HIV Outreach & Backpacking.... On the "Roof of Africa"

Our 5 day trek across the most remote mountains in Lesotho was amazing! Over the week we hiked over 70k, crossed numerous rivers and summited the highest point in Southern Africa We did HIV outreach with over a dozen herdboys as we navigated through secluded river valleys, up steep ridges and through windy mountain passes. We visited the chief of an isolated village and explored some of the most beautiful areas of this country, it was incredible!

Check out more photos at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ponderosapam/HIVOutreachBackpackingOnTheRoofOfAfrica

Thanksgiving 2008

Another year here in Lesotho and lots to be thankful for.

This year I spent Thanksgiving at KJ's site. Our gala holiday started with launching water balloons at volunteers who had just crossed the river and were hiking up the mountain. Julie brought in a turkey from neighboring village spending many hours hiking and transporting the live bird. Early in the morning on Thanksgiving day Julie lopped the head off the turkey and we spent an hours plucking all the feathers.

Some people started drinking a little early so when we played a game of real american football (not soccer - which is called football here) it was a crazy scene, but so hilarious. The American football game was definetly a highlight for us and the entire village who came out to see what the heck we were doing throwing around a "pumpkin". They thought it was awesome and the game was quite the "show" half of us had no idea what was going on because of cheap whiskey or had no idea what the rules were or both. Every person "on the field" was bleeding or bruised or covered in red dirt somewhere on their bodies by the time we finished the game. It was hysterical! We finished the day off with a huge Thanksgiving dinner. The lijo (food) was amazing, it was with most of my favorite people here in Lesotho.

Bringing "Turks" to his final home after a long hike and transport

Plucking dinner... way more work than buying it at the store!

After a hilarious game of football

Shenanagins

I was recently told by a Peace Corps staff that the definition of Shenanagins = Pam Rogers. Yes… I’ve been keeping up my mischievous reputation even here in Africa. From pranking staff at the PC office, other volunteers and even people in my village have fallen victim to my pranking. Most recent jokes have including my partner in crime Kjessie. We have coined our mischief as the RAKP club Random Acts of Kjessie and Pam or (Kindness and Pranks)… however you want to look at it. Over Halloween I “got” my PCV neighbors James and Lindsey by creating a scarecrow out of my clothes and hiding it in Lindseys pit latrine and then in James bedroom. The following week KJ and I did a bunch of yardwork and planted flowers at a PC staffs house while she was on vacation. During the same week I invested 18R ($1.80) on a package of fake snakes and lizards and have had a lot of fun with that, much to the horror of other volunteers and kids in my village. Here is a little documentation:

Fake Reptiles Really Freaks People out in my village... but it's so fun!

Water Balloons, way to greet volunteers hiking up to KJ's site on T-Day

A Little Flower Planting Mischief.... RAKP!

Rea Thloka Pula! Hona Joale!

Months of Drought, Limited Bathing and Washing, Garden of Dried Brittle Plants… Waiting for rain is another thing I’ve learned patience for here in Lesotho. For the last few months we’ve had a serious drought. At this time last year the fields were green and full of corn, sorghum and sunflowers reaching towards the hot summer sun. Now, the fields are dry red soil, some remnants of the stalks of last year wave in the breeze like scarecrows to the rain.

Rea Thloka Pula! Hona Joale! (We need Rain! Right Now!)

Basotho Time

The other day Me’ Mphone stopped by my house to ask for help. She’s a teacher at the primary school and one of my friends in the village. She had a question about her keyhole garden that she was constructing and wanted “2 minutes” for me to come and look at it. I told her I would stop by later (because I was cooking), but she talked me into following her to help with her garden. I turned off my stove burner, slipped on some shoes and headed out of my family compound, fully knowing that “2minutes” was going to be at least 1 hour.

Here in Africa things operate on "Africa Time" or "Basotho Time". This essentially translates to things will happen whenever everyone is ready with little or no stress or pressure which usually happens hours or much later that you expect or are told. This isn’t always a bad thing, but its much different than the punctuality I’ve experienced, stressed about and sweated over in America. In my village in Lesotho if I’m invited to a meeting that is scheduled for 10am it will likely start at about 12pm. Same with shops opening and school starting. Its time to open and start school and businesses when everybody is ready.

