Medical Cadilac

After the rushed paragraph of all the excitment I figured I would sit and actually reflect on some of the things that have happened in the last couple of weeks. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to post some pictures from my training.
Going back in time and working foreward, friday before last the training group got to go have lunch at the ambassadors house with him and his wife. It was fun, they are really nice people. While talking to Nancy, the ambassadors wife with Julie and Rachel Prince Harry's visit in Lesotho. He had been staying in BB but had come down to Maseru for the kings birthday celebration. Nancy got all cute and giggly and asked if we wanted to see pictures. We went with her and looked at all er pics, commenting on how he isnt a kid anymore, how tall he is, and how cute, lol. After the lunch Maria said she had a suprise and it was our site placements, 3 days early!!! We all crammed into a little room fighting to get our sheet of paper. Mine was a slight, painfull realization. My placement is great, working at a Highschool close to Leribe that focuses on Agriculture. A previous volunteer got a lot of balls rolling there so I think it will be great. I wanted mountains, to live in a rondavel, to be out. I will just go visit others who got those placements, but the sting is still there.
On saturday we all went hiking at Tse'Hlanyane, most amazing view of the mountains. We passed through my site and it looks nice, I can make the most of it. I did have to fight back tears though as we drove into the mountains. My soul really connects there and it felt a little like salt being rubbed into a sore, "there they are but they arent for you." The hike was nice, the lodge-INSANE. Absolutely gorgeous and hopefully it will bring in more tourists. In some places on the hike there was still snow on the ground and it was so green still. The last 30 min of the hike were a little precarious, the trail was very, very muddy and the rest of the group had already trampled it. I was in the slow group but I like to enjoy looking around. It was tough at first but got much better and I had no problems at all after the first 30 mins. I cant wait to get to visit those lucky enough to live where they get to see and do what we did for one day for their whole two years.
Finally, yesterday was our farewell feast with our training villages. It was hard but I was strangely disconeccted, maybe because we spent the whole day just sitting around for the feast to start and then we had to rush the speeches and eating. My 'Me is so sweet and it was really hard not to cry. The children have gained a special place in my heart. 6 weeks was just long enough for me to be able to walk down the road and be able to greet people I knew and who I had shared a smile, laugh, or joke with. The whole village took us in, made us feel like part of the community, and helped us learn so much. My Sesotho skills have drastically improved. I never thought it possible to pick up a language or a working understanding of a language in such a short time. Back to the feast, our young chief was given a new blanket by Maria and that was cool. Merrill gave the speech for us, just a couple sentences in Sesotho, and did awesome. Of course, typical Basotho style- lots of singing, dancing, yipping, and ai-ai-ai's. Puleng and little Ithumelang did the traditional dancing with the short grass skirts. The point is to flip the skirt and bells up high enough to be able to see the bottom of the dancer. Fun to see a traditional dance with pink and white stripped undies unserneath. I asked 'Me Mapudumo and she said traditionally this is done with no undies. The girls were so good and the sound the skirts made to the singing of the bo-me was awesome.
Now we are back at the training center. Monday we get to go to our sites for a couple days then we have a couple of days back in Maseru before we head to our sites for the next three months. it is hard to believe traing is over and that in about a week I will finally be sworn in. This job is going to be great, the view I am told is phenomenal. Again, hopefully I can get pictures up tomorrow.