What a Week!

Many of the problems that I have had living at site for the past six and a half months, seemed to happen again within the past week and a half. I got bed bugs again, but much worse, my legs look like I got come kind of pox. They should be easy enough to get rid of once it stops raining for long enough that I can take all my bedding outside. About a month after getting to site I had stuff go missing from my house, mainly cash and cookies, but I had a long talk in Sesotho about it with my host mother and it seemed like it had gotten resolved. But last week stuff started going missing again, fruit and cookies and my radio had been turned on. Nothing major (and I no longer keep cash in my room) but it still is a terrible feeling that someone is coming into my room and going through my things. And my host mother under the impression that we will soon be getting electricity (I’m very skeptical that it’ll be anytime soon) dug up a large part of my garden to put the electric pole. Hours and hours of work and all my little onion and carrot seedlings were destroyed. She seemed to think this was a necessary sacrifice for electricity, and was surprised that I was not excited at the prospect. All these issues are something that I am perfectly capable of dealing with, but when they come all at once it’s overwhelming. I did have a couple really good moments when I received Christmas packages from home along with a couple unexpected letters! And the upside to this difficult week is that I will soon be on vacation on the beaches of Durban for new years!

My Adventures in a Hospital in Lesotho

I’ve been surprisingly lucky that I’ve gone six months in rural Africa without so much as a cold. But a couple of weeks ago I caught a stomach virus that was going around the peace corps volunteers. I started throwing up and couldn’t stop. It was after dark, so there wasn’t any more transportation to the nearest town or hospital. I called the lodge and they came and picked me up and drove me to the hospital, but not before I had thrown up eleven times in two hours. I’ve had food poisoning and the stomach flu before, but this seemed worse. I am so lucky that I have a host organization like Maliba Lodge that was so easy to contact and helpful in getting me to the hospital. The hospital was in the camptown closest to my village, Butha-Buthe. Even though it was after hours nurses were there and they gave me a charcoal drink and a shot to stop the stomach pains (though there was no alcohol swab or bandaid with the shot). I felt a lot better almost instantly, but was too weak to leave. Throughout the night I kept asking for water, and the nurses told me there was none. Finally they turned on the tap to show me that it was dry and there was no running water. So I had no water (I did have an IV though) until another volunteer came and visited me the next day and brought me some. I also needed to go to the bathroom after 2 IVs , but they were all closed because of the lack of running water. I asked the nurse what I should do, I stayed for over 16 hours and really had to pee, she said she did not know. I eventually got a bed pan. I have to admit the lack of water was not the hospitals fault, but the idea that a hospital could lose their running water and nothing would be done about it for days shocked me. Besides that, it was actually pretty nice, there weren’t many people there at all (hospitals are expensive to stay in overnight) and the food was much better than what I’ve had in American hospitals. I probably got more attention than I would have in a hospital at home too. But I almost was made to stay for another night when the accounts office closed at 3pm. The staff wanted to keep me another night (and pay for it) because I could not settle my bill while the accounts office was closed. With the help of Lauren, the volunteer visiting me, we convinced them that I could leave a deposit and settle the account with Peace Corps the next day. While I never would want to go to the hospital here again, I was pleasantly surprised with my experience there, and I left a little weak, but cured.

Settling in: salads and a radio

I’ve now been in Lesotho for almost six months, and in my village for three and a half. It’s taken a while, but I finally feel at home. My work has developed, so that I have two tasks to do everyday. Being busy and productive has made a big difference on how content I feel. On an average day I’m woken up by my host family calling to each other and getting ready as early as 6am, but I don’t get up till 7. I then spend a little time cleaning and then an hour or two working in the garden. Usually I get dirty enough that I have to take a bucket bath. But since it’s hot it is a lot more pleasant than it was in the winter. I then read a bit and review my lesson plan for then day before walking for an hour or so to school. I teach lifeskills for one period and then meet with the agriculture group. Lately we’ve been planting, but before that we spent most meetings planning, writing needs assessments, and developing a seasonal calendar. I believe I am making a difference in my lifeskills classes, most of the kids had a very limited knowledge of HIV/AIDS. But in the agriculture clubs, I can actually see the difference, and see the plants grow, it has been very rewarding.

