The Village, the Goats, and the Little Sapplings

My school has a village problem.  I few months back I posted a link to see my village through Google Maps.  If you take a look at it you’ll see that my school is in the middle of the village with one side towards vast fields.  Most of us would think that people would respect the school educating their children but that’s not the case; the village is actually quite malicious to the school.

Min. of Forestry teaching students how to plant the trees

The herd boys, for instance, allow their cattle to graze on the school grounds and this is a huge problem.  Part of the agricultural program is to have practicals and part of this is crop production.  Every year the Form C’s raise crops with the hopes of selling them and every year almost all the crops are eaten by the cattle not to mention often trampled.  It’s not just that the herd boys walk their cattle through the school (which they often do at night); the herd boys don’t watch their cattle very carefully and every week we find stray cattle munching on school property.  For a long time the school would have some boys bring the strays to the chief in hopes that he would find the owner and punish them as a good chief should but that rarely is the case.  Thus, the problem persists.

The saplings looked like glorified branches

In August 2011 a new group of volunteers came to Lesotho and one of them was working for the Ministry of Agriculture in my local camptown.  She told me that the Ministry was giving away fruit trees for free.  I brought the idea to my Agriculture teacher and she jumped out of her seat with the idea of getting the school some trees.  Unfortunately the trees ran out before I had the chance to co-ordinate with the Ministry.

Basotho students know how to work!

The next year, in June, I decided to pursue the project and emailed someone from the Ministry of Forestry, the organization giving away the trees.  I soon set up an appointment with them to talk details and I brought my Agriculture teacher along since I have very little knowledge on the topic.  The meeting went great with my co-worker doing all the talking and co-ordination.  She set up a date for the Ministry to visit us and get a better idea how many trees they could give us.  All the school had to do was to start digging holes for the saplings.

By the end of June, just as schools were closing, the Ministry and the school set a date for when we would plant the saplings.  The day came and, with the help of the students, we planted over a hundred trees.  This project couldn’t have gone any better!

After a long days work, over a hundred trees planted

 I wish the story ended there for from this point things start going bad.  A few weeks after we planted the trees we noticed that some of the saplings were now missing; holes that had a tree in them now were empty.  When the Ministry came to plant the trees they brought many for the villagers to plant in their homes.  Unfortunately greed doesn’t have a limit.

The trees now have branches and have grown a little

Then there was the drought.  New trees need a lot of water and while the school did their best to water the trees at least once a week a bit of rain would have helped a lot.  Many of the trees seem to have gone dry and are no longer growing.

After that came the animals.  In September one of the trees started producing leaves and a few flower buds.  We were all so excited.  In a week, the tree was completely gone.  Other trees had been eaten and were half the size that they once were.  My colleagues tell me that this is the work of goats.

The first tree to have leaves.

About two weeks back I counted about ten saplings with leaves and I was happy since many of those had been eaten by goats.  The next week all those trees had lost their leaves.

It’s really quite sad seeing something you worked so hard for going to waste and knowing that there’s very little you can do about it.  My colleagues and I talk about building a fence but that takes money so there’s no guarantee that it will happen.  And at the rate the trees are being eaten and damaged its doubtful that even one will survive.  As I said in a previous post, not everything PCVs work at ends up going well and this is a project I thought was guaranteed to succeed.  Still, the school is hopeful that they will find a solution to the problem and get more trees in the next few years.  All I can do is hope that they do.

Somewhere Between Success and Failure

I wanted to write a post about the projects that have done and have succeeded in my community.  I titled it Success Stories and wrote about the school orchard and the library I set up here.  Yet the longer I watch these projects the more I doubt whether I really consider them a “success.”

PCVs are obsessed with this one word, sustainability.  We are trained that we are here to do sustainable work.  We aren't here to build clinics and schools; we are here to transfer skills by working with local counterparts.  A lot of PCVs still do projects on their own, or projects that are unsustainable by nature, but I have chosen not to.  So for the first year of my time here I just observed and taught, trying to figure out what my school would really benefit from.

One of the things my co-workers kept talking about was having a school library.  A PCV in my village before me applied for an ALP (African Library Project) library.  She wanted it to be a community library and was going to place it in the community center.  Before she could do so a storm blew off part of the roof and so they decided to put the library in the primary school which had many extra classrooms.  There the books were organized, alphabetized, put away, and locked up, never to be seen again (okay, so I'm being a little dramatic).

My co-workers told me that they had tried using the library but having it in the primary school made it difficult to use.  The primary school, apparently, refused to share the books with the secondary school.  The primary school never used the library and my co-workers told me that the teachers were stealing the books.

So after much thought and talking to my principal I decided to bring a few hundred books to the secondary school and see how it went.  My principal and I want to the primary school together and spoke to the primary school principal about taking books and a few book shelves.  She reluctantly agreed (no one argues with the American).  She found the key, opened the door, and my principal and I took a quick look around.  The shelves were half empty and very dusty.  My principal told me that the last time she was here the shelves were full.  That day I took about 500 books and started organizing them.

In January this year my principal and I came up with a borrowing policy and general rules for the library.  It was her idea to chose a student to be responsible for the library instead of teachers and we picked the student librarian together.  And we opened the library.

Since then the library has been going well.  Students feel comfortable in the library and go during break, lunch, and free class periods.  Sometimes they bring books to study, sometimes they pick up a book to read.  And my co-workers encourage students to go to the library to read.

