Well, first of all I feel like I should begin by stating that the title of this post was fully stolen from Melissa's facebook photo album of our trip. Now that that's out of the way I want to tell you all about it!
Melissa and I just got back from our Moz (that's what the cool kid's are callin' it) vacation the other day. It was spectacular! We took the bus from Bloemfontein, which is about an hour from Lesotho. We decided to kill time waiting for the bus (11:10 pm)at the mall...so to paint you a mental picture there was me and Melissa with huge backpacks, a tent, and various bags, essentially hiking through the mall. We looked ridiculous, but it was just as funny to us as the people who stared at us lol. Our first bus was 2 hours late, but eventually we made it all the way to Maputo in Moz. We only stayed for one night though before taking the 5:30 am shuttle to Tofo.
Tofo was so much fun! One of the coolest things about Tofo was the fact that the whole Tofo area was built on sand! The roads are sand, backyards, markets, everything! We stayed right of the beach and pitched our tent in the sand too. On our first full day we went snorkelling and were up close and personal with WHALE SHARKS! It was pretty much the coolest thing ever! We were so close to them! We also saw dolphins :) While in Tofo, we also watched the final matches of World Cup, shopped in the market, and met really cool travelers.
Next we headed further north up to Vilankulo. To get there we had to take a few taxis and even a ferry boat! It was funny because on the ferry we'd hit shallows and teh man in front would have to use a big stick and push us through. We had a super amazing time in Vilankulo. Our backpackers was really laid back and the people staying there were really fun. On our first day we decided to go snorkelling again, but this time we took a dhow boat (sort of like a sail boat but different) to the Bazaruto Islands to 2 Mile Reef. Melissa and I had the whole Island to ourselves pretty much. We walked the beach and then went in the warm water to see some fish. Before we left the backpackers, and before we went in the water we had been repeatedly warned that "the reef is sharp." But aparently that didn't quite sink in with us...until we hit the reef and left the water bleeding lol. The reef surrounded the island, and to get in and out you had to step on the reef. Melissa cut her feet and I cut up my hand. But I saw an octapus, a neon blue lobster, and tons of fish. Then our guides made us a lunch of fresh crabs and salads...delicious. That night we went to this local place called Mohammed's and had the best calamari and crabs ever, which were fresh from the market that day. The next day we found out that just about everone from our backpackers was going out to the islands so we managed to squeeze our way into that trip too. This time we went to a different island that had incredible sand dunes and all kinds of cool fish. It was really fun to bond with the other travellers. Unfortunately I got sick that night, but luckily it didn't last long. Our last day in Vilankulo was a lazy day which was nice.
Next we took public transport back to Tofo for a night en route back to Maputo and Lesotho. Our shuttle left Tofo at 4 am so instead of going to bed we just stayed up and went dancing all night :)
Our last day in Maputo was pretty nice. We went to the market and got lots of crafts and ate good food and basically had a good time. We really didn't want to leave though! But sadly all good things must come to an end and we had to return to our Lesotho lives...and the freezing weather....
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
A Good Day with Nteboheng
So I'm breaking my pattern of waiting weeks in between postings because this is a bit of a slow week and I had a really fun morning.
So I've mentioned in this blog before about the other NGO in Mokhotlong called Touching Tiny Lives (TTL). TTL is an organization that works with malnurished and sick babies, which is pretty amazing. It's nice because I get to go over there whenever I want and play with the adorable babies...they're REALLY cute. This is all just background so you understand about my morning. About 2 months ago TTL took in a little girl named Nteboheng. She is turning 5 years old this weekend actually. When Nteboheng came to TTL she was just shy of 5 years old and weighed only 9kg (or roughly 20 lbs). It was heartbreaking to see her. She was SO thin and weak and frightened about being away from home. In addition, she was really sick and is HIV positive.
However, since coming to TTL Nteboheng has made amazing progress. She has gained weigh and is really outgoing and just plain adorable. She happens to be the oldest child at TTL, and as a result has very little to do during the day. So last week I decided that I would visit her at least once a week for some one-on-one "big girl" time. Today was the first day.
I brought a coloring book (thanks mom) and some crayons so we could color together. It was really fun. Nteboheng is still really young so she doesn't speak any english so communication is interesting with my limited sesotho. She's really smart and she would repeat the names of the colors we were using. I brough some nail polish and painted her fingers and toes too. She loved it! It was so cute watching her hobble around, feining wet nails, to show the women working with the other babies her new nails. It was pretty much the highlight of my whole month just wrestling around and tickling and playing with this little girl. The most hilarious part was watching her play with her doll. She was acting like a typical basotho woman with it. She put the doll on her back and then tied it around her with a little blanket just like the women here do with real babies. I can't wait to go back with my camera and film her doing it.
I'm really excited to spend more time with her because she's such a sweet little girl. Next on the agenda is outside playtime, and finger paint if I can get my hands on some! Overall it was a fabulous day and I thought I would share it with you guys!
TTL has a blog as well if you're interested in what they are doing check them out at touchingtinylives.blogspot.com
So I've mentioned in this blog before about the other NGO in Mokhotlong called Touching Tiny Lives (TTL). TTL is an organization that works with malnurished and sick babies, which is pretty amazing. It's nice because I get to go over there whenever I want and play with the adorable babies...they're REALLY cute. This is all just background so you understand about my morning. About 2 months ago TTL took in a little girl named Nteboheng. She is turning 5 years old this weekend actually. When Nteboheng came to TTL she was just shy of 5 years old and weighed only 9kg (or roughly 20 lbs). It was heartbreaking to see her. She was SO thin and weak and frightened about being away from home. In addition, she was really sick and is HIV positive.
However, since coming to TTL Nteboheng has made amazing progress. She has gained weigh and is really outgoing and just plain adorable. She happens to be the oldest child at TTL, and as a result has very little to do during the day. So last week I decided that I would visit her at least once a week for some one-on-one "big girl" time. Today was the first day.