As I settle into a routine with work I’ve also become much better at filling my free time. Without electricity, tv and computers I used to spend a lot of time just sitting and looking at the mountains, which was pleasant but pretty boring. Now I’ve taken up knitting and have started a garden, which has been a lot of fun. I’m trying to grow greens that you can’t get in Lesotho, they don’t have uncooked salads here. I can’t wait to have a nice green salad! One of my favorite parts about my village are the children, they come and visit me almost everyday, I have gotten some colored pencils and now they sit outside my door and color, much nicer than just standing there and staring at me. And the rains have started, so everything is green. The peaches on the peach trees have started to ripen. And a waterfall that wasn’t there in the winter, started up a couple of weeks ago. I woke up to the sound of new waterfalls and a very full river, at first I thought my fan was one, then I realized I have no fan, and no electricity to run a fan. And it’s gotten hot here, my house is on a hillside and gets a nice breeze, but the walk to the schools is very sweaty. The weather here in summer is very dramatic, it hails on a weekly basis and I have twice seen lightening strike a nearby mountain and set it on fire.

While I still have my frustrating moments, I’m very happy here and feel settled. Two years still sounds like a long time, but not as frighteningly long as it did before. One of my frustrating moments happened two weeks ago when was trying to handle two six-week old puppies in my purse on a bus. They were being a handful and a woman who I’d never seen before came up to me and told me to give her my puppy. I said no, not unless she gave me one of her cattle. She was quiet for a while after that, then saw that I had two puppies, and said that I needed to give her one since I had two. My patience in Lesotho has been surprisingly good, a lot better than at home, I think it’s because I get so much sleep. But I ran out of patience at that moment and just ignored her. It’s a cultural difference, here you don’t say “please can you lend me,” you say “I’m asking for” or “give me,” I’m still getting used to it. I think politeness is a cultural subtlety that is very difficult to grasp. I probably have been impolite myself without realizing it.

Last week I got a radio! Its screen might not work and it only gets a few stations, but it has been wonderful. I spent a very pleasant evening last week sitting watching the sunset behind the mountains with my host sister listening to old American r&b.

Rewards and Frustrations of Teaching

I’ve been teaching and working at the schools for six weeks now, walking up to seven miles a day while rotating between the schools. Teaching has been going very well, but at first it was overwhelming. The first class I taught had over 120 students in it, the principal wanted grades 4 through 7 to attend the first class. I had not prepared for that many students and had to improvise my lesson. I talked to the principal after class and we agreed that I would just teach lifeskills to 6th and 7th grades, still close to 50 students, but much more manageable. The kids are very receptive and ask a lot of questions. The younger students have trouble with English, but luckily at the two primary schools at least one teacher attends my class and is able to translate (while at the same time learning how to teach lifeskills themselves). At the secondary school the teachers are much less involved, but the students are more advanced and have been really great. Lifeskills covers the topics of HIV/AIDS, self-empowerment, gender, reproductive health, etc. I often sound like a cliché after school special, overly simplifying everything so that the students can understand. One of my classes was on self-esteem, for the next week kids in my village would come up to me and say “I love myself!” I’m not sure if they understood, but it was nice to hear. I think the most progress I’ve made is with the anonymous question box. In it students admit to not understanding a concept from class or ask questions about AIDS. Some of the questions are really tough and heartbreaking. I got one this week where a girl said when she told her boyfriend/husband that she was HIV positive he beat her and asked what she should do. I feel like I am helping these kids, but there is a big difference between teaching them to know what they should do and actually having them do it.

I’ve had mixed results with my teachers’ workshops. Probably the most frustrating week I’ve had so far was after leading two teacher workshops where only half the teachers showed up (even though they were all on school grounds) and only one out of three or five paid any attention. These teachers are in the best position to help the students and it was upsetting to feel like they just didn’t care. But I had one amazing teachers’ workshop where all but one of the teachers showed up, not only did they pay attention they actually took notes and asked questions. This was at the school where the teachers seem to care the most, but ironically also beat the most. While I was explaining the lifeskills no-beating, positive reinforcement strategies the teachers asked if it would work in all of their classes as well. They are going to try not beating and using the lifeskills classroom management techniques. It might take a while to actually work, but it was really exciting to be a part of such a positive change.

