I got called Chinese today (this was last Monday), on my walk home from school, by an abuti carrying a bag on the end of a stick, hobo style. It went like this:

Abuti (brother): Good morning Chinese! (big, toothy grin; it was 4 p.m.)

Me: (pause) Ha ke Chinese! (fake indignation) Ke Ausi Thato. (big, toothy grin back at him)

(translation: I am not Chinese! I am sister/Miss Thato)


I have lived here for one year and nine months and this still startles me. One, because I assume most people in the area know who I am or have heard of me (as in, "Oh, the one who lives with M'e so-and-so. Yes, I've heard of her") and know that I am not Chinese. Two, because I think it is pretty difficult to mistake me for a Chinese person.

My encounter, though, is telling of the Chinese influence here in Lesotho--a herdboy in a rural, mountain village sees a light-skinned person and assumes that she is Chinese.

I feel like I have a lot in common with many of the Chinese ex-pats living in Lesotho. They leave their families, their friends, their culture and comforts, and the comfort of their culture to live in a foreign place. In my village there is a family of three who run a grocery-esque shop.

The difference, though, is that most Chinese here have come looking for a business opportunity. They are not here as "free labour"; they are not working for a charity; they are not working for an NGO with goals like "development" and "sustainability." Considering that the fields in which most work are engineering and retail, I assume that their reasons for coming are for business and financial growth. Perhaps they are motivated by issues like world peace, altruism, making a difference, HIV prevention (I have never asked, but I probably should). And, maybe they are just going about tackling them in a circuitous way.

It is an interesting idea. Maybe they are on to something.