Hilarity and snowball fights ensued
Try and find the pregnant snowlady my host-father made!
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Snow in Katse!
It rained all day yesterday. After the sun started to set the rain turned to snow and in the morning we had 1/2 a foot.
Hilarity and snowball fights ensued
Try and find the pregnant snowlady my host-father made!
Hilarity and snowball fights ensued
Try and find the pregnant snowlady my host-father made!
Thursday, July 14, 2011
July 4th
The following entry contains a graphic depiction of a pig slaughtering...
July 4th is the celebration of American independence against the forces of tyranny, taxation without representation and tea time. For Peace Corps Volunteers in Lesotho (and probably around the world), it is a time to get together and reminisce about our homeland. 2011 also marks the 50th anniversary of the US Peace Corps program so this years celebration was a special one.
Encouraged by our Peace Corps Country Director, volunteers from various regions across the country met for a variety of events that encouraged the community to partake in our celebration. In most cases this meant a group effort to paint murals depicting the friendship between America and Lesotho. At our community celebration this meant tie-dye, bobbin' for apples, frisbee, and a pig slaughter.
Hosted by the volunteer that lives closest to me, it was a 3 hour taxi ride out to his site to meet up with about 10 other volunteers and a PC staff member. The event was scheduled for Sunday, July 3rd. Seeing as there was a whole mess of preparation, I caught the first taxi I could out of Katse and arrived just after 8am, ready to celebrate.
Up until my arrival in Lesotho, I'd never slaughtered anything. Since coming to Lesotho I've slaughtered and prepared 2 chickens. Although I'm certainly not opposed to eating processed meat, personally, I want to know that anything I eat, I could slaughter and prepare myself. Knowing where your meat has come from, what it has eaten, and how it has lived just feels better. What I'm getting at is that I had volunteered to slaughter and prepare this pig.
Maybe 50lbs, he was certainly not the biggest pig but at $70, he was the most we could afford. He'd been eating grain the past two weeks to fatten him up and now it was “Hamlet's” day. I'd never slaughtered a pig before and luckily we had a Mosotho to guide us but I was still the one making the killing blow.
“Find the jugular, stab your knife there and cut across” I was told.
The pig had finally stopped screaming and squirming. Did he understand what was coming or was he just tired after being chased around the yard?I felt for the pulse a moment...there it was! Rapid and strong. We were most likely matched as adrenaline pumping through both of us.
The first cut was quick and easy, surprisingly so. I managed to sever the vocal chords quickly but he was still struggling as blood poured from the cut I'd made into the shallow hole we'd dug.
I was told to “Reach inside with your knife and poke the bone!”
“What bone?!?”
“The spinal chord!!” a voice yells out
….makes sense
Wrist deep inside the pigs throat with my knife I found the chord and hammered away at it until the pig stopped his struggling.
“Break his neck”
All I succeeded in doing was snapping his lower jaw bone but by that point he was dead anyway.
Bare razor blades were handed out to a few of us and we proceeded to bathe the pig in boiling water and shave/rip his hairs away.
“You have to get the hair off before you cook him or it will stink when you cook it”
“Shouldn't we just skin him now? That's what we did last year for the celebration” Came a response from a PCV
Now we were of two camps, those of us who said last time they did it they just skinned him immediately and those of us who wanted to shave him. The Mosotho in our group wanted to shave so I sided with him even though it seemed like a lot work.
It ended up being unnecessary work as we ended up skinning him anyway.
Note to self: if you are going to skin a dead animal, do it when it's fresh and warm....don't shave him pointlessly and THEN skin him COLD!!*
From there, it was time to take all those nasty guts out! Single cut from sternum to anus and our piggie hid nothing from us. Reach in....feel around...rip some connective tissue....and out come the organs! Surprisingly easy I must say
As the pig was turned into delicious cuts of ribs and various pork chops, the representative from the Peace Corps staff arrived with a car full of volunteers and tie-dye equipment The next few hours were spent cooking the meat, bobbing for apples, and tie dyeing with the local children.
Much thanks to Ryan for hosting us, Khotso for guiding us during the butchering and PC Lesotho for supporting out celebration!
July 4th is the celebration of American independence against the forces of tyranny, taxation without representation and tea time. For Peace Corps Volunteers in Lesotho (and probably around the world), it is a time to get together and reminisce about our homeland. 2011 also marks the 50th anniversary of the US Peace Corps program so this years celebration was a special one.
