Three Photo Thursday - 1 December

This week marked a week of transition as I moved from my beloved Ha Rasekila in Botha Bothe to my new site near the capital. A highlight of saying goodbye was the farewell ceremony that my organization gave me on Sunday. Here I am towards the end of the ceremony with members of MCCC in the kobo (blanket) and mokorotlo (traditional hat) that they gave me. I will have more on the ceremony itself in the near future, so stay tuned!

Three Photo Thursday - Thanksgiving Special

Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers!

In honor of Thanksgiving, combined with the many special moments I have been enjoying as I work on saying goodbye to my village, this week's Three Photos are things I am incredibly thankful for over the last two and a half years.

My brothers, my host mother, and I walked to our grandparent's house last Saturday. Not only is the walk itself absolutely stunning, but given my impending departure, time with this family is particularly precious! I have been so blessed to have this family as my own for the last thirty months.

Abuti Polau, Abuti Mokhesuoe, and me at my grandparent's house in Maloseng.

I enjoyed yet another wonderful meal with my adopted Indian family over the weekend. We exchanged early Christmas gifts, ate too much delicious food, and then stepped outside for photos. An hour later, we were still posing as the sun set! I have been so blessed to have this family in my life and to be so included in their activities!

Three Photo Thursday - 17 November

The time for goodbyes has begun. In ten short days, I will be leaving my beloved Botha Bothe and moving to my second site-nearer the capital and Peace Corps Office. The goodbyes this week began with my final Teen Club for HIV positive youth at Baylor's Pediatric AIDS clinic. After more than two years of monthly meetings, I am definitely going to miss these incredible, bright children. This photo is with Ausi Lerato, the program manager. Although I have some photos with the teens, in the interest of maintaining confidentiality, those are just for me! 

Three Photo Thursday-10 November

As I mentioned on Monday, the Chicken House finally reached completion! Here is one happy Beth last Saturday when the cage installation was completed. The little red things are the drinkers. Once the chickens arrive, I will never again hang out under these cages!

Basotho girls and women carry water and other heavy things on their heads. The effort and neck strength training begins in childhood as girls mimic the women they see. Here my favorite twins and regular playmates were hanging out playing with 1L buckets while their grandmother and I discussed work. After using the buckets at seats, balls, and more, they started placing them on their heads. As soon as they could let go, they excited began calling for their grandmother's attention to show off how grown up they are. I love these two!

Three Photo Thursday-3 November

Burglar Bars Make a Happy Beth!

After I wrote about the Burglar Bar Busts, I began to wonder if the chicken coop would ever be completed. Thanks to the help of the wonderful Peace Corps staff, we got connected with a true professional. Within a week of giving us our quote, the burglar bars were finally in place.

Now we are finished up a few things-like buying food and cage installation-before the chickens arrive. Then my work is done and the women in MCCC will really need to get to work!!!

You can make anything out of plastic bags-even jump ropes!

 I love walking through the village in the late afternoons when all the kids are out playing. On this day, I bumped into some of my favorite girls jumping rope using plastic bags they had re-purposed. I love the ingenuity of kids when pre-designed toys are not readily available!

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.

Three Photo Thursday-20 October

Boys raise their hands, eager to participate in the session on Power in Relationships and Consent.

I spent most of this week at Camp BRO Botha Bothe. My friend and the local Ministry of Youth representative organized this boys’ camp to promote gender equality and opened it up to participants from every single school in the district! It was an amazingly good time-and my favorite of the camps I have helped out at thus far in Lesotho. Come back on Monday for more on Camp BRO BB!

Emily rolling her first tortillas!

One of the best parts about Peace Corps’ Pre-Service Training is that we try to follow the Experiential Learning Cycle throughout the training process. For example, when trainees arrive in Lesotho, they move into a host family’s home and begin living like Basotho immediately. Then, in their language and culture sessions, they discuss what that is like before learning why things happen the way they do and reflecting on the experience. Another great example of this is called HVV or the Host Volunteer Visit. This week, all fifty-seven trainees visited currently serving volunteers to see how we live and work in our various communities. When they return to training, they will share and reflect on their experiences to gain a better idea of the life of Peace Corps Volunteers throughout Lesotho. My guest for the week was a trainee named Emily. The people in my village were-as always-thrilled to meet another volunteer and loved when she tested out her growing language skills by greeting them and discussing where she currently lives. Emily, in turn, loved the chance to learn how to cook like an American in Lesotho—especially how to bake on a stovetop and how to make tortillas!

