Beatrice's Goat

[kendrick]

Beatrice's Goat

If you were to visit the small African village of Kisinga in the rolling hills of western Uganda,

and if you were to tatke a left at the crossroads and follow a narrow dirt path between two tall banana groves,

 you would come to the home of a girl named Beatrice.

 Beatrice live here with her mother and five younger brothers and sisters in a sturdy mud house with a fine steel roof.

The house is new. So is the shiny blue wooden furniture inside.

 In fact, many things are new to Beatrice and her family lately.

 And it's all because of a goat named Mugisa.

Beatrice loves everything about Mugisa...

the feel of her coarse brown and white coat, the way her chin hairs curl just so,

 and how Mugisa gently teases her by butting her knobby horns against Beatrice's hand-tup, tup-like a drumbeat waiting for a song.

 But there is one reason why Beatrice loves Mugisa most of all.

In the time before Mugisa, Beatrice spent her days helping her mama hoe

and plant in the fields, tend the chickens, watch the younger children,

and grind the cassava flour that they would take to market to sell.

 Once in a while, when she was tending baby Paskavia, Beatrice would stop by the schoolhouse.

Often, the students had carried their long wooden benches outside to work under the cool shade of the jackfruit trees.

Then Beatrice would stand quietly off to one side, pretending she was a student, too.

Oh, how she longed to be a schoolgirl!

 How she yearned to sit on one of the benches and figure sums on a small slate chalkboard.

 How she wished to turn the pages of a worn copybook

 and study each word over and over until it stuck in her mind like a burr.

 "I'll never be able to go to school," she would sigh.

How could I ever save enough money to pay for books or a uniform?

One day while Beatrice was busy pulling weeds,

 Mama came to her with dancing eyes.

Beatrice, some kindhearted people from far away have given us a lucky gift.

We are one of twelve village families to receive a goat.

Beatrice was puzzled. A goat? What kind of gift was a goat?

 It couldn't get up each morning and start their charcoal fire for cooking.

 It couldn't hike down to the stream each week and scrub their dirty clothes clean.

 It couldn't keep an eye on Grace, Moses, Harriet, Joash, and Paskavia.

 Her long fingers tugged patiently at the weeds.

 "That's very nice, Mama," she said politely. Then Mama added, "It will be your job to take care of our goat.

 If you do, it can bring wonderful things.

 Beatrice looked up at her mother. Will this goat come soon?"

she asked. "Because I would like to meet such a goat." Mama laughed.

Good things take time. First I must plant pastures and build our goat a shed.

 Beatrice nodded slowly. Surely Mama knew what she was doing.

I will help you, she declared.

For the next few months, Beatrice worked harder than ever.

She helped Mama collect the posts for the shed walls, then lashed the posts together with banana fibers.

She planted narrow bands of stiff elephant grass along the edges of their cassava field.

She put in pigeon trees and lab lab vines between the banana trees.

Finally, one day Beatrice's goat arrived, fat and sleek as a ripe mango.

Beatrice stood shyly with her brothers and sisters, then stepped forward and circled the goat once.

She knelt close, inspecting its round belly, and ran her hand along its smooth back.

Mama says you are our lucky gift, she whispered. "So that is what i will name you.

 Mugisa... luck." Two  weeks later, Mugisa gave birth.

 It was Beatrice who discovered first one kid  and then, to her surprise, another.

Twins! she exclaimed, stooping down to examine them. "See that, my Mugisa?

 You have already brought us two wonderul things.

 Beatrice named the first kid Mulindwa, which means expected,

and the second Kihembo, or surprise. Each day Beatrice made sure Mugisa got extra elephant grass

and water to help her produce lots of milk, even though it meant another long trip down to the stream and back.

When the kids no longer needed it, Beatrice took her own first taste of Mugisa's milk. Mmm, Sweet," she said,

 mixing the rest into her cup of breakfast porridge.

Beatrice knew Mugisa's milk would keep them all much healthier.

Now, each morning after breakfast, Beatrice would head off to the shed to sell whatever milk was left over.

 "Open for business," she would say, in case anyone was listening.

