Ke lisa likhomo

Over the past few weeks while I was in the valley I watched the cows (Ke lisa likhomo).  It was a lot of fun.  My host family thought it was too cold for me to do it each day so one day I could not watch them and then the next day I just sneaked out of the house while my nkhono was away.

So I was to watch the animals on Saturday, I was ready in the morning but it was cold and my nkhono said later later.  She was going to where the animals were and she was helping cook a large meal for the whole village where I had to go before I would go and watch the animals.  At first she said she would be back at 10 but it was much later when she actually got back.  To trick her I told my host sister to tell my nkhono that I was out watching the animals and I hid in my room and locked the door.  I could not hear what she was saying but I knew that she was upset that I was not at home and that I had left to watch the animals. 

Then after we ate something we got ready to go to the animals but before I could go and see the animals we had to go and visit some of my relatives.  It turned out to be a combination of a birthday party and a celebration that she was not too hurt.  There was a big meal and most people in the village came.  We ate goat, stamp, gravy, squash and some potatoes.

When we were done the celebration they told me it was too late to go and watch the animals because they were already coming home.  I knew that was my nkhono’s plan the whole time but I just had to accept it.  It was cold and there was snow on some of the far mountains.  Yup I have seen snow down.  It was hard to see because it was only present when the clouds covered the mountains and when the clouds would move so I could see the snow would also disappear.

Me and my nkhono, I am wearing a BaSotho blanket.  Though my nkhono would dress me in my blanket like a women until we made fun of her and told her "I am a man."

Here are some of the ntates at the celebration, the man on the left is wearing a blanket like I should have been.

My nkhono and the women who the celebration was about.

 After they told me I could not watch the animals I went to my relatives’ house and hung out with the little kids.  It was fun to hang out with them and the wanted me to take lots of pictures.  I gave my camera to Thato so that he could look at the pictures.  He said something and I looked down and he some how found the way to delete all of the pictures and he almost did, but I stopped him.

This is Thato my cousin, and Rorisang eating in the background.

Rorisang, Borete, Thato

Then the next day it was rainy and I went to church, there were 9 people there.  It was a nice short service and then I went home.  When I got home my host cousin Tsepo was watching the cows right outside of my nkhono’s house.  So I knew this was my chance to watch the animal.  I told my host brother that I was going and that he was too lazy to go and work with the animals he would not have any pictures take of him.  All of the other kids told him that he should go.  So I watched the animals from around 2 til 6.  It is quite boring and your mind wanders quite a bit.

For most of the time that we were watching the animals the boys were playing a game were you want to hit the other person with a stick without them hitting you.  They played so much that it was really just me watching the animals.  If you notice the pictures where they are fighting the cows near them start to eat in the corn field the they should be protecting.

Tsepo and Khotliso watching the cows

Boys fighting, the point is to hit the other while you do not get hit

They did this for quite a while

Until the cows started to eat the corn they were to protect

Then the next free Saturday I had we went to watch the animals again. This time it was for real and I watched them the whole day with out eating a lunch in the middle.  I was to watch the cows with Tsepo while Khotliso was to watch the goats and sheep by himself.  It was a good day.

It started off quite late because my host brother did not at all want to watch the animals.  He thought that I was just going to go and he could sleep in and play all day (being a herd boy is playing most of the day). So it took us a while to get up to the cows to watch them. 

Then we went out to watch the cows and we eventually caught up with some other herd boys  and they were quite funny.  It was three boys watching sheep and goats.  One of them is Seliba, who does/did not like me, was one of them.  I think he likes me more now that we hung out of the day.  He kept on asking me if I wanted to beat somebody when they did something to I did not like.  He also thought that I am over 40 years old.

I also realized why the dogs here are quite lazy around here, they do not really do anything but bark.  The boys use their younger brother to go and herd the animals when you could use a dog to do that.

It was fun to hang out with the kids.  I was standing up watching the animals and the little boy who was watching the animals with me came up and leaded against me.  Then he was leaning against my pockets and they were full of rocks so that it was not comfortable then he decided that he wanted to go through my pockets.  I made sure that there where no pieces of candy in my pockets before he checked through them. 