Encouraged by our Peace Corps Country Director, volunteers from various regions across the country met for a variety of events that encouraged the community to partake in our celebration. In most cases this meant a group effort to paint murals depicting the friendship between America and Lesotho. At our community celebration this meant tie-dye, bobbin' for apples, frisbee, and a pig slaughter.
Hosted by the volunteer that lives closest to me, it was a 3 hour taxi ride out to his site to meet up with about 10 other volunteers and a PC staff member. The event was scheduled for Sunday, July 3rd. Seeing as there was a whole mess of preparation, I caught the first taxi I could out of Katse and arrived just after 8am, ready to celebrate.
Up until my arrival in Lesotho, I'd never slaughtered anything. Since coming to Lesotho I've slaughtered and prepared 2 chickens. Although I'm certainly not opposed to eating processed meat, personally, I want to know that anything I eat, I could slaughter and prepare myself. Knowing where your meat has come from, what it has eaten, and how it has lived just feels better. What I'm getting at is that I had volunteered to slaughter and prepare this pig.
Maybe 50lbs, he was certainly not the biggest pig but at $70, he was the most we could afford. He'd been eating grain the past two weeks to fatten him up and now it was “Hamlet's” day. I'd never slaughtered a pig before and luckily we had a Mosotho to guide us but I was still the one making the killing blow.
“Find the jugular, stab your knife there and cut across” I was told.
The pig had finally stopped screaming and squirming. Did he understand what was coming or was he just tired after being chased around the yard?I felt for the pulse a moment...there it was! Rapid and strong. We were most likely matched as adrenaline pumping through both of us.
The first cut was quick and easy, surprisingly so. I managed to sever the vocal chords quickly but he was still struggling as blood poured from the cut I'd made into the shallow hole we'd dug.
I was told to “Reach inside with your knife and poke the bone!”
“What bone?!?”
“The spinal chord!!” a voice yells out
….makes sense
Wrist deep inside the pigs throat with my knife I found the chord and hammered away at it until the pig stopped his struggling.
“Break his neck”
All I succeeded in doing was snapping his lower jaw bone but by that point he was dead anyway.
Bare razor blades were handed out to a few of us and we proceeded to bathe the pig in boiling water and shave/rip his hairs away.
“You have to get the hair off before you cook him or it will stink when you cook it”
“Shouldn't we just skin him now? That's what we did last year for the celebration” Came a response from a PCV
Now we were of two camps, those of us who said last time they did it they just skinned him immediately and those of us who wanted to shave him. The Mosotho in our group wanted to shave so I sided with him even though it seemed like a lot work.
It ended up being unnecessary work as we ended up skinning him anyway.
Note to self: if you are going to skin a dead animal, do it when it's fresh and warm....don't shave him pointlessly and THEN skin him COLD!!*
From there, it was time to take all those nasty guts out! Single cut from sternum to anus and our piggie hid nothing from us. Reach in....feel around...rip some connective tissue....and out come the organs! Surprisingly easy I must say
As the pig was turned into delicious cuts of ribs and various pork chops, the representative from the Peace Corps staff arrived with a car full of volunteers and tie-dye equipment The next few hours were spent cooking the meat, bobbing for apples, and tie dyeing with the local children.
Much thanks to Ryan for hosting us, Khotso for guiding us during the butchering and PC Lesotho for supporting out celebration!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Computer Lessons for Katse
Right now I am sitting in my community's taxi rank & market center. It is a row of small concrete walled stalls with sheet metal roofing. Here you can order a plate of traditional Basotho style food (vegetables, mealie meal and chicken), get a haircut, have your cellphone charged, purchase airtime for your phone or even watch a Jason Statham movie.
Surrounded by drunken taxi drivers waiting to take you to the capital or point beyond, it is not a welcoming place for a foreigner. People stare at you, ask you for money or ask for a ride in your car...even though its obvious you walked into the market. I've come to know and appreciate this place over the past year and even more so over the past week.
This week, something special has begun in the Khokhoba taxi rank and market center. Go over to stall 1 and behind heavy black burglar bars and an unassuming wooden doors sits a roughly made wooden table. On top of this table is a single PC. On any given day of the week, between 12pm and 4pm, you can find half a dozen children ages 7-17 learning how to turn on a computer, use the mouse as well as keyboard and turn of the computer.
