Weekend away at M Lodge

Some time ago before we left the United States, we were contacted by our Country Director that there was a group of "Greater than Average" age that would be meeting to discuss issues of the more advanced-in-age group. This is the weekend! We are spending a couple of days near Roma/Nazareth at a beautiful lodge.

I have just taken my first hot shower since I left Philadelphia over a month ago, and we have had two full meals, a clean fresh bed, and it is everything I can do to resist putting that voluminous hotel towel into my back pack.

One of the features of our weekend was a visit to a site where there are cave paintings. From what I could understand from our guide, these paintings were a means of communication by the SAN people to others who might visit the site. They would use the blood from the slain animals to paint the figures on the wall. They are faint as there has been some washing of the paintings by locals who feared that they brought evil spirits. Fortunately, the community as tried to preserve the area and has recently built a building where the images are reproduced.

Training is rolling along. There are some good times but as is the case for most of us, it can be long and laborious. There is a shop with an outside bar where some of us stop for a quick libation after a long day of language and educational philosophy training. At the beginning of our training, I stayed away from the bar since it is frowned upon for women - in particular, for those of us more advanced in age - to drink any alcohol at all. But when I noticed my M'e distributing snuff, I decided that it was just fine for me to enjoy our stay just as all the others were doing. Furthermore, we have now been here for one month and have about one month left to go before we are sent out to our sites where we may not see these new training friends for quite some time. I have decided to choose to spend time with them in a relaxed environment where we can be ourselves and enjoy one another's company before we take off.

The Rains Have Arrived

It has been so very long since I have posted a blog and in all truth, I have yet to upload any of the posts that I have written to a blog. It is not for lack of intent and desire; it is definitely due to lack of time and of electrical power. But I did charge my computer today and we will give this another whirl.

It may sound a bit weird to hear how delighted that we are here in Lesotho to have rain. But the rainy season is an annual event and it is about three months late. The people of Lesotho have really been suffering and the lack of rain has caused much starvation. Hence we are overjoyed that the rains have finally come. When it rains in Lesotho, it not only pours, it is an outright deluge.

My days are filled every minute with training and activities to acquaint us with the Basotho culture. I am very intrigued by the nature of these gentle people but I must admit that I am struggling with the language. I suppose that I thought that it would be so very easy since I consider myself a "language" person, and it is probably true that my struggles to try to understand are causing me unwanted strain leading to confusion. I really need to just let go and enjoy!

We did have the honor of visiting the location where the Basotho nation of Lesotho was founded: Thaba Bosiu. The hike up the mountain was a bit treacherous for me, but the summit proved to be very interesting and informative. There is a small village where Moshoehoe ruled and is buried and there are unusual natural features that are unique to this mountain, i.e. there is a plateau with beautiful red sand and there is a natural spring with fresh water.

Camptown Visit

Today was our first visit to our local "Camptown". To date, I still do not really understand what is understood by the word "Camptown" other than what I have experienced today. The six of us in Language Class stood by the roadside for about 20' waiting for a "bese" to take us to TY - in vain. At long last a "bese" drove by and saw all of us (white) standing by the roadside and he turned his bus around and we all loaded in. It was a perfect count and I am sure that he was happy to have filled his "bese" and be on his way.

We arrived in TY and were told to go right to Vodacom to fix/buy phones. I had decided that I did not want to wait for the others to fix/purchase their phones since mine was simply a question of making the data come to the fore (their issue, not mine). But it turned out that there were very few phones to purchase and even fewer to fix so we literally were wasting our time at Vodacom. Me' insisted that we stay together as a group. That made me a bit irritated as I had quite a few errands to run and had not anticipated that we had to stay together as a group - especially with a Me' who was making decisions for us. But I let it go and followed as directed. I even added a bit of laughter and spice to the situation when I brought out my language manual and started practicing my Sesotho.

We all headed to Pep where we bought all of our little toiletries and the like. It felt really good to scratch these off of the list. I will say that those of us who did, in fact, buy all of our little needs had pulled money from our US bank accounts as the PC had not come close to providing us with the cash that we needed to purchase airtime as well as washrags, mirrors, ear cleaners, etc.

