Lesotho - Days of Heat & Dust

Endless Dry Summer

December 19, 9am, 90 degrees… Even the typically short southern Africa spring was eclipsed months ago by long, hot, dry days and now the summer season marches on relentlessly to the hottest months of January & February. October through April is typically Lesotho's rainy season, when 85% of the rainfall should occur in the less than 65 days per year when the sky is not sunny & clear. But, we learned through government warnings months ago that there would be no rain and we should all prepare for a long drought - at least through March.

Parched land equally distributed

I ask the elders, "Ntate, have you seen such drought"; they say, "Mme, never in my lifetime". I ask, "Ntate, where will you get water"; they answer, "Mme, there is water underground but we don't have enough wells, we must share what little we can find". I ask, "Ntate, what will you feed the precious cattle, cows, horses, and sheep"; they reply, "Mme, there is no grass, they will grow thin & some will die". I ask, "Ntate, what about the maize fields"; they say, "Mme, we cannot plant without rain". I ask, "Ntate, what will you do next year when there is no maize grain for papa"; they say, "Molimo oa ka we do not know, we must pray".  And so they look to the sky & pray.

It is painful to see the beautiful landscape of Lesotho now parched & crackling… the maize fields plowed & ready, yet there are no beautiful stalks pushing up higher each day & the peach trees actually wilting with their hard small unripe fruit when they were so full with juicy peaches this time last year. It is painful to see the livestock growing thinner & thinner, their ribs & hips rising sharply as their bellies & haunches shrink. It is painful to hear the neighbors' wheelbarrows rolling along dirt roads at all hours of night & day; filled with buckets, now empty now full, back & forth as they seek out a community well or creek that trickles water; waiting in long lines for their turn to scoop a cup or quart full of water into their containers. It is painful to see little kids catching & drinking small quantities of dirty runoff.  We have heard of deaths due to drinking contaminated water & many more cases of dehydration & diarrhea - the neighbors know they must now boil their water, though they did not do so before, but sometimes one is just too thirsty to wait.

Dust Storm

We even have some fierce dust storms. One evening St. Patrick's Church bell was ringing non-stop warning the community to prepare for a wind storm… the tin roofs are known to fly off so folks were warned to get ready. The air was so thick with dust that we couldn't see the usually brilliant night sky & in the morning the sky remained tinged red-brown for many hours.

Certainly all my California friends & family have experienced drought and this fourth year with below normal rain has been particularly severe. We have seen the reservoir levels shrink, the lawns turn brown, the farms, fields, livestock & crops suffer.  The farmers see the harshest effects all around them, those of us in the urban & suburban areas feel the impact but less intensely. We do our best to conserve with all the water saving technology we have implemented over the years. New California laws to manage farm & orchard water usage are discussed - we talk about ways to improve. But, we always seem to have the essential… clean water coming from the taps in our homes.

Lots of water but none to spare

Lesotho raises millions of dollars each year through the sale of water to the Republic of South Africa (RSA) through the Highlands Water Project, Africa's largest water transfer system. The project's water is currently unavailable to the Basotho though the nation does benefit from the hydroelectric power that is generated. Another project, the Metolong Dam is expected to be completed by 2020 but will primarily supply water to just the urban area around the nation's capital of Maseru. Most Basotho will continue to rely on ground water through creeks, rivers, and wells. Many rural residents, especially those in the mountains, walk long distances to retrieve their water supply. Meanwhile food & feed prices are rising…

PCV life

So - what is life for me, a "privileged" Peace Corps Volunteer. Yes, I am privileged because I am one of the minority PCVs who has indoor plumbing. Earlier in the year I had a sink installed in my makeshift kitchen and the hot water heater repaired. During the winter months after I returned (June-August) I enjoyed hot showers & the comforts of a "modern" kitchen. However, since September, the water flow is inconsistent & limited & I have to store water in buckets; collecting the water from the indoor tap when the water flows for a short while every week or two. The joy of having a flush toilet soured a bit since, without the back-up of an outhouse, I have to use a precious bucket full of water to flush (ok it is still worth having a flush toilet!!).  Peace Corps provided PCVs large barrels to store water, but we have to rely on our neighbors & organizations to fetch the water. If I run out of water I ask Sister Juliana to drive me to/from the children's home (just 1.5 miles away) with my buckets to fill from their well. I can shower at the children's home or at the hotel in the nearby district capital of Mohale's Hoek (1.5 miles away)…usually every other day with daily touch-ups/spit baths in my home.  Other PCVs are hauling water from taps near & far. We are all conserving every drop.  I did plant my vegetable garden in late October - silly me. Obviously without rain just a few squash & watermelon seeds pushed up hardy plants; for those I just dole out a cupful or two of gray water every other day to keep them going - at least something surviving brings hope.

