Village
life in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho...
My perspective so
far is pretty much limited to my small community, the district capital of
Mohale's Hoek & the many villages, like Thoteng where I live, surrounding
it. I have not ventured out too far - just occasional PCV training events, or
grocery shopping in the nearby district capital of Mafeteng (a 30 minute 30
Maluti / $3USD taxi van ride away). I
have been both content & busy here in my home town. I'll describe a few of my observations
& impressions.
Casual
Observations - life with the Basotho is so interesting:
Here are a few
"fun" observations - meant only to represent what I, as a foreigner
have seen with only a casual understanding of the culture
The
Basotho are or seem to be:
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And
yet:
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Very
religious/spiritual, 90% are Christian
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Belief in witches
& witchcraft is common. Some will
attribute bad luck to a spell that has been cast on them
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Slow walkers - I
call it the Basotho stroll… a "take all the time you need" to get
from one place to another gait
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Watch out for
speeding drivers on the streets who challenge any pedestrian no matter where
you are on the cross-walk or curb
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Soft spoken -
volume of speech is so low I have to lean in to listen. They seem to be able to hear each other without any problem & hardly raise their voices to speak with someone even at moderate distances away
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The music in
taxis & playing on speakers outside stores is so loud it will knock your
socks off - the volume is deafening & relentless
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Crazy about
chicken drumsticks; thighs are ok too but drumsticks are #1. Basotho love the
chicken's dark meat exclusively & that is all that is served in restaurants & in homes!
While I was at my training host family's home the only chicken part every
served me was the leg. I came to find out that was the "best"
piece reserved for guests. Now I understand why the leg is all that is
served VIPs at special gatherings
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So just where do
all the breasts go??? I never see the
breast served at local restaurants & even grocery stores have very
low supplies of packages labeled "other pieces" (sometime unrecognizable cuts of breast &
wings).
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Fanatics at
keeping the cooking pots shiny & their homes clean. The sign of a top notch Masotho woman is
her sparkling pots which she cleans with abundant zeal & steel wool sold by
street vendors. I have a PCV pal who has to hide her pots from her neighbors
who will insist on cleaning them for her.
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Outside the
immediate perimeter of the home, burnable
trash is thrown into loosely organized fire pits & non-burnables
seemed to be tossed at random. Streams,
gulleys, paths, & streets have trash scattered everywhere. Like most developing countries there is
limited to zero resources for trash management so it just becomes a cultural norm to
toss the trash… anywhere
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Intolerant of
cold! The Basotho wear beautiful,
traditional, wool blankets to keep themselves warm . They are fastened with
a jumbo sized safety pin; women's fastened in front & the men's
on the side. They'll wear their
blanket or warmest coats even in warm restaurants & offices.
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Come warm weather
after winter passes, many Basotho still cling to their blankets &
coats. If the weather turns rainy
& there is any hint of chill in the air - the propane heaters are lit
& the blankets & coats are worn.
I have walked into businesses where the heater is blazing & folks
have their blanket wraps on their laps & they are wearing coats - even
with warm 70+ degree temps outside!
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In love with
their cell phones & pay just as much attention to the phone as any other
culture. They never seem to turn
their phones off & will answer their phone even if they are in the middle of leading a meeting, training, or presentation. Many folks have 2 phones with 2 separate
numbers to manage sim cards from 2 different carriers whose signal strength
can vary.
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It seems folks are constantly running out of "air time" & but only buying it in the
smallest amounts/quantities. Since
there are no monthly cell phone plans, folks have to buy "air
time" by the maluti through vendors who sell it everywhere (streets, stores, home
businesses). One can buy as little as
5 Maluti ($.50 US) to restock a phone for a quick call
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Experts at saying
one thing & meaning another. A
common greeting when someone comes to your home for a visit is to say
"I'm hungry. What can you feed me?" This is just a
way to greet someone & get the conversation going - they don't really
mean they expect you to feed them.
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One may wonder
why someone would ask for a meal when they know it will likely be papa le moroho "boiled stiff corn meal
& chopped steamed chard. This classic dish is served everyday - sometimes
more than once - but the Basotho love it!
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Charming when
they call each other 'M'e
"mother" or Ntate
"father". A typical greeting directed to me is Lumela 'M'e, translation
Hello Mother. (Lumela is pronounced
Dumela)
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When a Masotho
uses the English version - it just sounds funny! "Hello Mommy!"