The Buildings of Maliba Burn

It looks like it’s snowing again at Maliba Lodge, but its in the 80s F. Three are constant flurries of ash falling from a huge wildfire that burned on and off for the past week. It’s depressing to look at the mountains that were green and covered with trees are now charred and in some places still smoldering. It’s the end of the dry season, so a small fire quickly caught and spread until entire mountains were on fire. I was not at the lodge for the first couple of days, when the fires were the worst. The staff, with many people helping from my village, fought the fires without sleeping or resting for three days. It burned down three staff houses and got alarmingly close to the lodge. In some places the thatch roof caught fire, but was quickly put out. Some of the patios of the guest houses burned. It was very lucky that the lodge didn’t burn down. They say that the fires are out now, but there are still many spots on the mountains where smoke is still rising, a week after the fires first started. IT burned most of Maliba’s land and a lot of Tsehlanyane national park. It even spread to the mountain beside my village. I was told that the fire was too hard to reach up in the mountain to fight. I was scared and ready to evacuate, but none of the villagers seemed worried though.

The first news I had of the fire was when I was getting back from a grocery trip to the closest town. My host sister came running up to me and said “the buildings of Maliba burn!” I looked in the direction of Maliba Lodge, over 5km away and blocked by several mountains, but I could still see huge clouds of smoke and large flames on one of the further mountains. It was shocking and really sad. In some places the only green things left are the firebreaks that the fire easily leapt over. And in a national park where some of the plants are only found in these mountains, it is especially depressing. But nobody was hurt, and it could have been much, much worse. What we need is some rain, to finally and completely put the fire out, and to help start things regrowing and to turn the mountains green again.

Sounds of Village Life

My village has a kind of rhythm and sound that has begun to sound and feel like home. It is made up of cowbells, distant women singing, children shouting and crying, dogs barking, sheep bleating, metal pots clanking and sometimes an unusual birdsong. It might be because my village is on a steep hillside facing a mountain, but all the noises echo off the mountains and blur into a type of music. It’s always changing and makes the village feel alive. At dusk when everything is settling down it seems beautiful and peaceful. About half an hour after dark all the noises stop except for some insects. It is an eerie quiet and makes me miss the village sounds until half an hour before dawn when it all starts back up again, usually children right outside my door shouting my name, then I wish I could turn it back off.

What Makes America Great: education and ice

After living in Lesotho for a couple months I have come to believe that the real difference between developed and developing countries is education. Solely based on the fact that we’ve had American educations, my fellow volunteers and I, after a few weeks of training by Peace Corps, are qualified to teach and lead workshops on business, nutrition, lifeskills, HIV/AIDS, sustainable farming, etc. and serve as mentors and counselors in Lesotho. All we need is some books. Not only do they lack resources, such as good textbooks here, there is also a lack of people who know how to use them as resources. While most of the teachers at my schools are working hard to educate the students, there is just a different attitude towards the education system. Most classes are merely copying things from the board, memorizing without understanding. And teachers often don’t come to class at all, and there are no substitutes. Students either study on their own or go home; it seems to be a weekly occurrence. One day last week only 2 of the 7 teachers where there. Beating students is a normal, everyday occurrence here. Besides being harmful for the students physically and mentally, it creates a horrible learning environment. There are several teachers that seem interested in learning alternatives classroom management techniques, which I’m really excited about, I’m going to lead a workshop on it soon. I’ve started teaching the teachers about lifeskills and HIV/AIDS. Its alarming the misconceptions that even some of the educated people here have about AIDS. Many thought that you couldn’t get AIDS id you were white, or that it is a problem in Lesotho but not in their village.

Education is a way out of poverty. But it’s nearly impossible to learn what you’re not taught. I believe that America has one of the best education systems in the world. Just imagine what these kids could do and would become if they received our educations. The education system is what makes America great. And the abundance of cold drinks. It’s become summer here and it is hot. I’ve started making cool tea, since there is no ice for ice tea. I think America might use more ice than any other country in the world. It might just be frozen water, but it is so good. Warm lemonade just isn’t the same.

Tom

A couple of weeks ago a Peace Corps volunteer was shot and killed in Lesotho. He and another volunteer were walking back to the Peace Corps training center from a close-of-service party at a hotel a few blocks away. They were mugged at gun point and Tom got shot. He died before he reached the hospital. While incidents like this happen in large cities around the world, it is made more tragic by the fact that Tom was a volunteer here to help the country. And Tom was one of the best of us. Few have become so loved and integrated into their communities here. The memorial service held for him here in Lesotho made it evident how loved and important he was to the Peace Corps volunteers and staff. The memorial service was very moving and healing. His friends and those close to him gave speeches and told many stories of Tom's remarkable achievements and some of his more mischievous adventures. It gave those of us that had arrived to Lesotho recently and did not know him well a vivid impression of the man he was and the man, the doctor, husband and father he should have been able to become. The intense emotion shown by those who had been close to him was proof to how fiercely loved he had been and how deeply and painfully he is being missed. His closest friends are home receiving counseling and being with family.

