Truffle... ( a Bundibugyo reflection)

Late at night, head lamp on under the mosquito net I often find myself laughing out loud as I have been reading James Herriot’s “All creatures Great and Small”. I have always been an animal lover, but I am far from a farm girl and my experience with animals other than dogs and cats, has been somewhat limited. But living out in the bush of Uganda has broadened my experience as I now ride the bus with chickens. Goats and cattle roam the streets and sometimes our yard. And three dairy cows now share half of our school yard. I have to say, that despite the fact that they continually break though our fence and as Buligi puts it, “Abuse my garden”, I love those cows and I have become particularly attached to Truffle.

When the cows first came to RMS it was Truffle that would come to the window and stick her big nose up to the screen to see what we were doing. One time I was quite alarmed at the frantic knocking at the door. Upon going to see who it was, Truffle had her head through the screen door and was banging the door back and fourth by moving her head up and down.

I do remember a time were I was even a bit afraid of these huge animals. Most of the time when I walked through their grazing area I wouldn’t get too much of a reaction. Maybe they would look up from the clump of grass they were currently chomping. However, one time I came in with the milking pail. The particular one that was carrying has a lid that doesn’t fit tightly and rattles rather loudly when you carry it. The moment I came in the cows perked up and started to follow me to school. They were moving more quickly than usual with kind of a curious look in their eyes. (A look that I now know to be one that is expecting maize, something special that they get to eat when they are being milked). I put the pail down where Buligi had been milking and walked back across the yard to leave. When Truffle realized that I had not delivered the maize and was nearing the gate she started to gallop (yes cows can gallop) toward me. I also started to run hoping to reach the gate before this very large animal with horns did. I quickly squeezed out and flung the metal gate closed behind me just in time. Two of our neighbors looked at me about to burst into laughter... explaining didn’t help.

Since then I have grown more accustomed to these animals and their habits. Truffle also is quite fond on nibbling on my skirt when I go to pet her. She also gets very excited and will come running for cucumbers from the garden. I guess that cows do normally run but some other things that Truffle does are definitely out of the ordinary. Truffle gets up on her hind legs like a goat to munch on leaves of tree branches that are out of normal cow reach. A few weeks ago we were having trouble with them pushing down the fence to get to greener grass on the other side. The day after we had fixed it, Lilli and I were working the cows when I heard munching in a place that should be a NO MUNCHING zone! I ran outside just in time to see Truffle down on her front knees crawling in between two of the lines of barbed wire. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Due to the recent intrusions, cow wrangling has become a new past time at RMS that I never expected to be doing. The first time they broke in I was determined to get them out away from my garden Lilli handed me the yard stick and out I went. But even with my yelling and butt smacking, I managed to get out DMC and Oreo but Truffle does what she wants.

Despite all this, I love this cow and even volunteered to be her second milker. And several times a week I get to herd these three across the mission back up to their milking pen with Buligi, and I like it. I have finally built up the hand muscles to produce a pail of milk without getting hand cramps and we left for Kenya, when I get back I know a lovable frisky little cow who will be waiting.

Snickers... truffle's calf