All Good Things...

    I have attempted to blog several times with no success. I am aware it has been quite some time since my last post and I apologize for keeping you all in suspense. Writing anything at all this year has been a real struggle. The novelty of being a volunteer seems to have finally worn off and I find it hard to continue to identify the humor in situations I encounter on a daily basis; for example, the taxi breaking down EVERY time I am on it. It’s all good fun the first time it happens, but now…
   
     If I have learned anything while in Lesotho it is that I have a relatively short supply of patience, evidenced in my blood pressure levels during my mid-service medical examination. However, despite my shortcomings, it has been an eventful year. Much has occurred in the past…9 months?!
   
    First and foremost I must report an event that took place just last weekend; my COS conference. For those unfamiliar with the PC lingo (typical government organization that it is), COS stands for Close of Service, Completion of Service or, if you are a glass half full kind of person, Continuation of Service.
   
    The COS conference is a conference held three months before each Volunteer group is allowed to leave their country of service, having completed the 27 month commitment they made. At this point, Volunteers are given lots of paper work to fill out (again, typical of the government organization that it is), some advice for the “next chapter” and their official COS date. So, I now know on which day I am allowed to leave Lesotho. Are you prepared? Sitting down? Drum roll, please. Cue the most popular marathon theme song, and…deep breath, December 5th!
   
    Of course, many of you are aware that mom and dad recently replaced Sharity and me with two furry look-alikes -- apparently they have developed similar personalities to us as well. Now, the moment I found out my date I shot mom and dad an email informing them of the good news. The next communication I had from them was an emailed video of the puppies (I get at least one video a day from them) without any comment about the COS date-- that was the confirmation I needed of our replacement, Sharity, in case you were interested. I’m fairly certain Sharity and I have been written out of the will by now. I can only imagine what this year’s Christmas card will look like…
   
    As for the past 9 months in Lesotho, much is as it was last year. Similar school events have taken place, the pigs still roam the school compound (thus, no use in planting a garden, though some teachers did try, to no avail), the taxi breaks down every day, and the computer lab is still just a room in which to charge cell phones. But don’t worry, I have some good things to report as well!
   
    Good thing #1: Cell signal is 100% all the time! Now that I’ve said as much the tower will be struck by lightning.

    Good thing #2: I have the most amazing friends in the world! During my winter break my friends Maren Pratt, aspiring dentist, Joy Bulen, aspiring lawyer, and Dany Zemmel, aspiring humanitarian/ecologist, made time in their busy lives to visit me. For two weeks I enjoyed their company, again taking road tripping to a new level (sorry, but how many people can say they have taken a road trip in South Africa with their best friends?). We enjoyed Kruger National Park, Swaziland, St. Lucia Estuary, and a little arts and crafts town called Clarens.
  
For those who are interested in vacationing in South Africa some day, Kruger was by far one of my favorite destinations. Highly recommended considering I have a video of a pride of lions meandering down the road not 10 ft from the car we were in (yes, we had the windows rolled down). AMAZING! Swaziland was particularly interesting for me because it was given independence from England around the same time Lesotho; yet the development of each country is strikingly different (for elaboration, ask me when I get home). St. Lucia was stunning; particularly the trees—everything was green in a time when Lesotho was all shades of brown— and the hippo and croc signs may have helped with keeping us entertained as well. In addition the avocadoes were the size of large grapefruits, mmmm! Finally, Clarens, a town frequented by people such as Brad Pitt and ……. According to Lonely Planet, was a quaint little town, mostly Afrikaans speaking, with shop after shop of goods and gallery after gallery of local art. We enjoyed ourselves, to say the least. Girls, I owe you!

    Good thing #3: I have my COS date!! Pop the champagne!

    Good thing #4: Speaking about alcohol! I decided to engage in a personal project. Let’s call it an experiment. Peach wine! During peach season, I took the opportunity to hike into one of the more remote valleys to collect the juiciest peaches. With these peaches (and a little encouragement/package from Joy) I successfully brewed my very own peach wine. Now, it is rather strong so I’m not entirely sure you can classify it as wine, but it hits the spot. Dad would be proud. Which brings me to my next announcement: I have decided brewing is my passion and life goal—I think a father/daughter brewing line is in order. Don’t worry, I will keep my day job.

    Teaching is as it has been. My students really struggle with learning mathematics in English. And I honestly don’t understand why they have to. By putting a restriction on the language the subject is taught in they (people in the Lesotho government making these decisions) are limiting the number of natural mathematicians and scientists they could be cultivating. I know, personally, I am not a naturally gifted linguist, but I love science and math has always been easy for me. So I would think the same would apply to many people across the world. Hmm, something to contemplate…

    I have also recently become more discouraged by the number of students that are generally not interested in the lessons I present. When the high score in class is 51% you can understand my predicament. My thoughts are along the lines of “if you don’t want to be here, why are you wasting my time?” But then again I realize that a class would be rather boring to me as well if I didn’t understand half of what was being said during the lesson. As I said, this year has been a particular struggle; one that I don’t remember experiencing last year.

