They're matin' like...well...rabbits.
*****
The rabbits are here! It’s such a relief - both to have the project almost finished and to see the looks of astonishment on people’s faces. I’ve been talking about this for so long, people have been working on it for months, attending workshops, preparing the cages, attending more meetings.
I think they thought it was all for nothing. Scratch that. I knew. Even my counterpart, enthusiast that he is, admitted that he thought it might be something that never comes to fruition.
Well, Zak, buddy, I’m so happy to say this - you were wrong!
I can’t relay to you how painstaking this was to get people to buy into what I was selling them - rearing rabbits in cages that they have in America in the middle of the bush in Africa. We were going to get fat rabbits, foreign rabbits, and make sure that they were healthy and would give birth to lots of young. They were going to give birth four or five times per year, having as many as eight babies in each litter.
Coming from only knowing the tiny, wild rabbits that gives birth to one or two per litter, this was downright unbelievable, I get that.
For those of you who don’t know, I’ll give you a brief rundown of what we’ve decided to do.
In February, my counterpart and I went to Kumasi for a workshop and were introduced to small animal rearing. The rabbits and the snails captivated him and we convinced one another that it was something we could do in our village. After hammering out the details and the numbers, ditching the snails (they’re taboo, Zak didn’t care, everyone else did), we submitted a proposal for the funding of twenty rabbits and ten three-chambered hutches (the kind that you’d see in America). We located ten households - some of the mango farmers, some of the poorer community members and some widows - and prepped everyone on how to care for the rabbits, rear them effectively and possibly expand their enterprise. The overall goals were to generate income and provide food security.
The hutches were built by mid-June and we had to wait on the rabbits to mature. I was gone for most of the summer with training, so I’m sure most people thought it had been put on the backburner and they just had a nice, new contraption at their house that was good for storing things like firewood and charcoal.
But now the rabbits have arrived! Things are moving along and it’s such a nice experience. People are sharing tips on feeding with one another like I’d hoped (“Oh, mine eats this,” “Really? I didn’t think they’d like that,” “They love it - and they also love this, you can get it over there”) and they’ve all sort of altered their cages to protect the rabbits from the wind. They’re really taking this seriously, which is what I’d hoped. I didn’t want it to be some sort of thing that some foreigner tossed at them at no cost that wasn’t appreciated.
We had our first birth about a week ago. It was the doe’s first litter so she only gave two, but no one was discouraged. In fact, it was the opposite - so many more people have approached me about the rabbits now and wanting to become involved, whereas, it was the opposite reaction before.
And this is what I suspected would happen - people would be skeptic at first and not want to invest their own money, but now they see what can happen and they’re willing to give a little more.
So the end goal is kind of a rip-off of what I read in Living Poor, but with rabbits instead of pigs. Each of the ten original members is indebted two rabbits, a male and a female. In a few months, after each has had a litter or two, we’ll come up with a group of ten more members who will then construct a house using local materials (mud brick, thatch roof, etc.). The original ten will give on their rabbits to the next group so that they can start the rearing process. And then I’ll completely hand it over to them and let social accountability play its role. The hope is that they’ll keep one another in check and keep the hand-down process going with new groups of people.
In about six months, I’d like to expand it to the other villages I work in as well. I wanted to keep it small the first time I did it and get a solid handle on it before I start doling out my eggs before they’ve hatched.
One of the first things anyone said to me when I got here was more of a request than a statement. He wanted me to teach him something, some way to make money so that he could provide better for his family. He didn’t want a handout. He wanted knowledge. At the time, he’d suggested on how to make the bottle cap earrings I’d made. I knew he couldn’t make a living out of that, but I was hard pressed to come up with anything. I didn’t have any skills that I could pass on to him. It was intimidating.
But now, I feel like I might’ve done something. Really done something. I don’t know if I’m deluding myself or what, but I have the greatest sense of relief that everything is working out okay.
