If there’s one
thing I can say proudly about my time in the Peace Corps it’s that I have
greatly reduced my carbon footprint. I
only use electricity to charge my cell phone and laptop; I do not own a car and
I use public transportation or I walk; and I use very little water…well that
may not be affecting my carbon footprint but it’s still good for the earth.
Lesotho has an
interesting history with water. Did you
know that Lesotho sells water to other countries (Lesotho breaks all
stereotypes about Africa)? I don’t know
where the water comes from (neither do any of the locals), nor does anyone know
where that money goes. But Lesotho does
have quite a few dams to hold water. Yet
people still complain about water problems…
Water has a
strange roll in my life now. Like any
person in the developed world I still drink it, I still cook with it, and I
still use it when washing but I am so much more aware of how much water I
use. I have three buckets I use for
water in my house: 2 large 20L buckets that I store drinking water in and 1
smaller bucket (maybe 5L) that I fetch washing water with (I will explain why I
separate the two in a second). I know that
the drinking bucket will last me about 5 days (more or less depending on the
weather) and my washing bucket is more than enough for a good bath and to wash
my dishes. Therefore on a typical
weekday I usually only fill my washing bucket once a day.
I am also more
aware of where my water comes from. I take
my washing water from rainwater. My
family keeps large, open containers outside to collect rainwater. I never use this water for drinking because I
doubt my host family cleans these containers very often and it’s not uncommon
for me to find tiny organisms swimming in the water.
If I did have to drink the water I would boil it and filter it. I get my drinking water from the ground. In Lesotho you will commonly see a tap
(basically looks like a faucet) bringing water from the ground to us village
folks; my family has a hand pump on their property that I use (in other words
I’m going to have some nice arms when I get back). I filter this water since it always has a
slight brown color. Most volunteers use
only a single source of water for their nutritional and hygiene needs. The only reason I started using two is
because the hand pump will occasionally bring up water infested with insects or
that has a stronger brown color than usual.
During these instances my family will take a wheelbarrow with containers
to collect water from a communal tap and I will get my drinking water from
that. Since this water is not as easy to
collect we use the rainwater (or the insect infested water) for all our other
uses. There are also other times where
our water source “runs out.” Strangely
this always happens when it rains. It’s
not a permanent problem and the water some how comes back by the next morning
but having another source of water is always nice. The other lesson here is to hoard your water
when you have it.
But the role of
water in the typical Mosotho life doesn’t end there. Lesotho is a country full of farmers. Everyone has sheep and cows and everyone
grows maize (many Basotho also have smaller gardens where they grow other
vegetables but maize is grown in large quantities). Therefore water is essential for watering the
crops and like most of the world, there just never seems to be enough water to
go around. Basotho are always telling me
that we need more rain.
Unfortunately
when it rains it usually pours and that affects other parts of Lesotho
life. On rainy mornings we get only half
of our students. Most of your students
walk quite a distance to come to school and the school will even scold students
for letting their parents send them to school when it’s raining. Students are also extremely worried about
dirtying their shoes and books so they will walk to school barefoot for their
shoes stay clean. And in areas where
there is a lot of snow fall schools will simply cancel school until students
can walk to school. This is frustrating
for me as a teacher since all the students are still responsible for the
material I teach on those days yet only half my students are getting the
information.
You also have to
remember that Lesotho has very few paved roads.
There is literally one paved road that runs through the country. And this road is full of potholes, uneven,
and in general poorly made. Lesotho is
also a hilly, dry country. What I am
trying to say is that when it rains it makes getting places harder. The dirt here just doesn’t soak up that much
water so instead of mud you have large puddles of water. Places are made without consideration of
draining the water so the roads and pathways become flooded and it’s impossible
to go anywhere with out traveling through a few inches of water. And don’t forget that most people have to
walk quite a bit before they are able to access a paved road with
transportation. So if it rains people
aren’t able to get a lot done; traveling is just too tiresome in the rain.
As for me, I’ve
never liked the rain, even in California when pouring constitutes a mild
shower. I like it even less here. It’s not so bad if I have my rain boots on
(assuming they haven’t started leaking).
Because when water, water’s everywhere I’d rather be inside with a good
book, a warm blanket, and a cat sleeping on my lap.