I brought a coloring book (thanks mom) and some crayons so we could color together. It was really fun. Nteboheng is still really young so she doesn't speak any english so communication is interesting with my limited sesotho. She's really smart and she would repeat the names of the colors we were using. I brough some nail polish and painted her fingers and toes too. She loved it! It was so cute watching her hobble around, feining wet nails, to show the women working with the other babies her new nails. It was pretty much the highlight of my whole month just wrestling around and tickling and playing with this little girl. The most hilarious part was watching her play with her doll. She was acting like a typical basotho woman with it. She put the doll on her back and then tied it around her with a little blanket just like the women here do with real babies. I can't wait to go back with my camera and film her doing it.
I'm really excited to spend more time with her because she's such a sweet little girl. Next on the agenda is outside playtime, and finger paint if I can get my hands on some! Overall it was a fabulous day and I thought I would share it with you guys!
TTL has a blog as well if you're interested in what they are doing check them out at touchingtinylives.blogspot.com
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
April is Gone...
So it's already May...Cinco de Mayo actually. I really had very little going on this past month so this is more of a random update.
I spent the first two weeks after coming back from vacation battling a nasty cold...and NO I did not have malaria if that's what you were thinking. During that time I did some business stuff with the mico-loan project with TTL at GROW, but not much else. I did however have a pretty major victory though. Here's the story: GROW was putting on a hastily-put-together HIV/AIDS Sports Tournament in Malfiloane (west of me). I made some inquiries about it because I was curious what they were going to talk about and found that they had no plan, so clearly I needed to insert my skills. Well during the meeting with the GROW guys I managed to convince them, after a heated debate, that we should distribute condoms and do a condom demonstration. It was like a mega high-five moment because culturally Basotho are really closeted about sex related things. The event itself wasn't my favorite time. It's REALLY cold in Malefiloane for starters. But the day began with a road race which was fun to watch. Many people were running either 4 or 10K and not even wearning shoes...dang. But everyone had a good time. I ended up doing a condom demo for a group of like 40 married people, the girl sitting directly in front of me was only like 16 and had a baby. It was really fun for me and was the first time I had ever done one so I was excited about it. The real highlight for me was after when everyone was gathered around the MC table and an older women walked up and grabbed a handful of condoms in front of like 200 people. You have no idea how huge that is...I was super pumped, but obviously I sat there calmly as if this were a normal occurance that didn't surprise me at all. One of the GROW guys even walked around passing the condoms out.
I also managed to meet some new people this month. I randomly got a phone call on Friday afternoon from a girl who got my number through the PC grapevine. So long story short, I had two girls from Holand spend the night at my place. They were super sweet and have been traveling around Southern Africa for a bit. It was nice to chat with them about their experiences and stuff. I had Sara sleep over too just in case they wierd, which as it turns out, they weren't.
My lifeskills classes have been going pretty well, alhtough my 6th graders are not very well behaved. I had them all do an exercise where they had to draw pictures of what they wanted to be when they grow up. Pretty much all the girls wanted to be either a nurse or a teacher, whereas the boys were either doctor, police, or soldiers. I did have an interesting question put into my anonymous question box last week. One of my grade 6ers put in a question asking for help because the people she is staying with, because her parents are working in South Africa, accused her of stealing money and are beating her for it. It sucks. My friend got one the other day from a little girl whose uncle and father are repeatedly raping her. We're both trying to find the best ways to help our students though.
I'm pretty sure that's all that really happened this month. I've read some really good books, hung out with the awesome volunteers at TTL.
thats all for now I guess.
I spent the first two weeks after coming back from vacation battling a nasty cold...and NO I did not have malaria if that's what you were thinking. During that time I did some business stuff with the mico-loan project with TTL at GROW, but not much else. I did however have a pretty major victory though. Here's the story: GROW was putting on a hastily-put-together HIV/AIDS Sports Tournament in Malfiloane (west of me). I made some inquiries about it because I was curious what they were going to talk about and found that they had no plan, so clearly I needed to insert my skills. Well during the meeting with the GROW guys I managed to convince them, after a heated debate, that we should distribute condoms and do a condom demonstration. It was like a mega high-five moment because culturally Basotho are really closeted about sex related things. The event itself wasn't my favorite time. It's REALLY cold in Malefiloane for starters. But the day began with a road race which was fun to watch. Many people were running either 4 or 10K and not even wearning shoes...dang. But everyone had a good time. I ended up doing a condom demo for a group of like 40 married people, the girl sitting directly in front of me was only like 16 and had a baby. It was really fun for me and was the first time I had ever done one so I was excited about it. The real highlight for me was after when everyone was gathered around the MC table and an older women walked up and grabbed a handful of condoms in front of like 200 people. You have no idea how huge that is...I was super pumped, but obviously I sat there calmly as if this were a normal occurance that didn't surprise me at all. One of the GROW guys even walked around passing the condoms out.
I also managed to meet some new people this month. I randomly got a phone call on Friday afternoon from a girl who got my number through the PC grapevine. So long story short, I had two girls from Holand spend the night at my place. They were super sweet and have been traveling around Southern Africa for a bit. It was nice to chat with them about their experiences and stuff. I had Sara sleep over too just in case they wierd, which as it turns out, they weren't.
My lifeskills classes have been going pretty well, alhtough my 6th graders are not very well behaved. I had them all do an exercise where they had to draw pictures of what they wanted to be when they grow up. Pretty much all the girls wanted to be either a nurse or a teacher, whereas the boys were either doctor, police, or soldiers. I did have an interesting question put into my anonymous question box last week. One of my grade 6ers put in a question asking for help because the people she is staying with, because her parents are working in South Africa, accused her of stealing money and are beating her for it. It sucks. My friend got one the other day from a little girl whose uncle and father are repeatedly raping her. We're both trying to find the best ways to help our students though.
I'm pretty sure that's all that really happened this month. I've read some really good books, hung out with the awesome volunteers at TTL.
thats all for now I guess.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
March Madness
I don’t know about all of you, but it seems to me like March FLEW by. I was lucky enough to have a lot going on. I’m just going to break it down bullet style.
