Winter Blues

Snow on the mountains after a few rainy days.

A man in my village on a cold, windy day.

I take pride in saying that I am a Cali girl. I grew up in an area where winters were extremely mild and you went on vacation to see the snow. So when Peace Corps told me in early December 2010 that I would be going to Africa I told myself, okay, yeah, this is perfect. Little did I know that they would be sending me to Lesotho one of the few (and perhaps only) African countries that experiences an actual Winter.

Snowy paw print

A lot of my friends and family ask me how cold it is in Lesotho at the moment and the honest truth is that I have no idea. The only weather I can find for Lesotho is for Maseru which is one of the lowest points in the country. This means that it’s probably also the warmest. Right now Maseru the high for is about 64 F (18 C) and at night 29 F (-2 C).  Where I live, it’s probably a few degrees cooler. That being said I cannot describe the winter I am experiencing using empirical data but rather my own observations. For the most part winters are supposed to be sunny with clear skies. I was told that Summer is the rainy season. This means that nights are unbearably cold and no matter how many layers you wear you are still freezing. So how does one sleep at this temperature? I personally layer my clothing and then layer my blankets. At the moment I wear thermal underwear, night pants and a night shirt, a sweatshirt with a hood, a thick winter scarf, and two pairs of wool socks. On top of that I have two flat sheets, a comforter, and a blanket on my bed. And when I sleep I tuck my head under the covers and assume a fetal position. It’s cold.

A rare snowy day in the lowlands

But as soon as the sun comes out the temperature rises considerably and the day is bearable.  I still have to layer to stay warm but I don't have to wear a heavy jacket.  But if it is cloudy or raining the days are extremely cold and even a warm jacket won't keep you warm.  You just have to grin and bear it.  Most Basotho may light a fire outside or have a gas heater inside the house.  Unfortunately gas heaters are only useful in small spaces.  Not to mention the possibility of carbon monoxide poisoning.  Therefore I only use them when I'm taking a bath.

Some local village girls on a warmer winter day

Usually it doesn't snow in the lowlands, just rain.  After a few days of rain (in Lesotho it never rains just one day) the mountains are covered in snow.  It's quite a site.  But a few weeks back the temperatures dropped dramatically and we had snow everywhere.  I guess anything is possible in Africa.
Now I was in Mozambique last week and the “Winter” there was like a Californian Summer. I can’t imagine what Summer is like. When I was there it seemed like Mozambique is one of those typical African countries you see on TV: flat savannahs that last for kilometers, women wearing typical African fabrics, and if I haven’t already mentioned it, very, very, hot.

My host brother going out to herd his sheep.

In those ways Lesotho is quite different from Mozambique (not to mention the fact that all Mozambiquens speak Portuguese) but Basotho have adapted to this atypical African climate. Most Basotho use blankets to stay warm and depending on who they are and what they are doing there are many different ways to wear your blanket.  Men will usually wear it around their shoulders, and women will usually wrap the blanket around their waists.  Actually Basotho women wear blankets all year around.  When they are pregnant they wear a blanket around their belly to keep the baby warm.  Basotho women even use blankets to carry their babies.  They place the baby on their back and wrap the blanket around themselves and the baby and use a pin to secure it.

Local village girl wrapped in a warm blanket.

My coworkers with their warm jackets and blankets around their waists.

A former volunteer told me that the hardest thing about winter isn't that it's cold but that you can't get away from the cold.  With no concept of central heating this is very true.  Therefore unlike Americans Basotho never remove their layers when they are inside because it's still very cold.

A rondaval after a day of snow.

Traditionally Basotho used to live in houses with thatched roofs.  These houses are great insulators and are meant to keep the house cool during the summer and warm during the winter.  I had one during training so I can attest to the keeping cool part.  But from what my friends tell me about winter the houses are not that affective.  They all have very high roofs which means that when you do use a heater the heat rises and at the end it isn't much warmer.  But I'm sure it's better than nothing.
In my opinion winter has not been too bad.  Maybe it's my positive attitude or the fact that this winter has been milder then the last few but I have to say that I am proud to say that I have survived a Lesotho winter.  I can't say I'm ready to face the east coast or a European winter just yet but I'll take it one step at a time.

