This is why I don't promise consistent blogs...
Believe me, it wasn't for a lack of trying. My promising interntet source at the local hospital was out at least half of the times that I tried to use it, and a few times I forgot to bring my plug adaptor. Add in a little laziness and forgetfulness, and there you have my poorly managed blog!
So I have a story that doesn't in the littlest bit relate to Peace Corps, but I think it's a pretty fantastic story so I'm gonna share it with you now. A while back, I was doing my dishes, scrubbing a pot of old pasta with some noodles real stuck to the bottom of the pot. After my sponge and steel wool both failed me, I decided to attack it with my finger nail. With my first attempt, I feel a seering pain in my finger nail, and was confident that I had ripped it off. When I looked at my finger though, my nail was still there, but with a little addition. Going about 3/4 of the way down my nail was a white blob. I pushed on the blob a little bit, and to my suprise, a small bit of noodle squeezed out from under my nail! Disgusted and fascinated, I kept doing this for maybe 2 hours (neglecting the rest of my dishes all the while...) and a little more pasta kept squeezing out each time, but the vast majority of the nood was still in there and my finger was absolutely throbbing.
I'm not entirely sure why, but for some reason I expected my body would just handle the situation on its own, the way it would a splinter and that this wouldn't require medical attention. After a couple of days though, this proved to not be the case, so I went to the doctor to get it looked at. The doctor quickly decided that noodle fingers were not his area of expertise, so he made the FANTASTIC decision to ship me off to Bloemfontain where I could get surgery, but more importantly, eat McDonalds!
So 2 days later (this is day 5 of noodle finger, if you were counting), Peace Corps drove me from Maseru to Bloem for my surgery. The doctor was a friendly enough guy and made me feel right proud when he told me that this was his "weirdest case all week." He started by putting some topical anesthetic around the base of noodle finger that didn't actually numb anything, just got all over my shirt. Then they took me to a surgery room, where they laid me on a table, put a sheet over me (still have no idea why), and monitored my vitals for about 20 minutes. I found this whole scene very weird, since I was surrounded by posters describing the process of a colonoscopy and the anatomy of the colon, which had me fretting that they got their patients mixed up and I was in for more than I bargained for.
Eventually the doctor came back in, and with about a 5" needle, began injecting antisthetic at the base of my finger. The needle had this cartridge kind of thing that he could pop in new tubes of antisthetic when the previous ran out. These tubes were not little, and he used 5, which swelled my finger to at least double its original size. It looked pretty awesome and gave me some entertainment while I waited for it to numb up.
After it numbed, he came back in, placed my hand in this little holder to get started. Then he took and obscenely large probe, and while carrying on a creepily casual conversation with me, started scooping the gunk. I was watching the whole time, and while it didn't hurt, it was still kind of intense to see. With his first scoop, he pulled out a big glob of white stuff. Trying to sound unphased, I said, "Guess there's the noodle! Hungry?" He then told me that that wasn't actually my noodle. My noodle had apparently been absorbed through my finger, which in turn got infected and then started producing pus. This grossed me out enough to quash any further witty remarks I might have had. He scooped away for maybe another 10 minutes, then got another ridiculously large needle and injected antibiotics under my nail. Again, I still couldn't actually feel any of this, but the whole time I kept thinking of how bad this would hurt when the antisthetic wore off, but maybe he would hook me up with some awesome pain killers.
He then finished up and gave me a big bag of ice and gave me my scrip, which I was disappointed to see was just for a large dose of advil. Which I forgot to fill. And forgot to take my ice. I left a bit dejected and grossed out, but all was right again when we stopped for McDonalds, and loaded myself up with burgers and fountain drinks, making it an OK day.
I hope I didn't bore you with too many details, but this is one of my favorite Peace Corps stories, although it has nothing to do with my Peace Corps life. On a side note, life here is good, job is going well enough, and I'm a generally happy fellow these days. Hope this finds you well, and teaches you an important lesson in dish scrubbing safety!
Khotso,
Grant
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Sorry, been a while...
Okay, Okay, so that was really bad. 3 month intervals between posts shouldn't be the norm. I would promise to be a little more attentive to the blog in the future, but seeing as I promised that back in October, let's just play it by ear...
