Dressed to Kill

           I know I’ve made this comment before, but the time in Lesotho is literally flying by. It seems like I always have something going on-I’ve gotten to the point where I treasure the few weekends I have at Tiping to myself. I’m turning into a wanna-be hermit. But I know you are all dying to know what has been going on in the life of Sadie (have I mentioned that I have a Sesotho name? It’s Lerato, and it means love. Fitting, I think.)

           

            Well, the end of the third quarter has come. We now have a week break for the Lesotho Independence Day and then we will begin the forth and final quarter. The month of August was spent trying to plan, organize and implement HIV/AIDS awareness events/activities for the students at Tiping. Since I teach life skills to the Form C class I was able to tie the events into their weekly classes. The first event, as I’ve mentioned, was an HIV/AIDS awareness workshop. It was held over a weekend and I’m fairly certain the only reason I was able to get students to show up on a weekend was due to the food that an NGO, World Vision, was able to have catered. The event wouldn’t have been successful without World Vision or my fellow volunteers in Quthing; many thanks to Tishina, Nancy and our new Community Health and Economic Development volunteer, Molly (she arrived in Lesotho in June and in Quthing August 1^st).

           

            The second event was an HIV/AIDS testing and counseling event. I was able to secure counselors from another NGO based in Quthing, PSI—I forget what PSI stands for, but if you’re really interested you can look it up for yourself. They came out on a Friday morning and tested 35 of my students and 3 of the teachers that I work with. The testing is fast. They prick the finger the way diabetics have to check their blood sugar levels. The blood is then dropped onto a thin strip of paper and a reactant is added. The rest resembles a pregnancy test. It is simple and the results are revealed 2 or 3 minutes after, two lines mean HIV positive and one means HIV negative.

           

            So, the PSI team wasn’t supposed to arrive until 12-noon on a Friday because we don’t finish classes until 12:20 on Fridays—they showed up at 9 (the Basotho usually aren’t on time let alone early—sorry for the generalization, but it’s true). The teachers I work with were wonderful at helping me organize and work around the unexpected change in plans. The students spent their 20-minute break in a group counseling session and then resumed classes. Students were then allowed out of classes 2 and 3 at a time to get tested if they wanted. Everything worked out in the end regardless of my plans and schedule (as usual). The saying ‘If you want to make God laugh, make plans’ never felt more appropriate or true than it did that day.

           

            August was busy and I finally feel like I’ve done something outside of my primary job description. Success! Too bad the projects aren’t sustainable. If I was not here to organize the NGOs for the school these events probably wouldn’t happen for the students. The next step: to get another teacher interested in organizing events such as the ones I planned and show them how it is done.

           

            September has been a little less hectic. I endured a bout of food poisoning or the stomach flu—not sure which. The next day was spent accompanying my students to the district cultural festivities held in Quthing. It would have been wonderful if I hadn’t been running a fever all day. Thankfully, I have another opportunity to enjoy the cultural dances and festivities this coming week at the National Cultural Competition. Tiping is known for getting first place in several of the cultural dances—my students are so good!

            

            My supervisor has been back and forth from Quthing much more lately than normal. She has been overwhelmed with planning for her daughter’s wedding on the 29^th. Initially, I was asked to be the maid of honor but then it was decided that I wouldn’t be in Quthing enough to be able to help out with many of the MOH responsibilities, so I was demoted to a bridesmaid. Even then I wasn’t present to help with many of the wedding decisions or get fitted for a bridesmaid dress (or pay for my own dress) so I was again demoted to the status of honored guest (thank God). I am looking forward to seeing a local wedding but MOH and bridesmaid were titles and responsibilities I have no place holding considering I hardly know the bride. Anyway, this wedding is going to be a great experience.

            Apparently the women ‘dress to kill’ for weddings and I didn’t bring anything to wear that would kill—who knew?? There is also a dress code for weddings; you have to, as guests, dress in the colors of the wedding. Therefore I have to look for a white dress with a little black and hot pink accent Advice for future PCVs in Lesotho; don’t skimp of the nice clothes and Tevas don’t always cut it. Bring your heals!

           

            We started the end of the quarter testing last week but I didn’t have to give my tests until this week so I was sent to Maseru on a mission to find a wedding gift from the teachers at Tiping (we all went in together for the gift). I ended up persuading M’e Lepelesana into going with me (she is the closest teacher friend I have at Tiping—she’s always going through my Peace Corps cookbook and picking things she doesn’t know and wants me to make. I usually end up spending a good deal of time with her in the evenings). Great idea. I saw so much of Maseru that we volunteers never venture into—so many places to find shoes!

           

            M’e Lepelesana’s sister lives in Maseru and works as a seamstress hence the reason M’e Lepelesana agreed to accompany me to Maseru--so she could ask her sister to make her a dress for the wedding. We had to stop by her sister’s shop which is located in the heart of the Maseru taxi rank-I would never have found it if I hadn’t been with M’e Lepelesana. While there talking to her sister, the sister looked my up and down, got her tape measure out and took my waist measurement, nodded and pulled down a seshoeshoe skirt that was hanging on the wall. I was instructed to try it on (keep in mind everything was being said in Sesotho so I really had no idea what was going on because my Sesotho is terrible—but I got the gist in the end); FREE SESHOESHOE! I cannot fully express my level of excitement at such a simple act of generosity. You have to understand that on my living allowance of less than M 2,000 a month, and an exchange rate of ~M8.3: $1, a M500 tailored, traditional skirt is a big deal. So, my trip to Maseru was definitely not a failure.

           

            Matthew 10:8 says ‘without cost you have received; without cost you are to give’. I thought that Peace Corps would be my opportunity to give back for the endless number of fortunate circumstances I have found myself throughout my life. However, the Basotho people I have met make that a difficult task due to their endless giving. Not only have I been blessed to be placed amongst a wonderful local population, but Quthing also has an abundance of generous ex-patriots. Remember how I was complaining about how I have a metal roof that only serves the purpose of allowing heat to escape my frigid little room? Not anymore! I now have an insulated drop ceiling because a friend of ours, Andrew, decided my roof was ridiculous. Andrew is a South African engineer who has worked all over Africa for various engineering firms. Right now he is in Quthing supervising an electrical line going out into rural Quthing (in the opposite direction to my region). So, I continue to be on the receiving end of all sorts of good things. The only thing I seem to be able to give is my cooking.