This is the first time that the PC has required phones for PCVs due to the unrest in Maseru, but not surprisingly, there were only 4 phones available for purchase, so most of our Vodacom time was a wash. Soon thereafter Me' received a phone call. We could not understand a word of what transpired but Me' instructed me to take over. It was pretty clear that she had been invited to join the other BoMe' and had wanted to venture off in her own right. As soon as she was gone, we dispersed as anticipated: those who wanted to go for pizza ventured off, and I - who was salivating for a salad - headed right to the BMI (Blue Mountain Inn) to eat and to check on the Internet services. Little did I expect to run in to four of the current PCV's in the bar. This is where they hide and do their Internet work. It felt sort of special to know that I was the first to penetrate their space. I ventured around, stopped at the Internet cafe to post my first FB post since I have been here and made sure that I was able to communicate well with those back home.

I did not want to forget to pick up Me's allergy medicine and I searched high and low for a ball for Mulifi (not easy to find, but I finally found one). I was alone and started to venture back to the task rank when I ran into a couple of colleagues. Jen decided to join me to go buy a bottle of wine for our host PCV and we headed right to the taxi rank as instructed. No one was there. We waited and waited and finally I called M'e. For the life of me, I could NOT understand her. Finally Keegan came on and told us to come back to BMI (that was a hell of a walk). En route we ran into Betty who was also looking to buy a bottle of wine for her host PCV. We finally made it back to the BMI where we found all of our colleagues savoring libations. We should have known. After enjoying my first ever Maluti beer, we all crammed in a "bese" to head back home. Dinner with my favorite Lesotho family consisted of Bread and Beans (thank God I had a salad at lunch), and I was told to settle into bed, which I always do with delight.

HIV Education

These last two days (October 15 & !^)have been spent studying HIV education. We all think we know quite a lot about HIV/AIDS but in reality, since we are not as exposed to it in the United States, we really know very little. It appears that Lesotho has moved to the Number 1 spot with HIV/AIDS cases. It really is so very sad as these people are so very lovely. But when you hear about some of the cultural practices of having sex (i.e. dry sex, not taking off clothes, sex in a very dark room and most importantly the stigma associated with the disease, you come to the realization of why things are as they are here in Lesotho. We as Peace Corps volunteers have as part of our mission to try to change this a bit, if we are able. The shop/bar across the street has continued its barrage of loud music and the owner simply has no interest in lowering the music. From what I have heard, the community has been complaining about the situation for some time with little being done. Since the MORIE are on a separate property, there is nothing that they can do. The owner blasts his music in an effort to bring potential customers to the store to buy beer, so he contends that it is a effort.

I don't want to move

The upper echelon of the Peace Corps is considering moving me to a different host family. Unfortunately, I think it is my own fault. I complained about the smoke in my house and instead of trying to figure out a solution with the family MORIE, I told Me Lerato and we didn't come up with a solution. And then the bar across the street was playing obnoxiously loud music and I was tired and everyone who knows me well knows how much I despise loud rambunctious music and now they want me to move. I simply cannot do it; it would truly make Me Malomile so sad and the whole Morie family so I am going to make sure to let them know that I am going to deal with it all for the remaining weeks. I simply cannot let her down; she is just too special to me. We began our day with the typical chores, breakfast and language. It turns out that we are supposed to be learning chores and cooking early in the morning when I am trying to squeeze some yoga into my very busy day. Tomorrow we are going to try to do another round of yoga after our extremely busy day. I am just going to have to do yoga in the evening, but even then I don't see how I can do it because it is just too busy around here. I think that I will still try to make some time in the morning as I am sure that "chores" will end quite soon. Our day was very interesting today (especially compared with yesterday when we reviewed the Lesotho Educational System and for the umpteenth time in my life, reviewed educational philosophy). A very knowledgeable and well-spoken gentleman came and discussed Safety and Security with us. I will say that I think that this may have precipitated the whole scare of the bar across the street mixed with the smoke in my hut. We certainly learned a wealth of information about what to do to mitigate the possibilities of getting into danger. The afternoon was spent with an initial session on HIV/AIDS. It was a bit boring as it was statistics about the state of the virus in Lesotho. We did learn a few interesting things that we had not previously been made aware of, in particular how the initiation situation in Lesotho may be augmenting the situation here. Much more will follow, but at least today's sessions were not too laborious. I arrived home to Mameretta getting her hair cut by a friend. And I got to hold this adorable little girl in my arms. We laughed, learned how to make papa and I showed them my pictures. Me Malomile kept telling me how much she loves me and they let everyone know that I am a family member - how could I dare leave this situation.

