Note to Self: Peace Corps Lesotho Edition

I recently saw an interview of Gayle King on The Daily Show about her new book, Note to Self: Inspiring Words from Inspiring People. The book is based on letters to a younger self that people, mostly celebrities, have been asked to write. I was inspired to use the concept to reflect on my own growth and experience living abroad in Lesotho as a Peace Corps Volunteer for the last four years. So here goes:

Dear 2014 Beth, 

You are about to embark on an incredible experience. Stop worrying about what you are going to pack and stop wasting money on clothes to last you for the next two years. They literally sell clothes on the street in Lesotho. Do not fret about the investment in quality footwear though, you will wear out four pairs of shoes in the next few years. Also, the solar panel is a brilliant investment.

Instead, keep doing what you are doing. Maximize your time making memories with family and friends before you go. Invest in them as those relationships will sustain you through more than you imagine in the next few years. You are about to experience more happiness and pain than you knew was possible.

Just a typical day in Ha Rasekila at work with the
women in the community group.

You are worried about loneliness, feeling like an outsider, and isolation. You are going to let this fear motivate you through long language lessons. Even after you have a passable command of Sesotho, keep studying and learning. You will never regret taking the time to learn and practice the language. It is one of the greatest ways to show respect, bond with people, and to be professionally effective.

When you finish training and it is time to buy things for your new home, please buy the kitchen table you dream of. Do not let anxiety about surviving on the small Peace Corps living stipend keep you from this splurge. You will want that table for longer than you initially plan to be in Lesotho.

People will wonder at how you live without running water or electricity. In reality, going without those things is not what makes Peace Corps challenging. Spending money on data for Whatsapp calling and voice notes is always worth it. This is not a travel adventure. You will spend twice as long removed from your American family and friends as anticipated. Maintaining those relationships is worth the absurdly small investment in data bundles.

Remembering to stop and enjoy the goofy moments of life
with my great friend Luwi. 

Despite all the warnings in mandated Peace Corps security sessions, most Basotho are only interested in talking to you and welcoming you. Do not be stupid about your safety, but do not close yourself off either.

You will be in Lesotho a long time. In the end, your closest friends and supporters will be the host country nationals you get to know. Invest more time and energy in those relationships sooner instead of in the comfort of American peers.

Drinking Ricoffee (instant chicory root coffee) for the first six months is not worth the savings. Stock up on filter coffee that one time you shop in the capital. It is not integration to deprive yourself of this small luxury.

Take more photos of the everyday moments of your life and fewer photos at events. Some day you will return home and want to share the mundane aspects of life with people.

Trips home to visit family and friends are always worth the travel time, jet lag, and money. You will get to meet your infant goddaughter, see your ailing father, and keep relationships strong even after you decide to double down your PC service. Learn from the Basotho culture and put people first when your friend calls to announce and celebrate her engagement, promise to attend the wedding right then instead of changing your mind six weeks before the wedding.

Your house will be your comfort zone and break from the challenges of living in a foreign language and culture, but get outside of it! Walk around the community and greet people, go to community meetings and events, do your chores outside. Loneliness is of your own making. There are a ton of people just outside your door eager to welcome and befriend you. With time, your community will become your comfort zone. After you move away, returning to see them will be the best homecoming you can imagine.

My Basotho family has been a huge part of my life and
experience. I am so blessed to have been welcomed
into their lives.

Never fail to appreciate the moments people invite you into their family or cultural traditions. Such love and welcome may come at bad times or with expectations, but it is such an incredibly unique honor.

You will spend a large part of the next four years being uncomfortable. In your first year, it will feel like a great adventure even if some days, you will lose the battle and hide in your house. Although you will gain experience and get used to a lot of things, even after four years, you will still have moments that you have no idea what is going on, what someone is telling you, or what is expected of you. That is just the reality of life in another culture. Embrace it because those uncomfortable moments often open you up to some of your greatest experiences. You are not moving around the world to be surrounded by the familiar and easy.

Right now, you have days that you question whether you are doing the right thing by moving around the world for two years. When you receive your Sesotho name from your first host family, you will be reassured that you are where you belong as they explain in great depth that your new name means "God's will." You will question everything again during your first extension when you are blindsided by incredible loss and, ultimately, you will recognize that every step of your life's journey was leading you to Lesotho.

With the two men who have had the greatest
influence and impact on my life in Lesotho. 

In the next four years, you will develop such strong bonds with new friends and family members that you will question how you survived over thirty years without these people in your life. You will spend more time alone. You will learn just how much American culture influences your own thoughts and reactions to the world around you. You will fall in love with so many aspects of Basotho culture and with so many people.

In four years, when it is finally time to return to America, you find yourself right back where you are right now. You will wonder if leaving home and going to the US is really right path for your life. Have faith. In another four years, you can write yourself an updated version of this letter. It will, undoubtedly, be full of reassurances and growth. Until then, embrace people and experiences. Make the most of every moment.

