6 Months In, 10 Reasons to Stay

Believe it or not it has been about 6 months since I moved to my site in Mohales Hoek and about 9 months since I came to Lesotho.  1 pre-service training, 2 grading periods, and many marriage proposals later I can say that Lesotho is one of the best South African countries.

1. Basotho have a sense of fashion
Before leaving Lesotho Peace Corps sent us all a packet giving us details about Lesotho such as weather patterns and how people dress.  They told us that Basotho dress very well and I didn't know exactly what they meant until I came here to see for myself.  Basotho, for the most part, know how to dress.  This is especially true for people who are working.  The terrain may be rocky but that never stops anyone from wearing heels.  And Basotho women are quite good at matching their shoes to their outfits. As someone who has a deep appreciation for fashion I love that people here appreciate others that take time to put an outfit together.

2. Basotho are very clean people.
Never in my life did I see myself eating inside a tin hut but I have done it in Lesotho.  Basotho are extremely clean people; they sweep and mop the house everyday (which includes moving all the furniture to get those hard to reach places).  They polish not only their floors inside the house but any area outside also.  They even sweep the dirt outside.  I have also been told that Basotho women will take a bath once in the morning and once at night.  Cleaning is very important in Basotho culture and while I am not as clean as a Mosotho, I can certainly appreciate that they are.

3. Basotho are genuinely kind and peaceful people
There are few people out there who can understand how hard it is to be a volunteer in a foreign country.  The language is strange, the culture goes over your head, and the food...well it's just not like home.  But through these challenges I have found that most Basotho people are genuinely good-hearted and do not hesitate to take you under their wing.  I know I can go up to anyone for help and they will stop what they are doing and help me.
On that note Basotho are also quite tolerant and peaceful.  We hear a lot of atrocious things happening in South Africa.  To name a few men raping lesbian girls to "set them straight," men raping virgins to get rid of HIV, etc.  But you don't really hear about those things in Lesotho.  Not to say that Basotho are incapable of doing such deeds but you don't hear about cases like this in mass quantities like you do in South Africa.

4. Lesotho is just beautiful
I can't describe how beautiful Lesotho is, you have to see it.  Maybe the beauty comes from the fact that most of Lesotho is still natural; no skyscrapers, and very few cities. Pollution is low since few have electricity or cars which means you can just see for kilometers in the distance.  Lesotho is also anything but flat and now that it's winter you can see the tips of the mountains covered in snow.  Lesotho le letle.

5. I have a blackberry in Lesotho
This goes back to one of my previous posts about technology so enough said.

6. Lesotho is a small country.
Lesotho is about the size of Maryland.  Because of mountainous roads and bad transportation it can take a day to go from one side to the other but when a country as small as Lesotho has about 60 volunteers you are close to a few people.  This means that it's easy to meet up with volunteers.  Another nice thing about living in a small country (especially in Africa) is that, for the most part, Basotho only speak one language and the culture is pretty consistent through out the country.

7. Most Basotho speak English
While I am working hard to improve my Sesotho there are moments that I just don't know how to say what I need to say in Sesotho.  Almost all Basotho understand at least basic English so with a mix of Sesotho and English I can usually get my point across.

8.  I can buy cheese in Lesotho
Cheese is a delicacy in Lesotho for volunteers like me.  It's pretty easy to find sliced cheese though it doesn't taste very good.  In some camp towns you can find some decent cheddar cheese and in others you may even find Gouda (slightly different from American Gouda).  But in Maseru you can get mozzarella, Parmesan, and many many more.  I am very happy for cheese.

9. Basotho know how to sing
I love music so it makes me very happy to be surrounded by a culture that sings as if they were born harmonizing to their mother's labor pangs.  Singing is an integral part of Basotho culture.  Every morning my students have morning assembly which is like a prayer session to start the day.  They sing a song and say the Lord's prayer.  This is repeated again in the afternoon assembly.  Basotho also sing in church, they sing at funerals, they sing when they cheer for sports teams, they sing in bars, they sing...well for any reason.  There are very few instruments here and I have not seen them used during these times so Basotho just harmonize and it comes very naturally to them.

10.  I love Lesotho because....well, I'm here!
When it comes down to it I love Lesotho simply because I'm here.  Of course I have my share of frustrating days, my "if I were in America" days.  But when it comes down to it I'm happy here, I feel pretty good about what I'm doing here, and I am enjoying every bumpy rock that I trip on.  Lesotho is an amazing country to be in and I am so thankful that I found my way here.

Aparna

I was Born a Farm Girl

My students find me strange for a variety of reasons.  One of the main things is that I have absolutely no exposure to raising animals.  Most Basotho (especially  in villages) have livestock.  So children grow up raising a variety of different animals.  They also grow up growing various vegetables especially maize (corn), the staple food.  In fact this is so amusing to my students that the agriculture teacher in my school joked that I should take the Form A agriculture test with them to see who does better.  This post is to not only show some of the animals I have now been exposed to but also to show off some of my new found knowledge on animals.

Chickens

One of my family's chickens and her babies.

My school had a small chicken project where the school bought a few hundred eggs, raised the chicks until they became chickens, and sold them as meat for a small profit.  I learned a few things in this project: 1) There are different breeds of chickens and each one has a specific purpose such as one is meant for laying eggs while one is bred for meat. 2) Chicks become chickens within

Another one of my family's hens.

a few weeks. 3) Chicks do not need to be raised by their mother unlike mammals (this I actually learned while teaching my Form As about classifying animals).  My family has chickens (which are the ones I took pictures of).  The chickens are free grazing.  I'm sure in America this has another meaning for in Lesotho it means that during the day the chickens wander wherever they want, all over the family's property.  No cages, no fences.  But as nightfall comes my little brother runs after each one, stuffs them in a bag, and puts them in a store room for the night.  The chicks follow the bagged mother in to the store room and they are safe from the possible dangers that roam the village at night.

