Quiet Week

   This is Me' Mary.  She is one of my favorite people here in Lesotho.  Mary has been working at our school for over 20 years, since the beginning.  Many of those years she worked without pay.  Now she is paid, but it is very little because she has very little formal education.  She believes strongly in teaching students with disabilities and she has a great sense of humor.  She is usually here bright and early and she always gets students to help set up the dining hall for yoga.  Mary also is one of our go-to people for planting, animals, building, etc.  She pretty much knows how to do everything.  When we were working on digging out the foundation for the new pig area, I became tired pretty quickly, but Mary dug all day and she is 64!  She walks to school everyday, pretty far, and she is often carrying large buckets of stuff on her head. She is one of the really tough women here that I talk about a lot, yet she is so caring and always has the best interest of our students in mind.
    Below Mary is a picture of my walking crew.  These kids usually leave around the same time as me and we walk to school together.  They are pretty fun and they will run to catch up with me or slow down to wait for me if I am in sight.  Our usual conversation is very brief, comment on the weather, how are you, etc.  But we have quiet understanding of friendship.  The taller girl in the blue was very excited to show me her report card a few weeks ago, even though we don't really even know each other.  It is funny how so much of my day is spent walking and talking to people.  After living in NYC with millions of people you get used to just walking by people without saying much.  Here it is the opposite, I have to say hello to everyone.  Although some days I wish I could hide, for the most part I really enjoy the friendly social walks I have here.  Lumela (Hello) probably comes out of my mouth at least 100 times a day.
   Well overall, this was a quiet week.  I was sick for a few days with a stomach bug and I came to fully appreciate indoor bathrooms.  No fun running to the latrine in the rain and dark!  All better now.  I can't believe it is already almost the end of October.