Three Photo Thursday-27 October

PCVL life has me at pre-service training a lot these days. As a result, I have gotten to know the newest Healthy Youth folks to come to Lesotho. It is really exciting to see the country I love through their eyes. As a group, they are incredibly experienced and passionate, which makes me eager to see what they will do over the next two years.

They also have an enthusiasm for little moments that I seem to have lost in my business. In the last two weeks, I watched one trainee reading his Kindle aloud to a group of young girls, another leading physical activities with older girls, and many leading little songs or games during their breaks. Pictured here is Veta, a trainee from California, leading a game with some of the children during their (and her) break.

Although various bath salts are found in many stores in Lesotho, this particular packaging could't help but catch my eye. Although not often spoken of, many people in Lesotho believe in  the existence of tokoloshe. A tokoloshe is a small, evil being created by witches that causes bad things to happen to someone. In Xhosa, Umuthi Onamandla means powerful medicine.

So, these bath salts are either used to wash away a tokoloshe once someone is cursed with one or they are the drug form of bath salts, in which case they may actually be turning people into tokoloshe(s)! Considering the price and size of the packages, I am guessing the first is more likely despite the fact that I have been told that only cultural healers can remove a tokoloshe from a person. Still, it is a pretty hilarious thing to stumble upon while buying peanut butter!



This week's final photo is not a photo at all. It's VIDEO! I love my village and especially the kids that live in my neighborhood. Here they came with Abuti Thajane's homemade guitar for an impromptu dance party outside my door. As I prepare to move out of this village in only a month, these moments become more and more precious...and just as fun to watch as they were when I first arrived!