In the three months since my last post, I've had plenty to post about and even the occasional opportunity to post, but something has always seemed to stop me. Whether it be internet failure, flooded bridges (more on that later), being lazy, being in a mood that wasn't conducive to posting in a public forum (this is an upbeat blog!), or otherwise, something has always stopped me (laziness being problem #1). So to make up for all my time off, I thought a double post might be a nice way to catch up. The obvious way to divide this up was work and play, so let's get started with my worklife, shall we?
What your tax dollars are funding:
As you know, my primary assignment is working to increase the outreach capacity of my local clinic here in Sebetia. I described in my last post, way back when, that I had recently received funding to hold HIV testing events at three primary schools, and if I remember correctly, I was really excited about it back then. But as the project started to get its legs under it, it dawned on me just how much work and just how many obstacles were ahead of me.
To begin, I had to firm everything up with the schools, local shopkeeper, village health workers, and clinic staff to coordinate who was doing what, and how the events would actually run. Without reliable cell signals or good roads, that meant I would be doing a lot of walking. But more than that, it meant that any progress would be made increeeeedibly slowly. In the States, I could probably confirm all the details with schools in about 30 minutes of phone calls. Here? I had to hike to each of these schools, which was about 6 hours of walking for three straight days. (On one visit, my shorts split wide open when I was about 2 hours from home. Since there was no way I was turning back, I visited a massive school, filled with small children, with my boxers/thighs dangerously exposed despite my best efforts to keep everything hidden. That's not really relevant, but I thought it was funny).
This is when I started running into problems. Apparently, during planning, the schools and I had not totally understood one another. We were offering to pay them a small amount to hold the event at the schools and help a little. They thought we would be paying MUCH more than we were prepared to as an endowment to the school. We nearly had to cancel the event at that school, but after a few more talks, they grudgingly agreed to go forward.
Toward the end of October, about a week before the events were going to go through, I found out that government approval was required for holding testing events at a school setting. I proceeded to gather all the documentation that they required, but permission was ultimately denied. At this point, we could either cancel entirely, or reschedule for when schools were out of session. Because we were already so invested and had the funding, we decided that rescheduling for December was our best move.
One thing I didn't know about Lesotho, December-February is raaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiny season.
My village is fairly rural, and is seperated from the rest of the country by multiple rivers. But until the rains came, I thought this would be no problem because each river had fairly decent bridges across them, and I had only seen the rivers when they're dry. In retrospect, I completely underestimated rain here. The river leading to my site goes well over a meter above the bridge during heavy rains, and are completely unpassable. And as my luck would have it, the first HEAVY rains came the week of my event. This meant that food couln't be shipped and the sports organization from Maseru couldn't make it.
Another cancellation. Another reschedule.
This time we rescheduled for early January, and prayed that rain wouldn't wash us out. We also moved the events to three schools much closer to Sebetia. We figured, the fewer rivers, the better our chances. And we lucked out.
On January 10, we held our first event in the field in front of the clinic (right beside Sebetia Primary). The event wasn't without its snags, as most people came about 4 hours late, but in the end, the kids played and learned, everybody ate, and we tested a lot of people. On Wednesday we did the same at Majoe Matso, with a similar result, and Thursday at Mamatebele. And I'm happy to say that we saved the best for last. At Mamatebele, we had a massive turnout thanks to a very proactive chief and principle, great weather, and a lot of education. Unfortunately, we ran out of testing kits about halfway through the events. More were delivered later in the day, but I think it probably decreased our overall testing numbers.
In the end, we tested about 300 people, approximately 200 of them being school kids and younger. And altogether, only one of those children came out positive. All things considered, I'll take it.
Now, we're working with the village health workers to track down HIV+ women of child-bearing age to see if their children have been tested. We hope that this will help lead us to more of the at risk kids in the area.
I'm also working at the schools to develop a Life Skills curriculum, with an HIV/AIDS support groups to generate income through a candle making project, starting a volleyball club, and am going to start coaching track next week (those last two are mostly because I'm bored). These projects are just now getting their legs under them, so I'll include more about them once there's more to tell.
For now though, I think that should just about cover it. Sorry for being so long winded. If I don't take another 3 month break, I promise the next will be more concise!
Khotso!
