Picture Perfect!

Lumelang!

FINALLY Just a few pictures... I promise to post more when the internet is more cooperative in town. Enjoy!

Zoe and I just before our "Swearing In Ceremony" in Berea! All of the PCVs wore traditional seshweshwe's handmade for us by our host mothers or LCFs (Language and Cultural Facilitators- ie. our Sesotho teachers). Our families also all gifted us with the famous, Basotho hats, later during the ceremony!

 Three of the most amazing LCFs a PCV could ever ask for, and more importantly, the reasons I passed my Language Proficiency Interview! L to R: 'Me Masebaqua, Limpho (ie. ME), 'Me Makabelo, and 'Me Lisebo. Training wouldn't have been the same without these amazingly patient and hilarious women!

My Host Family in Makola (my training village)! 

Top (L to R): Limpho Mothobi (ie. ME), Matsie (my brother)

Bottom (L to R): Tsoanelo (my little sister), 'Me Malehlohonolo (my amazinghost mother), Thato (my baby sister), and Toka (my little brother). I miss them already!

Possibly the greatest photo that's been taken yet in Lesotho... 

Around the second week of training, I took a trip with 4 or 5 of the guys out to Mokhotlong District (far eastern district, and about an 8 hr bus ride) in Lesotho for my "Host Volunteer Visit"...  Somehow the boys bestowed the nick-name "Gaia" or "Mother Earth" on me.. And when it turned out I was a natural at gardening in Makola during the coming weeks, it stuck. :) So now, anything I say (whether brilliant or not) is frequently followed by chanting, "Gaia! Gaia!" 

They insisted on a "Gaia" appropriate photo- Complete with Mike (far R) who runs MY world, and my loyal subjects paying homage. :) Haha

Taken while on my HVVisit in Mokhotlng District...
Gorgeous views o the Maluti Mountains in Eastern Lesotho! 

The whole gang after a gorgeous hike to the top of Thaba Bosiu (Mountain of the Night, a historic landmark and location of the founding of the Basotho nation by King Moshoeshoe I). You can't see it here, but the famous "Basotho Hat" mountain is in the background. 

Update from Butha Buthe!

Lumelang Friends and Family!

So I came into Butha Buthe camptown today to finally post photos... And as usual, Lesotho is teaching me another lesson in patience. A thunderstorm has kicked up outside, rendering my last hour attempting to upload photos useless. Welcome to life in Lesotho! :) So I will write a little instead before venturing into the rain in search of fresh veggies and cheese! (It's amazing how excited I get about the opportunity to buy cheese and meat here! Haha)

This is actually my first camptown outing in my new district, as I just made the move to my new home in Ha Selomo this past Thursday! Yay! To say that it's been an emotionally and physically overwhelming week would be an understatement... In keeping with the theme above, I find that patience (both with myself and with others) is my lesson for the week. This week has been a never-ending succession from moving and "Swearing In" to unpacking and hoards of visitors knocking on my rondaval door from the moment I arrived- Okay, well lets be honest... There seems to be very little knocking involved. It's more like akwardly walking into my house and standing in the middle of it staring at me akwardly. Haha I don't know what it is about my house that makes it community property, but needless to say I've very quickly learned to lock my burglar bars (ie. screened door) so I can control the flow of people in and out of my house. Haha

I appreciate the gesture, which I continuously remind myself is done with absolutely the best intentions. But I'm quickly discovering that an endless series of visitors at your house, questions from every stranger on the street, and constant staring/shouting can wear a person down... And I've only been at site 3 days. I know it will subside as I become less of a novelty in my village, but for the meantime I find myself constantly checking my patience and fighting the desire to curl up inside behind a locked door. Talk about the fish-bowl effect... This is a whole other ball game. Haha

But I'm certain it's nothing a few good nights sleep and a afternoon with a good book won't solve. I've been staying busy unpacking, making Christmas gifts for friends, and my host father, Ntate Bereng, has even already cleared a brand-new plot for my garden! I can't wait to start planting next week! Although I'm discovering, via all the village gossip I've created with my gardening excitement, that apparently bo-'Me (women) don't garden in Lesotho? Which I actually don't believe for a second... But either way the idea of ME gardening seems to have created quite the stir/disbelief. Well get ready, villagers... Because this is one lehooa (white person) who is craving fresh lettuce and watermelon! And I will not be deterred... Cow dung mulch or not! Apparently they haven't heard that my Peace Corps nick-name (bestowed on me during training) is Gaia (Mother Earth). :)