1. Work. So work still isn’t ‘great,’ but at least it was busy. I am now in charge of the microloan project that GROW is doing with the other Basotho organization in Mokhotlong, Touching Tiny Lives. I have been working pretty closely with the two Americans there Kirsten and Kevin on getting things rolling. We are working with 3 groups who are starting small businesses—two chicken projects and one candle making project. Its not super exciting but it’s a chance to get stuff done. We even have to drive through a river to get to one of the groups—I’m being totally serious, we literally drive through the river.
2. Bloemfontein. I had a doctor’s appointment in Bloem and got to go down to Maseru just before my vacation. It was nice to be able to get some internet time and enjoy luxuries like Pick’n Pay and…wait for it…a movie theatre. (I did take some time to see From Paris With Love one afternoon). I had some time to kill in Bloem before my appointment so I went to the mall next door and did some shopping. Really it was just nice to be in a mall, plus it’s hard to resist the draw of new clothes. However, Maseru isn’t the greatest place to be lately because I’ts getting more and more dangerous. Two volunteers were attacked 5 mins after me and 2 others walked the same road they did on the way to where we were staying.
3. Swaziland Vacation. I went on an awesome vacation to Swazi with 4 of my friends: Kaitlin, Elissa, Rocio, and Jessica. We rented a car and drove there. Somehow it took us twice as long as it should have to get there—18 hours. But part of that was having to wait 4 hours at the Swazi border (Easter’s kind of a big deal over here). But the car ride was really fun…nothing like five 20-something girls in a car together.
We managed to check into our hostel at 2 am, at which time the guard at the night gate told us “don’t afraid.” Our hostel was really cool. We stayed at this place called Sondzela, which is inside a game reserve. We could see warthogs and emu’s, zebras, and deer looking things just walking around.
We slept in a bit on the first day because we arrived so late and then hit the craft markets. Swaz is famous for its crafts. We went to Swazi Candles and it was so cool. You can watch then hand molding the candles into awesome animal shapes. The candles are so cool that you would never actually burn them—and since I’m no millionaire I didn’t buy any. I did buy some amazing soap that they make there though. Everyone had told us to go to this place called House of Fire, so there we went. It was a really cool place with interesting architecture and mosaic tiling and quotes on the walls. Next door was this shop selling weavings—woven bowls, placemats, coasters, baskets and stuff. We LOVED the store and all bought a bunch of ‘send to America’ presents.
On Saturday we had our big adventure—white water rafting. It was crazy! We got to the river with about 12 other people and got suited up in our helmets and life jackets. The boats were two man raft/canoes. Me and Elissa were partners. Most of us had zero experience. We got into the water and started going—unfortunately I’m pretty horrible at rafting and have no gift at all for steering. We managed to go over our first rapid fine. But later on the longest rapid our luck changed. The boat flipped and we were in the water. It was by far the scariest experience of my entire life! Being from the ocean I honestly don’t recall ever being in a life jacket, and therefore didn’t know that mine was apparently not tight enough. My jacket slipped up my body and scared me to death because it made it hard to stay above water. After being in the water for what seemed like forever me and Elissa made it into one of the guide’s boats and to shore. We didn’t give up though, and we continued to the last rapid. We watched as boat after boat capsized. On our turn we almost made it when I bounced out lol. Elissa was one of the 2 ½ out of 10 boats that made it on that one. We decided to only do the ½ day rafting and left after lunch. We met up with Kaitlin and did some more craft shopping instead where we met up with Erin and her mom and god mom.
4. Spa. On our last day in Swaz we decided to go pamper ourselves by going to the spa. The spa was really fun. We got to lounge all day in the sauna and just relax. We got massages and the other girls got facials. Having never had a massage before I was totally pumped about it—especially after realizing how sore rafting can leave you. After the spa we grabbed some dinner at a really good Chinese food restaurant and set off for Bleom.
5. The long road home. We had decided to leave on Sunday night and drive through the night rather than risk getting stuck in hours of traffic at the border. We tried a short cut that a man who used to work in Maseru gave us—but that set us back about 3 hours because the border post was closed. Driving all night is both exhausting and hilarious. Elissa and Kaitlin were the drivers because no one else could drive stick, so they took turns napping in the backseat with Ro and Jess. The drive was long, but we all cheered up when we reached a town at just before midnight that had a McDonalds. Part of the ‘short cut’ put us on a pot-hole filled dirt road for 3 hours in a corn field. It was slow going but funny because we saw bunnies and owls and every once and a while Ro would wake up and yell something which would send us all into hysterics. At about 3 am we blew a tire. We got out to survey the damage and it was pretty bad…stupid pot-holes. Luckily Jess is amazing and she managed to change the tire while we all prayed that no car would drive by or stop. It wasn’t until about 5 that we stopped and took a nap on the side of the road for an hour. It wasn’t until about 12 noon that we reached Bloem and we still have no idea how it took us so long. We were all pretty much zombies but still decided to stop at the mall because some of the girls needed some things. I’ve never been so tired in my whole life. But we got on a taxi back to Maseru and were back at the PC Training Center by 5:30. There were lots of people there because everyone goes on vacation over Easter. I was awake for a full 38 hours!
6. Going Home. So I reluctantly took a taxi back home the next day—primarily because I had every intention of spending the whole of the next day sleeping. I wasn’t very lucky with taxis this trip, there were a lot of people who wanted to talk to me, which was the LAST thing I wanted. At the BB taxi rank (about half way home) I used the gross public bathroom. On the way out an ntate started yelling something at me, which I ignored because every man you walk by in the rank tries to say something to you. About 10 minutes later a police man comes up to me and tells me that you have to pay for the bathroom lol. The man who yelled at me outside the bathroom had got the policeman and followed me all the way to the other side of the rank just to collect 50 cents…
But now I’m home and getting back into the swing of things in my chilly mountains. My vacation was a huge success and was super fun.
