Dear Family and Friends,
It’s been raining for four days – torrentially. The rain so defines our activities around here. On the first day of downpour Matjeeka and I ran around outside putting pails and basins under every stream coming from the roof to catch and store as much water as possible. We soon filled every available container. On day two there was a break between storms so we gaily started washing everything is sight - blankets, rugs our hair - you name it we washed it. We played like children splashing our wealth of water at each other. The next storm overtook our efforts so much of our well rinsed stuff is still in a soggy heap. Oh well, one thing’s for sure, the sun will shine again in the beautiful mountain kingdom of Lesotho.
Today I’m cooking. I was supposed to go to a meeting of the Boselee Association in Mate to help them work on their business plan but the river is much too deep for Lance (my horse) to cross and the paths are running torrents of rain and silt. I have a cadre of children who are happy to act as runners for me for a few coins. They have no problem traveling in this weather, in fact, they enjoy it. I sent several out this morning in various directions to deliver messages for me and request people I need to meet with to call on me today
Also, we just harvested a bunch of pumpkins. They are delicious! Yesterday I made pumpkin bread that we enjoyed in Matjeeka’s house last night at a Community Coop Committee meeting. Today I’m making pumpkin soup, pumpkin scones, pumpkin soufflé and roasted pumpkin seeds. Have I told you how I bake? There is, of course, no oven here but I bought a very large heavy cast aluminum pot. It’s 15” in diameter and 11” tall. I set an empty tuna can in the bottom of it and then a 13” diameter tempered glass plate on top of the can. It makes an amazingly efficient stovetop oven. Just now there is a nice pumpkin roasting in it. The focus of this weeks cooking class is, you guessed it – the incredible edible pumpkin.
Fall is in the air. Nights are getting chilly –in the low 50’s. We’ll soon start harvesting maize and sorghum. I went with some farmers to harvest wheat last week just before the rains started. What a job! I couldn’t believe how much effort goes into filling a 50 kg bag of wheat kernels. It’s a very organized process. Everyone knows what he or she is supposed to do. Men use scythes to cut down the wheat. Women follow them and gather it into big bundles. These bundles are carried over to a rocky place where women take small bunches and whack it against the rocks to make the kernels come off. The kernels are poured from one basket to another so the breeze can blow away the chaff. Finally, the precious kernels are poured into woven sacks to be taken to the mill or to be taken home and ground into flour on a grinding rock.
I worked with the women gathering the bundles for a while and then tried my hand at whacking the wheat on the rocks. I didn’t last very long – probably worked three hours at the most – it was exhausting. The men and women I was with worked from sun up to sunset. Their endurance is quite humbling.
The experience gave me a whole new respect for the flour I used to bake that pumpkin bread yesterday. This organically grown, stone ground, whole-wheat flour is, by the way, delicious.
Oh, my luggage was finally found. I was able to pick it up at the Maseru airport. That’s the good news. The bad news was that some customs inspector along the way decided to open the big can of Bear Creek Farms powdered cheddar cheese soup I’d bought at Sam’s Club – seal and all – and didn’t bother to put the lid back on. There was powdered cheddar cheese in every tiny crevice of every item in that suitcase. Fortunately, I was staying at the T. house so I dumped everything into the big bathtub and sent down the drain huge batches of weak soup. Even now my beautiful Briggs and Riley suitcase has a slight cheesy smell.
Oh well. At least it was good for some cheesy humor from my fellow PCV’s at the T. house. And, I’m thrilled to have all the treasures that were in that bag. The grandmother of the little orphan girl who got one of the winter coats said she slept in it! She refuses to take it off. My visitors this week have been fed tuna salad sandwiches with real mayo. And, of course, all that beef jerky – what can I say? This is really living!
Well, I think the pumpkin is done and it needs to cool before being turned into scones etc. It smells great in here. I’m expecting lots of visitors today to discuss the toilet and water tank project for the Primary school and want to have lots of snacks for them. We’re going to build the toilets in traditional Basotho style. They’ll be rondavels circa 1785 – the time of Moshoeshoe’s birth.
The idea of this project in addition to providing the school with sanitary latrines and water is to teach the young people in the village the various building crafts they will need to be skilled workers on the Cultural Village project. Today some of our old master craftsmen and women are stopping by so we can schedule training sessions in rope weaving, thatching and stonecutting. We’re going to pay them in food from the village coop. Also, the treasurer of the committee is coming over so we can set up the books for the project. I’ve really got to get busy.
I truly love this job. Everyday is interesting and different and challenging. I hope some of you will give a thought to doing a stint in the Peace Corps. Only I know the incredible pool of talent, generosity and endless capabilities this letter reaches in its distribution. Think about it. Being a Peace Corps Volunteer is fascinating, fun and a great adventure. You might really love it and at least from where I sit it sure seems that the world could use a few more PCVs.
With love from the warm heart of Africa,
Peggi
Theme: Go Red! Women and Heart Disease Awareness Month
