From March 29: Easter Pigs

I'm writing late this week, having scrambled today to put the finishing touches on our Quarterly (beautiful, as always, thanks to our dedicated contributors and visionary editor Kristin!) and our Palm Sunday liturgies for this week. Palm Sunday is emphatically not visionary-we do nearly the same thing every year, needing each year to read again, hear again, absorb again to try to encompass the Gospel story of the heights of Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the low of his crucifixion and Passion. What a blessing to be part of a church community that values both!

In other news, this Easter we will again focus on pigs for Haiti in a project organized by Boston-based Grassroots International. After having partnered with Heifer international for "Easter cows" for several years, in 2010 this Easter collection shifted its focus to Haiti in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in January of that year, and we're glad to continue our support for their Creole Pig Repopulation project.

I'm passing on some words offered by Gene Burkart in the Quarterly that year:
...There is a sad story behind the pigs. Called the Creole pig, it once was a mainstay for rural Haitian families. A hearty, indigenous breed, it could tolerate the climate and feed off local vegetation. Its manure fertilized farm land and its meat added protein to diets. When a family needed extra cash for an emergency or special event, the pig could easily be sold at the market. It was "Haiti's Piggy Bank."
In the 1980's international development experts pressured the Haitian government to eradicate the pigs claiming that they threatened to spread swine flu to the big pig farms of the US. Although some disputed the claim, all the pigs were killed off. People who lost pigs were given a replacement pig from Iowa that was supposed to be newer and better. It didn't turn out that way, though. The new pigs needed to be shaded from the sun, could only eat expensive imported feed, and could not drink local water. The meat didn't taste as good either. Soon the Haitians began calling the pigs the "four-footed princes".
Grassroots International has been working with a Haitian group (National Peasant Movement of the Papaye Congress) since the 1980's to restore the Creole pigs to Haiti. One pig costs about $55.00. To make your donation (of any amount!), just write "Easter pigs" in the memo line of your check.