Mokhotlong Life

I had written a blog post a while ago, but I never got a chance to post it—and now its really too late so I’m going to recap because so much has happened since I last updated.

So I’m officially a resident of Mokhotlong now. Living in the mountains is really great, so much prettier than the lowlands. I’ve been busy turning my house into MY house—nesting and whatnot. The first big event that happened since I last updated is that I got sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer; meaning that training is finally over and now I can be a real life volunteer! Swearing in was a pretty big deal this year because the Prime Minister’s wife gave a speech for us. That put us on TV and in the papers! I also had to give a speech for my group in Sesotho. I was nervous but it turned out ok…and it put me on TV and a couple people have recognized me on the street lol.

After swearing in we all had to leave to go to our new homes. I’m never particularly excited to go to and from Mokhotlong because it just takes SO long! In a private car it takes about 5 hours to get there, on public it takes about 9, and it takes at least 6 hours to get to Maseru on public. When I say public I’m talking about the bus. The bus is a fairly standard coach type bus—except that they fill all the seats (including putting all children under 8 on laps) and then proceed to fill the aisles so full that no one can move at all. Its definitely an experience.

I’ve been at site for about two weeks now. I work for an organization called GROW, which works with some of the rural villages. The people I work with are really friendly and I’m excited to start projects with them. I also really like Mokhotlong a lot, and just walking around the town I am getting ideas for community projects.

I live about 10 minutes from Grow, and about 30 minutes from town (walking). The walk is nice and people stare at me and shout “Hi” and stuff…typical. People are slowly learning my name, they confuse me with another volunteer who already left. Town is pretty small for a camp town. Its mostly a bunch of Chinese run stores (they call them Machinas). I’m having fun getting to know my way around, and the other volunteers have been really helpful in showing me things.

So there are 5 volunteers in Mokhotlong now; Violeta, Rachel, Ben, James, and Me. James lives in the camp town too, but the others live a little further away. Last weekend we all went to Ben’s site (a school) for my Newbie Party. It was so much fun. Violeta is a really great cook and made homemade manicotti, Italian bread, and a bittersweet chocolate pear cake (we all helped cook a little lol). It was great to get to know everyone a little better. Ben and James are leaving at the end of November though because their 2 years of service are up.

This weekend has been fairly uneventful—which is exactly what I needed. I sat outside my house yesterday and read a book…and got a sunburn! I know right, surprise surprise Kristine got a sunburn. And today I did my laundry and walked to town for a bit. In case you are wondering, I do NOT like to do laundry. 1) I always spill water on myself, 2) its super tiring to wash jeans and sweatshirts, 3) my neighbors and passers-by always stare at me and I’m pretty sure they are making fun of me, 4) its unacceptable to hang your underwear outside on the line, so a weeks worth of panties are strung across my house. But I fully intend to pay someone to do my laundry for me, so hopefully that will happen soon.

This is a pretty long blog so I’m going to wrap it up now. Thanks for the letters and FB messages everyone. Enjoy what’s left of your summer! I’m almost done with winter and about to start the windy season—please try to contain your jealously.

PS other volunteers have better access to internet than I do and have posted pictures onto Facebook—if you check my FB page you will see if I am in their albums and then you can look at their Lesotho pictures too (they will post more often).