Settling in to St. Camillus, My Peace Corps Site:
I was thrilled to get
my first choice for my two year Peace Corps assignment in Lesotho - working
with Sister Juliana at the Saint Camillus Centre in Mohale's Hoek to facilitate
a support group for young single pregnant women or mothers. Sr. Juliana came to collect me and all my
possessions from the training village of Ha Taaso on August 14th, a bright
& warm Thursday afternoon; the day immediately following our swearing in as
official Peace Corps Volunteers. It was
a wonderful sight to see her radiant smile once again. We made a few stops for provisions along the
typical 3 hour drive but arrived in Thoteng Village, just under 2 miles from
Mohale's Hoek, while there was still plenty of sunshine. The kids and tiny tots
poured out of their current cramped quarters to give me a big greeting and help
me move my bundles into my new lodgings. I have a lovely room with huge windows
and lots of light, my own bathroom (a combination water closet & bathroom
with a sink & tub), and a hallway that has been converted into my kitchen
(with propane stove/oven and shelves for food, cookware, plates & cups).
My home for the next
two years is located on the St. Patrick Church compound where the Bishop once
lived and where a couple of the parish priests still live. The Bishop moved
several years ago into a new home in a more impressive compound of diocese offices
and living quarters for priests and nuns. Since the Centre has had several PCVs
over the years, The Bishop's former home became known as "the Peace Corps
house". I currently share half of the house with 17 orphans & their 4
caregivers who sleep in 2 rooms and use the kitchen in the "other"
half of the house. The other half of the house has the Centre's office, support
group meeting room, and a kitchen. The new St. Camillus orphanage and farm is
located on church property just behind the Bishop's new compound. Sr. Juliana
gave me ample time to settle in and after 2 days of scrubbing down my new
quarters and setting up my kitchen, bathroom, & bedroom, she gave the
ultimate compliment: "you are just like a Masotho woman, very clean &
neat"!
My first outing with
Sr. Juliana was to see the new orphanage & have a Skype session with Linda
H, a former Lesotho PCV from the 1980's and one of the leaders of The Lesotho
Connection (TLC), the NGO set up to raise funds for the orphanage among other
things. The current issue was that - though the building is near complete,
there were not enough funds to install flooring over the concrete base floor in
the girls & boys dorms. Sister was
hoping that TLC would find a way to gather these funds & install the
flooring prior to moving the bunk beds, closets, and kids in. Over several days thinking about this issue I decided to reach out to my own family & friends
via Facebook & email to solicit donations as a private citizen, not a Peace
Corps sponsored volunteer. To date TLC has received almost $1400 from 14 of my contacts!! Sister was impressed &
so thankful that this outreach was so successful.
Over the next couple
weeks progress on the orphanage seemed awfully slow but actually a lot was
accomplished: the solar paneling was installed & hot water was now
possible, the septic tank was completed, an electrical feed from the main line
to the building had been requested with the help of the Bishop, the contractor,
Ivan, provided a plan for protective landscaping that was approved & funded
by the TLC board - work has already begun. The landscaping will provide a sidewalk & protective
drainage to help deal with the heavy Lesotho rains expected during the summer.
More plans for a playground & parking lot have been drawn up for
implementing in the future. Most everything needed for completing the kitchen
& bedrooms are in a storage area on site including industrial size
stove/oven & refrigerator. We even
started preparing the curtains - cutting & hemming the extra long ones to
make additional sets of curtains for the dorms & matrons rooms.
Meanwhile back at the
office Rethabile (21 year old office staff) and I finalized the proposal to the
Ministry of Social Development for the Aloe Jelly business and made progress on
the Poultry Laying proposal. We got
advice from Taylor (Taco) another PCV in Mohale's Hoek who has a strong
business background. We created an Excel spreadsheet for capturing &
adjusting estimated expenses & for calculating the unit price of the aloe
jelly as well as potential profit or loss.
The numbers don't look reassuring for making a profit but Sister's prior
experience in the business was that she can make a small profit. Rethabile and
I carefully walked through all the numbers - Sister really understands there
are risks and that we have to manage & track the expenses. We have also
created a worksheet for the workers to capture productivity & employee
hours. The young mothers support group is on hold for the short term as the
focus has shifted to getting the orphanage completed.
During off hours I
continued to get more comfortable with living with the kids. Sharing the house with the kids is enjoyable
but also difficult. I love their
presence & hearing them chatter & laugh in the mornings & evenings
as they go through their daily routines getting ready for school, meals, and
bedtime. However, daily life in the house can be awkward since we share the
house. There are two entry doors to my side of the house but each is located in
the kids' rooms - so I always have to pass through their room to get in &
out of the house. The hallway that I use
for my kitchen connects their two rooms - so they have to pass through my
kitchen to move between their two rooms which they do constantly. All the water
I use for cooking or washing comes from the bathtub tap. I only cook simple
meals out of respect for the food limitations that they have (e.g., I
don't cook chicken or meat) and I try to manage the toddlers exposure to the
hot stove & other potential dangers in the kitchen. When I get hungry for a
real meal (other than my cabbage stir fry) I can just walk the 2 miles, 20
minutes into Mohale's Hoek and, for just under $3 USD I can get a standard
"plate" of grilled chicken, rice, and mixed veggies for a mid-day or late
afternoon meal. No need for dinner after
that!
