Jaaaannuarrry!

Howdy guys! It’s been a while, but i’m getting off my lazy bum and updating you all on what’s going on in Lesotho. It’s been a while so this’ll be a long post.

VISITING AMERICA!

I didn’t mention anything on the blog so we could surprise my mom, but my Dad helped to bring me home for the holidays. Needless to say, mom was shocked. She turned around after taking a picture with me(that she didn’t know I was in) and was more or less speechless for four or five minutes. It was great to see her. All in all:

America.

Was.

Awesome.

And also a great boost to my general sanity. After visiting my awesome friends, priceless family, and all the crazy little American-isms i’ve been missing out on(shake-weight infomercials, delicious beer, and other such general awesomeness), my batteries are sufficiently recharged and I’m more or less ready to drop-kick Lesotho in the face…well, figuratively anyway. I’m ready to make a difference. I know the lay of the land, so to speak…a definite advantage in terms of accomplishing my goals. I’m going to have a lot of fun this year, along with being a lot more productive. This…is going to be my year.

KHOTSO’S MATHATA

Unfortunately my best friend here has been having what I would call a generally sucky last month. Since Tarsha finished her service just before Christmas, the two of them took a trip to Bloemfontein to have a good memory to tie up their nearly 3 year relationship. It was a great trip for them with the exception of Khotso’s truck getting stolen around the new year. The theft was captured on video, but unfortunately it’s not enough to give any promising info. The truck is more or less lost. It was uninsurable as it was more than 10 years old, and it turns out they are a hot commodity as the engine and most parts can be used in public transport vehicles. It sucks. With it he lost his ipod, his computer modem, and some walkie-talkies he used all the time. It sucks even more as he was just about to start an Outdoor Tourism business in the village. Obviously not too easy to do without a means of transporting materials.

Still, his optimism through this is inspiring. It’s a setback, sure, but he sees it as just another challenge that he will overcome. He’s still making plans for his business, and frantically searching for a good truck so he can get moving forward again as soon as possible. It’s also been great that peace corps staff has shown interest in helping him in whatever small ways they can. Thanks guys! He is a go-getter for sure, but I think the support he’s getting from friends within peace corps has been some much needed encouragement to help him keep a positive attitude.

SCHOOL

Well, it’s day 3, which means 3 days of the principal saying, “We will have a meeting to discuss the class allocations tomorrow.” The first week of school is less for learning and more for registering and organizing the students and classes. It ends up being pretty boring. I help in whatever small ways I can, but more or less I sit in the staff room reading books while the staff hangs around me talking and joking around in Sesotho. I’m actually writing this during school…there’s not much else for me to do right now.

It looks like there will be 2 form A streams, 1 form B stream, and 2 form C streams. Since the school has gotten smaller and we are keeping all the same teachers, the course loads for all of us will be hamonate. I’m hoping to be around 20-22 credits/week, much better than the 28 I was doing last year. Speaking to the form A’s, they are at least acting like they can understand my accent pretty well. I’m getting better at my annunciation, too, so here’s to a great year of learning for all of us!

Side note: Just before posting this I had a visit from a likeable student from last year. He ended up failing the 4^th quarter. I had a chance to pass him by bumping up his science grade from a 46 to a 50. It was a difficult test, and all of my teachers wanted me to give him the grade as he’s a pretty likeable kid. I refused to pass him, though, hoping that the experience might motivate him to work harder this year.

Well…success, baby. He just came in saying that he knows he needs to take his work more seriously to do well this year, and was asking me what he should do to do better. Haha…manipulating i mean uh, teaching lives…awesome.

FISHING

I’m getting better! Umm….that is to say i’ve made the jump from catching nothing to catching the occasional and somewhat emasculating 4 or 5 incher. I always throw them back to the dismay of the kids around me(don’t worry they catch plenty of fish themselves…i just don’t see the point in killing something that will only give me 2 bites of meat). I bought some things while I was in the states and have been fishing off a bridge about a 40 minute walk from me (if fishing fails, jumping off the bridge for a swim is always a terrifying fun way to get the blood flowing). Catching little guys is certainly more entertaining than catching nothing, but i’m still waiting for the big one…

ESSAY

Worked on an essay today out of sheer boredom! The topic is religion vs. Jesus. Sweet. Hoping to make a series of more serious posts to develop my writing/persuasion skills. You should be able to find it in the post right after this one. Have a great day!

Tagged as: America, essay, fishing, khotso, School