As you look out my door of my unelectrified home constructed
of mud, rocks, and cow manure out unto the fields and fields of corn, sorghum,
and wheat one might not think physical appearance for the local villagers would
be so highly valued. Wrong! People dress to the nines here in the rural parts
of Lesotho. Doesn’t matter who you are, what you did that day, or how tired you
may find yourself-you will be clean, sparkling in fresh clothes all the time
and no exceptions. Forget about the lazy sweatshirt and sweatpants days.. One
morning my M’e would’t let me go to school because I had not ironed my
ever-so-slightly wrinkled pants..Lesson learned: plan what I wear the night
before so I can iron it then if need be. You all must try ironing with a real
iron..the one you heat up on a hot flame on the stove, wrap the handle with
news paper to prevent your hand from burning, and spit on it to it to check if
you have made it too hot. It ain’t no electric iron. Also polishing shoes is a
big deal here- first I fought it (why does it matter- they are boots and they
will just get dirty again tomorrow?!) but now I have succumbed to the norms and
I quite enjoy polishing my boots before school (well, on most days).
During our Fall holiday here, I was gone for some time with
a PC training session with all the Education Volunteers. It was nice to get
some more pointers about teaching and to see my first host family again. After
this was over, a group of 10 volunteers and I all went to get some sun, sand,
and ocean in the city of Durban, South Africa. Highlight for sure was partaking
in a 12K Umhlanga trail run in that began on the promenade, straight up through
beautiful million dollar homes of the elite to the tip top to see the sunrise
over the Indian Ocean as the moonset behind the hills (ahhh it was magical),
and then through countless sugar cane fields, crossed two rivers, ending with
the final leg on the sandy beach with warm playful waves lapping at our ankles encouraging
all us tired runners to finish. It was an experience I will never ever forget.
Martha and I finishing the race
Myself, Mary Beth (she did the 5K), and Martha posing proudly with our awards
As I was having fun big things were happening in my village
of Ha Khoro (the place of wheat in Sesotho)..When I came home everyone was
buzzing around saying “electricity-its coming!” on repeat. Needless to say, everyone
is PUMPED. I was not so thrilled at first because I just see the excitement for
electricity being powered by their ability to now watch TV..not my fave thing.
But, I understand this is not the only amenity that electricity provides. One
day after school this week, I helped of my favorite women of Ha Khoro pick
these strange little beetles that get into the maize meal this time of year,
scoop by scoop, before we cooked the samp for children at the school..anyways
she looked at me with her big honey colored eyes and beaming she said, “Mosa,
the first thing I will do when electricity comes is buy a washing machine. I am
too tired!” And I just looked at her and decided yes, these people work damn
hard and a little electricity just might alleviate them from some of the stress
of daily chores. I do my washing by hand three times a month and I think this
is grueling..I couldn’t imagine doing it three times a week for every member in
your family as the bo-m’e do here-and no one has just two children..
This also happened while away..our pup had puppies! (my lil bro Thokomelo is in the middle)
And our "nku" had a bebe nku
Which leads me to share a little about our school trip to
Water and Sanitation plant in the capital. Here we learned how all the city
folk get their water from the Caledon River and the processes it goes before it
is sent to the homes and businesses. We spur of the moment decided that it
would be good for our kids to tour a factory to observe production in action
for the Business Education classes. Another teacher and I took off on an
adventure to go ask the surrounding industrial businesses if any would let us
in. And what did ya know- a sugar distributing factory (that imports sugar cane
from Durban, South Africa in bushels of 1,000 kgs) and a candle making factory
agreed to let our group of 70 in for a never-done-before tour under one
condition: that our students sing for all of the workers at the end. It was a
deal! Our students where in utter amazement (hell they were just stoked to get
to listen to music on the bus!) when they saw all the big time machinery. The
candle factory really blew me away when I saw that all the machines were man
powered-it made me feel like I was in an old minting factory about 100 years
ago..It was so great, the workers let the kids jump on some of the machines and
operate them. We helped with packaging and boxing the candles and at the end
both factories gave the kids something to go take home with them.
Girls ever-so-bravely crossing the bridge of huge nasty watering tanks
Group pic at WASCO
Inside the sugar cane distributing factory
Had to get a pick of Moshebi with biggest bags of sugar one will ever see
After the tours were done our bus drivers were kind enough
to drive to the mall in Maseru and allowed the students 20 minutes to walk
around- some grocery shopped and some just stepped foot into the mall for their
first time. Everyone gawked at all the pretty clothes and swore that after the
graduated high school they would go to college so they could get a job and
spend one entire day at the mall. My personal favorite memory of this day was
experiencing the pure joy of riding an elevator with five teenage girls for
their first time. Terrified, over joyed, and outright stoked as this moving box
took us from one level to the next. It was priceless.
From rolling fields of maize and sunflowers in the rural
lowlands where there is no electricity to the to bustling industrial businesses
in the capital-Lesotho is powered with love from all the beautiful people that
inhabitants this small little country.
Thabo, my family's herd boy, and I all bundled up for winter
