Care Packages

I've been getting a lot of letters and emails from folks asking me what I need in here in Lesotho if they send me a care package. I have received a few care packages already and they have been amazing. It's really expensive to ship and Idon't really "need" anything - except letters & photos :). But if your sending a package anyway here is a few things that are "favorites" that I can't find here in Lesotho.

* Drinks - Double SpicedChai Tea, cocoa, crystal light, propel/gatorade etc...
* Sour Jelly Belly's, Jolly Ranchers...
* Cliff Bars, Luna Bars, Granola Bars etc... "On the go" types of "meals"
* Meat - I can get cans of tuna here, but those individual packages of salmon, chicken breasts, are great.
* Reading materials - newspaper articles, magazines, books
* Seeds - cold, drought resistant seeds
* Maps/Posters - those National Geographic ones mail nicely - I'll use them in my classrooms. Maps of the world, posters on reproductive health, nature, diversity, etc...
* Seasonings; taco, cheese, pesto..... anything that can flavor rice, pasta, cabbage and cornmeal :)
* Anything that makes me laugh......

Some Notes on Shipping things...
It's really expensive! The cheapest way to ship is padded envelopes and flat rate boxes. There is a international flat rate box, I think it's around $40 to ship and there is no weight limit. Please claim things as missionary supplies, religious materials, used clothing, educational materials etc. A few "God Bless You's" and religious phrases on the boxes really help also. Packages arrive here (and S.Africa) and can be searched and sometimes things dissapear. There is a lot of missionary influence here and other volunteers have found boxes that are labeled religious are not even opened and searched.



A lot of people have asked about sending things for the villagers. I have to be really careful and I can't give out things in my community. I get asked for things all the time - because of missionaries and other NGO's that stop by the schools and hand out toys, clothes, candy, blankets, books etc - then leave. Some villagers re-sell the donations, other use actually put them to use - but regardless I don't think it helps them much in the way that I want to help them.

If I handed things out it would be really difficult for me to live there for the next 2 years and I'm not sure it would help much. I want people to see me as a source of knowledge and resources, not a source of gifts etc. Things that I could use to help the villagers are seeds (that I could plant in my school gardens) (drought & cold resistant) and posters/maps. I could use them as teaching materials for my schools. If you know anyone that has National geographic maps they want to get rid of (the ones that fold up and can be mailed easily) those would be great. The walls are bare mud or concrete. I draw posters on paper I brought but my artistic skills are not that great. Also, if you know of anyone that had posters on reproductive health, photos & posters of diversity in America (everyone thinks all americans are white and rich), and posters of conservation/nature/gardening that would be amazing. I teach in English - because that's the medium but props would help them understand my heavily accented english...

If I start a project that needs financial assistance I'll let everyone know via email. Technically I have to go through the Peace corps and they have a website where you can donate to projects that pcv's post. I probally won't because I don't think it's a sustainable impact here to give people any money or to start a huge project and then leave. I've seen a lot of botched programs and projects where lots of donated money was spent and as soon as the NGO or volunteer left the program also fell through... I have only been here 6 months though and my attitude and knowledge about things could change.

Christmas in Africa

It's a beautiful summer day here in Lesotho. I've just returned from a week at Bethel, the site of my friend KJ. She's a teacher at the Permaculture/Technical school and lives in a really sweet house on the school compound. To get to her site we had to ride buses and taxi's for hours, hike for several miles down to a river, ferry across the river in a boat and ride in the back of a truck to her house. It was an all day adventure.

It wasn't feeling much like XMAS until we went into KJ's house. The weather here has been really warm and there isn't as much Christmas "hype" in the stores, radio etc. It's weird being in the S.Hemisphere. KJ went all out with decorations and made a construction paper fire, stockings and snowflakes. To celebrate Christmas we spent several days eating fantastic food, watched "It's a Wonderful Life" (on a laptop), decorated cookies, exchanged funny gifts and enjoyed each others company. I loved hiking around and seeing another part of Lesotho (and collecting rocks :) ) We had access to solar electricity, flush toilets and hot showers, it was awesome! I also was able to receive a few phone calls from home. I had to answer the calls in a field, where the best signal came through. I talked to some of my family in the pouring down rain, but it was awesome to say hello and hear everyones voices.