With love,
               Thato, 2018

Easter Reunions

Family Photo-Mme Masekila, Abuti Mokhesuoe, Abuti
Thabo, Abuti Polau, and me. We are only missing
Abuti Sekila and my replacement, Ausi Mosa.

People often say you can’t go home again. In December, I stared at the familiar Boston skyline as my plane landed and agreed. After being gone for the last two and half years, people felt like home, but America did not.

Friday, however, I disagreed profoundly. The moment I got out of a car in Botha Bothe, a man greeted me by name. As I shopped for food, people did double-takes, exclaiming when they realized it was, in fact, me.

Once I finally made it to my village—after a three-hour wait for a taxi—the homecoming really began. Within twenty minutes, I had seen my supervisor and another woman I worked with, two of my best friends and my mother. Everyone greeted me with joy, hugs (These are not typical, which only made them even better), and celebration. As my mother and I walked home, people stopped us to comment on my return and to be sure I remembered them after my four and half months away.

Return to a New Home

My new, rounder, thatch roof

After my home leave was more than doubled by emergency leave and a medical issue I needed to deal with before returning to Lesotho, I finally returned to my African home on the first of March.

Except, it was not my home. My real home is a rural village in Butha Buthe with my host mother and four brothers. In my real home, everyone already knows my name and calls out greetings across absurd distances. In my real home, everyone knows me and I know them. In my real home, the young children come running to greet me repetitively until I am out of range.

But, right before I returned to America in December, I left that home. Now, my new home is an adorable rondavel with fancy aluminum windows and a windowed door. It has fresh yellow paint and clean, shiny linoleum over cement. The thatch is clean and does not leak. Physically it is a huge improvement over the heise I have adored for two and half years.

And yet, as homey as the house is, returning to a country that feels so much like home but a village that feels so foreign is not quite the same as coming home. My comfort in Butha Buthe allowed me to forget the first sensations I had when I arrived in Lesotho and that village. The awkwardness of needing to ask questions in broken Sesotho in order to figure out where the store is or when a taxi would be coming were so far behind me, I had dismissed them entirely.

A panoramic photo inside my home. It's magazine-ready!

By coming into my new village, I am gaining a new appreciation for the challenges of Peace Corps service. A popular tagline is that Peace Corps is “the toughest job you’ll ever love.” While I do not think it is the toughest job I have encountered thus far, the reality is that entering a community in a different culture and trying to integrate is a profound challenge.  Apparently, even after gaining a profound comfort in the culture, language, and country; that challenge is not diminished.

In my new community, children are still awed by the idea that I can speak to them in Sesotho slang. Instead of interacting, they giggle. Adults either glow over my ability to speak or reassure me that I will be even better in Sesotho soon, unaware that I am speaking to them in mostly English because that is the language they began our conversation in. I was to wear a crown that highlights my time spent living and working in Lesotho before I came to this new village. I want them to recognize that I am not fresh off the plane.

Despite those frustrations, I am discovering some wonderful universal truths about village life in Lesotho:

When you have a problem, even strangers will jump in to help.  
Somehow I, along with many other PCVs, recently missed the warning that our bank would be completely offline for three days over a weekend. This meant that our ATM cards were useless pieces of plastic-our accounts were completely inaccessible so we could not even use the cards as credit or debit cards. I had gone to town expecting to withdraw cash, so I did not have money to buy my food for the week, pay for my hair appointment, and pay for taxi rides home and back to town again in the future. I mentioned my challenge to two guys who immediately offered to drive me home to make sure I got there safely. It was only about 7km out of their way, but still an incredibly generous and caring thing to do as well as a wonderful reminder of my favorite Basotho idiom: Motho ke motho ka batho.

Society is social.
In my old village, no one had electricity and most people cooked outside on open fires. Although I am still living without electricity, more people in this area have access to electricity and the ability to live their lives indoors. Despite this, they still spend time every day walking through the village or sitting outside greeting neighbors as they pass. They still take the time to stop and chat with one another, even when they do not know each other.

Rocking my Seshoeshoe dress just before moving
into my new home.

People love to see their culture embraced.
When I first moved in and met the chief, I worse a Seshoeshoe dress. When I draw water, I carry it on my head to bring it back to my house. Since that meeting with the chief, countless people have commented on how nice wearing the local dress is. When people greet me and I am carrying my water, they comment nonstop on how I am Mosotho.

As Moshoeshoe Day approached, people were ecstatic to find that I know exactly who King Moshoeshoe I was and his significance in the history of Lesotho. They especially love when I note that I am following Moshoeshoe, who was in the Butha Buthe region before he moved to the mountain that hugs my village.