My garden - a few hardy plants

The sad dry gardens surrounding my home & 

the few hardy squash & melons that are fighting to survive with gray water

Peace Corps delivering a barrel of water

Joy still to be found

Now looking back I can see what a lucky or blessed (reader's perspective) series of events occurred that brought us our new irrigated commercial farm! 

This past June when I returned to Lesotho & winter was bearing heavily down on us (we had shortages of nutritious food & formula, one child was hospitalized for malnutrition & others very underweight), Sister Juliana met with Mme Marengue, a manager at the Ministry of Agriculture & a long term friend of St. Camillus. Sr. Juliana was asking for a contribution of seeds for the spring planting. During their chat, Mme M suggested that Sister submit a grant for a greenhouse to the Ministry of Agriculture & any NGOs we could find. Mme M & Sister agreed that with a greenhouse, the farm could supply year-round vegetables for the children as winters are too harsh for most produce. Mme M referred Sister to Ntate Thabang, a successful, local farmer who has a very large greenhouse for a seedling business. Nte Thabang could surely advise Sr. Juliana on how to write a grant for a greenhouse.  The way I see the events now looking back is that though Rethabile & I did proceed to write a greenhouse grant (submitted to the Ministry of Ag & other NGOs but never funded) - Nte Thabang had a much grander vision. He had taken one look at the St. Camillus property and saw a world of potential! The Centre has water supplied by a borehole (a well that pumps water into tanks) & two large fields totaling over 4,400 square meters of fertile ground.  Field 1 had been used for maize (the dry corn harvested & milled for papa, the Basotho staple carbohydrate) while chard (sold for meager cash to local neighbors) had been planted on Field 2. Neither field was particularly productive nor contributed to the Centre's income. Nte Thabang suggested that with irrigation & planting commercially desirable crops (cabbage, green peppers, tomatoes, peas), the farm could become profitable. 

Sister Juliana was inspired - she has the soul of a saint but the genes of a farmer & business woman - and planning began. Nte Thabang was trained in Conservation Agriculture in Canada & would be our consultant, install the irrigation, & supply us with seedlings (a win-win for all).  I asked Nte to develop a 3 year plan for crop rotation, all expenses, & potential income. Meanwhile I had just completed a workshop for Peace Corps sanctioned grants and I had the information needed for Rethabile & I to write a grant that would be funded by PEPFAR (a US program: President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief).  We wrote the grant & got $3,750USD (plus used the Centre's own investment of $1,250USD) to irrigate Field 1 & plant cabbage seedlings.

So, long story cut short… here we are in the middle of a drought, local folks are not able to plant their maize fields nor their home vegetable gardens, and St. Camillus is selling "farm fresh vegetables".  Customers include markets from Mohale's Hoek & as far away as Maseru (2 hr drive), local street vendors, schools, & neighbors.  The Centre is helping the community by supplying Lesotho grown fresh produce (rather than importing from RSA) & providing guaranteed full-time work for current farm staff plus part-time work for the needy that Sister Juliana has under her wide wings (the destitute, people living with HIV/AIDS, the under-employed).

Follow the sign to St. Camillus

Basotho love the big cabbage!

The Centre is also making money!! Well we have not yet turned a profit & we are still in a risky position as new commercial farmers. Can we keep the  veggies pest free? Will there be enough customers? Are we able to hire enough staff to harvest? And on and on and so it goes.

More stable base for managing the business

I often tell Sister she has a very large & complex business to run: providing a home to orphans, managing a commercial farm, & providing charitable aid to people living with HIV/AIDS. It has now been a full year since we began taking baby steps to build a financial infrastructure to support this business… a year of trial & error, confronting cultural norms, moving away from guessing monthly expenses to setting up a budget, using tools (yay for Excel spreadsheets!), putting money in the bank rather than hiding  little bundles of cash in secret places! Bank deposits are being made for the first time as the Centre actually has an income! The goal is to reduce our heavy dependency on donations from The Lesotho Connection & NGOs, & though we are still a long way out, that goal is clearly in our sights.  

