May 22, 2001
Hello from Lesotho! Chilly but sunny this morning. We’ll take it! The rainy season which starts in October normally ends about now. We’ve had a week of brilliant sunshine and warm easy days to bring in the dry season. It feels good even if I’m wearing a fleece vest for a few hours each day.
Lynn and I have been forced to realize that our two year stint in the Peace Corps is quickly coming to an end. Ouch! We have about forty days left and will be busy with our projects down to the wire. Last week we drove with four other Volunteers in a rented taxi to Maseru for our close of service conference. The Peace Corps put us up at the Maseru Sun Hotel for three days and nights of, well, decompression. This is an up-end lodging and we all overate the breakfast lunch and dinner buffets – day after day. The rooms had tubs with hot water (not the dip and pour bathing we know so well!) and carpets and TV and views over the hotel’s manicured gardens and pool. What a treat! I didn’t hear anyone say “We don’t deserve this!” It was fun and perhaps more importantly, a necessary first step in letting go of this exotic life we’ve been immersed in. After almost two years, we’re all different peoples. My own life has changed again, a process that was first started thirty-three years ago as a PCV in Burkina Faso, then again, in the ’80′s, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines with my wife, Lynn. Now our travel and environmental interests are calling us to spend further time in Africa, perhaps making videos. This idea hadn’t even crossed our minds twentythree months ago. Every COSing Volunteer is also wrestling with a new view of life and new dreams for the future. It’s an exciting time for us all and we talked about it last week for hours!
The Letter from Lesotho began as a project to give incoming Peace Corps trainees a sense of what day to day life was like for Volunteers in Lesotho. I thought I might conclude my letter writing tenure with some brief thoughts on surviving, and flourishing for two years in the developing world:
- Make a life, and a home, at your site! This seems obvious, but we regularly see Volunteers trying to escape this necessity with relentless trips back and forth to Maseru and/or overindulgence in Peace Corps’ too generous committee/meeting schedule. Lynn and I have spent 90% of our time at our sites. Our home and friends and students are all here in Qacha’s Nek. We’ve made some good friends, too, in South Africa, through business relationships. Lynn pitched in early and made a terrific flower and vegetable garden. We’ve had fresh produce on our table daily since (we built a cold frame for winter) and fresh-cut flowers for the FTC offices as well Fun!
- follows from 1) Build a routine! We get up at 5:30 every morning, listen to South African public radio (excellent!), the BBC (outstanding!) or VOA (mediocre!) to check up on the world and have a leisurely cup of filter coffee. Then we run or walk three miles on the Qacha’s Nek airport runway (you need to exercise!). We prepare to teach our classes in small business, English, computers and cabinetmaking and we try never to miss a class (we’ve missed a few, but with good reason). For several hours a day we read, write letters, make grant proposals, entertain visitors, work in the yard, do laundry, buy groceries, cook, play with our cat Deekausi ( Socks), but we always are trying to make it a full day. After supper, we ritually have tea or coffee and a piece of South Africa’s to-die-for dark chocolate with almonds. We usually turn in about the same time each night – 9:30 PM. This may seem like irrelevant, even boring(!) information, but it keeps morale up and prevents huge holes in the day which can mess up your mind … sitting, brooding, far from the States.
- I hate buzzwords, but be pro-active! If there were an eight hour a day job waiting for you, we wouldn’t need the Peace Corps, right? Plan to make things happen. Join the struggle against AIDS; it’s enormously important and Peace Corps will show you how build a solar cooker, help start small businesses (we love this part!), start cooperatives, plant trees, get grants to build small schools or libraries (local people will help you along), teach an English class, raise poultry, teach your favorite hobby there’s so many things to do in Lesotho and yet, we’ve seen Volunteers declare there wasn’t a job and go back to the States, unhappy. Assert yourself! That’s what Americans are famous for, isn’t it?
- Learn who you are! Peace Corps is a golden opportunity to test yourself, to see life differently, to live simply without TV or bullshit consumerism or traffic jams, to take pleasure in simple conversations, to slow down (!), to drink in the stunning natural beauty of Lesotho and southern Africa. There are thousands of new plants and animals to stimulate your curiosity! Take a deep breath. You’re living in Africa. If you can do this and enjoy the experience, then you can you anything you want with you life! Amen.
Since returning from Maseru last weekend, we’ve been busy. Our workshop is building a beautiful pine sewing/cutting table for one of our small business start-ups. Thabo and Leboneng are painting and fixing up their cabinet shop building. Lynn’s computer students are spending hours each day mastering this brave new world and with such enthusiasm.