Peace Corps has a great reputation.
Within a day of moving in, I learned that my house held a PCV named Mariah over a decade ago. I have learned a lot about Mariah since then. For example, Mariah, also known as Ausi Rethabile, did not like country music and was from the west coast.

In many ways, Mariah has paved a path for me. Because villagers loved her, they welcome and love me.  They remember her while reassuring me that I belong. Because Mariah integrated well and worked hard in this community, they understand my presence differently than if I were their first volunteer. It does not matter that it has been over a decade since she lived here; she has made it easier for me to develop relationships that recognize my role as a PCV. Considering I am here for a shorter amount of time, I really value the role she is playing in my own integration. This was something I had not experienced in my village in BB because I was the first volunteer that had lived among them.

It is pretty neat to see the way that individual volunteers are remembered by their communities. I take pride in being part of an organization that leaves such a positive impact. 

Saying Goodbye Part 2

My host mother, 'M'e 'Masekila and me before the ceremony.

My host mother comes to the door in her red Seshoeshoe dress. I immediately stop what I am doing, “’M’e, U motle hakahang!” (Mother, you are beautiful right now.)

“Che, ausi Thato, re batle hakahang,” she replies. (No, ausi Thato-that’s me-we are beautiful right now.)

We grab our things and head out the door, walking through the village together. As we approach people, my mother ululates loudly before we begin the customary greeting process. After our greetings, before they can ask, she proudly tells them that we are going to a party for me because I am finished my work.

As the community building and chicken house come into view, I see Bo-‘M’e busy bustling around outside. Then, the ululations begin in chorus, calling everyone to see that I am coming. As we get closer, these incredible grandmothers I have been blessed to work with begin singing and dancing towards us. They surround us and sing for me before guiding me to continue on into the hall. They parade behind me, still singing until I sit down at the table in the front of the room.

I look out at the empty chairs and chuckle to myself. Two years ago, I might have thought that nobody cared, but now I know better. Village ceremonies never start on time. My mother and I were over an hour late. Everyone else now knows to come because of the volume of our arrival.

I sit in the seat of honor and look at the space that has seen so much of my work. Along one side of the room are fifty bags of chicken feed, awaiting the very late arrival of our chickens. Dotted all over the white ceiling are dirty imprints of the soccer ball we used for the Grassroot Soccer HIV programs I did with teenagers. I can look at the chairs and identify by color whose house each one came from. It is surreal to realize the time to say goodbye has finally arrived.

Soon the room is full enough that Bo-‘M’e and the chief decide to start the ceremony. Ceremonies in Lesotho all follow the same structure. First, there is a short hymn followed by a prayer. Then, the MC, in this case, ‘M’e ‘Majustice introduces themselves, the purpose of the event, and explains how the ceremony with proceed. From there, the MC invites various individuals to speak about the person or topic for the ceremony. In between each speaker, the MC announces the next speaker and then everyone joins in singing a song as the speaker comes to the front. At the end of the ceremony, instructions for the meal are given, a prayer is said, and the formal portion concludes.

Hardship Hits Hardest at Home

My suddenly very adult brother,
Abuti Thabo, at the mine. 

I stare at the screen of my phone and blink back tears of frustration and anger as I reread my brother's text message: "I miss you too my sister. I don't think I will come for writing [my exams] because they are disallowing me to come write."

One week before receiving this frustrating text, I had been sitting in the hall at my brother's school; beaming as he received the Leadership Award. Now, I am sitting in that same hall doing Camp BRO. I am forced to be on my game-inspiring young men to be positive leaders for social change-when all I want to do is mourn the future I imagined for my brother.

My amazing and inspiring brother will not be completing secondary school at the end of November as planned. He will not be writing the intense Form E exams to earn his certificate—the Lesotho equivalent of a diploma.

Instead, he is now an employee at a platinum mine in South Africa; taking on the job his father held before his untimely death a decade ago due to “mine-related illness.” Because the mine acknowledged responsibility for his illness, they have been holding a position for my brother for the past decade.

Chicken Coop Construction: Burglar Bar Busts

Angry Beth waiting by windows clearly
devoid of burglar bars.

Six weeks ago, I excitedly paid the deposit to the second man intending to install the burglar proofing for our chicken coop. After the failed installation attempt in August-thanks to no electricity and no large generators available anywhere near my village-I was excited to be working with Buthe Buthe Aluminum and Glass, a business that appeared to be more professional and more established with an actual storefront, truck and generator of their own.

As we discussed the details, my new burglar bar man set dates to measure the windows and to install the burglar bars within the week. I cleared my calendar to accommodate the dates and was thrilled to think of how fast this business would be getting the work done.

Somehow, my hope lasted up until last Monday at 1:30. It was the eighth time in five weeks I had cleared a full day on my calendar for the burglar bar installation. It was the eighth time I called multiple times throughout the morning only to be told he would install on another day. Anticipating two weeks away from site for various Peace Corps work and the arrival of our chickens, I was done!

