I've said over and over that I'd try to be more committed to my blog. I'm in the US now and there would be no better time to catch everyone up on all that has been happening. However, considering the circumstances that brought me to America I find myself at a loss for words. Everyone says that time will heal...I guess we'll see.

"Sometimes, when one person is missing, the whole world seems depopulated."

Kea Leboha Haholo

Kea Leboha Haholo~Thank You A Lot
I was motivated to write this blog the other day when I had two fellow PCV's come visit me. In the last month I have been blessed with MANY care packages from home. Other volunteers may say TOO many, but I'm a good sharer, so they should all be happy! The last time I went to the post office I had a total of 7 packages to pick up!!! Luckily my host mother had gone with me, so we paid an abuti (young boy) to carry the boxes to the taxi, and then once we got off the taxi at the top of my mountain we called my host brother to bring the wheel-barrow to get the parcels the rest of the way home. Walking through the village behind a wheel-barrow full of packages made me feel a BIT like a spoiled American....but what the hey!
Back to the point of this blog. The two PCV's who came to visit had a great time checking out all my newly acquired loot. Much of its origin being from my oh-so-supportive Grandfather. We munched on American foods and tried on my new winter clothes, while drinking our, not so delicious, Lesotho beers. Somewhere in the middle of it all we decided that Papa had earned a thank you card, not only from me, but from all the other volunteers who get to take part in these wonderful care packages. Being that we have A LOT of time on our hands, no television, and booze, we decided that a card wouldn't be enough. In true PCV fashion we came up with a nice rhyme that I'd like to share with you all now.

Papa your love engorges us all.
Pasta Roni we eat, so "Dudes" name we call.

Without all your goodies,
we'd be freezing in our cotton hoodies.

Looking good in our LL Bean,
though we don't bathe, we still appear clean.

Without all of your gifts we'd be too thin.
Please don't be shy to send them again and again.

Thank you EVERYONE for all of your support!!! Courtney, you spoil me more than anyone ever should! Suzie and Pete, Janet, Mom, Regan, Boyfriend, The VanBoenings, Rikki and Jeff, Hannah, Peter, and the little ones, Kocus and Chantel.....I hope I haven't forgotten anyone. Thank you all soooo much!!!! The packages, letters, post cards, pics, and everything in between are truly appreciated by me....and all the other PCV's that I get to share with!!! We all thank you!!!!! I hope to pay you back when I get home with a bunch of ridiculous tales from Lesotho, shared over rounds of drinks...that will be on my tab :) LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

Winter Break

Winter Break is now upon us. The last day of classes was Friday, June 11, and they don't start up again until the beginning of August. The months of June and July will be filled with some work, some play, and A LOT of down time.
With this break comes the World Cup! As anyone who knows me can vouch, I don't care at all about sports. However, when its all taking place so near to me I can't help but "feel it". That's one of the WC slogans, "can you feel it?" I watched the first game on t.v at a restaraunt/bar across the street from my village, and watched another one the other day. My host family will be watching them all, I'm sure, so I can follow the whole thing if I want to (probably won't). I will however be spending a day in Bloemfontein South Africa for the game on the 20th of June, Paraguay vs. Slovakia. This is not a game I'm invested in at all, but the dates worked well, and we even managed to find a place to stay in spite of our last minute planning. We've got a flat that belongs to some nuns (they'll be outta town) and it's only 3 minutes away from the stadium. I'm excited to be right in the middle of the action. I didn't get tickets to the game but I plan to watch it from a crowded bar somewhere in Bloem. Should be a good time! Maybe we'll get lucky and the flat will have hot showers too! BONUS!

Horseback Hikes....

First off let me please apologize for my lack of blogging. I've gotten some complaints from friends, and I'm sorry. There's really no excuse....except that I have no idea who reads this, so I get a little overwhelmed when it comes to describing my day-to-day life....I'll try to get over it :)

This last weekend myself and another (he will remain unnamed for this post) PCV decided to take our horses on a little hike to find "Narnia". As many of you know, Lesotho is a beautifully mountainous country, and many of us volunteers live somewhat or extremely remote. A few of us have a mission to find our own personal "narnias" around our sites. A narnia is simply described as a beautiful, private, place where we can relax, that hopefully isn't too much of a hike to get to. This particular weekend we intended to go a further distance to find a narnia that was above and beyond......and this is how it played out.

I will describe our adventures as best I can, however I know that no matter what I write, or what pics are posted (later this week) I will be unable to portray just how insane it all was.

