Crossing the Border

Internet has been a serious problem at my site so it has been difficult to update this blog.

Since I last wrote, I attended my final training session in the capital. After that our group was granted permission to leave the country for vacations. Some friends and I headed to Durban in South Africa for Easter break. I really enjoyed eating well, lying on the beach, and the various adventures we had just running around. Durban is a beachside city on the Indian Ocean, complete with all your metropolitan desires. We went to a water park, one of the biggest malls I’ve ever been in, a rugby game, some awesome restaurants, and McDonald’s (a necessity). I’m not sure what others felt but I was not ready for all these luxuries. The difference between Lesotho and South Africa is astounding considering their geographic positions.

History is definitely relevant to this but I am no expert. I really should pick up a book on this but it’s not as easy as would think with my limited access to books and internet. Lesotho has always been independent of South Africa. The Basotho nations was founded through the unification of many tribes under a King Moshoeshoe, who defended this land from other tribes and colonists. Whenever, South Africa emerged as a nation Lesotho remained an independent Kingdom, I believe with assistance from the British. I really am not certain on the facts but the important thing is that despite being surrounded by South Africa, Lesotho was always different. South Africa went through white minority rule, violent apartheid, then Nelson Mandela (sure he can be an event). What has emerged is the strongest economy in Africa. Lesotho’s history is much different.

From my house I get to the border town of Maputsoe in about an hour. From there you can literally walk across the border. If you’ve never crossed a national border on foot, you should, it’s fun. In airports there is all this formality. Here I went to a window got my passport stamped (with the wrong dates) and walked through 5 minutes of no man’s land with a huge crowd. We got into a taxi just like the ones we ride in Lesotho. The first part of the drive is through a national park complete with vacation cabins. We drive through some smaller towns already which already seemed to have more than the communities we work in. Our rest stop is at a gas station which is packed with food, coffee, and magazines. There’s also an ATM, flushing bathrooms, a ham shop, and steers (a fast food place). It took us a while to get back in the taxi as we just walked around amazed. We also found out that our Sesotho was no longer understood. We even got pulled over a few times, the police had all these gadgets to test our brakes and things. The even insisted that we change the taxi because our windshield was broken. The driver ended up jetting out of there but it was nice to know the police did their jobs, halfway.

Everything is better in South Africa. Lesotho benefits from this because of the easy import of goods but the things Lesotho exports does not profit them nearly as much as it should. South Africa has a demand for Lesotho’s water and the electricity their dams produce. However, these resources are controlled by South African companies. A significant portion of income in Lesotho comes from Basotho working in mines in South Africa and sending money home. This is hardly a sustainable factor in their economy. Moreover, educated Basotho find that higher paying jobs outside the country are reason to move out of the country. Jobs such, including teaching, are compensated at close to ten times the rate causing a serious brain drain. Over the past, education in Lesotho has improved a lot. Free primary education is a national policy and there is an increasing number of students moving on to secondary and higher levels of education. In terms of development this is promising because an educated population is more employable. However, in my opinion, the pull factors encouraging emigration from Lesotho significantly counter these efforts.