Alright, so the time has already come to write my third and final report from the beautiful Mountain Kingdom. Spring has come, so green is returning to the mountains (often with the aid of a brush fire set by herd boys) after a cold, brown winter. This all means my time here is drawing to a close. One issue I have been struggling with is how I am going to convey the depth and intensity of my experience here to people back home and how I can open eyes to a fraction of the sights I have seen. So, I figured since the College will put this on a web site for me, I would take the opportunity to start the process while I am still here, so I will offer what I feel are representative glimpses of my life. Not all are 5 minutes long, but bear with me, please!
Home I: Visitors. Any day we are at home, we could have a visitor at any time. This could be the 6-year-old daughter of our neighbor, a student, an American nun from Maine, or someone asking for a job. Most of the visitors are welcome diversions from the flat existence we live here, but when we don't know the visitor and their English plus our Sesotho is not enough to communicate, it makes for some long silences.
School I: The first time I walked into a class here back in January, I was totally surprised by all the students rushing to stand up. Yes, when a teacher enters, all the students (even my Form E's, most of whom are older than me) stand and greet him or her. Here is how it goes:
Students (all in unison): "Good morning, Sir."
Me: "Good morning."
Students: "How are you, Sir?"
Me: "I am fine, thanks. How are you?"
Students: "We are very well, thank you, Sir."
Me: "Fantastic, be seated."
Students: "Thank you, Sir."
This is every class of every day. So, you can see that I am called "Sir" more in one day than I have been the rest of my life!
Community I: One day I went out for a run and found a group of boys (probably aged 12-15) struggling up a hill with a long, skinny tree that had been recently cut down. I knew one of the boys as he lived down the road from me. He called to me asking me to help them. I said sure, as I try to be neighborly. So, that is how I came to be the main person enlisted to help the boys carry the crossbar for their soccer goal up the hill to the field by the bus stop. Sociologists would probably call it "community building" and I would only agree with that in the literal sense!
School II: One Friday in March, there were 7 teachers sitting in the staff room at break time (every day 10:15 a.m. to 10:40 a.m.). One of the teachers (Ntate Leseli) mentions that we have our big athletics competition (track and field) the next day and we need to have practice before then and the girls need to be able to prepare food and wash their clothes. So, since no one raised any objections, and without the approval of the principal, the seven teachers present (out of 17) decided to "knock off" or close the school at 11:00 a.m. - 4 hours early.
Home II: We have a fairly nice garden in our front yard -- lettuce, cabbage, spinach, carrots, onions, leeks, broccoli, etc. However, we are not the only ones who like it. All the neighborhood animals think it is great that we are growing food for them as well. I have become good at chasing out animals with sticks and by throwing rocks. In addition, I am also good at patching holes in our fence with sticks and string. However, we must remain vigilant or the cows, dogs, ducks, sheep and others will eat us out!
Community II: As many of you know, I rather enjoy running. Most of my runs take place up in the hills overlooking the mission, normally the domain of the herd boys with their sheep, goats or cows. I have, however, run up there enough that the guys all know me and yell at me if I fail to see them, even when they are sitting behind rocks. I knew that I had gained acceptance among them when they started running with me and holding their dogs so they would not bite me. That's true friendship as far as I am concerned.
Bus I: The once-a-day bus to town is quite an experience. Once we were going to town at month end (when everyone gets paid and does their shopping) and everyone and their grandmother was also going to town. The bus became so crowded that I thought there was no way we could fit any more people in. However, we found a way - "there's always room for one more" should be the slogan for the bus company. I did fall asleep at one point sitting straight up with my head wedged between people's arms who were supporting themselves while standing.
Town I: Maseru (the capital) is quite an experience for someone who is used to American or European cities. It is quite bustling during the day as people take care of their business. As soon as 6 p.m. hits, the town empties as if someone threw a switch. It is literally and figuratively, a night and day contrast. One of the many amazing things I have seen is a line (a queue) for a bank stretching for two blocks. Even more amazing was how patient people were in it.
Bus II: Another lovely bus situation came this past weekend when Gina and I waited for 5 Ð hours at the bus station for the bus to come. To their credit, we arrived early and the bus itself was only 3 Ð hours late! It is the only bus that takes us home, so we had no choice but to wait. The kicker came when we arrived home at 7:30 p.m. and the bus turned around to drive half way across the country to pick up a group of students. So, at least we didn't have the longest wait of the day!
Town II: One of the most mind-boggling things you can do in town is to take a mini-bus taxi from the bus station in Maseru (a bustling outdoor market with a colorful collection of people) to the border (10 minutes) and then another taxi to the South African town of Ladybrand. For a total trip of maybe 25 minutes, you are taken from a third world country into a little town that would be perfectly at home in rural Iowa or Ohio. To be able to move that quickly from the third world to the first world can be quite disorientating.
So, this ended up being longer than planned, but if you soldiered on to the end, I hope you enjoyed it and received a few "snapshots" of life is Lesotho. Thanks to all my faithful readers (if there were any) and followers of my journey this year. That's about it from me for now.