The day that Me’ Mphone stopped by I finally made it to look at her garden almost 2 hours after I left my compound. I can walk from one end of my village to the other in about 10minutes, but on the way to her house we had to stop and visit with many people. My Sesotho isn’t that great, but I still communicated ok with some of her family, friends and people in the village. My stomach growled as I walked through the village and sat visiting in dark huts thinking about my tuna pasta getting cold in my own hut. I couldn't help but laugh to myself about the "2 minutes".

By the way, her garden was beautiful and she didn't really have any questions, I think she just wanted me to visit her and her family.

In a "Forgotten Corner of the World"

...to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of the world, our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. ~ Barack Obama

On the early morning of November 5th (it was Nov 4 evening in America), I was huddled in my grass hut in Lesotho wrapped in a fleece blanket listening to history take place in America and across the world. I had my shortwave radio sitting on the end of my bed, and listening to the the last of the votes coming in on the West Coast. The Static live broadcast of the elections came through on of the Voice of America as the sun started to rise here in the Southern Hemisphere. I can't fully explain how I felt when they announced Barack Obama as my next President and then when Obama gave his amazing speech. I had tears streaming down my face and felt a sense of relief and a sense of hope especially on the global scale. It was something I felt in my village as soon as the message got out. Here in Lesotho everyone is excited and hopeful, waiting to see where America goes from here and believing that anything is possible in this world.

African Library Project. Donors Needed

Hello Everyone, In an effort to help the communities in the remote Mashai River Valley, I'm working with 5 schools near my village to establish libraries. The African Library Project is working with Peace Corps volunteers in Lesotho to facilitate and set up libraries all over the country and to help establish book drives in America. The cost of mailing books is enormous and African Library Project is coordinating a freight container of libraries expected to arrive in May 09.

The remote schools in the mountains where I live in Lesotho have no running water or electricity, no phone signal and most of these students have never left the Mashai River valley, never rode in a car, seen a television or computer, and most don't even own a book. The students in the Mashai River Valley live in small one room grass and mud huts called rondavels with their large families. When they get home from school they have many chores like washing clothes by hand, collecting water from the river, taking care of animals like cows, sheep and donkeys and much more. Many of these students are single or double orphans due to the high rate of HIV prevelance in Lesotho (about 29%). We hope that a few library books will open the students' minds to a world of possibilities and inspire creativity and imagination. The books will also help students increase vocabulary of English (the second official language in Lesotho).

If you have a contact with a school, library or group that might be interested in holding a book drive, please forward this on. If your interested in organizing a book drive please go to the African Library Project website at: http://www.africanlibraryproject.org/ and click on Book Drive guidelines. There are very specific instructions on how to organize a book drive, how to ship the books to the African Library Project (you ship the books to them in America and they ship the books to me in Lesotho). They will be your contact throughout the book drive process (as my access to the internet and phone is very limited).

Please tell them your book drive is to go to Lesotho and the volunteer your working with is Pam Rogers. Please also email me if you have any questions, need "facts" about Lesotho, need additional photos to promote the book drive (although I have a lot at my photo website at http://picasaweb.google.com/ponderosapam

Thank you for your time and consideration in this project. Please email if you have any questions, I head back to my village tomorrow but I'll be checking my email again before Thanksgiving.

Lesotho AIDS Diary

Check out this Link on BBC News about Lesotho and AIDS

Lesotho Aids Diary

Culture Festival

St.Theresa Secondary school had a wonderful cultural celebration. James and I attended the day long celebration to support our students and experience more of Basotho culture. The students spent most of the morning dancing and singing in their beautiful colorful clothing and traditional wool blankets. In the afternoon we ate platefuls of traditional Basotho food.

It was awesome watching the culture dances with a backdrop of mountains and clouds Basotho diet primarily consists Papa (maize meal), Moroho (cooked cabbage), Nama (meat), Mokopu (pumpkin) and the drink Motoho (a fermented sorghum drink). Then there were a few huge buckets full of joala (booze made from fermented sorghum or corn). They also slaughtered a cow so we had beef with all of our sides. Everything was eaten without silverware and about 50 of us passed around a wet dishcloth to "clean" our hands. It was a fun day and I took a lot of photos and videos to share when I return back to the states.

