A baby goat named "star"

Paul told the children a story about how his sister Lisa loved animals growing up. Her favorite was a goat named "Star" that she had on ENI mission. Bessie is our child that loves animals as well. It wasn't long before she was eyeing the baby goats and itching to hold one.

One of the village children saw this and caught a baby goat for Bessie. It took about six boys to catch it but no time at all. The mother goat protested and came right up to our group bleating until Bessie's tender heart couldn't take the begging anymore and put the baby down.

We all enjoyed petting the baby goat. All the children that you see in the pictures are from the mission and neighboring village of Plandabalabo.  We were a novelty - no one had seen a white family with small children in quite awhile. The village children followed us everywhere. They even crowded around the palava hut to watch us eat until a teacher chased them out and told them to wait. 

At one point I began collecting rubber tree seeds. I thought to take a few back and try to grow a tree from the mission. Before I knew it all the children from the village began to hunt and bring me the seeds. I left with enough seeds for my own rubber tree plantation! One never feels alone in a village.  The children were friendly and curious but their favorite Chinchen was Paul. He spoke some of their Sapo dialect and his Liberian English they found "clear".