 Often she would spy her friend Bunane coming through the banana groves.

Good morning, Beatrice, Mugisa, Expected, and Surprise, Bunane would always say.

Then he would hand Beatrice a tall pail that she would fill to the top with Mugisa's milk.

 When Beatrice finished pouring, Bunane would hand her a shiny coin,

and Beatrice would carefully tuck the money into the small woven purse at her side.

 Day after day, week after week, Beatrice watched the purse get fuller.

Soon there would be enough money for a new shirt for Moses

and a warm blanket for the bed she shared with Grace.

One day, Beatrice returned from collecting water and noticed Mama frowning

and counting the money in her woven purse.

Beatrice put down the water can and rushed to  her mother's side.

Mama! What is it? she asked. "What's wrong?

As she looked up, Mama's frown turned to a small smile. "I think," she said,

you may just have saved enough to pay for school. "School?"

 Beatrice gasped in disbelief. "But what about all the other things we need?"

First things first, Mama said. Beatrice threw her arms around her mother's neck. "Ok, Mama, thank you."

Then she ran to where her goat stood chewing her cud and hugged her tight. "Oh, Mugisa!" She whispered.

 "Today I amd the lucky one. You have given me the gift I wanted most." The very next week Beatrice started school.

On the first morning that she was to attend,

she sat proudly waiting for milk customers in her new yellow blouse and blue jumper, Mugisa by her side.

Beatrice felt nervous and excited at the same time.

Mugisa pressed close, letting her coarse coat brush softly against Beatrice's cheek. "Oh, Mugisa," Beatrice cried.

 "I'll miss you today!" Then she thought again about all the good things Mugisa was bringing.

 Mama said that soon Surprise would be sold for a lot of money.

It will be enough to tear down this old house, she had explained.

 "We will be able to put up a new one with a steel roof that won't leak during the rains."

Beatrice heard a rustle and noticed Bunane heading toward her with his empty milk pail.

He eyed her new uniform and sighed. "You're so lucky. I wish I could go to school."

Beatrice reached out and touched Bunane's arm.

I've heard that your family is next in line to receive a goat.

A smile crossed Bunane's face. "Really?" "Really."

Then Beatrice kissed Mugisa on the soft part of her nose,

close to where her chin hairs curled just so, and started off to school.

[taII백마탄왕자]

혁준5번

[정영대]

지은이 7번 입니돠

[taII백마탄왕자]

혁준이6번

[정영대]

하세요지은이 8번 다녀갑니다.

[doolie97]

안녕하세엽!!!! 채연이 이번주 부터 1번째 출첵~~ 입니당~~~ 복받으세요~ ㅋㅋ

[kendrick]

오지연1번

[kendrick]

권지현1번

[정영대]

하세요, 저 지은이에요 9번 이에용

[아폴로]

용규3번밖에

[doolie97]

저 이번주 부터 2번째로 했습니돠 오해하지 마시구엽 복받으세엽 저여 이번주 토욜날 셔요 다른 애들은.. .... 절망

[이쁜이]

오지연 2번들었읍니다 다음에는 더 많이들을게요^^

[정영대]

하세요 지은이는 벌써()10번째 네용

[taII백마탄왕자]

혁준7번

[taII백마탄왕자]

혁준8번

[Eddy]

회성(1)

[아폴로]

용규4번 으악

[아폴로]

용규5번 오늘 2번했당

[doolie97]

악 쌤 저 어제 들었는데 체크가 안되어있어엽 이거 어케 하죠 4번들은걸로 쳐주면 안되여 부탁해엽

[doolie97]

출첵이오~~~ 악!!! 네번이닷!!! 쌤 저번에 했는디..출첵이 안되어있어엽~~~ 5번으로 안되나엽????

[doolie97]

채연 5번 저 용규처럼 2번 했어엽 용규야, 감사 ㄳ 음하 복 받으세엽

[이쁜이]

오지연1번들었습니다.

[Eddy]

회성(2)

[정영대]

지은이도 밤 늦게 하네요

[아폴로]

용규 6번 출책

[이쁜이]

오지연1번

[정영대]

하세요지은이12번째