The most memorable part of Christmas this year was getting in touch with our food source. We had ducks for xmas dinner (couldn't find a turkey). Casey and Andy each lopped the heads off of a duck, we then plucked them, gutted them and ate them for dinner. It was a dramatic, disgusting and humorous event. The ducks turned out fantastic, but it was a lot of work.

It was a fun week and one of the most memorable holidays I've ever had. Hope everyone in the states had a great holiday also.

Tomorrow Casey and I are headed to the Wildcoast to do some backpacking and relaxing on the Indian Ocean.

Returning Home

Many people ask me if I miss “home”. I know they mean the states… Idaho etc. Yes, I miss family & friends but right now my home is Africa. The remote village of Mashai is my residence and community for at least 20 more months. I have no idea where I’ll call home after that. Recently I spent several weeks in the hustle & bustle of Maseru and I was so happy to finally return to my home.

There is only one bus that goes past my village everyday, so if I missed the bus it means I’d have to wait until the next day (or several days if the bus isn’t running). I had spent the night before returning home to my village at a Peace Corps party at a nice hotel in Maseru. One of the volunteers rented a huge sweet for the night and stocked an entire fridge and freezer full of liquor and soda. We spent hours visiting, eating and dancing. It was a long, memorable and fun night. There was a little political unrest before I returned home and I didn’t want to get stuck in Maseru so I jumped on the bus even after a long night of partying with other volunteers.

I had had about 3 hours of sleep and nothing in my stomach as I walked through the “taxi rank” at 6:00am. It was still early in the morning, so I didn’t attract as much attention as usual but I was still cranky, tired and a little hung over, so I was not your typical friendly Pam. I probably “snapped” at a few Bo-Ntate and kids begging for sweets. The taxi rank is my least favorite place to be, especially alone. I stepped onto the bus after a swift walk through the taxi rank.

After handing my huge backpack to the Ntate on top of the bus I eased onto the green metal seat and greeted everyone around me. I was fortunate to get a seat and to have several familiar faces of other teachers or villagers I recognized. My stomach and head were pounding so I sunk down low in seat, hoping to draw the least amount of attention as possible. The bus had a familiar smell of gasoline, body sweat, exhaust and livestock.

We sat on the bus for an hour or more before leaving the taxi rank. Women carried baskets of fruit, bread, plastic combs, mirrors and many other random items to purchase past our open windows. You could hear the murmur of voices on the bus, the honking of other buses preparing to leave, taxi conductors yelling locations, chickens clacking, babies crying and lambs baying.

After about 1.5 hr of pavement and accelerated speeds over the “God Help Me Pass” we descended into the river gorge near Mohale Dam, this is where the pavement ends. The bus goes much slower on the gravel roads, but it’s still scary at times. The huge buses carry about 80 passengers – both sitting and standing and various livestock and baggage. It curves around sharp bends in the road, blind corners and non existent guard rails. On my bus, we have to ford a river when it’s flooding (or get off and ride a boat if it’s too high). The shocks are non existent and you get bounced around on your seat or off your feet if you’re standing in the bus. During this particular trip the bus broke down once and we also had a flat tire. It took 10 hours total from the time I left Maseru to the time I arrived to my village. The sun was beginning to set behind the Maloti Mountains as I walked to my house.

I had spent almost 3 weeks in Maseru & visiting other volunteers, so I was nervous returning to my village after such a long time away. I wondered if my community would forget who I was, if my garden would be ok, if my cat would end up dinner for someone and if the lizards, ants and spiders had taken over my house.

As soon as the bus stopped below the hill to my village, several kids ran down the dusty red road to help me carry my bags and everyone greeted me as I hiked up the hill. I was still not feeling well 10 hours on that road, trying to talk Sesotho and sitting on metal benches is exhausting. For once I was glad for all the attention though. It was a nice welcoming from everyone. Many people asked if I’d brought them gifts, but everyone was really happy to see me. My Me’ greeted me with a big Basotho hand shake, hug and plate of papa (cornmeal). Several neighbors stopped by to visit as I was sweeping out the red dust that had accumulated in my hut. I got several comments about how boring things were while I was gone. I can only imagine… they didn’t have someone to watch and talk about while I was gone J.

Soon after returning home I sat on the stones outside my hut with my journal and watched the sunset over the mountains, my kitten was curled up on my lap purring away.

I was happy to be home.