Giving instructions to grade five in Sesotho and English.

As always, teaching life skills is a highlight of my week whenever I am at site. This week, sadly, I did not get to teach my oldest students as they have begun writing their nationalized exams to complete primary school. I taught the younger students about the physical changes that occur during puberty. In both grade four and grade five, the teachers were thrilled that I was discussing puberty with the children. In grade six, we had already covered puberty, so today we discussed HIV. Eleven students volunteered to pull an item out of my grab bag. They then had to explain to everyone else what that item had to do with HIV transmission. For the most part, they did a great job, however, I had them completely stumped when a boy pulled out a spoon. It was a trick item, as a spoon has nothing to do with HIV transmission-sharing silverware with or eating food prepared by an HIV positive individual will not transmit HIV and ensuring everyone understands that is just one way of trying to decrease stigma around HIV. 

Three Photo Thursday- 13 October

The Form E students singing during their celebration.

On Friday, I awoke before dawn and donned my party dress (literally). As early as possible, I was on a taxi leaving the Peace Corps training village bound for my brother Thabo’s Form E Farewell. Form E is the local equivalent of Senior Year. Instead of a graduation ceremony, schools do a Farewell Ceremony before the students write their exams. Their exams are nationalized and they must pass in order to earn the certificate (like a diploma). I had promised Thabo last year that if I was still in Lesotho, I would be in attendance for his ceremony. It was amazing. For six hours I watched students dance, sing, and give speeches before we ate a meal and headed home. It was my proudest moment in Lesotho thus far, however, I will discuss that more in Monday’s blog post!

Heather shows her awe at our waffle breakfasts...after enjoying a milkshake as a pre-breakfast treat!

A few weeks ago, I realized that inside my own head I was frustrated more often than usual and becoming more negative. I spent a walk stewing about it on my way to town and realized that since January 1^st I had taken a total of three vacation days! That same morning I learned I was not needed for an activity I had promised to help with and another PCV mentioned he was headed to Clarens for that weekend. Within two hours of my realization, I had a mini-vacation trip to Clarens planned. Having been to Clarens for the other vacation days I took this year, I was not there to sightsee. I was there for amazing food, dark beer, my friends’ tattoos, and my own pedicure. For two days, that was all we did and it was exactly what I needed!

Finally! Burglar Proofing is Installed!

The week ended with some huge excitement. Only a week after giving me a quote for burglar proofing the chickenhouse, the third and final contractor we hired called to say that installation was happening…that day! I had to scramble to rearrange my schedule for the day-I was supposed to be finalizing things for the boys’ camp that was about to start-and then get back to my village from town. But, by mid-afternoon, the entire chicken house was finally burglar proofed. Considering my frustration less than two weeks earlier, this was an incredibly exciting turn of events.

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!

Three Photo Thursday-29 September

Back in January, one of my villagers began construction on her huge house. I mentioned it at the end of Constructing Dreams. For eight months, the walls sat, completed, waiting for the roofing process to begin. To roof a large cement block house like this first involves building up the walls anywhere the roof will by high, before actually attaching the roof.

I had begin to think I would not see the house completed, however, this week the roofing supplies arrived and workers began the roofing process. Here the workers are adding the cement bricks that will support the roof on their first day of work. 

Although harvest in Lesotho was months ago-in July-much of my family's maize is still sitting on the cobs waiting for my host mother to have time to remove it. She is simply too busy with work, caring for the boys, and church to also spend hours separating the dried corn from the cobs.

This week, however, my nkhono or grandmother came to help as the family needed to grind more maize into powder for papa.  She spent two days just sitting in the shade working away-occasionally yelling at the pig for trying to come and sneak some food. It was great to have her visit and a boon to my mother to have the help around the house.

Over the course of the political primary, many Basotho would ask me about the American election and when I would be returning to vote. Having watched a number of villagers who work abroad return home for their own special election in February 2015, their question made sense to me. In order to avoid voter fraud, Basotho must vote in person.

