Cows and Conundrums

Africa. A clash of experiences. Some things slow and slightly humorous; other things slow to progress and deeply disheartening.

In the last few weeks livestock have slowed life down and provided moments of levity - if one is not in a rush. I marvel that there is not more road carnage here, but as a local police officer once remarked; people and livestock have the right of way here, even if most drivers drive as if this is not the rule.

The other day I was driving down a highway. I had to slow to nearly a full stop. A cow was crossing the road. Slowly. On three legs. How long would a three-legged cow survive in Canada I pondered? Here however, she remained someone’s valuable asset, though I did wonder for how long if she keeps crossing the highway. Another day, leaving the local mall; a new modern facility with a six screen Cineplex and a cow nonchalantly walking through the parking area ahead of her herd boy. Cows in southern Africa. They show up every where - on the roads, at the mall, on the beach.

Then there are sheep. I have seen sheep holding up traffic as they cascade across Maseru streets. Wendy was returning home from work recently and holding up traffic was not a flock, but a solitary sheep wandering down a busy thoroughfare. Not crossing the road, wandering straight down the road, in the middle of a lane with a transport truck crawling along behind her, her ‘herd boy’ for that moment. Witnessing these moments I often wonder how I would respond back in Canada. But here, such moments are just part of the ambience, a slower rhythm that I enjoy.

Other things, advancing glacially, are also part of life here. They however, are a source of frustration and exasperation, not rhythm and ambience.

One of the Mustard Seed girls completed her high school education last year. While considering her future, she wants to work. She has found opportunity, even in the 40% unemployment here in Lesotho. Her youth and vitality have stood her in good stead. One factory hired her for a short-term stint, and would hire her again, but there is a catch. The principal identifying document here in Lesotho is a passport. For ongoing employment, the factory that had hired her requires her to present her passport. Ah, but obtaining a passport … .

A passport application can languish amidst a pile of other applications for one, two, three, or even more YEARS. (Though with the right connections, one can get their passport within days.) I am convinced that multiple applications are literally lost amidst piles of other applications; stacked, overlooked, and gathering dust on desks, in cabinets, or on the floor. This girl has been waiting for a couple of years since her application. Today, with a passport, she could be back working in that factory. Without it, … an energetic, capable young woman languishes. When opportunity is denied, what then? How does one sustain hope, aspiration, ambition?

Another girl. Another story. Another life, … languishing. She sort of snuck into the Mustard Seed program. She is a delightful young girl, though not a double orphan, and she takes part in our non-school related activities. Her mother has died, but she has a father – himself uneducated, unskilled, unemployed. Since she has a father, we cannot apply on her behalf for the high school bursary we pursue for our other girls. She lives with a grandmother, who, on her $50Cdn per month pension, supports herself, the girl, and sometimes the father. The family simply has no money to send this girl to school. Unlike primary school, which she completed last year, high school comes with tuition costs, costs beyond the reach of $50 per month. Another bright, eager young girl languishes.

I can rationalize and say she is just one of hundreds, nay thousands, of children languishing here in Lesotho - their futures ebbing and fading away. But I have witnessed first hand her tears and pain at not being able to continue in school. She is no longer just a number or statistic, but a face, a person with ability and potential and capacity, her hopes and dreams fading under the glare of inequity within Lesotho, in Africa, and across the world. Financial inequity yes, but that will always persist. It is the inequity of opportunity that I find the most disheartening and difficult to accept. Without opportunity, I don’t wonder that people struggle with despair, and stop dreaming and hoping.

Cows and conundrums. I am grateful for the absurdity of a cow, or sheep, holding up traffic, giving life here a lighter perspective and rhythm. They do provide a needed diversion from the conundrum and absurdity of structures, meant to help people, that bury individual hope and initiative beneath inefficiency, ineptitude, and inequity.

~ Benno ~