Ho joang?

Hi there! It has been too long in writing, I am sorry for this. The last time I was blogging the power went out at the internet cafe so I lost everything. This is quite common here in Lesotho. Those people who do have power often lose it everyday. Lesotho sells a lot of its power to South Africa who is also experiencing huge power shortages. Anywho, a lot has happened in the past month. I had lunch with the Ambassador, got my site assignment, and left my host village. Trainning is just about over and I go to my site this monday for a visit and then come back to swear in as an official PCV. I will be living in the Quthing highlands region of Lesotho. I am in a small, rural village. I will be working with a community based organization doing HIV/AIDS awareness/education/prevention and agriculture (permaculture, canning, and food preservation). The beauty of my job is that I can really do anything but that is the main focus. So Quthing region is in the southern part of Lesotho, close to the South African border. I will live in a rodavel (round house) with a thatched roof, no electricity or running water. I cannot wait. I will fill you all in once I visit and hopefully begin to upload pictures soon. The weather here is getting pretty hot (for winter), the days are sunny and warm but the nights still cool. We had a big feast and ceremony in my village (host) the day we left. It was great the whole town showed up. A lot dancing, talking, and eating. It was sad to leave my host family but I am very excited to begin to get settled in my home. I feel like there is a lot more to tell you all but I am running out of time. I am still trying to figure out I how can respond to individual posts, but with the power going out it is difficult. Keep in touch, talk to you soon. Khotso.

Happy 4th of July!

Hey all! So I have just finally figured out how to view everyones comments! For the longest time I thought you all were not repsonding to my blog, so thanks to all that have taken the time to post comments- I am still trying to figure out how to respond to individual comments. Baby steps- I will get there. Things here are going great. Yesterday we had a big celebration for Independence day. We had a ton of american food-burgars, sausage, potato salad, coleslaw, and apple crisp! It was all so tasty! I hope all you had a great celebration as well. The taxi strike is over and things are back to normal here and around Maseru, so all is good and well. I have been baking my own bread and cooking lots of tasty food. I have never made my own bread before Lesotho. Its amazing that I get up at about 6 oclock to boil water and begin making bread (by candlelight). Sometimes I feel like I am living in the 19th centuary. This Sunday my village is having a concert where myself and six other trainies will get up and sing in front of the whole village. All the proceeds of the concert will go to Bokone Village. Well my time is running out so I will catch you all on the flip side. Keep posting comments- I love to read them. Auntie Pat- it took me a minuate but I figured it out-glad you and John are able to access my blog now. BE WELL.

Hey All! I have just returned back from Buthe Butha in the north of the country. I stayed with a current PCV and got to see how she is living and working here in Lesotho. It was very beautiful up there with breath-taking views of the mountains. Buthe Butha (BB) is a very cool camptown with quite a large Indain population so I ate some very tasty Indian food. Jenn the PCV I stayed with lives in a village about a one hour walk from the camptown. I had to come back early because of the taxi strike that will take place on Monday June 30. Apparently it is supposed to last for four days but no one really knows so we were advised to stalk up on food and supplies in case we cannot access Maseru in the next week. I hope all is going well back in the states and I'll keep you all posted from the south side. Khotso.

le phela joang?