We picked up our horses around 10am or so. Two full grown gorgeous horses, one black, one brown, and an adorable little colt who tagged along the whole way! The weather was amazing! It's Autumn here, so all of the leaves are changing color and falling. The air had a slight chill to it, but the sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Niether one of us are outstanding on horseback, so we rode at a nice walking pace and took in the views. Some of the trails were a little smaller than I would've liked and since there are no landscapers in the mountains of Lesotho we were beaten by branches along the side of the trails a few times. Those horse riding helmets aren't only cute, but they also come in handy when large branches are coming straight for you, and there's no way to avoid them.

Our first stop was just across a small stream. We found a nice patch of grass near a tiny but beautiful waterfall. We took a pic here.....but my accomplice slipped in the mud twice trying to pose, so the pic isn't the best ever. We rested at this first stop for 20mn. or so letting the horses drink while we munched on fried rice we'd prepared the day before. Upon departure our horses freaked out a bit at the site of another horse. This other horse appeared to be chained, or was just dragging a chain behind it, of this I'll never be sure. We threw a couple rocks at it and moved along. Situation averted.

Next we continued up the mountain as far as we could take the horses. One of the other PCV's students lives near the top, so we stopped here to tie up the horses. We explained (in our amazing Sesotho) that we would be back for them later, and that we were going in search of the metsi (water). The family wished us well, and then the mother said, "the small boy is there." I still don't know what that meant. Maybe one of their sons had gone in the same direction earlier. Either way, we never met up with a small boy, and at the time it seemed like a creepy, horror movie, thing to say. As we set off on the second half of our adventure my buddy felt the need to remind me that this trek had only been made once before, and therefore the path wasn't well known. I had no problem with this, as I'm usually down for a good adventure.

Soon enough we reached a waterfall. Our goal was the waterfall that has the "constant rainbow".....this was not that fall. We'd been hiking for a good 15 mn. up a stream, and my friend was sure if we just went a bit further we'd find the one we were looking for. However, we were kinda stuck at this one. The only way out was to back track, or to climb up a small ledge. By this point I was tired of carrying my riding helmet. I didn't want to leave it at the house where we tied the horses, so I'd brought it with me. I decided to risk looking like and idiot, and just wear it. From this point on, I was thankful to have that helmet! Getting up the ledge wasn't too hard. My friend went first, and stated that, "if you can't make it up this, this might be the breaking point." Yee of little faith. There was a dead tree 1/2 way up so all I had to do was grab onto it and pull myself up, using my amazing upper body strength (yeah right). Somehow I managed, and he snapped a pic which I will insert later. Once we got up the view wasn't very promising. We were faced with a lot of overgrown greenery and dead branches. No trail in sight, but we kept on trekking (like idiots).

As we continued hacking our way through over grown roughage I began to wonder how we'd ever find our way out. Eventually we came to a good sized waterfall. However, it was not the one with the contstant rainbow that we'd been in search of. We were now located at the bottom of a waterfall, Surrounded on both sides by steep mountains, and behind us was a good 30 minutes or so of hiking through tree branches. We were at a total loss. My fellow PCV was convinced that if we just got to the top of the waterfall our prospects would be better. I had to agree, as my other choices weren't any better. The only way up was to scale the side of the mountain to our left. I took the lead, as he has a tendancy to fall, and I didn't want him plummetting down onto me! Within two steps I knew this was going to be a bitch. Those two steps got me absolutely nowhere being that the dirt I was climbing up was loose, and the more steps I took the more dirt and rocks slid down. Our only option was to haul ass up this mountain and grab onto every dead tree along the way, hoping that they were still rooted to something. At this point I began to get a little worried.

I don't do well with heights, although I'm getting much better. About 1/2 way up the side of the mountain we came to a decent resting point at yet another dead tree. I looked down and realized that if either one of us fell we'd probably end up seriously injured, if not worse. My legs were shaking, and I wanted to cry. Just making it to this far had been ridiculously challenging. My buddy almost fell once, and my only response was, "NO!" as I kept on up the mountain. We were now halfway up and I was fiercely gripping onto the two most stable rocks around me. We still had a ways to go, and from this point on we'd be bouldering. No more landslides, now it was straight rock, and we still had no idea what we'd find at the top.

