I have often written about one of my biggest challenges of being a Peace Corps Volunteer in getting projects to be successful, or to even get them off the ground. Living and doing development work in a culture that has been brought up to rely on hand outs and doing very little for themselves and taking advantage of the pity of those hoping to do well has crippled the Kingdom of Lesotho, making the country seem like nothing more than a glorified soup kitchen.
Growing up in America even the privileged social elite understand that you have to work in order to get something. My current obsession with Gossip Girl has confirmed this (and of course, T.V. always correctly represents reality, especially in this case). Blair Waldorf may have all the money she could ever want for, but she at least understands that she has to work and manipulate until the cows come home to get what she wants. Here, it is so disheartening to see the poorest of the poor doing nothing for themselves but just sitting around and waiting for the next food donation. Of which they sell in order to get money for alcohol. Discovering the enigma of these motives always eludes me. It eluded me in the states. I guess here it is just everywhere, constantly meeting you in the face. Here you seen children with definite malnutrition, see their parents line up in the food donation lines, and then provide these parents with healthful recipes for those foods to help bring themselves and their child out of malnutrition only to see no improvement, a child unable to concentrate in school because of the ache of hunger in their stomachs. An outpouring of assistance from tons of NGO’s working in Lesotho is here to train on business, health, and education. With all the people impoverished in this country you would think that the assistance programs wouldn’t be able to keep up. This however is only true for those programs giving hand outs, like food and seeds. Once while giving a presentation, we were talking about the different foods that grow in Lesotho that are so healthy and can help you become healthier if you have HIV. One older man asked the question of “where do I get assistance to get these foods?” That was where his first thought went to. He has been programmed since day one to seek someone else to find his own food. My reply was, “Grow your own damn garden.” Well in my head that was my reply. It actually went more like, “Ntate, it would be best for you to grow a garden so you do not have to depend on others and so that you will be able to have your food whenever, not just when it is being distributed by donors.” It was like I flipped a light switch on, which was to inspire him to build a garden or to anger him that I didn’t refer him to handouts.
From what I understand, as a result of my persistent questioning of the Basotho, children are brought up to believe that these programs are to be relied on for food, that Basotho are entitled to these hand outs, that “why work when these people are giving away food for free?” All skepticism of this is promptly dismissed when everyday obese women pressure me for money, pulling out every card they have in order to coerce me to give them my food: “I am so hungry,” “I have diabetes,” “I have 7 babies and no husband.” If one admitted to me they had HIV and acknowledged HIV’s presence, I may reconsider. As Peace Corps volunteers we are told to dismiss these inquisitions, operating on the old adage “give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for life.” When asked for food I offer my services in helping them to begin projects to earn money, only to be shut down; setting up meetings and trainings, only to be left high and dry on the day of. However, every time I turn someone down for food, I hear my religion teachers screaming the phrase from the Bible “when I was hungry you fed me, when I was naked you clothed me.” I feel myself age and my heart sink when I have to suppress the want to help out, in pursuit of a more sustaining purpose and in attempt to tear down the hand-out mentality.
What good is it when you simply give someone food because it is there and meant for that purpose, a.k.a. you have to report that that donated food was given out to justify your budget for your non-for-profit organization. Handing out food for a person who fits the qualifications is not sustainable, it does not solve problems, and it merely postpones having to solve them. It increases the reliance of people on these programs, which should, in the grand scheme of things, eventually be able to leave. Peace Corps has been here for forty years. You would expect some progress in that time frame, not a regression. Maybe we are approaching issues in the wrong way, maybe it is time to wave the white flag, and maybe desertion would be the best thing for a dependent country like this. I often think this is the only solution, but once again it pulls me in. I see one woman taking problems into her own hands and kicking ass while doing it. I see a child finally getting some nutrition from their food handouts. I see realization in students’ faces when I tell them, maybe they shouldn’t have sex with a boy just because he promises to buy you an airplane. Maybe, just a thought, though. And maybe I should just find it okay to rest all my hope on all of these ‘maybe’s’ because right now that is all they got.
Having the money you work for is not a bad thing. Money has been poured into Africa. The excess in America is heartbreaking, but it’s okay to have some excess if you are also aware of the world and do what you can for it, and that is not always in gifts of money to Africa. I realized here being a good role model can say a lot and that doesn’t cost a damn thing. If you have money for that Chanel purse that you have worked for, buy it, you deserve it (have I been watching too much Gossip Girl? Maybe). More money is not going to solve the problems here, you can’t buy what is going to solve the problems here, you can’t hand it out on a silver platter, they have been served plenty of times, it has to come from the people, and they just aren’t getting that. So, here’s to hoping that those ‘maybe’s’ will get that and do something about it.
With that said, I will leave you, maybe one of these days I will find something funny to post about again, however I think my sense of humor has changed. Maybe I should rename my blog to “Allison’s disillusioned descent from Africa.” It has a nice ring doesn’t it? Have a wonderful weekend, Happy Halloween, and, just let me rub this in the northern hemisphere’s face for one moment, I hope you are enjoying you cold, rainy fall weather, I know I’m vastly enjoying the sun, warm summer breeze, and long hot days here in Lesotho. Take care and salang hantle.
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