Money In Lesotho

Sunday Snow

From outside our door!

 

 



Hello Dear Readers,

 

We both hope this post finds you well as you finally move into summer. Hopefully most of you are staying out of the way of the tornados we’ve been hearing about!

 

We are both doing well as we continue our day to day lives and incorporating all of our wrap-up activities as well. We got our first snow last Sunday. We tried to keep warm by starting a fire in our now, sort-of-working stove and baking. It was 40 degrees in our house when we woke up this morning, but, at least no snow!

 

So, I’ve been meaning to write this post on money in Lesotho for quite some time so, here goes:
GDP for Lesotho is about $3.9 billion and the per capita purchasing power is $2,000/year. Lesotho is ranked 190 in the world along with The Gambia, below Micronesia, Cambodia, Mauritania and Tajikistan and just above Chad, Senegal, Kenya, North Korea and Bangladesh. The economic growth rate has been decreasing over the last few years and as of 2012 is at 4.3%.

 

As most of you know by now, Lesotho is actually completely encompassed by the largest economy in Africa – the country of South Africa. This, of course, has its trade-offs, these are beyond the scope of this blog. That said, a lot of money for individuals comes into Lesotho because of remittance from relatives living in other countries, primarily, South Africa. Nationally, many of you who have done some reading about Lesotho also know that it has water and diamond resources that the country exports. There is also a limited manufacturing sector, largely run by Chinese entrepreneurs and encouraged by the US market created by AGOA, this sector is largely contained in Maseru and another industrial town, Maputsoe. Of course, money also comes into the country in the form of international aid. Normal people make their money by working at jobs, though technically, with an ~50% unemployment rate this is somewhat uncommon. Typical jobs are; within the government, specialty jobs within the Ministries and whatnot included – such as health workers, nurses and whatnot (the typical nurse makes about R7000 a month), there are also policemen and soldiers (about R4,500 a month), and teachers (about R3,000 a month). There are also international NGO jobs, service jobs – such as the guys that fill up gas tanks, or are checkers at the Chinese or Indian -run supermarkets. There are also a lot of micro-enterprise entrepreneurs – women that sell fruit on the street, or even the quintessential “African street food,” small saloons(salons) that do hairbraiding and such, small shebeens where women make and sell sorghum or maize homebrew, women who sew traditional “seshoeshoe” dresses, and even people who’s sole business is selling the ubiquitous prepaid airtime often with “snacks” re-bagged Cheeto-like things. Naturally, there are other ways that people make money but those are the most common. Most of the rest is subsistence agriculture, this often includes selling raw wool to South African companies who export it to England for the manufacturing of the wool “Basotho” blanket, who then sells them back to South Africa for import into Lesotho.

 

As in many African countries, wealth is “secured” and represented in livestock, with cows holding the highest value ranking, and then going down to sheep and goats. These are also the animals that “men” are responsible for. Not representing wealth, so much as being staples in the household diet are pigs and chickens who are “women’s’” animals. The fields of maize, sorghum, beans and sometimes wheat, are plowed and planted by men and usually weeded by women, and harvested (I think) by everyone. Women are typically responsible for the household garden of mainly greens, beets, carrots and sometimes tomatoes. Even of the staple crops, there is rarely enough to last the household between harvests, let alone sell or export. This is largely due to poor quality soil, the unreliable weather patterns and unavailability of quality agricultural inputs or successful implementation of practices that don’t depend on them. As a result, even though Lesotho used to be a net exporter of agricultural products, it is now a net importer – mostly from South Africa, where large commercial farms are mirror images of those found in The States.

 

The official currency of Lesotho is the Loti or Maloti(pl) it is pegged one to one with the South African Rand (as is the currency of Swaziland). A person can spend Rand anywhere in Lesotho, but they will not take Maloti in South Africa. The value of the Rand has decreased a bit in the last two years, when we first arrived the exchange rate was about R7 for $1, now it is about R9 for $1.

 

Here is a sample photo of the notes... tried to take one of our money - but we didn't have any! The pictures on all of the notes are Kings Moshoeshoe and the one in the front is the current King Letsi III

So, as Peace Corps Volunteers, our stipend is about R2,200 a month, or just under $250. The idea of the Peace Corps stipend is for our income to be on par with that of our neighbors, as it is, to be truly on par with our neighbors would make most Peace Corps services an unbearable adjustment for us Americans even for the most dedicated and hardy among us (social security in Leosotho allows for those over 70 to collect R300 a month, this often supports a grandmother and several of her orphaned grandchildren). So, in remote villages, PCVs tend to be at the higher end of the income spectrum, while in towns and most certainly among any other expat, much, much lower.

