mid-service medical

OOOOO scary! Half way through service we have to have a check up to make sure we aren't falling apart. Good news, I'm not and its a super easy check up. Bad news was that the filling on one tooth didn't hold up. About six months ago I was eating phoone (toasted corn, similar to corn nuts) when I cracked and chipped a filling. At midservice we have to do dental so I have just been holding out. Everyone has said how quick and easy both medical and dental are. Guess no one else had to get a filling replaced.

I was already a little skeptical about getting a filling in Africa. Most people think a shack with no tools, etc. It was actually a really nice office, dentist chair, all equipment, and an assistant. First thing I told the dentist was that I need a filing fixed. I have only ever had one dentist in my life, since I was born, and thought that all dentists would be pretty much the same. Nope. To fix my filling Ntate said he would have to give me Novocaine and drill the old one out. He stuck the needle into my gums and moved it in a circular motion as he injected the drugs, PAIN! He then cleaned my teeth while the Novocaine kicked in. Once it did, boy did it kick. He injected enough Novocaine to tranquilize a baby elephant. My entire lower face and tongue went numb!!! He kept telling me to open my mouth and I thought it was open and he had to tie my tongue down because I had no feeling in it. It then took him an hour to drill and fill and ten (yes, I counted) attempts to get my bite level. Done with the filling, he finished cleaning my teeth and flossed. He got a chunk of floss stuck between two of my teeth and it hurt, the upper half of my mouth was obviously not as numb. He tried to pick it out and finally yanked it out with another piece of floss. DONE! I left, not talking much the whole walk back to the office because I was drooling all over and couldn't use my tongue.

Back at the office I decided to go to lunch with Lorriane. I wasn't going to eat, just have some coffee. I had her crying, she was laughing so hard, because I sounded handicapped and absolutely ridiculous talking. The waitress had to have what I was saying translated by Lo when I ordered. I then had to bend over and slurp my coffee out of the cup because I had already dropped water down the front of me at the dentists office trying to rinse. Eventually my mouth started to function and I have since returned to the office, sounding normal, and am able to interact with other people without killing them with laughter.

Whats in your lentil burgers?

This has been a crazy busy last few weeks which is quite a change from the norm.

I had training with the new volunteers, teaching them about gardening, am planning a workshop for the end of July, party party party's, and have a had a bunch of visitors.

For a few days two of the new volunteers that came in on June 5th visited my site. After a totally awesome Saturday of getting to know each other, we had a totally chill Sunday. I made us some chicken noodle soup and just hung out at my house. We stopped by my families house to say hi and ended up having to stay and watch a totally creepy Cinderella movie and eat some nama and samp. My 'Me finally got to take off her mourning clothes so they were having a feast. Monday we went around town so that I could do some stuff for my workshop then we shopped all day in town. That night we made lentil burgers that were awesome!!! They didn't stay in a patty shape but me and the girls had a blast making them. Tuesday we got an almost early start (it was so cold we didn't get out of the house before 10 each day) and headed up Sebotoane Mountain. It has been a full year at site and I finally got up there. At the top me and the girls enjoyed a great view of all of Hlotse. At Joy to the World church there was band practice and we could hear the whole thing. Sitting on top of my mountain, listening to music, and talking about the whole Peace Corps experience was great. There were some fun little ponds we explored. Heading down we decided to explore a cave and take a backwards route. Ended up having to climb down a cliff face that was once a latrine so we were all sliding down the mountain in a puddle of shit, literally. That night went to the hotel and had dinner and some beers with Trish, her sister, and some friends. Wednesday morning they headed home. It was great having them at my house and introducing them to my friends and family. I am so proud to be part of my community, its great getting to share it and show the new volunteers what relationships they will have built in a year.

After 4 days of newbies I then began two full weeks of visitors from Wales. A teacher and three students from Molapo's sister school are visiting to see their past projects and to do a new one. We decided on a paint project in a few of the class rooms with the potential of getting murals onto the walls. After 4 days, two hours per day, spent trying to purchase supplies and get things organized I think they really got a feel for what development is like in Lesotho. We did make progress and the class rooms look great. They were able to see a lot of the area and even had a tour into the village with some students. I had to leave them on their own for this last week there. Hopefully nothing too "Lesotho" happens to scare them away.

Now I'm in Maseru to do training again with the new volunteers on the environmental stuff. It should be fun, they are a great new group and ask a lot of really good questions.