Hope you all had good Easter holidays!
1. Work. So work still isn’t ‘great,’ but at least it was busy. I am now in charge of the microloan project that GROW is doing with the other Basotho organization in Mokhotlong, Touching Tiny Lives. I have been working pretty closely with the two Americans there Kirsten and Kevin on getting things rolling. We are working with 3 groups who are starting small businesses—two chicken projects and one candle making project. Its not super exciting but it’s a chance to get stuff done. We even have to drive through a river to get to one of the groups—I’m being totally serious, we literally drive through the river.
2. Bloemfontein. I had a doctor’s appointment in Bloem and got to go down to Maseru just before my vacation. It was nice to be able to get some internet time and enjoy luxuries like Pick’n Pay and…wait for it…a movie theatre. (I did take some time to see From Paris With Love one afternoon). I had some time to kill in Bloem before my appointment so I went to the mall next door and did some shopping. Really it was just nice to be in a mall, plus it’s hard to resist the draw of new clothes. However, Maseru isn’t the greatest place to be lately because I’ts getting more and more dangerous. Two volunteers were attacked 5 mins after me and 2 others walked the same road they did on the way to where we were staying.
3. Swaziland Vacation. I went on an awesome vacation to Swazi with 4 of my friends: Kaitlin, Elissa, Rocio, and Jessica. We rented a car and drove there. Somehow it took us twice as long as it should have to get there—18 hours. But part of that was having to wait 4 hours at the Swazi border (Easter’s kind of a big deal over here). But the car ride was really fun…nothing like five 20-something girls in a car together.
We managed to check into our hostel at 2 am, at which time the guard at the night gate told us “don’t afraid.” Our hostel was really cool. We stayed at this place called Sondzela, which is inside a game reserve. We could see warthogs and emu’s, zebras, and deer looking things just walking around.
We slept in a bit on the first day because we arrived so late and then hit the craft markets. Swaz is famous for its crafts. We went to Swazi Candles and it was so cool. You can watch then hand molding the candles into awesome animal shapes. The candles are so cool that you would never actually burn them—and since I’m no millionaire I didn’t buy any. I did buy some amazing soap that they make there though. Everyone had told us to go to this place called House of Fire, so there we went. It was a really cool place with interesting architecture and mosaic tiling and quotes on the walls. Next door was this shop selling weavings—woven bowls, placemats, coasters, baskets and stuff. We LOVED the store and all bought a bunch of ‘send to America’ presents.
On Saturday we had our big adventure—white water rafting. It was crazy! We got to the river with about 12 other people and got suited up in our helmets and life jackets. The boats were two man raft/canoes. Me and Elissa were partners. Most of us had zero experience. We got into the water and started going—unfortunately I’m pretty horrible at rafting and have no gift at all for steering. We managed to go over our first rapid fine. But later on the longest rapid our luck changed. The boat flipped and we were in the water. It was by far the scariest experience of my entire life! Being from the ocean I honestly don’t recall ever being in a life jacket, and therefore didn’t know that mine was apparently not tight enough. My jacket slipped up my body and scared me to death because it made it hard to stay above water. After being in the water for what seemed like forever me and Elissa made it into one of the guide’s boats and to shore. We didn’t give up though, and we continued to the last rapid. We watched as boat after boat capsized. On our turn we almost made it when I bounced out lol. Elissa was one of the 2 ½ out of 10 boats that made it on that one. We decided to only do the ½ day rafting and left after lunch. We met up with Kaitlin and did some more craft shopping instead where we met up with Erin and her mom and god mom.
4. Spa. On our last day in Swaz we decided to go pamper ourselves by going to the spa. The spa was really fun. We got to lounge all day in the sauna and just relax. We got massages and the other girls got facials. Having never had a massage before I was totally pumped about it—especially after realizing how sore rafting can leave you. After the spa we grabbed some dinner at a really good Chinese food restaurant and set off for Bleom.
5. The long road home. We had decided to leave on Sunday night and drive through the night rather than risk getting stuck in hours of traffic at the border. We tried a short cut that a man who used to work in Maseru gave us—but that set us back about 3 hours because the border post was closed. Driving all night is both exhausting and hilarious. Elissa and Kaitlin were the drivers because no one else could drive stick, so they took turns napping in the backseat with Ro and Jess. The drive was long, but we all cheered up when we reached a town at just before midnight that had a McDonalds. Part of the ‘short cut’ put us on a pot-hole filled dirt road for 3 hours in a corn field. It was slow going but funny because we saw bunnies and owls and every once and a while Ro would wake up and yell something which would send us all into hysterics. At about 3 am we blew a tire. We got out to survey the damage and it was pretty bad…stupid pot-holes. Luckily Jess is amazing and she managed to change the tire while we all prayed that no car would drive by or stop. It wasn’t until about 5 that we stopped and took a nap on the side of the road for an hour. It wasn’t until about 12 noon that we reached Bloem and we still have no idea how it took us so long. We were all pretty much zombies but still decided to stop at the mall because some of the girls needed some things. I’ve never been so tired in my whole life. But we got on a taxi back to Maseru and were back at the PC Training Center by 5:30. There were lots of people there because everyone goes on vacation over Easter. I was awake for a full 38 hours!
6. Going Home. So I reluctantly took a taxi back home the next day—primarily because I had every intention of spending the whole of the next day sleeping. I wasn’t very lucky with taxis this trip, there were a lot of people who wanted to talk to me, which was the LAST thing I wanted. At the BB taxi rank (about half way home) I used the gross public bathroom. On the way out an ntate started yelling something at me, which I ignored because every man you walk by in the rank tries to say something to you. About 10 minutes later a police man comes up to me and tells me that you have to pay for the bathroom lol. The man who yelled at me outside the bathroom had got the policeman and followed me all the way to the other side of the rank just to collect 50 cents…
But now I’m home and getting back into the swing of things in my chilly mountains. My vacation was a huge success and was super fun.
