Jambo!!
Team Goat Hope recently came back from an exciting trip to Kenya. We wanted to share our experience starting from the first few days were there and periodically share the stories that touched us the most.
At first, some of us were jet lagged but soon all of our tiredness evaporated after being enthusiastically welcomed by some the beneficiaries and potential beneficiaries of MRA at their weekly meeting. We were greeted with energetic dances and traditional songs on our very first day! It was pretty incredible and heart-warming to meet the clients of MRA first-sand and see their shining faces and ecstatic energy; some of which had already received goats and others patiently awaiting ones. After introductions, we proceed to have our first interview with an extension officer of the Kenya Livestock Breeder Organization. Despite our extensive research on goat breeding for three months before coming to Embu, there was much valuable information we learned about goat breeding in Kenya.
After completing a hard day’s work and collecting much valuable information, we went on a trip to visit some of the homes of the beneficiaries of the goat hope project. On our first stop, we met the first goat: Faith and her newly home that was built by her owner in June. After standing in awe of the craftsmanship of Faith’s owner, we continued on to visit several other nearby farms where we had the chance to see how other families had accepted and incorporated new four-legged members to their households. It was remarkable to learn that the recipients had built beautiful pens to house their goats with their own hands. What a fantastic and admirable job!
We also had an opportunity to meet some of the families waiting to receive their goats. One such family was Papa Denis and his two sons. It was humbling to be so warmly welcomed by Papa Denis and family after working on a scorching summer day on his maize farm. The family with two children stands to significantly improve their dietary intake with her support of our “bahhh” milk making friends. The need in the community was extremely evident, and experiencing it first-hand caused the team much more excitement to work with MRA on serving the Embu community in their Goat Hope Project!
Boykin, Vedrana, and Linda
