25 Surprising Things That Don't Surprise Me…

After living in Lesotho for 9-months, I am no long surprised…

1) When bo-Me decide to strip and bucket bathe in front of me.

2) When PCVs (including myself) use the "pee bucket" in a room full of people.

3) When I’m awoken by the sound of rats in the middle of the night.

4) By having to frequently kill thatch spider or throw rocks at aggressive dogs.

5) When Basotho warn me about witches or witchcraft.

6) When people ask me for lipompom (candy) or chalete (money.)

7) When men ask to marry me, tell me they love me, or proposition me for sex.

8) When bo-Me ask me if I know how to cook papa.

9) By the idea of my neighbors and friends being polygamists and/or adulturers.

10) By the reality that as many as half of my students are orphans.

11) By the amount that PCVs discuss bodily functions. :)

12) By the reality that, on a daily basis, I interact with people who have HIV, AIDS, and/or Tuberculosis.

13) When getting to a village or town means hiking up to 15km.

14) When taxi conductors cram 20+ people into a van.

15) By the high possibility that I could catch malaria or TB at some point in the next year.

16) By the concept of not bathing for a whole week.

17) When I have to drag my laundry down to wash in the river because there is, yet again, no water in village.

18) When I find out another 8th or 9th grader is pregnant.

19) When people stand 6 inches from my face and yell when simply saying hello.

20) When bo-Me tell me, with evident delight and admiration, that I am “fat.”

21) When I find severed cow heads lying around my host family’s courtyard.

22) By references to lebola (dowry/bride-price), traditional circumcision, or abductions/forced marriage.

23) When strangers yell "LEKHOOA!" as I walk by.

24) When visiting a friend means hiking up a mountain.

25) When I get sunburned in freezing weather.