Hope you all had good Easter holidays!
Thursday, February 18, 2010
What's New With Me
Finally I’m updating the blog…again I’m sorry about being fairly terrible at doing so. I blame it mostly on having very little to update about.
So a few things have happened since I last updated.
Phase III—I had my final training phase at the end of January—where my group (CHED 09) was all together again for 10 fun filled days of sessions. I think we were all pleasantly surprised at how everything went. We all got along really well and the sessions weren’t as bad as we all thought they might be. Some of the highlights were going to Semongkong and Ladybrand. Peace Corps took us to Semongkong to visit another PCV, Nick, and learn about gardens. It was a great day. We got to go to the waterfall there, and it was beautiful. I’m looking forward to going back there and abseiling (repelling) down the falls. The next day we got to go to Ladybrand, which is like 30 min. away in South Africa. Peace Corps treated us to an amazing lunch at this place called Living Life, where they grow all their own veggies and it’s basically just awesome. Our program director Charles made this great crossword puzzle for us to use to get to know Ladybrand, so after lunch we had a little scavenger hunt to complete the puzzle. We had 2 days full of Sesotho class and I was actually really glad to be in them. I use very little Sesotho in Mokhotlong and it was great to learn and practice more. It was a fun week all around.
Site Visit—Peace Corps came up to visit me at my house the first week of February. They are making visits to all the volunteers to check on them. They brought me my packages, which was excellent of them. Charles and his program assistant ‘M’e Selloane, had never been to Mokhotlong before so it was fun to experience that with them. They checked out my house and GROW and helped me figure some stuff out with my organization. It was nice having them around.
Lifeskills—I finally started teaching my lifeskills classes at Mokhotlong Primary this past week. I’m really excited about it. I’m working with 4 teachers, all men which is pretty rare around here. I am teaching the Standard 6 and 7 classes (6th and 7th grade). There are about 60 students in each class with a huge age range (10-18 years old). So far things have been going pretty well. The teachers are excited about getting help and starting to teach the program. I am teaching directly with the 6 and 7 teachers and helping the 4 and 5 teachers with their lesson plans. There isn’t time in the schedule to teach lifeskills, even though its mandatory, so the students have to stay after school for an hour each week (Tuesdays and Thursdays for me). The kids are really funny. Many of them live near me and now that they know my name they all call to me on the street—“’M’e Kristina!” Which is a pretty awesome change for me. Before when students spoke to me they were more obnoxious asking me for things or more shy. Yay people are finally getting to know me! This week we are starting to learn about self-esteem. I’m having the Standard 7’s identify their strengths and weakness this week as start.
My Birthday—So I’m 23 now!!! Yay! I had an amazing birthday this year. Irena and Melissa came up to visit me. I was SUPER excited about that (we get very few visitors up here in the mountains). They came Thursday to Monday. On Thursday night we made tacos for dinner and had a total blast putting together the ginger bread house gram sent me. We also played this amazing game Jess sent called the Scrambled States of America to improve our brains. Then I showed them around town for the day on Friday. We played with the cute babies at Touching Tiny Lives (TTL), visited the hotel, and our VRC, and GROW. Then we went back to my place and after dinner had a birthday party with Parker, Sara, this new America girl Andrea, and Kirsten and Kevin from TTL. My house was packed but we had fun. On Saturday Me, Irena, Melisaa, Parker, Andrea, and Sara went to Sani Pass—which is the border to South Africa in Mokhotlong and one of the highest mountain passes in Africa. It also has the highest pub in Africa. It’s so beautiful there! We pitched our tent and decided to go pony trekking, which is Lesotho for horseback riding. That was SO much fun. Its only about the second time I’ve ever done it in my life. While we were out riding we saw this crazy cloud enter the pass—it looked like a snake the way it was moving through the mountains—and by the time we finished our ride we were inside the cloud. We all were joking around that we were literally riding into the abyss. We played cards and hung out that night. It was raining super hard, and our tent filled with water so me, Irena, and Melissa had to sneak into the backpackers with the other 3. Then we went back to my place and chilled out for the day until Irena and Melissa had to go home on Monday morning. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and packages!
Work—So things with GROW are less than ideal. To date I haven’t had a lot of actual work to do, which is unfortunate. I’ve helped with some workshops, attended events, held a lifeskills workshop, and done some work with an income generation activity (IGA) project—and done copious amounts of proofreading and time wasting (during which I taught myself all 50 states and capitals, their location on the map, all 44 US presidents, and the countries in Africa). I also may or may not have watched the entire series of Battle Star Gallactica (desperate times call for desperate measures to keep entertained ok)…which does provide funny insight into the things that Dwight Shrute says on The Office. During their visit, Peace Corps tried to straighten out my situation with GROW, but things haven’t gone particularly well so far. I was put with another staff member for a project in Mateanong (about 3 hours west of me) but I’m not super confident about it. So far my work with them has consisted of going to Mateanong one day (after waiting 1.5 hrs at GROW before leaving) for no apparent reason at all, and then being told to come at 8:30am to go back to Mateanong and finding out after arriving at GROW that they left without me at 8am. Ugh. I swear I’m a much more patient person since coming here, however on this particular day I was super mad. But I’ve adopted a new attitude about my work situation. I really don’t sweat it anymore. I check in to see if there’s anything for me to do, and then leave. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s simply not worth making myself upset over. Now that I’ve stared teaching lifeskills and really started feeling out other projects here in town I have enough work to do; and I have the comfort of knowing that Peace Corps would support my separation with GROW if it ever gets to that point without my having to move.
