Road trip - South Africa

Driving British style.

Sadie, Arletta and Sharity in their Besotho traditional skirts in Montagu.

Walking the historical path in Montague.

The girls overlooking Franschoek.

On site

This is an example of the quality of the road out to Saide's

A couple of students that go to the Tiping School.

Sadie preparing a traditional Besotho meal.

Sadie and Ralphie in front of her apartment/room.

Panorama of Tiping

This is Sadie's site looking north. The small buildings in the left are the out houses. The buildings in the distance (center) are the school buildings

Lesotho and South Africa - Dad's point of view

Hello everyone, Sadie's dad here. Sadie wanted us to blog about our trip to Lesotho and South Africa. I'll post some of our photos we took too.  Sorry this is so long.

I just read Sadie's post about our visit and I just have to take issue with her descriptions of me. I was my typical charming and fun-loving self the whole trip. I can't imagine what she was referring to. It was really good to see Sadie. She looked good and sounded very happy and upbeat.

The trip was brutal though. We had traveled more like 36 hours straight before we made it to Lesotho. Then, Sadie made us drive for three or four hours all around the country. I can tell she has adapted to "Africa time". I adjusted pretty quickly to driving on the left side of the road (I already knew how to drive a stick shift), although my sense of spatial depth was off by about a foot. Lesotho has a lot of pot holes on every type of road - dirt or pavement - and think I hit every one trying to dodge them. Also, every town and city has speed bumps at pedestrian crossings that you have to slow down to cross. I didn't know this and I went over a couple too fast - fast enough for the girls in the back to hit their heads on the roof. Oops. After a few hundred kilometers, I remembered some of my Driver's Ed instruction and I started doing better. 

It didn't take me long to ask myself, who thought a road trip in a foreign country, driving on the left side of the road with manual transmission, after traveling for 36 hours would be a good idea? I'm going to have to evaluate the decision making paradigm in our family. Let's just say, I had three backseat drivers telling me what to do. And many times, I was getting conflicting directions. The girls realized quickly, that I had to reset each time after we stopped somewhere - I took a couple of wide left turns where I should have been taking tight left turns - this would generate a lot of animated gesturing and screaming at me.

We met Tishina, Aparna and Molly the first day. They seem to be very nice and it is good to be able to put faces and personalities to the names. Tishina was with us from Maseru to Moyeni.  I don't know what she thought of us, we were getting a bit punchy by that time. After two or three stops along our way, we headed out to Sadie's site. The final leg of our drive was on really bad roads with wash-outs and massive rocks to drive over. Yes, I was calling it a goat path. I couldn't think of anything worse to call it. We were driving a little Ford of some sort. We scraped bottom a couple of times, but other than that, all my years of pasture driving experience hunting thistles paid off. No one even had to get out and push.

The time we spent at Sadie's site was fun. A lot like camping. Arletta doesn't like camping. Sadie's room was small and it was a tight squeeze with all four of us. It took us a couple of days to rest up. We took a lot of naps and Sadie did a great job entertaining us and cooking for us. The site is beautiful. It is very rugged and reminds me a lot of the Southwest in the U.S. - low mountains, plateau's and bluffs. She is actually fairly close to the camp town of Moyeni. I think she could hike there over the mountain faster than driving. As isolated as her site is, there are people all over this valley. Many little structures called rondevals along the slopes. Farm animals all over - cows, pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, dogs and cats. Her cat Ralphie was  a good kitty, but he doesn't have a girl friend. The other stray cat is male, so he has a boy friend. We met several of her teaching colleagues and students and Sadie demonstrated to us her new languages skills in Sesotho and some Xhosa (Kosa) while translating for us. She made her students introduce themselves in English for practice. Everyone was very friendly and I could tell Sadie has made good friends and is having a positive influence on her students whether she thinks so or not.

