Village Life

So I haven’t had a ton of time to update this blog lately…but let’s not forget..this IS Africa. I have a new name! Since my arrival in Bokone I have been officially named Limpho Thelingoane. Limpho (DimPo TEdingwane) means “many gifts.” I have a ‘M’e (aka host mom) and Ntate (dad) and 4 brothers and a sister…plus lots of grandkids, cousins, etc.
I LOVE Bokone. Its pretty much the most beautiful place ever. It was really cool the other day because we woke up the other morning and all of a sudden there was snow on the mountains in the distance! Also, we saw the end of a rainbow on Tuesday! When does that EVER happen! I took a picture of it though so no worries.
The first week of village we ate all of our meals with our families, which was cool. My family LOVES to play cards so I had a great time with them. Each day we got to cook something with our ‘M’e, the best thing was cooking steamed bread (which is super yummy). Now, we are on our own and are cooking for ourselves.
Here’s a little snapshot into my life here. My alarm goes off at around 6:15 am and I get up and turn my heater on and start boiling my bath water. I get back into bed for like 20 mins and then go and empty my pee bucket (yup I said pee bucket) into the latrine. Then I take a bucket bath and wash my underwear (they stress the importance of doing this EVERY day, no joke). I then get dressed and started boiling water for my breakfast. I sweep my floor, eat, make my bed (takes like 1 min b/c it’s a sleeping bag) and then head to school at like 8. At school we sing the Lesotho national anthem and usually go to Sesotho class. Then we have been heading to the other village for group sessions on health, youth, agriculture, business etc. We have lunch, then are done at 4pm. After that I usually play with the little kids for a while and then make dinner. Bed time is very shortly after dinner (usually like 8pm).
So there you have it folks, A day in the life of Kristine. I’m heading to Berea tomorrow with Brice and Elissa to stay with a current volunteer for like a week!
I almost forgot to mention some things about living here. First, right outside my house there is a cow/donkey pen, a chicken coop (with roosters who have ZERO sense of time), and dogs and cats. As you know, its winter here in Lesotho. It has been COLD here this week. Its cool because for the past few days when I wake up and walk to school the ground is white with all the frost.
I miss you all!