Grant
In the three months since my last post, I've had plenty to post about and even the occasional opportunity to post, but something has always seemed to stop me. Whether it be internet failure, flooded bridges (more on that later), being lazy, being in a mood that wasn't conducive to posting in a public forum (this is an upbeat blog!), or otherwise, something has always stopped me (laziness being problem #1). So to make up for all my time off, I thought a double post might be a nice way to catch up. The obvious way to divide this up was work and play, so let's get started with my worklife, shall we?
What your tax dollars are funding:
As you know, my primary assignment is working to increase the outreach capacity of my local clinic here in Sebetia. I described in my last post, way back when, that I had recently received funding to hold HIV testing events at three primary schools, and if I remember correctly, I was really excited about it back then. But as the project started to get its legs under it, it dawned on me just how much work and just how many obstacles were ahead of me.
To begin, I had to firm everything up with the schools, local shopkeeper, village health workers, and clinic staff to coordinate who was doing what, and how the events would actually run. Without reliable cell signals or good roads, that meant I would be doing a lot of walking. But more than that, it meant that any progress would be made increeeeedibly slowly. In the States, I could probably confirm all the details with schools in about 30 minutes of phone calls. Here? I had to hike to each of these schools, which was about 6 hours of walking for three straight days. (On one visit, my shorts split wide open when I was about 2 hours from home. Since there was no way I was turning back, I visited a massive school, filled with small children, with my boxers/thighs dangerously exposed despite my best efforts to keep everything hidden. That's not really relevant, but I thought it was funny).
This is when I started running into problems. Apparently, during planning, the schools and I had not totally understood one another. We were offering to pay them a small amount to hold the event at the schools and help a little. They thought we would be paying MUCH more than we were prepared to as an endowment to the school. We nearly had to cancel the event at that school, but after a few more talks, they grudgingly agreed to go forward.
Toward the end of October, about a week before the events were going to go through, I found out that government approval was required for holding testing events at a school setting. I proceeded to gather all the documentation that they required, but permission was ultimately denied. At this point, we could either cancel entirely, or reschedule for when schools were out of session. Because we were already so invested and had the funding, we decided that rescheduling for December was our best move.
One thing I didn't know about Lesotho, December-February is raaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiny season.
My village is fairly rural, and is seperated from the rest of the country by multiple rivers. But until the rains came, I thought this would be no problem because each river had fairly decent bridges across them, and I had only seen the rivers when they're dry. In retrospect, I completely underestimated rain here. The river leading to my site goes well over a meter above the bridge during heavy rains, and are completely unpassable. And as my luck would have it, the first HEAVY rains came the week of my event. This meant that food couln't be shipped and the sports organization from Maseru couldn't make it.
Another cancellation. Another reschedule.
This time we rescheduled for early January, and prayed that rain wouldn't wash us out. We also moved the events to three schools much closer to Sebetia. We figured, the fewer rivers, the better our chances. And we lucked out.
On January 10, we held our first event in the field in front of the clinic (right beside Sebetia Primary). The event wasn't without its snags, as most people came about 4 hours late, but in the end, the kids played and learned, everybody ate, and we tested a lot of people. On Wednesday we did the same at Majoe Matso, with a similar result, and Thursday at Mamatebele. And I'm happy to say that we saved the best for last. At Mamatebele, we had a massive turnout thanks to a very proactive chief and principle, great weather, and a lot of education. Unfortunately, we ran out of testing kits about halfway through the events. More were delivered later in the day, but I think it probably decreased our overall testing numbers.
In the end, we tested about 300 people, approximately 200 of them being school kids and younger. And altogether, only one of those children came out positive. All things considered, I'll take it.
Now, we're working with the village health workers to track down HIV+ women of child-bearing age to see if their children have been tested. We hope that this will help lead us to more of the at risk kids in the area.
I'm also working at the schools to develop a Life Skills curriculum, with an HIV/AIDS support groups to generate income through a candle making project, starting a volleyball club, and am going to start coaching track next week (those last two are mostly because I'm bored). These projects are just now getting their legs under them, so I'll include more about them once there's more to tell.
For now though, I think that should just about cover it. Sorry for being so long winded. If I don't take another 3 month break, I promise the next will be more concise!
Khotso!