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Getting
Along
My Sesotho
(language of Lesotho) is still limited but I can get by on the basics of
greetings, shopping, finding my way, & traveling by taxi. The Basotho (people of Lesotho) in my
community are fairly tolerant of my lack of language proficiency & are
still somewhat amused & pleased by my attempts to communicate. There are quite a few who speak English -
most just a little, yet many are quite proficient. Almost all kids are eager to greet me with a
basic "hello, how are you", while some are happy to begin a simple
conversation. Business owners &
staff; police & government officials & staff; & taxi drivers are
usually very comfortable with & proficient in English (see the section on
Education & Literacy below).
Though greetings
are very important to the Basotho in
the more rural villages, it shows respect & promotes sense of belonging to
the community, they are less formalized & less frequent in the
"urban, semi-urban" areas (Lesotho version of urban, semi-urban!).
During pre-service training we spent quite a lot of time learning &
practicing formal & informal greetings with the residents of our training
villages. My work site and home is in the village of Thoteng and it is one of
a chain of small villages that encircle Mohale's Hoek. Residents in the semi-urban areas are not very formal & traditional greetings are not typically
exchanged with each person one passes though I tend to greet most everyone I
pass in the village with a simple Lumela 'M'e
or Lumela Ntate "hello
mother/father". The typical response is ee
a 'm'e (guess that informally translates late to "same to
you"). With the more senior
residents, the formal greeting also includes a back & forth of "how
are you & I am fine". Common
informal greetings also include U ea kae?
"where are you going" or U tsao kae?
"where are you coming from". If a neighbor knocks at my door I'll
often get the greeting "I'm hungry, what do you have to eat?" Fortunately it is not necessary to provide a
meal as this is just meant as a way to get a conversation going so I can reply
with "I'm so sorry I just finished eating… then on to another
subject". Basotho sometimes call
out Lekhooa "white person" to get my attention
- mostly this comes from children but sometimes I hear it from adults. Though if said with an attitude it may be
meant as an insult, but most often it is just a way to get my attention &
I don't take any offense to it at all - I'll just respond with Dumela & keep on walking. Some of the younger PCVs find this term very
offensive but I just take it in stride. What would people say without using Lekhooa anyway? "Hey you different looking foreign person, I
want to get your attention to say hello?"
Getting
Around
I feel comfortable
& safe walking the 4 mile round-trip from my house to Mohale's Hoek for
shopping or the 4 mile round-trip to the new children's home (the new St.
Camillus orphanage). There are a couple routes I can take for
variety and folks get to see a lot of me each week as there is often some
reason to head out from home. There is always something interesting to see or
someone new to meet. I pass by village schools, homes, a few shops, & a small river where folks
wash clothes & kids bathe. I see folks tending their gardens & fruit
trees on their property, I say hello to
the herd boys tending their cattle as they move them about to graze. I visit with the kids playing with their
homemade toys like soccer balls made from plastic bags or toy automobiles made
from wire. I visit with folks who want to stop & chat for a bit.
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| Spring rain is bringing in the wildflowers |
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| Giant, fragrant blossoms on cactus |
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| Proud kiddo showing off his wheely car! |
Walking, even if
several miles, is the most common way to get around, though there are plenty
of car taxis (called 4+1 since they seat 4 passengers plus the driver) that
cruise the streets. The taxis honk at
folks & street corners along the way - just their way of asking if you need
a ride. Just ignoring the honking will
send the taxi on its way (best advice is just to get used to the honking!). Taxis are
shared & folks are driven only to the closest street location near their
destination (so I have to walk from the street to my house inside the church
compound). It costs 6.50 Maluti ($.65
USD rounded up) for a ride around the Mohale's Hoek area, & though I
usually walk I don't hesitate taking a taxi when it is raining or if I have a
heavy load & multiple bags to carry. I am always glad to hear the taxi honking at those times
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| Taxi rank, Mohale's Hoek - always bustling |
1-No place for
luggage except for your lap & under your feet
2-No place to
stretch your legs - everyone is packed in like sardines as the seats are
placed super close to each other to pack more people in. Pity tall folks whose knees are bumped up against the seat in front!
3-Stopping to drop
off passengers often means unloading half the passengers & bags to
get the person in the back out of the vehicle (I have not lost a bag yet!)
4-Raging Lesotho
accordion/rap music is blaring at maximum volume from up to 10-12 speakers
placed around the van - no escaping!
