Into Africa

[Top left photo: The students at Makhelefane get two meals a day at school cooked over an open fire in several large pots. There is a serious shortage of firewood and about once a week a team of four oxen arrive pulling two or three smallish trees that would have been better left to get bigger. Bottom left photo: This is Penney inside the main building at Makhelefane. Remarkably four classes are held in this space with most of the kids sitting on the floor. It is only this light because the two doors are open. After painting white (hard to paint mud!) and building benches, it was much better. Top right photo: Lesotho consists of the lowlands which are still above 4000' and the mountains which are 7000- to 11000'. The road to Leribe goes from the foreground to the edge of the plateau to the left of the higher peak (it can be seen cutting diagonlly across the rock face). Just below this point there are the remains of a mini-bus part way down the cliff. There were 11 killed in that accident. Vehicles need to be in good shape mechanically but are not as a rule.}

Hope this works. I am typing this in the school office on the only computer here that will take a USB key. Much to report in the week and a half since my last report. There is really no internet access available for me near Mamohau so I can only get online during my visits to Leribe. Even there the internet is painfully slow and unreliable.

After my last visit to Leribe I was to go to Mamohau with Peter, the deputy principal, at around 5 pm. We finally left at 930 which seems pretty standard around here. To add to the fun it was during a hellish thunderstorm. There were about 6 minor rockslides on the highway through the mountains. None covered the entire road but you had to be careful. The highest point on this road is about 3100 m and it is pretty good road considering everything. Just about all vehicles are standard since you need to use engine breaking on the steeper parts (there is one place where it is 12 km downhill). Otherwise the load on the brakes is excessive.

While I was in Leribe I went to the Metro store which is like a Costco and acts as a wholesaler for small retail outlets in the whole region. I spent almost $100 on food. I see why there is not much selection in the stores – there is not much in the wholesale store. The Shoprite store in Leribe is to open this month and should change the entire shopping dynamic in the area. I have been told it will ‘have everything’ (it is a big South African chain) and apparently can be predatory like a WalMart.

I seem to have many small impressions of life here to share with you, so bear with me. Next is a description of my options for walking between the school and my house. This only takes 5+ minutes, but there are several choices. The shortest is across the outlet of the tiny duck pond (there are only three ducks that are going to be sold at some point). This is terrible when it is muddy and passes reasonably close to the latrines behind the boys’ dorm. Picture a 15 holer that really smells. I avoid this route if it is wet or the wind is from the wrong direction. The other major option is to go through the small cabbage patch near the school office and teacher room – then down a steep hill (these are everywhere); then skirt a large cabbage patch before going down a longish hill to the teacher houses. This is further but works out well except when the school cattle are grazing along this route. I am entirely a city boy and these are large animals. I asked someone if they are friendly and was told that one bull (or steer, like I know which) was not. At that time I could identify this beast but they move around and I am not sure which one it is now (I know it is not one of the cows). Along this route it is typical to pass within about 3 m of them. Today at lunch it was really muddy (not the duck pond route), but the herd was straddling the other route. Chose the latter and it was fine – the bull must have had a good day I guess.

Went to my other school Makhelefane last weekend. This was quite the adventure. I go to the nearby town Leribe and catch the ‘taxi’ that goes at 2 pm (it actually left at 430). It is only something like 6 or 7 km but if you go you are there for the night, because the return trip is only available in the morning. The taxi is a 4 wd pickup truck – typically a ¼ ton (ie little) Toyota. You cross about 6 shallow streams and go up and down some very steep hills. On the way in the truck had a fibreglass cap on the back which limited the load – there were 15 people in total along with perhaps 200 kg of freight. I was wedged between two large ladies (many of those here too) and literally could not move at all. By the end of it my knees were killing me. On the way back, the pickup had no cap, which meant that more people could be carried. There were two toddlers and 16 adults for this trip. People were most friendly, after they ascertained that I was not an Afrikanner. Apparently they are not well-liked here – may be as a result of the treatment that Basuto miners got in the gold and diamond mines of South Africa for so many years. There were language difficulties, but I did receive one marriage proposal – one lady was very keen to move to Canada.

