Political Horses

Group singing to prepare for election

Elections are upon us in Lesotho.  The scheduled date of national elections is May 26th.  Parties are in full swing with events and meetings.  On the weekends people come out and sing, hold flags, line up their horses, and urge people to vote for their party.  There are many parties here, so it is hard to keep track of it all, but there are at least 2 major parties and from what people are saying it will be a very close election.  The current prime minister formed a new party to run with and there has already been a bit of fighting (actual physical fighting) even within this one party.  I hope for the people here that all goes smoothly and there is a clear winner.  One thing that I love about this whole process is that people come out from the villages  to the towns and there is a lot of horse riding happening.  One man wanted me to take his picture and he even let me sit on his horse, I didn't ride anywhere because I didn't have a helmet on (peace corps rule).  He even came to my school the next day to get a print out of the pictures!

Political Horse, all dressed up, no riding :( 

    On Sunday the new volunteer speech pathologist at our centre called me to say that Me Mary wanted us to walk over to see her house.  She is one of our teachers, I have blogged about her before, 64 years old and much stronger than me.  She started the school and worked for years without pay.  We walked with her out to her village above the town.  We got to meet her 3 grandchildren who she raises and we had a very yummy lunch.  She wanted me to teach the kids some yoga moves and they were naturals.  I asked her how long she had lived in her house and she said that she was able to rent the land around 6 years ago and she built the house herself.  She now has a few chickens and pigs and she also has a small garden.  Her house was simple, 2 beds and some stuff for cooking, but it seemed like such a nice way to live.  Sometimes I think that we complicate our lives with too much stuff.  Mary and her kids have only what they need and day to day they seem quite happy

The rest of my Sunday was quite good also.  I spent some time playing with the kids, reading and cooking.  I think the pace of life here is really nice and I know that I am going to miss it at home.  I had a group of about 6 kids playing UNO with me till it got dark out.  They loved it, my nephews love it too!  We also played with Amu in the wheelbarrow.

Mary in front of house she built with her hands

    At school this week we have almost finished the new classroom.  We did run into some more problems with our plumber and we have decided to find a new plumber to finish the job.  I held a review meeting with the teachers last week to go over many of the concepts we have learned about and this week the Speech Pathologist, Kirby, and I are planning a workshop on literacy and books.  Always a challenge when there are no or very few books in Sesotho, we are just going to use the ones we have in english and ask the teachers to adapt.  We set our date for the opening of our classrooms for May 17th.  All for now, thanks for reading.

Add caption

Mary's Kids doing Yoga

Happy Herd Boy

It is getting cold in Lesotho now.  This morning it was around 30 degrees and then it will go up to about 70 during the day.  I love this weather, it is so nice to sleep in.  It is autum here and the wind is blowing leaves off of the trees.  Everyone is wrapped up in blankets and the mountains are turning dusty brown.  The change of seasons is nice, but it can be hard for some people.  People here spend so much time outside, especially children, and now they are getting cold.  Homes also don't always stay too warm with tin roofs and dirt floors, so people have to spend extra money for firewood or parafin for heaters to keep warm.  The free fruit, mostly peaches, are now gone and everything just feels a little bit more quiet.

The schools were closed for a few days for the Easter Break and I decided to just stay put.  I really enjoyed being slothful around my house.  I played with the kids, read a lot, and went to watch a football game with some of the boys from my school who stayed over the break.  Only the students that have family members fairly close to town go home over these short breaks, so the house mothers and fathers try to entertain them with little outings.  One day a group of about 10 girls and a house mother walked over to my house for a while and just hung out on my porch.  Although I understand a bit of Sesotho, I still have a lot of trouble communicating fully, but with the students we just kind of find a way around language and still communicate well together.  At the football game I heard one of our students yelling at another boy because he heard him call me "lekhoa" (not always a nice name for white person), he said "Me Lisa, not lekhoa"  It made me so happy that the kids were standing up for me and had fun hanging out with me.  I am really going to miss these students.

 Last week I was given a surprise birthday party at school.  It was really fun.  The teachers got cakes and balloons and we had a big dance party with all of the students.  It was really special because birthdays are not really celebrated here like at home.  Many people don't even know their actual birthday because they may have been born at home or in a village where there is no need for calendars.  After school I invited the teachers out to a hotel in town and we had some drinks and pizza, such a fun day.
  Things have been very busy at school again.  We are finalizing the new classrooms, just waiting on the plumber to finish up!  I have learned so much about plumbing, maybe a new career is in order.  Once everything is finished we will have an opening and then put the rooms to use.  The teachers are very excited about being able to teach cooking classes.  We are also trying to get things in order for our new volunteer speech pathologist from Australia.  She will be here working in Lesotho for 2 years and we are very lucky to have her based at our centre.  Finally we are getting the animals and gardens ready for winter.  This week one of our teachers, Me Mary, brought her neighbor's male pig to our school to try to get our female pig pregnant.  The pigs spent a few days together and then the male went back home.  Mary, who is 64, tied a rope around the pig and walked it all the way back to her village yesterday.  It is quite a funny and noisy thing to walk a pig.  It is not easy and she still manage, I hope I am as strong as her at that age.

Our pig Thuso

My principal's car on one of our trips to hardware store, we were so
squished we could barely drive home!!

Celebrations

Cattle Riding at Cultural festival

Boys doing a Zulu dance

   Our school was invited to participate in a cultural festival last week.  The festival was hosted by Phelisanong Lesotho, a centre for orphans, disabled and HIV/AIDS affected children.  The centre is located in a beautiful village setting surrounded by mountains.  Other schools and orphanages were invited to come and perform and it was an amazing day.  The dancing and singing was impressive and there was also a great display of animals and even cattle riding!  The women and men of the host village were honored and thanked for helping to take care of the hundreds of orphans in the area.  It was really touching to see how strong these children are despite their circumstances.  

Our girls performing in the dust

     Several girls from our school performed a traditional dance while other school staff and boys sang for them.  Unfortunately a big rainy,  windy spell started during their performance, but they still did great.  Other schools performed dances and songs and the host school cooked an amazing meal for everyone.  At the end of the day we had to hike out of the valley, roads were too rough for the vans, and then proceeded to wait another hour for our ride to show up.  Only one of 2 vans made it (flat tire) and we actually fit around 26 people into one van.  Such a fun trip!

Honored Caretakers, thank you

    At the end of the cultural festival the women of the village were thanked for their work with orphans.  They were given blankets and maize meal.  The men were also thanked and they were given warm socks to wear inside their rain boots.  The organization has a really good website if you want to learn more. http://www.phelisanong.com/

 Another celebration was for my host brother's first birthday.  He is walking all over the place now and he loves to yell to me and laugh.  His father told me that sometimes when I am not home he goes to my door and yells.  I am really going to miss him and the rest of the family.

   It is also almost time to celebrate the completion of our new classroom building.  This week we did our final shopping trips (we hope) and by next week everything should be installed.  Then we have to plan an opening ceremony and start using the rooms with the teachers and students.  I really can't thank everyone enough for donating to the project.

Posing with my teachers

My Host Brother in his new birthday track suit