Thursday, January 20, 2011

RWO: Pay Up, Big Boy!

Jess writes:

When a woman is to be married in South Africa, the future groom’s family pays “Labola”, a gift to unite the two families. Labola usually consists of 10 cows, each representing a virtue of the future bride (and 11 cows if the future bride is still a virgin)! More currently, the future groom’s family pays a monetary amount, accompanied by traditional and contemporary gifts. However, the concept of “cows as payment” is still a very prominent one. So that, when our female, American volunteers are proposed to (which, usnruprisingly, is often), another male (usually a supervisor or neighbor) will jump in to help negotiate Labola for the PCV. We’ve had up to 20 cows offered for some volunteers, due entirely to the exotic, “celebrity” status of Americans in this country!!! Eish!!

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