When we first got off the bus in Mokhethoaneng, the village that I will be living in for the next ten weeks for cultural training, we were greeted by our host mothers or 'me (pronounced m'may) wearing blankets and singing. The Basotho are a singing people, any event is cause for a song. And there singing is amazing, there is no way of describing so I will try to post a audio clip soon.
Our language and cultural trainer called our names and our new host mother's. My host mother hugged me and gave me a Sesotho name Limpho (pronounced Dimpo) which means many gifts. She then took my bag that weighs almost 40lbs and put it on her head an carried it to our house. There are some rondovels (traditional thatched huts) but we live in a concrete block house, very nice by Lesotho standards, and so clean!
I was followed to my new house by dozen children. My 'me showed me my room and sat there smiling at me , and the children stood in the doorway just staring and smiling at me. Some tried to talk to me in Sesotho, but it we'd only been in Lesotho three days and I only could say hello. The volunteers normally have three weeks language training before their village stay, so some of the people expected us to know more Sesotho. After a while of just staring at each other I got out some cards, and the kids definitely know how to play cards. I spent the next three hours playing crazy-eights with thirteen children in my room. Eventually I was served dinner and the kids all left except for my host sisters, Mammuso (who is 21) and Itumeleng (who is 8). My host mom and sisters smiled at me and watched me eat. The Basotho have a different notion of privacy than we do in the US. Being alone means you must be lonely, so I almost always have some member of the family with me in my room. I really like my host family, I got really lucky having them, but I do miss having some time to myself.
The food is really good, it reminds me of Ethiopian food from home. A lot of rice, mirhoha (a kind of lettuce), and chicken. They do eat a lot more salt than I like, but I expected that.
When they told us we shouldn't go out at night, I thought it was just advisory. But they're serious about it, my host family won't let me go outside even to use the latrine after dark, and it gets dark at 5pm. They gave us a bucket to pee in instead. I thought whatever I can hold it, I'm not going to use a bucket. But that didn't even last the first night, and it turns out peeing in a bucket is pretty nice. Much nicer than going outside where it is pitch black and your guard dogs try to attack you. The dogs aren't let inside here, and no one seems to like them. While all the farm animals are fat, the dogs look like they're about to die of starvation. I'm woken up a couple of times a night from dogs fighting or roosters crowing.
While the pee bucket is great, I'm not so sure of the bucket showers. I have seven different buckets for everything. It's not that cold for winter, but the insulation in the houses is basically non-existent, so it gets very very cold at night. It was in the 40s F when my 'me woke me up and brought me a kettle full of hot water to bathe with. It's a pattern of being freezing then burning myself with hot water. I'm getting better at it, but I'm still not a fan.
I can't believe its only been a week, it feels more like a month. I'm already missing foods from home, or anything unsalted. I haven't gotten sick from the food yet. And there is very little disease in Lesotho apart from AIDS, and we're an hour away from really good South African hospitals, I got really lucky in my location. But I will not have much contact with people back home while we are in our village for language and cultural training for the next few months, and that is hard. What I wouldn't do for some news from home and some oreos!
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