Due to the common international perception, created by missionaries, the media, tourists, etc…, that skin color is a clear indicator of wealth, and the fact that most of us PCVs gear up for our 2 years in Peace Corps by buying lots of nice, new Africa gear, most Basotho don’t actually believe that we, as volunteers are not rolling in secret hoards of million dollar bills. This belief by almost every person in the country is one of the things we, as PCVs, often struggle with, every day, during our entire service. I remember one day, about a year and a half into my service and I was floored because on my walk to my morning meeting; I was asked for money,  to pay for someone else’s taxi ride and money again, within my fifteen minute walk, and at least one of these was my neighbor. I had really been hoping that after awhile people would have gotten the hang of the fact that I am not a free-for-all ATM. We get used to that though, ask most PCVs and they will usually have a few stock retorts to these requests, we do get used to it – but usually only after immense frustration. It isn’t always just money though, one day about six months in, within 5 minutes I was asked for my hat, my scarf, my skirt and my shoes! I asked my friends if I should just take off all of my clothes right then and there and give them away.

 

That said, I will give Lesotho its due, in my travels to other countries the skin color tax is usually much higher. Here we don’t always have to double check with locals what the price of the taxi should be, and most people don’t increase the price of their goods just for us.

 

To conclude, I will leave you with a few items to compare costs with, so you get an idea of the cost of living. It is usually fairly comparable, with some things being a bit cheaper (rent and local produce, when available) and some things being much more expensive (technology). I will take this opportunity to add that living on $250 a month has made us really realize how much more expensive it is to get nutritious calories – carbohydrates are the cheapest, and even we, are limited by our budget as to how much protein we can consume –we eat an embarrassing number of eggs as a result.

 

Rent in camptowns R300-R1000

12.5kg of maize meal (for making papa) M100

1 L of petrol R9.50

500ml of milk R6.50

19.5 kg propane R350 (for us lasts about 3.5 months for cooking only)

A loaf of bread R8.5

Washing (about 2 loads) R50

A pair of jeans at the local equivalent of Kmart R100

I phone 5 R10,000

7 minutes of talking on the phone R10

Public taxi to Maseru from our town R140

1 kg of oatmeal R26

Tray of 30 eggs R35

Roll of toilet paper (the better kind, still 1 ply) R4.50

Pizza R60

A bunch of “moroho” chard, mustard greens, 1 cup of shelled green peas R5

A cabbage R8

An apple R3

1 kg of Peanut Butter R45

1kg of beef hamburger R65

1 kg of lentils R10

1 quart of Maluti beer (like Bud lite) R11

5L of wine R120

Going to wash

 

One of my favorite things to do to deconstruct the perception of life in America being all  milk and honey, where money grows on trees with no work necessary (like in the movies), is to tell people that just for rent when we return, will cost fully half of my income, sometimes I talk about the cost of my education, or that to dry a load of clothes costs about $3 or almost R30 and your neighbors will look at you like a crazy person if you just hang it on your fence outside to dry…. At that point most people say that they would be happy to go there and visit, just to see this crazy-expensive place, and then I tell them that a plane ticket is about R25,000 to R30,000!

Me and 'M'e Matumelo

 

All our best and wishes for prosperity from Lesotho,

Carol and Shane

Awwwww!

Dad with one of his new friends - Tlompo

Dad's last morning in Lesotho

Dear Friends and Family,

We both hope you are reading this post in health and happiness. We also hope that you enjoyed the last several - though a bit funny due to formatting – posts about our trip with my dad. It has been a month now since he has returned home and we returned to our normal lives as Peace Corps Volunteers – almost. As many of you know, we are soon completing our 27 months here in Lesotho. So, the last month has comprised both continuing our normal activities and also intensely looking forward in preparation for our Close of Service.

Shane has been doing a great job wrapping up his projects and shifting more and more responsibility from himself to his counterparts. At the same time, he has been heavily engrossed in the success of his women’s escape training program and the insistence by the “powers that be” here in Lesotho, that this program be upgraded from district scale, to national scale. Wow! His remaining massage student is almost ready to start offering a “clinic” so she can gain more practice, feedback and exposure – it has been fun to see her grow with these skills and she is soon ready to begin offering this service as a professional. Shane’s also been diligently studying for the MCAT and looking for jobs stateside in the town where I’ll be going back to school for my M.S. in Soil Science!

