I Bless the Rains Down in Africa

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.