Hey all,
I just wanted to post this story while I'm thinking about it (aka before I forget).
Yesterday afternoon the kids came. These are the most adorable Basotho children in my village; they come to my house after school is over to color with crayons or play with the bladder of a destroyed soccer ball, depending on the day. Yesterday it was four girls and they wanted to color and draw with pencils. I got out new pencils for each of them and grabbed my sharpener, a fancy "machine" that holds the shavings in a little plastic compartment, which you then empty. They all had sharp pencils and had drawn some lovely scribbles. After I had marked their drawings and given them stickers (as is our unspoken agreement), one little girl wanted to resharpen her pencil. Two of them got into a little tiff and soon the pencil sharpener had fell to the ground and popped open, scattering pencil shavings all over my porch. The little one began crying so I came out to show her it was fine - the sharpener was certainly not broken. She didn't seem to care about that; she was more concerned that my porch was dirty, so I grabbed my broom so she could sweep if she wanted to.
(Note: Basotho brooms are just small bundles of straw; they have to bend over to sweep. I got an upright broom when I first got here because I very much dislike bending over to sweep... I'm too tall)
The broom was at least twice as big as she was... another of the girls grabbed the broom and proceeded to sweep my entire porch, even under my bench and mat, giggling the whole time.
The little one (Reitumetse) had stopped crying and started giggling too (and there is nothing more adorable than a small child's giggle)... meanwhile the one sweeping started telling me, "M'e Katie, Rethabile (the one who had knocked the sharpener out of Reitumetse's hands) is a FOOOOOT!" I looked at her, pretty confused at what she meant by that; I pointed to my foot. She shook her head and repeated: "Rethabile is a FOOT!" Finally, Rethabile stepped in to defend herself and correct Papali. "No, 'M'e Katie, Papali is a FOOOOL." Oh. Fool. Of course. But this wasn't what Papali had in mind either... "No, Madam, Rethabile is a FOOOOD."
Even now, I'm not sure what any of them meant, but it was pretty cute.
Love from Lesotho,
-Katie
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