5-Windows are most
often shut tight as the Basotho are both cold & wind "sensitive"; I think they fear catching colds
6-Fares are
reasonable but not dirt cheap as in Asia, somehow the conductor (who rides
most often standing & leaning over a shoulder as all the seats are taken)
keeps track of what each passenger owes, how much change is due, & where all the bag(s)
have been stuffed
7-Folks are usually
friendly (even if they look at you like you are crazy if you ask to open a
window!) & protective. I have found that if there is a drunk passenger (seldom happens) the
driver and/or the other older women, Bo 'M'e,
will do their best to distract the drunk & keep him/her from pestering.
8-Always limit
fluid intake before a trip as who knows how long it will take or what
facilities will be available on the way.
However, local street vendors are at each taxi rank are in abundance
selling all sorts of fruit, bread, fried fish, & snacks so there is no
worry about going hungry!
Shopping
& Business
Family &
friends have offered to send care packages (thanks so much!) but I have
declined as I can find most everything I need here and the rest - well… I
really don't need (besides, shipping is outrageously expensive!). Some goods are quite expensive (gardening
tools, glue, tape, quality household items) but most items sold here are
inexpensive as they are made super cheaply (& are of very poor quality) in
China to be affordable. Mohale's Hoek
is very small - one short main street.
The largest store is small version of a Home Depot but they have limited
supply of items in small quantity for the home fixer-upper. We have one
Basotho grocery store with sparse goods on the shelves but they will
occasionally get veggies like broccoli (which few buy because most are not familiar with it).
Outside on the street are the veggie vendors selling moroho "green leafy vegetables"
& fruits. There are quite a few MaChina shops (shops owned by Chinese) that sell dry goods & plastics - sometimes
cheaper than the grocery store. Chinese
own most of the shops in town - but all the shops seem to sell the same basic supplies
& goods (plastic tubs & bins, soap, cookies, general kitchen
supplies). There are also a few
clothing stores - if I need a skirt or blouse I can probably find
one! Even though I have the luxury of
having a refrigerator, it is quite small & I share it with the
orphanage. Since they keep the temp at
freezing for the chicken (& chicken feet!) they store, I have to buy my veggies several times a
week so I am in/out of town on a regular basis. All that walking back & forth is great -
gives me both plenty of exercise & opportunities to have more encounters
with my charming community members.
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| Small shack shops off the main street in Mohale's Hoek |
And
a note about…. Education & Literacy
Free primary education for kids between 6 & 13 was instituted in 2000. Further changes were
phased in so that by 2010 Lesotho made primary education compulsory; this
helped address the fact that the majority of boys were not attending school as
they were required to work at home, specifically as "herd boys"
tending the family's cattle & maize fields (75% of the population are
subsistence farmers & 57% are below the nation's poverty level*). Child
labor laws have been implemented to ensure that the young are able to attend
school. Lesotho has the distinction of
spending more on education than any other country, approximately 13%*. However, it is not uncommon to see older
kids - sometimes well over 13 attending primary as they attempt to catch up
due to home/work needs and/or just lagging behind.
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| Leseli's graduation from kindergarten, she'll start primary in January Leseli is the pretty young girl on the far right; she lives at St. Camillus |
Secondary education
is not free & so there has been increasing gender disparity of those
attending. Girls are more likely to
complete some or all of their secondary education as boys are most likely to
assume work responsibilities at home.
In spite of the hardships of getting to & staying in school,
Basotho literacy rates have soared with females at 96% & males at
80%*. However, recreational reading has
not been a typical Basotho pastime though there has been a strong tradition of
oral story-telling. There is a
wonderful Lesotho-based NGO, started in
2011, that intends to bridge the gap; it hosts the Ba Re E Ne Re Literature
Festival (see Facebook page) each year to promote reading & creative
writing, thus continuing Basotho traditions.
College admittance
is very competitive & though tuition is supported with government funding,
attendance is limited. New graduates
from any of the school primary,
secondary, or collage programs face huge challenges finding work in this
country with over 28% unemployment*.
There has been a long history of skilled & unskilled Basotho
migrating to South Africa & other countries in search of work. The downside is the decrease in the labor
pool & disruption to family life in Lesotho but the upside has been an
inflow of revenue from these external sources.
In recent years South Africa has implemented more restrictive labor
laws that are intended to make more work available to their own citizens. The impact has been a return home (called
"retrenchment") of Basotho migrant worker thus perpetuating the
unemployment & reducing revenue to families.
*Data from the
Lesotho government 2013 - published by the Word Bank.
Did you get to the end & wonder if I am still living with all the children at the orphanage? Well... yes we are all still living together ... will post an update next month!
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| St. Camillus kids & matrons on a crisp, clear, spring day |