There’s this man that lives near me who has a crafts business. I’ve met him numerous times along the road and at random times. He is a really intelligent guy and one of the only ambitious Mosotho I have come across. He currently sells his crafts at Sani Pass and brings them to Maseru but is actively seeking new markets. Irena, Melissa and I went to visit him during their visit and I got to see more of his work—which is really cool. He makes crafts and earrings out of cow horn/bone. We talked at his house and I’m going to help him with his business. I’m going to help him make a pamphlet and a portfolio of his work. I’m excited about it because I know it’s really going to help him a lot and it’ll be nice to be a part of that. I will however most likely post the pamphlet for those of you how are curious/interested in his stuff—we’re meeting tomorrow and maybe we’ll even make a website or eBay store…
So that’s about all I can think of to update you all on. Sorry it’s really long and super late lol. I want to take this time to say thanks to my amazing friends and family who sent me packages these past few weeks: Thanks Gram, Mom, Dad, Jillian, Catherine, Aunt Sanna, Sarah, and Christy!! You all are fantastic!
Also, Happy late birthdays to Gram, Sarah, Lindsay, and Hannah!
Final side note: the weather: well its sort of fall here now. In the lowlands I hear it’s disgustingly hot and gross (no thanks) but here it’s cooler and rainy. It rains at about 2ish just about everyday. I carry a neon orange little kids Spider Man umbrella these days. But it’s getting a little too cool…like the ‘oh god it’s only February and I’m using my down comforter at night!’ Which is leading us to believe that this winter is going to obscenely cold here in the mountains. Ugh. Gross. I give it about another month or so before it gets too cold for wearing just a t-shirt during the day…
So a few things have happened since I last updated.
Phase III—I had my final training phase at the end of January—where my group (CHED 09) was all together again for 10 fun filled days of sessions. I think we were all pleasantly surprised at how everything went. We all got along really well and the sessions weren’t as bad as we all thought they might be. Some of the highlights were going to Semongkong and Ladybrand. Peace Corps took us to Semongkong to visit another PCV, Nick, and learn about gardens. It was a great day. We got to go to the waterfall there, and it was beautiful. I’m looking forward to going back there and abseiling (repelling) down the falls. The next day we got to go to Ladybrand, which is like 30 min. away in South Africa. Peace Corps treated us to an amazing lunch at this place called Living Life, where they grow all their own veggies and it’s basically just awesome. Our program director Charles made this great crossword puzzle for us to use to get to know Ladybrand, so after lunch we had a little scavenger hunt to complete the puzzle. We had 2 days full of Sesotho class and I was actually really glad to be in them. I use very little Sesotho in Mokhotlong and it was great to learn and practice more. It was a fun week all around.
Site Visit—Peace Corps came up to visit me at my house the first week of February. They are making visits to all the volunteers to check on them. They brought me my packages, which was excellent of them. Charles and his program assistant ‘M’e Selloane, had never been to Mokhotlong before so it was fun to experience that with them. They checked out my house and GROW and helped me figure some stuff out with my organization. It was nice having them around.
Lifeskills—I finally started teaching my lifeskills classes at Mokhotlong Primary this past week. I’m really excited about it. I’m working with 4 teachers, all men which is pretty rare around here. I am teaching the Standard 6 and 7 classes (6th and 7th grade). There are about 60 students in each class with a huge age range (10-18 years old). So far things have been going pretty well. The teachers are excited about getting help and starting to teach the program. I am teaching directly with the 6 and 7 teachers and helping the 4 and 5 teachers with their lesson plans. There isn’t time in the schedule to teach lifeskills, even though its mandatory, so the students have to stay after school for an hour each week (Tuesdays and Thursdays for me). The kids are really funny. Many of them live near me and now that they know my name they all call to me on the street—“’M’e Kristina!” Which is a pretty awesome change for me. Before when students spoke to me they were more obnoxious asking me for things or more shy. Yay people are finally getting to know me! This week we are starting to learn about self-esteem. I’m having the Standard 7’s identify their strengths and weakness this week as start.
My Birthday—So I’m 23 now!!! Yay! I had an amazing birthday this year. Irena and Melissa came up to visit me. I was SUPER excited about that (we get very few visitors up here in the mountains). They came Thursday to Monday. On Thursday night we made tacos for dinner and had a total blast putting together the ginger bread house gram sent me. We also played this amazing game Jess sent called the Scrambled States of America to improve our brains. Then I showed them around town for the day on Friday. We played with the cute babies at Touching Tiny Lives (TTL), visited the hotel, and our VRC, and GROW. Then we went back to my place and after dinner had a birthday party with Parker, Sara, this new America girl Andrea, and Kirsten and Kevin from TTL. My house was packed but we had fun. On Saturday Me, Irena, Melisaa, Parker, Andrea, and Sara went to Sani Pass—which is the border to South Africa in Mokhotlong and one of the highest mountain passes in Africa. It also has the highest pub in Africa. It’s so beautiful there! We pitched our tent and decided to go pony trekking, which is Lesotho for horseback riding. That was SO much fun. Its only about the second time I’ve ever done it in my life. While we were out riding we saw this crazy cloud enter the pass—it looked like a snake the way it was moving through the mountains—and by the time we finished our ride we were inside the cloud. We all were joking around that we were literally riding into the abyss. We played cards and hung out that night. It was raining super hard, and our tent filled with water so me, Irena, and Melissa had to sneak into the backpackers with the other 3. Then we went back to my place and chilled out for the day until Irena and Melissa had to go home on Monday morning. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes and packages!
Work—So things with GROW are less than ideal. To date I haven’t had a lot of actual work to do, which is unfortunate. I’ve helped with some workshops, attended events, held a lifeskills workshop, and done some work with an income generation activity (IGA) project—and done copious amounts of proofreading and time wasting (during which I taught myself all 50 states and capitals, their location on the map, all 44 US presidents, and the countries in Africa). I also may or may not have watched the entire series of Battle Star Gallactica (desperate times call for desperate measures to keep entertained ok)…which does provide funny insight into the things that Dwight Shrute says on The Office. During their visit, Peace Corps tried to straighten out my situation with GROW, but things haven’t gone particularly well so far. I was put with another staff member for a project in Mateanong (about 3 hours west of me) but I’m not super confident about it. So far my work with them has consisted of going to Mateanong one day (after waiting 1.5 hrs at GROW before leaving) for no apparent reason at all, and then being told to come at 8:30am to go back to Mateanong and finding out after arriving at GROW that they left without me at 8am. Ugh. I swear I’m a much more patient person since coming here, however on this particular day I was super mad. But I’ve adopted a new attitude about my work situation. I really don’t sweat it anymore. I check in to see if there’s anything for me to do, and then leave. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s simply not worth making myself upset over. Now that I’ve stared teaching lifeskills and really started feeling out other projects here in town I have enough work to do; and I have the comfort of knowing that Peace Corps would support my separation with GROW if it ever gets to that point without my having to move.