Just as everything was rolling smoothly along, I chanced to happen on a bad pick-up truck accident across the road from our Farmer Training Centre on Sunday afternoon. The seven occupants were the majority of our youthful Chinese business community, including a baby. They speak little English and some were unconscious. Everyone was in shock and bleeding. I stopped a pick-up truck and, with help, loaded people inside for the run to our local hospital, Machabeng. There, I found one of our capable Nigerian doctors coming out of surgery. Without missing a beat, he set to work with a Basotho nurse cleaning, treating and stabilizing his very distraught patients. Other hospital workers arrived I stood in the middle of this controlled frenzy for some minutes I saw that even in their distress the Chinese women were still so beautiful with full red cheeks across their broad faces. Africans took charge. There was no racism in that emergency room, I thought to myself, I belong here. There’s a uniqueness to my life and always some small way to help. I realized I will miss this life in the mountains of Lesotho very, very much …
Always and ever, best wishes.,
Eric Thomson, PCV, Qacha’s Nek, Lesotho
October 23, 2000
Hello from Lesotho!
The rains have started in the mountains. Almost every afternoon clouds roll up from the KwaZulu Natal lowveld and ,around dinnertime, we get a good thrashing thunderstorm. Tonight, we turned off SAFM radio when the rain on the tin roof made conversation impossible. Then we noticed our cat cowering under the couch (a used car bench seat) and decided with a nod or two that we’d broken our in-house decibel level record of last February. Will this year’s wet season break the record set last year? Lynn has a rain gauge, so we’ll report when the rainy season expires, usually around May. The good news: it was sunny almost all day long. Today I had to deliver laying chicken nesting boxes for our two new graduates who’ve started a cabinet shop. The destination school was about an hour and a half out of our camp town. What a perfect trip! Suddenly, it’s summer in Qacha’s Nek district: green, green mountains and valleys with lots of new lambs and kid goats sprinting around the countryside. Wildflowers are out, a little tentatively still, but good variety. I saw and photographed a new yellow iris, my third type. Also, there were stands of diminutive aloe in full bloom with tubular orange blossoms. Always plenty to distract the driver on Qacha’s “cliffy” back roads.
The Peace Corps, still, catches me emotionally when I least expect it. Thursday, I accompanied my above mentioned new cabinetmakers to MatatielIe, South Afdca, to visit hardware vendors and to see a production cabinet shop owned and operated by Collin Whittle, a business acquaintance and friend. Coincidentally, I’ve been reading about apartheid in a set of used World Book encyclopedias recently arrived here at the Farmer Training Centre. Our students come to us from seriously impoverished families, a fact I’m reminded of each time I see their taped together shoes. As an American, I guess I never considered at length how little exposure these young adults have to the creature comforts we’re so used to. In one four hour period these two twenty year old boys, for the first time in their lives, met South African white businessmen (who often shook their hands; merchants are always looking for new customers, right?), visited a woodworking shop with pneumatic tools (unimagined) and fabulous floor machinery (saws, planers, jointers, belt sanders), wandered gape jawed through a first-world supermarket with racks of barbecuing chickens and frozen orange juice (and ice cream bars. Yes, we tried those!). Finally, we toured the residential neighborhoods and I’m afraid this is where your hard-bitten reporter had a tear in his eye. At a primary school we saw black and white students, completely integrated, chasing each other around the playground during recess. And the teacher was East Indian! Readers, this is not liberal Capetown. Matatielle is an out of the way community far from the power centers of South Africa – six years after the Mandela elections. It’s not perfect, but even here, many people are involved in a more inclusive future than anyone dreamed of just a blink of the eye ago. Back in Lesotho, Lynn asked the boys how they like Matatielle. Haholo!!, they answered (a lot!!) They’re hard at work on their first cabinet orders, with their new Irish Aid tools.