           

            I am doing well! However, I can say that the stars have left my eyes. I am seeing my experience in Lesotho as just that, my experience. We were told in training that we shouldn’t expect to change the world, or even change our communities. The best we can probably expect to do is build a few lasting friendships and share our culture. While that was a hard realization, I am coming to accept it and enjoy it.            

            Finally, while in Maseru I also stopped into the Peace Corps office to talk to one of the staff members about a tuition assistance program for some of my students. I walked out with plans to help in training the new group of education volunteers arriving in mid October—only 3 weeks away! Another sign that time is flying. I can’t believe one year has already come to a close. So, October and November will be busy with training new education volunteers, Mom, Dad and Sharity will arrive mid December to visit me-yay-and then the new year will be upon us. Christmas with my family this year is a great thing to look forward to!

            A few more minor updates: I still bathe everyday and shaving the underarms is a must. J It was difficult in the winter but the past few weeks have been beautiful and warm so I really have no excuse not to bathe everyday. I have also successfully made homemade deep-dish pizza with an abundance of mozzarella cheese that I found in Maseru. It was another cultural education for my colleagues. The pizza places in Lesotho don’t use a tomato based sauce or mozzarella cheese so I had to make my own tomato sauce and the mozzarella was an exciting find. My colleagues enjoyed the pizza (I had to make several pizzas after the first one because they liked the tomato sauce and mozzarella so much) and asked for the recipe. Finally, I have eaten a chicken head. It wasn’t too bad; less crunchy than I thought it would be, but it tasted like chicken!

            As always, there are more updates to come. I must close for now, but I hope you are all doing well. I miss everyone so much! Hugs and kisses all around.

Khotso, Pula, Nala (Peace, Rain, Prosperity)

Love, Sadie

P.S. the marathon training has been put on pause due to the preparations for the Cultural Arts and Crafts Festival on Friday. Go figure. There go my plans, again!  

                                                            ****            ****

             

            I wrote this post the week before I attended the cultural festival and wedding but they have both come and gone and I have yet to actually upload the post. Both events were an adventure and as usual, all day events. The morning of the cultural festival we left the school at 4:30 am in order to arrive in Morija on time. I took lots of photos of my students and more than enough video. We had to return the students’ home that same day so it was 12.30 am the following morning before we arrived at Tiping. I was exhausted. However, I then received a call from my supervisor, M’e Mathabo, the mother of the bride, at 5 am asking me where I was and telling me I needed to get dressed and ready for the wedding that was supposed to start at 10. Hell no.

           

            The wedding was very westernized with the bride in the white dress and three bridesmaids, guys in tuxedos and flower girls in matching dresses. The ceremony was all in Sesotho so we couldn’t understand most of what was being said, but at one point, when the bride and groom were supposed to exchange vows, there was an uproar of laughter; apparently the groom had fallen asleep. The ceremony lasted no more than an hour and there was a reception after the ceremony. I took over 200 photos but it’s too expensive to upload them onto my blog so I apologize for the lack of visuals. I had hoped to see something a little more traditional but the girls looked like they were dressed to go out to a club; skin-tight dresses and platform pumps. Next time I’m told to dress to kill I will keep the club in mind. Overall, it was a fun couple of days but I’m ready to get back to a normal routine.

I love pork

            Life in Lesotho is literally a comedy of errors most of the time, at least whenever the pigs on my school compound are present. There is so much to say in such a limited amount of space. Chronologically, there have been several PC trainings, a vacation to Mozambique, the start of the second semester, more run-ins with the pigs (which, in one case, ended in a very tasty meal) and a successful (and stressful) HIV/AIDS life-skills workshop for the Form C students at my school. As always, I am learning ngata (lots) and constantly being challenged to keep my mind open. I often find myself wondering what the hell I’m really doing here and then I experience something new that reaffirms my initial desire to… wait, why am I here again? But really, the little things truly make my day-to-day life worthwhile.

            The winter months have been rather hectic. I have been busier than I initially thought I would be during the school break. Much of that is due to the PC workshops and training sessions my education group has had to attend. The trainings are helpful but they take up so much time!

           

            July 17^th was spent in Mohale’s Hoek, the district to the north of Quthing, celebrating the King’s birthday. Every year there is a celebration in one of the districts and the districts rotate the responsibility. I was able to see the King of Lesotho! But from really far away so I’m not sure if it really counts. At one point a plane flew over the crowd and parachuters came tumbling down from the sky trailing signs that read happy birthday in both English and Sesotho.

           

            The day following the King’s birthday I started off at 7:30 am for a vacation in Mozambique with two other volunteers, Tishina and Aparna. We spent a total of 36 hours trying to get to our destination on the beach by traveling on public transport. We took a combie to Maseru early that first morning, crossed the boarder, spent 5 hours on another combie that took us into the sketchy taxi rank of Johannesburg just as it was beginning to get dark. After hearing all sorts of stories from PC staff about muggings and theft we were weary of the area but as always we managed to avoid any danger. From there we boarded an overnight bus that took us directly into Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. When we got into Maputo we had to find another combie that would take us up the coast to a backpackers in Tofu. What we thought would be a 5-hour combie ride (because that’s how long we were told it would take from other volunteers) turned into 9 hours cramped and tucked away in the stifling 90-degree weather- here I am complaining about the heat when I just got out of the snow. At this point, my ankles were swollen like those of a late term pregnant woman’s.

           

            We spent 3 beautiful days at the beach, soaking up the sun (in my case burning because apparently the anti-malarial meds I had to take make people more sensitive to the sun). After 3 months of frigid temperatures, the 36-hour trip to Tofu was more than worth it. In so many ways Mozambique looked like what I thought Lesotho was going to look like. I’m not sure how to best explain that, but there were palm trees everywhere as was the sand. The infrastructure was different in many ways to Lesotho. In many ways Mozambique seemed more developed, such as the road conditions and the capital city of Maputo. But once we were outside of the capital city it turned into grass huts and farmland, children without shoes (as is also common in Lesotho) and few conveniences. The local people spoke a mix of Portuguese and various native tongues but very little English. It was a more difficult way of traveling given our limited language abilities, but it all worked out in the end! It was a nice break from the cold weather and stress of trying to make a difference in our communities. Perfect vacation, and cheap! We were happy to get back to Lesotho where we knew at least the general idea of what people were saying in Sesotho though.