I have had several marriage proposals for each of my sons from students. All they know is their ages (25 and 20), the fact they are unmarried and that they live in Canada. There is an enormous desire here to move to Canada – since life there is ‘so easy’. I had so many questions from teachers that I did a seminar for them entitled, “ How to move to Canada, and why it is probably not a good idea.” Some were turned off by mention of income tax; others by my description of lifestyles or the fact that their training would not qualify them to teach in Canada (many have not been to university and many primary teachers have only high school).

Makhelefane itself was remarkable. It is like yet another step backward in economic development – no electricity, no running water, and the worst outhouse I have even seen – it was only about 5 feet tall which caused me certain problems. The children at the school receive breakfast and lunch and the region is supported by the UN World Food Program – and it is so close to Lejone which has stores full of food and vendors all over. The children’s food (cornmeal mush and a few vegetables) is cooked over an open fire in a giant cauldron. There is not even much firewood available. The fuel was tiny sticks gathered in the area.

The school is very poor indeed. The main building has about the floor space of a largish Canadian classroom (about 50’ x 16’) but has 4 classes and teachers and about 120 kids in it. There are only a few benches – most of the kids sit on the mud floor. It is also very, very dark inside. The floor and walls are mud and dark brown and the windows are few and small. Three classes are held in a tent (think the type used for wedding receptions). In the winter, conditions in the tent are very bleak indeed. The government has promised an additional building ‘when funds allow’, but that could be never. Four of us are going there in about 10 days to see what we can do to improve conditions. We will paint the interior white, build some benches so at least some of the kids will be off the floor. In addition, we will make knee desks, which are just pieces of masonite that the students can put their notebooks on so they can write. We are also providing 120 small school bags so the students can keep their books and pencils somewhere – now they get lost because there is nowhere for them to be kept. The school bags are being made of denim by a local woman, so it is helping the local economy a bit too. We are hiring a 4wd truck to take the stuff and us there on the 27th. We will prefab the benches and assemble on site because it is easier to transport this way.

In spite of this poverty, clearly the worst I have seen, the people are lovely there and the setting is breathtaking. The school buildings are traditional stone and actually quite pretty (if not very functional) and they are set on a hill above a deep valley (almost a canyon) with a river that looks like it would be fun to canoe.

I have finally gotten over my problem of throwing my garbage in the small pit on the hill in front of my house. It was hard but there is no other way. I certainly keep anything that might of use – the peanut butter jar to put sugar in, the pill bottles for jam, the bread bag to wrap a cut onion. The garbage goes into a shallow pit which is burned (a bit, only).

Cooking is a challenge without refrigeration. I was able to buy Knorr soup and I made a nice beef soup with a tomato and onion added. I have a bottle of chutney, which is my only condiment and I added it. There was too much for dinner so the rest I had for breakfast. Similarly with the long-life milk – if I make cocoa (not like Quick, this is real cocoa); the milk I open (500 ml) has to be finished at the next meal. It will not last longer.

I made a conscious decision not to have someone do my laundry, cook my meals or clean my house. The teachers all have students do this and I have a feeling that they do not even pay for these services. I tried to explain to one teacher that this would not be considered appropriate in Canada because it would be very hard for the student to refuse. In general, the students here are treated as servants by the teachers. Students are never asked to do something (carry books, pick up trash); they are told and in most unpleasant tones. Much of this society seems to be based on the power relationships that exist between and among people: men over women, adults over children, those with money over those who without it. Perhaps this is my over-sensitive, social-democratic populist sensibilities, but I do not think so.