Fun story of the day... Sunday was the coldest day I have spent in Lesotho I think. Not only do I have a killer head cold but I am also low on electricity so could not have a heater. What to do on a super cold day??? PERFECT LENTIL BURGERS! I played with my mix, adding some hot chilli's my mom sent from the states, a bunch of paprika, and yes, people who know me from home, I intentionally added onion and carrot! Threw in some shaved cheese to make it sticky, dunked the patties in flour this time and wham blam... DELICIOUS! They turned out so good!!! So I spent a couple hours making the burgers, 30 mins eating them, and climbed into bed at 7 for a good, long, healing sleep. Dreams of future lentil burger recipes floating in my head.

One Year

The one year mark has officially come and gone. One year ago, my Birthday, June 6th, we arrived here in Lesotho. Looking back over my blogs I realize I have left out much of the "Africa" from my African Adventure. It is hard when you live here and are immersed in the life everyday to sit and really reflect on the smaller things that make living away from home scary and magical at the same time.

I was planning on sitting here, in the office, and working on my reporting that Peace Corps requires. I have been racking my brain to think of what I have done and can claim as work for the last year. When not actually listing what I have done, I feel like I have accomplished nothing in my time here and one more year does not seem like enough to do all that I wanted to do. But then I take another look at the last year of my life and realize that, really, every day I have accomplished some part of the Peace Corps goals. I may not be saving the world, I may not have had success in my projects, but I talked and listened and shared with everyone I took the time to greet. What I have learned from my failures and the tools I gave those I worked with even if our project failed are more valuable than if our farm had produced more than corn and a hand full of beans. The friends I made at the Ballroom dance club got more from learning better communication and body language than from having perfect steps when Waltzing.

Here is a list of what, after one year, Lesotho is to me. Hopefully it conveys some of the strange magic that makes this "the worst and the best" time of my life.

Lesotho is...
30 people in a 15 person taxi
a greeting from a stranger
children following you just to see what you do
adults following you just to see what you do
A friend sharing a sparkle on a taxi
Waiting on the side of the road with 4 bags for a hitch that might never come
a clear day where you can see every detail on the mountains
"ke kopa lipompong" candy please
"ke kopa chelete" money please
A baby sheep, not 5 minutes old
carrying a baby on your back
wearing a blanket and having people laugh
Friends rolling their eyes and saying "o ausi" because you did something too American
sun bathing on Christmas
Bo-ntate and their "I Love you"s
watching a student make a discovery
talking to people about HIV/AIDS
people walking up to you on the street and asking you about HIV/AIDS
Learning the Cha Cha... in Africa?
holding a friends hand while talking
people always touching you
Not seeing another white person in 3 weeks
Sitting around a heater enjoying being a part of a family
Crying with your family
Learning more from people than you could ever teach them
peeing in a bucket in front of friends
...Magic

Garfield the Cat

Trish pointed out to me that my and Snarky's relationship closely resembles that of John and Garfield.

So, my cat has more personality than most toddlers. He has decided that he is unable to eat food unless (a) It is human food I have cooked and prepared or (b) I sit next to his bowl while he is eating. if one of these two conditions is not met then he sits next to me, usually while I am cooking or working at my table, and cries- very loudly- until I acknowledge his presence.

He has also recently decided he loves butter. There must be a thokolosi helping him. Somehow the butter gets off of my food shelves, out from under the potatoes I have on top of it to preventthis very thing, onto the floor, and opened. TWICE! Snarky has consumed two entire tubs of butter.

Recently his appetite has been low and I noticed he has funny poo- WORMS!!! My friend who is a vetrinarian was finally around so I got some de-wormer and vitamin shots for Snarky. She gave me a super discount so it was only R20. I was headed for Butha-Buthe, I had been away from site for a week in Maseru, and Snarky was angry because I was not home. Hence, he decided to be really dificult. I took him, the two shots, the oral med, and a towel outside and waited until Snarky got close to the house. Grabbed him, wrapped him. I realized giving two shots into Snarky's ass was going to be difficult by myself. Ntate Peter was across the donga with two other bo-ntate and they were laughing at me. I decided that Peter is a farmer and so could help me give and animal a shot. I yelled "Ntate!!! ke kopa tusa, e tata!" Ntate, please help, this is difficult. He shot me an "aw hells no" look and said "kea Tsaba ausi, kea tsaba!" I'm scared! Of a cat? "Ntate, ka nete? ke katse." Ntate, really, its just a cat. Ntate's friends start laughing at him so he comes ovr and picks Snarky up in one hand. Nope, Ntate, please give the shot, I will hold the cat. the vitamin shots needed to be into muscle, not just under skin. Ntate didn't even get it under the skin. He squirted vitamin E all over me, himself,and my cat. I finally gave up and sat on Snarky and shoved the last shot into his ass.