              

            By the time we came back from Mozambique, school was just around the corner. Back to the grind! I am happy to say that I have received support from a couple of my high school science teachers, Dr. Berrey and Mrs. Nothdurft! They took time out of their lives to compile notes, assignments and tests they had used for my science courses in school, put all the information on a flash drive and sent it to me. I now have additional materials to be able to enhance my teaching. So far it has been a blessing and I am sharing the wealth with a couple of my fellow science teachers. We are extremely grateful for the additional information.

            Last weekend I organized an HIV/AIDS workshop for my Form C students. I worked with a Christian non-government organization called World Vision. They were extremely helpful in organizing food for the students; the students received fully catered meals the entire weekend (breakfast, lunch and dinner), more than making up for the fact that they had to go to school on a weekend. The workshop focused on HIV prevention strategies and given one in four people in Lesotho are known to be infected with HIV we decided to also focus on how people could live longer, healthy lives even thought they are infected with HIV. There are many misconceptions when it comes to HIV in the rural areas and it was a good opportunity to spread more knowledge about HIV to the upcoming generation. I was very happy with how everything went and the questions my students had about the subject. I feel like I have finally done something worthwhile for my community. This coming weekend I am taking the HIV/AIDS training a step further and have organized for another non-government organization to come out to counsel and HIV test the students and anyone else in the surrounding community interested. I pray the testing event is as successful as the workshop turned out to be. Planning is difficult due to my lack of cell phone coverage so if I want to go to town and work with these organizations I usually have to miss a day of school. I feel like it is counter-productive but what can I do? It usually works out in the end so I’m not terribly concerned.

            New bits: The pigs on the school compound are the bane of my existence. I spent a weekend early in May trying to get a garden planted with peas (they are winter hearty) and they were doing well until the pigs at the school got out of their pens and destroyed it about a month ago. I was NOT happy. I had been looking forward to fresh peas this spring! We had one pig butchered about two weeks ago so I have exacted part of my revenge. The others need to be looking over their shoulders…

            I recently tried chicken feet. The Basotho eat chicken feet as snacks and so one of the teachers I work with asked me if I had ever eaten them (no), and proceeded to cook a batch for me. They were chewy… but not bad! Next on my list—chicken heads; I hear the brains are tasty.

            I have been training for the Makhotlong Marathon with a group of students after school for the past two weeks. I’m excited to say I think I have a couple students who could go somewhere with running. The purpose of taking them to the marathon is to expose them to something new and teach them dedication to something that is not always fun or easy. So far they are doing wonderfully! The only problem is that they currently run in their school shoes, which are not running shoes. Thus, I am currently trying to figure out a way I could get them shoes to run in.

            Finally, just for the farmers in the family, you have been asking mom and dad what the temperatures are like in Lesotho during the winter; when it snows the temperatures are typically around 10 or 15 degrees F. I think it probably reached negative temps only once since I’ve been here. During the day, if it hasn’t been snowing it reaches 40 or 45 degrees F. Recently it has been getting up into the mid 60s. It makes me so happy!! Warmth at last!

            I apologize for the length of this post. I have not written in so very long that I actually have much more to say. However, I am tire of typing. J I hope everyone is doing well! As always, I love and miss you so much! Stay well and enjoy the fall football season.

First Snow

View of mountains from the Quthing camp town after the first snow.

My Room

Just to give you all an idea of what my living conditions look like. My bathtub is on top of my wardrobe. The wine bottles function as candle holders, and I have to dry my underwear inside because it is considered inappropriate to hang them outside on the line.

This is my kitchen. My water is underneath the table on the right, my sink consists of the two blue basins on top of the table, and my stove is attached to a gas tank hidden in the corner.

Twists

 

To avoid having to wash my hair so much I decided to have my hair twisted. There is fake hair twisted in with my real hair. And it did the job!

Reason #3 why you don't linger in the latrine

           It has been some time since I last posted but I wanted to make sure I had something good to report this time instead of the same ol’ teaching is difficult blah blah (by the way, I have a newfound respect for my teachers growing up—they definitely do not get paid enough to deal with moody adolescents all day, everyday). Needless to say, I now have something interesting to say—at least I think!

           

            Fro the past couple months Lesotho has been gearing up for their national elections which they have every five years for the role of Prime Minister. Lesotho is a constitutional monarchy set up much the same as England, and has been governed by the same Prime Minister for 15 years, Masisili (Ma-see-see-dee). Before I go any further you have to keep in mind that I have learned most of the following information by word of mouth and often my sources are politically biased. Also keep in mind that I am not allowed to take sides or make any kind of politically charged statement as a volunteer.

            I haven’t written about the political situation until now because things were fairly tense leading up to the final election and I wasn’t sure if I would be seeing many of you sooner than I had previously expected. But here goes: Many people in Lesotho are ready for change, they believe the government, especially Mosisili, is corrupt (go figure). About two, maybe three, months ago Mosisili split from his political party to form his own party due to rising tensions between his old political party, parliament, and him. This meant there were now three major political parties vying for control. This really isn’t all that exciting until you understand that there was rioting during the 1998 elections due to similar circumstances that ended up burning the capital city, Maseru, practically to the ground and leaving the country in a state of unrest. So the Peace Corps headquarters in Lesotho has been extremely on edge throughout this whole process, preparing all of us volunteers for the worst.

            During the last week in May (the week before elections) I was confined to my site, forbidden to travel around Lesotho, especially not to Maseru. You should be happy to know PC was on top of the situation taking all the necessary precautions. And you can rest assured I kept mother abreast of the situation (possibly leaving out a few details here and there).

            Well, that week, two of the member on the Tiping School Board decided to expel one of the teachers at my school for allegedly telling the students who to vote for (brainwashing). The voting age is 18 and I teach the equivalent of 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th grades yet many of my students are of voting age. The teacher is not on contract with the ministry of education, which means the school was paying him out of pocket (not a lot) to teach, so he could technically be considered a volunteer teacher. The two members of the school board not only failed to follow correct protocol for expelling a teacher, but they also brought the matter directly to the ministry of education without informing my principal beforehand. It was also made known to me that the two school board members were supporters of the current PM and their jobs were at stake if he was not re-elected (remember, I was only getting one side of this story). The teachers at my school were all in a huff about the incident and my principal refused to allow me to remain at Tiping during the weekend of elections, thus, I spent the weekend in town waiting out the election results with Tishina and another volunteer in Quthing who had gun shots in her village leading up to election weekend.

