Last week we hadseven cow tales , but here ’s one that ca n’t be tell in just a simple paragraph . The report of the Masai village of Enoosaen and their endowment of cattle is a account you wo n’t bury .
The Masai masses ( also spelled Maasai ) populate in Kenya and Tanzania . They are semi - nomadic and require big swathes of territory to pasture their oxen . Livestock , mainly cattle , isthe lifeblood of the tribe . A gentleman who has many cows and many tike is a rich man ; more of one and few of the other spells worry . Cows render their nutrition : milk and cheese , stemma , and occasionally meat . More often , sheep and goats are used for meat and cows are saved for Milk River and calves . Cows are used as an rally medium . A valet de chambre will trade cows for a Saint Brigid , and the routine of cows have is a symbol of how loaded he is and how much he wants to affect his in - laws . It may be the largest purchase of this life story . Image by Flickr userddepauw1 .
Naiyomah told the story from his perspective as a witness and informed bookman . The villagers were horrified . They had trouble understanding how buildings were improbable enough to cause dying if one jumped from them , but they understood what 3,000 dead meant -that would be most of their village . The entire tribe hurt over the tragedy . They feel they had to dosomethingto help the United States in their time of pauperization . Naiyomah offered one of his cattle and asked the elder to sanctify it . The elder responded by alsodonating kine as gifts to America .
The gift was mean to help Americans through their time of sorrow . Image above by Flickr userdeepchi1 .
Families donate 14 head of cattle to present to the United States . Naiyomah touch the surrogate headman of missionary work of the United States Embassy in Nairobi , William Brancick , to award the gift . Brancick flew to western Kenya , then force back another two 60 minutes to reach Enoosaen for the endowment ceremony in 2002 . He thank the people of the Greenwich Village , but explained that the logistics oftransporting the cattlewould be prohibitively expensive . The cattle stayed in the village awaiting a decision on what the Americans would do with them . Seevideo footagefrom the day of ceremonial .
By 2006 , the American herd keep down 21 head . Michael E. Ranneberger , the new US ambassador to Kenya , arrived at Enoosaen to visit the herd . He announced the plan : the cattle would stay in Kenya , and their offspring would be sell to provide educational opportunities for Masai child . The Americans sound off off the programme by furnish 14 high school scholarships for village children . But how to distinguish which cows are American ? The Masai mark their cows with a mountain pass in the ear . Each possessor has a distinctive pass , so the US cattle had to have their own mark . Ambassador Ranneberger was asked to pick out a soft touch for the American cows . After some thought , he settle ontwo bare rectangle , which symbolize the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center . Image by Guillaume Bonn for The New York Times .
Naiyomah was touch by authorCarmen Agra Deedyto collaborate on a children ’s Word of God about the Masai ’s gift of kine . The result is14 Cows for America . The scene book , illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez , was discharge in 2009 and is now a best seller .
The experience has vary life for Wilson Kimeli Naiyomah . He complete his MS in Biological Sciences at Stanford , and has switched gears from medicine to diplomacy . He is now aRotary World Peace Fellowand is take at the Rotary Center for International Studies at the University of Queensland in Brisbane , Australia . His destination is to become"a make-peace " , although he is enough busy doing other things as well . Image by Rotary Images / Alyce Henson .