Back at the house I
have to be careful leaving my bedroom door open to avoid having a tot without
diapers come in! Yes - I have had a
sweet little 14 month old come tottering in only to giggle happily as he pees
on my rug! I have figured out my
routines so I can safely heat water for my nightly bath & fill my hot water
bottles to make my bed cozy while they are settling down for bed at night. Once the kids move, and after an intense
cleaning, I'll convert one bedroom to another living space for me and a place
where traveling PCVs can spend the night and we'll convert the second room to a
store room for the aloe jelly products. There are several maintenance projects
that would be wonderful to have completed: fixing the electricity in the room
that has the second bathroom to restore the lights and repairing or replacing
the hot water heater as it is currently not working (and so I have to heat
water in a pot using an electric wand or on the propane stove). However, considering that the vast majority
of PCVs have neither electricity nor running water (only 5 of 18 in my group
have electricity), I have a lot of conveniences that I am thankful for!
Most all the tots get a nice final touch of a Vaseline rub to protect them from the very very dry climate. Then the dressing, older kids helping younger kids put on their school uniforms as they always dress up for school with proper socks & shoes. The boys look spiffy in their gray short or long pants (depending on their age), white shirts, blue sweaters; the girls with plaid skirts or jumpers, white blouses & blue sweaters. Meanwhile one of the matrons is making breakfast and the kids all head to the main kitchen for a simple breakfast of papa (corn meal) with moroho (spinach or cabbage or linaoa (stewed beans) with bohobe (bread). After breakfast the kids head off walking to school - the older ones keeping an eye out for the younger ones. The matrons then shift gears to care for the toddlers & infants left behind, hand wash lithaba (mountains) of clothes in basins outside, clean up the bedrooms, prepare lunch in time for the little ones to come home from school mid-day. Once the little ones are back from school, they quickly change into their after-school clothes & head outside to play between lunch & dinner. The don't really have any store-bought toys so are pretty creative in making their own - depending on their age & abilities. Finding discarded rope or string to tie empty boxes together to make a train they can pull, putting handmade dolls into little wraps to carry on their backs like real mommies, creating small soccer balls from discarded plastic bags, fashioning cars out of bits of wire to pull or push, using a stick to push along a bike rim while running beside it, or spending hours bouncing on a old tire dropped off by a neighbor. It is rare to see any of the kids with a book and they don't have pens or crayons for drawing or coloring, but I often see them singing and dancing - repeating the sounds and moves they learn in school or see at festivals. I rarely hear raised voices or crying - they seem to minimize squabbles or resolve them quickly. More often than fights I see kids sharing their food and toys and looking out for each other. Though there is no obvious sign of supervision as the matrons are quite busy and I have seen the 3 & 4 year olds wandering off together outside the church compound but they always seem to make their way back home in their merry little bands. They achieve a tremendous amount of independence & self-reliance but always seem to have a cushion of protection from the older kids & neighbors - guess that helps compensate for the seeming absence of affection from adults once they are past the toddler stage. Though the infants are either on the matrons backs or under their surveillance, once the little one is stable on his/her own 2 feet, the attention on them seems very minimal & they are free to wander about the grounds. If the tiny tot has not yet been potty trained it is most likely he/she will wander about without pants or diapers - even in the cold! I hear the kids learn to toilet pretty quickly with this mostly unsupervised routine.
Sister Juliana keeps a
close eye out the children & the care they receive. After her early morning
routine in the convent she is at the Centre by 8am everyday if not
earlier. She comes to the Centre
frequently throughout the day to check on the kids, comfort & care for ones
who may be a little ill, fold clothes, instruct the matrons, deliver groceries,
or just sit and visit the kids during a much needed break. She seems to end each day with a final visit
before returning to the convent for her own late dinner & evening
prayers. In addition to keeping a close
eye on the kids, she is off checking on the farm & egg laying business,
dealing with construction issues at the new site, keeping track of the
proposal development that Rethabile & I work on, meeting with Ministry leaders,
hosting teas for potential donors, visiting sick community members, and just generally
being wherever she is needed most. She is
kind, attentive, & compassionate, but keeps everyone moving in the right
direction. The Bishop recently involved
Sister Juliana in a conference to discuss the strategic direction of their
orders based on new directives from the Vatican. Their goals are focused on
community facing activities in an attempt to increase direct interaction with
people in need - that is getting them out from behind the more administrative
tasks working in their offices behind computers and phones. The Bishop has directed them to be more
tolerant of the nuns who are working in the community and who may come late for
prayers or convent related work. The
philosophy is in perfect alignment with Sister Juliana's mission.
Waking up to Peach Blossoms & Snow:
The warming trend
began slowly during the last couple weeks of August but everyday we saw the
peach trees of Lesotho gather more blossoms.
My small house has it's own little orchard and I can watch the trees,
right outside my window, gradually change with the season. Just when I thought we were finally out of
the winter season though we had a final surprise turn of the weather. Gray
cloudy skies, lots of thunder and lightening, and then a freezing cold night on
August 30th. We woke up to a light blanket of snow all around the peach trees
and grounds. The pre-schoolers stayed home from school and kept warm in their
kitchen huddled around a paraffin heater. The cold snap did not last too long
and we were back on track with another warming trend.
