And much cattle!

This blog has some updates from the original post:

Every conversation I have with a Rwandan coworker here involves a lot of learning.  Sometimes it is just remembering how to communicate despite language barriers (speak slowly, remember Mme. Jensen's French lessons, smile).  Sometimes it is a lesson about the flesh-destroying bugs that seem to be everywhere (great) - although I haven't completed the lesson since people do not seem to be adequately scared of them if they are as bad as I understand them to be.  Sometimes I get insight into Rwanda's history and my new friends' lives as they not quite casually mention losing a parent, child or spouse in the genocide or living with siblings, rather than parents.

Yesterday, though, during my evening tea with my housemates (including the head house mother of the whole village!), I learned about something very important in Rwanda - cows.  In Rwanda, cows are  a sign of wealth, friendship, and self-sustainability.  During colonial times, colonial rulers used the number of cows you owned to determine economic status, and thus, to determine if you were to be called Hutu or Tutsi.  Nowadays, before marriage, the groom's family MUST give the bride's family a cow (or 8!).  If they can't afford to give a cow, the debt can continue for generations!  If you want to show your friendship for someone, you give them a cow.  Or your cow's baby. Or they give you the baby of the cow that they received from you.  Or something (remember, communication is still a process).  OK, my friend Angeline has clarified that when you get a cow as a gift you should give the cow's baby back to the giver upon the baby's birth.  In any case, if you give a cow to a friend, it is a huge sign of love and respect and loyalty.  I don't think even giving a car in the US would be an equivalent sign of love.

Because cows provide milk, fertilizer for crops, and occasionally meat, President Kagame has instituted an effort to provide one cow for every family in Rwanda.  It sounds not that dissimilar to Obama's goal of ending childhood hunger by 2015.  Perhaps I can follow the cow distribution here and you guys keep tabs on domestic hunger and we can compare notes in 2011.

Doesn't this sound like something the food movement-ers would love?  I know many synagogues are planting community gardens.  Next, a cow for every synagogue?  A ram for a FRESH rosh hashanah blast?

I'll end with a new version of a classic Beach Boys song I've been wanting to sing since I learned that a cow AND a bull for each family is the true dream, so they can procreate and pass cows on throughout the community.  TWO COWS FOR EVERY FAM!

Moo!