Tsepo, Seliba and little herd boy

Khutliso, little herd boy, Rorisang and Seliba, while they were playing all of the sheep and goats they were to be watching ran away.

The little herd boy that called me Sir Sechaba as he ran across the field.

 

Later after a few hours, when I was about ready to eat some of the chocolate that I brought along with for treat, my host brother came and said that we were going to make a fire and then east some corn.  It was fun to watch them make a fire because it was windy they had to cover the fire and themselves with their blankets to start it.  Then when we started to cook the corn the rocks around the edge of the fire fell in. 

Then they started to look at the pictures on my camera then they wanted to pose for some pictures.

Here are the boys that I ate corn with as they try to be all tough.  It is hard to view them as tough when they have pink on and still act like little kids.

This is the boys reacting to the rocks falling on their corn that is cooking as well as the fire.  The fire went out and we had to get more firewood and restart the fire.

They were fun but, at the same time, very long periods were nothing would happen. 

The different churches of Maphutseng Valley

Over the past week I have had the opportunity to go to three different churches within the valley.  Two of them were LEC (Lesotho Evangelical Church) Churches and one of them a AIC (African Independent church) church.

They were all quite different experiences.  The Good Friday service that I talked about on my last blog was at my home church Maphutseng LEC Church. it is one of the oldest church communities in the country, but the building is not that old. There were a few people there and we stuck to the liturgy closely.

Then Easter we went to Lehlolonolong LEC Church.  It was an hour and a half drive a way, but you can see it from my house, up the valley.  It was a very long day all together, I left home at 7:45 in the morning and got home after 7 pm in the evening.

I thought that the taxi was going to come to pick us up to go there at 9 am, but at 7:40 my nkhono told me that the taxi was leaving at 8 instead. So I quickly ate breakfast, packed a lunch and walked over to Kendelle’s house to feed the cat.  [that does not like me a bit, even if I try to feed it chicken it runs away].  I left so quickly that I forgot to bring my camera.

Then I walked quickly to the taxi stop, I was afraid that I missed the taxi because there was nobody waiting.  My host aunt and another nkhono were walking up there too, so I walked with them and the Taxi did end up coming at 9.  There was no need to rush at all.  The taxi was quite full but we always seemed to find room for more people when we passed them on way there.  It was not just my church and the church we were visiting but there were people from all of the LEC churches in the area.  Lots of people ended up coming.

When we did get to the church nothing really happened for the next few hours.  Church started around 12.  So while I was waiting I talked to the pastor about the lightening strike that had hit the church a few months before.  It caused three trees to burn down and a few more to be damaged quite badly.  This caused many people in the church to not want to come back to worship or kids to go to the school because they were afraid that the lightening would come back.  

Then I talked to my host family about a few things and just waited.  Had a few people give me weird looks when I told them my name and my host family said “you he is ours”. Then I eat a little bit because I thought that church was going to start.  But that was at 11 and we still had an hour.  Then we sang a bit and there was some conflict over who should be leading between some of the youth and the older ladies. 

Then when church actually started we did a few things from the liturgy for easter.  Then there was a wedding!!!  So the couple sat down in front of the pastor and he went through a long sermon for the wedding.  Don’t know what it was about.  Then their best man and bride’s maid came from the very back of the church and the church was full to the brim.  Wall to wall people, so it took a long time for them to get up to the front.  Then they kissed and there was lots of singing.

Then we went to confirming the elders of the church, so that took a while for all of the people to get up there.  Then for them to go through the process of confirming them.  Then they had to turn and face us while there was more talking.  Then all of the other elders from the area churches had to shake their hands. 

Then there were the children baptisms, there were about 20 of them.  The pastor did all of the liturgy for baptism at once as one large group.  Then the pastor went around and baptised each of them and said the same phrase over and over again.  Then some of the families came back for an additional blessing and they realized that one kid never was actually baptised.  So that kid was baptised at that time along with a blessing for the family. 

