Child Labor and Bees

view from a morning run :)

Well I've been in Lesotho for 4 months now and each week I'm here does not disappoint. School started this last week, so after 3 months of training and then 3 weeks of waiting for the shool year to start, I'm finally doing all the things I came here to do. I think you'll get a glimpse of what I mean when I say the Lesotho school environment is on another level by reading the story of my first week. Every day gets weirder, I promise.

Monday:

I wake up, get ready, and walk my 15 minutes to school. Getting into the office, I realize I can't walk more than 2 feet in the door because of the giant bags of maize meal and peas stacked all over the place. The government provides school lunch here (which means every other day it switches between papa and peas or samp and soya) so these were delivered earlier last week. The government however did not deliver the notebooks and pens it promised, so students and families now have to go buy them themselves. 

After the office is all cleared, the principal calls all the kids for assembly and they come running down the hill in various versions of the gray school uniform, gathering for the day. All the kids stare at me, and if I smile at one or two of them individually, I'm met with a blushing smile or little wave. I definitely don't deserve the attention, but get why seeing a 5’4” blonde haired, blue eyed person speaking Sesotho and English with a foreign accent in the middle of rural Lesotho might be met with a stare or two. 

Assembly consists of the students greeting the teachers, then singing a hymn, another song, the Lord's prayer, and then their marching song, where class by class they march off to their classrooms. All of us teachers went to the office and had our own little staff meeting, which took way too long, while the kids cleaned the classrooms. After that, we finally went up to our rooms. The 4th graders all introduced themselves in Sesotho, then in English, and I did the same. The rest of the day was getting to know the students. At the end of the day, the principal gave me the keys to the entire school because, “We know Americans are always on time and you will definitely get here before all of us.” Which is true. I get to school everyday at 7:45 when the school day is supposed to start and the teachers come 20 minutes later.

Tuesday:

First day teaching! I taught a math and English lesson, followed by my coteacher teaching Sesotho and life skills. After that, the kids had lunch and then pretty much ran around the rest of the day before going home. My coteacher happens to mention on the way out that she won't be here tomorrow. So I will have the entire 4th grade class for the whole day. By myself. A class who barely speaks English and me who barely speaks Sesotho. Great.

Wednesday:

Y’all I was so stressed about today but I kind of crushed it. Not to pat myself on the back or anything. But my lesson on sets? Absolutely slayed. My lesson on phonics? Couldn't have gone better. I'm teaching in Sesotho. I'm teaching in English. I brought a football, and whenever a kid caught it they would have to introduce themselves and speak in English. They loved it. Then lunch time comes. And a bunch of 3rd grade boys decide to knock down all the bees nests on the side of the building. Bees. Everywhere. 2 kids get stung. My principal, who is terrified of bees, just says the school day is over and sends everyone home immediately. A bit of an exaggerated response? Maybe. But I don't have to teach for the last half of the day and can claim my victory on my first day of solo teaching. My principal mentions that the kids will be cleaning tomorrow. Cool, that'll take what, an hour in the morning?

Thursday:

So by cleaning she meant doing all of the yard work and landscaping around the school. Kids show up with knives, scissors, buckets. One 2nd grader is holding a shiv. They're cutting grass on hands and knees with scissors. They're pulling weeds. Cutting branches. One kid rolls a boulder past me. The 1st graders are making rock piles. Wtf is going on? It's utter chaos and perfect organization at the same time. Need any landscaping done? Hire a group of 8 year old Basotho children. 

Watching this was madness because I know if this took place in the US, we would be breaking every child labor law in the country. I ask my principal how long they do this for and she says that it will continue to Friday. Okay, sure...

Friday:

I watch children do hard physical labor all day. Lunch rolls around, and I'm peacefully eating my papa and peas in my classroom when I hear screaming outside. A 6 year old runs into my classroom, stops and stares me dead in the eye and just says, “bees” and then sprints off down the hill. Kids don't even wait to be dismissed today, they just grab their bags and knives and tools and run home. 

Thoughts and Feelings:

Was this the most productive educational week in the world of learning? No. Absolutely not. Does our school look fantastic? Yes, yes it does.

In all seriousness, the chaos of this week surprised me and I'm curious to see how I deal with a school system like this. In the USA schools are created and structured as a professional environment focusing on creating a space for kids to learn. In Lesotho, you have the learning environment, but it's also a place that they want kids to learn to be obedient and know how to get some yard work done. It'll be an adjustment for me for sure, and a challenge on how to bring in methods and ways of teaching so that these students can flourish in an academic world and maybe have more opportunities than they think they can. We shall see.

If you've made it this far in the post, congrats. It was a long one. And thanks! As always, missing all of you people. The support and hearing from you all and everything is awesome. My little life in Lesotho would be much sadder if I didn't have that!

And gotta include a nice little disclaimer… My views and writing does not reflect those of the US Government or Peace Corps. All from the dome. All from the heart of yours truly.