There’s this man that lives near me who has a crafts business. I’ve met him numerous times along the road and at random times. He is a really intelligent guy and one of the only ambitious Mosotho I have come across. He currently sells his crafts at Sani Pass and brings them to Maseru but is actively seeking new markets. Irena, Melissa and I went to visit him during their visit and I got to see more of his work—which is really cool. He makes crafts and earrings out of cow horn/bone. We talked at his house and I’m going to help him with his business. I’m going to help him make a pamphlet and a portfolio of his work. I’m excited about it because I know it’s really going to help him a lot and it’ll be nice to be a part of that. I will however most likely post the pamphlet for those of you how are curious/interested in his stuff—we’re meeting tomorrow and maybe we’ll even make a website or eBay store…
So that’s about all I can think of to update you all on. Sorry it’s really long and super late lol. I want to take this time to say thanks to my amazing friends and family who sent me packages these past few weeks: Thanks Gram, Mom, Dad, Jillian, Catherine, Aunt Sanna, Sarah, and Christy!! You all are fantastic!
Also, Happy late birthdays to Gram, Sarah, Lindsay, and Hannah!
Final side note: the weather: well its sort of fall here now. In the lowlands I hear it’s disgustingly hot and gross (no thanks) but here it’s cooler and rainy. It rains at about 2ish just about everyday. I carry a neon orange little kids Spider Man umbrella these days. But it’s getting a little too cool…like the ‘oh god it’s only February and I’m using my down comforter at night!’ Which is leading us to believe that this winter is going to obscenely cold here in the mountains. Ugh. Gross. I give it about another month or so before it gets too cold for wearing just a t-shirt during the day…
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
The New Years I'll Never Forget
Hi Everyone,
I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Years, I did. Here's a recap of the craziness.
1) Christmas: I went down to my friend Melissa's house in Mafeteng for Christmas. We made a tree out of paper and decorated it..so cute. We made some yummy food, watched some movies, played with her kittens and relaxed before leaving for our Durban vacation.
2)Durban: We crossed the border in Ficksburg South Africa and took a taxi to Durban, which took about 5 hours. It was me, Irena, Melissa, and an older volunteer Barb. Durban is HUGE. The very first thing we did once in Durban was eat McDonalds...which we don't have in Lesotho (the only american chain is KFC). Then we took another taxi to our hostel by the beach, Ansteys.
3) Ansteys: Ansteys was really cool. The people were really cool and the staff was hilarious. There was Dean and Tony. Dean was the biggest drama queen ever and provided endless entertainment. We slept in a tent at the hostel...in a tiny spot that was too small for the tent. One corner was off the ledge and I had a banana tree in my side lol, still fun though. We hung out with a bunch of Afrikaaners and some PCVs from PC South Africa.
4) The Mall: We went to the mall our first day because the weather wasn't great. The mall was HUGE and so great. Me and Irena got haircuts, and me and Melissa got our noses pierced. I also went shopping....
5) The Beach: The beach was like 2 seconds from the hostel and was really nice. The water was really warm, but the current was super strong. I got kncked down more than once only standing knee deep! But being in the ocean and on the beach again was amazing.
6) New Years: So Tony from the hostel was telling people about this "beach party" for New Years so everyone from the hostel decided to go. It was no beach party. It was essentially at the Elks/VFW/YMCA with a bunch of old Afrikaaners and little kids. We were all pretty horrified....especially since we got there at like 7. Unfortunately, about 10 mins to midnight I noticed my camera was missing off the table. Melissa and Barb saw the guy, who had just arrived and had been just booked at the hostel, being sketchy near us and then immediatly leave on a bike. Bad luck for me and also the family who's tent he robbed. Then we went back to the hostel and went swimming and went to bed around 330.
7) Dead man in the pool: We woke up to the news that the guy from Zimbabwe who had checked in with his wife the day before, was found at the bottom of the pool around 4:15. It was insane! The police/coroner came but didnt ask anyone any questions and not a single person was interviewed or anything. So everyone spent the day piecing what happened together and finding out who saw him last etc. It was a big mystery and really strange all day.
8) Tekwini: We left the next day for another hostel more in the city called Tekwini. It was cool. We went to Victoria Market where they have all these amazing African crafts, and then ate really good seafood. When we got back from dinner Ansteys called and told us that they caught the theif and that they had my camera! That NEVER EVER happens! When you get your stuff stollen you never get it back! Then we went out dancing.
9)uShaka: Me and Melissa went to get my camera from the police and heard all about the scams and fraud the guy committed. They are planning on putting him away for 10 years. Then we met up with Chris, Karolina, and Irena at uShaka water park/sea world. It was sooo much fun. We went down the water slides, did the lazy river, and saw all the cool fish and stuff, including the dolphin show. Then me and Melissa got amazing Thai food.
10) Bye Bye Durban: Sadly we had to leave the next day. So we grabbed one last Big Mac and hit the road for Lesotho. Me and Melissa went to Irena's house for the night and we all got completely soaked by the rain while trying to buy green beans from her neighbors. It was hilarious.
Now I'm back in Maseru chilling out before All-Vol and then Phase III training. I'm sure there'll be more updates later this month!
I hope you all had a good Christmas and New Years, I did. Here's a recap of the craziness.
1) Christmas: I went down to my friend Melissa's house in Mafeteng for Christmas. We made a tree out of paper and decorated it..so cute. We made some yummy food, watched some movies, played with her kittens and relaxed before leaving for our Durban vacation.
