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!
Saturday, October 23, 2010
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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