Rethabile managing farm sales

The real strength behind our business management achievements is Rethabile, she is my counter-part (partner, co-worker) who now runs the Centre's "business office". This marvelous 23 year old is so intelligent, wise, talented, & eager to learn. We have steadily moved forward so that she has assumed full accountability & I am available to her as a consultant as needed. These days I ask her to give me work & direction! 

And our darling children

Monthly Weighing Session

Six months ago we were struggling with food shortages & malnutrition. Our monthly weighing sessions are a delight now - the kids love the attention & the matrons are taking pride in their weight gain.  Comparing June to December weights - the infant to 5 year old group, has, on average, increased their weight by 21%. The two infants (one 7 months, the other 1 year) have caught up & have doubled by 6 months & almost tripled by 1 year their birth weights respectively. Progress is very slow & we still have children under five who fall below the "low normal" weight for their age while the remainder hover just above that marker. In June 67% of these children were below normal but December weights indicate that number has dropped to 56%.

Best kids ever!

Other December stories

More Grants

Rethabile & I submitted two new grants. We have already received the good news that one for approximately $1,400USD has been approved by 10,000 Gardens in Africa, a Slow Food-Italy program. This grant will fund next year's seedlings & tool. 

The second grant request was submitted to Peace Corps for another $3,750 & we are all optimistic it will be approved soon. It will be used toward drilling a second & deeper borehole (well), completing the irrigation system, &, we hope, partially funding a small greenhouse.

These grants will help us complete the work started in July-September with funds from Peace Corps & the GoFundMe effort led from the USA by very good friend Deanna Anderson.

Visitors

Ska Moteane is our local contact for the Slow Food-Italy program and she is a renown Lesotho chef who won the 2013 Gourmand World Cookbook award for best African cookbook for her book of Lesotho traditional recipes, Cuisine of the Mountain Kingdom. We invited her to come to St. Camillus to put on a cooking demonstration/workshop for our matrons & other invited guests. She came!!! 

She arrived on Dec 2 to visit the Centre, meet the children, & tour the garden.  She & her friend Ma-lord (who was involved in publishing her book & consults with small Lesotho businesses to improve their markets) spent the night at my home.  We had a full house for dinner & sleep over with Linda from TLC, PCV pal Tracy, & Rethabile. We had fabulous discussions over dinner & breakfasts. 

Ska was up at 4 am to start her slow food - slowly simmering the dish she would demo. Meat bones simmered for hours to create a rich broth in which sorghum grain, carrots & celery were added for more hours of simmering. She charmed a small group of wary matrons, a St. Camillus Board member, a local farmer, and us PCVs with stories of her past & how she became a chef. She so inspired the matrons that they cooked the same dish that same night for the kids.

Linda Henry also was here, mid-November to mid-December. She stayed at my house & spent most of her time with the children & managing the shopping while Sister Juliana took a much needed 10-day vacation (she spent the time resting knitting & praying in the quiet of a nearby convent.  Linda is well known & well loved by the St. Camillus children & most of the Mohale's Hoek community.  There seemed to be a steady stream of visitors, old & young, coming to visit her or greeting her in town. With donations from her family, she led the effort to help the older kids pick out their Christmas outfits & make sure all the kids had some wonderful clothes & toys for Christmas day. Linda was here last January - at the time that I had my fall - so she ended up spending much of that time managing the place on her own while Sister was on vacation.  She had a little easier visit this time as we buddied up to get things done when possible. Linda was instrumental during the design & build phase of the new orphanage in 2013 - she spent six months at the Centre finding & working with the contractor & Sister Juliana.

Pray for Rain!
A double rainbow frames St. Patrick's Church after one 30 minute rain!
Linda's Photo

Holiday get away

Tracy & spent the holidays in the little town of Clarens, RSA - just across the border a few hours away from Maseru. It is a lovely and quite civilized "artist's" town that is a great get away spot for local South Africans & tourists traveling  through the Free State of RSA. We hiked the nearby parks & Tracy coaxed me onto a river rafting day-trip.  We have a fabulous time - great countryside, wonderful hikes, & even great food!

Golden Gate Highlands

The Cathedral at Golden Gate - a precarious way up!

San Paintings 

A walk with a shaman to learn about medicinal plants

Tracy in front, I'm cowering in the back