UPDATE 4/29/15:  Click here for a picture and update from Jeny, one of the HSPF leaders

UPDATE 4/28/15:  Last night we received the horrible news that 95% of the homes in Ghumarchowk have been razed or damaged, with 6 confirmed dead in the village.  The rains and the continued tremors have continued to isolate this difficult to access mountaintop village.  The acute aid response has not yet arrived, and quite frankly I will be surprised if there is much help beyond what we can offer from here.  The teacher mentioned at the end of this post is working with the Hem Sarita Pathak Foundation (HSPF) to attempt to remedy the lack of response for the village.  HSPF is currently working to buy tents and provide shelter for the villagers.  Hygienic problems and the risk of infectious disease outbreak are of tremendous concern.

Original Post: As you probably know, a series of huge earthquakes have been rocking Nepal for the last several days. Hundreds-year old historical landmarks have been razed, and the death toll is climbing well into the thousands. My good friend, Ramu Kharel, is a medical student working to raise funds to help address the rebuilding needs of a particular village, named Ghumarchowk.

UNICEF, the Red Cross, and hundreds of other organizations are going to do their best in addressing the acute needs of this crisis. Food and shelter will be offered to many who need it, but there will always be people and communities left behind. There will be hundreds of remote, marginalized communities in a crisis of this scale, so I am asking for particular help for this village named Ghumarchowk, high on a mountain side and only accessible by motorcycle. Since it is so difficult to reach and the village leadership is more isolated, It is unlikely to receive the same level of aid that larger communities will. In addition, the rebuilding process is not one that will end any time soon. Nepal is going to need long-term support to address the homelessness and rebuilding issues that are going to arise from this disaster.

Ramu is a personal friend and hero of mine. He was born in a small village in Nepal and is now attending UT Southwestern Medical school with me. He aspires to become a leader in addressing health needs of Nepal. He will be attending Havard School of Public Health this next year, and received the Golden Humanitarian award at UT Southwestern a few days ago (this is no small feat in a school chocked full of young, aspiring, service-minded individuals). He is a phenomenal and inspirational individual, who understands what needs to be done to improve lives. He believes in working from the bottom up, identifying problems with the help of local leadership, rather than the “plan and spend” idealistic approach that is used frequently in foreign development campaigns. This means he can do more for a village with less money by identifying needs and necessary leadership by working personally within a village. He is very much going to play a key role in the effort to help Ghumarchowk rebuild.

For the last 3 days, the mountainside village of about 400 homes has seen more than half of its family dwellings razed, with extensive damage to the remainder. As the quakes have continued, even those who still have homes are cooking, sleeping, and living in the fields, awaiting the tremors to subside. I’ve visited this village myself and was touched by the strength and earnestness, and warmth of this community. They are a poor but happy community that simply will not be able to rebuild to their former quality of life without resources to back them up. They will need to rebuild safe drinking water supplies, create safe bathroom areas to prevent the spread of disease, and of course rebuild so many homes. There is a family-run organization that supports the village, The Hem Sarita Pathak foundation, run by a philanthropic Nepali family in Austin. Ramu will be working directly with this foundation to understand and address needs of this beautiful village that will need so much support to regrow.

Thank you for taking your time to read this message.

Please visit Ramu’s gofundme campaign page and forward this e-mail or add the page to your facebook. If you can’t donate, there is NO REASON to feel bad, just simply re-post the page so others can see the project and donate if they can. If you have family or friends that may be in a position to support, please let them know of this project. The only hindrance to this project is getting the word out and growing a large network of small contributions! Thank you!

http://www.gofundme.com/medstudentfornepal

If you still have time to keep reading: the following is an excerpt from a volunteer who was working in the village with the Hem Sarita Pathak Foundation:

Tiffany Tran is a graphic designer from the US and is in Nepal working with the students at Ugratara School in Ghumarchowk. Luckily she was not in Ghumarchowk (the village where the school is located) this weekend when the earthquake hit. Her host family told her over the phone that they were glad she wasn’t in her room because she could have been hit by fallen bricks. Her room is no longer the way it was a few days ago.

