Doing Stuff!

Up until the beginning of this quarter, my time in Lesotho was marked by stretches of feeling clear and focused about what I was doing here and how to go about fulfilling my goals, peppered with moments (or weeks) of feeling lost, unsure or overwhelmed. I think this pattern is something that people experience intermittently throughout their lives, whether it’s about their jobs or relationships or hobbies. This pattern has felt more intense, though, because of the finite nature of Peace Corps service. Two years (unless we extend) is all we got, and it takes about this long (10+ months) to get comfortable in our communities and align what we want to do here with what we can do here. Now that I’m feeling clear and capable (on most days) of doing my job, time is of the essence.

So here’s what I’m doing and/or figuring out how to do.

 Getting electrified: My school, that is. Right before going to Mozambique I attended a week long workshop with my counterpart about doing secondary projects and building capacity to better support people in our communities affected by and infected with HIV and AIDS. We presented what we did at the workshop to the other teachers the first week back from break, and had a meeting the following day to decide what secondary project they all want and can be done within a year (ideally, 3 months before I leave). They figured out that they want electricity, which will pretty much just require connecting the electricity that the clinic, which is next door, just got, to our buildings. Next steps are forming a project committee and fundraising.  I’m really just here to offer my support and ideas, if need be, and to assist them with doing a grant if we end up doing that. This (or, if something changes, a different project) will be a consistent presence right up until I leave. I’ll keep ya’ll informed.

Spelling Bee! A really great, literacy promoting organization here called Ba Re E Ne Re (loosely translated as Once Upon a time) is sponsoring a national spelling competition in November, and to prepare I’m getting the students who want to participate ready for a school competition at the end of September. The lucky winner will come with me to the competition in Maseru, which is a big deal. Yay for literacy!

Youth Club: At that same workshop, I learned that until a few years ago there was a youth club at my school that was run by the grade 1 and 2 teacher, which focused on education and activities surrounding HIV/AIDS, particularly where stigma is concerned. She stopped doing it when we lost teachers and she had to fill in, but now that I’m here (and, god willing, new teachers sooner rather than later), I’ll be working with her to start that back up again, probably on a weekly basis.

And in the wonderful world of teaching English…

PSLE test prep: We all know that such a heavy emphasis placed on standardized test outcomes do nothing for a deep comprehension of subjects, but since I can’t do anything to change the system I can be a resource to the standard 7’s. So I poured over a bunch of old PSLE tests and will be working with them once or twice weekly for the rest of the year on the English material as well as on test-taking skills. Oddly, no one teaches the kiddos how to take a test, they just say read your notes and let that be that. We’ll see how it goes.

Consistency in my classes: Things that I’ve struggled with since I started teaching are creating consistent measures of success (e.g. regular quizzes and compositions), classroom management issues, balancing the amount of things they have to learn with teaching for comprehension AND making my co-teachers (when available) a part of the classroom more actively so the good stuff continues when I leave (say all of that 5 times fast). The last two are pretty challenging and will probably ebb and flow until I leave, but I feel like I’ve got a good handle on the first two, largely because I base nearly all of my lessons on group work and peer education. Never underestimate the power of positive reinforcement. Or stickers.

And when I’m not at school….

Meditating:  I started doing in every night a couple months ago, and it feels like an empty day if I go to bed without it.

Running! I’m running one half-marathon at the beginning of October and one some time in December. That one will be in Makhotlong, the northernmost district in Lesotho, and the route is basically straight up a mountain. I’m only running the first one so I don’t keel over and die during the second. Luckily a bunch of other PCV’s are as crazy as me, so I won’t be alone.

Yoga. Throughout the dark and cold winter this was my only consistent exercise, and it has become another one of those things that I feel sort of empty without, as opposed to simply enjoying it like I did pre-Lesotho. Also, I can do a headstand now.

…Making an effort to BE here in every moment, both physically and mentally…but also…

Vacation dreamin’. I’m visiting the Eastern Cape with mama Jude when she visits at the end of September, and heading to Cape Town for New Years and meeting mama Lib there. Planning on Swaziland for the Bushfire music festival next year and Namibia during next years winter break. Re tla bona (we will see).

and, ya know, hangin' out. 

Sending love and peace. Winter’s coming to a close here, and the sun’s shining bright.

The day before my last day of school, last quarter, was funny day. Essentially it's like Halloween, and the kiddos love it. Here are some grade 5ers.

don't mind that crazy white girl in the background

Travelin'

I’m lucky to live where I do for a host of reasons, one of which is that it’s relatively easy to visit other (warmer) countries in southern Africa.  So for the first winter break from school I traveled to Mozambique with my dear friend Thabo

For those who don’t know, Mozambique is above Swaziland and South Africa, on the eastern coast.

Here are some notable moments:

Stepping off the bus in Joburg. There’s nothing like living in a rural village for nine months to completely shatter a person’s self-image. I’ve always thought of myself as an urbane person, but it was complete culture shock being in a big city again. Tall buildings, hundreds of (uber fashionable) people walking every which way, talking quickly, moving quickly and not greeting each other. We could do nothing but stand and stare while we waited for Thabo’s friend Jenn, who we were staying with for the night, to come pick us up. Pretty much our whole time in Joburg we were ooing and ahing at everything from Jenn’s amazing shower and apartment to the wine store we went to that night to the cutesy shops surrounding the place we went to for brunch (swoon) the next day. Before we left Joburg, we had Thai food, went to a bookstore (!), saw so many well-groomed dogs being walked, and went to a rooftop bar filled with the most beautiful, trendy people. The closest approximation to how it felt is probably being star-struck.

