Being Patient

Taxi or Kombi, can hold sooo many people

    When I arrived here in August I asked one of the other volunteers "What should I know about Lesotho?"  He said just remember to be patient.  So this week I had my test at being patient.  On Monday I had my week planned out, mostly helping teachers with creating IEPs (Individual Education Programs) for their students and I was going to do a workshop on cognitive disabilities on Wednesday.  Monday went as planned, although instead of helping several teachers I worked with one teacher the entire day on her IEPs.  I think her version of "help" was that I would do each one for her, oh well, we did them together.  Tuesday I was asked if I could go to Maseru (capital 3 hours away) on Wednesday for a meeting.  My principal forgot that she wouldn't be able to attend and needed someone to go. This was fine, except that it meant that I couldn't do my workshop planned for Wednesday, oh well.
     Going to Maseru with public transportation meant that I had to leave town by 6:00 to get there by 9:00.  As I was walking to the taxi rink in the wee hours of the morning, my principal called and asked me if I could go back to the school because she didn't know how to put the new printer cartridge in.  How does a very smart woman who budgets for and manages an entire school not know how to do this?  Not to mention the fact that they have had this printer since before I came, oh well.  After a printer cartridge insert lesson, I was finally on my way.  I squished into the Venture with 9 other people (size of a SUV) and was off.  As I always do I asked the driver to find me a Sprinter (second taxi thing) to transfer to.  Unfortunately I got into the Quantum instead, this looks like a sprinter but makes all the local stops.  Finally I get to Maseru and have to take a "special" taxi to the meeting.  I think it was special because I am foreign and they want to charge me a lot more, oh well.  Finally I get there, over 40 minutes late.  I am never late, I hate being late, but I was late.  Of course this is the day that the heads of the meeting, forum, decide to talk about being professional, on time, etc.
   At the forum I was able to talk to a few people about obtaining services, wheelchairs, etc.  However most of the presentations were done in Sesotho and the translator (who is very helpful) was very busy with other things and I missed a lot, oh well.  I decided to walk to the mall after the meeting and there I got some groceries, REAL CHEESE and wine.  I also had a latte at the coffee shop, first one since NY, yummy.  I decided that I better get going so I could be back to my house before dark.  My taxi to the taxi rink got stuck in traffic, so I got out and walked not knowing it would take over 30 minutes.  Finally reaching the taxi rink I settled on a quantum, too tired to search for the sprinter.  We sat there for at least another 40 minutes waiting to fill up, they won't leave until every possible inch of space is full!  On our way and going fast until TY, town along the way.  Several people get in and out in this town and then the quantum conductor kicks us all out and we have to get into a different quantum, oh well.  In this next one we take forever, but finally reach the midpoint where I sit in another Venture for at least 30 minutes waiting to leave.  This particular Venture is really falling apart, no inspection process here for vehicles.  I think my door might fall off so I spend the whole ride holding onto it and leaning in with my fingers crossed.  FINALLY I was back in BB, after leaving over 12 hours earlier, and I just had another 30 minute walk home.  At least I had a latte!

     Thursday started off with a phone call at 5:30am. MacDonald's mother asking me to go with her to the Social Welfare office with both of her disabled children.  I thought this was a good idea because last time she went they were not so helpful and we decide if we brought the kids they might make something happen.  For those of you in the US, picture going to the DMV.  We sat at the office for over 2 hours just waiting for someone to show up.  Then when they did show up they said that they couldn't help us, it had to be the other person from the last time who couldn't help her before.  This is when I decided to mention that I had met the head of the ministry, their boss, at my meeting in Maseru and she gave me some info about wheelchairs etc. Soon after someone finally came to help us.  They asked me to go with them to the hospital and they would give us a new wheelchair for MacDonald.  At the hospital I was led to a storage room and had move boxes around to reveal brand new wheelchairs!!  Hooray. Unfortunately our ride to the hospital was only one way, so I got a lot of funny comments walking back through town pushing an empty wheelchair.  Back to the office, paperwork filled out, and our 4 hour visit was over.  MacDonald left in his new ride, brand new adult size wheel chair!!!  THANK YOU was all we said, but I wanted to say "How come we were originally told that there were no wheel chairs? How come we had to bring 2 disabled children to the office when you are supposed to go to their house? How come you wouldn't help their mother the first time she came?"  I didn't say any of these things because I am remembering to be patient!!