Kruger National Park
Traveler’s note. We are recently returned from an extensive trip into Kruger National Park, the famous, huge (200 miles long) game reserve. The quality of the experience was superb. The campgrounds are immaculate with bathroom facilities that shame the American national parks AND swimming pools in many locations. We also stayed in rondaval lodgings with spectacular views over the African bush. These were well maintained and complete with kitchens and fridges and thatched roofs ($50 a night). We wallowed in our safari adventure. Everyday brought new sightings. The animals are of course thrilling but also the birdlife and biodiversity in general delighted us daily. In the evening we took ranger-led night drives in open land rovers. In the morning we explored the area around our rest camp and then hung out at the pool and camp in the afternoon. No Crowds and the dollar is at record strength against the South African Rand. We felt no safety concerns whatsoever on our trip (use common sense) There are some South African school holidays when Kruger can reportedly be busy (check on these) but in a lifetime of budget global junkets this experience ranked right at the top for value fun and intellectual interest. A highlight? On our last day we drove to the very top of the park where the borders of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique intersect (!). The Limpopo River oozes along here and we first encountered it at the end of a lengthy dirt road, winding through a canopied forest. There were no other people around as I turned off the car motor and we listened to bird calls. We glassed elephant tracks along the Mozambique side of the river. It was then, we noticed that all the drift wood littering the Limpopo shore was in fact, crocodiles. There are still wild places in Africa to discover. And to enjoy a small shiver up your spine.
All best wishes,
Eric & Lynn
November 19, 2000
Hello from Lesotho! Sometimes when you live on the roof of Africa you’re in the clouds. We’ve been more or less socked in for the last three days, but only after a patch of perfect spring weather. Lynn’s flower projects are bringing big smiles to all who visit our Farmer Training Center. The secret ingredient: chicken manure Her roses are covered in blossoms in ten different shades. The mixed flower beds are ‘stop and stare’ beautiful, especially the bright red poppies. We have our new students mowing and weedwacking our sizable lawns and they’re learning to handle this machinery carefully and with a certain precision. Our D.A.O. (district supervisor for the Ministry of agriculture) dropped by Friday and was generous is his praise for the many, many hours Lynn devotes to gardening and landscaping here at the cente. One of the most powerful tools Peace Corps Volunteers have at their disposal is to teach and lead by example. It’s fun!
We are both so proud to see our recent graduates starting their new small businesses. Even in Lesotho the problems, while on a smaller scale, aren’t so different from what we face daily in business the U.S. One or my carpenters showed up with a long face the other day. Tiohang has jobs, but is having difficulty getting materials to his distant site. Together we bought lumber and pressboard and paint, etc. and then negotiated the materials onto the roof of one of the long haul buses that leave Qacha’s Nek several times a day. Two bo-ausi (young women) checked in to report their restaurant is up and running (we’ve seen it) , but their landlord wants them out now that they’ve proved their business model, so he can start his own restaurant. Ouch. This is why we have contracts. Even if they have to move they’ll do fine. Thabo and Leboning, our best cabinetmaking graduates, are already doing beautiful work. They’ve just completed a desk with drawers and lockable cabinets for our new computer center here at school where Lynn will teach. Visitors are impressed at the quality, something I’ve stressed daily for a year. They’re proud, we’re all proud. Glitch: it’s taking forever to get electricity hooked up to their shop (paid for by the Canada Fund) and write a contract for their building. But it will happen over the new few weeks (be patient, PCV) and their first big job is to build fifty school desks for a nice profit. These young adults are seeing their life prospects improve before their eyes and we, and our co-workers, can’t help but be excited with them.
So it’s a skunky weather day. What to do to keep the spirit strong? Lynn and I ran our airport runway this morning in the rain. Hey, it’s not a cold rain. We’re sending out our Christmas mail, playing with our cat, reading, chatting. Happy. Cheers to all.
Eric & Lynn
Editorial note: This letter is a little different. Some time back I wrote to Eric telling him of a visit I had from new PCVs about to go to Lesotho. I explained to him that I had some doubts about what I’d told them simply because my own PCV service was 20 years ago, and things change. Sure the culture and climate would be the same – but could you still get Oreos at Spar? Is there still a Spar? This is his response:
December 14, 2000
Dear Bill,
Got your letter. Thanks for taking the time to keep snail mail alive! I hope most of your questions are answered in this month’s Lesotho letter. RSA really does have everything these days, particularly now that the sanctions have been lifted. There are even the European equivalents of Sam’s Club and Price Club with brand name consumer goods stacked to the ceiling ( Bloomfontein, Pietermaritzberg, etc.). Ladybrand now has two first-rate supermarkets, including a Spar, the Dutch owned company that is the worlds leader. They stock Old El Paso shell tacos, sauces, etc., imported either from the States or Australia. You get the drift.