I'm very excited about Christmas.. Although, my mother was right. It's hard to get in the Christmas-Spirit in the middle of summer. I'll be spending 4 wonderful days (courtesy of Peace Corps) with several friends in Butha Buthe and Leribe. We're all gathering at a PCVs house for Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas Day are headed to a resort where we'll spend the next two days hanging out with a larger group of PCVs from across the northern districts. The timing of Christmas has been perfect to give me something to look forward to in the midst of moving to village... And I'm already looking forward to seeing my PC family again to hear all about their adventures in the first few weeks at site. :)

So I think I'll end this here. The rain has subsided, and I'm in charge of Christmas desserts, so I'm off to hunt for precious baking supplies! I promise to post pictures as soon as possible.

Until then... Love to all! And if I don't post again before then, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Khotsong! (Peace!) -Mary E.

The Big Move

So we’re approaching the end of our Pre-Service Training (PST), and I can’t believe that it has already been two months since we stepped foot in Lesotho. It seems like it was just yesterday, and at the same time I almost can’t remember what my life was like before I moved here… The world of indoor plumbing and private cars has never seemed further away, and yet, quite frankly, I can’t imagine a time in my life when I’ve been happier or more fulfilled. It’s a difficult feeling of contentment to describe…

But for all of us current-trainees (ie. soon to be Peace Corps Volunteers!) our temporarily, stable and “normal” lives in Berea District are about to be uprooted yet again… And this time we’re making the “Big Move.” It’s debatable whether the most difficult part of this adventure is already behind us or yet to come… Either way, anxieties and excitement are high in the village as we approach our “Swearing In Ceremony” on Monday afternoon. We will officially become Peace Corps Volunteers when we take our oath… Yet I know many of us feel that the real test of whether we can count ourselves among PCVs world-wide, will be proven in the next few days and weeks, as we scatter to the far corners of Lesotho and attempt to make a new place in a foreign culture our home.

For me, I think this is the real challenge moving forward. Our Country Director, Kathy, told us yesterday that the next few months will be the part where “you prove to Peace Corps, and more importantly, to yourself that you can do this.” I swear I could have heard a pin drop in that little church. I’m nearly certain we each felt our stomachs shift slightly at the thought of what lies ahead… The magnitude of this next step is overwhelming… For every single trainee, years of waiting in the U.S., months of packing and repacking, countless amounts of tax-payer dollars, and several thousand students across Lesotho all come down to this next step. This is the moment we’ve all been waiting for…. It’s the answer to a question that has plagued each of us since we first hit “Enter” on our Peace Corps applications months or years ago. CAN I DO THIS? How will I cope with isolation? How will I make this new place in a foreign culture my home? Will my fledgling Sesotho skills be enough to carry me through the plethora of unimaginable situations that lie in front of me? Will I feel safe there? Will it ever feel like MY family, MY home, MY village? Will I be able to make a lasting difference in the lives of even one of my students?

I am lucky, in that I have no doubts that I will make it through my two years of service… (In fact, it’s even already crossed my mind that I might not be ready to leave in two-years!) For me, it is only a question of “how” I will survive, not “if.” I am much too stubborn and determined to leave under anything other than extreme circumstances, and I do truly love it here already. But despite where each of us is mentally or emotionally- We are not in this alone. Which for me, is a source of incredible calm and stability as I face this next step.

I could never sing the praises of the Peace Corps Lesotho Staff and current PCVs enough. It is unbelievable the amazing out-pouring of support and love we’ve received throughout PST, and for that I’m eternally thankful. They truly are a family here, and I am honored to be joining it. I feel prepared… Thanks to countless hours of technical trainings, safety and security briefings, health lectures, practice teaching, one-on-one Sesotho tutoring, cultural integration trainings, and field trips across Lesotho. I can’t imagine fitting one more nugget of information into my exhausted and overwhelmed brain. Ha!