Here is what she shared this morning:

“Rarely do I ever make a Facebook post, but what I am about to write is something that is very close to my heart. I am reaching out to all of you in high hopes that you can help.
As some of you may know, I temporarily moved to Nepal to volunteer teaching English at a small village called Ghumarchowk (a 1 hour walk + 1.5 hour bus ride from Kathmandu). This past weekend, I decided to visit Kathmandu when a 7.9 magnitude earthquake hit us – an earthquake so strong that it even caused deaths in the neighboring countries of India and China. Buildings have collapsed, roads cracked in half, and many stuck beneath fallen rubble. At this point, the death toll is more than 3,000.
Ghumarchowk is so small and isolated that Googling its name will yield minimal information of it or even its whereabouts, and this is why we fear that no help will arrive to this village that has had over 200 homes destroyed. Working with the Hem Sarita Pathak Foundation, I will be returning to Ghumarchowk with Sandhya Sitoula (a KTM resident) to assist those in need. We are a very small team, so we are asking for any kind of help – whether it be sharing this Go Fund Me page or donating $1, we appreciate every action.
Please keep Nepal, and all those affected, in your thoughts. To be going through this firsthand among these kind and welcoming people is truly upsetting and my heart suffers with them.
P.S. I received an overwhelming amount of messages, emails, and texts concerning my safety! I am unable to reply to every single one of you at the moment, but please know that I am OK and am warmed by all your love coming from the States, Europe, and Australia. Thank you so much, I love all of you!”

Wow. Staying true to slacker form, it’s been a year since the last update. Currently my socks are being viciously attacked by my little sister’s Chihuahua, so forgive me if this post is no good. America…so full of distractions.

My last year in a nutshell: Africa farewell trip was the trip of a lifetime, I got accepted to medical school at UTHSC San Antonio, and got a job on an oil rig!(putting it in such a condensed manner makes it sound pretty cool, but no worries, I’ve been perfectly useless to society in all other ways since my last post.)

I can’t wait to contribute to something. I’ve no doubt got Edward Abbey churning up some soil in Moab at the moment with my job selection, but I actually feel really good about it. My training was a blast, and i’m working with some really good, salt of the earth kind of folks. There was a lot of talk about guns, ‘coons, trucks, and country music(you mean i have to learn ANOTHER language!?), and enough dip was consumed to keep a couple of plantations in business a few years…but the guys are good people, plain and simple, and were willing to take me under wing to show me the ropes in spite of my being a bit of a black sheep. I learned a lot…and it wasn’t all rigs, guns, and ‘coons, either. I envy the honest hearts of some of these guys. Here’s to hoping it’s contagious.

DONESIES! I got my ‘R’ (RPCV—for Returned) on December 21! It was a surreal feeling…filling out paperwork with parker…getting it done…and then going right back to my normal life in Lesotho, even though i’m not technically a volunteer anymore. I spent christmas in the south and had a great time meeting a number of the newer volunteers…in other words my replacements. It’s a good group…I suppose Lesotho is gonna be okay after we up and leave…

Parker and I are busy trying to get our nearly 20 year old bikes into their best running order…opening up the engines and grinding the valves to ensure compression isn’t being lost…by grinding the valves we will be making sure we get the best fuel mileage possible…plus it’s fun…stressful but the problem solving is pretty awesome(so long as we can actually solve our problems)…which so far we’re doing okay…learning lots about mechanics and elbow grease.

We have a website up for the trip…it’s www.africa3deep.com. We are going to be working over the next few days to get this thing going.

Nate is currently held up building bridges at his site…classic peace corps cliche…the money just came into his account to get the job done and he should be done with the project in the next week…after which he will(hopefully) close his service and we can get started on the trip. It’s cutting it close but his village really will benefit from his work here…as many students show up to school soaked from head to toe treading through the dangerous waters that must be crossed to get around at his site. Tentatively we are expecting a departure date of around Jan. 20…but this is africa and anything is possible. Parker and I aren’t complaining as this is giving us a great chance to get adequately prepared and to ensure that everything is running perfectly.