We spoke to the new trainees at Roma a few weeks back and had a chance to meet your new Anchorage acquaintances on the other end of their long plane ride. They look like good PCV material and we enjoyed talking to them. BUT, the big surprise was the round of applause we received after our brief remarks. It turns out that almost all the trainees had visited your website and felt they knew us! Several came up afterwards and thanked us, saying it was the best info they could find on Lesotho. Hurray! These are the folks we’re trying to reach, since we couldn’t get the ‘feel’ of Lesotho anywhere when we were accepted.
On this same theme, yesterday a German walked into our farm office and was waving a printout of the “Letter from Lesotho” – with photos from the site. He said he and his wife had read all the letters and really enjoyed the approach. This sort of left my head shinning because I think, like you, we haven’t appreciated the potential of what the Friends of Lesotho site is doing. Last month an American couple drove from Sani Pass to the farm here to meet us (we were in Maseru) after seeing the site and left a lovely note. We also know Volunteer families visit the site regularly.
Quite honestly, I’ve been sending you the photos assuming you personally might find them interesting. It never occurred to me you might be posting them on the website. Great idea. I’ll try and keep sending them. Are the color copier copies Ok quality (also now available in Maseru and RSA)?
Finally, thanks again so much for doing a terrific job on the Alaska end of this transaction. I wonder if other Peace Corps countries are doing this? You might call the Lesotho desk (1-800-424-8580 – remember this number from being a PC recruitment manager twenty five years ago!) and nudge them sometime.
Thanks again.
Best regards,
Eric
P.S. Peace Corps funded a beautiful computer, printer, et. al. for Lynn’s teaching. I’ll send a photo by and by.
December 14, 2000
Hello from Lesotho! We are receiving above average rainfall again this year. Last week we were getting drenched for several days in a row, then high pressure and glorious sunshine for three or four days. This week’s a repeat. Happily, I’m tapping away on our farm office computer after a perfect mountain summer day. The Drackensberg mountain resorts in South Africa refer to this weather as “champagne air”. A little chilly in the mornings and evenings, 75 degrees midday, and then put on a wool blanket or two at night – great sleeps assured, even with the roosters to remind you you’re in Africa.
The Peace Corps trains two cycles of new Volunteers each year in Lesotho. Current trainees will swear in and move to their sites in early January. The next group will arrive in early May, if I’m not mistaken. Lynn and I have been compiling lists of what to bring (and what not to bring) to supplement the lists supplied by Peace Corps Washington. This week I got a nice letter from Bill Dunn in Anchorage, our webmaster for the Friends of Lesotho website, asking for more info along these same lines. There’s nothing definitive about this list. Just remember there are only two kinds of travelers: those who travel light and those who wish they had . . .
Basically, because South Africa surrounds our beautiful mountain kingdom, we can get anything. Here am a few of life’s necessities, and pleasures we get no sweat:
* great filter coffee; also the hand plunger coffee makers are readily available in S.A.
* all types of batteries, including AA are here.
* Kodak, Fuji and Agfa film AND pretty good developing is available in Maseru; and towns Volunteers frequent in RSA. Film is cheaper in the US so bring a good supply and restock here as you need to. Print and slide film are available as are camera batteries. I shoot 200 ASA with some 400 ASA in wildlife parks when dawn/dusk light is iffy.
* Great milk and dark chocolate (with almonds) is made in South Africa. Cheap! I didn’t know this, so brought a pound of M&M’s to get us through training.
* ATM cash machines are in Maseru and all over RSA. If possible bring your VIS/MC to use if you need supplemental cash for vacations or splurges. This is a big help; you don’t need to carry wads of cash.
* Teva knock-offs, hiking boots and running shoes are all readily available at OK prices. Quality will depend on what you spend, but good footwear is no problem. Note: I run and have really enjoyed the trailrunners I bought. Good, sturdy soles and perfect for daily wear in many circumstances.
* Food. At rural sites variety is restricted, but Lynn and I (and many Vols) make regular forays into South Africa where they have Supermarkets! Some of these are easily equal to what you experience in the States: blueberry jam, semolina pasta, ice cream, excellent cheap wine (like $1.25), filet mignon for the price of hamburger at home, great fruit yogurt, cashews, raisins, cheap and delicious fruits and veggies. We are currently wading through the mango season; the jumbo pounders arrive in January (30 cents) and eat like cantaloupe, which we are currently enjoying. These occasional treats are incredibly meaningful when you’re a PCV!
