Three Photo Thursday-6 October

The luggage from half of the trainees

 Over the last two months, my role as a PCVL has had me making many treks to Maseru in order to help prep for Pre-Service training. As of this week, the new trainees have arrived and their adventure begins.

I spent their first few days in country helping to welcome them. This included casual conversations, unloading their luggage, and getting them through their orientation stations.

It is exciting to finally have these folks in country. I am looking forward to getting to know them better and making new friends. Nerd that I am, I am even more excited for their training!!

At the end of my orientation time, I accompanied the Healthy Youth trainees to their training villages. It was really fun to pull in, with horns honking, and see their new host families so excited to see them.

The women were ululating, blowing whistles, singing, and dancing with joy as they welcomed their trainees to the village.

It was fun to see this more than two years after my own welcome to Lesotho. After so long here, it seems so natural to see this level of excitement and noise when people are happy. When I first arrived it seemed foreign and novel. Similarly, the language and the songs which once seemed overwhelming is now normal as I listened to the conversations and sang along to the songs.

Often I ignore how different this was from my normal, as it has become my everyday. Watching it through the new trainees' eyes allowed me to realize how much I have grown and adapted since my first day meeting my first host family.

My brother Thabo leading his choir

Last year, as a Form D (grade 11) student, my brother told me about performing in the Form E celebration. He then asked if I would attend his Form E celebration in September 2016. I vowed that if I was in Africa, I would be there.

And so, on Friday, I found myself at his Form E celebration. It was more amazing than any other moment I have experienced in Lesotho thus far, probably because my Abuti Thabo is such an incredible young man.

I enjoyed music and dancing, listened to numerous speeches, and enjoyed lunch. Look forward to more on this great celebration in the next week!