last night i cried over a sheep.

I was on the phone with a family member a few weeks ago explaining how animals here casually wander around the village unrestrained. Chickens, donkeys, goats, sheep, dogs, cats and other animals walk in and out of family compounds freely, helping themselves to the trash pile or the food scraps from large shared meals. All of these animals roam the village AND this is normal everyday life. the cows clog up the road, the roosters wake you up every morning, the donkeys keep you up at night and the sheep steal your food. We eat lunch and dinner outside as a family from a large shared bowl. These little animals coming to interact during meals is all part of the experience.

i always stare at these animals and smile. Whether it’s a cute little family of goats or the little chicken nuggets that hop all over my feet and pluck up the rice that falls around the food bowl. they are all precious to me.

I tried to explain to my host family that in america, for the most part, we don’t have such close access to animals like this. in america we would have to drive to a petting zoo and pay to pet and feed various farm animals. Their eyes got huge and i don’t think they really believed me.

While all of these animals are all precious to me and give me a lot of joy, our sheep are special to me.

When I first got to my permanent site, we only had a mama sheep and a teenage sheep. I didn’t realize it, but the mama was pregnant and the day before christmas she gave birth to two male baby sheep. they felt like my christmas presents. These sheep were the cutest things i have ever seen and I have adored them since the minute i watched them struggle to stand up on their bony, wobbly legs. mama marches on unbothered while the two babies gallop behind her struggling to keep up and waves their little tails like pinwheels in excitement. they are so sweet and precious and everything that makes my own baby fever worse.

watching this mama and her two babies gives me so much yearning and happiness and wanting and joy. But then, there is always the teenage sheep in the picture. listen, This teenage sheep is bad. THis teenage sheep steals papaya from my hand, breaks into our orchard and poops right outside my door.

The first time my host mom went out of town to go to kombo was the first time that i had to cook for my host family. I was so nervous about it and i felt the enormous pressure to get it all right. I was so proud when I cooked benechin and it was actually good. lunch gets plated in a large shared bowl and dinner gets plated in a second large family bowl and put aside inside the house to keep for evening. Here in the gambia, doors are often left open during the day and curtains maintain some sense of privacy. Well, while i was doing the dishes behind our house for five minutes and my brother was hanging out with all his friends, somehow our sheep snuck into the house and ate all my beautiful benechin.

I am convinced that the teenage sheep was the bad influence and lead the operation.

the point is, these animals are woven into the fabric of everyday life here. “atcha”-ing animals out of your way is part of life here. i think it is the charm and joy of village life. like Seeing so many mama animals rearing cute fluffy babies. One of our chickens even adopted three abandoned Guinea fowl chicks and they have waddled behind her since i got here. now they are as big as her and they still follow their mama around. there is just something about motherhood here. It’s precious.

and last night one of my baby sheep came home crying, incoherent and unable to keep its head up. We all gathered around in worry as the baby struggled to breathe. my dad ran and swaddled it in a blanket and called someone to come help. We think the baby got hit by something.

luckily this morning the baby sheep was feeling much better. and I can’t explain why i cried over the baby sheep.

but i do know that these animals fill the village with noise and life and joy and drama and sometimes chaos. and motherhood is precious.