Day 18 - The Countdown Begins :)

Exactly 4 nights from now, I will be sleeping in my own bed. :) :) :) I'm pretty excited about that lol. But today has been a great day so far! We got a TON of samples this morning! The first farm we went to had 80 cows. You read that right. Eight. Zero. Unfortunately, half were out at pasture and the farmer had to leave after we got through about 20. But still, that's 20 samples! I also couldn't believe that this one farm had that many cows. 

Just a small portion of the cows from the first farm (side note - we once again encountered deep, liquidy manure and played a fun balancing game on the rocks lol) 

We were in Kebele 6 today for the first time. Besides the first farm, we visited 3 other farms, each with at least 2-7 cows. It was a great morning of collecting samples. Also, the views from some of these farmers houses is just incredible! I'm really going to miss the spectacular views of the Ethiopian countryside. I've never seen anything like it.

Beautiful view!

Awesome local man photo-bombing our picture :) (Sharon, me, Dan, and Mulugeta)

Minor rant :) - So I've had a lot of experience working with kids, from summer camp to nannying, and I think I'm pretty patient. Well my patience was tested today lol. I'm used to being surrounded by kids at pretty much every farm here. BUT. They are usually just staring or whispering or teaching us Amharic. Not so today. One little boy (actually pictured below lol) kept repeating "Hello" for literally 15 minutes. Even if we acknowledged him and said hi back, it was still, "Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello..." I can tell you that it becomes grating on the nerves after about 9 minutes lol. But we made it through and finished sampling at that farm, so life is great!

Beautiful view with an unforgettable little boy in the foreground lol

This afternoon was extremely unproductive lol. We had high hopes, because a farm we had passed yesterday had at least 20 cows and the farmer told us to come back this afternoon for sampling. Alas, he no longer wanted to help us get samples from his cow so no samples. We went to a nearby farm, but it only had like 3 cows. I did organize the milk samples into smaller tubes for the university, so there's that! Now it's dinner with Sharon, Dan, and Elsbeth, then bed. :)

Much love,
Joslyn :)

P.S. "...cast all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7. Here you go, Lord. All my anxieties. :)