14 Cows For America

Every year I pick out a book to send to a family with small children. Since distance separates us, I pick a book that centers around a big event in my life that year since I'm not always sure what the kids are into.

Once I realized that Africa was my topic, I found this amazing book with an even more amazing story called 14 Cows for America. It is the story about the binding together or America and the Kenyan Maasai warrior tribe. When a man from a Kenyan village studied abroad in America, he witnessed our nation's most devastating hour: September 11th, 2001.

A few months later when the man returned home to Kenya, he gathered the village around for story telling. When he shared what happened on that fateful day in September, he went to the village elders to ask to give his long sought after cow to the Americans as an act of solidarity and compassion. At the end of the meeting, 14 cows, the Maasai's most prized possessions, were donated to this cause.

At first I thought the story of September 11th was too sorrowful to share with children, but as I desperately tried to find something new, I found that this story was a perfect story about Africa. It is not about African poverty. It is not about African violence. It is about Africa giving and consoling. This is a story that needs to be told in light of the stories that usually make it through the American media about Africa.