So some of you may remember that I have the worst luck with technology EVER. Well being in Africa has not changed that at all. My laptop is broken Like won’t turn on broken. Granted, this time it’s my fault, but still it sucks. I am sending it to Maseru and hopefully someone will fix it, if not I have to wait a month until I go down myself in October. That’s the only way all my pictures won’t get lost forever…
Anyways, I had a super fun weekend. I went to Butha Buthe on Friday because a ton of PCVs were meeting up on Saturday. I had a blast. I got to know a bunch of PCVs better and see almost my whole group again! Basically good times all around. I managed to get a ride down to BB (like 2-3 hours away and expensive) with a women who works for CARE Lesotho (which works with GROW). The best part of this story is that it was me and the woman and TWO SHEEP! They were put in bags in the trunk of the SUV. Like 45 mins into our trip one of them totally escaped! We looked back and it was standing up in the back! It was hilarious and we had to stop and ask some herd boys on the side of the road to tie it up again lol….oh Lesotho…
Yesterday (Tuesday) I went to village with GROW and actually participated in a workshop for community based health care workers. I gave a presentation on nutrition. They don’t speak English and I don’t speak Sesotho so I had one of the other presenters translate. Unfortunately it didn’t really go very well. The women just didn’t get it. But at least I tried I guess.
Not that much else has been going on. Clearly I live a boring life. I’m working on taking pictures of Mokhotlong so that when I am in Maseru next I will post them for you. Thanks for the letters! They really help so much!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Mouse Attack
So, the other night I was laying on my bed doing some work on my computer when out of the corner of my eye I see something move in the corner by my front door. I look AND listen for a minute and dismiss the whole thing. I see something again. This time I’m more curious…and slightly paranoid. I watch for a longer time and nothing. Then I see it. A MOUSE. I obviously gave a little shriek and started to panic. I get out of my bed, grab my broom and headlamp (for the dark spaces), and cautiously look around. No sign of the mouse. I pull everything out from against the wall so I can see better and still nothing. I go back to my bed (broom in hand) and keep watch for the mouse. Those of you who know me may remember my aversion/fear of animals, especially those that can hide. I begin to doubt myself, and think that maybe I just imagined the mouse… house is not that big and I couldn’t find the stupid thing anywhere. So I text my neighbor who works with me and she calls my other neighbor and tells me to talk to little sister. So I essentially run across the room and out the door to her sister’s house. Her sister found the mouse in about 3 seconds, and together with my other neighbor they killed the nasty thing. I legit have goose bumps just thinking about it. Thank goodness for my superhero neighbors who are not in least afraid of mice because I defiantly would have gotten no sleep at all that night!
Aside from the mouse hunt, not a ton has been going on here. I planted my garden! And when I say “I” I mean that my Mphoso came over and planted my garden. Radishes and broccoli…I know, who eats radishes? Answer: not me, but I’ll give them away or something. They have started to sprout and everything.
I finally met my Chief this week! This is the real bug news of my week given that the Chief was the first person I was supposed to meet. My Basotho friend Tifi agreed to go with me (as a translator) and I’m actually going to be giving a workshop to the village’s support groups about HIV and AIDS. In another stroke of luck, Tifi agreed to translate the workshop too! Then Tifi came with me to visit some of the schools here. The visits went really well and I’m super grateful that he was around. It was probably the most productive day I’ve had here lol (I also did a TON of laundry that morning). However, I did get a somewhat monstrous sunburn that day…the sun block is officially in use now.
Last weekend I went to St James again with the other volunteers here for a youth workshop for Ben’s students. The workshop went really well and I learned a lot from being there. I also learned about anther myth floating around: that pregnant girls make all her classmates fall asleep, because when her baby is sleeping in her womb, everyone around her falls asleep. Classic. This week the volunteers are coming here to town and we are having a workshop at the high school here where James works. I’m really excited because I want to start a youth group at the school and will start making connections.
Other than that I’ve been living a pretty boring life. Reading books, watching the 5 movies that I have on my computer over and over again…nothing particularly interesting. Next weekend I am going to the next district Butha Buthe for a PC get together where I will see my friends again! But that’s all I have to say, so have a good one! Thanks for reading!
Aside from the mouse hunt, not a ton has been going on here. I planted my garden! And when I say “I” I mean that my Mphoso came over and planted my garden. Radishes and broccoli…I know, who eats radishes? Answer: not me, but I’ll give them away or something. They have started to sprout and everything.
