This weekend I traveled with a group of OSU students
to Heifer Ranch in rural Arkansas .
While there, a baby goat sucked my finger, I was cured of amoebic dysentery by
the sale of a cooking pot, and I slept in an urban slum in the company of a dozen
college students and a speckled king snake.
I suppose a word about Heifer Ranch is in order. It’s an
experiential learning facility run by Heifer International—a development
organization that helps vulnerable communities improve their lives and
resources by providing livestock animals and related assistance. The centerpiece
of Heifer Ranch is its Global Village: a series of campsites that approximate
the living conditions of the people that Heifer helps, as well as some that
Heifer can’t help (I’ll get to the latter in a bit). Groups can spend a night
in the village, divided by lottery into “families” that are each assigned one
of the campsites as well as a modest basket of resources. If you end up at the refugee
campsite, your basket is empty. And no, you aren’t allowed to bring in your own
food.
