Superstitions and All Things Spiritual

Helloooo everyone! Approaching the end of the school year has me READY to be done. Do I love my students? Yes. Am I growing tired of handling 30 nine year olds everyday? Very much so. Im feeling the teacher burnout and looking forward to the end of the school year and getting a break and some adventure and vacation time! We’ve got 3 weeks left of school, and then i’m off to see some other volunteers, get a few projects done, have some chill time at site, and then vacation out of Lesotho for a few days. Everything has been pretty standard over here! Teaching, laughing at the things my students do, and seeing other volunteers on the weekends. Got a camping weekend in Semonkong with my boyfriend, a weekend in Mokhotlong with all my northern friends, and some solid town days with other Butha Buthe volunteers. Good times and good people!

fly fishing and camping weekend!

Figured I’d share some superstitions and cultural beliefs that I’ve been surprised by in Lesotho and hopefully you’ll find as interesting as I do! Finding myself in some of these situations has been so silly and so bizzare…

My sister recently had a baby in the US! And when I was talking about this a month or two ago with my host sister here, I mentioned the due date and she immediately shushed me. So naturally, I inquired why and apparently here if you ask about a due date for a baby, then the belief is the baby will die. Morbid, yes. But no worries, Katelyn and new baby are thriving back in America so maybe this one doesn’t translate internationally? On this note, when a woman has a child, to announce to the father if it is a boy or girl it’s common to pour a bucket of water on his head (if a girl) or beat him up (if a boy). I have not witnessed this but I believe everything my host sister and neighbor tell me and I thought that was a silly one! Also, breastfed babies won’t die if they are bitten by a snake! Didn’t know that one either.

This one happened way back during training, and I’ve been reminded since then… It’s an ordinary day. I’m walking back to my hut and see my neighbor in the kraal dealing with the animals. I walk over to say hello and immediately my neighbor starts yelling telling me not to move. I’m internally freaking out because wtf is going on. Bomb? Scary animal? Spider on my head? Nope. Just that women can’t enter the kraal because if they do they’ll be infertile. Noted. (I’ve asked about this since then and turns out the cause of this belief is that the medicines they use for the animals will cause infertility. Not actually, but in Lesotho superstition world, yes.)

Fast forward a few months and I’m sweeping my house one day. Naturally I’ve got a good mix of dirt and crumbs and the occasional stray hair that I’m sweeping out my door when my host sister tells me I need to pick up my clump of nasty floor hair and burn it with my trash. “Oh, why?!” “Ausi, the witches will come to take your hair and make the potions to witch you!” Oh, okay that makes sense. So now I make sure not to sweep my hair outside and throw it away with my trash. She also said not to let any Basotho cut my hair and then I learned she’d been picking up my little hair clumps when I swept them outside and burning it for me for months! Honestly, I’ve never felt more cared for, haha! I’ve learned that since many Basotho think all foreigners are wealthy (especially Americans), then they’ll use the hair in potions to try and make themselves rich. I ran into this again a few weeks ago when I’m sitting on a taxi and feel a hair plucked out of my head. That’s odd, I think, must’ve got caught on something and pulled when I turned my head. Then I noticed that the man behind me was awfully close. There’s no way that he pulled a hair out of my head thinking I wouldn’t notice, right? WRONG. This man proceeded to pluck another hair from my head thinking he was being SOOO sneaky! The audacity. I whip around in my seat and start yelling at him and demand he gives me my two singular strands of hair back. He sheepishly pulls them from his pocket, stunned that this random white girl is yelling at him in Sesotho, and hands them over. So I did get my hair back. And I’m shocked that that interaction actually happened. I’m gathering some good stories over here you guys.

The witches are fascinating to me and I wish I knew a little more about them. They’re also called the suncomers and the people in the village do go to them for medicines and things like that. Another conversation with my host sister went like this: “Ausi, do you know why there is so much rain and lightening here in Lesotho?” She asks. “I think it’s because of the geography and number of storms we get and because…” “No,” she interrupts me, “it’s because we get many storms but also because the witches make the lightening so most of it is man made.” Oh okay, sure. I don’t know why I thought to give a more scientific explanation because obviously that makes way more sense! Ausi Matseliso (my host sister) is awesome and I love hearing all of these little tidbits of information from her. She was telling me about some of the natural remedies they use (like women eating dirt when they are on their periods to replenish their iron levels) but then proceeded to tell me that I should just stick with pills and the med kit Peace Corps gave us. I guess natural remedies just don’t work for foreign white girls like me.

village sunset views!

The spirituality aspects of this country are intriguing because there’s a lot of superstition and cultural beliefs mixed into a predominantly Christian country. Many people go to church on Sundays and the mix of religious and cultural beliefs has been so interesting to learn about while being here. I personally have not been to church here only because a three to four hour long service all in Sesotho would be a bit hard for me to make it through. But I plan on going at some point towards the end of service because I think the cultural experience aspect of that would be cool.

There are also a lot of myths surrounding HIV/AIDS and gender (including the fact that if a man carries water with a bucket on his head like all the women do, he will die because men don’t have the bone in their neck for water carrying apparently…) which are harmful in a number of ways. That’s why most of the health outreach programs and NGOs in Lesotho focus so much on HIV/AIDS education here. That said, it has truly been an honor to be immersed and learn the ins and outs of the culture here though - good and bad!

Still out here living it up! In all the things, I am glad I’m living here and even the hard things at least make great stories for later, haha! I love my community and students here (they are the funniest people I’ve ever met). As always, I’m missing everyone back home and can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve seen everybody. We have officially passed our halfway mark though, which is exciting and so crazy that we are over halfway through our time in Lesotho! It’s just wild how fast it’s gone! Salang hantle (stay well)!

DISCLAIMER: All thoughts and ideas are my own and don’t reflect those of Peace Corps or the US Government.