A Day with Bo-'M'e*

The chicken project is finally starting. In reality, the project started over a year ago, as mentioned in Workshop Woe and CheckingOut Chickens. But, as of this week, there is visible and financial proof that things are happening.

Coming soon to this spot: MCCC's Egg-Laying Chicken House!
Construction begins July 2016!

Monday, we met with two representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture, who simply wanted to make sure that we had everything lined up. Then, on Tuesday morning, I trotted off to town with my counterpart, Ausi Mareisi, and two of the leaders in our group, ‘M’e ‘Matokelo and ‘M’e ‘Majustice.

Our first stop was the bank, where I withdrew half of the fund from our Peace Corps grant. Then, we headed to the store. Although we had our original quote, we had a few things to add to the shopping list so it took a few hours to complete our purchase. During the many long waiting times, we joked and laughed together while sitting on comfortable couches in the cold store.

Once we had paid and had the smaller items, we headed down to the loading area. Boloka was nice enough to give us free transport of our goods, but as we sat there half a dozen men with trucks approached us asking for the opportunity to transport our goods. Normally I get frustrated when people ask me for jobs as it is simply because they see my translucently white skin and assume that I have jobs to share. In this case, however, it made perfect sense as I obviously had not vehicle and had purchased large goods.

Watching them load 30 bags of cement.

While we waited…and waited..and waited for our goods to get loaded up, Bo-‘M’e grabbed the four of us lunch from a roadside vendor. We sat in the sun to stay warm while eating our meals amidst cement dust and a dozen men walking back and forth with building supplies.

Finally they began loading a truck with our goods. While three of us observed, a man came by and asked us for the job of unloading the thirty bags of cement he could see already loaded. ‘M’e ‘Majustice started by telling him that we did not have money to pay him. He tried bargaining with her, changing his offer from 80 Maloti to 70 to 60 and finally to only 50 Maloti. When she repeated that we did not have money to pay him, he transferred his attempts to me. I repeated the same things she said. He quieted for a bit before trying again. As frustration set in, I elaborated, explaining that the supplies were for a community project so we did not have money to pay people for labor. He immediately changed his tune and wished us luck. After he walked away, ‘M’e ‘Majustice quietly observed, “He must be very hungry, to do this much work for only 50. He is hungry.”

Still loading our supplies...almost done.

Throughout the loading process a number of younger men came up offering their strength to unload our supplies. None of them was willing to do it for less than 70. Each time I listened to ‘M’e ‘Majustice talking with them, I felt guilt over the hungry man. Although I remained polite externally, I had been frustrated by his persistence, not even reflecting on how disproportionate the work he was offering to complete was in comparison to the money he would accept. Days later, I wish I had simply accepted his offer and paid him out of my own pocket.

Finally our goods were ready. We learned the driver could only take one of us with him. After some discussion, it was agreed that ‘M’e ‘Majustice would go with him and that they would make a quick stop to purchase the trucks of sand we would need to mix with our cement. I gave her the money for the sand.

Ausi Mareisi, ‘M’e ‘Matukelo, and I then headed to the taxi rank, getting completely sidetracked. In front of one of the shops near the rank was a performer rapping and dancing. We stopped and watched the show, dancing and laughing together, until our taxi driver spotted us. He came over and told us there were only two spots in the taxi and he wanted to leave so we better get going.

Unloading the supplies

Thankfully, when we arrived, there were exactly three spots for us to take up and off we went. When we arrived at the community building, a handful of the women in MCCC were there. They had spent the day cleaning up the tall grass around the building while awaiting our delivery. Four men were unloading all our goods: three from Boloka Building Supply and one from the village. MCCC “tipped” the men from Boloka the same amount that we would have paid the man who begged us to hire him.

After the truck left, the women and I surveyed the goods in the hall. The women were thrilled that things are happening. They kept thanking me as I kept trying to say it was not me, but their efforts and work that made this happen. We finally agreed to disagree as we locked up the building.

As I walked away just before sunset, I marveled at what a productive day it had been. Other than the woman who worked with us at the building supply store and occasional conversations with Ausi Mareisi, I had completed an entire day in only Sesotho. We had bought our building supplies and sand. I had arranged to pay the deposit for our cages. While I had started the day thinking we would also buy the cement blocks for the house, time had not allowed it, so we had rescheduled that for later in the week. After a long day out and about, I was excited to head home and excited about our project taking shape.

*Bo-‘M’e:. ‘M’e means mother and is the title given to all married women. It is made plural by the “Bo” preceding it, so in this case it means more than one woman or mother.

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

Adventures in Mabita: Clarens Weekend

While Botha Bothe is limited in its tourist attractions, it is only a short drive (especially in a private car) to many other places. One of these is the South African town of Clarens.

I recently went to Clarens for the first time with fellow PCV Nick. Clarens was, for us, an three-night adventure in walking, eating, and drinking. As a top tourist spot in Orange Free State, the small town has a number of locally owned restaurants, a brewery, small shops, and over a dozen art galleries.

Nick and me on the hills overlooking Clarens. 

Walking: Although it started as just walking around town and checking out the shops and galleries, we soon learned that the town has a conservancy that made and maintains a number of walking and hiking trails on the outskirts of town. Although there are town maps with the trails noted, we splurged on the inexpensive detailed map. We spent half of each day walking the trails.