I realized that it’s probably a good idea to take myself out to some restaurants and coffee shops alone when I return to the states so I can oo and ah in private. That way I’ll be able to focus on the conversation and not the bread basket or the great customer service when I do eat with others.

The most relaxed visa process ever. Until very recently you could get a visa at the Mozambique border, but now you have to go to the Mozambique embassy in Pretoria instead. We didn’t mind though, because it meant we got to stay in a cute hostel (with a trampoline!)

 and just had to drop off our documents in the morning, spending the rest of the day taking naps in the sun in plain view of this gigantic statue of Nelson Mandela:

It must be a tourist destination, but we found it by accident.

South Africa is an intense place. The racial divisions are, unsurprisingly, extremely palpable. 

The kind of barbed wire that I associate with prisons, along with high walls, surrounded most every building too. 

Also, this advertisement was everywhere:

The fish market in Maputo. We were too pooped from traveling to do much our first day in Maputo (capital of Mozambique), but on the second day we took a very long walk to the fish market. We entered the outdoor seating area and were immediately rushed by various people trying to get us to sit by their restaurant. We chose a table purely based on its location in the sunshine, and it was hands down the best seafood I’ve ever had. It helped that our new friend Martin, a Chilean pilot traveling around Africa for 8 months, spoke Portuguese.

Langostinas

mouth watering squid

 Arriving at our hotel in Tofo. The whole Inhambane region (where Tofo is) of Mozambique is paradise. Palm, orange and coconut trees lined the road for almost the entire 10 hour bus ride. So by the time we climbed the sandy hill to our hotel, we were relieved. It helped that Mozambeat, our hostel, is paradise in and of itself. In my book, it's honeymoon material.

Our little house, which also had a private outdoor shower!

 Really obvious sexism. Obviously, sexism is something that impacts me most of the time, but I have a hard time remembering times where it was as obvious as it was in Mozambique. When I bought something my change would be handed to Thabo, I was given a smaller plate and a smaller glass for two separate meals (during both of which I was the only woman eating) and 9 times out of 10 when a local stopped to chat/try to sell something, they would be clearly talking to Thabo. Those kinds of moments that just make you go, “seriously?”.

The beach! Need I say more.

The Company! As always, it’s not what you do, but who you do it with.

we were joined by some of my other favorite volunteers, and their gameboys.

Khotso.

Goodnight Tofo. I'll be back. 

G.L.O.W. (Girls Leading Our World)

G.L.O.W. (Girls Leading Our World)

(I spent 4 days at a girls empowerment camp at the end of June, where sessions on leadership, HIV/AIDS, gender equality, freedom of expression and healthy relationships were led by various organizations here in partnership with Peace Corps volunteers.)

Here is part of a journal entry that I wrote on the last morning there, while sitting on the grass in the sun, watching the girls pack up to go. I think it captures the essence of that experience better than hindsight memory can.

Almost as soon as the music started to blast from the speakers, 60 girls began to dance. As the night wore on, the dancehall and house beats began to seep through their veins and nerves, causing more people to sit down as spectators than to dance, but re-energizing a small group of them. Completely spur of the moment, a group of maybe 10 or 12 girls began to walk in pairs across the room, one cat-walking and playing the female role, the other clearly playing their male counterpart. They got into their roles, playfully teasing each other, gesturing, making flirty eyes, sneaking glances back and forth as if flirting with each other across a room, and then strutting their way off to the other side and then to the back of the line, making space for the next pair to do their thing across the space. These girls were feeling their power, and it was mesmerizing and beautiful to watch. By the end of the night, they alone were keeping me awake.

Of course I danced with them at first, and I felt completely free and alive and happy, high off life and sugar from the s’mores I had just eaten. I felt so incredibly impressed with these girls, and also sort of in disbelief that all of this was real: That I turned 24 at a girls empowerment camp in Lesotho. That I got to eat s’mores, of all things. The confidence and knowledge and leadership capabilities that these girls already possessed, and that I got to spend time in their beautiful presence. That I got to be a person who would reinforce to them the power of their own self-worth was such a gift.

There is something so raw about being a teenager. I wouldn’t want to repeat those years, but being around these girls brought home the memory of that rawness to me. That feeling that nothing is certain or safe, that your boyfriend may be cheating on your and your friends may be gossiping about you, all of it coupled with the anxiety associated with appearing cool and like none of it really matters even though it’s everything. But with all that comes this, yes dramatic, but absolutely unabashed commitment to the present, whether they realize it or not.

A mean look has the power to ruin a girls entire day, and events feel much more earth shattering than they actually are. Larger than life, even. This rawness can be painful, and it can also be incredibly powerful.

It was really neat to witness these girls being creative, demonstrating their knowledge and wits and smarts, 

and doing it with other girls who were there for the same reason, all of them feeling a little more free and a little less self-conscious than they do in the real world. I’m so proud.

The goddesses in my group

Khotso.