MacD and his brother with his new wheelchair!!

     Finally it is Friday and I am trying to cram in working with 3 more teachers on their IEPs.  Everything happens here in its own time and I am slowly adjusting.  It is not always easy to be patient and it is exhausting.  This week has reminded me that we have it pretty good at home.  I miss the subway and the organized chaos of NYC.  At least I had a latte!

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.

updates

Last week when there was no school I took a couple of days to hike in the mountains.  I visited another peace corps volunteer in the village of Ha Sefako, at the very top of Lesotho.  We were technically hiking on the border between South Africa and Lesotho.  At one point we were on the top of a mountain looking down into South Africa's  Golden Gate National Park.  We saw zebra, springbok, buffalo and eland through our binoculars.  We also heard monkeys and I thought I saw a hyena chasing the buffalo, but my friends say it was probably a dog!  On the left is me very tired and hiking down the mountains.  We went to the top of tow different mountains and were gone from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm, the terrain was pretty steep and rocky at times and I now have very sore knees!

     

No School

No school this week, yet this is the 3rd day in a row that I have been to my school.  Although some students have gone home for the week, there are still many who stay here because they don't have a home to go to or because they live too far away to go home for just a week.  Which means that the house mothers and fathers are also here.  Today we are taking a small group of students to the capital to present at a southern African environmental day, EEASA Conference.  The students made crafts out of recycled materials and now they will show them and sell them to people who are interested.  We might even taken them to KFC for lunch.  Yes, that is right, Kentucky Fried Chicken.  It is the only American chain here in Lesotho and it is very popular.  I sometimes see families all dressed up to go to the one in Botha Bothe.  It is not cheap for people here, and therefore it is a big occasion when they do go.  I have only been a few times and that is when I am with my work friends who really want to go.  Anyway, I think that that the students will be very excited if we go there!   As you can see from the picture above we did go, and the kids were very excited.  We also caused some traffic jams by trying to ride the escalators at the mall.  Our students have never seen one (there is only 1 in the country) and they got quite scared and even sat down on them!

The other picture is of my principal with the materials that the students made.  Overall we had a great day and it was so much fun to see our students proud of their work in the big city!                                                                                                                                                                    

Besides spending some time at school I have also done a few home visits this week for my new friend MacDonald.  He is a 14 year old with pretty severe CP who does not attend school.  His brother actually attends our school and has cognitive and language delays.  His mother came to me a few weeks ago and told me about him.  She would love to have him attend a school but his disability is pretty severe and his wheel chair is from when he was 4 years old.  Now, ten years later, the chair does not exactly work for him.  I have asked the appropriate ministry about getting a new chair and they said yes they can give him one, but they don't have any now.  So his mother and I are working on fixing up his chair.  I am going to use a wooden broom handle to make extensions for the foot pedals and some foam or pillows to raise the seat.  We are also trying to make him an adapted spoon and cup to try to work on having him learn how to participate in feeding himself.  If we can get things figured out a bit, we are hoping that his chair can get him to our school for at least a few mornings a week.  I think his mother, who lives in a tiny home with two children with severe disabilities could use the break and that he might enjoy some social stimulation.  I will keep you posted on adaptations and progress with MacD (as his mother calls him).

Downs and Ups

   This has been a very emotional week, both sad and happy moments.  I will end with the happy to leave you in better spirits.  First my sad moment.  On the right is Mameliso, she was just brought to our school on Monday.  Although she doesn't technically have a disability, she can barely walk and is extremely malnourished.  She lost both parents and was left with an uncle who could not care for her and locked her inside.  She is actually 14 years old and she only weighs 35 pounds.  Now that she has been found and treated at the hospital and received basic medicines she was needing a home. They brought her to our school because they felt like the orphanages here could not handle her special needs.  Our principal had no notice, rather people showed up with her in the back of a truck and asked her to please take her.  How do you say "no" even though there is no bed and technically she should go somewhere else.  Of course the teachers  met and we agreed to have her stay.  The school will be able to feed her without a problem and take good care of her.  I found an inexpensive mattress in town and the house mothers have made space for her.  Everyone is working to make sure she eats well and has some positive social interactions.  I have started bringing my seated yoga DVD to her on my laptop, she can only do little bits but she seems to like it.  Even being here, amongst a very vulnerable population, I couldn't believe how neglected this child was.  When she arrived it brought tears to many eyes and I was thankful for the strong teachers who knew they had to take care of her.  I want this blog to be a nice thing to read, but I have just been so consumed by this over the last few days that I had to write about it.  Welcome to this school Mameliso!