           

            As I am still in Lesotho, still doing my job you should have been able to figure out that nothing serous happened in Lesotho to merit the PC pulling volunteers out of country. The Prime Minister was defeated and the new Prime Minister was sworn in only a week ago. All that fuss for nothing! As for the teacher who was expelled at my school, I will keep you updated as soon as I am aware of what is going on. We are now on winter break (yay!) so I am not sure what is being done.

            On to more exciting news—I have a two month break! I am to spend the break thinking and planning and beginning to implement ‘secondary projects’ or projects that help the community I am serving, not just the school I teach at. Considering I have no central community/village this is somewhat of a challenge for me. I am sure I will come up with something though. Anyone know anything about making goat cheese?! You think I’m joking but I’m not.

            Even more exciting, we had our firs snow of the season the day we closed for winter break. All I can say is a small block room with corrugated metal roofing and winter are not a good combination. I’ve been sleeping with a hat and gloves on for the past month and I can see my breath almost all the time (in my room). I do have a gas heater but that is really only good for heating my roof. To be perfectly honest, it only gets really cold during the night—if the sun is shining during the day it is rather nice, but if there are clouds in the sky I’m screwed. All I want to do is crawl under my covers and stay there for the rest of my life. I am going through tea and hot cocoa (and coffee on a good day) like crazy just trying to stay warm. Which brings me to reason #3 of why you don’t linger in the latrine; you quite literally freeze your butt off. J Thank you for the warning Grandpa John A, but I just had to experience this one for myself for some reason…

            Finally, what I know you have all been waiting for, the bathing situation: I do, in fact, still bathe everyday. Of course bathing is a loose term and can apply to the kind of sponge bathing I have to do in the winter instead of the traditional, sitting in a tub of hot (and sometimes murky) water that we are all familiar with, but it counts! I have not washed my hair in three weeks though due to my new hairstyle; I got it twisted by one of the teachers at my school. It has made my life so much easier and it is a great topic with the local people. They LOVE that I styled my hair like they do.

            I also have to mention that I have successfully made Grandma Rosie’s cinnamon rolls and I think this is a particular accomplishment because I have to bake on a gas stove. They were delicious and almost as good as grandma’s (I couldn’t find powdered sugar to make the icing). My teachers were all amazed and thrilled with the new treat I’ve introduced to them. Cross-cultural learning and connections--check.

            Anyway, as always, I love and miss you all so much (but not as much as I miss central heating). I hope to hear from you, because your letters honestly make my day-to-day living more enjoyable. I also hope that everyone is enjoying the warm summer weather and if you could send some of it my way I would be grateful!

XOXO

Sadie

P.S. In case you were wondering what reasons 1 and 2 are for not lingering in the latrine they are as follows; the smell (obviously), and the bugs that wait to ambush you while you are trying to take a moment for yourself, specifically the spiders. My overactive imagination could have something to do with the second reason, but I can’t shake the feeling that as soon as I sit down to do my business something big, with lots of legs is going to come out from it’s hiding place and crawl where it shouldn’t. MMM!

Craziness in Lesotho

            The past few weeks have been rather eventful for me. After returning from Easter vacation the school has been involved in a couple weekend activities; a concert at another school and a sports tournament. I also had the opportunity to judge a high school beauty pageant. When they schedule activities on the weekends it makes finding time to be able to write difficult.

The Concert:

            Let me start with the school concert. My school sent a letter to this other school, Moorosi High School, to partake in ‘activities’ a few weeks prior to the event. They declined and asked to postpone to an unmentioned date. One day (if I remember correctly it was a Thursday), around 9 am, we received a taxi note (this is a note, letter, etc. sent by taxi--by taxi I mean a small van that crams 15-20 passengers on at a time--or other possible vehicle passing by the site of destination) asking if we wanted to continue with the aforementioned activities. You would think they meant for the following week, but no! We informed the children about the invitation and the following morning I was hiking the mountain between my school and the Quthing camp town with a group of students.

            Fun! Right? We arrive at Moorosi High School around 10 am (we left my site at 8 or 8:30), and proceeded to sit around for 2 hours. You would think that someone would have had a detailed plan for how the day was supposed to proceed, but no! The staff of Moorosi HS and Tiping sat down to construct a general plan after we arrived that day. And we came up with this; trivia was scheduled for the morning, sports in the afternoon, and the concert that night. Keep in mind this was a rough plan, times were flexible.

            I wish I had been more interested in other school activities like Debate and Quiz Bowl when I was in High School. If I had known a little more about general procedure of those kind of events I could have probably helped make the trivia section of the day run a little more smoothly. Then again, I’m not entirely sure they would have listened to my suggestions if I had had any. Anyway, it was a muddled mess-the teachers didn’t know what was going on, and neither did the students. I think instructions were changed on the students three or four times and they only completed two of the five subjects scheduled.

            The sport activities were much more organized. They were supposed to start at 3 pm but didn’t end up starting until 4. Not too bad on the timeline. The boys played soccer and the girls played netball. Netball is a combination of basketball and something else (maybe rugby). It’s hard to explain. There are a lot of rules and the hoop (like a basketball hoop) doesn’t have a backboard. It is very popular as a girl’s sport. I would prefer to play soccer, but I’ll get into that topic later.

            The students then had an all night concert to attend. Before the concert started though, the students from Tiping had to wait for ‘M’e Mathabo, the principal of the school, to bring food for the Tiping students. She was supposed to arrive at 7 pm with beans and bread. She didn’t actually arrive until 10 pm. Yup. Like I said, times were flexible. So the concert commenced around 11 pm. Did I mention this was another all night event? The concert consisted of the choirs from both schools taking turns singing songs all night. I should also mention that the concert is a fundraising event. The students in the audience are able to purchase songs, make a student go up to sing with the choir or other requests. If the choir does not want to sing the song or the student does not want to do whatever they have been asked to do, they have to pay a higher price. It goes back and forth, like an auction, until someone gives in. 

The Tournament:

            There actually isn’t much to say about the tournament. It was fairly well organized and extremely enjoyable. All the Quthing regional schools participate if they want the opportunity to take their teams to Maseru for a national tournament. All schools have soccer teams and most schools, if not all, have a netball team (we selected our netball players the day before the concert in Moorosi so our netball team had only had two weeks of practice before the tournament). A few of the bigger schools have ladies soccer teams as well as volleyball teams (usually played by men). All of these sports were involved in the tournament.

            Ideally, I would like to start a ladies soccer team at my school but the problem is that I’m not sure if the school has enough girls to support both a netball team and a ladies soccer team. Now, normally this problem is avoided in the U.S. by creating specific seasons for different sports. That concept doesn’t exist in Lesotho. Anytime is tea time. I miss organization.

