Al's Trip South

So for this past week, which accounts for no blog post last week, I was in the southern part of Lesotho doing a little food safety and sanitation training. Another Peace Corps volunteer works at an agriculture, food, construction, and business college there and I went down to teach food safety, a frequently ignored topic in Lesotho. It was great because I had not been south of Maseru really in Lesotho and the north and the south here are different and I was on my way to Quthing one of the most southern places here.
So the major differences in the north and south here manifest themselves, like most things anywhere, in money. In the north here has considerably more money than in the south and is much more populated. In order to travel, being back home what would have taken maybe 3 hours by private car, took two days, granted I took my time and visited some other volunteers along the way. While transportation basically is little more shotty and it is the more impoverished part of an already impoverished country the views of the scenery really help in making up for that. I took some photos I plan on posting sooner or later, which don’t do the landscape justice by a long shot. It is more mountainous as well as kind of more like a desert. While I was waiting for transport one day I couldn’t help but text Liz and Danielle that I was waiting in a desert, no cars in sight, flies were swarming me and I had just crossed a river on a boat one step up from a raft of logs tied together with twine.
It was really great to teach the students a topic as relevant as food safety and sanitation. It is so applicable here, I mean besides the obvious reasons, because first of all with many places not having refrigeration it is even more important that things are cooked properly. Also the concept of microbes growing on your food unless properly prepared really isn’t a major topic for teaching and this is a school that helps supply workers for the food production industry in Lesotho. And finally if you are serving questionable food to an HIV positive person, it could be their grave depending on how advanced the disease is, making food safety and sanitation all the more relevant. I was kind of worried about teaching food safety because, well it can be kind of a dry topic to go over because a lot of it is rules and guidelines to keeping food safe so I was so worried I was going to lose their attention pretty soon. Luckily they were pretty interested, I find that when talking about things like microbes and bacteria students are generally pretty interested.
I really have only one ridiculous story about the students that is too good not to post. So I have already posted about how people here eat meat of animals that die on their own accord, remember the cow incident? Well that was one point I really wanted to get across because it is so dangerous to eat that meat. So I had inserted this point towards the end of the presentation and I mentioned how you should not eat this meat at all because you could potentially get whatever disease the cow had by ingesting its meat (does mad cow disease ring a bell?). And as just a fun little exercise we had all the students raise their hand if they had eaten meat of an animal that died on its own, everyone raised their hand. We then asked who all got sick soon thereafter, everyone raised their hand. I think we got the point across.
Other than that the trip was really beneficial and when you travel and stay with someone for such an extended period of time you really get to know them. I mean when you visit someone at home there are generally things to do or you can watch TV. together or movies and such. However, with the lack of those things after dinner you don’t go drop on the couch and watch a movie or TV. together, you have conversations. And I really feel lucky to have this experience. There are so many genuine and interesting people here that a T.V. could really potentially take away from a major part of a Peace Corps experience, and that is getting to know all these people from different backgrounds and different places in the United States. And I mean when you are not tired and it is only 8pm (which granted is pretty late for most volunteers) you cover a lot of topics and get to know people quite well in a short period of time. For instance one of my friends that recently stayed with me stayed for one night and we had probably hung out 2 or 3 times before that and after just visiting for one night they are really a person I could see myself getting along with very well and probably someone I will make an effort to get to visit when I am back home as well someone I would consider a close friend here. I mean it is really great to get to know people this way, I really feel like I get so much more out of my experience this way. I know this is kind of a random insertion in this blog about food sanitation but I wanted to tell you all about it because it is really a big impact on my stay here and I’m so thankful for it. Mainly because this is how I keep myself sane, talking my visitor’s ears off.
Okay, so there is one last thing that I think you should know about. So of late I have realized my protein choices are dwindling, and dwindling fast. Not because of scarcity or an inability to afford them or even some sort of animal right activism that has overcome me, but because in Lesotho, fresh meat isn’t meat from the refrigerator or the freezer or butcher even. Fresh meat here is still mooing in the backyard. I mean lately it has been even a struggle for me to eat chicken, and I enjoy chicken. These are my reasons. I am now officially off eggs, which is one of the best and cheapest sources of protein here. One day, and please don’t read the rest of this if you ever want to enjoy eggs again, I walked into the clinic kitchen and they had slaughtered a chicken to cook for the patients (which happens pretty often, I’ve become more immune to the sight, but still have trouble eating chicken in general) and I see this bowl with bloody yolks and an brown, pear shaped organ. I, fool that I am, assumed that they were going to throw the contents of this bowl away. Ohhhhh, how I was proven wrong. I walked into the kitchen about a half hour later too find M’e Mpho eating the scrambled bloody yolks and the organ, which happened to be a uterus, I know this because she was peeling off and eating the brown muscle layer and then eating the hard-boiled egg inside. Hence I am off eggs. I’m also off pork. So being at the clinic I see the pigs pretty often, and let me tell you there are some pretty big pigs here. So, today as I was getting ready to go on my afternoon walk I glance out my window to see something go by on a gurney. Hmmmmm, this is interesting because it was a patient gurney, but no patient was on it. At second glance I realize they used the gurney to roll in a slaughtered pig to the kitchen. I mean it is resourceful, I just hope they sanitize it before putting patients on it again. Okay, so yes this was gross to see, but these next few reasons just put me over the edge. So I walk out to begin my walk and I notice a peculiar, yet all too familiar smell. Having witnessed many a chicken slaughter and cleaning I have become able to detect the smell of animal intestines. They all smell the same, like poop (obviously), rotting flesh, and wet dog (yes, wet dog, I don’t know why but it is definitely there). The clinic was overpowered by the smell of pig intestines this afternoon. I was gagging as I left for my walk. The last and final straw was when I walked into the kitchen before I left for my walk to tell the ladies I was leaving. I knew I was taking my chances and that I would probably see the pig somewhere and I had to hold my breath the entire time I was in there. But I thought, okay with this gigantic amount of meat, surely they are going to put it in the refrigerator or freezer, they totally have the capacity to do this, so I thought they would take advantage of it. No. I walk in and there is the pig carcass sitting in the hallway with a thin, see through, accessible by flies sheet over it. Plus, the putrid smell. All of these reasons on top of the fact they eat animals that die of their own accord is why I’m becoming a vegetarian here. That’s it. Well I might still eat tuna or canned chicken. But that’s it, I’m done. I give up on meat.
Well that is kind of it, the clinic is still plugging right a long and over Easter I am going to Bloemfontein for a short holiday of commercial bliss, a.k.a. I’m going to watch as many movies as I can, go shopping at a real mall and eat sushi (which is definitely not from Lesotho and therefore safe) and Greek food. It’s gonna be great! So have a fantastic Easter and eat some cookies and chocolate bunnies for me! Take care and Salang Hantle!