Cape Verdean Gothic

Reclining on the couch in America, when we envisioned our Peace Corps futures, animals and gardens were always part of the picture. Not that either one of us had experience with raising livestock or even much practice growing vegetables, but we had always wanted to give it a try and felt that Peace Corps service was the time to do it.

We were delighted, then, when we learned that we’d be moving to a rural, agricultural community. We were even more excited on the day of our arrival at site, to see that our house was decked out as a veritable homestead, complete with partitioned garden plots, a chicken house, and a barn-like building big enough for larger livestock.

In our 9 months as novice mini-agriculturists, we’ve had plenty of unusual experiences and several unexpected outcomes. Here are a few lessons we’ve learned along the way.

Not all dung is created equal: while it’s true that adding manure to your soil will make it more fertile, keep in mind that adding donkey dung to the soil is basically the same as adding rocks.

Don’t be stingy with your seeds: No matter how well you think you prepared your garden plots or followed the instructions on the seed packets, there is no guarantee that your plants will actually sprout. For several weeks we have been nursing a solitary carrot- the only one that chose to grow.

Feed your friends: A great reason for having a garden is to share your produce with friends and return a tiny portion of all the food they’ve shared with you. Some folks get excited about tasting new plant varieties. In response to Scott’s, “try this lettuce,” one man eagerly munched out of the palm of Scott’s hand. He apparently enjoyed the mixed greens. Others, however, have flatly refused to try a snap pea, insisting that it has to be shelled and boiled to be edible.

Despite their tiny brains, you can’t outsmart a chicken: Our battle against the roaming neighborhood chickens has been a bit like a Tom and Jerry episode (sans explosives… so far.) In spite of Scott’s extensive efforts to fortify our garden, there is always at least one rogue bird scratching and pecking at our plants. Our temporary solution is to keep an arsenal of rocks on hand in order to counter attack. Success? Severely limited.

Goats don’t like to be lead on walks: Melissa had imagined that she and our goat would become good friends. There was even some talk of leading Ruby Sue on walks around town. The goat had other plans. The first time that Melissa tried to lead Ruby to her pen for the night, Ruby tugged her to the ground and dragged her a few yards before she could stop herself on a rock. They have more of a working relationship than a companionship.

Take care of your teats: If a goats’ udders are not properly cared for, or handled according to the goat’s personal preference, you’re headed for trouble. Our goat, for instance, has what our neighbors refer to as ‘ticklish teats.’ Ruby’s response to being tickled is a head butt to her attacker’s knees. It only takes a couple of head butts to learn your lesson.

Every rural family needs a rooster: When we started keeping chickens, our neighbors were appalled that we would keep hens without a rooster. They insisted that the birds, like women, wouldn’t be happy without having a ‘man’ around. According to neighbors, the hens would be so distraught that they wouldn’t lay. Naturally, we later paraded all around town to show off our first egg produced rooster free. Turns out that our neighbors were right about the emotional state of the hens, though. The girls kept trying to escape. One went AWOL and evaded recapture for months. When we added our obnoxiously vocal rooster to the flock, however, the hens were downright giddy. And honestly, who doesn’t enjoy the sound of a 5 o’clock rooster crow?

Community children = free labor: Lugging water to the garden from the nearby spring can be time consuming and tiring. However, once the neighborhood children discover that your watering can shee-shee’s (peepee’s) on your plants, you can rest assured that you’ll have a ready supply of helping hands. Now to convince the kids that you don’t need help weeding… They tend to be over zealous.

Trying our hand at gardening and caring for animals has, along with the Peace Corps experience in general, provided ample opportunity to practice humility, but it has also helped us to relate to our neighbors in a way that would have been impossible otherwise. In a town where conversation revolves around beans and goats, having a garden and caring for animals is an automatic ‘in.’ Besides, there’s nothing as satisfying as eating the food that your own labor helped to produce. For instance, that single sliced okra floating in last night’s soup- delicious. And you can bet that solitary carrot will contribute to a mean salad.