Shema, Cows, and Lunchtime

 

Last week I was called to a meeting of the housemothers.  They wanted to express their concern about how difficult it is to stir the shema in the huge pot to serve 45 people at lunch time at the school.  They said that it is exhausting and then to have to go back and take care of the house and children is just too much.  One of the solutions for help that we came up with was to ask Mr. Luka to come each day at 10am to stir the shema.  He used to make the lunch shema for the workers, so we know he can do it. 

 

Today was his first day.  Mr. Luka's other job is to take the cattle around eating grass during the day.  So each day he will bring the cows to the school area where they will eat while he stirs.  Today while he was stirring 3 of the 7 cows wandered off.  The ones there started mooing for their friends.  When the children had their break for lunch, they went running in a couple of directions looking for the cows.  It is so African to see the children running around barefoot, eagerly looking for the animals.

 

When something like this happens, I always laugh inside thinking about how different it is than schools in the states.  I'm sure there is not a school in the US that has children running after missing animals because the herdsman has been stirring a big pot of lunch food!