The end result, however, is that I am ready to face this next challenge. WE are ready. WE will do this together… With a lot of laughter, consistent support from our new mentors and friends in Peace Corps, and with a huge dose of resiliency. WE will do this.

Thank you to everyone that helped us get here!

Khotsong! (Peace!) –Mary Beth

Site Assignment Excitment!

Lumela Friends and Family!

We're spending our second weekend in Maseru, enjoying the shopping and KFC (which is the only recognizable/American food chain that has globalized to Lesotho, as far as I can tell)! The training portion of my Pre-Service Training is officially finished (yay for no more sitting under a steaming tin roof for 10 hours a day), and we'll start our "Practice Teaching" rotations just after Thanksgiving weekend! Yay! I have loved the short time I've spent teaching so far, and can't wait to establish my own classroom culture and routines!

But in the meantime, we'll be spending next week on our first visits to our new sites (ie. home and workplace/schools for the next two years!) Thursday was a GREAT day for all us trainees as we FINALLY received our site assignments!!! It was much anticipated around the Peace Corps family, and in the few days leading up to the announcements even my 'Me' constantly asked "U tla lula kae selemo se tlang, ausi Limpho? U tla lula kae?!" (You will live where next year, daughter? You will live where?!) I could do nothing more than laugh and say, "Ha ke tsebe, 'Me'" (I don't know.) The anticipation was killing us.

AND so the long awaited news... I will be moving to Botha Bothe, one of the northern most provinces in Lesotho, on December 12th! YAY! Botha Bothe is located in the foothills of Lesoth (not quite mountains, but definitely not lowlands-And apparently with gorgeous views of the neighboring mountains). I will visit my site and know more next week, but what I do know is... I will be a Science and Math teacher at Linokong (pronounced din-o-kong) High School, near the village of Linekeng. The school has about 400 students ranging from Form A - Form E (the equivalent of 8th grade - 12th grade). I will most likely teach a combination of math and general sciences (biology, chemistry, and physics) to Form B (9th Grade), and upper level Physics and/or Biology to Form D (11th grade). I am SO excited! I am actually one of two in my training class that is replacing a current volunteer, which definitely has it's perks. A PCV, Andrea, has spent 3 years at Linokong HS and will live 3 days before I move there- So my host family and village are clearly big fans of Peace Corps and it's a well-established site.

My house is a thatch roofed rondaval! YAY! Although, not so "YAY!" for the inevitable spiders that also apparently enjoy living under and in a thatch roof. :) But I've become fast friends with the massive tree spider, Leonard, (literally- massive is an understatement in describing Leonard's general size and hairiness) that shares my latrine in Makola. We've amicably divided custody hours of the latrine- I get it during the day, and he gets it at night (and I get my lovely pee-bucket). And so far it works... So I have high hopes that all my future living buddies will take as kindly to my "separate but equal" living spaces arrangement. :)

Despite my request to be placed in a remote location in the mountains, I will actually be a short 15 minutes from one of the largest camptowns in northern Lesotho (complete with another KFC!). It's definitely not a perk I'm complaining about, as it means cell service and access to modern amenities will be much easier for me than some other volunteers... But I think the my favorite characteristic (and the reason I was placed there, that overrode all my other preferences) is the presence (PC Staff have told me, but we'll see next week) of a brand new Millenium Challenge Clinic in/near my village!!! Early on I had a conversation with the CD (country director) about my desire to do my Secondary Project in Maternal Healthcare... So THANK YOU Peace Corps! I'm incredibly excited! Fingers crossed I find some wonderful opportunities to help the local women and children in my village/area. :)

So other than that, things are going fantastic! As always, I'm still in love with Lesotho and having the time of my life... My upcoming move will be exciting and at the same time sad... My 'Me' can only be pacified with promises that I will visit often (and bring my mom to visit, too when she comes to Lesotho- She is SO excited to meet "Me oa hau America" (my American mother)). I will miss Makola and my family a lot when I leave, but I know that training is just the very beginning of the adventure!