Miss Quthing High School:

            On to my next all night event, Miss Quthing High School (what is with these all night events?? I’m not as young as I used to be, my body can’t handle it anymore!). Tishina, the volunteer in the Quthing camp town organized a beauty pageant for the girls at her school as a fundraiser for the OVCs at her school (Orphaned and Vulnerable Children) more than a month ago. Her objective was to boost the girls’ confidence and give them an opportunity for attention (good attention). Somehow Tishina managed to get in contact with a couple women who have competed in beauty pageants in Lesotho who were willing to judge her competition. These women turned around and decided to put on a Miss Quthing High School pageant, inviting all the high schools in the Quthing camp town to participate. They then asked Tishina and me to be judges (me?? at least Tishina has experience modeling, but me??).

            The pageant was supposed to be on a Friday night but earlier that day they changed it to the following night due to problems with the original venue. Saturday morning Tishina and I were asked to meet for a last minute judges meeting. We were told the pageant was schedule to begin at 6 pm but that it was okay if we showed up around 8:30. It didn’t actually start until 10.

           

            The audience was very small and the hall we were in was extremely cold. Keep in mind we are heading into the winter season and there is no such thing as central heating in Lesotho. Around 2 am the audience began to grow due to drunken bo-ntate (men) who probably heard the music and decided to check out what was happening. This happened to coincide with the swimsuit portion of the beauty pageant (first of all, these were young girls, there should have been no swimsuit portion; second, it was freezing! I don’t know how they didn’t end up getting sick). You can imagine the reaction from the drunken men. I was thoroughly disgusted.

            The event finally ended around 4 am. We went home after doing the math and selecting the winner. The girls had to stay at the hall until morning light because it wasn’t safe to walk home at that time. Although, it couldn’t have been any less safe than leaving them at the hall where the event had been turned into a massive party. Not only was I completely disappointed with the women who organized the event for allowing the party to develop; but, I later found out that they had been drinking during the event in front of the girls. Great role models.

A final note:

            Overall, life has been hectic ever since Easter vacation ended. I have three weeks left of teaching for this quarter and I am more than ready to have some time to slow down. If you are looking for ways to help me with my job, I desperately need better teaching materials and references. Even if I could get a compilation of notes on basic science and math topics, I would be better off than I am now. 

            I have also decided to start training for my first marathon. Lesotho has an annual high altitude marathon in the mountains of Mokhotlong in December and I thought it would be a good experience that I could introduce to a couple of my students. I would appreciate any tips any of my marathoner friends could give me!

            I love and miss everyone so very much! Congrats to Joy and Beth for graduating from Truman State University last weekend. I’m so proud of you both. Keep up the hard work (by hard work I mean make some money) because I expect you to come visit me very soon.

XOXOXO

Sadie

6 MONTHS! That's longer than most of my relationships...

Let's be honest, three weeks in Lesotho would have been longer than most of my relationships. 

Where to begin?? Sooo much has happened in the past two months. Two months!?! I honestly hadn’t realized it had been two months since I had posted until I pulled up my last entry; time flies when you don’t have access to internet (sarcasm).

           

            The agenda: Teaching, Phase III Training, Easter vacation and much more. I apologize in advance for the length of this post. Interesting fact, I just realized thanks to auto-correct that my spelling is quickly deteriorating (as if it wasn’t bad enough to begin with).

Teaching:

            Ugh. I love it and I hate it. I wonder (a lot of the time) how much good I am actually doing for these children. They may be improving their English skills because of my presence, but I can’t shake the feeling that they are missing so many basic concepts in class just because they cannot understand me.

           

            I have recently been working on directed numbers and solving equations with my Form B Math class (I’m not sure if I mentioned this before but the Basotho call it Maths because it is really mathematics not mathematic). I think I have spent over a month on those two topics alone. I gave them a test a few weeks ago in which they absolutely bombed. I had three students do better than 50%...

           

            So, I decided to change my teaching tactics; I asked the other Math teacher, ‘M’e Lepelesana, to come in and re-teach the information. What I learned: I may talk too fast (still), I may cover content too quickly (still), and I use different methods for long division and multiplication-who knew? Anyway, my teachers like to call this Team Teaching. ‘M’e Lepelesana has since asked me to come to her Form C Math class and Team Teach. She likes my methods of problem solving and is able to clarify to the students the difference between the way I do things and the way they have previously been taught. It works well (I think). The students like it and I had 16 people pass my quarter exam, up from the 3 who passed the last test. One student even got a 90%! Success!

           

            It’s not all work though, there is a little play. I should start by explaining that there is a hierarchy in the school just like any in the U.S. The Form C students have seniority and the Form A students are the freshmen. Traditionally, the Form A students are called dogs until they have been officially welcomed by the school. The school holds a Welcoming Ceremony, usually in March, to welcome all the Form A students and any new Form B or C students. I would liken it to Homecoming in many ways; they have a silly dress day, an official ceremony, a nice meal, and finally, what everyone has been waiting for, a dance.

           

            Thursday of that week students came to school in absurd costumes. I was able to share a cultural note with them, explaining Homecoming and how we did the same thing, dressing up all week long and preparing for the Friday night events. I was able to show them pictures of Joy and me dressed up Senior year in togas and 80’s clothing. Thank you Joy! I owe you for the pics. They came in handy as more than just good memories. The students enjoyed it immensely, commenting on how beautiful Joy was and how fat I had been. Yup!

           

            Friday morning rolled around; thankfully I was up and had bathed early because at 5 am ‘M’e Lepelesana came to my door to tell me we were going to start cooking. The teachers were responsible for cooking because there is only one cook and the students were to eat something more than just papa and moroho for lunch that day (keep in mind nobody told me any of this). We set the kitchen up in one of the classrooms and spent the morning peeling pumpkins and carrots, chopping onions, boiling chicken and rice, and packaging sweets for the students. Needless to say the students didn’t have school that day but they were still expected to be at school at 9 am. I’m not exactly sure why.

           

            The actual welcome event didn’t actually start until 3 or 4 in the afternoon. It was supposed to start at 11 so the students could eat soon after. There are many reasons it kept getting pushed back, such as no petrol for the generator, no speakers for music, it was raining, and finally, because the other teachers had to go get cleaned up after a long morning of cooking, which of course means they needed to iron their clothing still. Africa time.

