not your ordinary workplace

Another one worth writing down (at least if you're me, and you like goats).

I work in the middle of nowhere, or at least, what I would call the middle of nowhere. I don’t know what it is by Zambian standards but if small herds of goats go grazing by several times a day it definitely meets my Torontonian standards of “nowhere.”

I’ve always liked goats and living in close proximity with them (ours sleep about 15 feet from where I sleep) hasn’t dampened that fondness one bit. I’ve also had an opportunity to get a hold of their communication structure.

The rules are simple:
1. When you are a lost goat you yell out “blahhh?”
2. you hear a lost goat you reply with “blahhh!”

That’s it. Those are the only two things goats communicate. Translated into English it reads like this:
“Where?”
“Here!”
~repeat until united~

Now just the other day I was at work, in the middle of nowhere, working with two VCFs on some simple computer operations. As per a usual day at work, a small herd of goats go grazing by. And as per usual, a few get distracted by whatever distracts goats from following the rest and it begins…
“Blahhh?.........Blahhh?..........Blahhh?”

I generally tend to find loud noises, bleating and such, to be quite distracting while I try to teach someone how to use the computer so I eventually get tired of listening to the lost goats and take some action. I’ve seen where the rest of the herd went and start to walk behind the lost ones trying to direct them towards the rest. The lost few get a bit alarmed and up the pitch and volume of they’re bleating…
“Blahhh?!...Blahhh?!...Blahhh?!”

A few short minutes later from the bushes in the distance,
“Blahhh!....We’re here!” a goat replies.

The lost ones pick up the pace and scamper off into the distance. I return to my desk to continue on with the days work. Everyone is happy.

That’s it, that’s the whole blog. I just wanted to share “the day I went to work and re-united goats.”

Keep the questions coming, although I've done a good job of ignoring some of them (sorry). I'll work on that for the next blog.

~Kate~