Since Durban we’ve had some quiet weekends back in the house. Some of our pupils are regularly around, to get help with home work, to play football or just to hang around for a chat. We learn just as much from them as them from us; they teach us Sesotho, traditional dances and games, how to cook maize on an open fire!, how to get rid of our rubbish, that our gate is NOT safe and that we should fix it, what plants are edible in the garden… you name it! These children are no older than 6-12, but they are incredibly streetwise. They report all neighborhood rumors about the Mokhoa (whities), back to us… very useful!
We are also happy to start making friends our own age. Some of the young teachers in our schools are nice to spend time with, and next weekend a bus load of us are going to Aliwal North hot springs in South Africa. Should be fun!
We are also getting more and more careful about of who we have around, and what things we show people. The word on the street is that the Mokhoa’s house has money from ceiling to the floor, unfortunately not true, but it has made us feel a bit unsafe! So now new locks have been fixed, our gate secured and the children are told to tell people that the rumors are not true.
Luckily we’ve got a good relationship with the big boss CHIEF, which people have a lot of respect for, so I think that helps on our security! (Apparently his interrogations involves a lot of beating!!!)
Getting to know the country better I realize the great contrasts here. Most of the time we go on with our everyday lives, go to school and teach, chat to the neighbors, enjoy time with friends, go to town for shopping, make our dinner, just to suddenly find out that the mother of a child in our class is dying (because the witches in the neighborhood has cast a spell on her…), another that the 10 year old boy visiting us after school is the head of his family, responsible for getting food on the table. The poverty we prepared ourselves for before we left, feels so different on the body than what we expected. It’s so different seeing it on TV and having it around you everyday…
What surprises me also, are the many witch stories we hear. They seem to be the way of explaining negative things that are happening, i.e. that someone has died of HIV/AIDS or that someone is mentally ill. The HIV/AIDS rate in Lesotho is close to 30%, and you see the effects of it in that people are often ill or run down and can not attend work, or that children are orphans and are taken care of by uncles or sisters etc. Young people are good at talking about it and are well informed, but there is still a great stigma around it, as it is so connected to multiple sexual partners. Something that seems to be more of a norm here, as both married men and women have concubines, and the unmarried ones have many boyfriends and girlfriends.
Some of my pupils have had serious conversations with me about how to keep the witches out of my house; keep the windows closed and invest in a cross to keep by my bed. What confuses me is that these witches seem to be actual named women living in the villages around here, not just made up characters… Room for more investigation here… Meanwhile I’m trying hard not to make any enemies!
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