On Saturday I decided to go to Lejone for some shopping (milk, bread, eggs, fresh veg or fruit). Rather that taking the public I decided to walk. This should be a 90 minute walk but I decided to follow some trails that led away from the road. I ended up next to the reservoir created by the Katse Dam (the largest in Africa – it is about 50 km from here – the lake is very long and narrow). It was a neat walk and I always knew where I was – but I had to hike up a very steep hill from the lake to the level of the town. I thought my heart was going to come out my left nostril at one point. It ended up being a 3½ hour hike. I did my shopping (not much more than 5 minutes) and went for lunch at the local restaurant – Chocks. If you are in this neighbourhood I recommend it. There were 11 items on a large dinner plate including a chicken leg and piece of locally caught fish, rice, pumpkin greens (very nice), squash, great homemade French fries, etc. This cost somewhat less than $4. With two beers and tip (not the normal custom in rural Lesotho), the entire meal was less than $8. I took the public back to the school – but still had to climb a very steep hill up to my house. BTW, when you buy eggs (they are very large dark brown eggs) here they come loose – at best you end up with a bag full of eggs or maybe your eggs wrapped (together) in a sheet of newspaper. After I recovered from my hike I ended up playing volleyball with the kids in the afternoon, so I slept well that night.

The academic skills of the kids are very weak and the English skills are worse. I was helping some Form C kids with an assignment (about grade 10 level) and they had obviously been asked to use more complex language (I would have been more satisfied to see them using simple language well). One student talked about ‘… the plenary stadium being very noisy’. Took some time to explain to him that not all synonyms in a thesaurus are equal and that you have to be careful. I gave the Form E English classes an assignment to read an issue of National Geographic (there are not many reading materials here but there are perhaps 300 copies of NG). They were to provide a two sentence summary of each article and then analyze one article in terms of identifying the introduction, major points made in the article, and conclusion. None of them could do this since they are completely used to just memorizing what the teacher gives them. The summaries (at best) tended to be whatever they could copy from the beginning of the article that previewed the contents. Identifying the arguments of the piece just did not happen at all. Then they wonder why they cannot do questions on the Cambridge O-level exams, which ask them to explain the meaning of one a passage in their own words. I was in one class where the students had learned a definition of what a drug is. It included the idea that drugs are ‘… chemical compounds that influence the body …’ I asked someone to explain what a chemical compound was and no one had a clue. I asked them what ‘influence’ meant and none could tell me – and yet they could parrot the definition perfectly.

I had an almost surreal experience this week. Last year’s Form E results were announced (every student in the country’s marks are listed in the newspaper btw). The teachers acted as if a major war had just ended – jumping up and down screaming, dancing, crying – one woman was even rolling around on the ground in her excitement. This was because the school’s results were very marginally better than last year’s. About 86% who wrote the exams passed, but this ignores the fact that most kids drop out of school before reaching Form E. Even the graduates have such limited skills. They do not seem to understand that massive improvements are needed in the schools if Lesotho is to emerge from poverty, since economic growth must come from human capital, not from the limited (and overstressed) natural resource base.

In my travels I am getting to understand the country a bit. The women do the vast majority of the work while the men often just sit around – the unemployment rate is something like 60%. On one hand I feel like giving the men a kick in the ass and tell them to get out and help weed the garden where his wife is working in the hot sun. On the other, I feel sorry for the loss of identity they feel. Generations ago they were hunters and then they became herders. Then they went off to South Africa to work in the mines but most of those jobs are gone now. There are now so many men and boys available that a typical herder might only be watching (full-time) over one or two cows or half a dozen sheep. About the largest herd I have seen with one herder is perhaps 10. There is little enough for them to do otherwise. It is very common to see men walking around or herding while wearing their hard hat from the mine – I guess as a symbol of the status that they used to enjoy when they provided for their families by being away for 3 to 6 months at a time. BTW, the fact that they were working away for long periods of time is a main reason for the spread of AIDS from prostitutes working near the mines to the spouses and babies of the miners here.

At times, this experience is very taxing and one can feel quite lonely. There are lots of Canadians in Leribe and they have a different kind of life there than in the mountains, but I can recommend this to others I think. You really get an opportunity to think about yourself and those around you and to figure out what really matters in life and what is really just ‘stuff’ that you can do without.

All for now.