The cold winter had finally passed. The belated spring put a hopeful smile on the herdsman’s face, because for herdsmen, the spring is the key season of the year. It often snows in the highland areas in spring, which probably causes livestock death and serious economic loss. On the other hand, spring is also the hopeful season here, because it’s the breeding season for yaks and sheep, which means spring is the best season to increase this family's income.
Quzong is busying delivering babies for livestock as usual this year. All eight sheep babies and four yak babies are alive now. If the babies grow up soundly, Quzong’s income will increase RMB 3800 this year, which is fantastic for her, and she has not had such a big increase in income for the last few years. The breeding season is the busiest, most tiring and difficult season for herdsmen. Quzong has to get up at 4 am every morning and walk through mountains and valleys with her yaks and sheep. If some yak gives birth, she will go to help it quickly and give it simple medical care as well. Besides, Quzong needs to take care of the babies at night, for they mean all to her.
This year's harvest could help Quzong achieve a wish, which is to purchase a set of famous Tibetan cushions. As we know (since she has purchased a set of Tibetan furniture last year) Quzong cannot afford cushions any more. This has worried her for a long time, because according to the Zhegu custom, if you have the best Tibetan furniture, you have to use the best cushions to match or people will laugh at you. We hope Quzong could purchase the best cushions by the end of this year in order to better her life.
Editor’s note: This post is part of a series that follows the progress of specific families, starting at the beginning of their work with Heifer. Our team in China has chosen one family in each region where we work and is sharing quarterly updates as these families work to better their lives with Heifer’s help.