Keyhole Gardens

I've been working with village health workers and members of HIV support groups recently to talk about Keyhole Gardens and nutrition for HIV+ folks. Keyhole gardens are circular raised beds that are constructed right outside the door (close, easy to maintain & water). There are many organic layers of grass, manure and soil in the garden creating a small but healthy soil soup of nutrients. Ideally throughout the year these gardens can be an overflowing feast of vegetables. Keyhole gardens also have a "keyhole" constructed of sticks, grass and manure where "gray water" can be dumped. Culturally its not normal to use gray water on your food for Basotho, in an area where water isn't always available, its important to save every drop of water.

These workshops over the last month have been very successful for me and my role here as a Peace Corp volunteer. In reality I haven't "done" a lot, I didn't teach hardly at all at any of the workshops. My role for these workshops was to connect resources together especially with the local HIV extension workers, the community council and the Ministry of Agriculture farmers extension officers. I primarily met with the motivated extension officers talked together about what we thought should be introduced, made some colorful flipcharts & posters and they presented and organized everything. Over the few weeks that these workshops went on, about 70 health workers & support group members from 45 villages received training that they might not have received if I wasn't there to give a little encouragement and "push". Now my hope is for each village health worker and support group member to go back to their remote mountainous villages and teach and build workshops in their own communities. Next week I'll be working with a support group in my own village to construct 8 keyhole gardens for HIV+ folks &/or orphans and using seeds that were donated from home to help motivate.

Changes of Season

I walk past this tree and group of Aloe plants every day. Its just down the "road" from my house. I haven't taken a photo of it with snow yet, but will next year.

Mozambique Adventures.

I just returned from 2 weeks of traveling with three of my friends from Peace Corps - “The Permies” Amber, Casey, Kjessie and I originally trained together 1 year ago in Permaculture and have been great friends in this journey of Peace Corps Lesotho.

We started planning Mozambique vacation a few months ago, spending a few late nights at the Peace Corps office together oogling and ahhing over photos of sandy beaches, food and ocean.

Our amazing journey started on an early winter morning here in Lesotho. We all stayed at the Peace Corps transit house and in the early morning during winter we wear blankets and down coats inside the house. We knew we wouldn't need all those layers in Mozambique so we had a bit of a cold walk into Maseru to catch a taxi to the border post. I was happy to leave my hiking boots, wool socks and down clothing behind. Our first challenge was crossing the border into S.Africa, it's usually really easy because they rarely need to see our passports as we cross into S. Africa for the day, but we needed all the official stamps as we were crossing into Mozambique in a few days time. Anyway, we had some issues with my passport and KJ's. The last time we had crossed the border we were given the wrong stamps/stickers and they wanted to charge us a huge amount of money and were saying I was illegally in S.Africa... because I didn't have the right stamp... lots of drama and early morning stress as we tried to argue our way out of fines. After over an hour of headache we called Peace Corps and the amazing staff came down to the border to help us out and work with the border agent. All got cleared, we didn't have to pay any fines and we got the correct stamps we needed. We had missed our taxi to Bloemfontein and one of the Peace Corps staff came to our rescue and drove us the 2 hours to find our rental car.

At Bloemfontein airport we picked up our car from First Car Rental. We rolled into Bloemfontein and went straight to the grocery store. Visiting a real, big grocery store is always a stressful experience – so much stimulation, choices and it's a little stressful compared to Lesotho/village shopping. We picked up some “goodies” - snack foods we can't find in Lesotho like Mountain Dew “), Bagels & Cream cheese and then we hit the road. 12 hours of driving later through tons of construction in S.Africa we arrived in Nelspruit at midnight. The cheapest room available at the hotel had 2 single beds so the 4 of us got real cozy. We all got in a laughing fit at about 1 am as we were getting ready to fall asleep as I was sharing a tiny twin bed with Amber who is about a foot taller than I and it was really funny looking. We had a 1am call from hotel management to ask us to be quiet and to check and make sure there were only “2” people in the room. So much for being sneaky… A few hours of sleep and we were on the road again.

Despite the dry winter in S.Africa we drove through some beautiful country. As we got north towards Mozambique and Swaziland we passed orchards of oranges, fields of sugar cane, banana plantations etc. We had huge baboons cross the road in front of us and pulled over to take a picture of a huge giraffe that was chilling on the side of the road. Several times I thought to myself “Where am I?” Our border crossing out of S.Africa and into Mozambique was really smooth – we were so nervous after our first border crossing of the trip. After another full day of driving and getting lost around Maputo (the capital of Mozambique) trying to find a bank we arrived to our first destination – Tofo. We arrived late at night after driving through forests of palm trees on sketchy pot hole ridden roads in the dark dodging people on bicycles, goats, bags of coconuts etc. We made a grand entrance getting our small rental car stuck in the sand as we pulled into the backpackers right on the beach. At that point we said the hell with it, took off our shoes and squished our feet in the sand as we laughed our way to the check in, warm, humid salty air coating our skin. The sounds of waves crashing on the beach a stones throw away comforted me as I fell asleep under my mosquito net in the grass bungalow.

