Stupid goat!

Update: From David..


Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2009

from: David
To: Wood, Rick
Subject: stupid goat!

We decided to recruit more (local) guys to dig the footers so that it wouldn't take as long, however, we didn't have enough digging bars (for all of them). So Fred stayed behind in Jalle, while William and I drove to Bor to get more digging bars and some other supplies. We left Jalle around 9:30 and were pulling into Bor around 11:00. Now I must say before I go any further, that there might be more goats in Sudan than there are actual people; so when we're driving, it is fairly common to have to slow down or stop and wait for goats to get out of the way. There are also a good bit of cattle, but the goats seem to enjoy getting in your way more than the cattle. So as I was saying, we were pulling in to Bor around 11:00 and about to head to the market when this suicidal goat darts from the brush straight out in front of the land cruiser. I hit the breaks, but it's a dirt road and all I do is slide. The inevitable happens, and the goat is no more. I feel bad, but there wasn't much I could do. At this point I am instructed by William to stop the car, at which time he and the other 2 or 3 locals in the car turn around and look at the goat for about 10 seconds. I am then told to continue driving. It's a sad day for goats in Sudan, but we move on after a brief moment of silence in the car. We head to the market, do all the shopping we need to do and are done in a reasonable amount of time. We are about to head out of town, when we are flagged down by an official. He says that there has been a goat "hit and run" reported and the vehicle description matches mine. I think they also may have mentioned that the driver was white, which narrows the line up considerably. So the official gets in our car and instructs me to drive us to the police station. Once at the station, we fill out a full report on the goat incident. At the completion of the report, we all load back up in the car. We are now accompanied by the chief of police. We head out to the area where the accident occurred and when we arrive at the crime scene we meet the owner. He then throws (in a non-gentle fashion) his dead goat into the back of the land cruiser; he joins us in the car as well, and we proceed back to the station. There are now too many people in the car to count. Upon arriving to the station a meeting is held. The attendees include William, myself, the goat owner, the goat, and about 10-12 people who apparently specialize in goats. At this meeting we were to decide how much the owner of the goat should be compensated for the death of his goat. After much...MUCH discussion, the amount decided on was 320 sps ($160). This is admittedly a little high, however, the owner of the goat did argue that his goat was pregnant (this has yet to be proved). After paying the owner his money we were free to go. All in all, it was an interesting experience.