First Sunday in my Village

Oh my! I slept in today! I slept until 7:10. That is really late for all of us since we have been here in our village. Perhaps it was because it was overcast as the rains have begun and it was overcast. I did hear the donkeys and chickens earlier in the morning, but I did not wake up. I have heard that one finds that sleep is much deeper and refreshing and I can tell you that other than my bladder waking me far too often, I am sleeping much better here than I have for a very long time.

Once awakened I did not rush to take a shower, but rather had breakfast and decided to go for a run early in the day. It was absolutely breath-taking. Running along the main road was invigorating to say the least. I suppose I huffed and puffed a bit more than usual but with the elevation, I am not complaining at all. Unfortunately, I only had about 1/2 hour to run as I needed to bathe and get to language class by 9:30.

We love our language class; we love our language teacher. We laugh and we really do try to speak in complete phrases. There are three of us in our little group at Me' Lerato's home: Maliseli (Alysa), Neo (Ben) and me (Lerato). That Ben is a "WHIZ" at picking up this language. It is clear that he works at it during the evening much more than Maliseli and me. Having someone proficient in English in your home is not conducive to learning a language, but it sure makes it easier to communicate needs and likes.

I taught my first yoga class since having taught in the United States. I was a bit nervous as I had not prepared a sequence very intently. I threw something together based on the theme "Being" and it was fabulous. I had about 20 PCV's come to the "Kierke" where we practiced right on the floor. They loved it - really, they truly loved it. We must try to find another time to do it very soon. We talk of Sundays at 4, but I fear that we will be busy traveling and not be able to do it, but we must try. We really must. We all did end up at the shop for a quick beer. It is so important for us to be a family celebrating and right now, the PCV contingency is one of my families. Speaking of celebrating, we had a delightful time at dinner tonight. I so love being surrounded by such a special host family. Mereta

Arriving in Lesotho - and immediately to our host family

Wednesday, October 8th was arrival day in Maseru. This being so after a 15 hour flight from JFK and another hour flight from Jo'burg (that is short for Johannesburg) to Maseru, followed by a two hour bus ride to our training village. We were greeted by all of the M'e's of the village singing and dancing to welcome our arrival followed with a prayer and a welcome message from the "Chief" Femme of the village. We then were joined one by one with our M'e's and giving our new name. Mine is Lerato, which means love. I am honored to be with my M'e Mameomile as she is an absolute hoot and I have decided that she is somewhat of a "token" in the village as everyone laughs and giggles when they hear that I am Lerato MORIE. Clearly being a MORIE has some connotation and whatever it is, it brings joy to everyone who hears it. I felt so very badly as I had WAY TOO MUCH luggage and M'e Mamomile had to cart it in a wheelbarrow. The truth is that I was missing one of the pieces of my luggage so there would have been even more had I had that piece of luggage. I felt as if it were very far but now that I have been venturing around a bit, it is one of the closest host family homes to the training sessions.

We are at JFK

In the last 24 hours, I have met and bonded with such a wonderful group of people that I cannot tell you how gratifying and safe I feel. I hope that you feel that for all of us. We spent the entire day in session learning about cross-cultural understanding and then we all went to CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) where we shared pizzas. I went to sleep for about an hour as we had to board the bus at 2 AM to get to JFK for departure. Needless to say we have had very little sleep. Here's hoping we catch on on this 14 hour flight.

Curriculum Lesson One

Today is Friday, October 10, and we have now been here for less than three days. I am struggling so to try to keep this computer charged so that I can do this blog.

This morning was the first morning that I boiled water in my own R (hut) and took a bath before I even exited. We are learning all kinds of techniques for staying in our hut all night long which was one of the worries that troubled me the most. I am dealing with it - as all are.

Breakfast was simple: eggs and bread. What was amazing was how Mamekheta made the bread on the stove. From what I understand, I will learn to do this as well on Saturday. This will be quite an adventure as I am sure that there will much laughter during the process. I was off to Language lesson down the road when Me' Mamomile indicated that I was going the opposite direction. That was not the instruction we received last evening but it doesn't really matter as we rarely know in which direction we are going; we are very much like sheep these first few days. But since Me' Mamomile just pointed in the direction I was to go, I journeyed on and was directed by others along the roadside that I had had colleagues pass right in front of me and that was the direction that I was to pursue. I found my colleagues but we ended up at St. George's School - not at all where we were supposed to be since none of our other colleagues were anywhere to be found. It just so happened that the Peace Corps bus was passing by to pick up another group and we jumped on the van. It was quite amusing when we passed the whole group when they thought that we were picking them up when in fact we were just turning around and would be picking them up on the return drive to the "Kierke" (Church) where instruction was to take place.

