iBook#2

Hello from a new (slightly used) computer!
My old iBook finally pooped out. It was close to 6 years old, and after battling the battery every time I wanted to use it without a consistent power source, the display finally stopped... well, it stopped displaying. Thankfully, I have an amazing stepfather, who found a gently-used computer, basically the same as my other one. It doesn't have everything my other one had (yet), but thankfully I managed to back up most of my music and photos on a big external harddrive, so all I need is software. No big deal! The battery on this puppy lasts quite a while, so I can hopefully update this blog more frequently.
We're now in the 5th (I think) week of school. I'm teaching only 14 credits (last year I had 20). I'm teaching Physics to Forms A and B, just like last year, and this year I have half of the Form B Math, B1 only. I like having only one math class - it means we move at their pace without worrying about the other class getting too far ahead or behind. I believe the other teacher is actually ahead of us, but I'm not too concerned yet. It has been quite a blessing to have so few. I've been able to start on some projects in the extra time.
First, I've begun repainting the murals that were done several years ago by the first volunteer at Sekameng. I have 5 liters of paint and I'll have to get more soon, there are several big walls that need to be re-done. I just hope I can do them justice - the murals are stunning! Then there's the school gym that my counterpart and I are working on. The first step was finding a good room to host the gym. Our two options were: a room that is so full of broken desks and doors that it's impossible to enter, and a room that filthy dirty and partly full of the school's old typewriters (they apparently used to offer typewriting as a subject!) ... with help from some of the senior students, we managed to clean out the typewriters and load them (on two different occasions) into the back of the school's truck. My principal then took them to a dump in Maseru somewhere... I don't even want to think about how much of a hassle that must have been, but the important thing is the room is empty! The next steps: finding a way to lock the room, collect containers, buy cement and start playing around, constructing barbells and equipment! If you have any suggestions for creating your own gym equipment, please let me know! Finally, we started a math problem-solving competition last week. Several teachers and I will meet with any interested students each week to give them several problems to try to solve. Last week it was 3; that seemed to be a good number. Each problem is worth one point, and then the student at the end of the quarter with the most points will win some sort of prize (to be determined - again, any suggestions?). It was pretty funny last week watching their faces as they struggled to solve the problems. Most got none correct, and only a handful scored one point - some by luck! I think I'll go for easier problems this week, haha.
The school is still selling eggs. I've still not implemented the br-egg-fast program, but as more and more students are asking to go to the village shop to buy breakfast, I'm becoming more and more convinced that we should. Unfortunately right now the (raw) eggs are in high enough demand that I feel bad buying them and boiling them. I think I'll wait a little while, until there are actually trays to spare.
The external exam results from 2010 for Sekameng were pretty good. We had a few students earn first class (a big deal for the school!) and overall, they scored very well. It helps the teachers because it means we can tell the students to work harder if they want to score well on their exams. In fact I threatened my students to get serious just this morning. The results also brought news for our librarian; he scored well enough on math (the only subject he was rewriting) to apply to (and most likely attend) Accounting School next semester... so we lose Rethabile in June. This year, he has been wonderful. The other day, he asked me to help him teach the new students about the library. He brought small groups of the Form A students in and asked them (very teacher-like) questions about how to use the library, or why someone might come to the library. He explained to them (in good English) how it works and encouraged them to come explore. I was thrilled! We are really going to miss him, but he needs to start the next chapter in his life. He'll do well wherever he is; he works harder than most of the other teachers and is a fantastic role model for the other students. Last weekend I realized the school he'll be attending in Maseru is right across the street from the office, so hopefully if I do need to go to town, we can at least meet up!

The weather continues to be hot, though thankfully not quite as hot (or humid!) as Mozambique was. We've been getting rain fairly regularly, which helps cool things down, but makes running quite a feat. If there is too much rain, the school becomes a swamp and the village a giant mudhole. I'm told it'll start cooling down in mid to late March. I started my countdown. My garden is doing alright except for the fact that it's sort of under a peach tree. This peach tree has produced only a few (nasty looking) hard rocks of peaches... but that seems to be exactly what the students like. So they're jumping around in my garden, crushing my peas, beans, basil, cucumbers, trying to get these disgusting excuses for peaches. I've tried to warn them to stay out (and I'm sure they make fun of me for it behind my back), but they always manage to stomp on something. I have managed to make several batches of pesto. The first was too big for me to eat before it started smelling not so like pesto, so I baked it into bread. The second was a birthday gift for my friend whose basil was apparently eaten by neighboring cows. Ha.

This past weekend, I went up north with several friends to do a massive training run for the half-marathon in April. Two of them are registered for the ultra (something like 34 miles), but the other two of us (Adam and I) are only doing the half. Thank goodness. The ultra runners started at one volunteer's house and ran to meet the other two of us partway between, and then go back to Adam's. They left around 8am. We left around 9am. We ran to the pre-determined meeting point and ended up waiting several hours. I think we finally met up with them close to noon, and were home by 1:30. The route from Adam's was mostly an enormous downhill... so returning was uphill. Needless to say I didn't run much of it... walking suited me just fine. My best guess is that I ran between 9-12 miles, and the crazy two think they put in closer to 20-24 but nobody knows for sure... we haven't quite made it to map-my-run yet. We were all pretty tired (and dehydrated) afterwards. I managed to get sunburned (African sun and all...). Yesterday my forehead was peeling and it freaked my students out pretty bad. "Madam, your face is coming off!" I had to explain that no, it was not "coming off," I just got sunburned and this was natural. I'm not sure they were convinced. Now it's my upper back... thankfully that's easier to cover up with a t-shirt. My legs were pretty sore for a while (I haven't done a long run like that in ages!) but yesterday and this morning I ran and felt pretty good. I think I'm in decent shape for this point in my training, which is reassuring.

I've gotten some emails or facebook messages asking about Cairo... unfortunately Egypt is no longer in the travel plans, even though it might be safe by the time June rolls around. Thankfully, we never actually bought those tickets (though I was concerned about how much the price was going to go up after Christmas - it ended up being for the best). We decided instead to just travel around South Africa (hopefully Cape Town/wine region, Kruger/safari!) and Lesotho (my site and Malealea for the waterfall and hiking). Let's hope nothing too drastic happens in South Africa and we're still allowed to travel there!
I think that's a fairly accurate update of my life right now... I'm just waiting for a software update and my battery to charge... I hope all is well at home. Sending all my love from Africa,
-Katie