Round Two, Lesotho

It's time for an update on work and life in Lesotho. Last year August I was thinking I'd get better with Sesotho then start doing outreach to cover clinic villages with the community health volunteers to talk to patients about healthy living, nutrition, HIV testing and education, home gardening, mother and child nutrition, drug compliance for TB and HIV patients, etc. That was going to be my job and I was optimistic- scared and overwhelmed, but still enthusiastic.

Come February, my dear friend Pam wrote my a Valentine's Day poem that summed it up well:

"Tomatoes are red, mororho is green

Sometimes Lesotho life makes me scream

Valentine's Day sucks, especially here

Eat lots of bread and drink a cold beer

Hope "work" is well; how is your tan?

I'm still waiting for your visit to Mashai land..."

Everyone knew I hadn't made my primary project work out and instead spent hours hiking to keep myself sane (hence the sweet tan). Not only was I not ready to talk to people about health in Sesotho, but I'd become more wary of filling that role that in reality, community health workers should already be active in. I helped with a preschool just opening in March but mostly I showed up and spent time convincing the children I'm not so scary once you get past my skin pigmentation. We started and orphan's garden but it hasn't been well cared for (and even the preschool might be closing soon). We tried to start a library but the books are yet to be brought from Maseru. I talk to people on an individual basis about their HIV status. I made a few nutrition posters for the clinic. We tried to get people organized to fix a building in my village for a resource center/craft building/general meeting location but I'm still waiting for them to gather some info and resources for the grant and it's not lookin' like it'll get done - certainly not in time to submit the grant, get the money, buy materials and start/finish construction before I leave next fall (or spring, for you northerners). This is a disappointment to me but a huge let down to others who had high hopes for the project.

We gathered a group of women together to spin mohair to sell to weavers in Maseru and when I sat down to write this blog out at my house a few days ago, I had written that this too had fallen through. But on Wednesday they showed at my door with a bag of combed, cleaned mohair from baby goats to sell (unspun) to weavers in town. (The mohair from young goats is softer and finer and is used unspun by weavers. We decided to start the group off with this to get some money in their pockets before they start working on getting spinning materials together again). So it's not all falling apart. Some people are quite simply more motivated than others.

Which brings me to the present. I've given up on the village health workers stepping up and arranging dates for me to do outreach with them; short of one who had me come up to her village to build a keyhole garden I've had no one show any real interest in working with me. Now I try to make it to every monthly meeting and talk to them in my awkward Sesotho about nutrition or whatever I feel righteous about that week.

A few weeks ago a government pick up pulled up to my house and three people introduced themselves as extension workers for the Department of Agriculture and Food Security. They heard about that one keyhole garden we built up in Rapoleboea and want to work with me on similar outreach projects. I'm shock and thrilled that one of my best days in Lesotho amounted to more than just a small garden plot if the chain of events that have occurred as a result lead to more of the same demonstrations. So we've made plans to combine efforts on nutrition and gardening demonstrations in the future. Projects with government agencies and employees are often troublesome; already since I met these folks three weeks ago they've been away in Maseru for "meetings" and "workshops" for all but 3 days. Even if it does fall through, we've shared lots of information already and hopefully can continue to work together. They have a vehicle and, in theory, do outreach to various villages several times per week.

Fatima clinic is hopelessly understaffed - a problem found throughout Lesotho - and were down from 4-5 staff to 2 for August. So in addition to helping out on Thursday when mothers bring in children for malnutrition screening and vaccinations I've been showing up every day to register clinic patients and count out pills (if we have any drugs in stock). It's not challenging or all that rewarding, but with people coming in complaining of a headache simply because it's now a free visit the staff is inundated with patients. I know they appreciate some help and it makes for great forced-GRE study time.

Also very recently in the works is a possible night school for shepherd boys. Since these boys leave school early for a hard life making very little money they miss out on many opportunities. Some of nuns at Fatima and I are hoping to teach English in the evenings at the mission. We're still waiting for approval from "superiors" at the Catholic Church in Maseru, however, and to make it even slower one of the women leading the charge has left Ramabanta to care for a sick relative for an indefinite period of time. This is how HIV/AIDS effects not just our work, but any attempt at productivity; it permeates all aspects of life and hampers every effort at change.

As of a week ago, we have a youth group in Ramabanta that I'm working with; the "youth" of Lesotho are defined as any person 13 to 25 and I think there are women older than this even in our group. Most are married and had babies on their backs at our meetings this week but no males made an appearance. But they sought me out and want to start a large garden to raise vegetables and sell them to our local guest lodge and do HIV/AIDS awareness at rural schools. So we spent several days checking out the sight for the garden, making plans, finding seeds (some from you guys back home!), talking about intercropping and organic farming, and organizing a work plan. The leaders have energy and I'm really excited and hopeful for them - if they keep up the hard work of hauling water for the plants in the heat of summer, then they'll have completely restored my faith in working here.

And finally (the reason I'm currently in town), I'm staying active with our PC HIV/AIDS Committee, which I really enjoy. We serve as reps for our districts and are able to get some of the latest info on HIV/AIDS and give it to PCV's in our areas. There's so much to be done here working to fight the epidemic (with the third highest infection rate in the world) and acting on the committee allows me to be part of something much bigger than myself - especially when all my other projects fall through. We've started taking an active role in collecting information via PCV's in the most remote areas and compiling it to share amongst other volunteers and perhaps NGO's in Lesotho. At the most basic level, we share information among PCV's on successful projects. It's an amazing group to be part of.

I still pass many days by hiking and reading (on book number 80 in country). Kids show up on my doorstep to color on the backs of completed sudoku puzzles and old UN AIDS reports. The spring rain has teased us a bit but managed to pour on the day that I washed half my clothes in the morning only to have them re-rinsed on the line at lunch. Most importantly, I'm starting my garden again. Every day as it comes, remembering to laugh as much as possible. I've been here over a year and I'm far from understanding it all, but I do have a few things figured out: I know the best time of day for running without being joined by children, the days each month to avoid bank lines or pensioners collecting government checks, and the easiest days during the week to find hitches to town. I've got 9ish months left and by that time I might have even more of Lesotho figured out. Example? Why does this woman walk through my village beating a drum several times per month? No one can give me an explanation so far. She's always barefoot, it's always the same simple rhythm, and it's never at the same time of day or the same days of the week. And the strangest part: I never see her otherwise in the village.

Obviously I can't be finished here just yet.

Exhibit A of a before and after garden pick... this is my (beloved) winter garden- in the spring with the peach trees blooming. Come December I'll get a second shot up here.