During the months of June and July, Harvest Missions School is in session in Pemba. On Fridays, the Harvest Missions School has "Practical Missions”, this time is set aside for the students to shadow missionaries, helping them with various projects and learning a little of what it is like to live here. With all the Mission School students on the Pemba Base, Mieze Village has extra help
The Mieze Goat Project seems to be a popular one with the students. This time was no exception. With a lot of volunteers on thisFridays, we check each goat in the herd, inspecting them for internal and external parasites, gave medications if needed, ear-tagging the new ones, banding any males that need it, and trimming their hooves.
We had quite a large number of people for this Practical Mission including a nice group of children. Everyone joined in and we were able to "minister" to the entire herd in just a few sessions. Everyone was organized into "catching the goats" ... "inspecting the goat" (visually checking for external parasites - ticks, mites etc. and checking them for anemia, a sign of internal parasites) ... "checking the physical condition" (using a "body mass index") ... administering medications as needed ... ear tagging ... hoof trimming. One person did the secretarial work of logging each goat and what was done to it. If there were any obvious signs of trauma ... limping visible wounds ... these were also taken care of.
Once the morning’s work was finished, we all cleaned up and had a lunch of beans and rice with the Iris children who live in Mieze.
A big "THANK YOU" to Harvest Missions School for all of their help!
Mieze Village Team