The A Frame Chicken Tractor

I’m a 25 year old (that looks like she’s 16), unmarried, white American woman that is here to volunteer and live in Mashai for 2 years. I claim to have no money, seeds, food or candy to give but I’m here to teach children about Agriculture and HIV at the schools. I don’t speak Sesotho very well and I turn down "quality" marriage proposals from Basotho men. This is what the villagers of Mashai learned about me in my first few days at my new home.
I am the local celebrity and under constant observation by villagers and scrutinized for everything I do that’s not Basotho. People who come to visit immediately notice all the things I’m doing incorrectly like cooking papa, making my bed, washing my clothes, arranging my house and gardening. It was so frustrating for a while. My village mother was especially critical, which made things even more challenging because she’s the most respected woman in our village. I’m hardly an expert in gardening but I do know how to plant and care for vegetables and how to prevent soil erosion and conserve water.
When I started to plant and dig my plots this Spring (September) my Me’ would tell me I was doing everything wrong. My plots were not smooth enough, my seeds were not in a straight line, my mulch was sloppy and should be removed, and I shouldn’t plant more than one type of seed in each plot. I felt I was doing everything right but most of the Basotho women who came to visit felt the same as Me’. My issue was trying to find a compromise – I’m here to teach Permaculture and I didn’t feel like the gardening methods the Basotho do are environmentally sound or practical. There is so much soil erosion, a major drought, and not enough food. People here are not ready to change methods especially when the new ideas come from a "young girl" from America. I felt like there was no hope in teaching anything to the community women and my first growing season was very frustrating, but things changed after I built the A-Frame Chicken Tractor.
This Spring brought the birth of many farm animals around the village. My Me` had about 10 baby chicks running around the compound the first week of October. The bright yellow balls of fluff soon became victims of feral cats and quick falcons and after only a week she had half the chicks that were hatched. Many other villagers were also losing their baby chicks to the predators around the village. I remembered seeing a chicken house design for small chickens in a Permaculture book I was reading. One afternoon I collected many small sticks and constructed a small A framed chicken house. I didn’t have chicken wire so I used string, sticks and feed sacks. This chicken house is a small portable A framed house that protects chickens from predators and moves the chickens around to "fertilize" the soil, eat insects and dig up weeds in the garden.
I built the house while my Me’ was gone working in the fields and put the baby chickens in it. I had fun making it, it was like a big craft project and I knew if Me’ didn’t like it we could at least burn it to cook papa for dinner. That afternoon Me’ returned from the fields and saw the chicken house. She muttered some things in Sesotho and gave me a grin. She soon took charge of "positioning" the chicken house and would place it near road so people would yell over the fence and ask her about it. She bragged about her American daughter all week and soon villagers started coming to me with questions about agriculture. All because of some sticks, feed sacks and yarn. Within a couple of days several villagers came over to our compound, dragging sticks and holding wire to have me show them how to build the A-Frame chicken tractor. Me' started to listen to some of my suggestions on where to plant, what to plant etc. I've since introduced a few other permaculture methods to Mashai - and so far people really are really receptive. I too have learned a ton.
Now that my community knows me better I like to think they see me as a 25year old woman who has a lot of experience to share with people in the village. I know they treat me much different now. Also the eligible bachelors of Mashai now know that I'm definetly not here for marriage as I've spread the word I'll only marry a man that is willing to cook, clean and haul my buckets of water ;)

I’m told I have just survived the toughest 3 months of Peace Corps service. “Lock-down” is the first few months of service, a time where we can’t leave our districts, a time that’s crucial for cultural integration and acclimatization. I have not spoke with family or most of my PC friends in months and have received little mail. I have had amazing experiences – both positive and negative. My “return” to the lowlands of Lesotho has been intense – a huge cultural shock after spending several months living in a remote village, not visiting my American friends, using a computer or being on pavement (not to mention nonexistence of other amenities that come with living in a grass hut in the remote mountains of Africa). I have filled an entire journal with my experiences thus far but I will try to keep this email much shorter.

My journey “down from the mountains” was an opportunity to reflect my past 6 months of living in Lesotho. In my remote site there is only one bus every day that drives by the main road at 5:30am (but isn’t very reliable). My village mother showed up to my door at 4:30am to remind me to start walking to the bus stop. I was already awake, sipping a cup of coffee and mentally sorting through my backpack hoping I wasn’t forgetting anything. There was a light drizzle as I locked the wood door of my hut and started the 20minute hike from my village to the “road”. My muddy Chaco sandal tracks paralleled the tracks of bare feet as I passed the Bo-Me’ (village women) hauling large buckets of water on their head. As with any excursion I make through my village I greeted the Me’s, inquired about their sleep, health and family then answered questions as to where I was going, what I was doing – to every single person that I passed on the road and trails.