If anyone is curious, our bikes are ’93 Suzuki Bandit GSF 400s which have been modified with dual sport tires and raised suspension to help us out if we need to do some off-road riding. They are beautiful bikes but a touch over the hill…so we’ve been busy trying to get them running like they did the day they were born…which i’m pretty sure we can do. We might just be the first(slash dumbest) guys ever to take such bikes through the rugged terrain of africa…so it will indeed be a one of a kind adventure…i’m sure we’re going to have some amazing stories to share…i’m so excited!

So I’m officially in Maseru with Parker for our COS(close of service)…sitting in the VRC(volunteer resource center…aren’t anagrams fun?), waiting for tomorrow when we can get things started.  It’s nice having free internet, which comes with the added luxury of enabling images…Parker just came in all the way from the rural mountains of Mokhotlong…currently he’s telling me how awful the Miami Marlins’ new uniforms are…as if the new alliteration weren’t enough.  There are only two more COSing volunteers from our group after me and Parker, and one of them is Nate(there are also three volunteers from our group who have extended their service).

For those of you that don’t know…myself, Parker, and Nate are taking a motorcycle trip through Southern Africa…we’ve been learning a lot about the route and the bikes we’ll be taking over the last several months, getting everything together to make sure we can make the trip as safely, efficiently, and as adventurously as possible.  Originally the plan was to go all the way to Cairo, but the political situations in Egypt and Kenya make traveling through northern Africa a bit of a gamble that we aren’t willing to take(especially considering the 200% vehicle deposit to enter Egypt with our own bikes).

Our current(but very flexible) route is taking us north from Lesotho’s Sani Pass, through the South Coast, up through the eastern(not-so mountainous) region of swaziland, through the coastal towns of Mozambique, then dipping into Malawi, taking a route on the western shore of lake Malawi, northwards through Tanzania to see Zanzibar, heading as far north as Kilamanjaro and possibly seeing the mountains of Rwanda(for a free visa, how could we say no?).  From there we’ll head southwards through Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia, before returning to South Africa to sell the bikes.   It will be the trip of a lifetime, and we feel so lucky to have the opportunity.

COS is strange…i really can’t quite get my mind around the fact that i’m soon to be leaving Lesotho.  This week Parker and I go through the motions of COS… busy getting paperwork signed, working on our DOS(description of service), getting medical checkups, and enjoying a lot of the great food that maseru has to offer.  It’s amazing how quickly being in a town will suck your wallet dry after living in a village for so long…i don’t know how the volunteers that live in the towns do it, as they make the same living allowance as us mountain men/women.

I keep trying to let myself reflect, but my subconcious is fighting pretty hard.  It’s difficult to acknowledge the friends and family i’ve spent the last two years of my life with will soon be an ocean away.  It’s very much like when i left America, going to this crazy new place that i knew so little about.  What is this ‘America’ like now?  What’s happening in politics?  Is Blink 182 popular again?  Is The Arcade Fire really as overplayed as Parker/this wikipedia stub make it out to be?  Will i be shamed for not having a smart-phone, or what?  I feel like i know so little about the America I used to know…it’s like playing catch-up with an old friend…trying to find a not-so awkward way to break the ice and find out what’s happening in their lives. 

Not to mention the same thing will be happening on a much deeper and intimate scale with my friends and family back stateside.  My older brother, after being married for two years…in which ways has he changed?  My younger brother…while I hear a lot about how he’s doing…i really have little idea as to who he’s grown into over these last few years.  My sister, my Mother, my Father, my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, my friends…all of these bridges I get to gap in a relative instant…i’ll be playing catch-up with every single person I know for MONTHS!  When i put it in those terms, it honestly sounds a bit daunting.

But don’t get me wrong…i’m tremendously excited to start the next phase of my life.  The motorcycle trip gives me a lot to look forward to…i’ll hopefully be able to get out my ‘wild and free’ bug after living a life with so many rules for so long…then i’ll be ready to discipline my way through medical school.  I truly have been blessed with an incredible life with such great opportunities to explore, and i’m stoked that i’ve been smart enough to take what opportunities life has thrown my way.