Those conversations have highlighted for me, yet again, how lucky I am to be American. Obviously, I would not be a US Peace Corps volunteer living in Lesotho if I were not American, but, that aside, I am able to vote from Lesotho with little hassle. I signed up for my absentee ballot early on in the primary process (although sadly, not early enough to cast my ballot in New Hampshire in January). From there, I simply waited until my town clerk emailed it to me. Forty-eight hours later I found myself researching the New Hampshire gubernatorial candidates and presto, I have voted…five Tuesdays before America goes to the polls. And, since there is no postal strike in South Africa this year, unlike in 2014’s election months, my ballot should make it home and get counted! 

Three Photo Thursday: 22 September

Teaching life skills at the local primary school is always one of the best mornings of each week. Typically, grade six is the most challenging, as it is more than double the size of the other three classes and the students are more shy about participating. 

This week, however, we learned about the physical changes that happen to men and women during puberty. Split into gender groups, the students were more engaged than I have ever seen them. 

Here the girls are determining whether specific changes happen for males, females, or both. It was a competition between the boys and the girls to see which group could get more answers correct. The girls won by four points!

I spent my Monday morning preparing for the life skills class above and also making a model RUMP: Reusable Menstrual Pad. This fabric is from the Ugandan team at the LGL Summit I attended back in June. I have been eagerly waiting the chance to sew it and use it to help women in my community make their own RUMPS. Over the weekend, my patience will be rewarded and we will get sewing!

PCV Jacob and the all-female PCVL team
following the delicious discovery of the
Coffee Frappe!

My role as a PCVL has kept me incredibly busy lately, with regular trips from site to Maseru to meet with staff and other PCVLs in preparation of the upcoming training for new volunteers.

My background in training and program development has me loving the process of writing new and adjusting old session plans to ensure that the upcoming training is as practical and hands-on as possible.

Another highlight of all this hard work is moments like this: discovering Coffee Frappes only a walk away from our work in the office. These things are dangerously good and may be replacing food on my future trips to town!

Bonus Fourth Photo:

I couldn't resist sharing this beautiful young lady and her empowering sweatshirt! It seemed appropriate that she wore this over her school uniform on the same day we were discussing strengths and weaknesses in her Life Skills class. 

Three Photo Thursday: 15 September

My host mother, grandfather, grandmother, and me after
church on Sunday. 

Church in Lesotho is no one-hour commitment. Although not Roman Catholic, when I attend church, I attend with my villagers, which typically means attending the small church at our local Catholic primary school.

This Sunday, however, took more initiative. Instead of attending church a ten minute walk away, we were headed to the large church an hour's taxi ride away...and the priest would be there. We were attending because my host mother was joining a group in the church named for St. Cecilia; the patron Saint of music.

Instead of the usual two to three hours of church, it lasted nearly five hours. After church, I learned most people bring lunch. Thankfully I had coffee and water to share as my grandparents shared their packed lunch with me.

A pamphlet given out
by police at a traffic stop

Police checkpoints are a regular part of car travel in Lesotho. The police check out the vehicle safety, the driver's license, the vehicle registration, or confirm that a taxi is not overloaded.

This week, as we pulled up to the usual checkpoint in Botha Bothe, a policewoman handed a pile of papers to the driver. After the last one made it to me in the back of the taxi, I was impressed to see this double-sided pamphlet about human trafficking. With the opposite side in Sesotho, the handout told people where to get help and how to avoid becoming a victim of trafficking. I had previously seen similar posters , but giving the information out to captive audiences in cars is brilliant.

It reminded how seriously the Lesotho Police take human trafficking. Last year as we were finalizing things for Camp GLOW, the police requested to come to the camp specifically to talk about human trafficking and how to avoid becoming a victim.

Peach Blossoms

After last week's Plum Blossoms, I almost did not share these beautiful pink flowers. They are simply too beautiful to not share.

Right now in Lesotho, peach blossoms are a bright and colorful sign that summer is coming. Since the rains have not yet begun, the rest of our landscape is still mostly shades of brown and sepia; which only makes the thousands of trees bursting with pink stand out that much more.