I finally met my Chief this week! This is the real bug news of my week given that the Chief was the first person I was supposed to meet. My Basotho friend Tifi agreed to go with me (as a translator) and I’m actually going to be giving a workshop to the village’s support groups about HIV and AIDS. In another stroke of luck, Tifi agreed to translate the workshop too! Then Tifi came with me to visit some of the schools here. The visits went really well and I’m super grateful that he was around. It was probably the most productive day I’ve had here lol (I also did a TON of laundry that morning). However, I did get a somewhat monstrous sunburn that day…the sun block is officially in use now.
Last weekend I went to St James again with the other volunteers here for a youth workshop for Ben’s students. The workshop went really well and I learned a lot from being there. I also learned about anther myth floating around: that pregnant girls make all her classmates fall asleep, because when her baby is sleeping in her womb, everyone around her falls asleep. Classic. This week the volunteers are coming here to town and we are having a workshop at the high school here where James works. I’m really excited because I want to start a youth group at the school and will start making connections.
Other than that I’ve been living a pretty boring life. Reading books, watching the 5 movies that I have on my computer over and over again…nothing particularly interesting. Next weekend I am going to the next district Butha Buthe for a PC get together where I will see my friends again! But that’s all I have to say, so have a good one! Thanks for reading!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Working Girl
So basically my life consists of work right now. I’ve also noticed that I start just about every blog with the work “so.” I thought about why I do this and this is what I came up with: I basically write these things the way I think/speak, therefore, when I start all these little stories of my life I would start with “so” if I was talking to you in person. Clearly I’m super bored right now and have filled a solid 3 minutes with a random side note.
I’ve been working with my organization GROW to figure out what I’m going to be doing there. Things are going better, and I guess I’m sort of lucky to have some structure…I’ve also been trying to get out and meet people and learn about my community. When I say my community I’m referring to the camp town. Right now I still don’t know anything at all about my village, although, I have ascertained that there is a bar somewhere in the vicinity of my house because I can hear the music at 3AM. I plan on learning more about my village soon though, so no worries on that front.
I’ve been going out to the rural villages a bit lately. Let me describe to you what these trips entail. (1) a long trip in some old pickup truck (extended cab), (2) the “roads” are bad and therefore you are slamming into the side of the car the whole time, (3) you are squished in with other people (this week I was one of 4 grown adults in the back seat of the truck for at least 2 hours), (4) you become invisible and the people around you speak lightening fast Sesotho, until they make fun of you for something, (5) you never get to go pee and are always starving by the time you get back. Usually I’m at each village for at most an hour and I don’t really do that much. So clearly this is time well spent. Just yesterday the truck actually DROVE OFF THE ROAD! Mind you, there are no rails to prevent you from careening off the mountain. Luckily we slid into the mountain instead of off it—plus there is no cell phone reception that far out. Yikes.
I’m pretty excited because Rachel is in town this week so I’ll have someone to hang out with. Also, PC is coming up so hopefully I’ll get my packages! Yay! This weekend I’m going to go to Ben’s site at St James School to watch a workshop that Rachel and Violeta are giving there. And if I get my packages, I’ll stay and go on a hike with them on Sunday. (I need the ankle brace in mom’s package in order to hike). Update on the ankle: it’s neither better nor worse really. This week it was really sore, but hopefully it will heal eventually.
Anyways, I’m at work right now (so obviously consumed with things to do) and I guess I should wrap this up. Quick note first: I am rarely on the internet. It’s expensive and SUPER SLOW here, so I send my blog posts to Jess and she posts them. The same for my pictures (which are really hard to send and almost impossible to post in Mokhotlong). So don’t think that I’m ignoring you or anything if I take a while to respond to emails or FB messages, its just that I’m a broke volunteer lol. I’ll load a bunch of pics at the end of November when I’m in Maseru.
I’ve been working with my organization GROW to figure out what I’m going to be doing there. Things are going better, and I guess I’m sort of lucky to have some structure…I’ve also been trying to get out and meet people and learn about my community. When I say my community I’m referring to the camp town. Right now I still don’t know anything at all about my village, although, I have ascertained that there is a bar somewhere in the vicinity of my house because I can hear the music at 3AM. I plan on learning more about my village soon though, so no worries on that front.