In Peace Corps you're thrown into a new world, where the language, customs and daily way of life are so different from what you've known. You cling to other volunteers. They become your support, your bit of home and sometimes your sanity. We really do become a family. The cruelly pointless and sudden manner of Tom's death blew a hole in our Peace Corps family that I doubt will ever fully heal. We are slowly and painfully returning to our sites and jobs, deemed safe by Peace Corps Washington. Hopefully carrying on helping Lesotho as tom would have. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones back home.

A family full of Gifts

I've been in Lesotho for ninety days! At first moving to village after a pampered week at the lodge was tough. But adjusting to a new way of life I guess is never easy. I'm happy to be back in a village again, and couldn't have a more beautiful site. But no one in my village speaks english! I'm able to get across all my needs, but I need to learn a lot more Sesotho before I can have a meaningful conversation with any of my neighbors. I thought I had learned a lot of Sesotho in the two weeks that I've been here, but yesterday I realized I'm just getting more fluent in hand gestures.

I absolutely love my host mom, she's very understanding and helpful, and always smiling. She makes me smile even when I have no idea what she's saying. I think she's going to be one of my best friends out here. I like my host brother and sister too, but they don't understand personal space. In Lesotho mothers get renamed after their oldest son or sometimes daughter. So my host mom's name is 'me mampho, my host brother's name is Impho and mine is Limpho. All diffrerent variations on the word gift, we are a family full of gifts. My host sister's name is Matsiliso, and I have no idea what that means.

I'm slowling adapting to village life and its slow pace. I spent an entire day watchign a roof get rebuilt with some bo-'me. It was really interesting. Their traditional houses are so much better insulated and sustainable than the modern concrete ones, I realy hope they don't lose hat knowledge and tradition. I alos spent one day walkign to the shop and back and then mending some clothes. I've already started to dress like a Mosotho, flannel shirts with skirts. My host mom told me it looks very nice, I think I'll bring it back to the states. They often wear blankets and towels over pants, instead of skirts, and are always tryign to get me to put on my towel, but I haven't gone that far yet. I've also been having fun building things for my little hut, and making it feel like home.

I'm excited for next week when I actually start working! I've never been very good at not havign anything to do. Next week I start working at three of the closest schools, two are still an hours walk away. I'll be teaching lifeskills four times a week, leading a teachers workshope once a week (so they'll be able to teach lifeskills themselves once I've left) and an environment club twice a week. The club is supposed to teach environmental conservation and sustainable farming, its also so I can manage the tree and garden projects sponsored by the lodge at the schools. I hope to lead a monthly workshop for the lodge employees and their families also. I'll be doing consulting and workshops in my village too, but I need a translator to help me talk with the village chief before I can set that up. I'm excited to be busy, and hopefully productive.

I've been able to visit the closest volunteer about once a week (and speak english!) which has been amazing. Peace Corps purposefully places volunteers close to eachother for support, and I got really lucky with the married couple I'm close to. I can only come to the lodge every 14 days and have internet access, ad that is a little less than how long it takes to get mail here. I now have a PO Box (the address is posted on facebook), so pelase write me letters! They're so precious out here. I want to end with a happy picture - how I spend most mornings, sitting on my family's stoop reading in the sun and looking out at the mountains covered in peach blossoms (hopefully my brother won't come and sit right next to me, watching me read and ruining my happy little picture).

T'sehlanyane: frozen waterfalls and fermented porridge

Leaving Mokhethoaneng was much sadder than I had anticipated, I've gotten really close to my host sisters. We had a village feast to celebrate our completing training and leaving the village that's been our homes for the past ten weeks. My host sisters never showed up, so I ran around trying to find them. Turns out they went to church instead. I would have liked to say goodbye, but it made it much easier to leave. After the feast we all attended a two day workshop with our counterparts to help establish our relationships and prepare work plans, etc. My counterpart never showed up, so the workshop was especially boring. I had already met my supervisor and was really impressed with him and his dedication to the lodge and helping the surrounding villages. However he was on vacation. Peace Corps had to drive me to my site, they were worried about me, but this is Lesotho, people just don't show up, so I wasn't too worried. I had already seen my site and knew I was going to be fine.

