My life as a cowhand...

February has been kind of a slow month, hence the lack of new blog posts. Therefore, many of my best adventures thus far have involved cows or alpacas in Tomas. My family has a few cows and we produce cheese every day. I've gotten to help out with vaccinations of cows, which is quite the experience. To vaccinate a cow you follow these simple steps:
1.Rope the cow by the horns...they are often pretty hesitant to let this happen and sometimes involves running around the corral of field trying to get a good ropin'
2.Grab them by the horns. Sometimes you just need to grab the bull by the horns.
3. Use the big metal pliers and grab the cow by the nose. This causes big discomfort to the cows and allows us to immobilize them so we can give them their vaccination
4. Wrap their tail around their legs and pull so that they can't run forward.
5. Give the Vaccination
6. All let go of the cow at the same time and hopefully they peacefully walk away, but keep a close eye and be ready to run a few steps.

Six months ago I had no idea that my life would involve vaccinating cows in a rural setting, but with this economy i guess every little resume builder helps!

Life in Tomas is going fine, and work is starting to get moving. I've been a little frustrated with the lack of people in my site because this has prevented much actual development work from being done. On March second classes begin and the people will begin to come back, so i'm very excited to have things get moving a little. I'm staying positive and i love the few people that are still in Tomas. Things are going to be busy in March, and I was expecting the first 3 months in site to be the slow. All is well and i love hearing from the states!

http://picasaweb.google.com/JBrandell/CowAdventures

Peace and Love, Jared