My sister was shocked to see this picture, taken in a meat market in Harar in Ethiopia, much to my amusement because I am myself much more uncomfortable with seeing the disgustingly smelly processed stuff like raw meatloaf or ugly sausages that hang in a butcher’s window. I like cows a lot actually – they have such lovely big eyes and those eyelashes! And their hide comes in nice patterns.

In one of my summer jobs I used to herd beef cows and one of my responsibilities included moving the lot from one area to another. It was a tricky thing to do especially because of one nasty bull whose eye lashes I free-willingly ignored… On the occasion I always had to protect myself from his horns with a cow shield: I walked with Lisa under my left arm and carried a base ball bat in my right hand. Lisa was a very gentle small white cow that the farm owner’s little four-year-old daughter used for cow back riding. The bat came only as a precaution to give a firm pat on the bull’s head every time he decided to become too friendly. Luckily, most of the time, Lisa proved to be the best protection ever needed.