Cause the power you're supplying, It’s Electrifying!

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 

Races, Mountains, and Moms

Holding the trophy with our female runners!

The short-relay girls at the starting line

Boys grab pick axes, spades, wheelbarrows and scurry up to the rocky terrain that serves as a field for our school. Girls not-so-joyously hurry out to the grounds where their duty is to move stones that are hacked from the earth by the boys and put them into piles. The girls are not happy about getting their hands dirty and hate the idea of soiling their uniforms (I now hate my getting my clothes dirty too-hand washing and fetching water is a task and half!) but regardless they take pride in beautifying our school to impress all our visitors that will arrive soon. A group of five boys left school to go mine lime from a small quarry out in some marked cornfields, returned to mix it with water and pour into watering cans where is could be dribble over balanced rock piles that marked our official “track field.” The preparation for Mosheoshoe’s Athletics Competition at Khoro High School was long lasting but interesting to facilitate and observe utilizing available resources to the extreme. The event called 14 schools to come and participate in about 10 different running races for girls and boys and invited the village of Ha Khoro and surrounding villages.

I was given the task of “catcher 2” where I ran after the second place winner of each event, held their hand, and took them to the score keepers. It was so exhilarating and exciting embrace the kids whom were utterly exhausted after there runs but still smiling with pride (some of them went into shock after their runs..because they do not drink water-a hot topic that I am working on). At the end of the day, Khoro High School placed number two and we could not be more proud of our new trophy in our office. The kids placed number five last year, so we are now on the map because our hard training paid off! Khoro High School is not only a new school but many other schools have not heard of our small (poor if I may say) village and are constantly trying to find ways to insult us. One insult (that I chuckled about at first just because of cultural differences) was that children at our school are selling rotten peaches for money…it didn’t go well

All the girls holding up Number Two!

Tripod head stand at the big river 

After this glorious event Jeff, Lars, and I had a slumber party at my place and I’m sure all of my conservative villagers were whispering about it-so scandalous of me! Co-ed slumber parties with friends are not a thing here. I am sharing the culture of the USA with Lesotho? Haha! The three of us made tacos and shared them with my host mom..She just loves the word “tortillas” and keeps repeating it. It might be the cutest thing ever. We had a nice evening of listening to my neighbors play the accordion and home made drums while gazing at the stars for entertainments. The following day Jeff and I attempted to climb this big ol’ mountain in South Africa that we can see from our sites but the river that separates Lesotho from SA was too full of water from the week’s rain and was declared unsafe as all hell to cross. But we still had a wonderful morning of frolicking through the fields or maiz, pumpkin, and sunflowers (sonoblomo in Sesotho, well actually Afrikaans because it’s a “borrowed” word). We returned home with big grins covered in mud and decided to wash our selves with a bucket bath and go into town. When I returned home my kind, kind, kind Me’ washed my mud encrusted shoes and socks..I need my mother in America and need my Me here in Lesotho. Anywhere I go in this world I need my mother.  

My Me (on the left) and her two friends peeling peaches to be canned for Winter

Three school boys holding 3 out of the 2000 baby pines that were planted around the perimeter of our school campus

Thaba-Bosiu

Standing in front of King Moshoeshoe II's grave with my fellow teacher, Puleng

The beginning of the school year holds lots of excitement ignited by school trips, teacher workshops, forming of school clubs, sporting events, projects to beautify the school (AKA taking “slashers” or machetes to cut grass, move rocks, and dig holes for new trees that are to be planted), and the list goes on and on. So needless to say, we have been having fun at Khoro High School. I write this blog after just returning from a school trip to Lesotho’s most famous historical site, Thaba-Bosiu, (Mountain of the night) where the infamous King Mosheosheo took refuge from Nguni tribes and raised the Basotho Nation in the early 1800’s. Thaba-Bosiu was selected as the site for National History Association Day where schools from all over the country came to hike to the top, learn some history, and have an opportunity to perform in a talent show. The performances consisted of traditional dances, raps about freedom, impressive impersonations of Nelson Mandela, and the most enjoyed by the crowd-Basotho style break-dance-offs. They were so fun to watch but my personal favorite was a girl’s speech about how proud she is of her African roots and the struggles to resist the pressure to feel shame of her origins..she spoke with such poise and passion. The school trip was a treat indeed..Aside from the rather devastating fact (in my mind) that our students did not get to climb to the top of the mountain because the entrance fee was not factored into their payments by our school because..yaaa..whoopsie? I felt so awful, honestly, awful. But on a positive note I think the students enjoyed missing school, seeing Thaba-Bosiu from afar, and definitely loved dancing to the blaring house music on the bus. I again, learned some new moves from the students and had a great time laughing with them

M'e Motklotliso hiking up to the top

Standing in from of King Moshoeshoe's old home

Throwing "magical" sand on one another

Girls doing their traditional Basotho dance

Teaching is coming along and I am enjoying the relationships that I am forming with my students. The more I get to know them, the better we all feel in the classroom and the lessons seem to flow much better. I hang out with some of them during break and they ask me questions upon questions about math and then about life in general. I am always happy to answer but I encourage them to stop studying during their breaks-the students study so much! Also, another teacher and I are co-leading the Math and Science Club, which I am pretty excited about. And “life-skill” classes are really up to me and some just seem so basic but I forget how much is not discussed with the youth of this country. Their parents sure will not discuss personal matters with them and the teachers feel awkward soooo here comes my duty! Teaching simple things like how to deal with stress and challenges in life when a student asks me if “its okay to just cry sometimes”…uhhh Absolutely?! I realize that they are not aware of the confusing stages of adolescence and are just expected to be good, exam-passing, non questioning, non emotional students. They are going through a tough time; its difficult to put myself in their shoes because my teenage years were “tough” because of stress factors a liiiiil different from theirs. But we are we are all still all emotional human beings. It’s really great that my school is so supportive of life-skill classes and realize the importance of allotting a time to learn self-esteem, communication skills, and sex ed.