In the end, my service with Peace Corps has had a lot of ups and downs, but i’ve seen things and learned lessons that i could never have figured out anywhere else in life.  It’s hard to measure growth in one’s self, but i’ve no doubts that i’m very much a different person than I was before i stepped on that plane to Southern Africa more than two years ago.  I know i’ll always look back on my time here with a kind of tender nostalgia that will always come with a smile.  The old Peace Corps slogan…”The toughest job you’ll ever love”…i don’t know if it could possibly be any more accurate…

First off, there are new pictures.  Click here.

Covers the Botswana adventure(animals, cut feet, and salty hoodrat things,in summary), as well as some pictures from the school, especially of the library, which i’m particularly proud of.

Why this sudden outburst of generosity after i’ve been so quiet for so long?  In a word or four, telephone businesses are dumb.  Vodafone, the network that is supposed to be the most reliable in Lesotho(but really it’s the least reliable and it charges you for all of the texts that it doesn’t send for you), has decided to make all of its airtime purchases expire on a monthly basis, meaning this huge chunk of airtime on my modem is useless as of tomorrow.  Wasted cash.  This is is a small victory in the sense that I get to squeeze get the last few dastardly pennies out of his swath of airtime before it expires tomorrow.  Enjoy!

As the end of my service approaches, i feel like things are rounding out nicely.  I have one of the latest C.O.S.(close of service) dates and will be ending my time in Lesotho enjoying the holidays here.  It should be spectacular.  Khotso didn’t win the October election but the next best guy did, so i’m pretty pleased anyways.  The new guy should be able to move things in a  better direction for Ha Lejone.  Keep the prayers coming for these guys.

I’m not sure if they’ll get a new volunteer or not, as there’s two times as many sites since the last ED group didn’t come.  If they don’t get one this year, hopefully next year.  The staff deserves the support…so long as certain changes are made at the school.  There’s also a great site near me(about an hour south) called LaGhetto(haha…nonono it’s prounounced La-kay-too) and they have been doing great things since i’ve been here so I think they really deserve a volunteer as well.

I had some of the new Education group visit me last week for site visit, and they are a fine group of people.  I got a good chance to meet most of them on the way up from their training villages.  Lucky me, I had two girls, both of them were fantastic.  My staff room was asking a million questions about them today after being shy the whole time they were visiting.  They left a good impression, though, and my staff are hoping they can be so lucky as to have one of them nearby in the future.

A quick blurb about Botswana…the country is incredibly developed and distributes its resources beautifully.  Thirty-five years ago, it was one of the poorest countries in Africa.  After discovering its great mineral wealth the country has been able to flourish.  Crime and corruption are taken very seriously and people are hung for what would seem to many as petty crimes.  While the merits of this are questionable, you can’t argue with the results.  You can tell as soon as you cross the border that you are in a country that is a little differently developed than most others.  At one point we even saw a ‘Psychiatric Hospital’ that no doubt puts any facility in America to shame.  Since corruption is so little, Botswana also gets some of the highest volumes of aid money in Africa…when you smooth that money, along with the natural mineral wealth and the reasonably successful tourism of the country, over with a small population(1.8 million…the same as Lesotho), you get a country where virtually no village that wants electricity is without it, and water is always just a stones throw away.  It’s magical what they’ve been able to do there.  I felt like I was in Disneyland, not able to believe my eyes.

Speaking of not being able to believe my eyes…in Kisane, we stayed with a peace corps volunteer.  I ended up visiting his next door neighbors…Upon opening the gate, i couldn’t help but notice a huge ford 350 pickup truck in the driveway.  I heard some gently ringing chimes and saw an all-too familiar maroon-and-white insignia.  I was greeted with a huge glass of sun-steeped sweet tea and a number of smiles and huge chunks of Aggie gold on everyone’s fingers.  They were missionaries who had been working in southern Africa on and off over the last 20+ years.  Great family who made me feel right at home.  Aggies.  Across the ocean.  Serving me sweet tea and telling me stories like I had been part of the family since day zero.  The world really is a small place.