   On a more positive note, I also had some happy tears this week.  This is Me Mase who works at our school as a secretary right now.  She also has taken on the challenging role of being my language tutor!  I am really not good at learning languages so it is quite a challenge.  She recently graduated from Agriculture college and last Sunday she invited all of us to her graduation party.  I went with my supervisor and co-teacher out to her family home in a rural village.  After getting lost several times, we finally found it by seeing the large tent and gathering of many people.  Here when there is a graduation party the graduate asks all of her friends who have also gotten degrees to attend in their graduation robes and caps, there were not too many, maybe 8 other people.  I did not have mine, but she included me with the group. Little did I know that there would first be a special mass followed by speeches about the graduate.  At first they had someone translating for me, but then I told them to stop because I felt like it was distracting for everyone else.  So I didn't notice at first when everyone was looking at me expectantly, then the person next to me said it was my turn to get up and speak!  I was not prepared at all, but come up with something, in English of course, but sufficient.  Finally my friend, the graduate spoke, I could tell that she was thanking all of her family, teachers, etc.  It was very moving and a good example of a "village" raising a child.  She then spoke about me and what I was doing here and how happy she was that I attended her party.   I was feeling so happy to be included and welcomed and also embarrassed by too much attention.  After the formalities we had quite a feast and it was fun to see all the older women of the village go into a back room together. I asked "where are they going?"  I was told that they were going in there to drink some shots!  The women do celebrate here, just more privately.

       This is the last week of school before a week vacation for Independence Day.  Everyone is busy finishing up craft projects for the upcoming environmental fair.  Others have been busy building a new home for the pig and harvesting some of the plants.  I have continued to help out wherever I can and have had a lot of fun learning some new skills in farming and building.  I am just continuously trying to show how all the students can be included. Otherwise I am still trying to learn new words and names to communicate better.  These are pictures of us working on making trays out of empty tomato boxes. It is not easy to teach someone how to use a hand saw!                                  
                                                             

Peace Corps - 50th Annivesary

Last week all the PC volunteers in Lesotho traveled into the capital to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps. We had a special lunch and reception a the Morija Museum, one of the earliest learning centers in Lesotho.  The new volunteers were sworn into their service by the US Ambassador Bond and the King of Lesotho, Motlotlehi Letsie Oa Boraro (King Letsie the 3rd).  One of the Ministers in Lesotho who was taught by a Peace Corps Volunteer donated 5 cows to our feast and a catholic priest who hosted us at a monestary type place donated  beer and wine for our evening.  Overall it was very nice to meet all of the other volunteers and to honor 50 years of Peace Corps.  It was overwhelming to hear about the positive impact of volunteers in the development of Lesotho.  The people here are very appreciative and they have such a positive view of  Peace Corps and the United States overall.  We were asked to dress formally for the event so I had a seshoeshoe skirt and head scarf made.  Wearing the seshoeshoe material is important at special occasions.  Another teacher at my school made the skirt for me and I received many compliments.  The whole event was filmed by Lesotho television and I have had several people in the last few days telling me they saw me on TV!!

One of the other PC volunteers had students from his high school perform at the celebration.  The girls are doing a cultural dance with bells and metal pieces under their skirts to make noise, the dance is called Mokhibo.  The boys did a very impressive dance called Mohobelo with a lot of high kicks and stomping.  Behind them other students were singing and drumming.  It was all very cool to see with the backdrop of the American flag and pictures of JFK etc.  It was fun to spend a few days away with a large group of Americans, but I was also happy to return home to my round house. 