How is everybody? I have come to Maseru (capital) today to do some food shoping and stock up on much needed supplies to go back to my host village. I am staying in Bokone with a host family. I have my own stone hut on the family compound, but no running water or electricity. My home is equipt with a propane heater, a gas stove, a bed, a kitchen table, and a night table, and LOTS of buckets. I use buckets for everything. I have a pee bucket, a bathing bucket, a dish washing and rinsing bucket, water storage buckets, and so on. My family is very nice. My 'M'e (mother) does not speak much english and so the communication has been difficult. Yesterday I meant to say "I want to learn how to wash my clothes tomorrow" but instead I said "I want to learn how to wash dishes today". So I learned how to wash dishes right at that moment. All week my 'M'e has been cooking all my meals and so meal time is interesting because the two kids just sit and stare at me. However the two children are her grandchildren. They stay with her because the parents are in South Africa working in the mines. My meals have consisted of lesheleshele (poridge), bread, eggs, papa (ground corn), moroholo (greans), rice, soup, and chicken once. Today I begin to cook for myself which will be nice and allevate some of the pressure of having to eat and try to communicate at every meal. After breakfast I walk to the chiefs place to have sesotho lessons with 6 other trainies. We start the class by singing the Lesotho National Anthem, followed by the US National Anthem. We have class and then usually walk to the next village to meet as a whole group to have general lessons of health, medical, cross-cultural, and techniqal training. Next weekend I will go to a current PCV (peace corps volunteer) site and see what they are up too and how they are living and working. Training is very busy but I feel like I will be well prepared for my two year service in August so this is good. Oh the weather has been fine. It is the middle of the winter here, the nights get cool, frost in the morning, but the days warm up so that I have to peel the layers off. Apparently the highlands have snow, but not the lowlands. Last night it hailed and was thundering and lighting like crazy. I had a dance party by myself in my room, by candle light. I have to do something to entertain myself. Tonight, the 6 other trainies in my village will have a party for the solstice (winter) and Karrin's bday. This should be quite fun. I cannot think of anything else, there is too much to tell and I apoligize for my lack of english skills, being immersed in sesotho all the time I forget how to speak and write english, so sorry. Let me know if you are having trouble responding to my blog, some people have said that they cannot post entries, so drop me an email and I will try to get to the bottom of it. until next time- sala hantle.

Greetings from Lesotho. I hope all is wonderful and warm back in the U.S.A or America as they call it here. Things in Lesotho are going great. Training is very busy and tiring but I am learning a lot. Today I learned how to bathe myself using only a bucket of water. It was a very interesting demo to say the least. On Sunday I head out to my host village where I will stay in my own rondavel (round stone house) for 6 weeks to do community based training. I cannot wait for that but it will be very different than what I am used to at the training center, running water, electricity (most of the time), and prepared meals. I will essentially be on my own in all those matters but my host family will be near by to assist if need be. Today I went shopping for all sorts of supplies for my rondavel, lots of buckets, cook ware, candles, soap, etc. I will let you all know how the CBT goes. My sesotho is getting a little better. I speak sesotho hantle hayanne, a little bit good. Keep in touch. Khotso!

Disclaimer:

In no way is this blog related to or a reflection of the Peace Corps. Anything written on this blog is a personal opinon and not the opinon of the Peace Corps.

Lumela (Greetings)! Hello from Lesotho. I finally made it here to Maseru after a long journey from the US. I left Philly on Wednesday and took a bus to NYC to catch a flight to Joburg, South Africa via Darkar (Senegal). It was an 18 hour flight to Joburg where I spent the night at a really fancy hotel which was great because we were NOT to leave the hotel for any reason because of all the stuff going on. I then took a flight friday morning to Maseru, Lesotho on a tiny plan with propellars. We had to leave people and luggage behind because we were over the weight limit. It was a bit of a scary flight but touched down safely in Maseru friday morning. The views from the plane were amazing. Lesotho is truely the Mountain Kingdom. The past couple of days have been pretty relaxed which is nice with only a few sessions throughout the day. I am beginning to learn Sesotho, which is quite a difficult language. The weather here is nice. The days are sunny and warm, but the nights cool down with frost accumulating by morning. Maseru, the capital, is like no other African capital that I have seen before. It is quite sparse reflecting the extreme poverty of this country. Although there is a grocery store and stores to buy cell phones and such, which I plan on buying at somepoint. I hope all is well back in the US and that you are all enjoying the summer months. I will keep you all posted. I start community based training next week where I stay with a host family for 5 or 6 weeks but I think I i will be able to check email periodically. Be well, and stay in touch!