The start of these lessons marks the culmination of almost a year of work with my supervisor, Ntate Molahlehi Moses Kotelo. When I came to work with him in August of last year, our 1 computer looked like it predated the dinosaurs and wasn’t worth its weight in dirt. Over the course of the year, we’ve written applications and hassled organizations working in the capital. A year later. We now have 2 working PCs (1 with a flat screen monitor) and a laptop (Many thanks to the fantastic Tamara Weiss).
Right now our lessons are limited to local primary school students and a small group of orphans. Over the next few months, as my supervisor becomes more competent navigating a computer, we will begin introducing these lessons to the general community.
You can find pictures of these lessons on my Facebook page under the photo album “Computer Lessons for Katse!”
Surrounded by drunken taxi drivers waiting to take you to the capital or point beyond, it is not a welcoming place for a foreigner. People stare at you, ask you for money or ask for a ride in your car...even though its obvious you walked into the market. I've come to know and appreciate this place over the past year and even more so over the past week.
This week, something special has begun in the Khokhoba taxi rank and market center. Go over to stall 1 and behind heavy black burglar bars and an unassuming wooden doors sits a roughly made wooden table. On top of this table is a single PC. On any given day of the week, between 12pm and 4pm, you can find half a dozen children ages 7-17 learning how to turn on a computer, use the mouse as well as keyboard and turn of the computer.
The start of these lessons marks the culmination of almost a year of work with my supervisor, Ntate Molahlehi Moses Kotelo. When I came to work with him in August of last year, our 1 computer looked like it predated the dinosaurs and wasn’t worth its weight in dirt. Over the course of the year, we’ve written applications and hassled organizations working in the capital. A year later. We now have 2 working PCs (1 with a flat screen monitor) and a laptop (Many thanks to the fantastic Tamara Weiss).
Right now our lessons are limited to local primary school students and a small group of orphans. Over the next few months, as my supervisor becomes more competent navigating a computer, we will begin introducing these lessons to the general community.
You can find pictures of these lessons on my Facebook page under the photo album “Computer Lessons for Katse!”
Friday, June 3, 2011
YEABO!
So here I am, 1 year to the day that I left America for my Peace Corps service. 1 year living in a mud hut with grass roof, 1 year without electricity or running water, 1 year washing my laundry by hand on sunny days and 1 year never tiring of the beauty that is Lesotho.
Many of my friends and family are familiar with what I do here but for those who aren't quite sure, who don't know me or have just forgotten...
My name is Michael Kerr and I am an American serving in the US Peace Corps program. I swore in as a volunteer in 2010 and will be living here in Lesotho, Southern Africa until August 2012. The program I work for within the PC is Community Health & Economic Development. The focus of this program is to assist my community in projects to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is engulfing southern Africa.
I live in a community called Katse, Thaba-Tseka. It is home to the Katse Dam, Africa's 2nd largest. At 184M tall, this behemoth holds back a gorgeous 54KM reservoir home to delicious salmon and rainbow trout.a It is an astoundingly beautiful mountain community to call home and I couldn't be happier with it.
In Katse, I am known as Nyakallo Kotelo. Nyakallo roughly translates into happiness. Some of the Basotho (people of Lesotho) people will tell you that Nyakallo is a women's name while others will tell you that it is just a more respectful form of the more common "Thaboo". Regardless, I love the name!
This is just a brief hello so be sure to check back infrequently for actual stories, etc.
Thanks!
Many of my friends and family are familiar with what I do here but for those who aren't quite sure, who don't know me or have just forgotten...
My name is Michael Kerr and I am an American serving in the US Peace Corps program. I swore in as a volunteer in 2010 and will be living here in Lesotho, Southern Africa until August 2012. The program I work for within the PC is Community Health & Economic Development. The focus of this program is to assist my community in projects to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic that is engulfing southern Africa.
I live in a community called Katse, Thaba-Tseka. It is home to the Katse Dam, Africa's 2nd largest. At 184M tall, this behemoth holds back a gorgeous 54KM reservoir home to delicious salmon and rainbow trout.a It is an astoundingly beautiful mountain community to call home and I couldn't be happier with it.
In Katse, I am known as Nyakallo Kotelo. Nyakallo roughly translates into happiness. Some of the Basotho (people of Lesotho) people will tell you that Nyakallo is a women's name while others will tell you that it is just a more respectful form of the more common "Thaboo". Regardless, I love the name!
This is just a brief hello so be sure to check back infrequently for actual stories, etc.
Thanks!
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