Anyways, that’s it for the updates for today.  Maybe with this new monthly expiration deal on the interwebz i’ll be forced to update more often!?  Wouldn’t that be nice?

Well, that’s unfortunate in a way.  I came here hoping to extend upon a post i thought i made a few weeks ago…but I either dreamed that one up or lost it here on the interwebz.

The post expounded on the following quote, sent to me by my mother:

William H. Murray:

“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative(and creation).

There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.  All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred.  A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way.”

And so my post was about this Providence of Decision that William Murray spoke of.  Countless opportunities have arisen for me to help my friend Khotso, and it is the act of decision that allowed those opportunities to arrive.  For the most part, all I had to do is decide what a great person he is and the rest has come along quite naturally of its own accord.

Anyways…i came here today to further profess my love for this quote and this idea of Providence from Commitment.  I can’t talk about it much yet, but many of you should gather quite readily what this involves.

All i can say at this point is that I’ve had an obstacle in peace corps that I only recently positively committed myself to.  Honestly I was unsure as to what the outcome could be, but by chance, coincidence, Providence, or what have you…suddenly the pieces on the board have moved in a most absurd way in my favor, possibly due to a letter I wrote nearly a year ago, but most likely due to a number of circumstances and ‘streams of events’ of which I had little or no control.

Providence has given me exactly what is needed to make this world a better place, and it has made the road to getting there far easier than I ever could have imagined.  In the past I had my worries that I would fail…that my plans had been tried before and seen failure…and if I failed, how could I live with myself?  How could I live happily in a world that allowed such a thing?

I was thinking too hard.  All I needed to do was commit.

The rest has been taken care of.

Thank You Providence.

Well I’ve been pretty darned lazy about posting, and it’s not for having nothing to say.  Life’s been jam-packed with all kinds of interesting stuff since my last post.  No excuses, I’m just the worst.

2 weeks ago was my COS(Close/Continuation of Service) conference with my fellow ED ’10s.  There was awesome lodging, great food, beautiful mountains, and…I even zoned out learned a little bit.  The conference was about what to expect wrapping up my service and returning home, getting into the next phase of life, and sharing the experience with others when we get back(Peace Corps 3rd goal).  My official last day as a PCV is December 21.  I’ll be enjoying what Lesotho has to offer for  Christmas and bringing in the New Year.  It will be my first Summer Christmas and I’m actually quite excited to spend it with my friends here as a farewell.

This weekend I had to go to Maseru to visit the dentist.   Turns out I had my first permanent cavity.  One of my best friends has been sending me bags upon bags of Jelly Bellys, and my mom has even sent a few herself.  I’ve been enjoying them, quite naturally, ‘too much'(as the Basotho love to say).  I thought for sure the cavity was a consequence of my gluttony, but it turns out another of my teeth was jamming into the other.  I got it ground down and have a temporary filling that needs to be replaced next week.  Also:  I have 33 teeth now as opposed to my former 32.  I guess peace corps turned out to be enough to qualify me as a wiseman…1/4 of a wiseman, anyway.  It’s a start.

Khotso is starting his Backpackers Project.  It’s really exciting.  He’s been very patient, slowly gathering resources and it’s finally paying off with the laying of the foundation and building of the walls.  It’s really exciting to see it coming along.  The location is perfect, and NO one has tapped the backpackers market in Lesotho.  The cheapest accommodations I know of are at least R300/night, where as typical Backpackers in South Africa go for maybe 100-150/night.  It’s a market that’s begging to be tapped into in Lesotho.  I want to set him up with a great website where people can make reservations online.  If anyone knows how to help with this, we’d really appreciate it!  Khotso is also running for membership on Community Council.  If elected, he’ll be able to shift the culture of corruption here in one of the biggest villages in our very large valley.  As a PCV, i’m not allowed to help him with elections…but cross your fingers for him, it’s a steeply inclined uphill battle.