Yes, it does feel like home now.  The rest of the weekend  I kept busy with washing, reading, cooking, yoga, etc.  I actually cooked a lot and I have decided  to try to make as many different recipes as I can from my cook book (without an oven and limited ingredients).  So far I have done pretty well and I am slowly finding out that there are lots of spices and other ingredients hidden in the backs of stores here.  Sometimes you just have to ask.  I managed to make my own tortillas, yogurt, mexican rice, beans and veggies for a yummy feast!  Who knew you could have a mexican dinner in the mountains of Africa! I also spent some time preparing for my week at work.  We are focusing on teaching the students crafts made out of recycled materials and I am specifically trying to show teachers how all students, even the most severely disabled can participate in some way.  Many of the students who cannot do just sit and watch, but easy adaptations can be made to include them.  We will see how it goes.  Next week I will write more about school and the people with disabilities that are slowly revealing themselves to me. 

This is a picture of some of the students and teachers making paper machete and working on other projects.  I will include some pictures of the finished products in next weeks blog.

Gum Boots

        Last Week I traveled out to another PC volunteers village.  We had a big plan to get started early and spend our day hiking through the beautiful Tsehlanyane National Park.  I told her I would leave my place at 6:30 and she would then wait for me by the junction of her village, around 7:30.  As it turns out I got to a deserted taxi rink around 7, didn't leave town till 8:30 and then got to her at 9:30, oh well!  When you get in a taxi here, a small van than seats 18 people, or 26 if it is a school day, you don't leave until the entire thing fills up.  If you are one of the first it can be overwhelming trying to decide where to sit.  Do I want to be next to a window?  Where will I most likely not be sat on by someone else?  Where are the older people going to want to sit?  Where will I be noticed less?  Anyway my decisions were made and after moving a few times to accommodate everyone I had a surprisingly amazing ride out to Maggie.  I couldn't believe that the scenery would get even more beautiful.

 It took us almost 3 hours of hiking / walking just to get to the park.  Our plan was to try and hike within the park for around 5K then turn around and head back, but we were running out of time in order for me to get all the way home before dark.  It was amazing though.  Several mountain ranges and river valleys. Passing through villages and meeting people who wanted to sing to us along the way.  There is also a 5 star resort in the park that we stopped into for a yummy glass of wine (on the way back)!  It is called the Maliba Lodge, look it up, it will make you want to come visit.  It is very pricey, but they contribute a lot of resources to the nearby villages and community programs.  Anyway it was an amazing day and the scenery was breathtaking!

        As I mentioned last week, my school had visitors from a special education class at the Lesotho University.  Unfortunaley they were a few hours late, kind of normal here, so the program had to be shortened.  There were about 30 students and they wanted to visit the school, play with the students, ask questions etc.  It was great to see so many people very enthusiastic about special education.  Our students performed a song, they performed a song, our teachers performed an amazing song (which I was part of, just pretending to sing in the background!) and then there were a lot of presentations.  They asked me to speak and I was kind of put on the spot, but did say a few words about the importance of special education and disability rights.  After I was asked about 50 times to take pictures with the students.  It is funny how people who don't know anything about you want pictures with you.  Remember Southeast Asia and India Amy! 

       

            The picture below is of our students practicing a "gum boots" dance with their teacher.They were supposed to perform this during the visit, but since it started so late we ran out of time.  I figured I would give it some attention on my blog!  It is almost like "Riverdance" or tapping but with big rubber rain boots on and lots of slapping your legs!  Overall It was a really nice day and the school and students felt proud of themselves. 

        An unpleasant thing that has happened at school is an outbreak of Chicken Pox.  Although this is very common, here it can be harsh.  People who are HIV positive (which is close to 1 in 4) can't afford to get sick.  Also we are a residential school and that makes it very contagious.  Right now we are up to about 6 cases, but I imagine it is going to be more.  The kids also get very frustrated because the school tries to quarantine them in a seperate room and they just don't understand.  They are very unhappy and they sometimes succeed at escaping out the window!  Hopefully it will not be too bad. 

       All for now.  Next time I will write about seeing the KING of Lesotho at the Peace Corps 50th anniversary celebration!