Then one of the people on the pastor who I think is in training did a sermon about Easter.  She was really into and it seemed nice but I did not know what it was about. Then everybody but the old and important people were kicked out for communion.  I did not care too much that my Nkhono wanted me to not be there for communion because I was really hungry and wanted to eat.

So while I was outside eating one of the leaders of the youth tried to say that he was going to come over and eat my food.  So I joked back in Sesotho the he must be lazy because he did not pack food for himself, and that I had time to cook my own food.  My aunt who was waiting beside me thought it was funny.  And all of his friends laughed at him as well.

I ate a whole lot of food that I brought from home, then I was given papa and moroho, which my aunt ate.  Then I was given more food to eat but my nkhono ate it.

Then when we were going home, some of the ladies from the taxi went to a relatives’ house to eat some food.  Then we were finally going we were almost out of the small village when all of the women in the taxi wanted to stop because they heard that there was lots of meat at a certain house.  So they all got off and came back 20 mins later with containers full of beef.  Each person had about 2 pounds of meat to bring home, the taxi then smelled like meat.

Then we finally got home and I tried to be nice to Kendelle’s cat but he hid again.  And I finally got home after the sun went down and had another meal before bed. It was a long but enjoyable day.

Then this week we went to the AIC church, across the river and down near the main road.  Going to this church was quite the experience as well.  We had to ford the river with our vehicle to get to the other side.  In the future there is a road being built that would make the trip much easier on gravel road.  When we got there we had to go up a steep hill.  The church was held in a small room that was near the mill for the village. 

The service was much different than the ones at the LEC church.  There was no liturgy; anybody was free to speak what was on their minds.  The church was still mostly women, but there were a few men. There was lots of dancing and singing with drum accompaniment.  When ever somebody wanted to say something they would raise their hand and all of the singing would stop and they could speak.  When they were done speaking everybody would start singing again.  It was a nice church service to be at.

I thought that it was really far away but I realized that one of my neighbours goes to that church.  It must have taken at least 2 hours to walk there.  We are planning on going back there some time and then I will take pictures of what it was like inside of the church.  I did not think it would be appropriate to take pictures during the church service.  But the Basotho we went with said that they know that foreigners like to take pictures and that is fine.

I have not had a Sunday service at Maphutseng LEC church since the last week of February, so this weekend I am looking forward to having a relaxing service here.

Easter in Lesotho

I have to apologize that I have not posted a blog post in a while.  The thunderstorms here have been causing some issues with power generation and the internet.  The mail office block at Growing Nations. the conservation farming organization, was hit twice by lighting in February.   I am currently sitting on a porch listening to the the Messiah while it is raining and there is a thunderstorm up the valley.

The church here does not practice Easter the same way I am used to.  We had the normal church services from the liturgy all the way up until Good Friday.  Well it could have been up to Palm Sunday as I did not go to the local church last Sunday.  It is interesting to see how we practice church and the seasons of the church that I am so used to are not universal. And realizing that I wonder how much of the church activities we do are cultural and in turn wondering what church should look like.

The service yesterday was quite nice.  It looked like rain so people were slow to arrive.  I walked to church with my Nkhono, usually I walk by myself but I was afraid that I would be the only one there.  The people who were the first to arrive were all from my village of Ha Seliba (pronounced Sediba), and were all from my Nkhono's extended family.  We were joking that it was the Matli's church now.  People started to show up and we started the service.

The service consisted of people reading passages from the Passion of the Christ.  It would be intermixed with songs or verses of songs that related directly to those passages.  We all sat close together and it had a nice community feeling.  It was actually the first time that I had sat with somebody from my family at church, I usually sit with Abby and Kendelle instead. 

This Sunday for Easter the church is going to travel up the valley for a church at a different church.  The other church is still apart of the same denomination, but it is a church that is going through some struggles.  Lightening hit the church back in February and a local witchdoctor said that the lightening had laid eggs there and will come back and strike often.  This caused people at both the school and the church to avoid the area when there was a storm. Us going there will hopefully change some of the local people's opinion of the location.