After resting up we took off on our road trip for Cape Town. We crossed the border to South Africa not to far from her site. The road immediately improved - no more pot holes. We made Grahamstown by about 4:00 p.m., found our B&B, then found a place where we had steaks. We finally had electricity, T.V. running water, plumbing and red meat. We took showers and went to bed. We had beds for the rest of our stay in South Africa. Since we were going to bed around 8:00 to 9:00 p.m., I was waking up around 4:30 in the morning. At that time in morning, the Har-Dee-Bar birds were cawing. They sound similar to crows, just a lot louder and more deranged. The Addo Elephant park was interesting. We saw a lot of the wildlife either on the drive to or in the park.

After two days we were on the road again and we managed to navigate to the town of Montagu. This was my favorite place on the trip. A pretty mountain town. I could have stayed there for a week. We hadn't been at our B&B fifteen minutes before the girls managed to find complimentary brandy in their rondeval and were sampling it. They were all smiles when I caught them. We relaxed for a little bit, then went shopping for food to cook on Christmas day. Our Christmas day dinner consisted of scrambled eggs, salad and wine. Chocolates for desert. Arletta, Sadie and I went to Christmas day mass at a small Catholic church. Sharity wasn't feeling well and didn't go with us. This B&B was the only place on the trip where we had internet connection. Everybody made good use of it.

Our final leg of the trip was a whirlwind tour of Cape Town. We managed to get into a hour long traffic jam along the beach on Boxing Day (day after Christmas). I think the entire population of Cape Town was on this one highway going to the beach. This really helped my disposition. We finally made it to our last B&B on Hout Bay. The next day Sadie showed us around Cape Town and we made to the part of the city where she was two years ago during her internship with the Red Cross Children's hospital. Later the same day we were on the waterfront and took a ferry over to Robben Island and toured the prison where Nelson Mandella was held. After the tour, we found a pub and had dinner - Sadie was working on the premise of keeping dad well fed. The following day we had fun on a wine tour of Stellenbosch and met James, another Peace Corps volunteer. Nothing starts a day like drinking wine at 9:30 a.m. James kept Sharity and I entertained with some stories of his first year. There seems to be a lot of poopy stories associated with being in the Peace Coprs. I agree with Sadie, the tour was enjoyable mainly because I wasn't driving.

We left Sadie at a Backpackers on Long Street on our last day. Sharity navigated me to the airport and off we went on our long flight home. Having the whole family together for an adventure like this will be more and more difficult to pull together in the future and I will always treasure the memories of this trip.  Before we left, I was teasing Sharity that she was going to be a pain, just like all previous family trips. Apparently for this trip, I was the pain. Sharity did a great job and was a good buffer between Sadie's enthusiasm and mine and Arletta's exhaustion and stress.

Thank you Sadie and Sharity for this wonderful, unique holiday. But, I don't think I will be traveling that far again any time soon. Next Christmas, I'm staying home.

Rusty

Happy Turkey Day (WOOPS! THIS NEVER GOT POSTED LIKE IT SHOULD HAVE!)

           I am technically done with my first year of teaching! It feels good. My students begin taking their final exams today so all I have left to do now is create their exams and then grade. School actually ends on November 29^th, but I’m done! I made it though my first year teaching!!!! Time to begin preparing for next year—now that I have a better understanding of what I’m doing and how o go about teaching, I need to focus on improving my teaching approaches and skills.

           

            Many things have happened over the past couple months; host volunteer visit, training of trainees, introducing Halloween to my students and the general, everyday living. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget to mention, 6 solar panels have recently been installed at my school in preparation for a computer lab.

           

            I’ll start with host volunteer visit (we volunteers have labeled it HVV because we think Peace Corps needs a few more acronyms). The HVV is the visit made by the new training group to current volunteers around Lesotho. It is the first opportunity trainees get to see what Lesotho is like outside of training village, and their first time to see what real schools look like and how they function. They embark on their journeys to different corners of Lesotho when they’ve been in Lesotho for a mere week and a half, so you can imagine how they were feeling—slightly overwhelmed.

           

            The trainee that came to my site was able to experience an enjoyable taxi ride, a comfortable bed, full amenities, a spacious toilet, and fully equipped school. HA! I wish. I missed school the day I had to collect her from the Quthing taxi rank because there is only one taxi that passes Tiping—at 7:15 in the morning. Tishina had the pleasure of playing mother goose, directing all the trainees from Maseru to Quthing, dumping trainees off in various districts along the way such as Mafeteng and Mohale’s Hoek. When they arrived in Quthing it was nearly three in the afternoon.

