouldn't be able to be the blessing I am, and there wouldn't be the smiles and joy in my family that there are now, so again we say a huge THANK YOU!!!