Doing a Sermon

The Conservation farming organization that I was volunteer/working with over the last few weeks leads the last sunday of each month at the local church.  In January I did the sermon.  This meant that not only did I have to stand up and do the sermon I also had to sit at the front table in front of the whole church for 2 hours.  They use a liturgy so I used some of the readings that were done that day for the basis of my sermon.  These are my rough notes, when ever I speak I do not read word for word (So ignore any spell/grammar errors).

Bible readings: the church always do one from the New and Old Testament.  The story for the old testament was used both at my sending church service, and at the SALT orientation in Akron. Good thing I remember things like that

2 Kings 6: 18-23
Matthew 5: 43-48
 
Sermon:
The new commandment that was read today (in the liturgy); was about how we should love one another.  Who are the people that we should love; how do we show this love for others.   Jesus loved everybody not just his followers, should we love everybody as well.  How do live our lives to show that we follow the Prince of Peace.  I do not know the answers to these questions.  I looked to the bible for guidance on these questions.
 
To me Matthew 5: 43-48 teaches me who Jesus tells us to love.  Jesus says to love your enemies as well as your friends.  If we are only to love those who love us we are not better than people who do not believe in Jesus.  This passage challenges us to love the whole world and no just love our friends.  We should not be rewarded for doing what is easy.  What is easy is to love those who love us back.
The passage also shows how God loves everybody, and we should follow God's perfect example.  God lets the sun rise on all people whether they are good or bad.  He lets the rain fall on those who do what is right and those who do wrong.  We should follow God's perfect example and show love and compassion to everybody.  We should not judge who should receive our love and who should not.

I also found the story of Elisha and the army that was sent to kill him 2 King 6:18-23.  This is an example of how somebody who follows God showed love to his enemies.  He asked God to make all of the blind.  He brought the blind army to the king of Israel.  The king asked should I kill these men.  Elisha told him not to, they should prepare a feast for these people.  The country that sent the army no longer raided the country of Israel after a meal was given to their army.
The king of Israel showed love and compassion by giving the enemies of his country a meal.  This army did not show love to the people of Israel.  But the king of Israel did not take revenge on these people.  He showed them hospitality, made them comfortable and welcome.  Then he sent them home.  He treated the army the way he would like to be treated.

It is not always easy to follow the way that Jesus has set out for us.  To follow the ways of the Prince of Peace. To love your enemies is not something that is easy to do.  But if we are able to love one another.  And to show the rest of the world how we can love those who do not love us back.  We will show the love of God through us. People will know that we are Christians because of our love. We as Christians can be the light of the world.



I thought that I would have each line translated, but it was only at the end that it was summarized. I asked my host siblings if they understood the English and they said yes.  So that was nice.  And my Nkhono was so proud of me standing up and speaking in front of the whole church.   Most of the bible studies I have lead and the sermon have been focusing on the Sermon on the Mount.  I know that this section of the bible can challenge everybody no matter what they are doing.  It also provides the base line of many of my beliefs.

I have started working at the school this year.  It is very similar to last year.  There are two more MCCers working at the school for the school year.  It will be nice to maybe start a peace club for the kids at the school.  It will also be nice to have some people to bounce ideas off of.  And maybe in the next few months I will be able to get a new system of organization in place with graded books and information all in one place.  I would like the library to be organized in a way that teacher would find it easy to look for books and information.

Christmas Time and Birthdays in Lesotho

I am testing out sending an email to my blog instead of actually writing the blog on the blog website. We are trying to reduce the amount of bandwidth that we are using.  I also will most likely not be posting pictures for a little while. Hopefully this will work.

