For those who have never lived in places where virtually every person is paid at the end of the month (or at the best, twice a month), there is very little to compare the phenomenon that is month end, especially here in January where many people are short on money because they spent a lot on the holidays. Plus the new school year just started two weeks ago so people need cash to pay school fees (all high schools in the country have tuition fees, books, uniforms, etc that parents ad guardians have to fund).
What does this mean for daily life here in Lesotho? It means that last weekend was a very quiet one in town with precious few taxis full of people speeding towards town. This week was the complete opposite. Everyone from the suburbs around Maseru and even many rural areas have to come into town to use the banks and ATMs to access their cash. So from about Thursday there were enormous lines at all the banks. And by enormous I mean sometimes they stretch for two blocks and people will wait over an hour to use an ATM. Today as I was running through the center of town at 7.30 AM, there were already long queues at all the banks even though they would not open for at least another hour. I guess it pays to get their early and get out. This means that the stores and the shopping areas of town, like the bus station, were also totally packed as people make their necessary purchases.
It is also a time to kick back and relax with friends, so when I ran past a public bar at 6.30 this morning there was already a loud-speaker set up blasting out the local famo music (which is accordion and guitar based with guys singing over the top of a bass riff...I find I don't really mind it unless I am sitting in a taxi with the volume turned up to 11 and the speaker right next to my ear) and people already hanging out. There are always more parties and get-togethers at month end as people can afford to spend a bit more on food and drink.
I can't say that I really like month-end. Going back to my teaching days, riding the bus at month-end was always a unique experience as it was the most crowded (and hot) time as the conductors continued to cram people in long after it was over-full. Now living in Maseru, month-end means there are more people on the roads who might have had a few too many drinks and it is harder to take care of errands as all the stores and offices are more crowded. However, to really experience and understand life here you need to be aware and sensitive to the ebbs and flows of the cash cycle. Sorry I don't have any photos for you this time, but my camera needs batteries and I wasn't going to get in the crush today just to get those!
Stay well.
This will be the easiest way for me to communicate with friends and family over the course of the ten months I will be spending in Lesotho in 2008-09. I am working on my doctoral research in African history focusing on the transition to independence in the 1950s and 60s, looking at the way young people tried to conceive of the project of building a new country from scratch.
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