They are like our reward for wearing long underwear inside and out for most of July and August. Now, we get to complain that the sun is too hot while absorbing this beauty. 

Three Photo Thursday: September 8

Saturday is funeral day in Lesotho. This Saturday brought the funeral of my neighbor and extended family member: ‘M’e ‘Maletsitsi. This funeral brought hundreds of people and more tears than I have seen at a funeral yet. Hundreds turned out to mourn the loss of an incredible woman and mother. Although she had been sick for a long time, ‘M’e ‘Maletsitsi had always drawn respect by working hard despite her illness.

As a mother to a dozen children, an entire generation of youth had grown up in her presence and none were unaffected by her passing, including me. 

As I passed my friend 'M'e 'Mamookho's house, I saw my favorite garden in Lesotho had been torn apart. Later that day, as I returned home, I was delighted to see 'M'e 'Mamookho sitting nearby as another villager rebuilt her small raised bed garden. 

I like to call this garden serapa sa naleli, which translates to star garden. Prior to being pulled apart one bottle at a time by small children, it was a perfectly shaped star with small green vegetables and a few flowers growing in it. With most gardens in Lesotho being either a raised bed keyhole garden or a ground level plot, this star shape has always stood out as a symbol of the pride and creativity on the part of 'M'e 'Mamookho.

I am so excited to see it being rebuilt!

My Life Skills classes at the local primary school started again this week. These weekly classes are always a highlight as the children and my co-teachers are so excited to have me and to engage with the topics.

In this photo, students in Class Five are taking their pre-test to establish a baseline on their knowledge before we start in on our topics.

My plan for this, my final semester with these kids, is a combination of decision making and youth sexual reproductive health. The students will be learning about making choices between needs and wants, the biological changes of puberty, HIV transmission, and how to say no until they are ready for sex. It is going to be a great semester! 

Three Photo Thursday: 1 September

Spring is coming! The first recognition of this is already blooming beautifully in our yard: plum blossoms. The plum tree is always ahead of the peaches. It blooms weeks before them, with delicate and beautiful white blossoms. It also produces a month or two ahead of our peach trees. While Lesotho will soon be filled with bursts of pink color on the brown landscape, these white flowers are the first indication that winter is ending.

Considering how cold the weeks preceding these little flowers have been, I am really excited to see them bringing in warmer days!

I tried to pick the least gruesome photo to show this moment.

The week started out with our “pet” pig being slaughtered. This pig had been free range since winter began and there were no gardens to be destroyed. He had reached the point of trying to heel whenever we wandered around the yard or started out from the house. I am still not sure he realized he was a pig and not a dog, especially as he had a tendency to come running to kiss my leg every time I left the house.

This Sunday morning activity was not my first pig slaughter, however, it was the first time we slaughtered something larger than a chicken at our house. The boys and their uncle spent much of the morning working with the pig and later the meat. I then spent much of the later afternoon cutting up my portion of pork to make Five Spice Pork Tacos! Since I never cook meat at home, this was quite the treat!

Chatting it up with the amazing Lebo Mashile after her
inspiring poetry reading in Maseru. 

Throughout my 27 months in Lesotho, my cultural moments have been restricted to the local culture found in rural villages. Celebrating and learning traditional culture through Cultural Days or incredible moments like being thrust into the Litolobonya hut has been amazing. This week while in Maseru to help with preparations for the upcoming Pre-Service Training, a good friend invited me to attend a Poetry Festival.

Although excited, I was ill prepared for just how much I would love the experience. It was like coming home while still living in Lesotho! The night began with some young women performing their own poetry, switching comfortably between English and Sesotho while blowing me away with their stage presence. The headliner, Lebo Mashile from South Africa, really astounded me.

The month of August is women’s month and as such, Lebo performed a number of her poems centered around the realities of being a women. With lines like “Tell your story until your past stops destroying your future” and “There is a me that I could be, if I just let her breathe outside,” I found myself hanging on her every word. My friend and I had the chance to meet her after the show, where she admitted that this was the longest reading she had ever done. We very truthfully assured her we would have happily listened to her for another hour or two as she signed the book of poetry I had quickly purchased. The long forgotten English major in me ecstatic to delve further into the way that Lebo plays with words, meaning, and rhythm.