Ke 'mme, I am woman

Today Nancy drove me up to the mountains so we could see more views of Lesotho and play in the snow. This may be hard to believe, but it is the dead of winter in the southern hemisphere and it has been snowing for the past few days. On the way up there, Nancy told me stories about when she was in the Peace Corps. She made good friends with a woman named Pascalina (who I interviewed and had dinner with the other day). She told me that when she was pregnant and working hard, washing her clothes in the river, struggling to stay warm, etc. that Pascalina taught her a Basotho saying "ke 'mme". It means I'm woman and implies that I'm a woman, I have to do hard things and I can do hard things. Whenever Basotho women see something is tough or difficult, they ke 'mme and get it done. Even though men are the head of the Basotho household, the Basotho woman is known for her strength of character and determination. So maybe Lesotho is closer to meeting the goal of empowering women than I thought after my interviews at the TRC.