 I’ve been continuing with my usual projects; reentering the business records for the bakery with my counterpart – after the whole computer got wiped out by a virus; nutrition corner is always fun, cooking with mothers and their babies and learning interesting new Sesotho vocabulary, like self-esteem: boitsepo. The April market day was a bit different, and highly successful. Dignitaries from Maseru, within the two organizations that have been partnering to implement the market on the district level, came to see the event and give speeches, and more heavily involve key local players as well. There is some talk that, not only is the Maseru market being revitalized, but that they want to start promoting a monthly market in all of the districts and give more support to Basotho micro-enterprises.

 

 

On the same day, we had the privilege of a visit from the other couple in our CHED ’11 group. We always love visitors, as this is usually our only source of non-Basotho socialization – and they are a great couple. The man, who actually was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the 70’s with his wife and family, is also an expert beekeeper. He was willing to support my beekeepers by spending a bit of time with them talking about how he does a hive inspection. This was also really fun for me, to learn, hands on about the inside of the hive, how to handle the bees and such, not just taking the honey! My endlessly dedicated, motivated and committed counterpart is now determined to visit them at their site and learn even more from him.

 

As the days become quite short, significantly colder and arugula is the only thing growing in our garden, yoga classes have become much less regular. My participant base has dwindled as well and I am left with one young woman, who was actually my friend prior to the yoga classes, and we have lately been doing yoga as “workout buddies” rather than as a class. It is really great though, her enthusiasm is amazing. She was there for my first “class” and has almost never missed a session since that day. Even now, she’s holding me accountable for doing yoga every Saturday, pushing me to incorporate more challenging and active poses into our sessions, she’s been googling yoga on her own and trying to learn as much about it as she can, and I’m happy that I have had the opportunity to give her a few yoga videos to try. This is a pretty simple story, but I think it is exemplary of what Peace Corps service is to many volunteers. As we wrap up our service, it seems fairly normal to reflect and ask ourselves if it was “worth it.” Peace Corps service is different for each person, and so is this process, even Shane and I, living in the same town, same house, same program, same country – have had extraordinarily different services. For me, the story of me and my friend doing yoga, is one of several examples as a PCV, where our friendship has grown, we’ve been pushing each other to lead healthier, stronger, more balanced, “better” lives, teaching each other and crossing the cultural boundaries. Is it saving the world? – maybe, a small bit at a time. I have a dream that maybe in a few years we can come up with a way to get yoga teacher certified together and she would likely be the first Mosotho to be a yoga teacher, in any case, both our lives are better off because of being friends and “yoga buddies.”

With all of that reflectivity, we had a significant event at the beginning of the month – our Peace Corps Close of Service Conference. This was a fairly emotional event at times, with superlatives on the wall – “what have you learned?” “what will you never forget?” and so on. Peace Corps staff was charged with helping to prepare us for the significant transition ahead and to help up synthesize the meaning of our time here. And so, we did everything from guided meditations to learning how to talk about our Peace Corps service on our resume and how to fill out over 30 pages of forms and checklists before we go. The Acting Director of Peace Corps was in Lesotho at the time of our conference and took some of her time to stop in and have dinner with us and tell us a few heart warming stories of Peace Corps Volunteers that have made a difference in the lives of surprising people – such as the president of Sierra Leone. It was really great to see how much she believes in the significance of Peace Corps as a program and inspiring at a time when some of us, I think, may be feeling a bit of doubt. We had the chance to see most of our fellow CHED ‘11s for the last time, talked about future plans of moving, getting jobs, going back to school, romance, reinventing our dreams and goals now that this one is drawing to a close, and we said goodbye –for now. Peace Corps treated us to a nice farewell lunch in Ladybrand, South Africa, an amazing café that they had taken us to at the end of our Phase 3 training – and it was, as it was the last time, a great treat! Of course, Shane and I enjoyed a few luxuries in Maseru too, we went to a movie, had hot running water and bought parmesan cheese to come back with – which made its way into parmesan rosemary crackers - yum! On the way back we enjoyed stopping for an overnight layover at another volunteer – Wendy’s site again, where we enjoyed catching up with her and playing with her neighbors and enjoying the beauty of her site.