Here’s a quick “to bring” list:
* Lots of photos Friends, family, pets (how weird are you?), favorite vacation spots, typical American towns and cities, campus life, forests (we don’t have ‘em), scenery, farm animals, horses, etc. We brought lots of photos of the Utah canyon lands, which we love, and we look at these pictures all the time. It’s comforting. Also people you get to know will really enjoy seeing how your life in America looks. Hot tip: bring lots of National Park type calendars available at places like Wal-Mart. They make great gifts and sell for around $3 at discount stores. I wish I’d brought a Rand-McNally road atlas to help plan that “victory lap” when our Peace Corps tour is finished!
* Bring a good shortwave radio with FM and cassette deck (CD’s and cassettes are for sale everywhere, but aren’t particularly cheap. Too bad, since you’ll get sick of the ones you bring and have to buy more.) We always listen to the shortwave BBC and SAFM (both first- rate). That’s right, you can listen to classical music and Mississippi Delta blues, etc. on South Africa’s public radio. As I write this our students are in the next room practicing fabulous Basotho traditional songs in multi-part harmonies. It’s thrilling.
* Swiss Army knife and, possibly, binocs. Bird watching is a passion for us and South Africa is out of this world: great raptors, cranes, storks, louries, everything, including owl eagles. * Lynn adds these: cheap altimeter (we run at 6200′) and map of Africa. The later you can stare at for hundreds of hours in disbelief that you live in such a remote corner of the world!!
* We brought International Driver’s licenses, but current US licenses work fine if you find yourself behind the wheel on vacation, etc. Peace Corps issues photo ID’s.
* Bring your e-mail address book. We don’t have internet access yet at our site (few Vols do), but the Peace Corps office has internet access for Volunteers and somehow, almost everywhere we go in South Africa, we find a way to check our e-mail. Do not expect to have regular access to the internet, though. Some Volunteers, we notice, seem to assume this goes with the job these days. It doesn’t. Not here, not yet. Living largely without TV, phones and computers is a good reality check for us Americans. Don’t worry, you won’t miss the celebrity tabloids much, either! (“Say, what about that new Ron Popeil chicken bar-be-que AND rotisserie??”) Webmaster Dunn reports that 1000 to 1500 people a month from the US, Europe and South Africa are reading these pale missives each month. I can’t tell you what fun it is to share this special time in our lives. As we approach our Summer solstice here, Happy New Millennium!
All best wishes,
Eric Thomson
Qacha’s Nek,Lesotho
Eric: Are we still living in a world of the only pepper being white, and the only cheese being Gouda? I’d also suggest bringing raingear and camping gear. Water purification stuff is needed only while camping, and even then it’s not usually critical, just use common sense. Stoves should use kerosene. Audio cassettes of your local radio station are interesting and good barter items (don’t cut the ads or traffic reports, you’ll love the reminders of where you are). Many items can also be acquired from departing Volunteers. Be sure to see the film The Gods Must be Crazy.
Peace Corps who return from Asia come back religious. Peace Corps who return from South America come back revolutionaries. Peace Corps who return from Africa come back laughing.
-need to add images-
February 24th, 2001
Hello from Lesotho! This month’s weather report is quite immediate! We’re in the middle of a crashing thunderstorm. Let’s hope our surge protector is working since this is my only opportunity to write before we drop down to South Africa first thing tomorrow for supplies. We’re still having lots of sunny days with occasional rain systems and the, always gripping, Lesotho mountain electrical storms. Our cat dives under our bed when these demons strike and cannot be coaxed out until the noise is over. We went to Maseru this month and noted that the Lesotho lowlands were very dry with some maize crops showing real signs of stress. Ninety percent of the country’s population lives in the lowlands, so some food shortages are a possibility. I read in the newspaper that one farm in the adjacent Free State, South Africa, hadn’t had rain for 68 days The thunderstorm cells are quite random here, just like New Mexico where we reside in the States, and rainfall varies considerably from camp town to camp town. We’ll keep our fingers crossed.
Lynn has our beautiful new computer up and running, so our students are getting their first look at the world according to Microsoft Encarta. Initial observations: they looked at pictures from California and did NOT know Mickey Mouse or other Disney characters (Lesotho does not have a McDonalds, either). To understand photos of Yellowstone’s hot spring pools, we had to go to pictures of Hawaii’s volcanoes shooting up geysers of red hot lava. Now we know that the center of the earth is hot and liquid. Pretty fun to see the wonderment on our students’ faces. My woodshop has new floor tools trickling in (courtesy of Peace Corps SPA grants) and I am enjoying again the opportunity of teaching cabinet and furniture making to these young adults. The most basic lessons include working carefully and with precision – skills most young people here haven’t had to draw on. Soon enough, though, they’ll be seeing the beauty of a well cut right angle and a clean splined joint!