Grant
Saturday, October 23, 2010
New Project
So it's been a little while since my last post. But just this week I found out that I can track down free electricity and wireless internet within an hour of travel from Sebetia. Blogging just became a lot easier.
Not a ton to report since my last post. I've been settling in at site and getting used to having some slllooowww days. But my next month promises to be a helluva lot busier. For the past few weeks, I've been helping my clinic put together a proposal for a grant in order to increase our enrollment of children on anti-retroviral treatment (ART). Our idea is to hold events at three extremely remote primary schools, and have the kids test. We've also invited an organization called Kick4Life to come. They'll play games with the kids and teach them about HIV/AIDS while the kids wait to be tested. Considering that we are scheduled to hold the first event on Nov.1, I've got a busy week coming up.
In other news, the upcoming installment of volunteers to Lesotho has been cancelled. And considering the amount of time we've already spent investigating their facebook pages, this is a bummer for volunteers here (and clearly a much bigger bummer for them). If any of yall ever read this post, good luck at your new assignments!
Lazarus Thorac Update: Still no horse. One of my higher-ups remarked that I do quite a bit of walking at my site. Unfortunately, she told me this while the "Pony training camp" was already going on. It may be a while before Laz and I are finally united, but there's still hope.
That's all from here. Khotso!
Not a ton to report since my last post. I've been settling in at site and getting used to having some slllooowww days. But my next month promises to be a helluva lot busier. For the past few weeks, I've been helping my clinic put together a proposal for a grant in order to increase our enrollment of children on anti-retroviral treatment (ART). Our idea is to hold events at three extremely remote primary schools, and have the kids test. We've also invited an organization called Kick4Life to come. They'll play games with the kids and teach them about HIV/AIDS while the kids wait to be tested. Considering that we are scheduled to hold the first event on Nov.1, I've got a busy week coming up.
In other news, the upcoming installment of volunteers to Lesotho has been cancelled. And considering the amount of time we've already spent investigating their facebook pages, this is a bummer for volunteers here (and clearly a much bigger bummer for them). If any of yall ever read this post, good luck at your new assignments!
Lazarus Thorac Update: Still no horse. One of my higher-ups remarked that I do quite a bit of walking at my site. Unfortunately, she told me this while the "Pony training camp" was already going on. It may be a while before Laz and I are finally united, but there's still hope.
That's all from here. Khotso!
Thursday, September 16, 2010
2 years is longer than I thought
As many of you know, and I think many news outlets reported, one of our volunteers, Tom Maresco was shot and killed on the night of September 3 in the capital. I never met Tom, but knew him a bit through reputation. He was a gold standard for volunteers as far as integrating into the community and embracing his time here. This is a huge loss for Peace Corps Lesotho, and my heart goes out to his family and the entire Peace Corps community.
As of September 12, I have reached my one month anniversary as a Peace Corps volunteer (this does not include training time). And as the title of this post might indicate, this month did not fly by. That is not to say that I'm having a bad time. But this has been without doubt the weirdest month of my life. I live in a really, really dark rondavel, affectionately nicknamed by another volunteer as the "arctic circle." Because it's so dark and depressing in there almost all day long, I spend the vast majority of my time hanging out with the clinic staff, teaching the kids baseball (using a popped tennis ball and a chunk of wood that I broke off of a door), or kickin it with the bo-ntate at the bar. At the height of the weirdness that Sebetia had to offer, I found myself talking about safe sex with a group of grannies in a shack while we were all drinking joala (Lesotho home brew) out of a Coke can that looked like it was about as old as me. I consider this my favorite moment in Peace Corps thus far. So it may be a long 654 days ahead, but hopefully they'll stay as good and weird as my first month here.
Lazarus Thorac Watch: As a new addition to the blog, I want to keep you all apprised on my chances of ever finding, and naming a horse the most majestic and fearsome name that I could dream up, Lazarus Thorac. As of now, nothing is on the horizon, but I'm already shaping my argument as to why I deserve one. "My job requires that I cover an extremely large area in my outreach, and walking 8 hours in one day on outreach is unrealistic. Give me Lazarus." Cross your fingers for me.