For several days we stayed in Tofo soaking in the sun and washing away our stress from Lesotho in the warm turquoise waves of the Indian Ocean. It took me several days to get in vacation mode and to “let go” of some of the stress I'd brought with me from Lesotho. KJ rented a surfboard and spent all day surfing while we walked along the beach, I journaled a lot, sketched and played with the dogs that were on the beach. It's the slow tourist season and it's not a really touristy area yet so most of the time we were the only “tourists” on the beach besides a few of the local surfers. We stayed at a place called Turtle Cove which was a peaceful and beautiful place to stay. The lodging and food was inexpensive and wonderful. The owners are really cool and we met some really interesting travelers from all over the world at meal time and around the campfire pit. Sitting under huge palm trees on comfy couches outside around a crackling fire with stars shining brightly above us... was truly wonderful.
Walking along the beach we passed many villagers collecting mussels and fishermen. It was interesting to see how the villagers lived and in my head I couldn't help but compare everything to Lesotho. As we walked along the beach or sat on a ridge above the surf we watched whales so close spraying water, slapping their tales and breaching. We also saw dolphins, colorful tide pools, colorful crabs scurrying across the white sand.

Amber, Casey and I jumped in the car after 5 days in Tofo. We decided to do a snorkeling trip in Vilanculos. The road to Vilanculos was insane; there were huge huge potholes in the semi paved stretches among sections of bright orange clay. We got 2 flat tires and a speeding ticket on the way there which created some adventures getting those fixed and asking for help. Our hero at the hostel – Usted helped us get our tires fixed and helped save us a ton of money. The snorkeling trip was so amazing. We took an hour boat ride out to an island and snorkeled along the reef all day. Our guides cooked us lunch on the boat of fresh crab, grilled fish, salad, rice and fresh pineapple, oranges and bananas (all local). It was my first time snorkeling in the ocean and I will never look at the ocean the same again. It was so incredible. I swam through huge schools of fish and saw more colors of fish than I ever imagined. There were large angelfish everywhere, vibrant tangs, orange blowfish, purple anemones, sea urchins, candy cane colored fish in blood red coral, enormous neon blue & green fish, eels, swordfish so many things. Casey and Amber said it was the most colors of fish they've every seen snorkeling, I was in heaven. That evening some guys we met at the the hostel cooked us an amazing meal of grilled fish, curry, salads. After 2 nights in Vilanculos we headed back to the more chill Tofo beaches for a few last days of beaches and warmth.

Our last night in Mozambique was spent in Maputo. We had a lot of adventure at the fish market where we bought fresh seafood and then took it to a “restaurant” where they prepared it for us. It was a crazy experience, four white girls walking into the local fish market created a lot of attention and competition between vendors. So much yelling in Portuguese which I was glad at that moment that I didn't understand the language. We waited a long time for our food to be prepared, but it was so worth it. It was a little stressful at first, all the shouting and decisions and bartering, but the best meal of fresh seafood I've ever had. We felt like were in a sitcom several times that night. So many funny things to laugh about that market experience.

We had many more adventures on our last few days of driving, including the 3rd flat tire, getting lost in Johannesburg at night, a 2nd rental car, and hitchhiking our way from Bloemfontein to Lesotho.

It was a liberating trip in a sense. I think about where I was a year ago and would have probably been really stressed or terrified about some of the things that happened on our road trip and vacation to Mozambique, but after a year of living in Africa and experiencing/dealing with so many different things has made me a more confident and experienced traveler.

Now it’s back to work here in Lesotho as I’m refreshed and ready for my second year as a PCV.

For more photos of the beautiful country of Mozambique follow this link:

Thanks Casey & Amber for sharing your photos! http://picasaweb.google.com/ponderosapam/MozambiqueMadness

Week at Kjessie's!

Just spent the week at Kjessie's site near Quting. We caught a rat, wore coveralls and fixed irrigation pipes, tamed a wild kitten, dealt with Basotho culture, boated across the river, ate a lot of popcorn, prepared permaculture training materials for the new group and even more adventure on her site across the Senqu. It was freezing cold! but we are headed to Mozambique in 3 days!

