Letters from Africa - Letter #21
Dear Family and Friends,
I’ve wanted to write you a letter to describe some of the stranger customs and beliefs here in the Mountain Kingdom. This lazy Sunday morning seems to be the perfect time to do so especially since recently it seems that I’ve been immersed in situations ruled by the Basotho culture.
One of them has to do with my horse, Lance. As you know he is a stallion.
Gentle as he is there is not a thing wrong with any of his hormonal instincts and when the herd boys have him out grazing with the cattle if there is a mare in season anywhere in the area he leads them a merry (excuse the pun) chase. Last week he completely succeeded in eluding capture until after he’d coupled with a lovely white mare.
This caused quite a stir. The owner of the mare, if she dropped a foal, would be indebted to me as owner of the stud. Also, unpre-arranged mating of animals is seen as very bad form and put my herd boy in the position of not doing his job.
I entered the situation when my herd boy, Mokabitso, arrived home leading Lance and followed by a rather large group of interested villagers. Mokabitso explained to me that to insure that Lance had not impregnated the mare he must now ride him at a full gallop until he is drenched in sweat and completely exhausted. I said, “Makabitso, the deed is done. Nothing we do to Lance will make any difference in whether that mare is pregnant.” He looked at me with the pity one gives to one who is blatantly uninformed or just plain stupid. The growing crowd of villagers enthusiastically backed his position. Matjeeka, who is a qualified home-health worker agreed – it must be done.
I seldom allow anyone to ride Lance. I said, “O.K. I’ll get the saddle and ride him.” This was met by gasps of horror. Lance had to be ridden bareback by a virile male or, of course, the cure wouldn’t work. The villagers were shaking their heads in disbelief – how could this educated Lekhooa (white person) be so stupid?
Lance was ridden until he could hardly walk. It took me an hour to just cool him down enough to put him in for the night.
I took this situation to my English class the next day to see if I could find a voice of reason among the very intelligent people in that class. Not one of them doubted the efficacy of this method of birth control. I drew a diagram – we talked about how the mating process works – the class evolved into biology and sex ed. I could not convince a single person to accept my viewpoint. The closest thing I got to any agreement was a statement that what I said may be true in other parts of the world but here in Lesotho this is how it works.
Here’s another bit of animal husbandry I’ll bet you didn’t know. Did you know that here in Lesotho if you mate your pig and she becomes pregnant the sow who seeded her must not be slaughtered until the piglets are born? If he is, all the piglets will die.
Just one more: Two nights ago one of our cows dropped a beautiful little calf. Matjeeka and I were out dealing with this situation – actually, Matjeeka was dealing with it; I was just holding the flashlight and making helpful comments like, “Holy Cow!”. Anyway, when the afterbirth came out we had to scoop it up with a stick and hang it in a tree! By now, of course, I know better than to argue. I just said, “Is this branch high enough?” The placenta carries the spirit of the animal and hanging it in the tree assures the off spring will grow strong and healthy and not get lost!?.
Everything is going quite well here. Our HIV/AIDS training last week was a resounding success. Over 100 people got tested for the virus – this is a bit of a record in this country where fear and denial rule in the area of HIV awareness. The caps I had printed with “I know My Status. Do You?” on them were so popular I’m convinced this should be a National Campaign. The trainers told their packed audiences that it means the same as saying “I’m smart and want to live. Do you?”
My own situation is still unclear. The woman with whom I could possibly have mixed blood in the dog bite incident tested positive for the virus so I am still taking the post exposure medication. The good news is that it is very effective and my exposure risk was small to begin with – but to say I don’t want to take any chances is a huge under statement. The medicine is quite dreadful. I feel sick all the time but there are only 7 days left of taking what I now term my “nasty pills”.
The great news is that two of my wonderful sisters, Patty and Pam, are arriving here on July 27th. I should be 100% again by then and we’re planning a really nice vacation beginning here in the village and ending in Capetown, South Africa. You will, of course, get a full report.
That’s about it from here. I hope your summer is passing pleasantly and that this letter finds you well and happy.
With love from the heart of Africa,
Peggi