As of September 12, I have reached my one month anniversary as a Peace Corps volunteer (this does not include training time). And as the title of this post might indicate, this month did not fly by. That is not to say that I'm having a bad time. But this has been without doubt the weirdest month of my life. I live in a really, really dark rondavel, affectionately nicknamed by another volunteer as the "arctic circle." Because it's so dark and depressing in there almost all day long, I spend the vast majority of my time hanging out with the clinic staff, teaching the kids baseball (using a popped tennis ball and a chunk of wood that I broke off of a door), or kickin it with the bo-ntate at the bar. At the height of the weirdness that Sebetia had to offer, I found myself talking about safe sex with a group of grannies in a shack while we were all drinking joala (Lesotho home brew) out of a Coke can that looked like it was about as old as me. I consider this my favorite moment in Peace Corps thus far. So it may be a long 654 days ahead, but hopefully they'll stay as good and weird as my first month here.
Lazarus Thorac Watch: As a new addition to the blog, I want to keep you all apprised on my chances of ever finding, and naming a horse the most majestic and fearsome name that I could dream up, Lazarus Thorac. As of now, nothing is on the horizon, but I'm already shaping my argument as to why I deserve one. "My job requires that I cover an extremely large area in my outreach, and walking 8 hours in one day on outreach is unrealistic. Give me Lazarus." Cross your fingers for me.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Swearing in and Moving in
My apologies for not posting this sooner. At site, I don't have electricity and therefore no computer. I debated creating this post on my internet phone, but didn't have it in me to write a long story via T9. But fortunately, a 102 degree temp and possible flu has brought me into Maseru for a couple days, so I can finally get to it.
On Sunday, August 8, we completed our community based training, had a fairwell feast and said goodbye to Mokhethoaneng. Was kind of a bummer because most of us got pretty tight with our communities in those 10 weeks, but at the same time, I think we were ready to move on. Over the next couple days we attended our counterpart/supervisor workshops. As the name might imply, our supervisors and counterparts attended the meeting so we could start establishing a relationship and learn to manage our expectations for the next two years. Two really long days, but productive, and really exciting to get to meet them. My counterpart, Ntate Felix is a counselor at the Sebetia clinic, and my supervisor, Father Shea is the priest at the affiliated Catholic church. I assume this means he also runs the clinic, but not totally sure how that works. At any rate, they both seem to have their act together, so I'm feeling good about the job.
On Wednesday, we swore in at the U.S. ambassador's house. In attendance were the P.C. higher ups, all of our trainers, counterparts and supervisors, the ambassador (it was his house, after all), the minister of health for Lesotho, a lot of Basotho media outlets, and us. We each received our certificates that declared us as official volunteers, and no longer trainees. After we got our certificate, we had our picture taken with the ambassador and minister of health. When I got up there, the minister asked how old I was, and said "the children will think you are their classmate, not their teacher." I was hoping my 10 weeks in Africa had me looking all grizzled and whatnot, but I guess not. Anyways, later during the ceremony Jessie, Matt and I gave the volunteer speech. At each swearing in, the trainees with the highest score on their Sesotho test give a quick speech. Since the three of us tied for top score, we split the duty up, each of us giving 1/3 of the speech, and delivering it in both Sesotho and English. A little nerveracking, but a very cool experience to be able to address a U.S. ambassador. A few people recorded it, so when I can track them down, I'll upload it here.
The next morning, Ntate Felix and I took off for site via public transportation. to get to Sebetia, you have to take 3 seperate taxis. One from Maseru to TY, one from TY to Makharoana, and finally one from Makharoana to Sebetia (or Ha Nkutu, more specifically). On the ride from TY to Makharoana, an English broadcast came on that gave a recap of our swearing in, saying "One volunteer, in his address, vowed to work hand-in-hand with the Basotho," prompting me to say, somewhat inappropriately, "HOLY CRAP! I WAS THAT VOLUNTEER!" I've been on an ego trip ever since.
