A cold week in the mountains

After the workshop in the lowlands, Sarah and I were planning on returning to my site in Mokhotlong for a couple weeks before going to Swaziland and Mozambique for some warm weather vacationing. However, the day we were set to leave, a storm came through the mountains and all the roads to Mokhotlong and Thaba-Tseka were snowed under. Now, coming from Wisconsin, my first reaction is that this must be one hell of a snowstorm, otherwise people would just drive right through it, or they would plow the road. But, this isn't Wisconsin. Although almost every year these places get snowed in for a week or more, the country does not own a snow plow, and everyone just sits tight till it melts. We ended up waiting only 4 days for it to clear, which wasn't the worst thing in the world. For one, we go to stay at the hotel for a while at Peace Corps expense! We also got to spend more time hanging out with volunteers in Leribe and Butha-Buthe districts, who we don't always get to see a lot of, even though they are the nearest ones to Mokhotlong. Sarah wasn't loving the sudden change from chilling on the beach in Kenya to looking for cheap winter coats in Lesotho, so this also gave her a little time to adjust in the relatively warmer lowlands before heading into the highlands. Despite some initial grumblings at the chilly climes (who can blame her?) she acclimated remarkably well to our frigid land, and did so faster and with less complaining than I'm sure I could manage.

Once the snow subsided a bit, the folks at Letseng Diamond mine, near the snowed under pass, brought out their grader and some other big machines, to clear the road and make it at least somewhat passable by minibus taxis. The next day we piled into one and took the ever-so-long trip back to Mokhotlong, which was made even longer by the precarious driving along icy and snowy mountain roads. The next week was fine but not very eventful. Mostly we just tried to stay warm.  Sarah met my host family and everyone got along fine. My host mother even lent Sarah one of her blankets that the women wear around their legs to keep warm. I had always been a little skeptical of how much good they do, since they are worn like a skirt with the bottom open, but she was an instant convert and didn't take the thing off until we left for vacation. Since we had been snowed out for some time, we only had a week or so to spend there and most of it was spent reading, cooking, and huddling by the heater. Speaking of which, we are all provided with these little propane powered heaters by the Peace Corps. They are an essential in this country, but not the best designed things. You open the gas and push the starter till it lights and what results is like a gas grill on it's side, spitting blue flames out at you. This startup procedure has already claimed it's fair share of eyebrows. Now, there are three settings, the lowest of which would indeed be hot enough to cook up some good burgers with. The problem is that, at the rate it burns gas, you can easily go through your whole month's supply in a week. The pain and cost of replacing the gas cylinders has led me to become incredibly stingy with the thing. I kept myself to only 30 minutes or so each at morning and night, during which time I can just hear my money burning away. Despite my draconian heating policy, Sarah stayed strong and survived her time in the mountains.

Not only did she endure, she helped pull me out of a bit of a slump. When I first came to my site, last summer, I had a lot of time on my hands before school began. I used that time wisely; cooking good food, exercising, and reading. With the daily toil of school and the increasingly cold weather, I had slowly but surely cut out those first two items. Instead of the homemade bread, lentil burgers, and stir fries with lots of running and working out, I had fallen into a trap of lethargy and making massive pots of samp and beans every week. Now, I know the stuff tastes like cardboard, but when it's just me eating, I tend to not consider things like taste and nutrition. Lucky for both of us, Sarah would have no such nonsense. Even though the produce selection is limited here, (the shop had cauliflower one week, but the guy working there had to ask Caitlin how you use it) we took the time to make a fine selection of meals, from vegetable samosas to pizza. At the time of writing this, she has left for home, and although I'm not committing myself to the complex, two-cook meals that we made together, I do take the time and mess to cook up a pizza or chapatti now and then. This made not just us happy, but my host brother as well, who is only too pleased devouring any extras I end up making. It may or may not improve my quality of life as well, but I would never openly admit that!