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 8th,
9th, and 10th 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!
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