Livin' the Basotho Lifestyle

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.

Lesheleshele (and Corn Flakes)

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!

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…

Fruits of labor

Trash to ash (we burn our trash)

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.

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.

My new school in hibernation mode