I'm staying at the Lodge for a couple of days while they finish my house and latrine. I'm getting a brand new latrine! The lodge and park are absolutely beautiful, I can't believe I'm going to live here, it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. Staying at the lodge has been like an amazing vacation that I don't really feel like I deserve. Taking a hot shower and using a flush toilet made me feel like I was in a spa, I didn't appreciate showers enough before. I also get food from a gourmet kitchen. I spend most of my time in the kitchen chatting with staff. I can eat anything out of the fridge I want, it might be the best food I have ever eaten. I also went on a hike though the park yesterday, walking through the mountains was so serene and beautiful. Even though it's the dry season there were still waterfalls. Some parts were frozen though since its still winter and this is a colder part of the country. Hanging around the hotel has been amazing, but it feels very weird. After being in a village and part of a community it doesn't feel right to be in a luxury hotel that has everything, especially when the closest villages (where I will be living) have almost nothing. But I'm trying to appreciate all the amenities while I can. The best part of the lodge is the unlimited internet. I will come and check in with the lodge every ten days after I move to my real site, so I'll get regular internet!

I visited my site and host family earlier today. My little hut sits on a steep hill overlooking the mountains in the park and a river valley. It looks like something out of Jurassic Park. My hut is next to my host family's house, and has a thatched roof with no electricity or running water. I am supposed to have a water tap close to my house, but somehow that's gotten overlooked. The water comes from a river about a kilometer away. You literally dip a bucket in a river to get water. There are several very steep hills to get back up to my house from the river, so I'm going to try to pay some neighbor to get my water for me. My host family is great, I think I got really lucky. My host mother is one of the nicest people I've met in Lesotho. I have two host sisters, still no brothers. The older one was away, but the younger one was there, named Matsiliso. She's 12 and carried four buckets of water on her head up the hills to the house while I was there. The older daughter is named Impho, which is the singular version of my name, very confusing. My family doesn't speak English, so I had to really rely on my Sesotho for the first time. I'm much better than I thought and was able to get across all my points, although the grammar was probably all wrong. I had some trouble understanding them, they speak so fast. I can tell that I'm going to get very close to my new host family and probably never want to leave.

When I visited my new village, it was very similar to when I arrived in Mokhethoaneng. I was surrounded by kids, who followed me everywhere and wanted to play cards. I have played so so many hours of crazy-eights at my last home, that I decided just to watch. The girls all wanted to sit in my lap and play with my hair. I don't think they've ever touched a white person's hair before. One little boy kept calling me Lehooa, which means white person, and I kept correcting him telling him to call me by my name, but I think I'm always going to be Lehooa to him. Its hard to tell the girls from the boys here. They all have to shave their heads for school, and you can't always tell by their clothes. Girls often wear pants and boys often wear girls clothes. One little boy today had a groovy angels sequin shirt on. My host mother and neighbor were asking me what foods I like, and they brought me out a huge bowl of lesheleshele that I had said I liked. But this wasn't the sweet sorghum porridge that I was used to, it was the fermented, sour leshelshele. It tasted like barbecue sauce with vinegar in porridge, it was so gross. I tried to drink the whole bowl but couldn't and told them I was too full. I tried not to make faces while I was drinking it, but I think they could tell I didn't find it as limonate (delicious) as I said it was. I hungout and chatted for a couple of hours, talking about my family back home and if I had a husband or boyfriend, they seemed very skeptical when I said no. Everyone has a boyfriend, sometimes multiple ones. They were surprised that I didn't have children either, I am old, I should have a couple by now. After talking for a while, I walked back to the lodge, it took over an hour and was pretty steep. Peace Corps said they are going to either provide me with a horse or a bike since I'm not that close to the Lodge or the schools that I'll also be working with. I'm pushing for the horse. I have an unbelievable site, I can't have imagine anything more beautiful or that fits with my background and interests better, and I'm really excited to move into my hut and be part of a community again.

T'sehlanyane National Park here I come!