           

            Side note: I have been told to be in A’skop to catch the taxi back to Tiping by three if I want a ride home, so naturally, anytime I arrive in A’skop at three or before, the taxi doesn’t leave until 7 or 8 pm. On two occasions I have gotten to A’skop around 3:30—of course the taxi would be gone already. On those occasions I have no other choice but to turn around and stay another night at Tishina’s.

           

            Don’t worry; in the case of the visiting trainee we did not miss the taxi. Oh, no, it didn’t leave A’skop until 6:30. Again, this girl had only been in Lesotho for a little over a week so her Sesotho was still very much a work in progress so naturally the entire time we were sitting, waiting for the taxi to leave, she got more than enough practice in Sesotho and even Sexhosa—something Peace Corps failed to mention to her. Fun!!

           

            The next two days at school were productive and I believe she received a good representation of a typical rural Lesotho school. My teachers were very friendly, the perfect hosts. The students also received her very well. They were more curious about her than they’ve ever been about me. They also automatically assumed that we were sisters (we both have long blond hair). The following day I took her back into town where she was able to compare my school to that of a camp town school, Tishina’s. Her comment, “It really seems like it makes a difference how well they know English, based on their responsiveness.” We do what we can with what we’re given.

           

            Oh well! I hope I was a good host at least! We made a deep-dish pizza one night for dinner. Everything was homemade (the sauce and the dough) except for the cheese (which I had the trainee pick up in Maseru before she came to Tiping). I might add that it was extremely tasty. Success! Remember, I have to cook everything on a gas stove because I don’t have an oven.

           

            Less than two weeks after the trainees returned to training village from HVV, I arrived in their training villages to actually help with their training (because I am an expert at teaching of course. Yup) I spent three days with the trainees, helping the PC staff and teachers from the Lesotho College of Education prepare these trainees for what they should expect once they get to site. Sessions include everything from how the build good relationships to classroom management to assessment concepts (all required sessions for trainees from PC Washington). While in training the information you are given is useful, you know you need it. However, going through the training of trainees you realize just how important the information is. After only one year experience teaching I know how badly these new volunteers need to pay attention, but paying attention is difficult while in training. You are constantly treated like a child and the ADD is so much worse then you remember it ever being in high school or college.

           

            I returned to Tiping for a week and am now to the present day, sitting in a hotel room. I am, once again, helping with training. This time it is for a workshop that is held at a hotel in Mohale’s Hoek, score! I’m not sure how I lucked out on this opportunity. Someone must be praying that I get a shower… didn’t think I smelled that badly. It has been a productive workshop for the volunteers. They meet their Introductory Liaison, IL, or the person who is supposed to baby-sit the volunteer at their sites for the first three months of service, for the first time and embark on a trip to their very own sites for a three-day stay. They still have three weeks left of training before they swear in and go to their sites permanently so it is only a short visit; a brief taste of their new homes for the next two years. 

           

            Anyway, moving on. I seem to mark my time here by big events; I always have my mind on the next big thing. For the past month I have been thinking about training the new group. Now that I’m actually here in training, and it is almost over, my new focus is on my family’s upcoming visit to Lesotho. My parents and my sister are making the effort to see me in December. They arrive in Lesotho on the 19^th and will depart from Cape Town on the 29^th.

           

            Not only do I get to see my family for the yuletide season, but we’ll also be celebrating my wonderful mother’s 50^th birthday (I’m sure she’s not too happy that I just mentioned her birthday, but it had to be made known!). Now, I can’t give too many details about the trip because I’ll need something to write about after they leave, but I can reveal that we are taking family road-tripping to a whole new level. It’s something we haven’t done in many years (and for good reason-- I’m slightly apprehensive about hours in the car with my sister). Whatever happens, I’m sure it will make for a good story—or two.