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?

Technology in the Developing World

When I started this blog I made a promise to myself: for the next two or so years I was going to keep this blog up. I would not let this blog become one of the many cyberspace cobwebs that often happens when bloggers forget or lose interest in their pages. But this promise was made in the US, before I realized how difficult this task could be.

Now, this post isn’t meant to convey that I am giving up on this blog. As I write this post I realize that the last time I updated this blog was in March and when I started this blog I thought I would be updating it more regularly and I felt this was a good time to tackle the topic of technology.

Technology is a funny thing in a developing country. For example, everyone in Lesotho has a cell phone. There are many time when I will tell Basotho, for various reasons, that I do not have a phone and therefore no phone number to give out. And when they ask me why I tell them that I am a volunteer and therefore have no money to buy a phone. I doubt most of them believe this response and usually respond by telling me that they will buy me a phone so that we can keep in touch. Phones are very cheap in Lesotho. Most Peace Corps volunteers here buy a basic phone: no QWERTY keyboard but one that is able to do email, basic Internet functions, and a camera. This phone is about R300. Now most Basotho don’t have the need for such a fancy phone so they have a phone with a basic, no-color screen, with no internet, camera, or any other fancy gadgets. This phone can cost less than R100 (about $12). On the other end of the spectrum are the smart phones such as BlackBerrys (which a lot of volunteers, such as myself, have).

And cell phone companies work very differently in Lesotho than in the US. There is almost no concept of a contract; everything is prepaid. You can buy whatever Rand of airtime (or data) you would like as often as you would like. And you can buy SIM cards anywhere for about R5. No passports required, no form of identification, nothing. In other words, getting a phone in Lesotho is really easy. And this turns out to be a really good thing because, unlike America, very few places in Lesotho have land lines. I’m not sure how people did it before cell phones (and can I also mention that I am very happy I came here after cell phones became a common commodity).

But as I said, technology in a funny thing in a developing world. When I left America, 6 months back, people were starting to talk 4G. In Lesotho the fastest speed is 3G and that is only in Maseru (the capital) and in towns. At my site I only get 2G cell phone service which is very slow. As I said, I have a blackberry, and I am able to get blackberry service at my site, but surfing the internet is extremely slow and certain applications do not work well on the 2G speed. That being said there are volunteers with little to no cell phone service at their site. These areas are usually very rural and no cell phone towers have been placed there.

I mentioned that most Basotho don’t have Internet phones. Part of the reason for this is that most Basotho have never used a computer before. Therefore they don’t really understand the concept of Internet. Trying to explain email to someone who has never used the internet is very, very hard. Most Basotho don’t own their own computer but you can find Internet cafes in town and that’s where most Basotho use computers. Many Basotho who live in town have more advanced phones that allow them to access Internet.
This doesn’t mean that it is impossible to access Internet through a computer at my site. The cell phone companies cell modems that allow you to access Internet from your computer. But, as I said, there is really no concept of cell phone contracts here which means that you pay for the Internet per a MB of data. This can get very expensive. To save money most volunteers change the settings of their Internet browsers to no longer show pictures (it also helps the pages load considerably faster). Furthermore since this service is based on the cell phone coverage, mediocre cell phone signal means mediocre Internet speed. So using the Internet on my computer is a bit of a pain at my site. Simple tasks can take a few hours simply because the pages take so long to load.

So going back to my first point, this blog. Updating this blog is not easy from my site since the 2G connection often keep this interface from loading completely. Not to mention that sites like blogger are constantly updating their sites to make them more interactive and easier to use. Unfortunately for me this means that it is harder for me to access this site without a proper internet signal. It also means uploading pictures takes not only a lot of money but an extremely long time. Therefore it is easier for me to update my blog in town. But I am only able to come to town on weekends and depending on what I want to get done that day I either stop by an Internet café or I don’t.

But I really shouldn’t be complaining. I mean, I have a blackberry in Lesotho.

Moshoeshoe's Day

Two of my teachers, ready for the big day.