Lynn has another order of 15 glasses coming this week from her eye exam clinic project. Most are students. I perhaps alluded to this earlier, but with an AIDS pandemic swirling around us, the major complaint has been that there are no condoms available. Lynn and I purchased a simple dispenser and have access to condoms for 60 cents a hundred (!) We put up the dispenser in our conference hall here at the Farmer Training Centre and 700 have been distributed in two months. (People are quite shy about their personal lives, of course, so this is a good anonymous location.) We’ve been dismayed at how much of the AIDS initiative in Africa has been meetings and more meetings. So we’re trying to do our small part to give these wonderful Basotho what they need to stay alive. This tiny effort, which takes five minutes a week, may be the most important contribution we make in the Peace Corps.
I’d be a liar if I denied that major reading opportunities aren’t one of the most delicious side benefits of this job! Long evenings with no TV, unscheduled Delays, breakdowns, weekends rain cancelled events, etc. leave generous time to read. Experienced Vols ALWAYS pack a good book. Recent reads include Robert Kaplan’s An Empire Wilderness on the strains in the American social fabric. Tom Friedman’s popular The Lexus and the Olive Tree on globalization, good and bad, and a hair raising account of the first descent of the entire Amazon from 18,000′ in Peru to the sea in one man kayaks. The author is Joe Kane; the book and its exact title have already disappeared into the Peace Corps book reader’s universe to be read again and again and again. Tip to new volunteers: bring a few books from the States pass ‘em on. Our one indulgence is a New Yorker subscription. Fabulous. Pass ‘em on…
Finally this month we change country directors. Carol Chappell (RPCV Russia) who has done a terrific job of rebuilding Peace Corps Lesotho after the political upheavals of 1998 is retiring and we are welcoming Christine Djondo (RPCV Cameroon) and her family to share our hopes and dreams in Africa!
Eric and Lynn
Qacha’s Nek
March 21st, 2001
Hello from Lesotho! It’s been fun enjoying a long lingering summer in the southern hemisphere knowing many of you readers are shivering through a long winter! Sadly our smugness is about to end. The days are quickly starting to shorten. Our daily walk or run which gets launched at 6:00 am now has to be postponed until 6:30. And it’s pretty dark at 6:30 pm. No real surprise here for your correspondent; today is the equinox… Reports are still coming into Qacha’s Nek that much of the Lesotho lowlands are very dry. Partial crqp failures are evident. Up here in the highlands we continue to have a good mix of weather. Less rain than last year but adequate for the maize (corn) crop. Right now we have sweet corn, tomatoes, zukes, herbs, green peppers (!) cucumbers and carrots spilling out of Lynn’s garden. And two kinds of lettuce, so daily salads and stir frys are on our table. Lynn will plant our cold frame with winter lettuce in May … it’s been a good summer
Our Farmer Training Centre hosted an AIDS conference two weeks ago. 
Lynn and I watched carefully to see how this event would come off. The participants were young farmers from our district along with six of our own FTC students, around 25 in all. The Ministry of Agriculture supplied the facilitator and several assistants from Maseru. Wow! For SIX days these people did peer training with the participants (ages 18 to 24) so that they can go back to their communities and preach the AIDS awareness gospel. Most of these young adults have never had frank sexual discussions or detailed understandings about gender anatomy or most certainly the horrific truth about HIV infections. The sessions went from 8:00 am until 10:00 pm most days. We couldn’t believe the energy in our conference hall. There were debates for hours about relationships, human sexuality, relating to people who are HIV positive, etc. And for respite they did what Africans everywhere do so beautifully: they sang. The prime minister’s wife visited and addressed the
participants and our students with her serious message: AIDS is killing us and if you personally are not careful, you will die. Our FTC condom dispenser has never been so patronized as the converted loaded up! This was for Lynn and I, one of the first hopeful signs in this drawn-out human catastrophe. Africans taking responsibility for their health and safety was wonderful to behold. And as Peace Corps workers, to be the only whites present for something so powerful, yet intimate, was, of course, very special for us. The facilitator, ‘M’e Molly, revealed that this was her 23rd AIDS seminar with many more to come!