           

            They have their tickets and have been getting the necessary shots so there’s no backing out now! And of course they will be experiencing my site with all of it’s modern conveniences-- I’m still working on how I’m going to fit 4 sleeping people into my room and I’m tempted to leave Sharity at my house for the whole 10 days while the rest of us make our way to Cape Town (so she can REALLY experience Lesotho). Just kidding! Muah! Muah!

           

            Finally, not to sound like a crazy cat lady, but I came home from training a couple weeks ago to find Ralphy’s girlfriend sitting on a chair in my room. I typically leave my window open if I leave over the weekend so that Ralphy can come and go as he wishes. This was an unwelcome surprise. This cat is deathly skinny and absolutely filthy. I’m happy that Ralphy has allowed this cat free range of my room; I really want fleas and other bugs in my bed.

           

            As always, I appreciate everyone’s support and I hope all is well back home. I miss everyone dearly! Especially, as the Christmas season approaches I find myself longing for the family dinners and the hot cider by the Christmas tree. Christmas in the summer just isn’t right. I also want to wish you all a happy Turkey Day! Enjoy the good food and company.

Hugs and kisses,

--Sadie

           

Family and Christmas

            I apologize in advance for the length of this post; so much has happened between then and now. On the agenda for today is an update on my school then I will jump into my Christmas and New Year’s vacation with my parents and sister. I have also asked that they prepare their own observations and commentary in order to post them here. I want to make sure you get the full picture.

Tiping

            I mentioned in my last post that my school was to receive a computer lab; well, it has been installed. The donating group, CBS (Computer Business Services?), installed 20 computers in an extra classroom along with 6 large solar panels to power them. The organization selected one school from each district in Lesotho as pilot schools for education in computer literacy. Therefore, there are 10 pilot schools throughout Lesotho and Tiping is one of them!!! Exciting!

           

            Even more exciting (especially for me) is that the organization pressured a cell provider into erecting a cell tower on the mountain across from my school which means communication will be easier for me soon, very soon. Now, they have been working on this cell tower for the past 2 months (or more). I went on vacation for two weeks thinking it would be working by the time I came home, but yet again I have fallen into the trap of wishful thinking. I can see it! It looks completed, standing tall and smug, looking down at me, taunting me. My palm is itching, begging to spend endless hours texting my life away. Sigh.

           

            I’m getting ahead of myself.  The real reason I am so excited about the cell tower is that with its introduction there are endless educational developments and opportunities for my students. Granted, we will need to take baby steps with the computers. It might be a while before we introduce the concept of the Internet let alone actual use of the Internet, but for me it will mean better teaching resources, better ideas. I have also been playing with the idea of beginning a film club (since we now have the ability to power a TV without using the generator). I want to teach some of my students about different genres of movies while at the same time exposing them to more English use, reinforcing their reasons to learn English and become fluent. On that note, I am reevaluating my package request list; if anyone is interested in sending a package but don’t know what to include, I would love USB drives with teenage appropriate movies loaded onto them and maybe, if you have them lying around, science, math, or English education cartoons. I see only great things coming from this development. Hopefully I am right.

           

Family Vacation/Educational Experience/Road Trip           

            All right, to the good stuff-- the family vacation; road tripping on a whole new level (that might have been an understatement). Overall, it was a good vacation and we didn’t have any real mishaps; aside from a little back tracking and taking dubious back roads, all was well! But you wouldn’t know that from the amount of cursing coming from the drivers seat. The family arrived in Lesotho at 8 am on the 19^th after almost 24 hours of traveling (they spent 13 hours in the Johannesburg airport on a layover—we could have driven back and forth twice in that amount of time).

           

            Anyway, I had been almost confident that I could get to the airport before they arrived so that I could get it all on video; however, we got stuck (Tishina came with me to pick them up from the airport) in the taxi rank haggling with a taxi driver over the price of a private ride to the airport; a combie to the airport from Maseru costs R9, this guy was asking R180 for two people! Grrr. We got lucky and were able to hop into a combie that was picking people up along the way—combies never leave unless they have every seat filled so I’m not sure how we managed it  (divine intervention, maybe?). We literally arrived on time and they were already in the lobby. Completely unexpected! I thought I would at least have a 15-minute window of time while they were going through customs and getting their luggage, but no.

