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) Cattle herding in the capital. Here is a picture of the herd of cows that come own our street on a regular basis. As you can see, the cars have to wait for the cows. The herd boy tries to whip them to go faster, but the cows go at their own pace no matter what. It’s a sight. :) We’re told that Lesotho has open grazing and that one of the biggest reasons that the Basotho (that’s the name for people of Lesotho) want to stay separate from South Africa is to preserve this policy of open grazing. 
2) Lots of workers, lots of supervisors, lots of sitting and chatting. Things in Lesotho get built on African time. The guard stand out front of our house has taken more than two weeks to take shape. The guards finally got their own bathroom finished yesterday and we’re told their going to have power on Monday. We won’t be holding our breath. We also have been trying to get a shower installed in our bathroom and Jay has been to the house on no less than three occasions with plumbers to discuss the process. Meanwhile, we haven’t seen any progress nor do we know what the timeframe might be. It’s a guessing game.
If we were in America, Jay would just go get the parts and do it himself, but in a country where something like 45% of the people are unemployed, hiring out is important. Not only that, but we have no idea where to find a hardware store, and no car to get there! Our director, Dwight’s, favorite phrase is, “When in Maseru, be patient!” We understand now.
3) Pre-paid in cash is the norm. Everything here is prepaid and it is the norm to pay in cash. The cell phones, the internet, even the electricity is pre-paid! Also, when you go to a store and want to pay with a credit card, they have one line that will accept your card, and it holds up the whole store to have to run the card! People simply get their paychecks cashed and take the cash for the month. Almost all of them get paid on the last Friday of the month, and there’s a huge line for the bank on that day.
While some of our salary will be direct deposited to our American account via electronic deposit, we will also be paid a majority of our salary in Maluti and will have to cash our checks and take the cash since you can’t open a bank account here without residency and residency takes a LONG time (read: about a year). Having been to the bank once already (on a day that was NOT the last Friday of the month), we are not looking forward to this task.
Also, the biggest bill they have here is a 100, and our checks are going to be for numerous thousands (we also get monthly and remember, $1 US = roughly 7 Maluti), so we will end up with a lot of bills to find hiding spots for! Oh yeah! AND you can ONLY go to the branch of the bank to which your institution belongs. So, while there is a branch of the Standard Bank of Lesotho in the mall that is right near to school, we have to go downtown to cash our checks! It’s quite a process!
5) You need a light bulb? What kind of lightbulb? There are several types of lightbulbs that are commonly used in Lesotho. There’s a “regular” screw-in kind (not very popular), a “pin” kind (very popular), and a long florescent (also popular), so before you go to the store to buy lightbulbs you have to investigate which kind of bulb you need. If you don’t get the right kind, you’re out of luck!
6) Termite mounds galore! While driving along in Lesotho and South Africa, one commonly sees whole fields full of termite mounds. There are so many, in such patterns, that it looks as if someone planted them. It’s quite odd, and it explains why they build everything in cement here! Sorry we don’t have any pictures. We usually see them when we’re speeding down the “wrong” way of the highway, and I’m far too pre-occupied to get out the camera!
7) Beware the Tokoloshe! Basotho are a bit superstitious, especially the under-educated. The thing they fear most is a mythical creature called the Tokoloshe (Toe-kah-low-she), which is sort of like a gremlin that supposedly lives in this area. Tokoloshe can bring destruction, and you don’t want them to jump out and attack you, so the best thing to do, according to the Southern Africans, is to put your bed on risers so they can’t get you and cover any gaps under your doors. Our favorite thing to do is to blame small disruptions in our day (of which there seem to be many!) on the Tokoloshe. We’ll try not to bring any back with us when we come, but you might want to invest in some risers just in case!
8) Iceskating in Africa?! The little mall that we have here, which is quite impressive fo
r a middle-of-nowhere type place like this, has brought in an “ice rink” as a special feature for a few weeks. For those of you who haven't been paying attention, it is the start of spring here and it gets quite chilly (read: 30's and 40's Fahrenheit), so people are in the winter mood. Here is a picture of said “ice rink”. The kids who were skating were having a lot of fun, but we were in hysterics at the sorry impression of an ice rink with which they will be left! To us, the rink looked like a linoleum floor with a thin layer of ice on top. :) We can’t wait to see the “ski resort” that is open in the winter (that’s right, Afriski!)9) On African time, using the Basotho process, which varies depending on who you ask! The effort to acquire a work permit in Lesotho is quite involved. Luckily, our friends, colleagues, and neighbors, the Powells from South Carolina, arrived in Lesotho about a week before we did and got started on the process, so now the school has a better idea of what the exact steps are! To start, we had to get chest x-rays at the private hospital (just to confirm that we did not enter the country carrying TB), a loooong process that involved a lot of waiting and a lot of forms with signatures and stamps.
The next step was to get copies of our passports, certificates, and marriage license certified at the police station. They were closed the first time we went (the hours aren’t posted, but apparently they only certify from 8-11 and 2-3 or something), and when we returned we had to stand in line for quite a while! Once we made it inside, they barely glanced at the actual documents before signing and stamping the copies. One guy did the signing part, while another did the stamping. It’s all very official.
Next we’ll go to the certification office. We were meant to go on Friday, but they apparently were closed and said that we would need an appointment, so we’ll have to look into that next week. Apparently, they don’t like American teaching certificates because they have expiration dates, which Lesotho ones do not, so Dwight (our director) wrote a long letter explaining the expiration dates and he attached descriptors from the Maine Department of Ed. He’s hoping the amount of text alone will intimidate them into just stamping our Lesotho certifications. The thing is that there is a shortage of teachers here, so it really
shouldn’t be this hard. It’s all part of the Basotho line of thinking -- things must be done “properly”, but that means something different to each person. You could go one day and get one answer, and go the next day and get a different answer!Luckily, we have a wonderful “fixer”, the school’s secretary, Vivian, who is assertive and speaks with confidence in Sesotho to all of these officials. That’s her in the picture! She also knows a lot of people in various positions of importance. We are very appreciative of her!!
10) Living a Guarded life. Although Maseru is certainly not a hub for major crime, petty crimes are quite common and ex-pats are, of course, a prime target. Thus we have a guard at our house 24-7, our house is gated, and we were advised to keep all doors locked at all times. The school is also gated and guarded. We were advised that if we were out and got uncomfortable about where we were or what to do, we should go back to school and ask the guards.
While the guards are more for show than for might (they are not armed), it is strange to be guarded. One is never really alone here. It would take effort for someone to not know where you are. We also have to learn all of the customs that go with having a guard. Our ex-pat informant, Donnette, who is from Maine (*HOOT!*) and has lived overseas for years and years, has been our main source for information about this matter. Just so you know, guards are expected to bring their own food, but it is appropriate to provide them with a kettle, coffee, tea, and sugar since it is in your best interest that they stay awake! When the guard stand out front of our house is done (maybe Monday?!), it will have power, and we have purchased the above items for our guards. The primary day guard is our favorite (we can’t pronounce his name yet, but we’ll keep working on it!), and he is quite excited to have that stand done and get his kettle!
Okay, that’s all the odd that will fit in one post! Tune in next time for an update on how school is starting off and pictures of our classrooms. Jay’s first day as an official teacher is Monday, so send him good wishes via e-mail if you would! We have internet at home now, so we’re able to keep up with our on-line communicate a bit better and we would love to hear from you all!!