March 11th in Lesotho is Moshoeshoe's Day.  Schools celebrate the day with their students and teachers and students usually get the day off (assuming it falls on a weekday; this year it was on a Sunday so no day off).  My school celebrates Moshoeshoe's Day as a sports day where there are running competitions, traditional dances and a debate.  Saturday, March 10th, our school headed to Bethesda, a more rural community than ours, to celebrate the day with two other schools.

My students

But first bit about Moshoeshoe.  King Moshoeshoe I is the founder of the Basotho nation.  Originally Lesotho was a collection of various tribes.  King Moshoeshoe I united the tribes together to create the one Basotho nation of Lesotho (which literally means land of the Basotho).  I do want to mention that people still strongly identify with these tribes and their different traditions.  I believe he also brought missionaries to the country who brought Christianity and education to the people of Lesotho.  Therefore a day is put aside to honor him.

Some of the runners

Truth be told the events of Moshoeshoe's Day has little to do with Moshoeshoe himself.  Nevertheless the day was pretty fun.  We headed out of the village around 9 am in the morning.  Since we had to pay for taxis only students who could pay were allowed to come (teachers went for free).  The taxi drivers played music at a ridiculous volume as we drove to Bethesda and the students danced in the back of the taxi.  One thing I love about the Basotho; if they hear music they dance.  I swear Basotho are born dancing to some techno beat.  So as we drove out of our village every single person/child/old woman we passed just started dancing.  It's so much fun to see.

Cheering for the runners

The first event was running.  Now instead of just watching and cheering for the runners my students sang and danced to show their school spirit.  Some of the teachers "supervised" the singing but this just translated in to carrying a stick and hitting anyone who wasn't singing.

After lunch we had dancing.  Each school performed two songs for each of the three traditional dances.  Now I had seen two of these dances before at my swearing in ceremony (videos that I am still trying to upload) but one the dances I had never seen before.

The first dance is called Mokhibo.  The kh sound in Sesotho is pronounced as a harsh h sound.  This dance revolves mostly around the movements of the shoulders.  The two pictures of the girls in brown skirts are my students.  The picture in the middle is another school that had a very impressive routine and a slightly different style of dress.  My girls wore long dresses past their ankles while the other school wore short dresses.  But schools wore a petticoat that poofed out the skirts.

The second dance is called Ndlamo. I had never seen this dance before so it was nice to see it.  There seems to be two different styles of doing this dance.  In the first style the dancers wear drums around their legs.  The other style seems to center around a pole that is manipulated for different effects.  My students are the ones in the red.  I assume that they are wearing a more traditional dress than the other school.

The last dance is called Litolobonya.  The li sound in Sesotho is pronounced di.  I also call this dance the butt dance since the dance centers around moving the butt up and down.  The outfit consists of a small top and a poofy skirt that has bottle caps to create a sound every time the dancers move.

Now I haven't talked about this in my blog but Basotho are not really known for being on time, a topic I will address on this blog another time.  I bring this up for the other events took too much time so there was no time for the debate.  I was personally disappointed for I had worked with the debaters to prepare for this day but it did not happen.  My students had quite the opposite reaction.

Now one of the nice things about being in a rural area is the view.  Bethesda was gorgeous with rolling green mountains and rocky terrain.  The truth is that I never get tired of how beautiful Lesotho is.

We headed back home around 6pm with the loud taxi music and the sound of student dancing to the music.  Overall it was a good day.

Aparna

Shape Up! School's In!

I’ve been teaching in Lesotho for about a month now and there is so much I could talk about. I could talk about the power structure of the school and teacher-student relations. I could talk about the cultural difference between American and Basotho school culture. I could talk about teaching methods here, the challenges of teaching in a developing country, student attitudes towards school, etc, etc, etc. I have thought a lot about this post and I have decided to keep this post mostly about the facts; what schooling in Lesotho is and what I am doing.