I know I have received consistent requests for pictures... And I JUST set up my blackberry 30 minutes ago, so hopefully now I will be able to oblige via Facebook. Pictures of my family, Makola, and my now wonderfully shaved head to come! :)

Have a VERY Happy Thanksgiving! I will be spending mine with the Peace Corps Trainees and Staff at the U.S. Ambassador to Lesotho's house! And she even has a pool- talk about heaven! FUN!

Hugs to all! Khotso! Mary Elizabeth

While Shopping in TY!

Lumela, Friends and Family!

Today finds me sitting in an internet cafe in Teyateyaneng! Peace Corps has graciously granted us trainees a much needed day of shopping, relaxation, and civilization! YAY for chicken fingers and chips for lunch! I'm happy to report that things are as wonderful as ever in LEsotho- I must still be in the inevitable honey-moon period because I truly love it here. My Sesotho skills are blossoming, and I can hold full conversations about my family, my work, and what I love about Lesotho in Sesotho... THANK YOU to my 'M'e for endlessly talking to me and putting up with my confused looks as I try to figure out what in the world is going on. The woman has the patience of Job. :)

Next week we finally find out our sites- So everyone here is sitting on pins and needles until next Thursday! I can't wait to find out where I'll be living and working for the next few years. Prays that they'll send me to the mountains are appreciated... I just fell in love with the mountains when I was out visiting Mokhotlong a few weeks ago. SO gorgeous! It makes living in the middle of nowhere seem absolutely worth it!

And at the end of next week (starting next Sunday) we'll be visiting our new sites- So next week I'll be out of contact, but finally getting to meet my new family and colleagues! I can't wait!

I'll keep this short, because a Coca-Cola and hot chips (fries) are calling to me from the hotel down the road (ie. the secret hot spot for "as close to American food as it gets in Lesotho").

Sending everyone lots of love! Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures in a few weeks!

Khotso! (Peace!) -Mary Beth

Safe and Sound in Lesotho!

Lumela Friends and Family!

We're in Maseru today taking a short tour of the city, and visiting the Peace Corps Office... So I finally get the chance to write a little! Everything is going great! Our Pre-Service Training is absolutely exhausting, and they keep our days full to the brim with classes, lesctures, activities, and language lessons. Needless to say, a combination of 4 hours of language training a day and living with a family that speaks NO English, has had a very positive effect on my Sesotho. I'm already able to comfortably introduce myself to people, go through all the formal greetings, talk about myself, and compose basic statements. It's been really amazing to see how quickly immersion can improve language skills!
My family is wonderful... My host mother's (called 'M'e here, meaning mother) is 'M'e Malehlohonolo Mothobi, and she's absolutely wonderful. She takes amazing care of me, and loves telling everyone about her new daughter. :) It took me all of about an hour the first night, to realize that when they kept repeating "Limpho Mothobi" they were referring to me! So after a little confusion and botched translations, I finally discovered that my family had given me a Basotho name, Limpho (pronounced Dim-Poe)... In Sesotho, Limpho means "gift"... And 'M'e quite literally treats me as a gift to the family. I also have three younger siblings.... Toka is my abuti (brother) and is about 12 years old, Tsoanelo is my ausi (sister) and is about 5, and Thato our ngoana (baby) is 3 months old. They are lots of fun, and endlessly enjoy coloring with the colored pencils I brought. Every day Tsoanelo escorts me to me language lessons at 'M'e Makabelo's house (one of our language and cultrual trainers that is living in the village with us during training), and she meets me every day after class. :) I'm so glad for the company of the kids... They follow us everywhere.
We are quite the celebrities in our little village in the district of Berea (located about 30 km outside of Maseru, it's a relatively rural village). There are 16 PCVs ((Peace Corps Volunteers) of the 30 in my class living with me (with other host families in the village). It's nice to have the company, and having friends I see everyday who speak English and understand the challenges of "cultural immersion" is incredibly comforting. It's a nice transition to what I have coming when I finally move to my site in 7 weeks. We still don't know where our sites will be... I think we find out in week 5 of training (we're just at the end of week 1), but I'll be spending next week on my "Host Volunteer Visit". Essentially that's our first exposure to what life will really be like in country for us. I'm going to be traveling to one of the northern most (and highest altitude regions) of the country, named Mohoklotong (sp?). It's about 9 hours by public bus. I'll be staying with a volunteer named, Caitlin for 4 days, and going with her to work (she is a Secondary Science teacher, as I will be), and around her village. I'm excited and aaprehensive about my thrust in traveling cross-country with limited Sesotho, but I'm sure I'll have no option but to get the hang of it quickly.
I feel incredibly safe here. I now TOTALLY understand the emphasis Peace Corps places on integrating into your community. The Basotho are an incredibly friendly and welcoming people, and they know that we are here to help and absolutely want us here. It's a great source of pride for a Basotho family (like my own) to host a PCV... And they proudly display their new daughter/son to the community. We really are family- and it's a feeling of safety that can onyl come from fully engaging with the community. Everywhere we go we greet EVERYONE. You say hello, you ask how their family is, how they slept, how their life is, where they are going... It's VERY good practice to improve our fledgling language skills, but at the smae time it can get tedious when going the half mile to school take 45 minutes. But it's an important component of the safety in country. I absolutely love our Country Director and our other Trainers/Peace Corps Staff. I know I'm in good hands.

