The other day, our LCF (Language and Culture Facilitator) 'M'e Mabatloung pulled aside my fellow trainee Tumisang, who lives in the extended Kose family, and asked what happened to his pants.
"They look," she explained, "as if they have been inside of a cow's mouth."
He told me this on our walk back up to the Kose houses, and when we got back his 'M'e, 'M'e Maqanahelo, looked at us accusingly. "Tumisang! Bokang! I have talked with 'M'e Mabatloung. She tells me you need to iron your clothes or you will look like a careless man!"
So it seems that wherever I go, I cannot escape the cosmic necessity that clothes be pressed and neat, and that I will have to iron my clothes or else be thought of as a careless man. My mother is, once again, right.
On a tangent, I had never before heard, and really appreciated, the phrase "careless man," but it seems to be a common one here among the English-speaking Basotho. It has the feel of a phrase that Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men might use:
Chigurh entered the store.
Can I help you? asked the clerk.
Yes.
What would you like?
I am not here to buy anything.
Well what can I help you with?
I have come to find if you are a careless man.
I'm afraid I don't understand.
It's a simple question. Are you a careless man?
"They look," she explained, "as if they have been inside of a cow's mouth."
He told me this on our walk back up to the Kose houses, and when we got back his 'M'e, 'M'e Maqanahelo, looked at us accusingly. "Tumisang! Bokang! I have talked with 'M'e Mabatloung. She tells me you need to iron your clothes or you will look like a careless man!"
So it seems that wherever I go, I cannot escape the cosmic necessity that clothes be pressed and neat, and that I will have to iron my clothes or else be thought of as a careless man. My mother is, once again, right.
On a tangent, I had never before heard, and really appreciated, the phrase "careless man," but it seems to be a common one here among the English-speaking Basotho. It has the feel of a phrase that Anton Chigurh from No Country For Old Men might use:
Chigurh entered the store.
Can I help you? asked the clerk.
Yes.
What would you like?
I am not here to buy anything.
Well what can I help you with?
I have come to find if you are a careless man.
I'm afraid I don't understand.
It's a simple question. Are you a careless man?
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