We arrived at site at about 2ish, making the trip on public transport about 5 hours. I was wigging out about arriving, until I actually arrived. My counterpart walked me through the school and introduced me to the principal, who has a HUGE personality and seemed really happy I finally was there. The kids seem awesome too, so I can easily see spending a lot of time there. Ntate Felix then showed me to the rondavel that will be my house for the next two years. First impressions: really big, really dark, kinda cold. It's also located in the garden behind the clinic, which is entirely fenced in. Will probably limit my visitors, but I think that in time I may come to appreciate that. The site is beautiful. It's remote, but still kind of in walking distance to a couple other volunteers. Sebetia is collection of towns scattered through a huge valley, surrounded by some really impressive mountains. My job will be a lot of outreach to defaulting ARV patients all over Sebetia, so I have a lot of hiking in my future. I have more stories to share, but not enough motivation to share them right now.
So until next time, Khotso
On Sunday, August 8, we completed our community based training, had a fairwell feast and said goodbye to Mokhethoaneng. Was kind of a bummer because most of us got pretty tight with our communities in those 10 weeks, but at the same time, I think we were ready to move on. Over the next couple days we attended our counterpart/supervisor workshops. As the name might imply, our supervisors and counterparts attended the meeting so we could start establishing a relationship and learn to manage our expectations for the next two years. Two really long days, but productive, and really exciting to get to meet them. My counterpart, Ntate Felix is a counselor at the Sebetia clinic, and my supervisor, Father Shea is the priest at the affiliated Catholic church. I assume this means he also runs the clinic, but not totally sure how that works. At any rate, they both seem to have their act together, so I'm feeling good about the job.
On Wednesday, we swore in at the U.S. ambassador's house. In attendance were the P.C. higher ups, all of our trainers, counterparts and supervisors, the ambassador (it was his house, after all), the minister of health for Lesotho, a lot of Basotho media outlets, and us. We each received our certificates that declared us as official volunteers, and no longer trainees. After we got our certificate, we had our picture taken with the ambassador and minister of health. When I got up there, the minister asked how old I was, and said "the children will think you are their classmate, not their teacher." I was hoping my 10 weeks in Africa had me looking all grizzled and whatnot, but I guess not. Anyways, later during the ceremony Jessie, Matt and I gave the volunteer speech. At each swearing in, the trainees with the highest score on their Sesotho test give a quick speech. Since the three of us tied for top score, we split the duty up, each of us giving 1/3 of the speech, and delivering it in both Sesotho and English. A little nerveracking, but a very cool experience to be able to address a U.S. ambassador. A few people recorded it, so when I can track them down, I'll upload it here.
The next morning, Ntate Felix and I took off for site via public transportation. to get to Sebetia, you have to take 3 seperate taxis. One from Maseru to TY, one from TY to Makharoana, and finally one from Makharoana to Sebetia (or Ha Nkutu, more specifically). On the ride from TY to Makharoana, an English broadcast came on that gave a recap of our swearing in, saying "One volunteer, in his address, vowed to work hand-in-hand with the Basotho," prompting me to say, somewhat inappropriately, "HOLY CRAP! I WAS THAT VOLUNTEER!" I've been on an ego trip ever since.
We arrived at site at about 2ish, making the trip on public transport about 5 hours. I was wigging out about arriving, until I actually arrived. My counterpart walked me through the school and introduced me to the principal, who has a HUGE personality and seemed really happy I finally was there. The kids seem awesome too, so I can easily see spending a lot of time there. Ntate Felix then showed me to the rondavel that will be my house for the next two years. First impressions: really big, really dark, kinda cold. It's also located in the garden behind the clinic, which is entirely fenced in. Will probably limit my visitors, but I think that in time I may come to appreciate that. The site is beautiful. It's remote, but still kind of in walking distance to a couple other volunteers. Sebetia is collection of towns scattered through a huge valley, surrounded by some really impressive mountains. My job will be a lot of outreach to defaulting ARV patients all over Sebetia, so I have a lot of hiking in my future. I have more stories to share, but not enough motivation to share them right now.
So until next time, Khotso
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Inaugural Post!
Lumelang!
After almost 2 months of training and feeling like a loser because I'm totally like the only kid without a sweet blog, it seemed time to finally make a blog of my own. So here goes.