           

            Well, we did the normal greetings with mom tearing up and dad laughing and saying, “hey sis!”  Sharity, not normally a big hugger, gave me a hug! They were tired but I had a full day planned for them. They couldn’t go to bed at 8 am. Had to kick the jetlag in the butt so I kept them on the move all day. They weren’t too happy with me either. First thing was first though; we had to get the rental car. Dad learned how to drive manual transmission on the left hand side of the road quickly because from the airport we went into the capital city, Maseru. I took them to the Peace Corps office where they were able to meet many of the PC staff, including my Assistant Program Country Director (APCD), Dr. Liphoto, a.k.a. my boss. Mom was mortified that I was taking them to the office when she didn’t even have makeup on! But everyone at the office was excited to meet them, makeup or no makeup—they see dirty PCVs all day, I don’t think they noticed.

           

            We went from the PC office to the one mall in Lesotho (actually, big news, they are building a second mall in Maseru—to bad we can’t even get a Shoprite-big grocery chain-in Quthing). We were able to pick up some groceries there, things that Sharity could eat, lots of veggies—or as dad calls it, rabbit food. From there we traveled to Mohale’s Hoek for lunch where we met Aparna. We should have probably just gotten a hotel room there but I was on a one-track mind to keep them awake and get out to my site. By this point people were getting rather grouchy. After lunch we made our way to Quthing where we dropped Tishina off and finally it was out to my site, but not before Mé Mathabo, my supervisor, had her say. I got call after call from her making plans then changing them. I think everyone was just overwhelmed by this point and Mé Mathabo exacerbated the situation perfectly. And we hadn’t even started in on the gravel roads yet!

           

            The last leg of our journey was the gravel road out to my site. It took an hour and a half to get out there but, to my amazement, the little car we rented did the job. We had gotten about 2 miles down the gravel road when mom asked if that was the worst of it. Now, you have to understand, we had been driving on the good, newly fixed, portion of the road; it was about to get much worse as they soon found out. I don’t know how many times I told them how bad the road is but they never listen to me! We did manage to bottom out a couple times. Dad began referring to it as the ‘goat path. By the time we reached my house it was about 4 pm. They made themselves at home and passed out immediately, happy to have their Odyssey over. At this point I dug out dads iPad and started watching the Dark Knight Rises which dad had brought for me—my equivalent of a Christmas stocking gift. I had a blissful evening.

           

            You would think that they would have slept for hours, but they were up and down all night—something about it being too hot?? Yup, Lesotho with no AC.  Then there were the latrine visits. Because my room is so small and we had every possible floor space covered, when one needed to go to the latrine all would wake due to the tripping, the flashlights and the unlocking of the door. This may be too much information but all volunteers in Lesotho are given a pee bucket when we first arrive in Lesotho. Some volunteers use it on a regular basis but because my latrine is literally right outside my front door I have no problem getting to the latrine at night. I could find it in the middle of the night with my eyes closed if I had to. But I foresaw this being a problem so I got the pee bucket out, just in case. It didn’t get used until the third night and not because no one had to pee.

           

            Even better than the latrine, Ralphy decided to make his appearance around 11 pm on the first night. He was able to find the two people who would appreciate him the least in a matter of minutes. He felt the need to sleep on Sharity’s pillow, eat in her ear, snuggle up with mom then repeat the rest of the night. I trained him well!

           

            The next few days were fairly lazy. Everyone got to experience bucket bathing, cooking and cleaning without running water, and washing a couple loads of laundry by hand. Dad got his watercolors out and began working on some of the scenery while mom attempted to kill flies. One of the primary teachers came out with her 1-year-old twins to meet everyone so we had babies running around slobbering on everything. I also cooked a traditional meal of papa, moroho (greens) and linaoa (beans). They really didn’t respond well to the fare. I guess it’s something you have to acquire a taste for?

           

            The rest of the trip was spent driving through South Africa, making our way to Cape Town along the Garden Route. We played a fun game along the way of guess what the road signs mean. The driving was definitely my least favorite part of the trip though. We learned we have to keep dad well fed if it’s going to be a pleasant drive, wheaties and nuts don’t do the job.

