I realize that my blog has a long history of kind of ragging on the Basotho, maybe because I tend to use it as a way to vent when things really frustrate me, but lately, I have been picking up on those things that make the Basotho, in general, rather endearing to me at times. It is the weirdest things that I have picked up on that have given the Basotho kind of a redeeming grace about them. It is for these things that I am appreciative to their culture and them as a people, because they do make time here a little more enjoyable and, not to mention entertaining.
One of the attributes to them is there amazing resourcefulness. While there is no recycling here, and, yes the streets and dirt paths are lined with trash, if there is a piece of discarded trash that can be reused in anyway, it is done. Examples of this are everywhere. From the little boys who make toy cars out of scrap wire, to the ladies here lining their gardens with old glass bottles for decoration, nothing is wasted. I have been here 1 year and 3 months and I have yet to throw away a Diet Coke bottle, and we all know how much Diet Coke I drink, massive amounts and every single bottle has been reused in some way or another, either when the clinic sells milk to villagers, as a funnel, or simply a water bottle. If you walk around my village long enough you will probably see little kids drinking milk out of one of my recycled diet coke bottles. Another form of ingenuity, that I appreciate, may actually take living here for as long as I have to find the humor and resourcefulness of it. One day one of my friends and I were walking through the taxi rank and we see this little girl walking around with a plastic bag for a shoe. She obviously misplaced hers and was merely using the bag as a substitute. I mean if it was me and lost a shoe, which is very likely to happen in Lesotho, I would just buy a new pair, but if you don’t have the money, a plastic bag works as a pretty good replacement. I mean why not, right? Hopefully you can find the humor in this, this cute little girl walking around with a plastic bag for a shoe in a taxi rank, no problem, didn’t even faze her. I guess what I am impressed with here is her ability to accept the plastic bag as a shoe. I know I would have complained about it the whole time I was wearing the plastic bag for a shoe, but she just ate her candy and proceeded along in the rank.
Another truly loveable aspect of the culture is the fact that it takes merely the hint of a suggestion to sing and dance and you have a gigantic Basotho dance party along with traditional singing. Everything done here is accompanied with a dance and song. The other day I was doing a nutrition presentation and food demo and afterwards there was a large amount of dishes and the ladies who attended were doing up the dishes for us and one just broke out in complete song and dance, the dishes were forgotten and a dance party ensued. I mean if you did that in the states, people might think you are crazy, and with good reason because most Americans just don’t do that, but here, it’s just a part of doing dishes. I mean why not, I have even started doing it and I’m pretty sure I can attribute a small weight loss to it. However, I have not had the courage to take it outside of my house yet. When I teach Life Skills I allow the kids to listen to music from my iPod for like the last five minutes of class and they always want me to show them the cultural American dances, and I’m like “we don’t really have any” because at this point the only American dance I can think of is the Hustle, which I really don’t want them to judge American dance on the Hustle. So, singing and dancing maybe a part of the culture I bring back, so watch out, if I break out in song and dance please don’t think I’m crazy.
One last part of the Basotho culture that is a saving grace is their sense of humor. I’ve talked with others about other cultures in Africa and they have told me that there is no sense of humor and that they are very serious, which for me would not be good, because thank God the Basotho get sarcasm. There is a saying about Peace Corps, which I think is so true, that goes something like, “people who go to South America come back revolutionaries, people who go to East Asia come back spiritualists, and people who go to Africa come back laughing.” And I am so thankful for that. Even though Lesotho is on the brink of absolute failure and is in a very devastating situation, people here are still smiling and enjoying what they can out of life, which I think is how they keep their sense of humor going and it is so necessary to keep it going. During this food demo I was doing, I was showing them how to enrich their papa (stiff, cooked cornmeal and water) and the women here cook it every day and have the muscle to stir this stuff and here I am this weak white girl with a huge pot of this stiff mixture and a gigantic stirring stick trying to use what momentum I can muster to stir in the milk and eggs. I think they were all rolling on the floor. And then not ten minutes later I spilled this huge omelet mixture all over the stove which got them going even more, however they all loved the food and it was good to laugh because presentations that target the sick here can get pretty depressing so being able to make a joke and laugh in these instances makes it easier to sit through and take in.
This list isn’t by any means complete, but I feel I focus way too much on the negative here, which is easy given the circumstances. As much bad that is here, there is also as much good which is hard to miss because the bad here is flung into your face every day and you have to kind of search for the good, so I’m happy I have found what I did and I’m sure I will continue to be surprised by the people here. That being said, the countdown to when I come home for Christmas has begun and I hope these next three months fly by, I’m at the point in my service where I’m really beginning to miss those small things at home, like $1 32oz fountain Diet Cokes everywhere and a St. Louis Bread Co. on every street corner in St. Louis and the Metro East area along with the ability to drive where I want when I want and getting leave my house after 6 p.m. It’s going to be great! So I will leave you on a positive note after this rather positive blog. Take care and salang hantle!!
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