We found out our site assignments, where we will be going for the next two years last Friday. For the first time in Peace Corps Lesotho, we got to write essays stating our preferences on which sites we'd like to receive, which was really nice. I had a hard time deciding which sites to put as my top choices, there were so many that had a great job, or were in a great site, but looking for a site that has potential for my master's research really limited my choices. I ended up getting one of my top choices, the Maliba lodge ecotourism site! I am so excited, the site and job sound amazing. I get to work with youth, the local villages and on environmental conservation. I will be coordinating between local schools and villages to incorporate them into the benefits of lodge and tourism. I'll be working with schools on vegetable and fruit tree planting, to sell as produce to the lodge, and with the local communities to sell their crafts in the lodge gift store. I big part of my job will be promoting environmental conservation since it's in the T'sehlanyane National Park, spreading awareness on conservation management in the local schools and communities. I'll probably teach environmental conservation in the schools, which I think will be a lot of fun. I've missed teaching this past year. And I have so many different tasks/jobs that if one is going slowly or not working out there are a lot of other things I can work on. And there is definitely research potential, ecotourism and connecting the benefits of tourism to local communities (which will basically be what my job is) is really big in international development planning right now.
I'm going to live in a traditional round mud hut without running water or electricity! I'm going to get a real rural Africa Peace Corps experience. And the village by the lodge that I'll be living in is in a national forest in the mountains, it's supposed to be really beautiful. (And is one of the nicest places to stay in Lesotho if anyone wants to come to visit!) And the lodge where I will work has internet, so I can stay in touch mush better! I'll only be a 45 minute taxi ride away from two volunteers (a married couple) in our group that are really great, it'll be nice being that close to some other Americans. I can't wait to move in, I am definitely ready to be done with training. I like classes back home, but its hard to be in class from 8:30-4 everyday again like in high school. I like Sesotho class, I'm learning a lot but there is so much about the language that I still need to learn. Training is only another 2 weeks, then we spend a week in the training center before moving to site. So in mid-August I'll move to T'sehlanyane National Park!

Sunrises and home baked Bread

The last couple of weeks have been really good. I've started focusing on the things here that I love rather than what or who I miss from home, and I've found that I've stopped missing a lot of material things. Not having electricity or running water was definitely a difficult adjustment at first, but now I find it kind of satisfying having to do everything by hand. Though I wouldn't kind skipping laundry. I also am really enjoying cooking things from scratch, I've gotten really good at baking bread. And knowing exactly where all my food has come from is a great change. I've almost become a vegetarian, meat is just so hard to get and keep. My room is as cold as a refrigerator (I can make jello by leaving it out in my room!) but I don't trust storing meat there. But eating meat only once every two weeks isn't that big a switch for me, I like eggs and milk better anyways.

My favorite time of day is now at sunrise. I used to hate getting up early, but without electricity my life revolves around the sun and daylight a lot more. Sunsets mean that I have to hurry up and get home to lock myself in my room for the rest of the night. But sunrises are beautiful, everything is so calm and the animals are all starting to wake up. I love hearing the cowbells at sunrise and sunset as they go to and from grazing fields. I'm not as big a fan of the roosters, they not only crow at sunrise but all day and usually in the middle of the night.

Probably the scariest thing that has happened to me so far was when I saw this giant insect with pinchers. I showed my eight-year old sister and she told me to kills it, I was wearing slippers so I told her to kill it, but when we looked back it had disappeared. It turns out it was a scorpion and we have no idea where it went. Now I always shake out my shoes before putting them on. At least I don't have rats like some of the other volunteers. (And dad, there are no poisonous snakes in Lesotho). I feel very safe here, although my host family has made me afraid to go out after dark, but they also believe that there are invisible men that hide in corners of houses (it's why traditional houses are round). The only thing to be scared of is the dogs they use for protection, at night they get really aggressive, one volunteer has already gotten bitten. I've definitely gotten a bit tougher skinned since I first got here. Last week my host father was butchering one of our pigs that he had just killed, next to me as I was doing laundry and I wasn't grossed out at all, I was only worried about getting bits of pig in my clean laundry. And it turned out to be the best pork I've ever tasted.