           

            We spent two nights in a little college town about the size of Columbia, MO called Grahamstown, home to Rhodes University. While there we went out to eat at a pub called the Rat and Parrot. Dad was able to satisfy his need for good red meat since he hadn’t had any for a number of days. Like I said…keep him well fed. Also, while staying in Grahamstown we were able to visit the Addo Elephant Park. It is a drive-through safari park—no exiting your vehicle unless you want to be lion doo-doo. We spotted herds (lots of heards) of Elephants, a few zebras and a selection of other animals, but the bush is so thick during the summer months that it was difficult to spot other animals.

           

            After Grahamstown we drove to Montagu, a small town known for its dried fruits (Sharity would have been in heaven if everything hadn’t been closed for Christmas). Montagu was a beautiful little town in the heart of the South African wine country, located on the R-62, a famous scenic route in SA. Again, we spent two days at a bed and breakfast in Montagu before heading through the wine lands of Stellenbosch and Frenschoek to Cape Town. It was a breathtaking drive winding around rugged mountains, emerging into valleys covered in vineyards. So much wine! Anyone who loves wine should make his or her way to Stellenbosch at some point in his or her life.

           

            Activities in Cape Town revolved around tours; specifically, the Robben Island tour as well as a wine tour through the Stellenbosch wine lands for mom’s birthday. You can’t go to Cape Town without doing the Robben Island tour. It is a necessary educational experience. The wine tour was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip (not because of the wine, but because dad didn’t have to drive). It was a very good day, relaxed and fun. We learned a lot about the wine making process, South African wines, and pairing wine with cheese.

           

            The wine tour ended the vacation for the family. But if you know my mom, you know that she doesn’t ever go on vacation; she goes on educational experiences. I think it is safe to say that the trip was truly an educational experience for all of us. They flew out of Cape Town on the 29^th (ready to go home, I think) while I remained in Cape Town to meet with some Peace Corps friends for New Year’s Eve. The next few days I stayed at a dingy backpackers (not the best backpackers I’ve ever been to) on Long Street, which, it appears, is where the party is for anyone not from Cape Town. Since I had already completed a lot of the touristy activities there are to do in Cape Town I was able to spend my days shopping (in several different malls), relaxing, taking showers (so many showers!), drinking (moderately, of course), and eating (even better than the showers because of the sushi, East Indian Food Bizarre, pizza, Mexican food, etc. What I’m trying to say is that there was so much variety! My stomach was in food heaven). 

           

            Sadly, it came to an end all too soon. I had a wonderful Christmas season and New Year; I couldn’t have asked for better. Well, maybe…being able to see more family and friends from home could have made it just a little better.

           

Now

            I am now at my site sitting around, twiddling my thumbs. Actually, I really should be doing more than that—I have recently been informed that one of the teachers at Tiping Secondary School, the other math teacher, will not be returning and so I have the opportunity to take on her classes. Therefore, I will be teaching Form A, B and C mathematics while dropping the Form A science class I had last year. It is an increase of 7 forty-minute periods per week. I think I will enjoy it. I have discovered I really don’t care to teach science so this change is a welcome change. I should be preparing!

           

            The next few weeks will be spent reading, preparing and going to my mid-service conference! I have now been in Lesotho for over 14 months. I have been a sworn-in volunteer for just over 12 months. I have less than 12 months to go. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Is it too early to begin the countdown? I know this next year is going to fly by. There is so much I still want to do and I don’t know if there will be enough time. I have torn emotions; I would consider extending if I didn’t need to go back to school and get some kind of professional degree. Seeing family and having a glimpse of the modern amenities I once had were also deterrents from the extending service idea.

           

            As always, I miss you all so very much (another deterrent). I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year (the world didn’t end!!). Let us see what wonders 2013 will bring. I also want to thank you all for keeping up with my blog over the past year. That alone is encouraging and supportive. I am happy I have the opportunity to share my experience with you, to share another culture. I am often asked if I will take photos home to show people what the Basotho culture is like; I tell them I am already working on it. You should see the smiles I get from that.

            Wishing you the best for this year!

                        --Sadie Marie

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.