Bouldering was much better than the land slide climbing. I spent a few drunken nights bouldering barefooted on the beaches in Bellingham ( say that 3 times fast), and am thankful for that experience now! My body has never been so angry with me. I was using every muscle I had to get to each new rock, while aslo trying not to ever look down, as I would've freaked out! My PCV was an amazing spotter, and he claims to have saved my life once by holding my foot, but I would've been fine ;)

Once we made it to the top of the waterfall we found some stable ground, which was all I really wanted at that point. However, there was still a very long way to go before we'd be out of the wilderness and back on a decent trail. This next part of the journey was taken slowly. We had to climb for awhile up large rocks, but they weren't steep and/or scary. We stopped often to rest, reflect, and search for those elusive Lesotho diamonds. Soon we were about 3/4 of the way up the big mountain. I'd mention its name, but its a little x-rated, and as I said before, I don't know who's reading this. Soon we spotten civilization, one lone hut, which isn't exactly a safety sign cause you have to wonder who the hell lives all the way up this mountain? Anyway, we'd been packing around (actually I hadn't carried anything) the fixings for egg mc-muffins all day, so we finally came to a good place to stop, build a fire, and eat. I didn't want anything to do with food, as I was still in panic mode, but I ate anyway, and I'm glad I did. The mc-muffins, cooked over an open fire, consisting of english muffins, cream cheese and fried eggs were delicious! I know it sounds gross, and maybe it was just the addrenalin, but they were yummy! We snapped a couple photos, and began our journey down....finally!

I've gone into great detail about the adventures on the way up.....and as readers you're probably bored by now. As far as the journey down I'll say only a few things. We may have suffered some elevation sickness, as we were both light headed at a few points. The trails were not always made for or by humans, there was a lot of butt sliding, and once we got in sight of the house where our horses were tied I'm SURE the family was laughing at us! We rode our horses home, and made it back before dark with almost no problems....except when my buddy fell off his horse onto river rocks, and almost got trampled, but that's a minor detail :) He's fine now. I learned a lot about myself during the hike, and probably will do a few things differently on the next outdoor adventure, but we made it out alive, and can look back on it and laugh now!

Hope this blog didn't totally freak Mom and/or Dad out. I'm tough guys, don't worry! Love you all, and thanks for reading. I really will try and keep up on the blogging from now on!!!

These pics are completely random and out of order, but better than nothing right?


Here is my rondoval and my lovely dog Fetus.

These are some girls at Lesotho High School in Maseru who just HAD to take a photo with me. These are some cutie likonyana (young kids) at our Child's Day event. My district's color is green, so both the kids and teachers get decked out! Someday I'll have my very own kelly green track suit. Can't wait!

Just some cows by a car.

Pretty typical.

Gnarly bruises from my first horse riding expedition.

Here is my horse KN3. That's what's branded on his butt....so that's his name. The pictures is taken in my yard.

Mount Up!!!

We appreciate a good Coke here. PCV Leeza and I at the Butha-Buthe KFC after our literacy and Life Skills workshop.

This may or may not be the most PCV's you can fit into one rondoval. This pic. was taken at our site visit, when we were actually still only trainees. We all stayed the night here, and oh what a slumber party it was!

Literacy and Life Skills Workshop

This last weekend I got to be a part of a wonderful workshop. The Ed volunteers from last year started a pilot program in the nearby district of Butha-Buthe. Using PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) funds they were able to order AIDS/HIV themed books for 12 schools. The books are set in African villages, and the characters are African children. A few of the books were even translated into Sesotho. Needless to say, these are valuable resources for the teachers here. The workshop started Thursday evening and went through the weekend, ending Sunday morning. Three teachers from each school were invited, and they ALL came!!!
The workshop focused on teaching the teachers (and some principals) how to use the books in their classrooms. PCV's in Lesotho have managed to set up hundreds up libraries throughout the country, but we are finding that often times the books don't get used. Being that books are precious items here, they tend to get locked away, so as not to be damaged. However, they are also not accessable to the students. The workshop focused on incorporating the literature into their curriculums, teaching reading comprehension, and basic reading skills.
The whole experience was positive and encouraging. The teachers were very excited about their books, and the teaching tools we gave them. As a volunteer I think the weekend was a success, and now we are going to try to implement this into the other districts of Lesotho. I was also able to speak with a local publisher, so a few other volunteers and I will be spending our cold winter months writing books for ECCD (Early Child Care and Development) with the hopes of getting them translated and published for next year!

Durban

Left: RBV's even in Africa.
Below: Easter Brunch
Girls at the Ushaka Aquarium.

Left: All dressed up for dinner

Below: Group pic on the beach.

