All it Takes is One Goat
between subsistence farming
and agribusiness. In subsistence farming, the farmer grows what is necessary
for their own family, while in agribusiness farmers (such as Monsanto) tend to
hundreds of acres of one or two crops to be sold to mass quantities to stores.
Both have their positives and negatives which we talked about.
the help
of others she received a scholarship to attend a college prep school on the
East Coast to receive her GED. She also received a scholarship to attend Connecticut College where is
currently a freshmen. With one goat, many doors were opened for a girl from
Kisinga. We were all amazed that one goat could change her life so much that we
discussed various ways we could raise money to purchase animals on behalf of
our group or Alma College.
For our work projects, some participated in
trimming the hooves of the sheep. This required trapping the individual sheep
and “throwing” it so it would be sitting up and become immobile. Once the sheep
was calm and still, we trimmed their hooves and checked their weight, body size
and their state of health. This took a lot of practice for some and by the end,
our clothing ended up smelling like the sheep. After a busy morning of 
work
projects and chores we spent the afternoon around the farm just relaxing and
getting to know each other more.
From top to bottom:
Lexie Boothby-Shoemaker '06 cleans a horse stall; One of the goats on
the Overlook Farm; Jonathon Musser '06 with his
"one goat" in reference to how the one goat opened many doors for
Beatrice from Kisinga, Uganda; Jim Templin '06 attempts to "throw" a
sheep; Lexie Boothby-Shoemaker '06 and Janet Van Zoeren '06 trim the
hooves of a sheep.
Photos by Kate Bruder.