I decided to go into town with our top runners at our school to compete in a race where sports clubs from all over were in attendance. The girls were so pumped that some one was coming to watch them, I felt like a little mother hen taking pictures and getting them water. One of our girls, Keletso, WON the 100 meter and is now going to compete in South Africa! Yes, she gets to see life outside of Lesotho and she could not be more excited! Hard work of training pays off! This was really great for the rest of the students to see her success.

With the girls on the track before their race!

Keletso (in the green) running the 100 meter

A total side-note but I just wanted to share: The term used to describe a married woman’s lover (not her husband) is “roll-on,” like roll on deodorant that is applied in secrecy…too good not to pass along with everyone.

With all of my teachers on "back to school day" where we wore the kids uniforms

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!

Basotho ba thabile letstatsi le leng le le leng.

After a 15 minute walk that turns into a thirty minute one because I am greeted by every villager that is doing something in their yard-whether it be plowing, washing clothes, soaking papa, or just chillin- I arrive at the bus stop. I am on my way to town to pick up some things from my new “camp town,” Mafeteng, that my small village does not have. As we wait to fill the bus, one of my most favorite woman in Lesotho steps up and embraces me as we have not seen each other since our first meeting in November when I visited Ha Khoro High School. She is the cook at our school and an ambitious women who is full of life! We sit next to one another, latching arms and holding hands, sweating a little bit and just catching up on everything in a mix of English and Sesotho. Some traditional “famo” music blares on the radio and we begin to chair dance and just wave our arms around. Famo music is played by the men here and would be can be described as the Basotho version of folk music-always involving the accordion (my favorite instrument to listen to). Just picture a bunch of dusty men wrapped in traditional wool blankets, sitting on boxes in a circle after a hard day of work out plowing the fields with their cattle playing the accordion and singing along in crackly voices. The cook, M’e Melemo, tells me as we are laughing, dancing to the music that Basotho ba thabile letstatsi le leng le le leng, meaning “Basotho are happy each and every single day.” I loved this phrase because it is so true. No matter what their day was like, how hard the worked for little money or how empty their bellies are; they are always smiling. That is the way of life here.

 My sister with our puppies at my new home!

My back yard

I spent Christmas with my first host family where I was for training and they were so happy to have me back for a visit. Everyone in the village kept saying that I have so much love for my family and this brought a huge smile on my M’es face. Although my host sister was not there because she was tied up in South Africa, I had a fabulous time cooking, baking, eating, and just front-porch-postin’ with my N’tate and M’e and my little abuti. We just pulled out some chairs, sat under the shade with some drinkie and asked everyone that passed by “U tsoa kae?” (where do you come from?). I have come to realize that without the distraction of television, video games, electronics in general- people are each other’s entertainment. Conversation is what fills their day. Solitude isn’t a desirable thing here.

 My host dad with his new hat momma Sal and Jim got him. He was so pumped!

Neighbor girl dressed to her best for Christmas

The last day of 2014 was epic! I spent it with three other Peace Corps Volunteers at Lars’s home (he lives an hour and half walk from me). The four of us cooked fried chicken and beans, conversed, and watched from Lars’s front stoop that overlooks the sea of fields below, an amazing thunder and lightening storm. The first presence of rain created a full double rainbow-honestly something I thought only existed in fairytales and maybe a Lucky Charms cereal box-it was unbelievable! As the storm intensified the lightening came in hot, cracked down every minute and lasted hours. African thunderstorms are unlike any others. Then January first, after making home made pancakes, we all went into Mafeteng to watch my principal play a futbol match at the stadium against a team of all his previous students- old guys verse young guys or “energy verse experience” as he put it. It was so fun!

The last sunset of 2014, rainbow included!

Bus stop celebrations for 2015!

I have been keeping myself entertained quite well as I wait for school to open on January 26^th. I have been taking up any opportunity that is offered and I am taking advantage of free-time. I have made a visit to another volunteer’s site that lives way way way up in the mountains and it was quite fun to see how different her site is than mine. Every district is so diverse! Another adventurous thing (and maybe I wouldn’t do again) I have done was go out into the field to experience the day and the life of a farmer plowing his fields. Except these farmers were quite privileged in that they plowed their fields with a brand new shiny red tractor. A site that is RARE here in Lesotho. We began plowing, I sat perched up on the tractor like a princess watching the dry earth come to life as the big rake dug into the earth. Really cool to watch. But more significantly noted was watching the two farmers on the opposing field plow their field with a traditional Basotho two-ox plow. Man, to watch this while riding the tractor made me realize how much simple technology can increase food production. What we plowed in one day would take that ox plow probably two weeks..not kidding. Even more shocking was that a young abuti-probably 18-asked if he could drive the tractor to plow to fields because well, why not jump up at this opportunity to drive the thing right?! HA! But yeah, this kid plowed the fields for six hours in the blistering 90 plus degree sun because he wanted to. We gave him some lunch-but that was all! So I spent an afternoon with a group of bo-ntate that were entertaining to say the least. We sat near the truck and spoke about the heat, being tired, and the hard work of the farmers as we watched their fields being plowed…oh bo-ntate…

Plowing the fields with the big red tractor!

The mountains of Morakabai while visiting Cassie's site

We made LENTIL BURGERS! Always a food party when volunteers get together!