Tom’s Memorial is going to be in Maseru this Saturday.  We’ll be laying some flowers at the site where he fell and playing some of his old songs.  It’s been a rough couple of days building up to the event.  It will be a nice ceremony, i’m sure, but I wish we could do more than just ‘remember’ him.  Totally illogical I know as that’s all we CAN do.  They are building a memorial at the capital near the library to honor Tom’s commitment to bridging American and Basotho culture.  I’m sure it will be nice.  I hope his family and friend back home are doing the best they can.  We are taking good care of one another here.

The following week I’ll be taking a hike with some great people from Teyateyaneng(translation: the place of the mud hole) to Katse(translation:Cat).  It will be maybe the most difficult hike yet(even though it’s only 2 days)  as I have a strong suspicion that we will be traveling continuously up and down mountains from that route.  I’ll be sure to get good pictures.

The following week is the peace corps 50th Anniversary celebration in Lesotho.  If you’re not aware, Peace Corps is 50 years old this year and we’re celebrating with a big festival in one of the most beautiful villages in Lesotho(Morija).  There will be traditional song and dance from Americans and Basotho.  I’m really excited to do a performance of “American Pie” with some friends.

The Library is coming along beautifully.  Unfortunately my Principal is dumb and keeps telling me he ‘didn’t have the money’ to pick up the cleaning supplies I requested to keep the Library clean.  It’s dusty season so every day there is a nice layer of dust that is blown in from outside, under the door, and into the Library.  I’m in the process of bringing the school textbooks into the room, as well, and it’s looking VERY impressive.  I wish we could paint, as well, but the teachers will have to organize that in the future…if we ever get a freaking Principal that’s willing to fork over the money for it.(sorry…touchy subject)

Also, the principals son keeps using his usb disks on the school computers and giving them viruses.  It’s always a continuing battle for me to keep the computers clean, but finally I’ve ended up on the losing side.  2 of the computers have been killed.  2 are virtually unusable.  They are the best 4 computers we have.  The teachers have asked him to STOP, but he doesn’t care as HE doesn’t have to MAINTAIN them.  I’m worried the computers are not a sustainable idea…as when I leave no one will be able to keep them clean.  I’ve taught the teachers how to prevent flash viruses from passing, but once the infections start, it’s a complicated process to remove some of them, going online and getting special tools to remove the infections.  They won’t stand a chance so long as other people keep disrespecting our requests to NOT GIVE US VIRUSES!(sorry… yet another touchy subject)

So, with everything that’s been going on, I haven’t and will not have had a relaxing weekend at site for some time.  It’s unfortunate as one of my chummy students wants to go fishing and I keep having to push the date back further and further…for something so simple as fishing!  I shouldn’t need to pencil in fishing on my calendar…it should just happen.   I feel cheated, not being at site when my time left is already so short.  That’s not to say i’m not looking forward to more hustle and bustle…The events and activities have and will continue to be great, no doubt.  I just wish there was a little more time…

So, most of us peace corps volunteers spend a good bit of our time criticizing foreign aid. Not only is criticizing other organizations an effective way to inflate our own egos, it’s also REALLY easy and fun. Most of the NGOs in Southern Africa are, quite unfortunately, pretty easy targets.

After spending nearly 2 years of having nothing better to do than criticize others about many of the failings that I myself am guilty of, I can confidently say there is one organization that I have never had anything but respect for. What’s more, I don’t believe i’ve ever heard any other volunteers complaining about the failings of this particular organization(and believe me…we complain plenty).

Yup, folks…this organization is truly doing exactly what it’s supposed to be doing…making the world a better place by following its mission accurately and effectively. I know.  It sounds crazy.  The organization is UNICEF, and I truly believe it to be worth its weight in gold. Contrary to popular belief(slash common sense due to the name), UNICEF is NOT funded by the United Nations. They depend entirely on the generosity of people from all over the world, which is probably the blessing in disguise which has helped them to become such a particularly effective organization. By not having the bottomless cesspool of funds that so many aid organizations seem to be happy burning away, UNICEF is forced to use their resources intelligently and effectively in a way that can be observed even at the grassroots level.

