Site Placement!

Alright, so, it's real and surreal. I now know exactly where I'll be living for the next two years, what I'll be doing and who I'll be working with. I visited last week, and I'm thrilled.

Baithaopi (volunteers) heading out for the week!

Thabo

I'll be living in the north, in the Butha-Buthe region, in a village called Tau liarora/St. Dennis, which is also the name of the primary school I'll be working at. It's a medium sized school, about 250 students (or learners, as they're often called here), but only four real teachers. One student who graduated last year has been volunteer teaching there, and then I'll start for the new year at the end of January. I'll be teaching English and life skills (which is sort of an expansive sex-ed) to grades 4, 5, and 6. So, there's definitely a lack of teachers at the school, and it'll be nuts when I get there as I start to learn what teaching in Lesotho actually looks and feels like. And figuring out how to co-teach will be interesting-it's not a common practice in Lesotho at all, but the Peace Corps really dissuades primary school teachers from teaching on their own because that's not very sustainable. The reality is that many people don't co-teach, but some people do. So I'm hoping my co-workers are receptive at least, though it probably won't end up looking like what I imagine as co-teaching (lesson planning together, sharing all responsibilities etc). I really like them. They're all women and all friendly at least thus far. And I also had a long conversation with one of the teachers at the high school who went with some of her students to a glow camp (Girls empowerment and HIV education stuff) and is starting a girls youth group at the high school, so I'll be working with her on that too. It's cool because it's not my project or anything, I'm just getting involved because I'm interested. So yeah. good things. The only 40 minutes-an hour by taxi from the Butha Buthe camp town, but its definitely still rural.

So yeah. good things. Super excited to be done training and move there on December 18th!
Check it out!

Seen on the walk to school

Children

Written on 11.13.14 at 7:41 PM.

Having an adorable, ridiculous, loving two year old to come home to really makes my day. Today my m’e’ told me that she saw other Baithaopi (volunteers) walking on the road and Kabello ran up yelling “MPHO!!”, even though I wasn’t with them. White people? Must be Mpho. I get it.

            She’s also a testament that developmentally, two year olds everywhere are largely the same, independent of culture. She stubbornly refuses to sit on a blanket or pillow when sitting at the kitchen table, and so is eye-level with the table, which makes eating kind of difficult. But I think she likes getting papa or yogurt or whatever all over her, because afterward she licks food off her hands with a big smile, clearly basking in the experience. I stayed home from training on Monday to recover from having diarreah all weekend, and my M’e brought her in my room to visit. She hopped up on my bed, sat on my stomach and looked me right in the eye, her grin showing bits of the Russian (hot dog) she held in her left hand, her eyes gleaming. A few weeks ago, we were all eating dinner while Kabello cruised around the kitchen floor on her belly, almost like she was swimming, giggling her so-cute-its-almost-cartoonish laugh. Who knows what kind of swimmer she’d be if there was easy access to any body of water here. The word in Sesotho for funny is Qabola (click at the beginning), and I tell her she’s Qabola every single day.

            But like all children here, she’s way independent. Not just in her skill set-feeding herself, carrying her little chair around, speaking (we’re at about the same level of Sesotho, which is great), but in her freedom. Last Saturday morning we were all eating breakfast on the little wall in front of the kitchen, and Kabello spills or pours out her coffee (yes. She drinks coffee) on my M’e. And of course there are many different parenting styles and family situations in the U.S., but no West Mt. Airy parent that I know would react by saying “Oh Kabello, enough. Just go to Ntabisang (the neighbor girl) Bye bye.” And she and Tlu Ke Sang, the 8 year old, went happily.

            Last Sunday, Thabo and Brittany and Jordan took a little walk through the pine forest next to the school where we do our training. It leads to this amazing donga (super deep ravine), with rocks and grassy, sheep covered hills on either side, and it was so nice just to walk in the pines. At some point we were sitting on some rocks, chatting, when this small figure in the distance starts yelling to us “lumela, lebitso le hau o mang”. It takes us awhile to even hear her (though I assumed before she got closer that it was a boy, since they are most often the ones out herding/chillin with the animals while they graze). We start to answer her questions, still yelling, barely able to see her or hear what she’s saying, because she refuses to get closer. Then she just yells “ARE YOU HAPPY???!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!” It was really the best, sitting on these rocks overlooking grassy hills, having a child screaming to inquire about our happiness. We were laughing about the whole situation for a while after that.

And today, as usual, kids were peering in through the windows at our language class. And while we were standing outside, getting ready to walk to the hub for training, they stand and stare. I’d say thirty or more kids just standing in a big group, staring at us, not saying a word.  I get it-we’re new and different. Five weeks may seem like a long time to us, long enough to get used to seeing the Americans. But I guess not. Sometimes I wonder what they are thinking: “Better watch and see what weird thing they do next! They’ve already sat on the stoop in skirts and spoken Sesotho and drunken coffee and eaten so many cookies! What do they look like when they stand up? What do they have in those backpacks? What are they saying? Why do they speak so fast? Why is their skin so white?” (Not every volunteer is white, but everyone in my village is.) I don’t know enough Sesotho yet to carry on a conversation, so the only thing to do is laugh and change locations. One thing is for sure, I’m going to learn as much from these kids as they’ll learn from me, both in and out of the classroom.

Kabello le bohobe

Moments.

HVV Vist

Two weeks ago, we all went to different parts of Lesotho to visit current volunteers and get a sense of what it's like to actually be a Peace Corps volunteer, from the living situation to the teaching to the integrating into the community to the long-ass taxi rides. I visited Laura in Motete and it was so nice to see her hut and eat some amazing food (yes you can eat well) and see her teach. To hear about how scared she was when she first got there and to see her now, about to leave after two years, happy and speaking Sesotho and integrated into her community like a pro. (She just COS'ed).

View from her house, before our hike. 

Ntate Moramong, you are the most dope. 

In front of the beautiful mural she painted for her school. 

Pitso!
Last week we had our Pitso, or community gathering, in order to officially introduce ourselves, in Sesotho, to the chief and community members. And after a lot of waiting, per usual, and our mini speeches (Hello, how are you, I live with the Ntlaba family etc), we danced and sang. There is a big singing culture here.

Ha Ramonyaloe! 

With our beautiful m'e's. 

Best m'e. 

The "traditional village" that we didn't tour because of rain. But that's how all rondavels used to look.

Baithaopi (volunteers).

Ausi Lalleli. 

King Moshoeshoe I house

That horribly beautiful plant from Jumanji also lives in Lesotho. 

The mountain that the traditional hat is modeled after.

Wild horses came out of nowhere. Incredible. 

Ha Ramenyaloe Bo'me singing and dancing.

Thaba Bosiu 

A few weeks ago we hiked up Thaba Bosiu, and it was the closest I've come here to a spiritual experience. This is the place where the first king of Lesotho, King Moshoeshoe lived. It's also the place where the Basotho nation was formed. Its so humbling living in such an ancient place, where some of the first people to walk the earth lived (the San).  Anyway, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves. 

Pictures got out of order and I don't have the patience to fix it OH WELL. Khotso.