I guess it's been almost a month since I went on vacation. I apologize for taking so long to post anything about it. From the small country of Lesotho, to the big city of Durban South Africa. The differences were apparent almost immediatly. As volunteers we went from being greeted and questioned by everyone we pass to going completely unnoticed. The anonymity was a nice change. The weather was wonderfully warm and allowed us to swim in the ocean and float the lazy river at Ushaka Marine World. Our first day was waisted in a large mall, as we ladies had to shop for "nice" shoes in order to get into the bars. our PCV flip-flops don't cut it in the city. I hate malls so this wasn't mch fun, but it was nice to see such a variety of shopping options. Unfortunately on a PCV budget we're restircted to mostly window shopping. I laso ate McDonald's for the 1st time (it tastes better in America) and some PCV's got Subway (this would've been the better choice). That evening we went out to Sushi on the beach and had a great time! I'm running out of computer battery, so I'll sum up the rest quickly.

My favorite day was Saturday where a few of us girls went to an amazing market where I could've spent ALL my money, but managed to only spend most of it :) I picked up some tny souveniers for family and friends, and was FINALLY able to buy a purse. I've been needing and wanting one since I got to Lesotho. After the market we met up with some other PCV's at Ushaka Marine World where we went down the largest water slide in the Southern Hemisphere (I hated it) and floated the lazy river with some beers before checking out the aquarium. From Ushaka we went straight to a Sharks Rugby game. This was my first Rugby experience, and I loved it!!! The whole vaca. was filled with amazing food, sandy beaches, and booze. I had a great time and now we're busy planning vaca. number two!

Host Family

Thato helping w/the water pump at my house. Me, my host sister, brother, and neighbors.

My host family is wonderful! I've been telling many of you about them over the phone and emails, so now I can finally post some pictures. My little abuti (brother) is 6 years old and his name is Thato. My ausi (sister) is 10 and her name is Mohlabase (not sure on the spelling). My other abuti is 19 and his name is Nchakha. I've also got 3 other siblings who are grown and don't live at my site, but I see them often. The kids and I spend a lot of time playing in the yard, practicing English and Sesotho, and doing arts and crafts outside of my hut. I'm never too lonely with all the kids around. I could write sooo much more, but time is limited. Anyway, here are some photos.

World Wise Schools

This one is for you Jen. Since being in Lesotho I've been part of a program called World Wise Schools, which links classes here in Lesotho with classes in America. I'm sending our my first batch of pen-pal letters to Ms. Jennifer Steven's 3rd grade class on Monday. However, since she was efficient enough to send me photos of all of her students I decided I needed to do the same. Class 6 at Hlotsenyane Primary School in Leribe worked for WEEKS on their letters, and they were super thrilled to take a class teacher. I've worked hard to get to an internet source that would allow me to post some pics, as that's nearly impossible, unless you want to spend a lot of money, soooooo....here are the students!!!

Morning Routine

Since becoming settled in my new home I can't help but take note of the many differences between by morning routine here in Lesotho compared to that in America. I will now share those differences with you fine people :)

~I wake up to the buzz of flies and the crow of roosters instead of to an alarm.
~I wake up hours early vs. minutes late.
~I drink instant coffee instead of the real stuff (although sometimes I do splurge).
~I look out the window at a mountain vs. a manicured golf course.
~I watch herd boys go by instead of golfers.
~I listen to O FM "The Sound of Your Life" instead of watching the Today's Show.
~I talk to Fetus, the dog rather than my boyfriend.
~I ALWAYS take the time to fix breakfast vs. relying on a last minute Starbucks run.
~I do my dishes vs. doing my hair.
~I apply sunscreen vs. makeup
~I get dressed in the same clothes I've worn for days vs. a fresh, clean outfit.
~I have a 20 minute hike down the mountain to get to work vs. a 5 minute drive or bike ride.
~Once at work I listen to Sesotho rather than speaking English.
~I rarely have a schedule or agenda to follow vs. having every minute accounted for.
~I maybe work 2-3 hours a day vs. always working 8 or more.

Top 10 Reasons to Love Your Pit Latrine

These are in no particular order, and I wanted to include a picture, but it's not happening today.

