Peasant Meal and a BirthdayOur second day on the Overlook Farm began with another cold morning and farm chores. Since this was our third time with farm chores we were done quickly and went on to help out with work projects. Because it was winter there were only a few work projects that were farm related. Most of the work projects consisted of gathering and chopping wood for the wood burning furnaces, setting up a loom to weave with the wool from the sheep and putting sand on the snow covered parking lot.
Instead of cooking our own lunch today, we participated in a peasant meal. If we had visited during the summer we would have spent the whole day out in Overlook Farm’s Global Village. In the Global Village, there are different sites that represent some of the different countries that Heifer works with. Each site has a typical house and worksite/farming areas that house the animals during the summer. Overlook Farm’s Global Village represents sites in Peru, Guatemala, Thailand, Tibet, the United States, and Kenya/Uganda. In the summer groups spend the day in a particular site working and eating foods that would be typical for that site. Since it was snowing outside and very cold we only got to participate in the peasant meal portion.
Before going into the center to begin cooking our peasant meal, we
watched Dale Perkins, the Overlook Farm steward slaughter a rabbit that
we would add to our meal. Typically they would not have done this for
our meal but since we were a college group and a few expressed
interest, Dale went ahead and showed us how (it was like in Michael
Moore’s Roger and Me). After watching Dale perfectly clean and
prepare the rabbit, we began to prepare our meal of potatoes, carrots,
broth, and rabbit. We were told that this would be a typical meal that
people in the northern Andes part of Peru would eat. While the stew was
filling, it would pretty much also be the only thing that the family
would eat to get the nutrients and vitamins needed and they would have
to work hard on such a simple meal. This meal really put things into
perspective. We knew that we would be having a much more filling dinner
later that evening, but for many Peruvian families they would not have
had this opportunity.
We celebrated Lexie's 21st birthday a week early. She was quite
suprised when Ann Armbruster '08 brought out her cake. This happened to
be the first time that Ann cooked without setting off a fire alarm!
Global Village Facts (taken from Heifer’s Take Action Book)
Assume that 100 people make up a "global village."
- 70 would be illiterate
- 1 would have a college education
- 25 would be Chinese
- 6 would be American
- 55 would earn less than $600 a year
- 50 (half) would suffer from malnutrition
- 37 would live in urban areas
- 11 would speak English
- 72 would live in ‘developing countries’
- the 6 Americans would consume 30% of the food supply
- the 6 Americans would earn half of the village’ income
- Of the approximately 170 countries in the world today, 130 are considered to be “Third World”
Another example: If we could turn the population of the earth into a
small community of 100 people, keeping the same proportions we have
today, it would be something like this:
There would be:
61 Asians 50 women
12 Europeans
14 Americans from both North and South America
13 Africans
1 Australian
50 men
33 would be Christian (Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox)
67 would not be Christian
6 people would own 59% of the entire wealth of the community
Of the village’s total annual expenditures of just over US $3,000,000:
$181,000 would be spent on weapons and warfare…
$159,000 would be spent on education…
$132,000 would be spent on health care…
If you keep your food in a refrigerator and clothes in your closet, you are richer than 75% of the entire world population.
If you have a bank account, you are one of the 30 wealthiest people in the world.
25 would struggle to live on less than $1 US dollar a day.
47 would struggle to live on less than $2 US dollars a day.
Work with passion,
Love without needing to be loved,
Appreciate what you have,
And do your best for a better world.
From top to bottom: Kate Bruder '08 feeds and pets some of the sheep; Dale Perkins, Overlook Farm steward, with the rabbit; Lexis Boothby-Shoemaker '06 with her birthday cake; Jonathon Musser '05 with "Josie" the camel; Dale Perkins working on the rabbit.
Photos by Kate Bruder.