One of the older chicks.

One interesting thing about watching chicks being raised from hatching is watching them grow.  I feel like when we learn about baby animals in school is almost seems like they go through a metamorphosis from cute yellow chicks to multi-coloured chickens; but there seems to be three life cycles in a chicken's life.  The yellow chick phase, the larger, in-between phase, and finally adult hood. The chicks slowly lose their fuzzy yellow feathers to get darker feathers and they slowly lose their chubiness, the necks start to get longer, and they start to look more like thier adult counter parts.

Cows and Sheep

The family's one cow.

 Many Lesotho boys grow up to become herd boys.  As the name suggests herd boys take care of the herds whether it be sheep or cows.  Therefore all animals in Lesotho are free range.  My family only has one female cow.  Apparently they used to have more but they all died of a disease and this is a new cow my host father purchased recently.  He is trying to get it pregnant which is a process unto itself.  He has to pay another owner of male cows to use the male cow to spend some time with the female cow so that it may become pregnant au natural.  So far he has not been successful.  Most male cows are castrated so male cows that are able to reproduce are not very common.  From what I understand these males are often kept separate from most of the herd to control the reproduction process.

Our sheep grazing outside the house.

I'm not sure why Basotho raise so many cows.  I don't think most Basotho drink cow's milk so I assume they raise the cows for mainly for its meat.  Basotho love meat and this itself is an understatement.  Meat is hard to come by especially since most Basotho do not have refrigeration units to keep meat cold.  This means that meat cannot simply be bought from your local super market and kept in the freezer until you are ready to eat it.  Meat is also very expensive.  And if you are raising your own animals it takes time for an animal to grow up so that it can be slaughtered.  Therefore meat is a delecacy.  I should also mention that Basotho eat every single part of the animal: feet, heads, intestines, hearts, stomachs, ovaries (my family slaughters a chicken that was just about to lay an egg so my family ate the egg too), testicles, you name it.

Sheep are very similar to cows in that they are raised for slaughtering.  My family has many sheep and because there are so many my family has hired a boy to watch over the sheep during the day.  During holidays my little brother watches the sheep too.  One funny thing I noticed about the sheep: they seem to give birth in the winter and not in the spring.  Recently I have seen a lot of lambs.  I wonder why...I should also mention that Basotho do not use the wool from sheep for anything.   Sheep are also very easy to steal especially when you have a large heard.  So it is important to keep a close watch on them.

Dogs

Family Dog.

The two puppies a little older.

The two puppies when they were very young.

Dogs have a lot of uses for Basotho.  First, they guard the house when it is night.  They act as a form of security and bark at anything (and I mean anything) that moves at night.  Therefore, all night long, I hear the sound of dogs barking.  Every house has a dog and on larger properties, the more the better (and the bigger the better).  Secondly, dogs often accompany herd boys to help them herd sheep which have an uncanny tendency to wander off.  Thirdly, dogs eat any scraps the family may have from bread that has gone bad (that's what I usually feed the dogs) to bones of any meat the family has eaten.  Unfortunately dogs are usually very skinny for they are not fed very well.  Our family dog is so skinny you can see her ribs.  Recently she gave birth to two puppies who together probably weighed more than her.

The remaining puppy.

A harsh reality you realize in Lesotho is that animals (and people) die quite often.  Veterinarians are only found in town and I would assume that they are quite expensive.  So if an animal is sick you have to find a way to get it to town and the money to spend to get treatment.  And unlike the US there is no concept of vaccinating animals for common diseases. Therefore it is quite common for animals to die unexpectedly. That happened to one of the puppies.  For some reason it stopped eating and in a few days it would not wake up from its sleep.  It's an unfortunate reality you have to deal with in a developing country.  When there are barely enough resources to get people to the local clinic (again usually in town) then animals are simply not a priority.  Most likely the female dog will become pregnant again and give the family more dogs.

Cats

The male kitten crying from his mother.

The female kitten hiding from humans.

Mother. son, and daughter eating.

The last animal I want to talk about in the post are cats.  Like dogs they have a variety of uses.  They are very handy for catching rats.  And like dogs they will also eat leftovers readily. 

The two kittens feeding.

My family currently has three cats.  The first one has been with the family for years.  It has produced many kittens which my family often sell for a small profit.  But recently this cat's age has started to show and it no longer catches rats.  It also kills small chicks.  It has therefore become a liability.  Because of these reasons my family has decided to keep its latest litter consisting of two kittens.  Unfortunately these kittens are deathly afraid of human and will run as soon as they see one.  Therefore we are trying to tame them.  They spend most of the day crying for their mother.  Also the mother has not weaned the kittens though they are more than old enough to do so (I have done a lot of online research of cats and pregnancy because I have had more than more pregnancy scare with another cat).

Nap time!

I have one more cat to speak about, definitely my favorite cat on the compound; one that has gained the love and respect of all the members of the Mokote household. She is considered to be an expect rat catcher by my host parents.  My host siblings love her for her cleverness and overall playfulness and friendlyiness which makes her a very entertaining cat to watch.  And for me she is simply my little cat who never fails to make my day.  She has grown so much since I got her.  She is a good companion who catches bugs for me (but only after playing with them first) and is very entertaining. She loves to cuddle and sleep on my lap no matter how inconvenient it may be for me.  She also loves milk and string.

I think all of this makes her the best animal on the compound.  Wouldn't you say?