I firmly told him that he needed to do the installation as promised, that day. He, instead, offered me a refund of my deposit.

I grabbed my stuff and angrily stomped the thirty minute walk to get a taxi to town to collect my refund. Luckily I did not bump into anyone, as I was ranting and raving aloud the entire way out. When I arrived at his shop, the owner had “left for Maseru.”

“Oh no he didn’t,” I told the tiny woman manning the shop as I pulled out my phone. My stress level and anger were astronomical as I called him again. Many conversations occurred via phone between us and between him and the small woman. As my anger literally boiled over and caused liquid to leak from my eyes, the woman tried to help find a solution that would make me seem less upset. I finally agreed to leave the shop as he would be sending me money through my phone by evening.

Just about anyone could enter this house,
even crazy Americans without the keys.

With chickens due “in September”, my stress level was through the roof. Thanks to Butha Buthe Aluminum and Glass’s failure to actually do the work promised, chickens could arrive before cages or burglar protection are installed. That evening, my brother mistakenly asked about my day. As a result of me telling him the drama that had unfolded and my extreme frustration, I also taught him a new idiom: spitting nails. He and I both laughed about it.

A week later, I still did not have my deposit back. A large male PCV accompanied me in case I needed intimidation. I was much nicer than I would have been last week and managed to get my deposit back without resorting to intimidation or calling Peace Corp’s Safety and Security Manager. I am still a bit stressed but mostly am relieved that the chickens did not in fact arrive in September.

Meanwhile, the Peace Corps staff swept in to help me out. The staff that ensures the PCV homes are protected called up their guy and helped arrange installation of our burglar bars…hopefully this week. Somehow I am still optimistic despite the multiple failed attempts.

MCCC’s Egg Laying Chicken Project has been in development since March 2015. After many delays, MCCC and I were able to write a successful grant proposal for a VAST grant through Peace Corps. VAST grants are funded by PEPFAR to help with HIV-related work and OVC (Orphan and Vulnerable Children) care. It is due to MCCC’s work with OCVs that qualified us for the VAST grant. Otherwise, we would have applied for a PCPP [Peace Corps Partnership Program] grant and would have been asking for assistance in funding this grant proposal. I encourage you to consider supporting other PCPP projects.

Posts about this project include:

 Workshop Woe, Busiest of Birthdays, Checking Out Chickens, A Day with Bo-’M’e, Chicken Coop Construction Day One, Day Two, Day, Three, Day Four, Day Five, Weeks 2 to 4, Weeks 5 and 6.

Two Years and Sixteen Volunteers

Fresh off the plane: June 5, 2014

Last week I highlighted the accomplishments of my Peace Corps training group in light of our work as defined by and reported to Peace Corps. Numbers of people reached in specific topics, however, only shares a small portion of our story.

One of my favorite things about the Healthy Youth program in Lesotho, is that each volunteer’s job responsibilities and activities are unique to their site. As a result, we worked in a number of areas, some overlapping and some unique to only one or two of us. Here is a sampling of the work that filled our days:

Health

• Worked in a clinic to increase ARV adherence and infant wellness checks 
• Weighed infants and worked with Village Health Workers in an outreach clinic
• Started a growth monitoring and intervention program at an orphanage
• Worked with three HIV+ Teen Clubs

Youth Development

• Directed 6 overnight camps serving more than 425 girls and boys in six of Lesotho’s ten districts
• Completed more than 20 Grassroot Soccer Interventions to educate on HIV prevention
• Tutored herdboys in computer skills
• Started and led Youth Clubs in Athletics, Gender Empowerment, Drawing, Games, English, and English Reading

PCV Stephanie and colleagues show off the produce at
the orphanage she worked with.
Photo provided by Stephanie Sales.

Income Generation to Support Families and OVCs

• Two community-based sewing businesses
• A farm including water accessibility for an orphanage
• Started three chicken projects
• An achaar project
• Fenced a farm and orchard to protect product from cattle
• Advised five agricultural co-operatives
• Helped a women’s and girl’s weaving group with marketing and market development

Community Engagement

• Planned  and led four World AIDS Day events including talent shows, voluntary HIV testing, 
• Built a multi-purpose athletic court for one of Lesotho’s largest towns
• Planned and led a Spread the Love, Not the Disease Valentine’s Day event with over 100 youth participants enjoying face painting, nutrition and fitness info, yoga, HIV testing, and Planned Parenthood
• Hosted a large HIV awareness, testing, and education day for youth
• Built a Community Building with a children’s library
• Worked with Caregiver and OVC Support groups in four communities; building the capacity of caregivers 
• Led a father’s support group through the Red Cross
• Built small greenhouses with families and provided nutrition and gardening lessons to build food security

Education

PCV Eloise's students at the Khotsong Skills Training
Center, a tertiary school.
Photo provided by Eloise Williams

• Started computer labs at 2 tertiary schools
• Worked with a school to help it get internet access for students and teachers
• Taught primary school classes in Life Skills, English & Creative Writing, and Dance
• Taught Life Skills in secondary schools
• Taught at 3 tertiary institutions

Lesotho 82 Peace Corps Volunteers and their counterparts at a workshop.