I have had ‘wow’ moments with UNICEF before when finding out that they are behind certain projects or publications, but the reason I’m writing this post is because of a slightly more personal experience I’ve recently had with them:

A few weeks ago at the Ministry of Education for my district, a man was unloading several large blue boxes labeled: Sara Life Skills Kit. Half Jokingly, I asked the man if my school was getting one. Half Jokingly, he asked me if my school was teaching life skills. Half Jokingly I explained that we are SUPPOSED to be… I went on to explain that though my school is supposed to be teaching life skills, we are not doing a good job of it. I myself go to the classes but do just as many puzzles and fun things with the students as serious life skills talks, as the resources to teach it are simply not there. Most of the other life skills teachers had long since given up.

My school wasn’t on the list for a box as it hadn’t requested to get one, but one cool thing about Africa Logic is it’s less about being on lists and more about knowing the right people at the right time. I chummed up with the guy and told him that I was there at that very moment to represent my school and make a request for said life skills kit. I immediately regretted this as the box weighed about 5x more than my eyes had led me to believe.

Once I finally got it home, I tore into the kit like a 10-year old at Christmas…a wonderful collection of culturally relevant comic books, books, and videos. A great resource for the other life skills teachers and for the upcoming library we’ve been developing. The kit was developed by UNICEF and features Sara, a young Southern African girl, and her friends and their many challenges in growing up in a culturally confusing and challenging Southern Africa.Unfortunately it was exam week and winter break was coming. I’d have to wait before I could play with my new toys.

Fast forward 2 months. I finally got to use the life skills resources today, and let me tell you…they are spot on…perfect…I don’t know if words can do it justice to be honest, but i’ll go ahead and try. I had the kids gather in the laboratory so they could make noise without disturbing other classrooms. I handed out a copy of “The Trap”, a comic book, to each student, and explained that the story would be discussing some difficult topics.

“The Trap”, is about how Sara gets caught in the web of a creepy old guy who expects Sara to sleep with him because he offered to help pay her school fees. Sara and her friends eventually set up their own web for the creepster, and get him caught by the whole village in dramatic conclusion including shoes and vegetables being thrown at the creepster’s face. The students read in groups of 3-4 with their friends and then discussed a number of questions I had written on the board. It was AMAZING to hear the kids reading out loud in proper English, laughing, smiling, and seriously discussing some tough questions that few people are ever willing to address here.

At one point it struck me that I had NEVER seen so many students smiling at my school. Every kid in the class had a smile on their face, nose buried in a comic book. It was a priceless moment, and UNICEF made it possible.

So…if you ever feel the need to pay into an organization that claims to be doing good things for the world(don’t worry, most of you are paying for Peace Corps whether you like it or not), I’d strongly recommend UNICEF as a safe bet that your money will be used effectively and intelligently to make children’s lives a little bit better in the world.

People are dumb.

It’s not until we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel that we really start to appreciate what we’ve got going for us.

July, for me, was a great month. I hosted a 4^th of July party at my house that had everything anyone could ever ask for from a 4^th of July in Lesotho. (Everything, that is…except fireworks…ahem…). Shortly after I went away to Cabo San Lucas to see family. It’s crazy what a polarized life I got to experience…in Cabo I would be lucky to find a drink for less than my day’s Salary in Lesotho! I told myself that I was NOT going to dwell on the extravagance of the occasion, however…and assured myself that American Dollars are simply a figment of some crazy economist’s imagination…like less colorful and slightly more glorified monopoly money. It worked. I enjoyed myself.

Being with family was INCREDIBLE. My younger brother has grown up quite a lot and my little sister is as sweet and ornery as ever. She actually encouraged me at one point to go and practice being awkward with pretty girls. My family. The best. My only complaint was that the trip was over nearly as soon as it started.

Coming home caught me off guard, though. I wasn’t at all dreading coming back to Lesotho. To the contrary, I was excited to see the mountains as my little commuter jet bounced on towards Maseru. I ended up snowed out of site for a week and had a great excuse to visit other volunteers, and finally made my way back up to site the day before school started.

It’s been warm for over a week, and the mountains are still covered with snow(snowball fights with the students are the best.) Someone made a rather curvaceous(and rather naked) snow-woman on the top of my mountain which had me laughing for a good long time.

