Well I thought I would try to post a short video clip on here. This comes from the graduation party I attended on Saturday. A woman I taught with at St. Rodrigue, 'Me Maboleba Kolobe (formerly 'Malerato Lehloka) just finished her master's degree at the National University in English. I had a good time at the party, which took up most of Saturday afternoon. The song you will see here was towards the end after there had been about 15-20 speeches by people from various aspects of her life, family, high school, college, graduate school, church groups, etc (including one by me on behalf of all the St. Rodrigue teachers since I was the only St. Rodrigue teacher who made it). I gave the first about 25% of the speech in Sesotho and then had to switch to English because I didn't get much of a 'heads up' that I would be speaking. So it goes. The party was a good time. All the people from the English Department who were graduating with post-bachelor's degrees were there so it was a full table. in the video, 'Me Kolbe is in her robe and comes dancing out from behind the table with her 2nd daughter (she has three) in tow (Kamohela is her name for those who know the family). The song is a congratulatory song that basically says 'this is your day and we are proud of you'. Enjoy! Another sunny day is coming to an end here. Hope you all are well.

Another week

Well, another week is down here. It really is amazing how time is starting to fly by now that I have most of the administrative details complete and am getting into the actual work. I tried to set up some interviews this week but was foiled by the busy schedules of the men I tried to get ahold of. Maybe next week! So it means that I spent most of my time at the National Archives picking through the records of the National Council (the advisory body that was partially elected and composed partially of chiefs...the precursor to a real legislative body) from the early 1950s. It can be interesting in spurts but as the books are about 650 pages each (the verbatim transcripts of the debates these guys held for the three weeks they met), it can also be quite tedious.
Still, it is good stuff and necessary to have for my future dissertation so I keep plugging away. The archives are quite empty other than me (I would say there in another person there looking at something maybe one out of every three or four days and those visits average under 2 hours).
This weekend is graduation at the National University (for those who finished in May) and there are four of my former teaching colleagues from St. Rodrigue who are getting degrees of some sort. Quite exciting. One of my friends is having her graduation party (for her master's degree in English--'Me Malerato/Kolobe for those who know her) on Saturday here in Maseru so I will be going to that. Another one (Ntate Leseli) is having his party (for a Bachelor's in Science) at the end of October at his home village up in the foothills so I have plans to get there as well.
I am staying connected and busy for sure. Life is good here. Hope the same is true where you are.

A grab bag

In terms of my daily activities, I can assure you that research in the field is not something for those who like routine. Sure I can have a few days in a row where I do the same thing, like Monday-Wednesday of this week when I spent most of my time at the National Archives digging through boxes of old letters and various correspondence between government officials and people in London, South Africa and Lesotho. Yes, I know how to have fun, especially as most days I was the only person there and definitely spent more time there than the archivist did.
However, today was completely different. As I am here on a Fulbright Fellowship I was asked by people at the US Embassy to sit on a panel that was to interview Basotho candidates for a Fulbright position in the United States. There were two US embassy employees (one Mostho, one American), a retired Lesotho ambassador to Denmark and a retired professor of Economics/former Fulbrighter from the National University. We interviewed five candidates who all wanted to pursue higher degrees (mostly PhD) at American universities and ultimately selected one. Then the embassy was kind enough to take the panelists to lunch and I now have, in addition to a nice free luch,two very interesting people to interview about what they were doing during the 1950s and 60s. You just never know where you will find sources for my project!
Tomorrow I will head up to the university for their Friday history seminar where members of the department give papers on their research. Then I will probably spend some time in the archive up there going through educational records. A heck of a week! Like I said I am hoping to start interviewing people next week to start the oral component of my project. It is kind of fun to have to figure out what my plan of attack is every day. There are always more places to check for documents and more people to contact. Spring is on the way here. We are just waiting for the first rains to make it green and allow people to start plowing and planting, but the temperatures have been (mostly) nice. Take care!