 

Eating with the acting director of Peace Corps

 

Living Life Cafe

  

Luxurious Maseru

 

It is a generally known truth that reintegrating after Peace Corps service is often more difficult than coming here – I most often have heard comments on how mind-blowing it is to go to a grocery store in America for the first time in two years. As our heads with plane tickets and how to replace virtually everything we own while carefully stewarding our relatively meager-for-the-task “resettlement allowance,” our fears abound about how far behind we will be in our fast moving culture, from movies to phones, to fluorescent skinny jeans on men – a lot has changed since we left, but most likely the biggest change will be with us. We are excited to reunite with family and old friends, and make new friends, and take hot baths, but it is a bit bittersweet to leave our lives here, in all of this reflecting we’ve come to realize just how much of a life we have carved out for ourselves while living the “highest highs and lowest lows.” As we break the news to our Basotho colleagues that our last day here is July 22^nd, they get a sad look in their eye, and I for one, recognize that I will grieve as I leave this place, this life and most of all, these people.

On that note, last week we said farewell to our lovely Welsh neighbors, who have been with us for five months. As they were preparing to leave we realized how much our lives had interwoven in a relatively short time. Now that they have gone, and there is a gaping hole in the house next door, we can really see how much their presence enriched our experience here. From doing yoga together, correcting each others pronunciation and exchanging baked goods – Welsh cakes for chocolate chip cookies, we had a chance to learn about a country and culture of which we only really knew Will and Kate, and again, we are much better for it and we hope at one point to have the privilege of visiting each other, despite the huge ocean in the way.

Anna eating her first S'more

Alyssia trying Sloppy Joes for the first time

Alyssia and Sharon and their teachers at their going away party

All of the Welsh gals in traditional Basotho dress

A woman doing a traditional dance, with a not-so-traditional stick

Goodbye for now friends!

So, we are two months and counting, away from returning home for the first time in two years, and we are the senior volunteers in country. The new Healthy Youth invitees are likely preparing their lives in trepidation of getting on that plane to commit to their service, and we have had the pleasure of supporting the no-longer-“newbies” – the CHED ’12 volunteers as they come farther along the roller coaster ride that is Peace Corps service and the cycle continues.

Now, that I’ve fancied my self a bit of a philosopher, that is the summation of what has been going on for us the last several weeks. We are looking back and forward while living in the often-slow African moments. I think that the next post will be about money in Lesotho – I’ve been meaning to do that one for awhile, and after my dad came, it was reinforced to me that it may be interesting to our readers.

As always, wishing everyone the best,

Still from Lesotho,

Carol and Shane

Traditional Basotho Kitchen

The old woman is 99 years old

Last Epic-Trip Post...

Dear Friends,

Hluhluwe

Here are some photos from Hluhluwe Game Reserve, I am putting them up here because of the trouble with the formatting on the other page. Hluhluwe was started many years ago and is known for its success in saving the White Rhino. Rhino poaching is a really serious issue here, income disparity and poverty really contribute to the problem because people are willing to do more extreme things to make money and there is a huge (black) market in Asia for Rhino horn which makes rhino horn powder a really valuable commodity.

We ended up spending one cold, overcast afternoon on safari there  - we did get some great sightings but  didn't really see much different charismatic megafauna from Kruger. The landscapes were different and very beautiful, with mountains and forests rather than the savannahs and mopani shrub lands that we mostly saw in Kruger.

Male and Female Marula Tree

Thekweni Hide

Dlinza Forest

On the way to Durban, we took a bit of a detour and went to a 125m arial boardwalk through the forest canopy. The Dlinza Forest is a historical point as well, it is where King Shaka of the Zulus hid his wives and family during the wars. It was a really amazing thing to walk among and above the forest canopy and of course, it is one of the stops on the Zululand birding route.

Durbs

Our last stop was a taste of city life in Durban. We stayed at a lovely B and B on the beach of Umhlanga rocks, we went to the giant mall again. We went to Suncoast Casino and watched a movie with Dad in a real theater. We went to Ushaka Marine World which has a water park, and Sea World. The aquarium is quite interesting because it is all inside of a "shipwreck" ship from a long time ago.

We had a chance to see the seal show and the dolphin show and dad even went on the waterslide called "Tornado"! It was loads of fun and a great way to conclude our tour!

So - there it is, the last of our trip. Dad also enjoyed his week in Lesotho, including the horrible taxi ride up to our border gate. It was really fun to have Dad staying here and meeting all our wonderful friends here. Unfortunately, he refused to experience the Lesotho bucket bath and it was very rainy and cold during the weekend that he was here, so we spent a lot of time inside, trying to stay warm and getting our stove working. Then, he spent three days traveling back home and we've been running around wrapping up our projects. For the next post I will give updates on our projects and what we've been up to since getting back and even our recent trip to Maseru for our CLOSE OF SERVICE conference! Wow. So, until next time

All of the best from both of us here in Lesotho,

Carol and Shane