Books for Life Book Club

Life is better with books. 

Books fresh out of the box the day they arrived at my hut

About a year ago, an NGO called Trees for Life donated two boxes of children’s books to my host organization (MCCC) through their Books for Life program. Although a number of neighborhood kids read them at my house immediately after I opened the first box, it took a few months for the women to decide the best way to put this donation to use.

It was finally decided that we would start an English Reading Club for school children. Our goal was to get some high school students to take leadership of the group; to plan and read with the younger children. It was a brilliant plan, as it would increase the community engagement and English skills of both age groups. After a few attempts to do leadership training with high school students chosen by my organization to lead the club, we realized that high school students are exceedingly busy between school, traveling to and from school, homework, and their chores. They simply were not interested or motivated to use their small amount of free time to lead the club.

My counterpart and a dozen children reading at one of our
first book club meetings. 

As a result, my counterpart, Ausi ‘Mareisi, and I stepped in to get things started. We are still hoping others will take on the leadership of the club over time, but at least for the moment children are getting the opportunity to read books in English. They practice reading the books aloud to one another, which is helping to bridge the gap between their abilities to read and write English compared to hearing and speaking it.

There is nothing quite as exciting as watching a child who rarely gets to look at a stack of books reverently pick up one and start sounding out the words within it.

Chicken Coop Construction: Weeks 5 and 6

Construction Completed!!

Week Five: We have completion! Well, construction completion anyway. Although the house is not yet ready for chickens to arrive, the roof is completed and well secured for its windy locale. Although I missed watching the team finish the house, I learned of their accomplishment before boarding my taxi to come home. Multiple people in town stopped me in my tracks; thrilled me to tell me that the chicken house was done and beautiful.

As my taxi crested the hill before our building site, I caught me breath eager to see the completed project. It looks wonderful!

Week Six: When week five started, a friend helped me schedule someone to install burglar bars in the house on Sunday of week six. In my head, with burglar proofing happening Sunday, the cages would also get installed this week.

Clearly I should not develop expectations, even when things are scheduled and we have asked a million clarifying questions in two languages.

When the man building and installing our burglar proofing arrived, we were all stunned. He was shocked to learn we do not have electricity in our village. Bo-‘M’e and I were equally blown away that he never mentioned needing electricity to complete his work.

As PCVs, we are supposed to work with host country nationals in all things. This is to build their capacity to do the work after we return home. In this case, I am grateful to have worked alongside women in my organization as otherwise I would have feared my language skills caused the confusion and delay.

Still waiting for burglar bars on these windows, but wow,
that roof is pretty!

One of the leaders in my organization and I had spoken to this man twice in person. The first time was when we were getting a quote for building supplies and pricing. He looked at the printed list of supplies and said we had everything we needed listed and priced his work. The second time we spoke was on the day that we bought the building supplies. Again, we checked to ensure we had everything as we did not want to have to hire a vehicle for later deliveries of building supplies. Again, he confirmed we had everything and he gave us his contact information.

I have an incredibly hard time understanding this man’s Sesotho, so it is possible that I would have missed any mention of electricity despite knowing the word. I was, however, working alongside ‘M’e ‘Majustice and a woman from the building supply store. ‘M’e ‘Majustice knows that we do not have electricity in our villages. She would have quickly jumped in had he suggested anything connected to moltakasa or use of a generator. I do understand her Sesotho. The woman from the store translated many of his words into English for me and I am certain this important fact would not have been ignored as much of our district does not have electricity.

As a result of this miscommunication, we spent two hours trying to find a generator for the following week. His job at the building supply store makes him only available to do the work on Sundays. He made it clear that we needed a large generator. When he looked at the first one we found, it was too small. We went to another family’s home to see their larger generator. Although larger than the first, it too was too small. Then he clarified the power of the generator we needed-double the first one we had looked at. As we walked back to my supervisor’s, I expressed concern that we may be unable to find one that large as our village does not have people rich enough to have such large generators and we do not have the money to rent one from somewhere else.

Before he departed for the day, I asked him to take a look at our supplies again, just to be sure that if and when he returns we actually have everything needed to do the job in one day. It turns out that we are missing square “tubing” to serve as the outside of the burglar door frame. We need to buy two sections. Apparently, checking the list when we were at the building supply store on two separate occasions did not highlight this important missing piece. Buying these now will require hiring a truck as they are too long to strap to the top of our taxis.