Next day... Snarky's litter box was nasty after me being gone for two weeks so i washed and bleached it. I leaned it against the wall to dry and left the window open for Snarky to get out and do his buisness. Snarky decided it was too cold out and so pushed the box so it was flat on the floor, in his corner! and pooped all over in it.

'Me Mankoebe says all she hears is "SNARKY!" then his screaching "Meooooooow"... echos from my childhood ..... "Garfieeeeeeelllllllllllldddddddddddddddddddd!"

good days and cold nights

So, my last blog was kind of a downer I guess. Sorry. I meant it to be more funny, I dunno, just playing off our many physical adventures in Lesotho.

Life is good though, not just work.

The days have been absolutely gorgeous. There has not been rain for a while so it is a little dusty and the wind has a bit of a bite to it. Other than that I have found it possible to wear t-shirts or long sleeved T's during the day. My house does sit in the shadow of a mountain so I don't see sun until 9:30, so everything is covered in frost up until that point. Nights have been the polar opposite, and by "polar" I mean North Pole. We thought it was cold when we flew into Lesotho last June. This winter has been much colder. At nights I wear long underwear, flannel pants, 3 pairs of socks, a tanktop, long sleeves, and a sweatshirt, then have a comforter, two blankets, and my sleeping bag. Still cold. Bathing is not possible at night or in the mornings so I do the "essentials" at around 3, when I get home from school. It starts to get cold around 4:30 PM so I head over to the families house for tea and to watch some TV. They just got a DVD player so we watched a lot of movies last week. 'Me was so funny during Titanic! She kept telling Rose to "tsamaea" which means "go" when she was going to jump off the ship, she was very frustrated. Then 'Me laid down and told us only to wake her when the ship goes like this.. and she made a cracking in half motion with her hands. A couple nights later we were watching Oprah about Rhianna and Chris Brown. 'Me's English is not good so she wasn't understanding. This one girl on the show said "I just don't understand" and all of the sudden, in a funky, totally hilarious voice, 'Me goes "I just don't understand". OK, doesn't sound that funny, but me and all the kids were dying we were laughing so hard. Sitting around their little heater, eating phoone and drinking tea, watching the TV, makes it a lot easier to go back to my refrigerator house for the rest of the night.

Physical Manifestations of Home-Sickness

I'm not going to go into detail about the many bowel related issues all Peace Corps volunteers face. All I'm going to say is that for the past week and a half I have been suffering from the opposite of the general issue. Pain, suffering, physical illness... all in large part, I believe, to the "stress" of being at the one year mark of my service. Many volunteers are feeling the strain at this time, my current strain is residing in my pulled neck and leg muscles. Home-sickness here is different than the "I wanna go home"s suffered at summer camp, or the "I want my Mommy"s after a bad day at school. Here it is a weight you carry around constantly, a knot in your stomach, and a total lack of motivation on some occasions. It's hard to describe just what the sufferers of what I am choosing to call PCVHS feel.

Cinco de Mayo feast:

But, here we are. In about a month we will be at exactly our one year mark. Time has moved so fast that it doesn't seem like there will be enough time to finish everything. Just one more year, ka nete? The first year with regards to work moved at a glacial pace. Now I am actually facing the possibility of not having enough time!!!!

I am currently, as aforementioned (thats for you Trish), teaching two classes, B3 and B4. B3's have riveting conversations and get so into the subject matter that you can actually see them taking my prompts and using each other as the main teaching tool. B4's are trouble and still only seek to be abusive to each other. The B3's just finished their Gender sessions, B4 is still trying to get through them, and have started on goals and future planning. They have actually listened (B4) to everything in such a way that they were able to see, realistically, what they need to do and what they can accomplish. We did an exercise that I simplified from MAP called "Gender Box". The kids identified how girls and boys think the other sex should act. We then had a three day discussion using the phrase "I feel---- because----". The conversations roamed over many topics, everyone listened to each other, and even sensitive topics like rape and abortion were approached and discussed condusively. We also did a typical PC exercise called a bridge model where they have to build a bridge of skills and knowledge over the challenges they will face in their lives. B4's took everything we had been discussing from day one and build a rock star bridge. B4's, you are my heroes!