There are two or three levels of schools in Lesotho depending on how you look at. Primary school is from Standard 1-7 (equivalent to grades 1-7 in the US). These classes are conducted exactly like Elementary School; one teacher teaching all subjects in one classroom. Primary school in Lesotho is completely free (if you go to a church or government school). To pass Standard 7 kids take a nation wide exam during their last few weeks at school. The next level is the secondary level, Forms A-C (grades 8-10). Here different teachers teach different subjects just like middle school and high school in the US. The Form C’s take another nation wide test called the Junior Certificate (JC) exam. If they pass they continue to Forms D-E. The Form E’s also take a national test at the end of the year. I assume these results can be used to go to the university or any other further studies though I have to admit that I don’t know much about the higher education structure in Lesotho. And just to clarify a secondary school only has Forms A-C while a High School has A-E. This means that if a student attends a high school they can complete their Forms A-E at the same school while kids attending secondary schools have to apply to a high school for D and E. This also means that communities that do not have a high school have many kids that don’t go to high school simply because it’s too far. This used to be the case for Qhalasi until this year.

School here is set up differently from the US. Each class has their own classroom and teachers go to the classroom they are teaching. Therefore all the students in a class have the same exact schedule. Teachers have desks in a staffroom. Now this post is mostly about the facts but I want to bring to light a certain issue that this type of system has: kids don’t need to pass all their subjects to go to the next level. In the US, if you fail 9th grade math but pass the rest of your subjects, you retake math but progress to the 10th grade level of everything else. But here, if a kid fails math but passes all the rest of the subjects, he still moves on to the next form with his classmates. He will take the same level math as his classmates even though he did not pass the previous level. This phenomenon is particularly high in maths and science; thus lies the challenge.

The curriculum here is also set up differently. In From A the students learn a little bit of chemistry, a little bit of biology, and a little bit of physics. The next year they learn a little more of each, and in Form C they complete their secondary education of science and are ready for the JC exam. This system allows the examiners to test all three disciplines equally knowing that they have been learning them continuously for the last three years. In high school the students concentrate on either physical or biological science. Math is organized in a very similar fashion. For example, in Form A kids learn what negative numbers are but only in Form B do they begin to add and subtract them. So you can understand that if a student failed Form A science and has no idea how many electrons an element has how difficult it is for a teacher to teach him bonding.

Classes here, except for Sesotho, are supposed to be taught in English. I say “supposed to” because I have heard of many schools where this is not heavily enforced. Lesotho has two national languages, Sesotho and English, and all education related things are in English; all exams are in English. So students have to be fluent enough to do well on these exams. The truth is that most primary schools don’t have strict rules about speaking English so when kids come to secondary school they can barely understand enough English to understand a lecture. I have met teachers who are simply not comfortable teaching in English. For both of these reasons many teachers tend to teach in Sesotho rather than English. Fortunately my school is determined to improve the student’s English. Students are punished for speaking Sesotho and I am impressed by my Form A’s English. That being said I have students not only in Form A but Form B who are struggling with English and can barely understand what is happening in class.

My school is called Qhalasi High School. We just became a high school with the addition of a Form D this year. My school is pretty small. We have about 180 students total. My largest class (my Form As) consists of about 60 students. I teach Form A and Form B science.

This is a church school and is run by the Anglican Church of Lesotho (ACL). Most schools in Lesotho are either church run or government run though this doesn’t really mean much. Both receive funding and help from the government. Until this year church schools were more expensive than government schools but new laws have forced church schools to follow the same fee regulations that government schools follow. There are private schools here that follow very little government regulation. Tuition is much higher and kids tend to do much better on their exams. They also tend to be completely in English from primary school to high school. We all know how much easier it is to learn a language when we are young. Kids who attend these schools have perfect English and this is probably one of the reasons these kids do so well on external exams. Most of my teachers send their kids to these schools.

So here’s the short overview of the school systems here. When I started writing this post I had so much to share and I will as time goes on. For now I hope this gives people a better idea of what I have been doing in Lesotho this past month. I still have a lot to learn about the way schools run in Lesotho but one thing is for sure, I love what I am doing here. I can’t say that teaching is my future but I love the kids and the challenges I face teaching them. This doesn’t mean I don’t have days where I am frustrated with my work and wonder why I came here. But at the end of the day I can truly say that I made the right decision to come here and can’t wait to see what these two years will bring.

