The Goat Project

As I promised a long time ago in an update far far away I reveal a project that I have been working on for sometime. When I first decided to do this project I had no idea the amount of trouble it would actually be. How hard could it be to clean up a bit of land and make a goat pen? Well what seemed like a little project took until a few weeks ago to finish. Now my goats have a home. Of course tying my goats up to stakes and trees was fine as well, and as I engaged the culture I learned that this is the norm here. However, for the situation in the hospital making a fence made sense. This project has given me great enjoyment and has been a positive experience for me and those I have been able to interact with because of it. As well, I am hoping that this project can continue on in my absence and provide and sustain national missionaries for the work that God has called them to do.

            There are a few reasons why most Pakistanis would never build a huge fence to keep their goats penned in. The first, the cost to do it out weighs the benefit. With labour so cheap here it makes more sense to hire a shepherd boy to take care of the herd then it does to keep them within a pen. I thought about doing this, but then I though about how I would be keeping a boy from going to school just so he could earn a few dollars a day, and thought better of it.  Secondly, the goats like to roam around, and for those that have shepherds taking care of their flocks they will take the goats (and cows) throughout the city and let them graze on whatever they find (this usually includes garbage). So small pens might be used at night time to keep the goats locked up and safe, but big fenced in fields like in Canada would hardly be used, although I have recently seen some in the northern regions.

            Although unconventional here in Pakistan to build a big pen, it was needed for the hospital compound, which has many flowers and plants that should not be eaten by roaming goats (not to mention keeping the goats from getting into the hospital; this has happened). The pen helps keep the goats in one area and when people have time they can let them out to roam while they supervise. Goats will eat anything, and they especially like the pretty flowers that people like to look at. The pen also has gates with locks, so the goats can be secured from anyone who would want to take them.

A few of the reasons I started this project was for enjoyment and to learn. I would spend a lot of my time doing ministry, helping out in the hospital, or studying and reading and I missed some aspects of just using my hands and doing hard labour. So I started to do the digging and the cleaning, but then my good national friend informed me that this was not really cultural either. He told me that I needed to hire people who would do this work for me. As well I started to realize how much work it really would be, so I asked around for some labourers. I found out that it would cost very little and still be a blessing to those that helped out. It is quite difficult to find a job here, especially one that is secure. Most of these labourers live from day to day not knowing when the next job will come and anything that provides some source of income is better then nothing.

The next day a couple of guys came and started to work for me. As they started to work I realized that to level the ground by hand would take far more work then it would be to just hire a tractor, another suggestion from a national. So I had the labours clean up as much of the junk as they could while I went to see if it was possible to get a tractor. Sure enough someone knew where to get one and thankfully the tractor fit through the gate into the hospital compound. The tractor was a big help as it made short work of levelling the ground. Except, because it was a big tractor (I tried to get a bobcat; they do not exist here) there was still debris in the areas the tractor could not get to, so we still had to do a lot by hand. It did not help either that I found out shortly after hiring my labourers and talking to other Pakistanis that labourers are notorious for not really working that hard. The possible reasons for this is because of the amount they are paid, how hot it is, or because I could not supervise them the whole time. Regardless, I did not really get mad about their work ethic (even if I did the language barrier would have made it difficult for them to understand) because the work was still getting done and it did not cost that much. After keeping the workers on for a few days I figured that I could do the rest myself so I let them go.

But as I started to do the work I realized again it was just too much to do in between my other duties and if I wanted to get the project done anytime soon I would have to find more help. So I found another guy who was fairly good, I paid him a little bit more then the standard wage and he did well. Between the language barrier, I was able to pray for him and help him on his journey as a Christian. He also helped me learn more of the language since he spoke simple Urdu.

With the help of this new person we cleared the rest of the land and dug postholes. I used bamboo for the posts as it is very strong and there were some already around and it was fairly cheap to buy when I needed more. Then after putting the posts up I had a local carpenter build a couple of gates. I could have done it myself, but things are so much different here without power tools and the locals are so good at their craft that it is very cost effective to get them to do it. I also had one of the gardeners at the hospital plant grass, which in Pakistan is not very easy.  There was no seed available it was just transplanted by hand from other areas. So with this method it takes quite the while to get a field.

Finally, I had to locate the fence that would wrap around the posts. I had seen some when I first got to Shikarpur, but any of the chicken wire (which is the cheapest type of fencing) I found was very low gaged and would rust. However, during a visit to the nearest big city, Sukker, I found a roll that was “water proof” (galvanized). So I finally had my fencing and in the last few weeks I installed it with the help of a couple of national friends.

Now with the project complete my goats have a home and it feels fulfilling to see where it all started and

how it looks today. Instead of a garbage heap that was quite unsightly there is a field in the Hospital compound that can contain goats. The plan is that the space can be used to raise goats, so the national workers to support their ministry can use the offspring of the goats. There is also talk about opening a tearoom in the men’s waiting area so that the men can have tea while they browse the different literature available and talk with people as they wait for their wives who are in the hospital. So the milk can be collected from the goats and used for making the tea. To help keep the project even more sustainable I planted a garden to grow the goat food, as there are a few months that it gets very hard to find proper feed here and if you can grow some it helps keep the costs down.

            Unfortunately with us going home in August we will not be able to see baby goats or manage the project. However, throughout my time here I have built relationships with the nationals and I know I can trust them to do a good job in taking care of the project when we leave. It is for them and if it works as planned it can be a great way to help the ministry. It was a fun challenge to get it all done alongside my other duties. I enjoyed learning how to take care of goats, and how to construct things here in Pakistan. It is such a different place and so much of what I did know coming here has had to be relearned in the context of the Pakistani culture. So it has been a great learning experience and I thank God for the opportunity and the wisdom that he has given me to do it.