Article: Kenya's child shepherds tend their books by night: An education program for young Masai herders has become a model for other countries in Africa.(World)

Byline: Danna Harman Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

DOL DOL, KENYA -- In the pastoralist culture of the Masai, there is no greater honor for a child than to become a shepherd.

"We look around the family, decide who are the brightest children with the most potential ... and send them off with the goats," says Morintat Lowara, tugging on his elongated, decorated earlobes with one hand and proudly patting his shepherd son Boscow on the head with the other. "You need to be intelligent to be a shepherd because of cattle rustlers and wild animals, and because it's never simple to find water holes and grazing pastures," he says. "School is ...

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