           

            Anyway, the welcome event finally started and took a little over an hour. As far as I could tell it was just a talent show with traditional dances, poems, karaoke and modeling, but at the end a Form A student was selected from the group and taken outside the classroom. A couple Form C students unrolled a large paper with a long tailed dog drawn on it. The Form A student was blindfolded and brought back in. The goal was for him to take a pen and ‘cut the tail’ off the dog. Don’t worry; I captured this all on video. The room erupted in cheers and screams, with students trying to tell him where to draw the pen in order to cut the tail. This is how the Form A students rise from being ‘dogs’ to being an accepted part of the school.

           

            After the welcome event was over the students were finally able to eat (lunch turned into dinner). Now, the fun part begins. There is a dance that accompanies the welcome event. Typically, in the states, dances end at 11 or 11:30 pm. That doesn’t happen here (or at least not at my site). Since it is too dangerous for students to walk home in the dark at night, they are confined to the school all night long. The dance continued until daylight. So, one would think that there were chaperones supervising the dance but what ended up happening was all the older teachers decided to go to bed around 10 and it was left up to us younger teachers, Ntate Motaung, ‘M’e Lepelesana and me to stay up and supervise. I have choice word for how I felt about that but I won’t share them here. Additionally, in the U.S. only students are allowed into school dances, right? Not here. Anyone and their brother were allowed inside the school grounds, not to mention, they were all three sheets to the wind. And that was okay.

           

            It gets better. I had planned on going into town (Quthing) that weekend so once the dance ended at 5:30 am my supervisor wanted to leave. We got our luggage loaded into the pickup along with a piglet that was to be delivered to a police officer in town (the pig is relevant, I promise) and were ready to leave by 6. We made it about ¾ of a mile down the road before my supervisor realized she had forgotten her wallet with her license in it, so we had to go back. We reversed almost all the way back down the road before the pig in the back decided he wasn’t happy and decided to jump out. Thankfully, I was wearing my nice, warm leather boots because the next 1½  hours were spent chasing this @%$& pig through a cornfield. Remember, I had just spent all night supervising a school dance. T.I.A.

           

Phase III Training:

            Peace Corps works in Phases. The first two months, Phase I, was Pre-Site Training, PST—lots of acronyms, it’s a government organization. The first three months at site was considered Phase II. They give us assignments to work on in order to help us get out into our communities and integrate. We were also confined to our districts, forbidden to travel extensively. Finally, Phase III is a completion of training. We were all reunited in our training villages for a week of general training where we were able to discuss problems we were encountering at our sites and get different perspectives on how to deal with them along with new teaching tips. Some of us also had to be re-tested in language capability (that would include me, even though my region speaks Sexhosa not Sesotho- however, I passed with flying colors!). 

           

            Being back in our training villages was bittersweet. It was good to see the people who took us in during the hardest transitioning time, but it was a little more of a challenge for some. Bed bugs were a major issue for more than one volunteer, as was the food considering the number of people with bowel issues. Thankfully, it was only a week.

           

            Seeing everyone again was wonderful. Though our training villages had been fairly clearly separated during PST the gaps seemed to narrow during Phase III training. This could be due to the fact that we have lost 4 volunteers already or just our realization of how much we really need each other for support. Whatever its cause, I am happy about the change.

           

            To celebrate the end of all our training, Peace Corps staff took us into South Africa to a town called Ladybrand where we had lunch at a place called Living Life. The food was absolutely amazing. Considering the food we’ve been eating for the past 6 months I think anything would have been welcomed, but really, the food was amazing! After lunch, vacation commenced!

Easter vacation:

            Easter vacation started with all of us volunteers from the training village of Berea, Tishina, Teresa, Janelle, Aparna, Nick and me, went to Teresa’s in Leribe to stay the night. From there we met up with all the other volunteers going to Durban in Maputsoe, crossed the border of SA and started our journey to Durban. We took public transport all the way to Durban in a combie, 12 people plus luggage completely filled the combie. Usually they pack the combie past the point of comfort but thanks to James and his ability to sweet talk the local people into amazing deals, it was a pleasant trip.

           

            The next 6 days were spent beside the warm Indian Ocean, enjoying the sun, eating to our hearts content and relaxing with no connection to the outside world. Literally. It took us 5 days to be able to get SA sim cards for our phones so we were off the grid completely.

           

            I also made it to Easter Sunday mass at a local Durban Catholic Church. The mass lasted 21/2 hours and we got to see 15+ people baptized. Mom would be proud. I successfully completed lent; I attended the first week of lent mass and Easter Sunday mass, gave up electricity, running water, cell service, and McDonalds. Impressive. I think I’ll do it for lent again next year. 

           

            I have more to say about my Durban vacation but I feel this post has reached its limit. I hope everyone is doing well and I have to say I MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH! Seeing volunteers here in country after only 3 months apart was incredible. I didn’t realize how much I had missed them, so I can only imagine how it will be to reunite with so many people that I love in two years.

           

            Again, if you have anything in particular that you would like to know about my experience in Lesotho just send me an e-mail. I’ll try my best to fill you in as soon as I can! Hopefully it won’t be another 2 months before I post!

           

            Enjoy the summer months for me because I am about to endure a long winter with no central heating. 

    With Love!        

            Sadie

           

           

           

MMM! Lijo limonate! (d-jo d-mo-naté)

I have had several requests for information about the traditional food in Lesotho thus I would like to address this topic thoroughly, it’s fascinating:

           

            Let me begin with the most popular meal, papa and moroho. Papa is the staple starch in the diets of the Basotho. It is served at literally every meal. It is made out of maize meal, it is white, and it has the consistency of extremely stiff porridge. You can cut through it with a fork. Moroho is any leafy green or cabbage that is boiled down to the point that it no longer contains any nutrients. Then, many times, it is saturated with salt. It actually resembles the canned spinach the schools used to try to force feed us as children in primary school. Strangely, this combination has grown on me.

           

            The second staple meal is linaoa le bohobe, or beans and bread. Pretty strait forward. Beans. Bread. What more do you need? The beans are seasoned and slightly soupy. Considering I wouldn’t touch beans until two months before I left the states (my mom can attest to that statement) I think it is a minor miracle that I enjoy them so much now.

           

            Next, there is a meal called stamp or setampe. It consists of maize, corn (yes, it seems there is a difference), and beans cooked in some sort of goopyness or creaminess (I don’t know, it’s thick and it’s grey, that’s the best I can do at describing it). Again, surprisingly satisfying.