The bus was not crowded on that rainy morning as it made it’s stop near my village along the muddy Mashai river. After my bag was strapped to the top (with the sheep, luggage, etc.) the bus assistant crawled back in through an open window in the already moving bus. I was fortunate to have a window seat and had beautiful views of the mountains, villagers plowing their fields, women selling fruit on the side of the road, children walking to school, the rivers and the sheep and goats dotting the green mountain slopes.

I arrived at Mashai in August after swearing in as a Peace Corps volunteer. I am finally comfortable in my village, though still challenged by cultural barriers. The villagers at Mashai and for miles away now know me and treat me with much more respect. The constant demands for food, money, marriage and candy have dwindled in my village (but not places where I’m a stranger) and my Sesotho is much better so I can have conversations with people in my community.

My Sesotho name is Amohelong (Ahh-mo-hay-long) which means acceptance of a gift. It’s odd being called Madame Amohelong by my students, but I’m used to it now. My typical day starts around 4:30am before the sun rises. I work in my huge vegetable garden for an hour, haul water to bath with, make breakfast and then start my walk to school. I have a 30min – 2hr walk depending on which of the 5 schools I’m working at that day. I teach Agriculture – I work with my students in the school garden and teach in the mud or stone classrooms. Some days I also teach Health/HIV/Lifeskills, Art, English and even a little Math. I teach in English, as that’s the medium now for Lesotho schools. I’ve learned to speak much slower. Unfortunately many of the other teachers in my remote schools don’t know English very well so students have very poor English. Many of the teachers don’t have certificates to teach, but still manage and teach several classes.

My students are well behaved, but the class sizes are huge in some schools and it’s really difficult to teach 1 class of 73 5th graders. Some classes are much smaller at my more remote, poorer schools. Some classrooms are stone & cement and others are mud walls, mud floors and grass roofs. Some students sit at desks – 3 kids to a desk made for 1, others wedge on benches and others on the mud floor. In the garden they are eager to learn, help and be outside but I quickly learned that there is a fine line with gender roles. I mix things up in my classes and make sure the boys also carry water, dig in the soil and pull weeds. Women here do 90% of the work and girls are taught that as soon as they can walk.

It’s summer now – the rainy and hot season. It means hot days with intense thunder and lightning storms in the afternoon. I love it! This week is the last week of school until the end of January, so students can help with the crops and animals in the village. I have a break from teaching until January, but my job still continues as a PCV, I talk to villagers daily that seek advice, or that come and ask for things that I can’t give them. I’m the village celebrity and everyone comes to talk to me about all kinds of random or serious things. I talk to people who are HIV positive or have family members that are really sick, I try to give them advice but sometimes it’s really difficult. HIV & AIDS affects everyone in my village and in the short time I’ve been living at Mashai several young people have died. I give people advice on nutrition mostly, because ARV’s are really difficult or impossible to get out there. The local clinic has recently got ARV’s for pregnant mothers and children (under 16) but adults are left out unless they have money & transportation. Anyone can be tested for HIV and medicine is cheap or free, but transportation is way too expensive and people are embarrassed to ask for assistance for $ if it’s available because the people who control the donated $ to help live in their village and stigma of HIV leaves people scared and embarrassed. There are also many that don’t test because they feel like if they know their status they will die sooner. It’s sooo frustrating at times, people come to me a lot because I’m from America, but they can get the most help from people in the village – if there was trust and respect for people with HIV. I hope that advice I can give about nutrition, gardening helps some, although most days it doesn’t feel like it. I also vent my frustrations about the whole foreign aid, medical care, to the village chief and community council but it doesn’t feel like it helps anything. I feel like there is so much foreign aid in this country and so many “hand-outs” but it doesn’t seem to be going to the people who need it because of corruption or cultural barriers. There is also a huge dependency on foreign aid, that’s almost debilitating to the Basotho.