Our new students have been with us for several months now, and we are so pleased to see their accomplishments. Recall that most of these young adults come from deeply impoverished backgrounds. To see them learning computer skills, using the machinery in our terrific woodshop, maintaining with pride our campus grounds, working in their gardens or bringing in the milk and eggs from the lower farm, we are regularly delighted. They’ve even organized a choral group and we hear the music several evenings a week as they practice. They are a solid group and we wish them a bright future!
All best wishes from Qacha’s Nek (and an early Spring up North!)
Eric and Lynn
April 19th, 2001
Hello from Lesotho! A definite chill in the air as I write tonight from our perch in the Maluti Mountains. We even heard on the radio of a threat of snow showers for the high mountains over Easter weekend. No snow, but April is a definite cooling do~ month. The Lesotho lowlands will be balmy a while longer. We have surprising tall colors in play right now. Poplars and cottonwoods, oaks and maples, all gifts from the British decades back, taking their turns here and across South Africa as the seasons change. In the night sky, Orion’s Belt and the Southern Cross are prominent. With shorter days, Lynn and I are more aware of a great swath of the night sky filled with the Milky Way. There are way fewer thunderstorms in April, but warm air off of the Indian ocean can still cross Kwazulu Natal, in South Africa, and trigger electrical sound and light shows when the warm fronts collide with our mountain air.
Everybody in Peace Corps Lesotho has good things to say about our new country director. We must be the last people to still not have met her. We rarely venture into Maseru, since we have busy lives here at our Farmer Training Centre,. Director Christine has a visit scheduled in Qacha’s Nek May 2nd, so we’ll get to introduce ourselves soon!
We’re both surprised at how much we’ve enjoyed our new class of students. They’re bright and eager to learn and very responsible about their “duties” here at the FTC. They help out in the kitchen, milk the cows, manage their garden plots, mow the grass, collect eighty eggs a day and help keep our school looking like the University of Lesotho at Qacha’s Nek. It’s not the U. of L., but we aim high! In between they are punctual for their classes and would never dream of being. disrespectful of their teachers. I have one slow boy about 18 who somehow got into our program, but should not be here, He’s a sweet kid, but unable to succeed in his coursework. Recently I had to forbid him to use the woodshop power tools because he’s a danger to himself. The very next day he sneaked into the shop, after class, and promptly cut the tip of his finger off on a jointer. God help me! I rushed him to our local hospital where one of our Nigerian doctors immediately went to work on the injury. Very professionally he stitched the boy up and we got pain killers and antibiotics from the hospital pharmacy. Total bill: ten maluti (about $1.25!) This price included multiple return visits to dress the wound. The boy has been looking pretty depressed since and it’s bothered me, too. Twenty five years ago when I was just starting my furniture making career, I lost the tip of my finger on the same machine when a piece of cherry unexpectedly shattered. It hurt! And I know what Tobang a going through…
I’m currently reading a book, Living Poor, by Moritz Thomsen, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador years ago. His struggles remind me that this experience is only partly about development work Day in and out the extraordinary people we work with ratchet our lives up and down. I can’t think of anything in my life that’s touched me so deeply as living with the least well off on this planet and sharing the dailiness of their small, poignant lives.. Only in the Peace Corps…
All best wishes ‘from Qacha’s Nek,
Eric Thomson and Lynn Forbes
May 22, 2001
Hello from Lesotho! Chilly but sunny this morning. We’ll take it! The rainy season which starts in October normally ends about now. We’ve had a week of brilliant sunshine and warm easy days to bring in the dry season. It feels good even if I’m wearing a fleece vest for a few hours each day.
Lynn and I have been forced to realize that our two year stint in the Peace Corps is quickly coming to an end. Ouch! We have about forty days left and will be busy with our projects down to the wire. Last week we drove with four other Volunteers in a rented taxi to Maseru for our close of service conference. The Peace Corps put us up at the Maseru Sun Hotel for three days and nights of, well, decompression. This is an up-end lodging and we all overate the breakfast lunch and dinner buffets – day after day. The rooms had tubs with hot water (not the dip and pour bathing we know so well!) and carpets and TV and views over the hotel’s manicured gardens and pool. What a treat! I didn’t hear anyone say “We don’t deserve this!” It was fun and perhaps more importantly, a necessary first step in letting go of this exotic life we’ve been immersed in. After almost two years, we’re all different peoples. My own life has changed again, a process that was first started thirty-three years ago as a PCV in Burkina Faso, then again, in the ’80′s, as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Philippines with my wife, Lynn. Now our travel and environmental interests are calling us to spend further time in Africa, perhaps making videos. This idea hadn’t even crossed our minds twentythree months ago. Every COSing Volunteer is also wrestling with a new view of life and new dreams for the future. It’s an exciting time for us all and we talked about it last week for hours!
