The Pigs Need Water!

As a Peace Corps volunteer, I taught veterinary classes to future vet technicians and ran the farm owned by the school. We had a "porcherie," or pig farm, and when I was placed in charge, the pigs were dying of neglect. The first problem I faced was that the original cement water troughs were cracked and broken. The poor animals suffered greatly because there was no way to give them enough water.

Because students were required to work on the farm as part of their training, I mobilized them to fell trees in the nearby forest, then hack the logs into short pieces. They were drug to the farm, and hollowed out to make crude water troughs. Assuring a supply of water was a basic necessity that seemed rudimentary, but it made a huge difference for the pigs.