Visit to Mountmoorosi

This weekend we visited current volunteers to see what their lives and jobs are like. I visited Erin who has been living in Quthing in the south of Lesotho. It's in the Senqu River Valley in the highlands, so its very different from where we are in training. She is surrounded by mountains, but it's only a ten minute walk to a little town Mountmoorosi. Getting here was tricky, but not as bad as I expected. The taxi ranks are where you find buses and taxi in the cities and towns. They are packed with people and cars, and all lined with vendors selling produce, cigarettes and clothing from little metal and cardboard shacks. They make delicious donut things called fat cakes that I have can't pass up anytime I'm in a taxi rank. We took a 20 person van with 25 people in it from Maseru (the capital city), we were really packed in there, you just have to be ok with having no personal space. Mike (the other trainee I went with) and I were literally sat on for most of the trip. In a little over four hours we got to a camptown where we transferred to a smaller van that was even more crowded. I'm a little taller than the average Basotho, but apparently am too tall for some of the vans and had to duck down for the last taxi ride, luckily it was only an hour. The Basotho think that a breeze from an open window will make you sick, so they all close the windows and it gets really hot and stuffy with people coughing and sneezing. It was a constant battle for me to keep my window open, as soon as I moved my arm out of the window someone would close it. But with the window open the trip wasn't that unpleasant. The driver blasted music, but with earplugs in it was a normal volume. The entire trip took abut 6 hours, which seems to be a good distance from Maseru, I don't think I would want to be much more remote. But it was definitely worth the trip.
Mountmoorosi is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. We climbed up the mountain the first day, at the top there are ruins from where a local chief went to escape the Boer invasion, and you are completely surrounded by views of other mountains and the river valley. The second day we visited the youth center that Erin has set up, it's really amazing what she has done in only a year. Her initial project of starting an aloe farm wasn't really working out, so she put her efforts into a youth center that the chief of the town had approached her about. She already has a building and has covered in murals and started a library and youth peer advisory panel. She has really made a home here and seems like she's making difference in people's lives, it was very inspiring. The trip was amazing, and a good example of how a motivated volunteer has been able to make a difference despite all the challenges. We don't find out our actual site placements for another 3 weeks, but this trip has gotten me really excited to see where I might go.

Snow in Africa

This week it got cold. Cold enough for snow, on my way to school in the morning there was frost and ice on the fur of the donkeys and cows. It's not as cold as Michigan winters, it freezes at night but got up to 50F during the day this week. But the difference here is you can't go inside to warm up, it might not be as windy inside, but it isn't any warmer unless you're 5 feet from a gas heater. I thought I could stand cold pretty well, but this week I was really put to the test. My heater ran out of propane a couple of days ago, it was the coldest night of my life, the cold seemed to get into my bones. I don't know how the Basotho people deal with this cold, most of them don't have heaters. In the morning I decided that the hot water that my host mom brought me for my bath would warm me up, big mistake. It felt good for about 30 seconds before I became painfully cold. I looked at the thermometer afterwards and it was 34F in my room. When my host mom came into give me breakfast she asked me (in Sesotho) why my heater wasn't on, and I told her it wasn't working. Within half an hour someone from the Peace Corps had come to look at my heater, and when I got back from school the propane tank had been refilled.
I've learned that cold means unhappy, warm means happy. I can't believe Africa is this cold. The rest of the week, after I'd warmed up, has been much better. Though mornings before my room has heated up are still not fun. I've been learning how to cook from my host sisters. Yesterday I learned how to cook leqebekoane (steamed bread) and lesheleshele (sorghum porridge) my favorites. It's been so nice having my host mom and sisters make all my meals for me, they always serve me the best food. But starting next week I'm supposed to cook for myself. although my host sisters said they'll help me. I really like hanging out with my host sisters while we cook, they're always laughing and singing, it's really fun. Last night I helped them with their math homework. they're very bright but don't seem to have been taught very well. There are four of them at home since it's winter break, they get two months of because of the cold. Which seemed really silly when I first heard about it, but I understand now, there is no way you can be productive at anything when you're really cold. Anyways, its been really nice having them all here. We've also been watching the World Cup soccer matches together.
All the other American PC volunteers that live in my village (there are 8 of us) came over for both of the USA games, because my family is one of the very few that has a tv (run by a generator). My family is very well off, we have 3 donkeys, 2 pigs and 9 cows, which is pretty impressive. And they grow almost all of their own food. The canned peaches they make from their peach trees are amazing, my host sister said she's going to give me an entire jar. Even though the people here have so little they are very generous, I'm going to get fat with all the food they've been giving me. But fat here is beautiful, it means you're healthy and is extra insulation against the cold. The best part of the soccer matches is the dance parties afterwards. Once most of the people leave, my sisters and some neighbors put on American and South African music videos and dance. They were shocked to hear that Beyonce was American, they think all the black singers are from Africa. There was no dance party after the South Africa team lost, all of Lesotho cheers for them. It's a weird mixture of traditional village life and modern western music and styles.

