Baby Steps

9-14-08
Today I finally had a meeting with the OYAP (Olympic Africa Youth Ambassador Program) volunteers here in Mafeteng. I met David, one of the volunteer coordinators, three or four weeks ago in town and have been trying to schedule a meeting since, the timing just never worked out until now.

OYAP is an organization similar to Kick4Life, but instead of focusing on HIV/AIDS education through sports, they focus on life skills and promoting an overall healthy lifestyle for youth. Today's meeting was supposed to be with all of OYAP Mafeteng's volunteers (officially 30-something people) but when I arrived the only people present were David and Lineo (De-nay-o), the other volunteer coordinator. David told me that they have a lot of trouble recruiting volunteers who will actually be active and do what they say they will. Case-in-point: no one ever showed up for today's meeting.

Part of the issue is a cultural one. Basotho are never on time, ever. If you set a meeting for 1 p.m. it is expected that people will show up around 2 or 3. It is also not considered rude to tell someone you are coming to a meeting or “on your way” even if you aren't. Actually the opposite is true, it can be considered rude to outright refuse an invitation or meeting.

The other issue has to do with employment...or the lack there of. Many people in Lesotho volunteer because they see it as something to add to their resume, not something to do out of social duty, or something to do as a means to getting a paid position with the organization. This causes problems because almost all organizations have only one or two paid positions and with unemployment at 50+%, people don't give those up very often. Volunteers also receive money from their organization for things like transport, and since almost all of them don't have a job, they say they are going to a village to do an activity, take the transport money, and use it for their own needs.

David is from South Africa and is very frustrated with these cultural norms (I can relate) and sees them as impeding the organization's progress...but hasn't found a way to change it. Lineo is Masotho and just accepts it but also has no ideas of how to work within it to be successful. So, in today's meeting, I tried to help them brainstorm some ways to recruit volunteers (the only thing they are currently doing is asking current volunteers to bring friends) and reward those who actually work and show up to meetings and events.

Even though many things in today's meeting reminded me of all the frustrations of working here, I left encouraged. David and Lineo seem truly motivated. We will see. I will follow up on my promise of providing them with contacts...the test will come when I see if they actually do anything with that information.


9-16-08
My library project is officially underway! Monday I met with the hospital administrator, and she was really excited to hear about my idea. It seems they already have a library started and she just assigned a woman to look after it, but they need help sorting through the books and getting everything organized. She asked me to come back this morning to meet with the woman and discuss the project with her.

'M'e Vikile the woman that I will be working with on this project. She is graduating this coming weekend from Lesotho Natl. University in Roma (the only university in the country) with an education degree and is excited to promote reading among patients and staff. She took me on a tour of the library, which it turns out, is currently only for staff use and is full of medical books, not something patients here would want to, or probably could, read and understand. We discussed what types of materials she thinks patients would use and how to go about getting the hospital to purchase another bookshelf so that the books for patients can be kept separate from the resource materials. We also wrote out a timeline for the project and she had me write down the things she needs to do before our next meeting. She is going to talk to the hospital administrator about the bookshelf and about writing a letter for our book donation application. She is also going to approach the district library administrator about writing a letter for the application and helping us set-up a shelving and tracking system...Dewey Decimal is too complicated for this. My job between now and our next meeting is to write the first draft of our book donation applications. I'm going to be working with African Library Project to secure picture and English-language books and Biblionef to hopefully secure some Sesotho language books.

And don't worry my loyal readers, I will be asking for your help with this in the coming months! Assuming my application to African Library Project is approved, I will have info on here (and will also be sending emails to some of you specifically) on what types of books are needed and how you can contribute.

In meeting with Vikile I also ran across another project idea. It seems that each December some government officials bring in Christmas presents for the kids in the children's ward at the hospital. It's a great thing, but when the kids go home, they take the toys with them. Vikile and I discussed getting a supply of toys that would stay at the ward so all the children would have something to play with, no matter the time of year. I have a lot more research to do on this one before I decide if it's a go, but if it is, I'll be needing your help.

I know all this sounds simple, but it's the most progress and enthusiasm I've encountered so far. After weeks of feeling like I've been spinning my wheels, sitting and waiting for nothing to happen, this simple thing has really helped renewed my spirits.

And now I'm off for a week of travel. Tomorrow I am going to Maseru to have dinner with Michelle, the head of PSI Lesotho, along with Christina and Trish, the two other PCV's that work with PSI. Thursday morning I board the 6:30 a.m. bus for an eight-hour ride from Maseru to Qacha's Nek to visit Megan. I haven't been to her site yet and am excited to see the mountains, a more rural area and, most of all, her! There are plans for Mexican food already in the works! :) Sunday I will head back in the direction of Mafeteng but stop in Quthing, a district much more remote than Mafeteng and still in the mountains. Quithing doesn't have its own PSI/New Start branch so the Mafeteng office serves the area. Some of my co-workers will be there doing outreach, and one of the education PCV's, Claire, is being great and letting me crash at her place until Thursday so I can go along with them. After all that, it'll home sweet home again. Hopefully I'll have some great stories (and photos) to share!