on Goats

You may have marveled at the grace and agility of a mountain goat or ibex while watching the discovery channel and some of the luckier readers I know have seen the spectacle first hand. While these temperate creatures are incredibly skilled, their athletic abilities don't compare with those of their stumpy-legged, African cousins. Our local variety, the African pygmy goat has been spotted on several occasions riding untethered atop every sort of vehicle. Sometimes traveling at speeds greater than 80k the creatures stand erect on the roofs of trucks, as if surfing the Ghanian highways. I recall one instant where on the last leg of a fourteen-hour journey (covering about 200 mies) my friend and I crammed with 40-some other people into a 30 person bus. After about fifteen minutes on the road the bus stopped so that a whole herd of goats could be hoisted one by one onto the roof. During the ride we would occasionally glimpse a dangling appendage and during sharp turns your could hear the animals stumbling for footing. Some goats will choose to ride by moto (motorcycle), either on the lap of its driver or behind him with its legs flailing as it lays on its back. I have seen one large ram standing confidently on the chassey of a logging truck as it bumbled down a pothole-ridden road. Other animals seem to prefer being stuffed into trunks of taxis and some still travel by traditional means, on top of their caretaker's heads.
The African pygmy goat stands about two to three feet tall, it has short legs and a spherical belly. Some pregnant individuals are clearly wider than they are tall. DEspite their sometimes comical appearance they don't suffer from a lack of self-esteem. Our schedule in Africa is largely dictated by goats. For example, sleeping past 3 am is frowned upon. As many humans have difficulty abiding by this unwritten rule, certain goats will remind these indivduals of thier blunder from outside their windows. Fortunately for us, the pygmy goat is fairly tolerant of humans living in its village. In fact many individuals will actively look out for human well-being. If an approaching vehicle appears to be traveling too fast to be safe, some beneficent individuals will put themselves directly in its line of travel to slow it down, mozying out of the way once the vehicle has come to a complete stop. Some of these animals will go as far as to physically stop cars with their own bodies, gaining them sympathy from the appreciative passengers. Chickens will exhibit a similar behavior, but it seems to be more for their own benefit. A cautious driver will slow down before approaching a cluster of chickens on the side of the road. He knows that one is bound to break from the huddle and dash in front of the vehicle when it is close enough. The most daring roosters will run in front of the car in the same direction, much to the excitement of his onlooking peers.