More successes

So a nice weekend is drawing to a close. Just wanted to let you all know some of the successes I have had over the last few days. The letter from the university finally came through on Wednesday of last week so I was able to pick that up and take it to Immigration to get my work permit for the year. I am legal to be here until June, which is nice. I also have an office at the university, so if you for some reason you happen to be at the National University of Lesotho, feel free to stop by Room 103 in the Institute of Southern African Studies and see if I am around. Chances are I am not because most of my time will be spent in the various archives and out in the country trying to find people to interview, but it can't hurt, right?
Otherwise, I have been doing some interesting research in the National Archives here. They don't have a lot on my time period, but some of the precursor nationalist movements in the 1930s and 40s that raised awareness among Basotho and lodged grievances against the colonial administration and chiefs here generated some interesting correspondence from the government and the chiefs. So I am spending some time going through those files and will go through the files of the National Council (the unelected precursor to Parliament here) for the 1950s and 60s to see what sort of issues they were discussing. All in all, interesting stuff for historians, but probably not too much for everyone else!
I have also been invited to the weekly History Department seminars at the University and went to my first one on Friday. Various members of the department present their work and the discussion is neat because for the first time in graduate school, I am completely surrounded by people studying African history. A real treat!
I am, of course, still running quite regularly. I put in about 50 miles this last week, which is pretty good as I am busy and Maseru is at an elevation of about a mile. I think I have adjusted well, however. Anyway, have a good week and I will post again when something interesting happens or the spirit so moves.

Wheels

So as you might be able to see, I have acquired a car. I have checked out the used car places here in Maseru and found this sporty little number that should get me where I need to go. I basically have it on a long-term rental because I will obviously not be taking it with me when I go. But, for now I have wheels on two continents! It looks all nice and snazzy, but is plenty old with over 200,000 miles on it, which is how I was able to afford it! However, it should get the job done as long as I can remember to stay on the left side of the road! Seriously though, it really isn't that hard to get used to, but driving the stick shift with my left hand will take some practice.
Otherwise I am still trying to get my work permit and visa arranged from the university. This car will allow me to get there easier to knock some heads if need be in the near future. I have also been spending some time at the National Archives here in Maseru which are nice for what they have (information up to the end of the 1930s), but aren't really that helpful for stuff on the time period I am looking at. However, the archivist called a bunch of ministries for me and they said I should stop by anytime and they will try to help. We will see, I will keep you posted. Well, it is a warm sunny day here so I am heading back out to get some more work done. Take care.

Ups and downs, strikes and gutters

Progress is a funny thing when living in a foreign country and trying to research in the field. I am often not sure what is going on around me or what I should be doing next as this whole 'research' thing is pretty much self-directed. The last few days around here have been complicated. I stopped by the university to check on the status of my paperwork that I had been assured the week before had been submitted (I am applying to be a Visiting Research Fellow there) only to find that it was still sitting on someone's desk and had only been submitted that morning. So instead of getting a letter that will help me get a visa and a work permit, I ended up in the archive there going through old colonial education reports (yea, I know how to live the high life).
Tuesday rolled around and I stayed in Maseru (the university is in a town called Roma about 40km by road from Maseru) doing some errands and working on some old research notes I had. I got a call around 5 PM from one of the secretaries who said that the paperwork had (finally) gone through and I should come the next day to take care of details and get the letters I need. Great! She also says I might get an office (an office?).
So Wednesday dawns and after my usual morning run I head out the door to catch the taxis that will take me to Roma. I roll in to find that the secretaries are too busy dealing with something else to help me today. "Thanks for your understanding." Well, I ask, when should I come back? "Maybe Friday." Never a good sign when a maybe precedes the answer around here, but hey, what else can I do? So I headed back to the archive there to bury my frustration in more colonial education reports (again, aren't I the high roller?).
So, we will see. Hopefully I will not have to develop superpowers to get these letters and my visa and work permit. I will keep you posted and will (hopefully) have some good news to report by this weekend or early next week. Until then, well, there are more colonial education reports waiting for me!