So everything is going great! 'M'e is never satisfied with how much I eat, and I've been in great health. We went hiking (in our one short 2 hours off) this past week, and the mountains are absolutely gorgeous. I feel incredibly blessed to get to wake up to such a beautiful mountain sunrise every morning. For anyone wondering, you can be assured that I honestly don't miss electricity or water. I rise with the sun at 5am every morning, boil my own water for a bath, bathe in a bucket just large enough to stand in, use an outdoor latrine, read at night by kerosene light, and am normally asleep my 7:30 or 8:00pm. :) It's a very simple, but good life and I'm happy with it! I've given up all my technology (to lock them in the PC safe at HQ during training), so I just went ahead and went cold-turkey on electronics... And I've honestly been so exhausted/busy I haven't noticed.

Anyway... I'll post more once I have internet more frequently. Hopefully I'll have a phone with internet access in a few weeks. Until then, lots of love!!!

Khotso! (Peace!) - Mary Elizabeth

Let the Journey Begin!

It’s hard to believe I’m finally here… Just a few days away from making my dream of returning to Africa (more-permanently) a reality. It feels oddly familiar to be surrounded by suitcases, and half-packed boxes yet again (I calculated a few days ago that this will be my 12th move!) I love the sensation of having a great adventure ahead… So much learning and exploring to come.

On October 10th, I will start the next chapter in my life… I’m moving to Lesotho (a small country in southern Africa) to work as a Secondary Science Teacher with the Peace Corps for the next 27 months. At this point, I feel that I have more questions than answers- I can’t be certain where I will be posted in the country, or where I will teach, or how I will manage to learn Sesotho in 2+ months, or under what conditions I will be living for the next two years of my life. Yet, I am oddly content. Nervous, to be certain, but confidant that I will face each challenge as it comes… And hopeful that I will be a stronger person at the end of it all.

 Lesotho, “The Mountain Kingdom” 

And without a doubt, I am excited. I am so incredibly blessed to get the opportunity to embrace this next adventure… Lucky to have a family that is supportive, friends that are willing to visit and write often, and an education that will hopefully allow me to contribute something to my new Basotho community. I guess it’s also rather convenient that I’m young (ie. stupid and crazy) enough to give up everything I know to go live in relative poverty for two years. :)

I know the transition will be difficult, but it is my hope that I will take each challenge as a lesson and opportunity for growth. I pray that in silence, I will learn to listen to my own voice/heart more clearly. I pray that in darkness, I will find comfort in the light and company of people. I pray that when I am in physical discomfort, I will become attuned to the rhythms of my own body. I pray that when I am alone, I will learn to savor my own thoughts and feelings. I pray that when I am overcome by the strangeness of the foreign, I will see more clearly the similarities in all humans. I pray that when I am homesick, I will learn to be thankful for the blessings of a safe home and loving family. I pray for strength, patience, peace, and compassion, so that I may give freely of myself and my talents.

Thank you in advance to everyone that has and will support me in this adventure over the next several years! I look forward to sharing the wonderful stories of my time abroad with you all here, and when I return safely in two years!

With Love from Virginia… <3 Mary Elizabeth