Easy as Pie

February 6th, 2010

At about 10 am this morning (Sunday) Hlapa, the youngest abuti in my host family, came to my house for his weekend romp with Leslie. His whole face was covered in black/purple spots and he kept drinking a thick liquid out of an old plastic bottle. Turned out to be blackberries. Now, I am not a lover of any berries, but these were so big and smelt so nice that I told him to give me 5 minutes while I ran back inside to dress, grab a hat (was at least 30 degrees), and clean my bucket. Hlapa then hooked Leslie to her make-shift leash and said "up". Up it was. The bushes that had the most berries were, of course, at the top of the lower shelf of my mountian. Up we went. We were just past my house when out of no where two other village boys grabbed the leash with Hlapa and decided to join us. We got to the top, Leslie loved climbing, and started to pick. It was really difficult because of the slope we were on. My height gave me an advantage to get the berries all the little boys havent been able to reach. Their tiny size made them able to really get into the bushes though. I only wanted a few to make a pie with but the boys were determined to fill the bucket. It was finally filled and we trooped back down to my lawn where they continued to play with the dog. Here were three little boys who could have spent their Sunday playing but instead took the lekhooa up the mountain to pick berries, I had to do something nice just because they werent expecting it. So, I invited them in and had them take off their shoes and I turned on "Indiana Jones 2". Hlapa has seen it a million times so was telling the other boys all that was going to happen during the talking parts. I proceeded to make a pie then freeze the rest of the berries. They thought I was totally weird, how do you COOK blackberries????? The end result was a little too sugary but they each devoured their piece and my host family received the rest.

It was a simple Sunday but very enjoyable. Even though none of the boys spoke english, so they were all jabbering in Sesotho and me in English, we made eachother understand. Most of the villagers though I was insane to climb a mountain to pick the berries instead of just sending the boys. From it though I some good exercise, made 3 little boys who rarely get nice treats very happy, and got to bake a pie which I love doing. You don't have to be saving the world to be a Peace Corps volunteer. Sometimes its as easy as pie!