First Week at Village

So I've been at village for the last week and a lot has happened. I'm just going to give you a few snapshots.

Village Day: On Saturday the 29th we arrived in the village of Ha Mofoka to start Community Based Training. The village is about an hour outside of Maseru and during our drive up to the meeting place the truck ahead of us, which held all of our bags, got stuck in a large bog that had been created by the recent heavy rain. Soon a large crowd of children surrounded the truck, the numbers of which were swollen due to the fact that the truck had repeatedly flagged its arrival with heavy honking, and the truck slithered back and forth in the mud as it tried to rock its way out. After a lot of anxious shouts from the bus holding all of the trainees, the truck finally got freed and it was our bus' turn. We got through without event.

We arrived at our destination, a horseshoe of white plastic chairs that faced a line of bo-'M'e (women) and a throng of villagers that grew with the incoming crowd from the mud lake we had just forded, a la Oregon Trail. All of the trainees who were staying in Ha Mofoka exited the vehicle and began unloading our stuff out of the truck. We milled around about while one of the trainers figured out what was going on. We eventually sat in the white chairs facing the crowd. The trainer gave a speech in Sesotho, the wife of the village chief gave a reply and the trainer spoke a little more. A second trainer translated as the trainees sat smiling, whelmed and content.

Soon we found ourselves being paired up with the bo-'M'e. It all happened very fast and I soon found myself on the other side of the white chairs, surrounded by many village children and trying to figure out what my 'M'e had just said my new Sesotho name was, and if she had mentioned what here name was. All I knew was that there was a click in some part of the name, and was plotting as to whether or not I could communicate some fabricated physical ailment that would explain my inability to master this essential sound of the language. I decided I should just take a few pictures instead.

After packing all of my stuff into a truck and being escorted across the road, I found myself in a lovely dusty green room, with widely spaced, dark stained, rough hewn 2 x 6 stringers with a corragated tin roof. There were large windows on opposing walls, a twin bed across from the door and a lace cloth on the table at the center of the room. Diagonal from the door stood an old wood fired, green enamel stove with a twin-gas burner stove on top. On the wall across from the bed was a table for preparing food and storing pots and pans.

My 'M'e helped me organize my stuff then left me to rest and settle in the rest of my stuff.

First Day of Teaching: So Tuesday was my first day of practice teaching. Students are on summer break, but many have been showing up at St. Joseph's school in Koro Koro in order to get some biscuits in exchange for watching the Americans attempt to teach. The first day was not encouraging. My Form E maths class (equivalent to seniors in high school in America) slowly filed in over the 30 minute class and stared at me blankely as I tried to introduce Algebra and do a little review. I got zero response, and they seemed genuinely disinterested in me. My Form B science class was even worse. Their English is new, and their mathematical background is not thorough. These kids had just finished their 7th or 8th grade year and could not divide 100 by 5, they struggled with my English, and their vocabulary does not extend into the scientific realm. All in all it was eye opening for what I am going to be facing for the next two years, and also what I need to think about in order to help Lesotho's students pass their external exams (high school exit exam). It was rough, but I was reassured by the current volunteers who observed us that it was a fairly typical response by shy students who needed to get to know us and our accents.

The second day was much better, and I finally saw some engagement and response when I tossed out some candies to the winners of a mental math game. I think teaching will be okay.

Donkey Day: So I was teaching my abuti (brother, also boy) Bohlokua how to play frisbee, when a neighbor boy rolled up on his donkey. I got very excited and asked if I could ride the beast, at which point my abuti looked at me, smiled, and communicted, quite effectively, "really?" I adamently nodded that I did, indeed, want to mount the dirty donkey and go for a ride. The neighbor boy consented, gracefully dismounted by pushing himself off the back of the donkey and held it while I deftly and gingerly got on the sagging back of the mangy donkey. I was very excited and visualized myself galloping around the village, bareback, and waving to the bo-'M'e and bo-Ntate, and them proudly responding with encouraging and accepting waves. This was my avenue for moderate celebrity status in the community. The boy grabbed the donkey's mohawk, turned it to face down a long, straight path, surely I was going to reach top speed down this path. I did my best to stablize myself while trying not to touch any of the rough, patchy fur that was motled with unknown substances, probably feces. The boy began pulling hard at the donkey's mohawk, trying to get the donkey to move.

The jackass didn't budge.

I dismounted. Today when we got on the bus to go to the school, I told everybody that I had ridden a donkey. They were jealous. But less so when they found out the jackass wouldn't budge. Still, I got on a donkey.

Village life is good. It is heavily dictated by daylight as the night is black and dogs roam about. It is unfortunate that we cannot be out at night, as the nights are spectacular with stars and thunderstorms, sometimes in the distance and sometimes rolling right over the homestead here, pouring buckets of rain and lighting up the night.

We will be in village for another three weeks, and begin cooking for ourselves tomorrow. All the trainees are very excited to be self-sufficient and productive adults again. Also to be able to cook for themselves again. I will assuredly adopt the Bosotho breads and cabbage, but will probably eat more raw vegetables and fruits.

Well, that's all for now. I will be getting a cell phone by the end of the month, so everybody should start getting phone cards now, so there isn't a run on them at the end of the month.