Monday, January 28, 2008

Barney the goat

Friday morning we were surprised to find a goat in our backyard when we came home from our run. Our new neighbours are waiting for visas to move to Nigeria, and had received the goat as a gift. We named it Barney. Barney loves John and is terrified of me. Our neighbours had tied Barney to the tree on our side of the house. Sunday morning I looked out the kitchen window and saw that Barney was in our garden - nibbling away. I called out to him (he recognizes his name) but John said to leave him alone - looking so cute and just trying to get a snack. He started dreaming about having a pet goat. When we came home from the Cadets' welcome (5 hours later - but it was a lively service!) Barney had demolished our garden. Our cornfield looked like a hurricane had hit it. John no longer wants a goat. Our neighbours were embarrassed, but happy that we're white, because they said if we'd been Shona then we would have reported this to the headman and they would have had to pay a lot of money for the damage. The happy ending was that the corn on the cob was delicious!

The 2008 session of the Zimbabwe School of Youth Leadership starts today. I hope people (and food items) show up!

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