Goats and Parties

So, apparently, I am the new expert on goats.  If you have a question regarding birth and/or the proper care of abscesses and infections, give me a call, write me a letter, send a shout-out.  This may sound like I’m exaggerating but I’m serious this time folks.  My new job for the next, oh, month or so is to be chief caretaker of our goat Nifty and co-chief of our other (pregnant) goat Lady.  The humor God has in store for me!

This morning, Ginna—our animal and garden expert here at the house—left for Michigan for an internship for 2 months.  That means we have to cover for her while she’s away.  Nifty, the male goat who is super friendly and cuddly, has an abscess on his neck that we are going to get taken care of tomorrow.  And since one of my cats in the past had the same thing and I was the one to take care of it, that automatically promotes me to the expert level.  So now it’s my job to nurse him back to health.  Never mind that goats and cats are very different or anything… :)  Also, the other goat Lady is pregnant and is going to have her baby very soon.  So, late last night, Ginna gave the whole house a PowerPoint presentation on goat births and what to do if there are complications.  Too much information, let me tell you.  If you’re curious as well, there are various videos on Youtube of goats giving birth.  It’s enough to give you nightmares…  But I am confident to say I feel pretty equipped to handle the birth when it comes.  Well, as long as the PowerPoint is nearby.  And I’m going to need to be ready because apparently I have the second smallest hands here so, if anything goes wrong and Luli (who has the smallest hands) isn’t here, I’ll need to insert my hand and either turn the baby around or flip it or whatever.  Yippee.  Please pray that every goes AMAZING and no human intervention be needed.

Tomorrow is also the 1^st of May, a national holiday here in Costa Rica.  It is also the same day we are going to have our first big promotional event for our project Bola Bola.  And, coincidentally, the soccer court we are trying to fix up is located in the Primero de Mayo barrio, which translates to “the 1^st of May neighborhood.”  So we’re having a big party on the 1^st of May for the 1^st of May community—how cool is that?!  This event is going to be primarily run by the kids (we’ll be there to help out and make sure things run smoothly) and will be complete with activities like face painting, dance and acting performances, team challenges, and group sports.  Last night, a big group of us (15 kids in all) went door to door handling out flyers and advertising for the event.  It was great to see the kids rush from house to house in the rain passing out the flyers we made; it really showed their level of commitment to this project because normally in this culture, when the rain comes, everyone stops what they’re doing and no one goes outside.  Not these kids though!  With a couple of umbrellas and a few rain jackets, we were all set to go.  Now we just have to hope that people will be interested in coming.  But, if all things go according to plan—a.k.a. if the kids remember to bring their stuff and show up on time—it should be a wonderful day for the entire family. 

And my brother and sister and two of my friends are coming in less than a week!!  Please pray that I can focus on what needs to get done first before they come (as you can tell, I’m having a hard time keeping my mind on the present) :)  Stay tuned!