           

            Lesheleshele or motoho are the typical breakfast fare. Lesheleshele is a soft porridge while motoho is considered a sour porridge. If there is enough sugar in it motoho is definitely satisfying. I’m not sure how they make motoho, but if I understand correctly it involves leaving the porridge to sit for a few days in water (or something) so that it sours, then cooking it. I’ll give a full explanation as soon as the teachers show me how to make it like they promised.

           

            Finally, and this is possibly the most disturbing (I haven’t developed a taste for this yet), there is papa and lebese, also known as papa and milk. Keep in mind the milk is full fat milk (nearly cream) packaged in cardboard boxes. This is what the schools feed the primary students every Friday for lunch. Papa and milk. Only.

           

            As for protein, there is often chicken involved in one meal or another. Because the school I work at cannot afford to provide the children with meat during the week the primary students are given hard-boiled eggs with one or two weekly meals. However, as soon as the girls reach puberty (considered secondary school) they are no longer given hard-boiled eggs due to the belief that eating eggs makes girls horny and loose. Yup.

           

            Another interesting fact: I recently acquired a massive burn on my arm from trying to turn the bohobe (bread) I was baking. Baking on a gas stove is a completely different experience in itself. I’ve learned many new tricks and skills as far as baking goes. Anyway, the point of this is that when I walked into the staff room the following morning the bo-‘M’e began talking about how I was becoming a true Mosotho; how I would be a great wife because, apparently, the more burns a woman has on her forearms, the better she is at cooking. I don’t quite understand the connection.

           

            Moving on, it is hard to believe I have been in Lesotho for 4 months already. Soon it will be 6 months; then a year will have passed without the blink of an eye. School keeps me occupied, and trips to Quthing every few weekends break up the weeks. There always seems to be something happening even though I am so rural.

           

            This week, for example, my school has had several visits from a local couple that wants to build housing for students at my school. This is extremely exciting for several reasons; many of the students have to walk up to 8 miles to school each morning, the funding is local, and the school desperately needed housing to draw in more students from surrounding areas. The schools tend to compete for students in order to gain recognition from the government. More students means more recognition which means more funding. Speaking of more students, each of my classes has grown by 7 to 10 students each since the last time I wrote. They just keep showing up!

           

            I also gave my first round of tests this week. I have completed grading and recording my Form B mathematics tests. So far, out of 43 students, 11 passed. Fifty percent is considered passing. I didn’t feel so bad after I found out the other mathematics teacher only had 13 of her Form A students pass. I really hope these students are learning as much from me as I am learning from them.  

            I will close for now. Thanks to all who are keeping up with my adventure. It means the world to me. Never worry, I am enjoying myself and learning so much at the same time. Who knew learning could be fun? I hope you will all keep me updated on life in the states as well. I can’t tell you how happy I get to hear about what is going on at home. Mom keeps me updated as much as possible but she can only do so much. But again, thank you for the support! 

Love from the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho,

Sadie

Oh! one last thing, as the days begin to get shorter and the nights a little colder I am beginning to think bathing everyday is going to be difficult. I'll keep you all updated. No worries. At least I still shave my underarms. 

I thought I was finished with school...

            It seems like no time has passed since I last wrote but at the same time it seems like it has been weeks...oh right, it has. I am now an official teacher, having completed two weeks of instruction at Tiping Secondary School. The school year commenced with a faculty meeting held the day before the first day of classes, parents registering their sons and daughters for school the first week of class (and some even during the second week) instead of during break when the office was open, as well as herd-boys showing up a week late due to ‘traditional schools’ (I’m not exactly sure what goes on when they are attending traditional school but I’ve heard rumors that they are taught how to take care of their wives, among other things, and they also get circumcised-- because you aren’t a man if you haven’t been circumcised).

           

            Back on topic. Sort of. I remember being taught in school that in many Latin cultures it is customary to arrive late to any social event, and we dubbed it ‘Latin time’. Welcome to ‘African time’. Our LCFs during training explained to us that where Americans believe time equals money, the Basotho people believe it is better late than never. If you can imagine, my first week of classes began without a timetable drawn up for classes. I am fully embracing this ‘African time’ though. I am learning to roll with the punches (corny! But true). I didn’t know what classes I was teaching or when I was teaching that first Monday until 6 pm on Sunday, and that was a tentative schedule. I didn’t know what or when I was teaching on Tuesday until Tuesday morning. Catch my drift?

           

            Needless to say, everything worked out in the end. No need to sweat the small stuff (wow, I am full of cute little colloquialisms today). So, the first day went smoothly enough. I think the Form B class (equivalent of 9^th grade) was almost able to keep up that first day, but I’m pretty sure the Form A class was lost. When asked by another teacher why they were so quiet in my class they replied that they didn’t know English.

           

            In addition to not knowing what time to teach, and when, and where, one of the teachers decided, on a whim, the first day, that I should take another class in order to be well rounded in the Forms. Thus, I am now teaching Life Skills to a Form C class (honestly, not a bad amendment because I originally wanted the chance to teach Life Skills anyway). Life Skills is an odd compilation of mental and physical health, social skills, environmental issues (??), and social issues like population growth and poverty. It also places a heavy emphasis on HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. For those who had no idea, like myself, Lesotho is the 3^rd worst country in the world for percentage of population infected with HIV.   

           

            The remainder of the week passed without incident. I’m not entirely sure yet how many students I have in each class though. It fluctuates from day to day. I think I have around 40 Form A students, maybe 35 Form B students, and possibly 35 Form C students. My Form A class has started to warm up and my Form B class has begun playing tricks on me. Whether or not the students understand me is still up for debate. I sent a From A student to retrieve the class’ exercise books from my desk, as I had finished grading them. He left the room and returned empty handed. When I asked him where the books were he told me, in broken English, they weren’t there. After class I returned to my desk and found the books precisely where I had left them. The teacher who sits next to me informed me that a student had come in looking for my box but it wasn’t there…

           

            For those interested, the school day is set up in 40-minute periods. There are ten periods on Monday, nine Tuesday through Thursday, and six on Friday. There is a twenty-minute break after the third period of the day, and an hour for lunch after the sixth. Often, because Math, Science, English and Sesotho have seven periods a week, they are turned into double periods—80-minute classes. Way too long. If any of my former teachers happen to be reading this, I would welcome suggestions for making this bearable for 8^th and 9^th grade students who have to sit through 80-minute lectures after lunch.