I’ve been going out to the rural villages a bit lately. Let me describe to you what these trips entail. (1) a long trip in some old pickup truck (extended cab), (2) the “roads” are bad and therefore you are slamming into the side of the car the whole time, (3) you are squished in with other people (this week I was one of 4 grown adults in the back seat of the truck for at least 2 hours), (4) you become invisible and the people around you speak lightening fast Sesotho, until they make fun of you for something, (5) you never get to go pee and are always starving by the time you get back. Usually I’m at each village for at most an hour and I don’t really do that much. So clearly this is time well spent. Just yesterday the truck actually DROVE OFF THE ROAD! Mind you, there are no rails to prevent you from careening off the mountain. Luckily we slid into the mountain instead of off it—plus there is no cell phone reception that far out. Yikes.
I’m pretty excited because Rachel is in town this week so I’ll have someone to hang out with. Also, PC is coming up so hopefully I’ll get my packages! Yay! This weekend I’m going to go to Ben’s site at St James School to watch a workshop that Rachel and Violeta are giving there. And if I get my packages, I’ll stay and go on a hike with them on Sunday. (I need the ankle brace in mom’s package in order to hike). Update on the ankle: it’s neither better nor worse really. This week it was really sore, but hopefully it will heal eventually.
Anyways, I’m at work right now (so obviously consumed with things to do) and I guess I should wrap this up. Quick note first: I am rarely on the internet. It’s expensive and SUPER SLOW here, so I send my blog posts to Jess and she posts them. The same for my pictures (which are really hard to send and almost impossible to post in Mokhotlong). So don’t think that I’m ignoring you or anything if I take a while to respond to emails or FB messages, its just that I’m a broke volunteer lol. I’ll load a bunch of pics at the end of November when I’m in Maseru.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
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).
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).
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Highlands Here I Come
So quite a few things have happened since I last updated this blog. Most notably I got my site placement! I will be living in Mokhotlong, in the camp town (which is sort of like a city). Mokhotlong (Mo-hot-long) is in the mountains on the eastern side of the country. I will be working with an organization called GROW, which works mainly with agriculture. I’m not super pumped about agriculture, but I will work it all out.
The day after we got our site placements we had to give village meeting (a pitso). My village chose to give a presentation on nutrition. It went really well and in general we were glad to just be done with it.
Last Saturday we had a barbeque. We drove to Buhta Buhte and went to this nice mountain lodge for a hike. I didn’t hike though (hiking in the boot is something I never want to do again). The volunteer that works with the lodge was the last volunteer to stay with my host family.
The last week went by pretty fast because we knew that we were in the tail end of training. Yesterday was the official end to community based training. We peeled and cut veggies with our host moms to prepare for the village feast that was being given for us. The feast was really fun. Some of the village girls performed a traditional dance for us and the bo-‘m’e and church choir sang. It was a lot of fun.
So most days I go to Irena’s or Melissa’s house and hang out with them and Chris (the North side of the village). We make dinner and just chill out. The other night we had a dance party outside Melissa’s house with her little nieces and nephews. All the Bokone people went to Irena’s house and we had an amazing dinner. We had Mexican night and made tortillas, meat, cornbread and veggies.
I totally miss my host family already. On my last night I played cards with my sister and cousins and made popcorn. It was really fun. My ‘m’e came in and gave me a t-shirt (all the trainees got them) and I gave her some pictures that I took of the family. About two weeks ago I became friends with my older brother Koali. He’s hilarious and I’m sad we weren’t friends the whole time lol. When Melissa and I taught him Go Fish it was the funniest thing ever! Also, although I haven't had the greatest luck with dogs, my family's dog was FABULOUS! At first I was scared of him because he's easily the biggest dog in Bokone, but ALL he wants to do is cuddle. Kevin (pcv) told me he named him bear because of all the bear hugs he gives. He would meet me at the road and walk me home at night and no other dogs would bother me...he was sooo sweet!
So now we’re back in Maseru at the training center for a few days and on Tuesday I go to visit my site. I took a shower for the first time in weeks and it was AMAZING! Also we all watched movies and are going to have a movie day tomorrow where we all watch movies all day. That’s just about it for now. I’ll let you all know how my site visit was! (a current ed volunteer Violeta is going to show me around on Wednesday).
The day after we got our site placements we had to give village meeting (a pitso). My village chose to give a presentation on nutrition. It went really well and in general we were glad to just be done with it.