Aparna

Celebrity

A few days back, after school had opened, I had gone to town to buy some groceries and take care of other things. I was standing in line at the bank when a random guy comes up to me and says, “’Me Neo!” I could swear I had never seen this guy before and I stood there in shock trying to understand how this random stranger knew my name and that he must be making some mistake. I don’t know how long I stood there dumb-founded but he kept repeating my name as if that would bring me more clarity. Eventually I came out of my trance and he proceeded to ask me for money. I convinced him that I didn’t have any and he went away.

Later that day I took a taxi back to my village stop and was waiting for my ride back to the village to leave. I was waiting with some other women, all who knew exactly who I was. They started by asking me questions which eventually lead to them talking about me as I stood there trying to catch bits and pieces of their conversation. Some men that I had never seen before joined us just as we were about to leave. One of the women from earlier was a younger girl probably around my age or younger. As the men began to question who I was she excitedly answered their questions about me. Finally one of the men asked me, “Do you have a husband?” Now I am very familiar with this question and with much expertise and to the girl’s surprise I replied, “Ha ke na monna;” no, I do not have a husband. The men laughed as one leaned forward and said, “Ha ke na mosali;” I don’t have a wife. But this story is going in to a whole ‘nother topic.

The point of this story is that I get a lot of attention. In general, I stand out. People in the village usually know who I am and to everyone else I’m a curiosity. The funny thing is that there are a lot of Indians in Lesotho. I did not know this coming to Lesotho until I was talking to a ‘Me in my training village. She asked me where I was from (a common question from many Basotho), and I replied that I am from America. She gave me a suspicious look (a common response from many Basotho) and I explained that my parents are from India. Now satisfied with my answer she replied that there were many Indians in Lesotho. I was surprised not only that she knew what Indians were (Most Basotho don’t really have much knowledge of the world outside South Africa) and that they would be in Lesotho. But low and behold, Lesotho is crawling with Indians. Would it surprise you that all the electronic stores and internet cafes in town tend to be owned by them?

But while this factor may seem to cause me to blend in, for the most part is does not. First of all I usually see Indian men around town; the women I have seen are in burquas or salwar kameez. Secondly I see very few of them interacting with Basotho the way I do. I greet the Basotho I have personal interactions with such as the Ntate behind the parcel counter in the grocery store or the ‘Me I always buy my apples from or the Ausi behind the counter at PEP. When I first met these people they asked me where I was living (I assume because I did not interact with them like other Indians) and I replied “Qhalasi” and that I was a teacher there. And since then they always inquire how Qhalasi is and how teaching is going. Thirdly, I don’t think most Indians live in villages, especially ones like Qhalasi. People who live in town consider Qhalsi rural for it is far from the main road. Most people from town would not choose to live there.

In general the Basotho seem to have a positive opinion about Indians. People have told me that Indians are the, “most beautiful of the whites,” that we “make great roti,” and that the schools that have good science and math scores have Indian teachers. And making friends with the store-owning Indians has its perks from discounts to free food (haven’t experienced the last one just yet but I’m crossing my fingers). I should note that other races are not looked upon as favorably. Basotho tend to have a bad opinion of the Chinese because of the abundant businesses they have in Lesotho and that they don’t speak Sesotho or English (I have actually seen some Chinese shop owners speaking Sesotho to their Basotho colleagues). Nigerians and other Africans from other countries are also not looked upon very highly since they take local jobs. But I digress…

The truth is that I get a lot of special treatment for being different. In the village I always get offered the front seat of the car no matter how old another ‘Me may be. In the taxi rank (where taxis wait for passengers) the taxi drivers, assuming I don’t know where I’m going, always check my destination so that they can lead me to the right taxi. When I ask for help people go completely out of their way to help me even for simple requests. Where ever I go I get a lot of attention, good and bad. People know me, they recognize me whether I know them or not. It can be fun sometimes. People randomly stop me, ask my name, and then tell me that they want to be friends. But it can also be a pain in the ass on days you just want to mind your own business and get back home. It’s part of everyday life and I am slowly getting used to it. So here’s to me, the biggest celebrity Qhalsi has had (since the last volunteer anyways).