    Needless to say, I have learned far more than I ever expected to learn through this two-year journey. And now I am ready for the next adventure. Bring on anything.

Ode to the Pigs of Tiping Secondary School (I think I smell bacon in my near future)

              Pigs are, I have decided, most definitely the bane of my existence. Upon arriving home after vacation in Cape Town I was given only a couple days of rest and relaxation before I was aggravated by the filthy creatures that roam the school compound. They have pens! They should stay in them! Now, Mé Mathabo claimed, when she came out before school opened, that the pigs broke their gates. I know for a fact that she opened the damn things. There are four grown pigs and 19 piglets roaming the school compound as we speak. Why? Because they are starving. Mé Mathabo claims the school cannot afford the feed needed to keep them. But what happened to the money gained from selling the last bunch of little monsters? I have no idea. As my father put it, ‘you have to be a pretty poor farmer to loose money on a pig project’. The best part about this situation is that she was once the agriculture teacher at one of the larger high schools in Quthing. Hmmm, something is not quite right.

           

            So, for two weeks I had to chase the little shits away from my garden. For two weeks I kept a metal rake next to my door so that at a moments notice (anytime I herd their vile grunting and snorting) I could run out screaming and yelling, waving it around, attempting to hit as many as possible; I’ve come to cherish the sound of their little squeals. Those are moments I wish Peace Corps kept secret cameras hidden around to document our two years at site; The Real World Peace Corps style. God only knows what the local people were thinking when they saw me do this (because it happened, on average, 15-20 times a day—they gave me quite a workout). 

           

            Then, one day, I had to leave my precious garden to attend my Mid-service conference (it’s the conference we have to officially mark our 1-year of service as a PCV, the point where if we early terminate our service we can still call ourselves Returned PCVs, or RPCVs. The R is a big deal) held in Morija. I was gone for 3 days but when I returned to Tiping I found my beautiful garden completely destroyed. No more green beans or peas, no more carrots or onions, no more lettuce, not even tomatoes or green peppers. Everything was gone. All that hard work, gone. Whelp, there is always an upside to every situation; no need to chase after pigs anymore--unless I want to hear them squeal. Hehehe

           

            Aside from the pigs, all is well here on my end (no, I am not going nutty, I promise). Great news! When I finally gave up hope that the cell tower was going to be anything but landscape decoration, it began to work. I am now the proud owner of a phone that gets service (most of the time). It’s all still a little buggy; every now and then the service will cut out for an hour, or a day, but overall it’s a huge improvement! I still can’t quite believe it’s working. I was able to have a conversation with my parents while sitting on my bed just the other day. Ahh what a luxury!

           

            School started, finally. After being postponed for two weeks, we opened this past Monday, the 28th. The postponement means we will continue the school semester two weeks into the winter break. Remember, my students have to walk to school everyday—it’s cold in June! It snows! This isn’t Texas. I don’t foresee a remarkable attendance rate but at least I live on the school compound. 

           

            Once again, I mentioned this in my last post, but I am now teaching Mathematics to Forms A, B and C. So far I am really enjoying it. It is definitely keeping me busy; our school day has 9 periods in it, Tuesday and Wednesday I teach 6 out of those 9 periods. The added workload forces me to stay well organized and I find that I work well under pressure.

           

            Not only am I increasing my class load, but also I am busy preparing to receive books from the African Library Project for a school library at Tiping. I was volunteered by the other teachers to take care of the school lunch program (which includes collecting money from students who can afford a school lunch, budgeting the money throughout the year, pricing food stuffs, and purchasing it all—or telling Mé Mathabo to purchase everything). I have officially started my girl’s soccer team. Finally, I plan to introduce the idea of a student senate to the school. Along with all of that, I seem to be something resembling Mé Mathabo’s personal assistant. Am I a pushover? Maybe.

            I am doing quite well: very happy to be back at school. As always, I wish you all the best and I miss you terribly, but this year is going to fly. Truly. I’ll be seeing you sooner than you know.

            Love and hugs,

            Sadie

P.S. Yes, I do still shave my underarms. And yes, I do still bathe everyday. Living without running water is considerably easier than living without cell service.

           

Sharity's P.O.V.

I have to admit that when the trip to Lesotho and South Africa was proposed, I was not thrilled by the prospect. That’s not to say that I did not eagerly want to see Sadie, her site, or South Africa. Yet, (1) the timing was terrible for me, (2) recent discoveries of food allergies and intolerances made me extremely apprehensive of unpredictable conditions and accommodations, and (3) I possess knowledge of what it is to travel with Dad, Mom, and Sadie for extended periods... Moreover, I did not have the time to adequately prepare for the trip, with regards to research about Lesotho and South Africa and familiarizing myself with the itinerary. To say that I experienced a great deal of anxiety prior to the trip would be an understatement.

But the trip itself was fantastic.

