Meet Penny

September 29^th, 2011

I become the proud owner of a baby chick this week!  I have named her Penny.  Like Henny Penny, the sky is falling.

I don’t know why but she has no momma hen and her only sibling didn’t make it.  She isn’t being accepted by any of the other baby chicks so she runs around alone.  I noticed her follow me on my way to the pit latrine a few times and one night while she hovered around our feet looking for dropped food I asked if I could take care of her.  My host mom said, “Yes, she will be Tengetile’s chick.”  I picked her up and she fell asleep in my arm so I took her back to my hut for the night and she has been mine ever since.

I made her a bed out of a bucket and some sheets.  Her little chirps are quite load in a cement block hut but once the lights went out she was quiet all night.  I let her out during the day to feed and do chikeny things, but she manages to follow me back to my hut every few nights to sleep with me. 

All those years of hatching chicks in the states with mom for her students and never being able to keep them, I finally got my baby chick.   I will have to get her a chicken basket to sleep in once she gets bigger.