The Christmas season sure has a different atmosphere when
you’re wearing shorts and a t-shirt. And “White Christmas” doesn’t have quite
the same ring it with sweat dripping down your face. Anyway, I’m sure many of
you are curious exactly what rural life in Lesotho is like, so let’s talk about
a few of the aspects that make up the Basotho (people of Lesotho) lifestyle.
Diet
The typical diet among the Basotho is quite simple. For
breakfast, Basotho often eat bread or a porridge called lesheleshele (always
fun to pronounce). An extremely common meal that can be eaten for lunch and
dinner consists of papa (cornmeal) and moroho (microscopically chopped leafy
greens). Papa can be white or yellow depending on the corn used, and looks
somewhat similar to hardened mashed potatoes, but it lacks much taste. This is
because it is meant to be eaten with other things like moroho, which is usually
heavily salted and seasoned to complement the papa. Basotho eat this meal with
their hands, using the papa as a spoon to scoop up other food on the plate. I
have yet to become capable with this method of eating, and all of my previous
attempts have resulted in laughter from my host family.
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| Lesheleshele (and Corn Flakes) |
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| Papa (yellow), moroho (green), and veggie/egg mix |
In rural areas, meat, especially beef, is consumed
infrequently and usually eaten for special occasions due to lack of
refrigeration. However, chicken is the one of the more common meats available.
And fresh chicken, boy, is it delicious! My host grandparents who lived next
door gave me a live chicken as a gift. My host mother did the honor of
slaughtering the chicken (details I will exclude), and I helped feather the
chicken after it was placed in boiling water to loosen the feathers. After my
host mother did her magic with cooking the gift, we gorged on literally every
part of the chicken that was edible. I passed on the head and feet, but I
definitely ate many parts of the chicken I had never encountered before, namely
some organs. Watching my little host brother gnawing vigorously on a chicken
foot protruding from his mouth was quite amusing. Needless to say, no meat was
left behind that day.
In the nearby camp towns, however, I can purchase a large
variety of foods like rice, canned foods, and an array of fruits and
vegetables. Refrigerated food like cheese and meat are also available if I’m
feeling spoiled.
Laundry
Laundry. Oh, laundry. This chore truly makes you appreciate
the invention of the washing machine. So here, the whole process of laundering
clothes is performed by hand. It’s very straightforward but it uses up a lot of
water, time, and energy. After filling three basins with water, the first basin
is filled with powdered detergent. This is where most of the exhausting work is
done as you scrub every part of the clothing article against itself and become
satisfied with the amount of dirt you just extracted (it can get very dusty
here). When finished with this step, you wring out the soapy water out from the
cloth and toss it into the second basin which is full of clean water.
Basically, now you try to remove as much soap from fabric as you can by soaking
it in the water then squeezing it out repeatedly. The third basin serves the
same purpose and you wring out the last remains of soap (some Basotho exclude
this step). Now it’s time to dry!
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| Having a blast |
Drying is performed the old fashioned way with a clothesline
and clips. The sun is your best friend. Having clothes still wet by evening
means you’ll have to take the clothes down and put them back up the next day.
As weird as it sounds, on sunny days I might find myself thinking, “Great day
for laundry,” before remembering how much I dislike it. You also have to keep a
sharp eye on the weather. Obviously, rain is counterproductive to what you want
so that warrants an exodus of damp clothes from the line. Excessive wind and
dust are also your enemies. I often forgot that I had clothes still on the line
whenever such conditions presented themselves. Luckily, my host mother during
training was always aware. Her Basotho sense would be tingling whenever an
ominous cloud approached, so my clothes haven’t suffered any abandonment. As I
am writing about this, my laundry bag continues to grow in size…
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| Fruits of labor |
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| Trash to ash (we burn our trash) |
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| Outlet towers we built whenever the electricity generator was available |
End of Training
So after a roller coaster training period of 10 weeks, we finally
shed our label of “Trainee” and were officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers
last week. The ceremony was held in our training village, so many delighted,
familiar faces were present. The U.S. Ambassador for Lesotho, who also served
in the Peace Corps, swore us in, and the Basotho danced and sang for us.
Apparently, we our swearing-in ceremony was televised on national television,
which really shows the appreciation this country has its long ties with Peace
Corps, whose roots have been established in Lesotho since 1967. We said our
goodbyes with our training host families and exchanged hugs before departing
the following morning. For me, parting with my host family was difficult
because of the close relationship we had built over the past few months, but I’m
comforted by the fact that we will be able to visit each other.
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| We made it! |
Now, I’m in my site that I will remain in for the rest of my
service. Moving in was a bit of an adventure; I swear I’ve never killed so many
spiders in my life, which I think helped relieve my fear of them just slightly.
I’m still in the process of being able to feel “at home” and am trying to
personalize the place. Because school is on break and I live by the school,
things have been very quiet. It appears it will remain peaceful until school
resumes near the end of January and I begin my teaching escapades. For now, I’ll
patiently work on integrating into my new village, the place where I will
eventually call home.
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| My new school in hibernation mode |