Admittedly, Dad and Mom are not savvy international travelers, though they did their best to prepare and cope. And, understandably, after a few days in our company Sadie could not help a brief bout of recidivism to her youngest child role. I perforce took up the mantle of leader, even if it meant bearing accusations of being a backseat driver. That was the least of my worries. Might you be familiar with the phrase “herding cats”? It applies here.

Anyway, Dad and Mom have already described to you Sadie’s initial bait and switch regarding our accommodations in Lesotho and the basic itinerary we followed as we made our way into and across South Africa. I more or less agree with their sentiments. I, like Mom, do not care for camping, so staying 3 nights at Sadie’s site was an adjustment, though all I had to hear was the word “latrine” and I knew exactly what the quality of the conditions would be and what to expect (thank goodness it wasn’t “hole in the ground, exposed to the elements”). In fact, her site ended up being far better than I had anticipated. Although, I could have done without the wretched Ralphie’s “gifts” of half dead lizard, desiccated mouse corpse, and ticks. At any rate, Lesotho and South Africa were beautiful and the people we met were wonderful.

I feel incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to travel to such faraway places with my family; indeed, I’m beginning to appreciate more and more the hilarity of the entire endeavor. It was a Christmas Vacation that I will never forget and which National Lampoon can never surpass.

Love to Dad, Mom, and Sadie.

Sharity

Mom's point of view

OK, so even though Sadie and Rusty have thoroughly filled you in on our trip to Southern Africa, no one will leave me alone until my perspective is communicated. This will be short. I want to begin by saying that I would not trade these few days in a land and culture very different from my own for anything - it was educational, enlightening and endearing.

I’m not going to begin by saying that I was my charming self, anyone who knows me well, knows that’s not even remotely possible. You have to remember I’m a spoiled, white American woman of a particular age that has been pampered. I agreed to spend one night at Sadie’s site without running water, electricity and an inside bathroom, I spent 3 nights. Not of my choosing. What I realized is, that if I have to, I can survive less than ideal conditions. Although, after one night when it was necessary for me to visit the latrine 4 times, no one really wants to live with me under those kinds of conditions. And remember I said I’m of a particular age, so when I say it’s time to go to the bathroom I don’t always have the time to stumble over everyone in the dark, find the flashlight, unlock the security gate with an old fashioned skeleton key, sprint several yards through the weeds, down the hill to the smelly latrine. There were certain garments that were thrown away, not making the trip back home.  Oh, and I almost forgot, it’s summer time there and there is no air conditioning - need I say more! I have to say I have a much greater appreciation for the young men and women serving humanity in remote parts of the world.

Sadie kept us all busy by showing us how to cook on a two burner gas contraption, hauling water, washing our clothes in a wash basin, and bucket bathing. You can’t imagine how good it felt to wash off, no matter the washing process after traveling for two whole days just to get to this remote location. Brushing our teeth and spitting in the bucket was also welcome after a couple of days by which time your teeth feel like they’ve got moss growing them. After the third night in remote Lesotho I was ready to head south into South Africa where I hoped the infrastructure would be more of what I am accustomed. And I’m happy to report that it was much more accommodating to my needs/wants (what’s the difference?). Anyway, throughout the entire trip I’m still sleep deprived and my blood sugar levels low, and though the entire trip progressed smoothly and without incidence my anxiety levels remained high. I’m a worrier and a “what if” er. But my kind husband and patient daughters understand my insecurities and made the trip wonderful and unforgettable in so many amazing ways! We saw beautiful country, met beautiful and endearing people and came away with a sincere appreciation for a part of the world I would never in a million years dreamed that I would get an opportunity to visit.

In closing, I want to say thank you to Sadie for being so brave in going so far away to serve people and humanity in an effort to make our world a better place. And I want to say thank you to Sharity for being the ultimate understanding daughter to me and incredible big sister to Sadie. You had the ability to understand and fulfill both our many needs. Love you both and pray for your safety daily!! Mom

Thank you

I would like to express a much appreciated thank you to Mark, Ann and Maren Pratt for allowing us to use your home as a staging area. Thank you for driving us to and picking up three weary (probably smelly) adventurers from the airport. The shower and lunch before we drove home were just what we needed.

Some more photos

Sharity and Arletta at the start of our 16 hour flight to Johannesburg.

Sharity and I after about 36-40 hours of travel at a motel at Mohale's Hoek.

Sadie, Aparna and Tishina.

Molly and Sadie inside Molly's rondeval.

Sadie's teaching colleague/neighbor and her twins.

Sadie demonstrating her water hauling technique. She didn't do it hands-free like the pros.

Some of Sadie's students that came to meet and visit with us.

Sadie is growing a garden - if she can keep the pigs out of it.

The pigs - four sows each with a brood of piglets that run around all over the compound.

Sadie in front of her room.

All around Cape Town

This dish made Sharity "very happy". Mussels in about a inch of butter.

Sadie and Molly in a pub on the water front.

Waiting for the wine tour bus on Long Street.

The family returning from Robben Island.

James, Sadie and Rusty on the wine tour. Yes, we had to wear the hats.

Sadie seemed a bit too enthusiastic about the wine.

Last day before heading home.

Sadie Marie