One of the women in my organization poses with the
completed chicken house before our meeting.

So now we have to figure out how to find a huge generator, buy oil and petrol for it, buy the two sections of square tubing, and hire a vehicle to deliver the tubing or we have to find a new person to do the work; one who can arrive with and by his own power. This lack of clarity looks to more than double the anticipated cost of burglar proofing the chicken house in addition to slowing us down.

Despite my frustrations with the man who was to do the work, I am surprisingly unfazed by the situation. Obviously, my expectations are shifting and I am becoming more accepting of the twists and turns in the project.

Bo-‘M’e and I visit numerous houses in multiple villages trying to secure a generator large enough for the project. We are unsuccessful, however, my visit to town to get new quotes from people with larger shops gets us a few reasonable quotes that come complete with transport, installation (including bringing their own generator), and the supplies. As predicted things will be twice what we estimated, but a careful look over the budget and remaining funds reassures me we can still afford this vital step in our project. 

MCCC’s Egg Laying Chicken Project has been in development since March 2015. After many delays, MCCC and I were able to write a successful grant proposal for a VAST grant through Peace Corps. VAST grants are funded by PEPFAR to help with HIV-related work and OVC (Orphan and Vulnerable Children) care. It is due to MCCC’s work with OCVs that qualified us for the VAST grant. Otherwise, we would have applied for a PCPP [Peace Corps Partnership Program] grant and would have been asking for assistance in funding this grant proposal. I encourage you to consider supporting other PCPP projects.

Posts about this project include:

 Workshop Woe, Busiest of Birthdays, Checking Out Chickens, A Day with Bo-’M’e, Chicken Coop Construction Day One, Day Two, Day, Three, Day Four, Day Five, Weeks 2 to 4

Boys with Toys

I have been promising this mini-adventure for over two months. The combination of too windy days, cold, and a busy schedule have meant that every time my youngest brother knocks and asks if today is the day, I answer with a maybe or a no.

This morning I wanted to continue the trend. After three weeks with no down time, I really just want to hide in my house. I do not want to go out and play when I finish working today.

But, my host brother’s earnest face as he tells me it is not too windy and my own guilt spur me into action. I assure him that we will go fly the kite after I get home.

When I was traveling in the Caribbean, I was always impressed by the ingenuity of children. Many boys used plastic bags and sticks to create colorful kites. Although the children here are equally creative, kites have not been included among the many wonderful toys I have seen created over the last two years. As a result, my brother is enthralled with this small colorful kite my friend Jen sent me.

He has no idea what we will do with it; just that it is shiny, flutters on its hook when we open my door, and that I keep saying it cannot be too windy when we play with it.

He eagerly skips ahead of me as we head out to an open space not far from our home. The next oldest brother is planning to join us, but I know that Abuti Polau is excited to be the first to play with the kite.

Although the wind is intermittent, we are able to get the little frog (less than four square inches) flying after only a few attempts. The kite’s long blue tails dance in the wind as my brother learns to feed it string and take the string in when the wind speed dips. As Abuti Polau becomes an expert, our sixteen-year-old brother joins us. Not surprisingly, he also figures out how to work the kite in no time at all.

Purchased toys are rarely seen in my village. Most children are able to get creative. I have seen wires turned into cars, a homemade guitar, and pieces of cardboard turned into sleds on the grass. I am always impressed by how little the kids around me need fancy plastic toys shipped from China. Their creativity in turning things into games and toys always impresses me, especially when compared with all the toys we grow up with in America. 

That does not, however, diminish the fun in sharing a new toy with my brothers! 

Chicken Coop Construction: Weeks 2-4

Week Two:

The view from the door includes a...floor!

Although I was away from site for the second week of construction, the building team was eager to move forward. Unfortunately, as they prepared to begin putting on the roof, they discovered we did not have enough cement bricks remaining to elevate the high side of the roof.

They send me a message letting me know and attempted to get the women in my organization to come up with a solution. Bricks and other building supplies are, apparently, an exception to the Basotho tradition of borrowing things that are needed. As a result, no bricks could even be ordered until the morning I returned, five days after it was determined we needed fifty more bricks.

The guys did break with building tradition though, pouring the concrete floor even though the roof was not yet in place. They even created a step up to the door, which was a pleasant surprise for me.

Week Three:

Week Three started with me buying more bricks. When asked, the brick-makers assured me that they would deliver within the week, but probably on Monday. This would mean that the work could be completed on either Monday or Tuesday. My host brother and I stressed the importance of receiving the bricks as soon as possible so we could finish work before he and other students had to return to school.

Constructing the beams for the roof

Mother Nature decided to surprise Lesotho with precipitation on both Monday and Tuesday, so the bricks never materialized. Throughout the week, we kept an eye out for them. Finally, on Saturday afternoon, they arrived.

