The Ever Entertaining Cow Dip

Saturday, January 20th, 2007

The first time I saw the cows being washing at the cow dip I was immensely entertained and I knew that Bethany and Dave had to see this event. And, yes, it is definitely an event. It is difficult to put into words what exactly makes the cow dip so incredibly amusing. Most of the procedure is pretty mundane. First we must walk up to the cow dip. Actually, to get there we first walk down a hill and then up another hill. The landscape is such that no matter if you are going there or back again there is always a hill to be climbed. And not only are there hills, but the location is a good distance away, so much so that the students (and some staff) refer to the place as “Ethiopia.” The recent rainy season has also caused the path to become overgrown, requiring yet more effort to pass. At the site, the cows are corralled from their pen to another attached to the cow dip. The dip is prepared by first filling a shallow trough used to wash their feet with water and chemicals. This trough leads to a cement ledge that drops off into a giant long bathtub, which is also filled with water and chemicals. At the far end are stairs where the animals exit and a small holding area where they dry off.

When we arrived at the spot with Bethany and Dave, I began to doubt myself. Maybe the cow dip was only entertaining to me. Maybe they would think I was ridiculous for finding it so amusing. My fears were in vain because as soon as they saw that first cow fall off the ledge into the soapy bath, their laughter did not cease until the final animal was through. We watched as some cows fell in with looks of shock and horror on their faces, clumsily landing at odd angles – hips first or head first – even colliding with the wall. Other cows saw it coming and made feeble attempts to jump. The big cows made huge slashes. The small cows bravely swam with their noses up. There were a few stubborn cows that needed extra prodding. Bethany and Dave agreed that it was definitely entertaining. I had not overrated the experience. They didn’t even mind that they had spent a morning being splashed with sewagey chemical-laden farm water. After we finished there, we helped clean out watering troughs, which wasn’t nearly as entertaining. But, it is pretty hard to top the excitement of the cow dip.