Ait M'hamed Day 7
We were invited to watch the birth of a lamb! The son of the farmer Hassan we met by the river the other day brought us around for interviews. He works with Touda for the GDF and helps them collect plants for the herbarium. One of his family's female sheep (ewe) has given birth that morning and was still red from labour in the previous 20 minutes. It was an amazing process to watch, but also overwhelming to the senses. It was entrancing to watch the laborious process of pushing a new being into the world by the ewe and licking off the lambs slimy protective sack to let it breathe independently for the first time. All the other sheep were present in the muddy dark cellar room below the house, and gave the mother a respective distance during the process (except for the other newborn who kept climbing and trying to nurse. The speed of recovery and ability to walk of both the mother and newborns so soon after birth was also quite amazing. But I suppose for animals of prey and domesticates, fast recovery and mobility after birth is a more necessary adaptation. 15 minutes of the stench of manure, afterbirth, and ammonia was making me feel rather ill so thankfully we were invited upstairs for mint tea and some wonderful foods while we conducted the survey. They are the only people we have found that have a cat that lives in the house, she is a beautiful longer-haired cat with colouring like a Siamese. Apparently someone from the douar lived in Canada and had a cat there he brought back, he was living feral since he had to leave the douar again but was was not fairing well. So the family brought the cat home and he liked it and has stayed.
Upon leaving the house we found the sunny warm day had turned grey. Malika called us and insisted we come home and stay inside the rest of the day since a severe storm was beginning. We retreated to the house and after some computer work classifying vernacular and botanical names. Abdellatif headed home early to try and get out before the rain. I am currently attempting to type my data from the day but the power keeps going off since the thunderstorm is worsening so it’s hard to see my notes and charge my computer, but must plow on.