A library is so important in a place like Qhalasi.  My students get excited to go to the local camp town, some of them have never left the district.  Their worlds are so small.  Some of them have internet phones but they only use it to download music and Facebook.  Their worlds are so tiny and through reading they can learn about so much more.  Unfortunately this is the case for most areas in Lesotho and so volunteers like myself see a library as something that could change our kids’ lives.  But most libraries that have been established in Lesotho have been forgotten as soon as the PCV leaves.  Reading, most Basotho say, is not part of their culture.  Also, Basotho value the books in the library and many times prefer to preserve them by locking them up than using them.  And some of this could very well happen at my school.  The library is less than a year old, still interesting.  Next year the students may not find it so new and fascinating and stop using it.

One of the hardest parts of leaving Lesotho is letting go of everything that gave me a purpose these past two years.  After December there’s nothing I can do to ensure the library continues being used.  That’s something I have to leave for the people, my colleagues, who stay.  I hope that they have realized the value of the library and keep it going.  Only time will tell.

Our small library with desks, chairs, and three book shelves.  Since this picture I've added another book shelf and at least a hundred more books.

With some of my students who use the library regularly.

And Two Years Later...

Two years ago, on October 14th, 2011 I landed in a foreign country with 22 other strangers.  I had never been in such a tiny airport which felt crowded by the small group of us.  Soon after landing  I was rushed in to a car to drive me to my host village and to stay with a family that spoke about ten words of English.  I still remember my host mother lighting my paraffin lamp that first day, sitting with my host parents quietly as my host mother cooked my first meal in Lesotho and wondering that whole night what the hell I was doing here.
I'm happy to say things have changed since that first day.  I went back to visit my host mother about a year ago and we were able to converse and completely understand each other.  Things have changed so much that I could barely remember this date and had to ask a few volunteers and consulate a few calendars to be sure.
This anniversary is bitter sweet for I have about 7 weeks left as a volunteer.  I came here knowing I would be leaving one day but now that the date has come I'm having a hard time getting ready to leave.  Just as coming to this country seemed unreal, leaving it also seems unreal and life as anything other than a volunteer is daunting.  Yet life goes on and so I must leave Lesotho.
So happy 2 years to my fellow training group!  We've come a long way and I hope our adventures never stops.

The Lesotho Tourist

There’s a lot of things I wanted to accomplish when I came to Lesotho and I’m proud to say that one of the things I have done is seen all 10 districts of Lesotho.  Through my travels around this country I have realized that Lesotho has some of the most beautiful sites to see, yet with such an under developed tourist industry very few get to see them.  Here are some of the sites I have seen here:

Thaba Bosiu

In front of the Basotho Hat mountain

Replica of a traditional village

Thaba Bosiu means “the mountain of night.”  It has a very significant historical context in Lesotho but I have never been in to history to remember the exact details of what that was.  All I can say is that it had something to do with winning a war.  I can say that legend has it that the mountain grows at night.  To be honest this was probably one of the least interesting places I saw in Lesotho.  There are a few things to see there: a traditional village where you can see how things were organized back in the day (including how the chief would have a separate house for each wife).  You can also see the Basotho Hat mountain which is pretty cool.  And you can see the graves of some prominent members of the royal family and Lesotho's history.

Liphofung

Cave painting

Liphofung is a small area where you can see cave paintings.  They are quite faint but still very cool to see.

Ghadafi’s Camels

Four camels, a mother, father, and two children

This isn’t really a tourist site.  Some of my friends live where close to where the ex-prime minister is from.  During his time as prime minister Ghadafi gifted him with camels.  I’m not sure how these guys survive in the cold (and they are in a very cold area).  But they were pretty cool to see.  Fun fact: their “trainer” is Mosotho.  Not sure how that works.

Sani Pass

The view from Sani Lodge.  You can see how crazy the road is.

Hot mulled wine

Sani Pass is the area between the Lesotho and South African border in the mountainous district of Mokhotlong.  It’s extremely treacherous with many hair-pin turns and has to be done with a 4x4.  That being said it is very beautiful and also home to the highest pub in Africa (some sources say the world).  The pub has amazing food and great mulled wine.  And not to mention the view is amazing.  I’ve heard that on a clear day you can see all the way to the ocean but since it’s Lesotho it’s very hard to verify that.

Semonkong

Hospitality done right

The falls have been affected by the drought

I was in Semonknong for my COS conference in August.  Semonkong is the home to Maletsunyane Falls.  It’s in a pretty rural area of Lesotho and a pain to get to since the road is so bad (but being improved as you read) but the lodge made it all worth it.  I very, very rarely stay at nice places, so this was a welcomed change of pace.  Adorable rondavals, beautifully decorated rooms, great cuisine; what else could you want from a hotel?

Katse Dam

The dam wall

When I tell people I live in Lesotho they often ask me if I have seen Katse Dam.  Katse Dam was

Another view of the dam

created to help provide South Africa with water (living in Lesotho during drought season I find this just a bit ironic).  The dam is beautiful with clear, clean blue water.  It’s also considered quite an engineering feat.  Near the dam is a botanical garden which houses some of the rare plants that have become endangered because of the building of the dam.  Included is the spiral aloe, an endangered plant only found in Lesotho.

Lesotho's national flower, the spiral aloe