As many of you know, I have been in Lesotho as a member of the CHED (Community health and economic development) 2010 training class of Peace Corps. I live in a semi-rural village called Mokhethoaneng with a host family of a father (village chief), mother (traditional healer, which I was unaware of until about 3 days ago), a 15 year old brother and 2 little sisters (5 and 3 years old...both totally awesome). Monday thru friday, we attend Sesotho class in the morning, then bus to another town for technical sessions until the afternoon. The classes thus far have been pretty undemanding (real word?), but I suppose Peace Corps assumes that living in a rural African village is stressful enough, so they're taking it easy on us. Weekend are always pretty delightful during training. On saturdays, we head into the country capital, Maseru for food shopping. But we stay in town for about 9 hours, so we get a chance to explore the town and enjoy a respite from training. For instance, today I got a haircut in a beat up little tent at the taxi rank. It was a little dicy when the power ran out midway through the haircut (he was using clippers only) and I was left with a beautiful, flowing mullet. Fortunately though, he was able to tie the clippers onto a car battery and finish the cut. Not beautiful, but got the job done (and only for about $2.50!)
The Basotho (people of Lesotho) that I've encountered thus far have been pretty incredible people. They love to sing and dance, which in turn means that I must now love to sing and dance. Also, greeting people is a big deal here, so everywhere I go in town, people, especially the kids, will yell AYY STEBO!!! (Stebo being my Sesotho nickname, full name is Teboho, meaning "thanks").
On a day to day basis, there really isn't a ton to report. However, we had a reeeaaalll big day yesterday when our country director announced site placements for our class. For the first time in PC Lesotho history, the volunteers were actually able to review information about each possible site and then rank them as to how much we'd like to be placed there.
I am happy to report that I received my second choice, working at the Sebetia Clinic. The town of Sebetia is a "remote, highlands site" located in the Berea district. I will be living in a rondavel, which is the classic round-house which the Basotho are known for. My main focus will be to establish a better system for tracking defaulting Anti-retroviral (drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS). The job sounds very challenging, but I'm pumped to get out there and get started.
My time here at the internet cafe is running out, so I'll wind it down. I'll do my best to spread the word to anyone interested.
Until next time, Khotso! (Peace!)
After almost 2 months of training and feeling like a loser because I'm totally like the only kid without a sweet blog, it seemed time to finally make a blog of my own. So here goes.
As many of you know, I have been in Lesotho as a member of the CHED (Community health and economic development) 2010 training class of Peace Corps. I live in a semi-rural village called Mokhethoaneng with a host family of a father (village chief), mother (traditional healer, which I was unaware of until about 3 days ago), a 15 year old brother and 2 little sisters (5 and 3 years old...both totally awesome). Monday thru friday, we attend Sesotho class in the morning, then bus to another town for technical sessions until the afternoon. The classes thus far have been pretty undemanding (real word?), but I suppose Peace Corps assumes that living in a rural African village is stressful enough, so they're taking it easy on us. Weekend are always pretty delightful during training. On saturdays, we head into the country capital, Maseru for food shopping. But we stay in town for about 9 hours, so we get a chance to explore the town and enjoy a respite from training. For instance, today I got a haircut in a beat up little tent at the taxi rank. It was a little dicy when the power ran out midway through the haircut (he was using clippers only) and I was left with a beautiful, flowing mullet. Fortunately though, he was able to tie the clippers onto a car battery and finish the cut. Not beautiful, but got the job done (and only for about $2.50!)
The Basotho (people of Lesotho) that I've encountered thus far have been pretty incredible people. They love to sing and dance, which in turn means that I must now love to sing and dance. Also, greeting people is a big deal here, so everywhere I go in town, people, especially the kids, will yell AYY STEBO!!! (Stebo being my Sesotho nickname, full name is Teboho, meaning "thanks").
On a day to day basis, there really isn't a ton to report. However, we had a reeeaaalll big day yesterday when our country director announced site placements for our class. For the first time in PC Lesotho history, the volunteers were actually able to review information about each possible site and then rank them as to how much we'd like to be placed there.
I am happy to report that I received my second choice, working at the Sebetia Clinic. The town of Sebetia is a "remote, highlands site" located in the Berea district. I will be living in a rondavel, which is the classic round-house which the Basotho are known for. My main focus will be to establish a better system for tracking defaulting Anti-retroviral (drugs used to treat HIV/AIDS). The job sounds very challenging, but I'm pumped to get out there and get started.
My time here at the internet cafe is running out, so I'll wind it down. I'll do my best to spread the word to anyone interested.
Until next time, Khotso! (Peace!)
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