New Volunteers!

My first year in Lesotho anniversary was marked by the arrival of 23 bright eyed and bushy tailed volunteers. I am fortunate to be able to help with the training of the new group of Community Health and Economic Developement (CHED) volunteers this year and have been able to spend a lot of time with them. I was a “resident” trainer for their first week in Lesotho so in addition to getting to meet them all at the airport I got to spend the first week with them answering questions and providing some support. It was a fun experience.

The “newbies” flew into Maseru in the middle of the day so they got to see a bit of Lesotho. My group had walked across the border at 2am a year before. It was fun to see all their brand new clothes, shiny squeaky clean new hiking boots & shoes as they stood in line at customs. I knew they would be full of excitement and nervousness but wasn’t quite ready for the bombardment of questions immediately at the airport. Many had read my blog which was sort of a weird feeling and then many had questions like “what’s your project”, “what’s your house like”, “do you have pets?”, “do you have electricity?”, “whats ….. like?”.

Over the course of the week I answered a ton of questions about my experience, about Lesotho, about the Basotho culture, where to find things, and so much more. Some of the questions made me laugh like “where do you go to the bathroom? “Are there snakes in Lesotho”? Many of the questions made me reflect back on my first week arrival in country.

I’m at my “1st year mark/Mid service crisis” time. For me it hasn’t really been a “crisis” but a few things are challenging. Part of it has been a time of reflection on what I’ve accomplished this year, which is difficult to see and to measure. Another thing that is difficult about this time of year is the other CHED group is leaving some good friends are finishing their service as I type this. Many have left, but most will be gone by August/September. It’s tough to say goodbye to people whom have been sharing in this experience.

It was nice to get to spend some time with the “newbies” while they were still excited and energetic to be here in Lesotho. It was some good energy to be around at this point in my service. Also, the new group of volunteers is a great group that has a lot to bring to Lesotho. I’m looking forward to getting to know them better during the rest of their training and during the remaining part of my service.

Pumpkin Apple Bread Recipe - Peace Corps Style!

First, you plant some pretty little seeds in the soil and wait many months for the flower, then pumpkin to develop. Then you pick it with joy! Knowing that deliciousness awaits!

Then you carve the pumpkin purely for fun and to share this weird American tradition with your Basotho neighbors. Be sure to save the seeds so you can grow more pumpkins next year and trade the seeds with neighbors!

"Mokopu Man" (Pumpkin Man)

Then shred Mokopu man into many pieces.

Smile a lot because it's messy and fun to make pumpkin bread in Lesotho!

Then add some apples to the Mokopu pot and bathe the pumpkin and apples in ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, oil and sugar and heat it up til it's nice and mushy and yummy.

The pumpkin, apple, spice mix is delicious and you should definetly taste test a few spoonfuls but this is a bread "recipe" so you'll need to mix it with some eggs, flour, baking powder and maybe some other stuff. Be sure to mix by hand because it's way more fun and messy!

Poor the mixture in a bread pan - or metal bowl, place it on top of a empty tuna can with hole poked in it, in your big pot/ "dutch oven". Pop it on top of your 2 burner propane stove put the lid on, light up the stove and in about 45min-1hr you have some yummy yummy bread!

Yummy! Hot Fresh Pumpkin Bread!

Rock Climbing in S Africa

Yesterday I went rock climbing. It's the first time in over a year that I've felt the heat of the rock, the soreness and stiffness of arms, the freedom of heights, the wonderful company of other climbers and so much Peace. It was an incredible day filled with so much sunshine, good company and also great food. After climbing & hiking around for the whole afternoon we enjoyed the company of many folks from around the world at the Oldenburg Lodge & Game Park (where the incredible rock climbing was). We sat in front of a huge fireplace surrounded by people, dogs and we wolfed down delicious hamburgers the size of large plates :). Then back to Lesotho (a 20 min drive) on a star filled night. It was an amazing day!

A little Disturbing photo of me Belaying Sean and Adam backing me up so I don't fly up the wall if Adam took a "Zinger".

Sean is 6'9" and was trying to show me a "great bouldering route" I'm 5'1" and it was a little challenging/impossible following his lead.

I took this photo of Kjessie and I was feeling exactly the same way...

Thanks Sean for letting us borrow your gear and for taking out on the rock!