My village is beautiful and I’ve had some amazing cultural experiences, attending feasts, dancing, painting and just living the daily village life. After school I come home and help my village mother cook, “clean the house” ( smearing mud all over the floors and walls then drawing patterns in it), sort through sacks of beans, wheat and corn to get out the rocks and dirt before we cook them, chase chickens, plucking chickens, cooking bread, playing with village children (they love to teach me games) and much more. I also read a lot of books, play with my cat and on really emotionally exhausting days I plug into my ipod and re-read letters from home or go for a long walk ~ escape the “world” for a while and “re-charge”.

I shared with Thanksgiving holiday with a few other PCV’s. It was my first day in Maseru on Thursday and it was intense walking the streets, dodging traffic, dodging the sexual harassment and begging while walking through town. I was glad to spend the evening in the company of other PCV’s, lots of American food, S.African wine and a guitar. Venting with other volunteers about the frustrations, challenges and sharing our experiences has been so nice. Thursday was also my first day to receive mail in almost 2months so I had a large stack of letters, cards and packages to read. Thanks to everyone who sent me cards, letters, photos and packages, it’s so nice to receive mail from “home”. I have a large stack of letters going to the post office this week.

Things are going well overall. It is easier traveling now that my language skills have gotten better. Being a white woman, traveling alone around Lesotho can be really challenging but I’ve learned to respond to men that frequently harass me and also how to ask help from the Basotho women who always defend me and help me out. I am learning a lot about a completely new culture, way of life, it’s hard not to get frustrated on the inefficiencies of working in a 3rd world country and the cultural barriers. My job here is not to “fix”anything, it’s to empower Basotho and try and build capacity. I am learning an amazing amount of patience and endurance. I have so much more to learn over the next year and a half. It’s nice to have the other volunteers to talk to and also to have the letters from home, knowing I have an amazing support network.

Hope everyone is enjoying the winter back in the States. Here it’s finally nice and warm.

Well, after 2 months of Peace Corps training I'll officially be sworn in as a volunteer this Wednesday. Yesterday I passed my Sesotho language test with an Intermediate Medium score. It's amazing how much language you can learn when your immersed into it. Training has been challenging, but very educational and enlightening. I spent a few weeks total in Maseru at our training center and then lived in a village outside of Maseru during my Community Based Training for 5 weeks. During Community Based Training, I lived with a host family and studied the language, culture and had technical sessions about agriculture, nutrition and HIV/AIDS. It was a chance to get a taste of the culture, language, food, music and to bond with other trainees in my village.

I am nearly finished with training now and I'm very excited to start my volunteer service. For the next 2 years I'll be living in a remote village in the District of Thaba Tseka, in the heart of the mountains of Lesotho. I had the opportunity to spend 4 days there to settle in and to meet my counterparts and supervisors. Travel to Maseru is 8-10 hours depending on the transportation that's available. I have to travel on buses over several mountain passes (steep, gravel/rocky, bumpy roads) wedged in seats with people, packages, chickens etc.. My house is about a 20 minute walk up a ridge from the road and I'm lucky for that. My house is a stone rondavel with a grass thatched roof . I open my door to a stunning view of mountain peaks and the river valley below. Words can not describe how beautiful it is. Each night I get an amazing view of the sunset and alpenglow on the peaks which are covered with snow.


I will be teaching Agriculture, HIV education and some English at the schools and also be working with community members on gardening, seed saving and soil conservation projects. There are donga's (eroded ditches) all over the mountainsides from overgrazing and farming - I'll hopefully be working on some reclamation projects with the Ministry of Agriculture and to plant some trees. It will be challenging and work is much slower with so little resources.

I have no easy cell phone access (although I can pick up reception on one of the ridges near my home), no electricity, running water, phone lines, grocery stores, microwaves etc. But, It's the Peace Corps :). I'm really happy about my site and the potential work that I can do. I love living in the mountains and the community and village is beautiful. I'm the only white person within miles and miles and I really have to continue to work hard on learning Sesotho and expanding my language skills. Things are going to be very challenging over the next few years but I'm learning a ton and am excited to live and work in Lesotho for the next 2 years.

My next update will be in 3-4months. I'm on "lock-down" for my first 3 months of service and my closest internet access is hours away.


I hope the summer in America is beautiful and everyone has been getting out on the river, lakes and mountains to play. Spring is on the way here, but it's still really cold at night. My down jacket has been a good friend during training :). I will write again in a few months.

Salang Hantle,



Pam