If you’re anything like me, you grew up hearing the story
that peaches come from a can, and that they were put there by a man. Well it
turns out that the peach cause-and-effect chain goes even farther back than
that. Peaches, before any man or can-related happenings, grow on trees. Many
such trees (I’ve taken to calling these peach-producing trees “Peach Trees,”
and have sent a form in to the U. S. Copyright Office) grow in Matholeng.
Every so often, ‘M’e Sekatle will take a few of the WFP
burlap sacks and some students and collect a few sacks full of peaches, and after
school the teachers distribute 4 peaches to each students. The students
absolutely love this, especially because they can get in trouble for taking
peaches without asking, and they line up and push and shove each other and it’s
generally a raucous good time. It also makes me laugh to imagine schoolchildren
in the United States lining up for fruit.
My teachers are very pro-peach consumption, and I have been
asked several times if I like the peaches, and if so why is one not in my hand
right now, etc. One of my colleagues told me that peach season will last only a
few weeks, and so we need to eat as many possible now so that we have something
good to remember during the winter. Ntate Shakhane is a big proponent of this
theory, and will frequently come into class with a bowl of about nine peaches.
I have been doing my level best to join them. For whatever
reason, I didn’t eat many peaches before coming to Lesotho, but being able to
pick them fresh off the trees has made me a convert.
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