*You can't stink it up because it already smells.
*You don't have to worry about flushing with your foot vs. your hand to avoid germs....you just don't flush.
*You can see what's happening in the yard through the crack in the door.
*It's self cleaning...the lizards eat the bugs.
*You can flush anything down it; tin cans, wine bottles, whatever....although I don't.
*No water is wasted.
*The toilet will never flood.
*No one can hear you pee.
*There's great ventilation through the holes in the walls and ceiling.
*You don't have to worry about dropping something in and having to fish it out. Once it falls in it's gone forever! Unless it's Rusty's torch and then your host family will fish it out and give it back to you in the morning!

No pics again :(

I'm trying to post pics again, and it isn't working. Not sure why. I'll post some on Facebook and try again in the morning. Sorry guys!

February a Month of Visits

HAPPY B-DAY DAD AND HAPPY V-DAY EVERYONE!!! Thanks so much for all of the packages and letters. I'm convinced that I've got the most devoted friends and family around. I am receiving both packages and letters at the new address in two weeks!!! Thank you again for all of your love and support, it truly brightens my days here!
February so far has been consumed with visits of all kinds. I spend my week days touring the Leribe distircit, one ECCD center at a time. Once in a while a visit gets canceled at the last minute, or traded for a home visit with a teacher to drink coke, eat, and socialize instead. I take these variations in scheduling as they come, and try to view the time as cultural learning opportunities. I am extremely grateful to finally be visiting the schools that I will be working with. If these visits get off track once in a while I have to remind myself to be happy that I'm being shown around at all. Finding the silver lining in things is something I find myself doing on a very regular basis in Lesotho. Positive things happen to positive people and I challenge myself to stay optimistic even during the most frustrating of situations.
My weekends have also been filled with visits. These visits to fellow PCV's, although expensive at times, are necessary for my sanity. PCV gatherings allow me perks that aren't available at my site. These include, but are not limited to, washing machines, internet access, movies, t.v. shows, new music, meat in meals, and good old fashioned companionship. I look forward to these visits as they break up the monotony of the weeks. I haven't had this many slumber parties since junior high!
The month of March will be filled with more school visits. On the 21st all of the ED 10 group will reconvene in Maseru for more training, and then off to Durban for our first official vacation! We'll no longer be on "lock down" so I'll be able to travel to Maseru to use the VRC (volunteer resource center) for reliable internet access and thus more consistent blog updates.
Enjoy your hot showers while I struggle to keep my feet clean!
~Haley

I'm a volunteer now!

Above is the Basotho Hat Mt. at Thaba Bosiu. Below is a group photo after we were sworn in. We're now officially VOLUNTEERS!!! Every last one of us. YAY!

I finally got two pictures posted. I stole them from my friend Shanthi's camera, so I'll get some of my own up next time. I came to Shanthi's this weekend and was blessed with running water, electricity, booze, and the internet. I feel like I'm at a Bed and Breakfast compared to what I have to work with on the average day.
We were sworn in as volunteers on January 7th. The whole thing was broadcasted on Lesotho television, and when I got to my site my host mom came running into my rondoval telling me to come quick. When I got into her familie's house she pointed at the t.v. and said, "I SEE YOU!" She was pretty excited, and I enjoyed watching it as well. (Yes, my host family has t.v.) I got to watch Inspector Gadget with the kids the other day, talk about a blast from the past.
I'm at my permanent site now in Matukeng. We are on "lockdown" until March 21 which means that we are not supposed to leave our districts. Peace Corps does this in order to encourage us to integrate into our communities. I'm finding it difficult because I really miss being around the other volunteers. I've been visiting those that are in my district on the weekends, and plan to keep that up :) I've got electricity, and my host family is great. I'm living in a rondoval and I have a puppy named Fetus. Yeah, strange name I know....he's named after some sort of past loan company in Lesotho. I explained what a fetus is in English and they kind of liked it. I love the dog, but he bites A LOT, and my family thinks I'm crazy for wanting to play with him. Dogs are not pets to them, they are used to gaurd their property so my family treats the dog much differently than I do.
My job is still pretty vague. I should be traveling around to all the different ECCD schools in my area, but no one wants to be my tour guide, so I've been helping my host mom teach her likonyana (preschool) class instead. The volunteer that was at my site before me experienced the same type of thing her first few months. I'm sure I'll get into the groove of things eventually, it's just going to take much longer than I expected.
I have a new address that is more direct, its a personal p.o. box, and the mail doesn't get stopped up in the capital city, so hopefully it'll be even faster. Right now letters and packages have been taking about a month to get to me. I appreciate all the comments, letters, and care packages from everyone. I hope things are going well in the states. I miss everyone, but have deffinately made some great friends here.
Until next time.....