Week Four:

Although I was at (another) Peace Corps workshop in anticipation of the upcoming Pre-Service Training, the team got to work after the bricks arrived. When I returned home on Friday, I hopped out at the building site to check in and see their progress.

Surprisingly, the fifty bricks I bought two weeks earlier were not actually enough to finish things up. I learned that we would need 32 more bricks! Anticipating another long walk to the brickyard and a lengthy delay waiting for delivery, I was a disappointed.

Our need for only these 35 bricks had the potential to slow
the project down by another week or two!

I stopped by my supervisor’s house and spoke with the MCCC members there. We started brainstorming people in the village who might have some extra bricks we could buy instead. By the time I left, my supervisor had agreed to ask her son if we could buy his. Saturday morning, I headed over to learn if I needed to hoof it to the brickyard before they closed at one.

Thankfully, my supervisor’s son was thrilled to sell us 35 bricks he had leftover from a previous project. He kept telling me that I was actually helping him more than he was helping us (lies!). As a result, Week Five will dawn with a Sunday workday and the guys anticipate being done by Tuesday afternoon. 

MCCC’s Egg Laying Chicken Project has been in development since March 2015. After many delays, MCCC and I were able to write a successful grant proposal for a VAST grant through Peace Corps. VAST grants are funded by PEPFAR to help with HIV-related work and OVC (Orphan and Vulnerable Children) care. It is due to MCCC’s work with OCVs that qualified us for the VAST grant. Otherwise, we would have applied for a PCPP [Peace Corps Partnership Program] grant and would have been asking for assistance in funding this grant proposal. I encourage you to consider supporting other PCPP projects.

Posts about this project include:

Workshop Woe, Busiest of Birthdays, Checking Out Chickens, A Day with Bo-’M’e, Chicken Coop Construction Day One, Day Two, Day, Three, Day Four, Day Five

Chicken Coop Construction Day Five

The written plan for the chicken house.

The walls are done. The guys finished the third wall in only two hours, before tackling the windows on the back wall.

They decided not to use the lintels we bought to go above the door as the steel doorframe will provide enough support for the bricks above the door. They then humored me into adapting the plan for the back windows. Instead of three equally sized 0.7 meter wide windows, we now have two 0.7m windows framing a 1.3m window.

Give than chickens need ample sunlight in order to lay well, I am excited by the new plan. We will end up two 0.9m lintels leftover, but at least that is less wasted money than if we did not use the larger ones.

Since I will be working my PCVL role with Peace Corps while the guys finish the roof and floor, Abuti Sama and I took a few minutes to go over the location of the supplies. When I return from facilitating an In Service Training for other volunteers and their counterparts, construction will actually be done!

From there, we will arrange for someone to burglar proof the windows and door. The cage builder will return to finish things. Then, we go to the Ministry of Agriculture to order our 200 chickens.

Before the chickens arrive, which can take up to two months, we have a few other things to do. Although we have already done initial business and accounting trainings, we are going to do more specific budgeting training. It is vital that the women in MCCC budget and save to buy feed and medicine every three months as well as new chickens annually.

Goofing off with my brother Thabo on the job site.

I would like to see them plan ahead as to how they intend to use their income in helping the OVCs [Orphans and Vulnerable Children] in our community. Ideally they will do so proactively instead of reactively. I am relieved to be staying at this site for the first quarter of my third year to help make these things happen!

MCCC’s Egg Laying Chicken Project has been in development since March 2015. After many delays, MCCC and I were able to write a successful grant proposal for a VAST grant through Peace Corps. VAST grants are funded by PEPFAR to help with HIV-related work and OVC (Orphan and Vulnerable Children) care. It is due to MCCC’s work with OCVs that qualified us for the VAST grant. Otherwise, we would have applied for a PCPP [Peace Corps Partnership Program] grant and would have been asking for assistance in funding this grant proposal. I encourage you to consider supporting other PCPP projects.

Posts about this project include:

 Workshop Woe, Busiest of Birthdays, Checking Out Chickens, A Day with Bo-’M’e, Chicken Coop Construction Day One, Day Two, Day, Three, Day Four, Day Five

Chicken Coop Construction: Day Four

“E felile” (aye fay-dee-lay) the grandfather of half the work crew says after lunch. Throughout the afternoon, as building continues, various people walk by repeating that same statement: “E felile,” or “It is finished.”

As Day Four closes, two sides and all four corners are completed. The walls will be done on Day 5. It is nearing completion, but it is not finished.

The morning and early afternoon were centered on the front face of the building. The guys’ fast pacing slowed due to the transitions to scaffolding and windows.

With only two men able to build at a time, the guys on the ground had more idle time to distract themselves. This gave me even more opportunity to jump in; lifting bricks above my head to my friend on the scaffolding.

