11 Feb 2010

11 Feb 2010
I’ve officially been at my site (Sekameng Diocesan High School) for (over) a month now. I’ve learned the names of all of the other teachers, some (okay, a few) of my students, and I know where I can buy all the essentials like a head of cabbage or some airtime for my phone.
I’ve been in Lesotho for three months (today, on the 12th), which means, if my term is to be 27 months (an overestimate in my opinion), I am one ninth of the way done. But who is counting?!
Last weekend we found out about World Cup tickets – I’m fairly certain our group has tickets to seven different games, so we’ll need to choose which one(s) we actually want to see. Volunteer’s budget doesn’t accommodate expensive taste in soccer matches!
This week was a blur, a very uncomfortably hot blur.
Monday began the final new official time-table. My Mondays are still loaded; I teach 6 of the 9 total classes and see all my students, but all my teaching hours are much more efficiently blocked together, so I don’t feel as though I’m wasting as much time just waiting as before. After school study officially began, as did before-school study. This means the students come at 7am, study (aka sit in their classroom and do what they want) until 7:40. Assembly begins at 7:45 and then classes commence around 8. The day ends at 3:20 and after a ten-minute break, students sit in their classrooms again until 4:30. I believe these two study times are meant to encourage students to look over their notes, which would actually benefit them quite a bit. The notes they take in class are strictly copying down whatever the teacher writes on the board. While vigorously taking these notes, they seem to zone out everything the teacher is saying or doing, so there is not too much retention.
I gave a physics quiz on Monday, and was absolutely appalled at the amount of cheating. It is shameless. There was a pair of students, sitting at the same desk, and one had finished her exam early, clearly knew what was going on, and had written her answers on another piece of “scratch” paper (yeah, right!) and passed it to her neighbor who was struggling with her quiz. Unfortunately for both of them, the smarter one forgot she had written her name on that scratch paper, so when I went to collect the exam from the copier, she had a piece of paper with a different name on it. The kicker was that I had made two different versions of the quiz, so none of the answers matched up at all. It really kills me that cheating isn’t a big deal here. I told all my students that I take it very seriously, and in every single class I’ve given a quiz/exam, I’ve caught students red-handed and made a scene of it. I’m still brainstorming things to say to them or have them do so as to minimize copying, but they are definitely crafty.
Also on Monday, students were notified of teachers’ prefect selection, and given the opportunity to elect a head boy and head girl. I’m still not exactly sure what all the responsibilities and benefits are to each position, so I just imagine head students and prefects like in Harry Potter.
On Tuesday, ‘M’e Malitaba from the Office visited, bringing info about taxes, my partner class in the States (with whom I’ll be corresponding regularly, I hope), and a letter from my grandma (thanks, Gram!). She observed my teaching and then asked questions about how I’m adjusting and if there’s anything I need… I basically told her life is pretty good!
I cooked dinner for my counterpart on Wednesday: a hearty soup with split peas, lentils, barley, carrots, onions, some other things and lots of spices. I baked a loaf of garlic and Italian herb bread, and for dessert we had apple crisp. I was pretty pleased with myself for how it all turned out, and the best part was leftover apple crisp on Thursday morning for breakfast! (Last weekend I happened upon Gala apples in the grocery store and bought a huge bag… they’re basically gone).
With the new time-table, my Thursday mornings are very laid back – I don’t start teaching until 11am! I slept in and went for a run, took a bath and cleaned dishes, all before I had to be at school! We had a department meeting to discuss fund-raising and participation in the nation’s science club organization… I’m hoping to help in the math-related areas of science club once that gets started. I also volunteered to help with the poultry project! Sekameng will order around 200 chickens (yes, two hundred) to live in our poultry room (I wouldn’t exactly call it a chicken coop). We then sell the eggs to teachers, students or villagers, and the profits go towards keeping school fees for students reasonable. It’s my job to make sure these chickens get fed and watered (though by someone else), and that the eggs are collected. Then either I or someone else have to count and keep track of how many eggs we get each day, and how many we sell. I have a feeling I’m going to be eating a lot of eggs in the near future… We also have a “piggery” where there will soon be piglets (and piglets are so cute!), and I understand our school will sell those too.
The agriculture classes have been planting up a storm: cabbage, beets, green beans and maybe some onions too… those vegetables will also be sold, some to our kitchen for lunches, and some to villagers.
On Fridays, I only have two classes. One is first thing in the morning; the other is not until 11:40. With that long of a break, I usually try to run to a nearby village and back. Around that time in the morning, there is typically a large group of bo’m’e (women) that gathers near the road to try to even it out (the roads near Sekameng and Ha Thoahlane, the other village, are really terrible and whenever it rains, they become a little more uneven). The work they are doing is harder than the work I see many of the men here doing, and it is truly artistic. The small sections of road they’ve already reconstructed are simply beautiful. They always cheer and clap and Basotho-yell for me and sometimes pretend as though they are going to run with me. Though my Sesotho is still minimal, we can carry on small conversation, and they know some English. Seeing them has become one of those things that always brightens my day, no matter what.
The weekends always bring traveling – this time to Dustin’s rondavel. He is the only one in Mafeteng from our training group to not have a house, and this is the first weekend we’ll be hanging out somewhere with a latrine rather than a toilet – could be interesting! Its always really nice to see other Peace Corps Volunteers, to share stories and to cook delicious food. So far we’ve done Mexican night, stirfry night, pizza night… I’m not sure if the menu is set for tomorrow or not, but there was talk of vegetable curry and naan bread… Yum.
WOW – Sunday marks the middle of February already!
As much as St. Valentine’s Day is a Hall-Mark Holiday, I still believe it’s important to show love every day of the year, so to all my family and friends who are reading this, know that I am thankful for you in my life and I love you all so very much. Thanks for your continued support and love; I wouldn’t be here without you!
All my love from Africa,
-Katie