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
17th 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.
