Handout Mentality

I’m writing this blog in response to some distressing news from fellow PCVs discussed during an HIV/AIDS Committee Meeting in the capital last week. The World Food Programme, or WFP, in Lesotho is responsible for handing out free food (mostly maize meal and oil) to impoverished Basotho. Recently however, WFP has altered their guidelines—food is now only given to Basotho who are HIV positive, TB positive, and/or malnourished. While I don’t disagree with the new policy, reactions to it need to be considered. Volunteers are now seeing mothers purposefully starving their children or friends coughing on each other so they can be on the WFP list. This sort of thinking , the “handout mentality” in some third world countries, is incomprehensible to the Western world. (Although I have heard comparisons to the welfare junky, I refuse to place them on the same level.) Nurses are seeing healthy babies’ nutrition dramatically drop after the new WFP policy was introduced. There’s little they can do, though, without hard proof or contact with WFP Headquarters (who get their orders from an office far away in Europe).

WFP is an organization that I thought could do no wrong as far as services and mission. They aim to feed the hungry—what could possibly be wrong with that? I don’t mean to solely attack WFP, but I want to use this situation in Lesotho to support a theory that throwing money at problems (including hunger and poverty) DOES NOT WORK. Basotho don’t need handouts, they need skills and knowledge that will empower them to help themselves. I am witnessing a country’s dependency on foreign aid. In my mind, it is worse to make a poor country dependent on a rich country’s aid than to do nothing at all. I urge people to rethink the way they view charity. Is it really beneficial to give people free food when they are hungry? Will a people stop spreading HIV if they are given the treatment for free? These are tough questions that do not have simple answers, if any. These are the kinds of questions I ask myself every day.

Papa! Moroho! Nama!

One of the most frequently asked questions I get in emails or phone calls is: "What do you eat over there?" Honestly, PC volunteers in Lesotho are pretty lucky because we're so close to South Africa--even if we don't have a certain food product in our village, chances are we can get it in Maseru, the capital, or South Africa.
Traditional Basotho food consists mostly of papa, moroho, and nama. Papa is usually described as a stiff porridge made from maize meal. I like to think of it as extremely bland mashed potatoes that have had all the moisture sucked out of it (and not actually made from potatoes). It's pretty good with other foods, but it's pretty gross by itself. I don't make it myself (although it's very easy), but I eat it at "restaurants" in town and with Basotho sometimes. Basotho eat it with everything-- it's their staple carb food. I love papa with "moroho" which is a blanket term for any cooked leafy vegetable. Moroho usually involves chopped up cabbage, sometimes carrots, sometimes spinach, or swiss chard, etc. It's cooked in oil and flavored with salt or Aromat (pure MSG!) or something similar. My favorite moroho (that I can make) consists of chopped cabbage and grated carrots. Then there is nama which simply means "meat." When we were in training at the Training Site in Maseru, most of the meat that was cooked for us was dubbed "mystery meat," but it always tasted good. Nama in Lesotho is either chicken, cow, pig, or sheep. No rat stew... yet! Just kidding. Other things Basotho eat if it's available: pumpkin, squash, beetroot, bean salad, potato salad, soups, eggs, bohobe (bread), etc. Most food are doused in salt or MSG flavor or Rama (margarine, yum).
Although these are the most available foods in Lesotho, I usually don't eat them. I eat a lot of rice with veggies, beans, grilled cheese, tuna sandwiches, yogurt and granola, PB & J, lentils, soups with bread, etc. In the mornings I eat either oatmeal, yogurt and granola, or eggs and buttered bread. That's right -- I like eggs now! Basotho taught me that they taste really good if you use enough oil when you cook them. :) You can get a lot of instant foods in Maseru too -- like 2-minute noodles (Top Ramen) and cup-a-soup. I generally don't cook meat for myself, but I eat it in town or with friends. And of course I always boil my water. Oh, and tortillas are hard to find here so I make my own with I'm really craving a burrito. We can bake things too with a Dutch oven (hehe), like cookies and casseroles, but I haven't attempted the Dutch oven yet. Also they sell candy bars in most camptowns so I get my chocolate fix when I need it -- I can even get Peanut Butter M&Ms at a certain gas station in Maseru, so good! The only food I truly miss and salivate when I think about is the In-N-Out cheeseburger. Alas, there is no hope of finding an In-N-Out cheeseburger in Africa, or barely outside of California. Most of my fellow American volunteers have not enjoyed or even heard of In-N-Out which causes me pain. So, to all of my In-N-Out buddies (there are so many of you), enjoy an INO cheeseburger or Double-Double for me and tell my favorite burger joint that I miss it.