Kopano Ke Matla

I sit on a quite Sunday morning in my little (actually rather large in comparison to other Volunteer’s humble abodes) rectangular adobe shack while drinking a sacred cup of coffee. Coffee is not a hot commodity here, I think because firstly, it is bitter and Basotho love their sugar. And secondly, because there is no need get that caffeine kick that most of us Americans “need” to get through the day due to the understanding that there is no rush to get done what needs to be done for the day. I, however, still thoroughly enjoy my rationed-one-cup a day because the only place to find real coffee is in the capital, Maseru.

My lil home 

Ntate on his horse

A month has passed and the schools of Lesotho have opened! It was a bit of slow take off with six weeks from the end of training to first day of teaching, but now my Peace Corps volunteer work in finally underway. From visits to other volunteers, hiking mountains, a week long celebration of the end of the six-month long initiation school for boys (I’ll get into that another time), funerals, and various daily activities like fetching water from the well- I found myself busy.

Inspecting the fermenting "koala" or home brew..thirsty anyone?

The lake of the top of beautiful Mount Kolo

 Yesterday’s funeral is fresh in my mind so I will begin with sharing this experience. Last week it was announced at our school’s morning assembly that one of our student’s mother had passed away and that every student is to contribute 1 Maluti (the currency here) to show our respects and to attend the funeral service after Saturday morning study. Yes, the children attend school from 7:00 until 4:00 (and even later some days) every single day and then come back for study most Saturdays from 8:00 to 10:00- so much school! I will say though a lot, a LOT of it is unsupervised where the students are to quietly study in their classrooms reviewing notes, classwork, etc. Honestly, most students really do partake in this independent study seriously (some out of fear they will get punished and some because they truly want high marks on their exams).

Gathering after "sports day" out on the soccer field

"M'e Mosa" (the new me) and two of my students 

So funerals are big deals here-families go all out and spend a small fortune. After study, our student choir practiced their songs for the service, we packed up the big cooked pots of samp (tastes how it sounds-mushy, flavorless, cornmeal), and gathered about 40 students and hiked up to the neighboring village to big ol stripped tents where the funeral was held. Everyone from all over, near and far attends, dressed to the tens-I’m talkin’ beautiful hand-sewn traditional sashoeshoe to high heals and prom dresses. The service heart renching, people in histerics. The priest took a serious moment to plead to husband of the deceased that he is not to leave and abandon his family. I was told that in most cases, Basotho men will leave their children if his wife dies, find a new wife, and start a new family.
The support to the student whose mother passed was beautiful. Girls sat with her and rubbed away her tears as they flowed down her cheek the entire three hour service. I walked hand in hand with the girls as we all proceeded to the cemetery where the service continued, the body was buried (with a fresh cow skin covering the casket because it is though that where she is going is cold and in order to come back to us in our dreams she needs to be warm and protected…) and lots of singing and dancing took place.
Dancing is bonding here in Lesotho. One of the first questions my students ask me is “M’e Mosa, can you dance?!” I used to say quite honestly, NO..But now as I have begun to realize, it doesn’t matter how well I can dance, it just matters that I join them and bust out some never-seen-before-white-girl moves and laugh. Yesterday was a very special bonding day and I began to see how incredibly lucky I am to be where I am, surrounded by amazingly strong girls and boys that are so curious about life outside of Ha Khoro. Simple things: seeing tangible photos of my family in the US, having dogs and a snake as pets, being my age (they still don’t know my age-I am not telling them because I could have students that are 24…) and not married, running for fun, stretching (foreign concept), playing with my hoola hoop and on and on-just blow their minds. It’s nuts to wrap my head around the extracurricular things we have in The States that do not exist here. Therefore without smart phones, laptops, Internet, and televisions the children don’t know much more about life then what is available to them here in their villages. This last photo is of myself and all the “prefects”at our school-the are the top students that were voted by the students be the “head boy and girl, deputy head, English, Sanitation, Nutrition, Althelets.” Basically they are the teachers eyes of the school and the designated snitches..I am determined to make this more positive so I have taken all their photos and will make a school poster to put in the hall for them all..This last photo I made them all smile and say my favorite phrase, "kopano ke matla,” unity is power!