We spent the morning learning about PC Core Expectations and the Lesotho School System. We have learned that we are in the transition period of the school system moving toward a more integrated system. It might be a bit difficult to understand since we will be having two sets of Lesson Plans but in reality, it is just a question of learning what needs to be accomplished with the new curriculum. They have moved to a more local educational system rather than a consolidated system with Namibia and ?.

Lunch was spent sitting around outside on the grass eating lunches that had been prepared for us by our M'e's and sent in plastic containers. There is a universal menu for all of us so we are all eating the exact same lunch menu, but each is prepared differently depending on the whims and extravagances of our host families. And some have so much more food than others. I am fortunate as I do not have too much. It is still way too much for my system if I do not do some exercise, which I am finding quite difficult to squeeze in to the schedule.

The afternoon was spent reviewing the curriculum of Grades 4, 5 & 6 which are the grades that we will be teaching. We will teach English as a co-teacher with the classroom teacher. We reviewed and were queried on the textbooks and teacher's guides - all this is a bit boring for me since i have been teaching for so many years. I had a lull and found myself falling asleep. I know, however, that this is vital for me to be successful here in Lesotho so I tried to give it my very best and remain attentive and participate often.

Two of the current PCVs that came to training to help us get oriented invited us to celebrate their 1 year anniversary of being in the PC by inviting all of us to have a beer at one of the "shops". I ventured home to drop off my stuff and had plans to go pick up a few essentials (a washrag), and it just so happened that I ventured upon the whole gang sitting around drinking beer. I had a Black Label - no clue what that meant - but I was tickled pink when my M'e showed up. I bought her a coke and was eager to have her join us. She stayed for a short time but left as soon as I returned to the table.

And I am off to the Peace Corps

Today is the day that I have been preparing for and waiting for nearly a year now. Honestly, I have wanted to join the Peace Corps for many years, but it was my good friend, Lori, who put the bug back in me when she and her husband had initiated the application process to the Peace Corps. Interestingly, my candidacy for Lesotho was placed right after my very first interview and although one often hears that you may not end up where you expect, in my case I am, in fact, going to Lesotho. My very good friends from Westport, Pam and Lisa, joined me for one last treat (I had my favorite Quinoa/Avocado/Greens Salad) and helped me load all of my very heavy and numerous pieces onto Amtrak. And away we go… Lesotho is called "The Mountain Kingdom" and is a land-locked country surrounded on all four sides by South Africa. It has the highest lowest point of any other nation in the world (got that?). Might I suggest that you do a bit of Google research?

On our way to our site

Last Saturday was a very busy day. I had awakened very early to wash my sheets early enough so that they would dry before I departed for Mahole's Hoek. I needed a good three to four hours to allow them to dry. I spent most of the early morning hours stepping outside to check if it were overcast as it there had been a huge storm overnight and the clouds were lingering. Fortunately, it did not rain at all and my sheets had dried before we departed.

Saturday was our our trial language exam. The Language Teachers had built this up so much that most of us were anxiously studying and quite nervous about the outcome. I, too, was overly eager to do well. I decided, however, to make sure my rondaval was in order, that all of my belongings were in order and mostly importantly, that I knew where things were. Hence, I did not study at all for my language exam. I chose to let go of being nervous and just do the best I was able. In all honesty, it went very well. I spoke quite fluently with my limited Sesotho and I understood every single question I was asked. I was pleasantly surprised.

We departed for Mahole's Hoek around 2PM where we would be meeting our Supervisors and Introductory Liaisons for the first time. We had gotten our assignments, but we yet to meet our Supervisors. What a delight to us all to arrive at a beautiful hotel with a swimming pool (I would not swim in it as it has not been treated with chlorine), a tennis court (I wish I had brought my racket!), and most importantly for most of us, a gym room.  Granted, it is sparse as far as equipment goes, but hey, those of us who have frequented the gym have been enchanted with the weights, the punching bag and the space to exercise.

Speaking of which….a couple of PCT (there are way too many acronyms with the Peace Corps; PCT stands for Peace Corps Trainees) have started a Sandal Camp regime to give us all some ideas of exercise to keep us in shape while at site. These two have attended every single one of my yoga classes (I am so happy to have taught 5 classes already!) and I really feel that I should support them. That is the wrong attitude to take because these two are going to do the regime whether I am there or not.