Christmas: Christmas was a little bit crazy in the Rampopi household to say the least. So we were to get a chicken on Christmas Eve, but that never happened for what ever reason, so we were to go on Christmas morning. Then we woke up and it was raining, my Nkhono said "go made it rain, no church, no chicken, go back to bed". So I went back to bed thinking that we were not really going to have a very big Christmas.
Then the rain stopped an hour before church was to start so we all had to get out of bed because church was going to happen. I got to church 15 mins late and there was one lady and her grandson there. So I went to the Growing Nations, which is a 2 min walk from the church, to read for a while. Then church started around 11 am as usual, not at 10. Then we were lead to believe that the church service was going to be really long, but it was not bad at all. It was the usual length with
child baptisms, conformation and communion.
Then I went home and all of the neighbourhood kids were showing off their new clothes. Then they all went to play and I was home alone for around an hour. My Nkhono was visiting other people on Christmas. When she got home we butchered the chicken that was hanging out under a wheelbarrow in our living/dinning room. We plucked it in the kitchen, and it made the whole house smell quite bad.
For Christmas dinner we had chicken, rice and tomato sauce. It was simple but nice. I have to say that was the first Christmas I have had quite like that.

Boxing day: We went visiting the relatives on the other side of the village. One grandmother's house had blown off so we went to see that and all of her relatives that came and visited.There were quite a few and they were all surprised that I spoke a little Sesotho and lived with the Rampopis. I hung out with a teenager from Cape Town, who had very good English; he knows 4 languages and he is just going into high school. It was interesting to hear him talk about what he likes to do and what he does not like. There was a little boy there who only spoke Xhosa, and got really mad at everybody because he could not understand anything that was being said. Apparently he had been mad the whole time that he has been there, a few days because he could not understand anything. We did become kind of friends even though we could not understand each other.

The next day Abby, Kendelle and I took some time away from the village and went to Ramabanta, and stayed at the Lodge in town. We went to see the
Semonkong Falls. They were really nice. I had a bad cold and climbing back up from the base was a little bit hard. I had to take lots of breaks. (I had a cold, it was at high altitude and I have asthma). We had a really nice shepherd boy who was kind, relaxed and did not beg for anything. It was very surprising and nice to have a guide that was so polite.

Birthday: My birthday was just last week and since I was not feeling one hundred percent I did not want anything to big to happen.  Abby and Kendelle, the other MCCers here in Lesotho, made cookies for me. They were wonderful.  It was a complete surprise and absolutely wonderful.  When I woke up in the morning my Nkhono sang happy birthday to me before I even greeted here.  It was kind of a shock because I had forgotten that it was my birthday, and had just gotten up so was kind of in a daze.
Then when I got to the project I was sung to again and then they were making fun of my age.  Mostly because people around here do not really know my age and assume that I am much older than I actually am.  Like this week I was asked "do your kids know how to swim".
Then when I got home I just wanted to take a nap but did not want to have to excuse myself from any activities they had planned for me. When I walked through the door my host brother was asleep on a mat on the floor and my host sister was asleep in her room.  This was wonderful because it allowed me also to go and rest for a little bit. Dinner was not that special or large.  My host sister did not eat because she felt sick and was asleep; the rest of us did not really eat that much and gave our food to the neighbour boys who were visiting.
It was an extremely relaxed birthday but the type of birthday that I love.

My chicken: apparently either for Christmas or my Birthday I got a chicken.  It is all black and the other chickens do not like it so it has to be stored in the cooking hut rather than chicken coop.  It also sometimes tries to run home to our neighbour's rooster.  One time that it ran away I helped bring it back and the rooster from inside the chicken coop was trying to look really big.  I made myself look even bigger and scared the rooster. Everybody laughed at me.
So I know this is my chicken because it is called Sechaba.  I also know it is my chicken because I am to bring it back to North America with me.  My Nkhono told me one day that I should take the chicken with me when I go. She told me that when I am in the airplane I should butcher and pluck the chicken so when I get there I can start cooking right away.  But I can only do this after I have taken a few of the eggs or chicks that it has laid and cook them to eat.  She did the actions of the whole story so that she made sure that I understood.  Which made the whole thing even funnier. She has a funny sense of humour some times.

School:  I found out for sure that school is starting on the 28th of January.  I went to church on New Years Day and found out that school was going to be 2 weeks later than it was scheduled. Apparently the reason for school being moved back is that the new curriculum is finally ready.  The teachers are to be trained on the curriculum in just two weeks and then start teaching it right away.  I hope the training goes well and the the new curriculum is good.  It also works perfectly as there are two MCCers who are coming to work in the school and they will arrive the first week of school instead of the 3rd.