Trivia Night

So here’s some fun Sesotho vocab for you. Next time you’re watching Lion King (which I hope is soon) and you meet that awesome lioness Nala, you can now brag to all your friends that her name means “prosperity”. In fact, the last line of the Lesotho national anthem is “Khotso. Pula. Nala.” meaning “Peace. Rain. Prosperity.”

You can also start singing along to Hakuna Matata and know that this is a pretty good translation. I think it is in a different Bantu langue branch (similar base, different language, like French to Spanish), but it’s close enough. “Ha hona matata” means “there are no problems/worries” in Sesotho. You’re welcome. Now you know.

While we’re on the subject of Basotho culture in popular media, I can’t help but direct your attention to Black Panther. Hopefully you’ve all seen this Marvel blockbuster, because trust me- it’s worth the watch. Anyway, the different tribe styles in the movie are all actually pulled from different cultures in Africa and given a little technopunk spin to make them Wakandan. One of these styles is pure Basotho. Look for the guys wearing blankets (mostly blue) wrapped around their shoulders. Hint: they’re the ones raising battle rhinos. Sadly there are no rhinos in Lesotho but they are in Wakanda, so that’s nifty. The blankets are a direct pull from the traditional wear here. Nearly everyone, men and women, have one and the different patterns represent different things, like royalty or a blessing for a good corn harvest. In the cold temperatures of this mountain kingdom, wearing a blanket is a great idea for keeping warm and looking fabulous. I just bought one and I’m very excited. An average one costs about 850 Maluti or about $60. It’s a lot of money here but they are heavy durable wool and thus semi water proof and fire proof (not that people have a habit of catching themselves on fire here, but being prepared can’t hurt). So there you are, Lesotho in Pop Culture 101.

My new blanket!

Beyond these fascinating tidbits of info, here’s an update on life. Still on strike but having other volunteers visit sure makes the time go faster. I’ve been taking walks and exploring the village and the mountains which is lovely and reduces some of my twitchiness from not working. I’ve started letting Arwen outside which reduces some of her twitchiness from being cooped up inside. I’ve fixed my solar battery which took a dive into my water bucket. I have to give a shoutout to Goal Zero. This thing was not supposed to be submerged and it has faired very well after drying out. Sturdy construction and ready for the outdoors as promised. I can charge my phone at home again! Yeah!

Life here is always interesting. Sometimes you feel amazing, on top of the world kind of amazing. You finally feel like you’re getting a grip on the intricacies of life here. You have a good conversation or you get somewhere without a travel induced headache. Other times you get that headache or you get yelled at in Sesotho and they don’t care or understand that you recognize only one or two words. You can go from feeling like an integral part of the community to thinking that you by the time you leave in two years you will still feel like the foreign imposter. Sometimes a mood can last for days, others it changes every five minutes. One minute you’re tired and grumpy and the next you feel like you’ve made an impact and it’s all worth it. Such is life. You want a life-lesson learning curve to beat all others? Join the Peace Corps.

Seriously though, Peace Corps is amazing. I know I’m biased but I don’t regret a moment of my time so far. And Peace Corps isn’t just for recent college graduates like me. There is a lower age limit of 18 but no upper age limit. The only limit on age is your health. PC even has shorter term assignments called Peace Corps Response which fill more technically specific roles for a few months instead of a few years. It’s never too late to make a difference. Okay, enough with plug lines.

Life goes on. It’s amazing and frustrating and often indescribable. I see struggles the likes of which a lot first world folks could barely imagine. But these problems are closer than you think. Instead of limiting sympathy to people most of you will never interact with because they’re on a different continent, try to share the sympathy with the homeless guy you see on the city streets. Or the teenage mother trying to get natal care for her baby at Planned Parenthood while she struggles by on welfare. Or the immigrant worker who scrapes together enough money to put food on the table by doing the back breaking jobs that those with more privilege prefer to forget are still done by humans. I know (trust me, I know!) it can be difficult to express sympathy in person, especially when you’ve never had to experience similar problems. I can’t relate to the 14 year old girl in my village with a 2 year old child in her care. The 35 year old father certainly isn’t helping. And I don’t know if I can either, except to show kindness. Sometimes that’s all you can do. Sometimes you can do a lot more.

And now for the Q&A section of this report:

Q. How’s the Sesotho coming?

A. I am very comfortable in my ability to meet and greet folks in my village. I can manage to get myself on a taxi going to the right place. My ability to have a meaningful theological conversation with the woman in the taxi who asked me why I don’t go to church on Sundays, not so stellar.

Q. How do you get the taxi driver to turn down the music so you don’t go deaf by the time you get off?

A. Always travel with an entourage of mamas and babies. They all yell at the driver for you since they don’t want to wake the kiddos. Never underestimate a Basotho mother, or any mother for that matter.

Q. What am I doing while on strike?

A. Many things but of particular interest are challenges both adopted and self-manufactured. Challenge numero uno is to make 1,000 origami cranes by Phase III which comes at the end of this month. Considering I got really bored and made 151 in one sitting last Tuesday, I think I’m on schedule. Challenge number two is adopted from another volunteer. Her goal was to read 200 books before her service was finished. Since I have reached 78 (counting audiobooks- my challenge, my rules) and roughly 40 of those have been in the last the month, I’ve decided to up this to 500 books before I head home.

Book, candle, cat, rain, tea- can’t complain about this.

Q. What do I eat here?

A. Any thing that will stay for a while in a cabinet since refrigeration is not a thing when there is no electricity in my village. This includes a lot of potatoes and apples and pasta and canned vegetables and rice and beans and… you get the idea. I’m getting really creative about spice usage and I’ve succeeded in making several good versions of skillet bread- top two are cinnamon raisin and that time I dumped a bunch of dry ranch dressing powder in with the flour and oil. Another by product of having too much time on my hands is that I spend a great deal of it experimenting in my kitchen.

Q. What are the most important things you’ve learned so far?

A. Infinite patience and the ability to operate on a daily basis with almost zero information. These things will serve me well but they’re not fun lessons to learn. Since I’m finishing up writing this post waiting for a taxi to leave with no clue of when that will be and no hope that it will be soon, these traits seem particularly relevant. Oh and never travel anywhere without a book.

Last week I spent a day at another volunteer’s site helping paint the doors to the new latrines she’s getting built at her school (they don’t have any now!). Very fun day and good to feel useful while I’m on strike. I go back to school Tuesday and then go back on strike the following week. So far very little progress has been made by the government and the unions.

So that was a lot of preaching and callouts and random info but it’s been that kind of a week. Ups and downs and everything in between. Not working is apparently giving me far too much time to think. Hope that answered some questions and gave you some fun trivia facts to wow your friends with at your next movie party. I’ll leave it at that for now. So long and thanks for all the fish!