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!)