The laid back attitude of the builders surprised me. Just as they finished the brick layer before the windows began, I asked how many bricks high the window openings would be.

Apparently in all our planning discussions, this never came up. I had been assuming they would be three bricks high while my friend was envisioning them as two bricks tall. He promptly removed bricks he had just cemented with no sarcasm or irritation. I expected at least a trace of annoyance but there was none to be had, reminding me how Basotho culture is incredibly accepting of things happening differently than planned or expected, especially compared to American culture.

The windows really slowed things down as nearly every brick surrounding them had to be cut just so in order to fit. While Abuti Sama trusted the other guys to split the half bricks by the door, he clearly did not have the same level of faith for the specific ones needed by the windows. He carefully measured and split bricks in half horizontally and took out perfect corners, all without wasting a single brick. His experience is obvious in all his efforts, as is that of his cousin (the other primary builder).

I cannot help but laugh at the expectations I awoke with on Monday. Day Four is done and we still need one more full day to do the walls, another two for the roof and floor. My expectations were not of my own making. I was told a week at most including the roof and floor. But, when Abuti Sama built his house, which is larger, they had the walls done in 1.5 days. Why did this “simpler” house take longer?

                1) It is winter. Abuti Sama built his house six months ago when the community and sun are awake at four am and dusk is at nine. Right now, the sun rises at seven and sets at six; making the workday five to six hours shorter.

The guys bring bricks uphill from the community building
to the building site, 5-7 at a time.

                2) The team…It was a team of five to seven experienced friends who were all home for the holidays who helped with his house. The process, with such experiences guys who are used to working together, is understandable faster than two experienced guys with five helpers to assist with moving bricks and mixing cement. Our team has been great, willing to work long and hard for their breakfast and lunch, but they are slower than the well-greased team he built his own house with.

Bo-'M'e watch the men working, thrilled to see the chicken house "finished".

MCCC’s Egg Laying Chicken Project has been in development since March 2015. After many delays, MCCC and I were able to write a successful grant proposal for a VAST grant through Peace Corps. VAST grants are funded by PEPFAR to help with HIV-related work and OVC (Orphan and Vulnerable Children) care. It is due to MCCC’s work with OCVs that qualified us for the VAST grant. Otherwise, we would have applied for a PCPP [Peace Corps Partnership Program] grant and would have been asking for assistance in funding this grant proposal. I encourage you to consider supporting other PCPP projects.

Posts about this project include:

 Workshop Woe, Busiest of Birthdays, Checking Out Chickens, A Day with Bo-’M’e, Chicken Coop Construction Day One, Day Two, Day, Three, Day Four, Day Five

Chicken Coop Construction: Day Three

As work began, I found myself pumping 200L of water with two of the women in MCCC. Yesterday, the youth club pumped and carried 250L to the building site before they begged off to finish practicing for their upcoming dance performance.

When we finish, I help unload bricks from the wheelbarrows. Each brick being used is being loaded in front of the community building and pushed uphill to the future chicken house. I am not sure why the bricks were delivered at the community building, instead of the construction site, but it has not been that awful to move them five or six at a time. Then again, I am not pushing the wheelbarrows…

A highlight of the morning was seeing the door put into place. The height of the door provides a great sense of perspective that the walls alone did not.

The door is in place and propped up with trees until
it becomes cemented in place.

Work proceeds at an even pace. The only interruptions come when various villagers approach. One man pesters me for a job. I try to explain that we do not have any money, which he refutes with the physical evidence of our building supplies. We are halfway through construction, the team does not seem to want more help, and in all honesty, we do not have any extra money. Although he has a beer belly, I still feel a mixture of guilt and annoyance repeatedly refusing while remembering ‘M’e ‘Majustice’s comment about the hungry man the day we bought our building supplies. After over an hour, he leaves with a smile and I feel less awkward.

The women carrying 20L of water each from the water pump
marked by the big square tower in the down the hill.

My “soft hands” are less of a hindrance today, most likely due to the guys getting tired of moving the bricks. They still comment on and marvel at them, but they allow me to help significantly more.

MCCC’s Egg Laying Chicken Project has been in development since March 2015. After many delays, MCCC and I were able to write a successful grant proposal for a VAST grant through Peace Corps. VAST grants are funded by PEPFAR to help with HIV-related work and OVC (Orphan and Vulnerable Children) care. It is due to MCCC’s work with OCVs that qualified us for the VAST grant. Otherwise, we would have applied for a PCPP [Peace Corps Partnership Program] grant and would have been asking for assistance in funding this grant proposal. I encourage you to consider supporting other PCPP projects.

Posts about this project include:

 Workshop Woe, Busiest of Birthdays, Checking Out Chickens, A Day with Bo-’M’e, Chicken Coop Construction Day One, Day Two, Day, Three, Day Four, Day Five