Last Saturday we had a barbeque. We drove to Buhta Buhte and went to this nice mountain lodge for a hike. I didn’t hike though (hiking in the boot is something I never want to do again). The volunteer that works with the lodge was the last volunteer to stay with my host family.
The last week went by pretty fast because we knew that we were in the tail end of training. Yesterday was the official end to community based training. We peeled and cut veggies with our host moms to prepare for the village feast that was being given for us. The feast was really fun. Some of the village girls performed a traditional dance for us and the bo-‘m’e and church choir sang. It was a lot of fun.
So most days I go to Irena’s or Melissa’s house and hang out with them and Chris (the North side of the village). We make dinner and just chill out. The other night we had a dance party outside Melissa’s house with her little nieces and nephews. All the Bokone people went to Irena’s house and we had an amazing dinner. We had Mexican night and made tortillas, meat, cornbread and veggies.
I totally miss my host family already. On my last night I played cards with my sister and cousins and made popcorn. It was really fun. My ‘m’e came in and gave me a t-shirt (all the trainees got them) and I gave her some pictures that I took of the family. About two weeks ago I became friends with my older brother Koali. He’s hilarious and I’m sad we weren’t friends the whole time lol. When Melissa and I taught him Go Fish it was the funniest thing ever! Also, although I haven't had the greatest luck with dogs, my family's dog was FABULOUS! At first I was scared of him because he's easily the biggest dog in Bokone, but ALL he wants to do is cuddle. Kevin (pcv) told me he named him bear because of all the bear hugs he gives. He would meet me at the road and walk me home at night and no other dogs would bother me...he was sooo sweet!
So now we’re back in Maseru at the training center for a few days and on Tuesday I go to visit my site. I took a shower for the first time in weeks and it was AMAZING! Also we all watched movies and are going to have a movie day tomorrow where we all watch movies all day. That’s just about it for now. I’ll let you all know how my site visit was! (a current ed volunteer Violeta is going to show me around on Wednesday).
Friday, July 10, 2009
New Update
So right now I am in TY again and we're going to visit Alison (a current volunteer) at her clinic...but we're food shopping first..aka using the internet. There hasn't been a ton of action since my last update, but here's what you missed. We had to give presentations yesterday in front of all of the trainers and the country director and program director, which was a little nerve wracking at first but ended up being totally fine. I did mine on making paper bag hand puppets of what you want to be when you grow up...and did most of the presentation in sesotho. Also I had some laundry accidents this week. First, I accidently set my wool socks on fire by putting them too close to my heater...booth pairs..oops. Second, I did some laundry, hung it on the line outside and when I went to go to school I saw that there was about 6 feet of raw meat hung on the line 6 inches from my clothes...gross. But these things happen and it just makes for another story to tell all of you. Also, I just want to shout out some penpal MVPs: thanks Jill and Hannah for being awesome with sending me letters, they totally made my days, and big shout out to Catherine for calling me!! You totally made my day better after the meat clothes incident!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Busy Week
So this past week the group was split up and sent to different areas for site visits with current volunteers. I went to Berea district with Elissa and Brice to stay with Merrill near the camp town TY. We had a blast. We got to hang out with her youth group and hike a mountain to reach the Ha Kome caves...which were super cool. To get to TY we had to take a kombi...aka a big white van that holds roughly 20 people. Kombis are a crazy experience. They aren't in the best condition and are generally packed full of people...but that just adds excitement to the trip. The best part is when they need to be puched backwards in order to start...much like a wind up toy car lol.
Since I got back from TY I've done some fun things. First I decided to try making Nisu..which came out ok given that I steamed it in a pot. We also took another mountain climbing trip to Thaba Bosiu on the 4th of July. On the 5th we were allowed to have a BBQ at the other training village that the Peace Corps paid for...which was so fun. Everybody was really excited to eat hamburgers. Overall it was a really fun week and when I have more time I will probably give more details, but alas, time is short so thats it for now.
Since I got back from TY I've done some fun things. First I decided to try making Nisu..which came out ok given that I steamed it in a pot. We also took another mountain climbing trip to Thaba Bosiu on the 4th of July. On the 5th we were allowed to have a BBQ at the other training village that the Peace Corps paid for...which was so fun. Everybody was really excited to eat hamburgers. Overall it was a really fun week and when I have more time I will probably give more details, but alas, time is short so thats it for now.
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