While walking is a normal part of life in Lesotho, these trails were well designed and free from the animal dung that must be dodged on the paths I usually walk.


Eating: On my other vacations in South Africa, dining has been a small part of the experience with destinations, adventures, and wild animals being a bigger priority. In Clarens, however, it was all about food...so much food! We ate out every meal but one...and that meal comprised bread, cheese, sausage, and fig jelly from a nearby bakery.

All this and dessert??

Highlights of the eating included a  giant burger, a cheese plate, a sausage plate at a German place, waffles covered in mince, eggs, and cheese, and salmon blue cheese pasta. The clear winner, though, was everything from the Courtyard Cafe. We first went for their renowned Sunday lunch buffet, which was perhaps the most I have eaten in one sitting in a decade. It was absolutely amazing.

Our one at home dinner was purchased at their bakery. Monday morning the town becomes a sleepy shell of its weekend activity and a number of places were closed, so we returned and I drooled over salmon eggs benedict. Before we left town, we grabbed two muffins from their bakery, making four consecutive meals from the same place!

Yummy stout

Drinking: Normally, I get more excited about wine than beer. In Clarens, however, my excitement lay with delicious locally brewed stout from the Clarens Brewery. It was exactly what this dark beer loving lady needed after going through a dark beer drought since departing America. Seriously, I think I had more good dark beer in Clarens than in the previous 21 months despite having a porter in America in October and a porter in Cape Town in August.


My other favorite beverage, of course, will always be coffee. Nearly every restaurant in Clarens had great coffee options-particularly espresso based treats like cappuccinos. In case that was not enough to keep me caffeinated and moving, daily deliciousness from Highland Coffee filled each morning topped off with free Wi-Fi (something not often experienced reliably in Lesotho). Happy Beth!

Sleeping: We stayed at the Clarens Inn & Backpackers. This place is a large rambling estate with significantly more space than meets the eye. It has a lot of personality, each room and separate building has its own style and name. Eccentricity meets relaxation. Although it is a ten minute walk from the town square, it sits directly off the local trails.

Spoiling Oneself: Clarens also allowed me to get my favorite rare treat: a pedicure. Just before we left, I visited the Wellness Day Spa, where I had the best pedicure of my entire life. My toes are now a beautiful teal and looking much happier than they have in ages. The relaxing on a massage table with a lavender compress on my eyes was not too difficult either!


Other Adventures in Mabita:
     Ts'ehlanyane National Park
     Liphofung Caves

Adventures in Mabita: Ts'ehlanyane National Park

At around 2200 meters while hiking in the park.

Welcome to the second Botha Bothe destination. If you missed the first, on Liphofung, be sure to check it out here.

Confession: Ts'ehlanyane is barely in Mabita. In order to reach the national park, the roads leave BB and travel through Leribe before curving back into my home district. But, technically it is in Botha Bothe and as such earns its spot as a Mabita Adventure

Ts'ehlanyane National Park is named for one of the plants found throughout the park. It is the largest national park in Lesotho at 5600 hectares and ranges in elevation from about 1900 meters to just over 3000 meters.

In the four visits I have made to Ts'ehlanyane thus far, I have participated in a variety of activities from plunging into a frigid swimming hole in winter to sipping cold draft beer on the deck of Lesotho’s only five star resort. With this in mind, here is a sampling of the adventures to be had in this large national park:

A cold mid-winter swimming hole.

Swimming: There are multiple potential swimming spots as run-off from the breathtakingly tall mountains feeds streams and rivers throughout the park. The most popular is near the Maliba River Lodges and is deep enough for jumping.

Trail marker and mountains

Hiking: There are day hikes and backpacking trails available in the park. Most trails are fairly well

marked and include impressive elevation regardless of distance. Thus far I have done two of the trails: the River Loop and the Litsumi Caves Trail. The River Loop begins at Maliba Lodge with the majority of its uphill climb before flattening out and eventually dropping dramatically to the banks of the Hlotse River. It has a nice offshoot to a waterfall for those with the time and energy.

The Caves Trail begins near the park gate and pretty much goes uphill until the end at which point exhausted hikers get to turn around and go downhill until they return to the park gate. It is an exhausting climb, but absolutely breathtaking, especially towards the end of the trail when standing above some of the surrounding mountains. Its conclusion includes a well hidden cave that houses porcupines and a small waterfall.

On the deck at Maliba after hiking

Food and Drink: Maliba is all inclusive, which means that people wanting to eat without paying for their accommodation need to plan ahead and make reservations. Drinks, however, are readily available. At Maliba, day guests can enjoy a bottle of wine, a full bar, and even Maluti beer on tap. Hikers can also grab cold cans of Maluti and other beers at the park gate—a great reward after the Caves Trail.

Accommodation: Maliba is the obvious option for accommodation in the park; however, there is also the lesser known and lesser priced government housing available. The park offers both a three-bedroom house and a series of two and three-person dorm rooms with shared bathrooms for surprisingly low prices. While they amenities are minimal, which can be a challenge when traveling via public transport, the beds are comfortable.

Heather is taller than some of the mountains we stood
underneath before we began our hike!