And that same man? The one who asked me to teach him something? His rabbit gave birth today - five babies. If they all live, which I think they will, given the way he’s caring for them, it’ll be twenty-five cedis from an investment of trust in some crazy white lady that said maybe if we do it this way…
The rabbits are here! It’s such a relief - both to have the project almost finished and to see the looks of astonishment on people’s faces. I’ve been talking about this for so long, people have been working on it for months, attending workshops, preparing the cages, attending more meetings.
I think they thought it was all for nothing. Scratch that. I knew. Even my counterpart, enthusiast that he is, admitted that he thought it might be something that never comes to fruition.
Well, Zak, buddy, I’m so happy to say this - you were wrong!
I can’t relay to you how painstaking this was to get people to buy into what I was selling them - rearing rabbits in cages that they have in America in the middle of the bush in Africa. We were going to get fat rabbits, foreign rabbits, and make sure that they were healthy and would give birth to lots of young. They were going to give birth four or five times per year, having as many as eight babies in each litter.
Coming from only knowing the tiny, wild rabbits that gives birth to one or two per litter, this was downright unbelievable, I get that.
For those of you who don’t know, I’ll give you a brief rundown of what we’ve decided to do.
In February, my counterpart and I went to Kumasi for a workshop and were introduced to small animal rearing. The rabbits and the snails captivated him and we convinced one another that it was something we could do in our village. After hammering out the details and the numbers, ditching the snails (they’re taboo, Zak didn’t care, everyone else did), we submitted a proposal for the funding of twenty rabbits and ten three-chambered hutches (the kind that you’d see in America). We located ten households - some of the mango farmers, some of the poorer community members and some widows - and prepped everyone on how to care for the rabbits, rear them effectively and possibly expand their enterprise. The overall goals were to generate income and provide food security.
The hutches were built by mid-June and we had to wait on the rabbits to mature. I was gone for most of the summer with training, so I’m sure most people thought it had been put on the backburner and they just had a nice, new contraption at their house that was good for storing things like firewood and charcoal.
But now the rabbits have arrived! Things are moving along and it’s such a nice experience. People are sharing tips on feeding with one another like I’d hoped (“Oh, mine eats this,” “Really? I didn’t think they’d like that,” “They love it - and they also love this, you can get it over there”) and they’ve all sort of altered their cages to protect the rabbits from the wind. They’re really taking this seriously, which is what I’d hoped. I didn’t want it to be some sort of thing that some foreigner tossed at them at no cost that wasn’t appreciated.
We had our first birth about a week ago. It was the doe’s first litter so she only gave two, but no one was discouraged. In fact, it was the opposite - so many more people have approached me about the rabbits now and wanting to become involved, whereas, it was the opposite reaction before.
And this is what I suspected would happen - people would be skeptic at first and not want to invest their own money, but now they see what can happen and they’re willing to give a little more.
So the end goal is kind of a rip-off of what I read in Living Poor, but with rabbits instead of pigs. Each of the ten original members is indebted two rabbits, a male and a female. In a few months, after each has had a litter or two, we’ll come up with a group of ten more members who will then construct a house using local materials (mud brick, thatch roof, etc.). The original ten will give on their rabbits to the next group so that they can start the rearing process. And then I’ll completely hand it over to them and let social accountability play its role. The hope is that they’ll keep one another in check and keep the hand-down process going with new groups of people.
In about six months, I’d like to expand it to the other villages I work in as well. I wanted to keep it small the first time I did it and get a solid handle on it before I start doling out my eggs before they’ve hatched.
One of the first things anyone said to me when I got here was more of a request than a statement. He wanted me to teach him something, some way to make money so that he could provide better for his family. He didn’t want a handout. He wanted knowledge. At the time, he’d suggested on how to make the bottle cap earrings I’d made. I knew he couldn’t make a living out of that, but I was hard pressed to come up with anything. I didn’t have any skills that I could pass on to him. It was intimidating.
But now, I feel like I might’ve done something. Really done something. I don’t know if I’m deluding myself or what, but I have the greatest sense of relief that everything is working out okay.
And that same man? The one who asked me to teach him something? His rabbit gave birth today - five babies. If they all live, which I think they will, given the way he’s caring for them, it’ll be twenty-five cedis from an investment of trust in some crazy white lady that said maybe if we do it this way…