I finished my first project proposal last week as well. Trish helped me a lot on the wording (probably obvious from m blog me and words don't get along). It turned out to be really awesome and I think me and the GRO Foundation can really run far with it. It is a four part project but we are focussing on only two parts right now. Part one is a post-secondary resource book to help students know what to do after high school. Part two are career fairs and workshops for girls to give them the information in a more fun format. So many kids here are smart and graduate with what is considered good grades here but they don't know where to go or what to do. Hopefully this project will allow them access to the information that will empower them to plan for the future and be successful.

The Library is gorgeous. Ntate Phoole put up a new coat of paint and fixed the floor. We have old shelves put in but I am making plans for fixed shelves on the walls also. It's going to be SO much work but the committee is really dedicated to this project and its success. Its good to know that, for sure, at least one of my projects will be sustainable. I Can't wait until the books come. The few books we have at the school now are Voltaire, Jane Austen, Niche, and other classics that most high schoolers in America stay away from. My two Gilmore Girl books have already been lent out, even though the library isn't running . The best part is seeing the kids who are helping me clean or move shelves DISCOVER the books. They get so distracted by all the options and all the stories that they aren't much of a help to me, but thats fine, it gives me energy to see what an impact just looking at books has on my students.

A fun story- Saturday was going to be cultural day at St. Michael's school. Friday I borrowed an adorable seshoeshoe that belongs to my older host-sister and last Sunday my friend Malekhula braided my hair in con rows. Saturday morning I got up, not feeling well but still looking forward to a super fun day. The kids have been practicing for weeks and this cultural day was going to include drama and choir competitions in addition to the dance. I got to school at 8:30 because I was told to be there at 8, no one else showed till 9, we got on the bus at 9:45. The end of our half hour drive resulted in us sitting at St. Michael's for an hour, surrounded by a sports day instead f said cultural day. Turns out no one let Molapo know that Cultural day had been postponed until the 29th. So, we drove all the way back to school. The kids were so disappointed that M'e Noko decided to let them have a party and their own cultural day at the school. Hopefully some good came from this though; the kids will now be able o practice and perfect for the next two weeks!

Easter and Diversity

As my last post said, I spent Easter in Maseru then headed to Mokhotlong for the Diversity Camp.

Easter in Maseru was totally chill and yummy. Woke up Sunday morning to find a chocolate Easter candy on my door that Merrill the Bunny had left for me. Maya made a super-star dinner and we all just relaxed. On Monday people started getting back into town and by Tuesday it was packed with all of us exchanging stories and enjoying seeing people we hadn't seen in a while. I spent the day just hanging out with people and catching up on all the PCV gossip.

Wednesday morning started bright and early because me and Rachel had to be on the bus for Mokhotlong by 6:30. Then began a ride that seemed much longer than the one to Qacha. Maybe it was that they crammed every possible space with a body, maybe it was climbing up to 3000 meters, straight up. Finally we did arrive in the camp town at about 3:30 with one stop at Oxbow and an hour and a half lay-over in Butha-Buthe. The guy next to me was sloppy drunk and very friendly by the time we reached town but at least did not puke or pass out on top of me. Me and Rachel just crashed at the RVRC for the night and watched movies. Their VRC is totally pimp with a computer, Internet, and a couch so it was a comfy night.

The next day we met up with Violeta and started to prepare for the Diversity Camp. Most everything was prepared and we spent a lot of time just supervising to make sure things went smoothly. The facilitators were from the Crossroads Youth Group in Maseru and they did an amazing job. The kids had fun, participated, and contributed a lot of ideas. The sessions were all held in Sesotho which made it hard for us to participate or sit through but made the kids get a lot more out of the whole experience. It was at the camp that I met vegan, atheist, and scientologist Basotho for the first time and realized for myself that Lesotho is much more diverse than even I thought.

My favorite part was probable when some of the students, all high school form B or C, started a debate, on their own, about whether children should be baptised or not. Not only were they using proper debating skills and thinking through their arguments but they were also speaking entirely in English. Even after us three Americans left the group, they spoke English the entire time.

This was the best group of kids I have seen since being here, I wish my classes at school participated half as much or spoke English with such self assurance. Their participation which was definitely encouraged by the Sesotho helped them all the see the differences in each other as well as in the country as a whole. It was sad to leave beautiful Mokhotlong and its awesome kids on Sunday but it was also great to be home, see my family, and give Snarky a hug. Its a different world up there and I cant wait to go visit Rachel and see her village.