Last week I wrote a blog about the hogar getting 12 baby chicks to care for until they're big enough to eat. As expected, the kids LOVE the chicks! They're already growing bigger and all now have feathers on their wings. Dogs are pretty hardy for the kids, but as kittens and any other animals that arrive to the hogar never seem to last long with the kids, I was pleasantly surprised that the chicks have lasted so long... Until today that is. Apparently two died overnight, and this afternoon, the kids' dog killed one. In less than twenty-four hours, we're down to 9 chicks. We now have a rule in place that the babies aren't allowed to hold any of the chicks!
As if the chicks weren't enough, last week Tío David brought two baby sheep to the hogar! I'm not sure what the plan is with them. Eight year old B. is in charge of feeding them milk out of a baby bottle. It's quite the task! The other day she asked me if I would help her prepare the milk so I told her to get the supplies ready while I boiled water. She brought me a giant can of very expensive baby formula and said that was what they drank... You can imagine how well that went over when the tías saw which milk she was trying to feed them!
So now that we have all sorts of animals (we also have 3 dogs and several cats at the hogar), it has also been decided that we should put the big plot of land behind the house to use as well. Today the tías spent all day outside planting onions, corn, green beans, carrots and all sorts of other things. They also made sure to plant manzanilla before anything else because as anyone who has been to Bolivia can tell you, it's the absolute cure-all here! It was a long day for them, and a long day for the volunteers who cared for all the kids, too! Really, it was a fun day for us as we had the easier job (at least I think so!) of keeping the kids entertained!
Recently every day at the hogar has brought a new surprise so who knows what's next!
I think very little of what the sheep "drank" ended up in his mouth... Most of it had spilled onto him and onto B.'s dress!
Feeding the sheep is definitely a two-man job!
As soon as Tía Silvia realized that I'd arrived, she drug me outside to help plant. The other tías quickly told her that I wasn't prepared for it as I didn't have a hat and would get so badly sunburned... They know me well! I did stay outside long enough to help plant about 20 onions, and then I made a few trips back out to check the progress throughout the day.
We kept these wild animals busy today! ;)
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