           

            Every morning at 7:45 the students line up for Assembly. This is by far my favorite part of the day simply because the Basotho can sing! Honestly, singing is innate for them. They begin singing in their cribs. It is absolutely beautiful. If I could take these children to the States, they would put every pop artist to shame. They would be rich--no doubt in my mind. Anyway, they begin the assembly with a song, normally a hymn. The hymn is followed by a reading of scripture which is then interpreted by the student who read the passage. Finally, they close with the Lord’s Prayer and any announcements for the day from the faculty. Now, here is the catch: I work at a government school.

            I will close for now as this is becoming another lengthy post. If there are any topics that you would like to hear about please post a comment and I will be more than happy to fill you in! I hope all are well! Family and friends are constantly on my mind. Thank you all for your support!

Best wishes,

Sadie 

Greetings from Lesotho!

(Please overlook any grammatical errors or redundancies—I didn’t have my sister proof read anything!)

            I have been in country for almost three months now and haven’t had the opportunity, until now, to share my experiences with anyone but family. I think it is safe to say I am getting a ‘true Peace Corps’ experience, as the volunteers put it. There is nothing ‘posh-corps’ about my situation. Let me explain.

           

            I arrived in Lesotho with 22 new acquaintances on October 14^th (or 15^th—its all a little hazy after over 24 hours of traveling). We were immediately split into three groups upon our arrival at the Lesotho airport and ushered to three separate villages in the Berea District (Lesotho has 10 districts, similar to the 50 united states, but much smaller considering Lesotho is approximately the size of West Virginia), our training villages. We spent 9 weeks in training, learning Sesotho (the local language), how to teach, and self-health and safety techniques.

           

            English is the primary language in all secondary schools (equivalent to 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th grades) in Lesotho because all their exit exams (graduating exams) are English based: Cambridge tests. Thus, I get to teach Math and Science in English. However, Sesotho is necessary for my everyday life, interacting with the local people.

           

            Approximately a month into training, we were each given our permanent site placements. It was at that point that I learned I would have an additional challenge to cope with, one that other volunteers do not; I would be required to learn another language, Xhosa (the X is a click, by the way). I have been placed in one of the southern districts, Quthing (the Q is a click as well), in the rural mountains where the people take pride in their Xhosa heritage. This is difficult for multiple reasons, the first being I have to learn ANOTHER language. Enough said. More importantly, this is difficult because the students I will be teaching have learned English as a third language (instead of their second like at many other students at other schools) and have been particularly sheltered from extensive use of English considering they live in such a rural area. It also doesn’t help that their teachers (who should be teaching all secondary classes in English-by decree of the Ministry of Education) often teach in Sesotho in order to get their point across. This is particularly harmful to the students because, as I mentioned before, all their exit exams are English based.

           

            Okay, so we finished training, all 23 of us, and swore in as official Peace Corps Volunteers on December 12^th, 2011. Swearing in is a big deal. Peace Corps invited our host communities during training to attend, there were Ministry Officials present and the ceremony was even broadcast on television in Lesotho. Even bigger, our host communities prepared a feast for after the ceremony where they actually killed a cow. That’s a BIG deal.

           

            How rural is rural? I don’t have running water or electricity. I expected as much. Many volunteers don’t. However, most volunteers who don’t have electricity can access it at their school. If the school doesn’t have it at least they can go to a local shop where they can charge their electronics for 5 Maluti (the local currency). I can’t. My father loves to tell me ‘I told you so’(and I’m sure Uncle Berry is getting a good chuckle out of this). Thankfully, I have a small solar charger to hold me over! It charges everything except my computer. Additionally, where most volunteers have cell phone coverage, I don’t. I speak to my parents on the phone when I make trips into my local camp town (equivalent to a capital city) once or twice a month (still trying to work out a system). Doesn’t this just sound better and better? But there’s more! I get to use a latrine! And! I have mastered the art of ‘bucket bathing,’ which consists of boiling water, pouring it in a small basin, and tempering it with cold water. Yay! Don’t worry, I haven’t given up bathing everyday…yet.

The Holidays

            Though I have been experiencing many changes to everyday life since arriving in Lesotho, I recently passed a milestone in my life, my first Christmas without my family. Skipping the emotional details, I spent the holiday with 12 other volunteers in Quthing camp town where another volunteer, Tishina, lives and works (you’ll be hearing more about Tishina because she is the closest volunteer to me and I will be staying at her house whenever I visit the camp town because she has running water, which means a flushing toilet, and electricity!!!). All 13 of us squeezed into her tiny house, utilizing our sleeping bags and pads to the fullest. It was a joyful reunion for many of us new volunteers, as we had been at our site for an ENTIRE week with no one but the Basotho people to talk to (that’s supposed to be funny). We cooked, we sang, we even danced with Tishina’s drunken host family. Where Christmas is traditionally a calm, family holiday in the U.S., Christmas for the Basotho includes family and an excess of alcohol multiple days in a row. Another cultural note: the women in Lesotho do not drink in public. Period. It is commonplace to see drunken Bo-ntate (men) roaming around on a daily basis, but not women. Christmas is the exception J. Needless to say it was a Christmas to remember. I even got a package in the mail from mom and dad on Christmas Eve!

            I returned to my site shortly after Christmas only to turn around and have visitors for New Years. Although I am more than an hour from the nearest blacktop road, Tishina and another volunteer and friend from my training village, Aparna, made the trip out to Tiping to celebrate. It was by far the most low-key New Years I have ever had. Next year promises to be much different if mom and pop Nelson decide to visit!

            Finally, school is scheduled to start on the 16^th of January. I am soon going to have my hands full trying to find clever ways of communicating important topics to students who will probably only understand a third of what I say. I need as much support as I can get, and your prayers can only help!

            Keep in mind this was but a brief overview of what has happened to me in the past three months. Though I have many adjustments to make, I am content with where I am and anxious to start teaching. I am ready for this challenge!

             I do miss many things right now, like hot showers (never again will I take a shower for granted), a flushing toilet (oddly, this is easier to live without—but still…), electricity, cellular service, and many food items (particularly quality cheese and wine), but none of that compares to how much I miss the people in my life who are constantly sending me so much support and love. I wish the best for all of you and hope this new year is promising and fruitful.

With love and gratitude,

Sadie

P.S. Check out a couple photos I posted at the bottom of the blog (my Flicker account). It's not much and I reduced the photo quality, but hopefully it gives you a little bit of an idea. More to come!!