The Letter from Lesotho began as a project to give incoming Peace Corps trainees a sense of what day to day life was like for Volunteers in Lesotho. I thought I might conclude my letter writing tenure with some brief thoughts on surviving, and flourishing for two years in the developing world:
- Make a life, and a home, at your site! This seems obvious, but we regularly see Volunteers trying to escape this necessity with relentless trips back and forth to Maseru and/or overindulgence in Peace Corps’ too generous committee/meeting schedule. Lynn and I have spent 90% of our time at our sites. Our home and friends and students are all here in Qacha’s Nek. We’ve made some good friends, too, in South Africa, through business relationships. Lynn pitched in early and made a terrific flower and vegetable garden. We’ve had fresh produce on our table daily since (we built a cold frame for winter) and fresh-cut flowers for the FTC offices as well Fun!
- follows from 1) Build a routine! We get up at 5:30 every morning, listen to South African public radio (excellent!), the BBC (outstanding!) or VOA (mediocre!) to check up on the world and have a leisurely cup of filter coffee. Then we run or walk three miles on the Qacha’s Nek airport runway (you need to exercise!). We prepare to teach our classes in small business, English, computers and cabinetmaking and we try never to miss a class (we’ve missed a few, but with good reason). For several hours a day we read, write letters, make grant proposals, entertain visitors, work in the yard, do laundry, buy groceries, cook, play with our cat Deekausi ( Socks), but we always are trying to make it a full day. After supper, we ritually have tea or coffee and a piece of South Africa’s to-die-for dark chocolate with almonds. We usually turn in about the same time each night – 9:30 PM. This may seem like irrelevant, even boring(!) information, but it keeps morale up and prevents huge holes in the day which can mess up your mind … sitting, brooding, far from the States.
- I hate buzzwords, but be pro-active! If there were an eight hour a day job waiting for you, we wouldn’t need the Peace Corps, right? Plan to make things happen. Join the struggle against AIDS; it’s enormously important and Peace Corps will show you how build a solar cooker, help start small businesses (we love this part!), start cooperatives, plant trees, get grants to build small schools or libraries (local people will help you along), teach an English class, raise poultry, teach your favorite hobby there’s so many things to do in Lesotho and yet, we’ve seen Volunteers declare there wasn’t a job and go back to the States, unhappy. Assert yourself! That’s what Americans are famous for, isn’t it?
- Learn who you are! Peace Corps is a golden opportunity to test yourself, to see life differently, to live simply without TV or bullshit consumerism or traffic jams, to take pleasure in simple conversations, to slow down (!), to drink in the stunning natural beauty of Lesotho and southern Africa. There are thousands of new plants and animals to stimulate your curiosity! Take a deep breath. You’re living in Africa. If you can do this and enjoy the experience, then you can you anything you want with you life! Amen.
Since returning from Maseru last weekend, we’ve been busy. Our workshop is building a beautiful pine sewing/cutting table for one of our small business start-ups. Thabo and Leboneng are painting and fixing up their cabinet shop building. Lynn’s computer students are spending hours each day mastering this brave new world and with such enthusiasm.
Just as everything was rolling smoothly along, I chanced to happen on a bad pick-up truck accident across the road from our Farmer Training Centre on Sunday afternoon. The seven occupants were the majority of our youthful Chinese business community, including a baby. They speak little English and some were unconscious. Everyone was in shock and bleeding. I stopped a pick-up truck and, with help, loaded people inside for the run to our local hospital, Machabeng. There, I found one of our capable Nigerian doctors coming out of surgery. Without missing a beat, he set to work with a Basotho nurse cleaning, treating and stabilizing his very distraught patients. Other hospital workers arrived I stood in the middle of this controlled frenzy for some minutes I saw that even in their distress the Chinese women were still so beautiful with full red cheeks across their broad faces. Africans took charge. There was no racism in that emergency room, I thought to myself, I belong here. There’s a uniqueness to my life and always some small way to help. I realized I will miss this life in the mountains of Lesotho very, very much …
Always and ever, best wishes.,
Eric Thomson, PCV, Qacha’s Nek, Lesotho
