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.