Besides the gorgeous and unique weather, I’ve been busy nonstop, and it’s been great. I’ve had lots of visitors, some good talks with friends and students, and have been feeling GREAT about the progress of the library. All the while this ghost has been riding on my shoulder saying, “hey buddy, you’ve got 5 months left…then *poof* you’re done.”

Wow. 5 months. To a lot of people that might sound like kind of a long time…but from the perspective of someone who’s been shipped off, dropped off, and left to twiddle their thumbs/figure out the meaning of life in a fun and crazy new world, 5 months is nothing. I need to make the most of this. The days are literally slipping between my fingers.

Now that time is running short, i’m realizing just how much of a home I’ve really made for myself here. The familiar faces, the friends, the little kids who, after 2 years, still haven’t figured out that my pockets aren’t an endless fountain of candy…everyone has made this home for me. For the first time, I’m really nervous about having to leave.

See? Waiting until the last minute to fully appreciate. So. Dumb.

Woke up this morning and it was cold, like normal.  Stupid cold, but I’m well past that affecting my wake-up ceremony.  There was a beautiful lunar eclipse last night that i was fortunate to see from start to finish.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so i watched the shadow of the earth slowly creep over the moon until it turned red.  Beautiful.

So i woke up at about 6:30 still in a good mood.  Rolled out of bed staying within the confines of my sleeping bag and walked around my rondavel…honoring the penguins as I waddled from point a to point B doing my morning rituals.  The sun was just rising(weird when during the summer it starts getting light before 5:00am.  I was going to go down to the lowlands with Khotso to keep him company while he ran some errands, but decided to be lazy instead.  I sent him a text asking to count me out for the trip.  I enjoyed some piping hot oatmeal with some instant coffee, and was feeling pretty good.

Later, i got a call from the peace corps office saying they needed some help with my vacation form i had submitted.  I had sent two files, one was less legible than the other, and the person was given the illegible one.  I told him I would mail it to him when i got a chance, but I would have to go to Khotso’s house to get the modem.

On my way to khotso’s, I met a man who looked like a Black Russian Cosmonaut who was getting ready to fight some ghosts.  It was my good friend Leketla, an Agricultural Extension Officer for the area.  He was getting ready to go “spray some cows” with his ghostbuster device.  I didn’t inquire as to the details, although I now regret this.  I did, however, mention that I was looking for a Pig for a 4th of July party that Khotso and I are hosting to celebrate all things America.  Tom threw what was perhaps, for me, the best 4th of July party ever at his place last year, and there is really no better way to honor him than to go all out America style for the 4th.  Leketla told me he has some leads and would let me know what he finds out.

I retrieved the modem from Khotso’s house, and then came home.  Checked my e-mail and besides some spam from a compromised peace corps volunteer’s address(“Win the sexuality!  And forget about Impotence!”[she apparently knows me better than I thought]) found out i’m doing site visit for some of the new volunteers.  I’m excited…it’s always fun to share my site…as i’m pretty sure it’s the best(all pcvs say theirs is the best…but mine is the grand canyon to their “worlds largest balls of twain”).  It will be on the 24th-28th of June.  I’m looking forward to meeting some fresh volunteers…they are always so positive, it’s good for us oldies to take in some of their positive energy, listen to their ideas, and be silently amused at how we ourselves were once in their position…these positive, energetic, and yet-to-be-jaded newbs.

Got the email sent to Mohale(the one who called me in the morning) and got everything taken care of…checked my Facebook and a good returned peace corps friend of mine who shares knowledge of the greatness that is Rural Northern Michigan had sent me a quick message, giving me a mailing address that i had asked for and mentioning that she reads my blog.  I decided i was neglecting my blog and needed to write.

I didn’t really know what to write…so, here I sit, sprawled out on my bed half under the covers, writing about the last 4 hours of life, for lack of anything much more interesting.  Thank Sammy for motivating me to do a post!

(Just to confirm, Leketla really did look like a Black Russian Ghostbuster, jetpack-style spraypack on his back, bundled up, wearing a thick woolen cap…if anyone were to pick 3 words…those would be the ones.)