Arrival in Mokhethoaneng

When we first got off the bus in Mokhethoaneng, the village that I will be living in for the next ten weeks for cultural training, we were greeted by our host mothers or 'me (pronounced m'may) wearing blankets and singing. The Basotho are a singing people, any event is cause for a song. And there singing is amazing, there is no way of describing so I will try to post a audio clip soon.
Our language and cultural trainer called our names and our new host mother's. My host mother hugged me and gave me a Sesotho name Limpho (pronounced Dimpo) which means many gifts. She then took my bag that weighs almost 40lbs and put it on her head an carried it to our house. There are some rondovels (traditional thatched huts) but we live in a concrete block house, very nice by Lesotho standards, and so clean!
I was followed to my new house by dozen children. My 'me showed me my room and sat there smiling at me , and the children stood in the doorway just staring and smiling at me. Some tried to talk to me in Sesotho, but it we'd only been in Lesotho three days and I only could say hello. The volunteers normally have three weeks language training before their village stay, so some of the people expected us to know more Sesotho. After a while of just staring at each other I got out some cards, and the kids definitely know how to play cards. I spent the next three hours playing crazy-eights with thirteen children in my room. Eventually I was served dinner and the kids all left except for my host sisters, Mammuso (who is 21) and Itumeleng (who is 8). My host mom and sisters smiled at me and watched me eat. The Basotho have a different notion of privacy than we do in the US. Being alone means you must be lonely, so I almost always have some member of the family with me in my room. I really like my host family, I got really lucky having them, but I do miss having some time to myself.
The food is really good, it reminds me of Ethiopian food from home. A lot of rice, mirhoha (a kind of lettuce), and chicken. They do eat a lot more salt than I like, but I expected that.
When they told us we shouldn't go out at night, I thought it was just advisory. But they're serious about it, my host family won't let me go outside even to use the latrine after dark, and it gets dark at 5pm. They gave us a bucket to pee in instead. I thought whatever I can hold it, I'm not going to use a bucket. But that didn't even last the first night, and it turns out peeing in a bucket is pretty nice. Much nicer than going outside where it is pitch black and your guard dogs try to attack you. The dogs aren't let inside here, and no one seems to like them. While all the farm animals are fat, the dogs look like they're about to die of starvation. I'm woken up a couple of times a night from dogs fighting or roosters crowing.
While the pee bucket is great, I'm not so sure of the bucket showers. I have seven different buckets for everything. It's not that cold for winter, but the insulation in the houses is basically non-existent, so it gets very very cold at night. It was in the 40s F when my 'me woke me up and brought me a kettle full of hot water to bathe with. It's a pattern of being freezing then burning myself with hot water. I'm getting better at it, but I'm still not a fan.
I can't believe its only been a week, it feels more like a month. I'm already missing foods from home, or anything unsalted. I haven't gotten sick from the food yet. And there is very little disease in Lesotho apart from AIDS, and we're an hour away from really good South African hospitals, I got really lucky in my location. But I will not have much contact with people back home while we are in our village for language and cultural training for the next few months, and that is hard. What I wouldn't do for some news from home and some oreos!

First Impressions of Lesotho

Lesotho's landscape seems like the African version of the American Southwest. It's dry with cold nights (in the 30s F) but it gets up to 70F during the day with a hot sun an no clouds for days. But this is winter, my host sister says the summers are hot, but we'll see. It's very dry and hard to grow anything here, with serious erosion problems and dust everywhere, I already have it covering all of my shoes.
I am really lucky that I got Lesotho for my Peace Corps assignment, not only is it beautiful but the people here are amazing. They are the most friendly people I've ever met, everyone's always smiling and greeting you. They're also very into hugs and seem like a very loving people. They do so much with the very very little they have, but are still positive and kind. Another plus is that they are an extremely clean people. Not only do they bathe (or bucket shower) once or twice a day they all wear deodorant and smell good! Not at all what I expected in the Peace Corps. The houses are meticulously clean (although not well built and really drafty) , even the dirt paths in their gardens seem perfectly swept. There is a lot of trash and dung on the roads though.
I expected a more simple, traditional huts made out of stone with thatched roofs, there are some, but only the poorest people in my village live in them, and they are often not well maintained. The main building materials here for anyone who can afford it are concrete blocks and a corrugated metal roof. Even without electricity and running water the people live a pretty modern life. While many people herd animals or farm for a living, they have cell phones and maybe even a tv run my a generator or solar panels for a couple of hours a day. Their lives my be more modern, but almost everybody is very poor. The poorest people I have ever seen.