2)Durban: We crossed the border in Ficksburg South Africa and took a taxi to Durban, which took about 5 hours. It was me, Irena, Melissa, and an older volunteer Barb. Durban is HUGE. The very first thing we did once in Durban was eat McDonalds...which we don't have in Lesotho (the only american chain is KFC). Then we took another taxi to our hostel by the beach, Ansteys.
3) Ansteys: Ansteys was really cool. The people were really cool and the staff was hilarious. There was Dean and Tony. Dean was the biggest drama queen ever and provided endless entertainment. We slept in a tent at the hostel...in a tiny spot that was too small for the tent. One corner was off the ledge and I had a banana tree in my side lol, still fun though. We hung out with a bunch of Afrikaaners and some PCVs from PC South Africa.
4) The Mall: We went to the mall our first day because the weather wasn't great. The mall was HUGE and so great. Me and Irena got haircuts, and me and Melissa got our noses pierced. I also went shopping....
5) The Beach: The beach was like 2 seconds from the hostel and was really nice. The water was really warm, but the current was super strong. I got kncked down more than once only standing knee deep! But being in the ocean and on the beach again was amazing.
6) New Years: So Tony from the hostel was telling people about this "beach party" for New Years so everyone from the hostel decided to go. It was no beach party. It was essentially at the Elks/VFW/YMCA with a bunch of old Afrikaaners and little kids. We were all pretty horrified....especially since we got there at like 7. Unfortunately, about 10 mins to midnight I noticed my camera was missing off the table. Melissa and Barb saw the guy, who had just arrived and had been just booked at the hostel, being sketchy near us and then immediatly leave on a bike. Bad luck for me and also the family who's tent he robbed. Then we went back to the hostel and went swimming and went to bed around 330.
7) Dead man in the pool: We woke up to the news that the guy from Zimbabwe who had checked in with his wife the day before, was found at the bottom of the pool around 4:15. It was insane! The police/coroner came but didnt ask anyone any questions and not a single person was interviewed or anything. So everyone spent the day piecing what happened together and finding out who saw him last etc. It was a big mystery and really strange all day.
8) Tekwini: We left the next day for another hostel more in the city called Tekwini. It was cool. We went to Victoria Market where they have all these amazing African crafts, and then ate really good seafood. When we got back from dinner Ansteys called and told us that they caught the theif and that they had my camera! That NEVER EVER happens! When you get your stuff stollen you never get it back! Then we went out dancing.
9)uShaka: Me and Melissa went to get my camera from the police and heard all about the scams and fraud the guy committed. They are planning on putting him away for 10 years. Then we met up with Chris, Karolina, and Irena at uShaka water park/sea world. It was sooo much fun. We went down the water slides, did the lazy river, and saw all the cool fish and stuff, including the dolphin show. Then me and Melissa got amazing Thai food.
10) Bye Bye Durban: Sadly we had to leave the next day. So we grabbed one last Big Mac and hit the road for Lesotho. Me and Melissa went to Irena's house for the night and we all got completely soaked by the rain while trying to buy green beans from her neighbors. It was hilarious.
Now I'm back in Maseru chilling out before All-Vol and then Phase III training. I'm sure there'll be more updates later this month!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Finally an Update!
Sorry about waiting forever to update the blog, sometimes you just have other stuff to do.
So here's a little picture of what I've been up to since the end of September.
1) I went to Bloemfontein in South Africa the first week of October to get my ankle checked out by a specialist. Turns out, my ankle was fractured after all. It healed well but there is soft tissue issues and just yesterday I finally got the rehab routine for it.
2) When I got back from Bloem I was really really sick because I caught something on the bus on the way to Maseru. It may or may not have been swine flu...my clinic is ridiculous so who knows.
3) I went to Maseru again for a week to attend a workshop and had a great time with the other PCVs.
4) Work is boring and I'm working on talking to 2 of the local primary schools about teaching lifeskills for them.
5) Halloween. Halloween was super fun. I went as a highway (thanks for the idea mom). I had been planning on going as another PCV Tara because we look alot alike. People call me Baby Tara/Little Tara.
6) One of the PCVs I was closest with in Mokhotlong went back to America about 2 weeks ago. Sad for me. In another month, Violeta and I will be the only ones in Mokhotlong until January.
7) They turned the water off in my village for 5 days. Me and my neighbor Kefuoe had no clean dishes by the end of the week that we had to eat bread for dinner lol.
8) We've been having killer lightening storms lately. The lightening is really intense and makes me nervous.
I'm sure a ton more has happened but I'm having a hard time remembering what I did. When I think of something else I'll post another better update.
So here's a little picture of what I've been up to since the end of September.
1) I went to Bloemfontein in South Africa the first week of October to get my ankle checked out by a specialist. Turns out, my ankle was fractured after all. It healed well but there is soft tissue issues and just yesterday I finally got the rehab routine for it.
2) When I got back from Bloem I was really really sick because I caught something on the bus on the way to Maseru. It may or may not have been swine flu...my clinic is ridiculous so who knows.
3) I went to Maseru again for a week to attend a workshop and had a great time with the other PCVs.
4) Work is boring and I'm working on talking to 2 of the local primary schools about teaching lifeskills for them.
5) Halloween. Halloween was super fun. I went as a highway (thanks for the idea mom). I had been planning on going as another PCV Tara because we look alot alike. People call me Baby Tara/Little Tara.
6) One of the PCVs I was closest with in Mokhotlong went back to America about 2 weeks ago. Sad for me. In another month, Violeta and I will be the only ones in Mokhotlong until January.
7) They turned the water off in my village for 5 days. Me and my neighbor Kefuoe had no clean dishes by the end of the week that we had to eat bread for dinner lol.
8) We've been having killer lightening storms lately. The lightening is really intense and makes me nervous.
I'm sure a ton more has happened but I'm having a hard time remembering what I did. When I think of something else I'll post another better update.
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