June 28, 2011
Morning from Sekameng. I won’t say good morning because this is the most miserable cold I think I have ever experienced, possibly in my life. I know it sounds like I just like to complain (and to some extent, I’m sure I do), but it is legitimately cold. I wake up in the morning and my house is 45 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s cold, folks.
As my mom found out, I don’t generally heat water unless it’s to drink or bathe in, so each time I wash dishes, my hands freeze. I basically have an endless mug of coffee or tea or plain hot water with me wherever I go. Enough about the cold.
It’s hard for me to believe that only a week has gone by since my mom and I went our separate ways in Cape Town. I flew back to Bloemfontein and actually (surprisingly!) made it all the way home to Sekameng in one day. She had a longer journey back to the States but is now safely home and hopefully readjusted to Central Standard Time.
After I got back, I stayed home barely long enough to do laundry before taking off on another mini-trip. Some friends and I did our own version of “Christmas in July” even though it was June. We figured it was more like “Christmas and a Half” since in exactly 6 months, it would have been Christmas Eve and Day. We planned a feast (and shopped accordingly), lugging all sorts of food items up to one of the more remote places in Lesotho. On Friday, as we were in town gathering supplies, there was snow in the air. I’ve only seen snow here one other time and I just remember it being miserably cold. I had no clue what we were in for…
We made it to this friend’s house early afternoon and it was just as cold (if not colder) at his place. At least every PCV is given a heater for the duration of their service. He had no gas for said heater, but at least the shop wasn’t too far. We decided to go the next morning (“Christmas” morning) to try to get a refill so we wouldn’t freeze too solid the next day. Unfortunately, part of the joy of being at such a remote site is that there really is not much there. None of the shops (near or far) had any gas refills. So we stuck it out (not like we had much choice, ha), crowding in the kitchen, sipping tea and cooking delicious things for later.
After everyone was awake (I woke up to a fistful of snow in my face and then ran outside only to find that there was not much on the ground), we did our own little Yankee Swap gift exchange. The rule was that the gifts had to come from our houses (we’re all sort of poor and have big vacations coming up). I contributed some instant Starbucks coffee packets, clay and a Clif Bar (highly valued, given my next big vacation). Other gifts included a t-shirt, a Lego version of Dumbledore (my winning), a book and DVD that actually belonged to someone else there (shockingly enough, he ended up with that gift), stickers and pencils, and coupons for a various assortment of prizes. We had a fold-out tree complete with small wooden decorations, and a lovely garland (thanks to my father) to decorate the house – it almost felt like real Christmas.
Around noon, some of us went for a run. It was absolutely gorgeous, across the river and along some really neat rock formations that conveniently shielded us from the wind. I’d heard a lot about the various running routes my friend had (especially training for the Ultra-Marathon in Cape Town) so it was great to see his part of the country. An added bonus was that we all warmed up considerably – I think I may have even sweat a little!
We all left on Sunday and after waiting over an hour for the taxi, finally piled on to one of the longest taxi rides of my life. The road (for all but maybe 20 minutes of the ride) was dirt and rock, quite bumpy. We crossed a river at several points in the journey and were lucky because it was low – had the river been much higher, I’m fairly certain we would have all had to get out and walk across (and pray the taxi made it).
Several stops after we got on (just before the taxi was full way past capacity), a very drunk (and still drinking) man got on and sat next to Eric, who was sitting next to me. This man was loud and obnoxious, constantly talking and gesticulating wildly. Eric was a champ for dealing with him and even managed to poke fun at him for a while (telling him we were going to Lesotho but we didn’t know where it was, etc) before we realized this guy was not going to tire. Eventually, he did. Miracle of miracles, he passed out and sort of collapsed into his own little area (rather than expanding onto his neighbors as some do). Relief! After more than 2 hours, we reached town and let me tell you, KFC has never tasted so good.
Now I have just over a week before I head to Maseru to finalize some things for the Diversity Committee, then Adam and I fly to Tanzania to climb Kilimanjaro on the 8th. We’re both pretty excited, obviously for the climb, but also to just spend some time in airports: people-watching and restaurant-hopping (Mugg & Bean has delicious bottomless coffee and the best muffins you’ve ever tasted… I think we’ll spend a few hours and cups of coffee there before our flight). It’ll also be nice to be near the equator (WARMTH!), if only for the first couple days of our climb.
I’ll do my best to post again before Kili, but if not, you can definitely expect an update after we return. I hope all is well at home, I’m excited to be there in 6 months!
Love from Africa,
-Katie
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Mom! In Africa!
Winter vacation is here!
My students completed all their exams (successfully, I believe) and have begun helping their family to harvest their crops: maize, sorghum, beans, etc. The external classes (Forms C and E) are still coming to school for winter classes. Luckily these start an hour later than school did and only go until about 1pm.
When I wrote last, I was in Maseru working on some things for Peace Corps but mostly just waiting for my mom to arrive. On Wednesday morning, I got up early, took a hot shower (!!!) and made it to the border fairly early. I met Kimiko there (she was coming with us on safari) and we found the taxi to Bloemfontein, where we’d rent the car to drive to Joburg airport and pick up Mom. The weather was pretty bad, cold and rainy with no sunshine in sight. We found our taxi and were the second and third people in a taxi that was supposed to hold 22 people. When planning, I’d built in extra time in case we had to wait for a taxi to fill or couldn’t quite get to the border early enough. When we got to the taxi before 9 and it still hadn’t filled at 11, I started getting nervous. Finally we had enough people to fill a small taxi (only 15 people needed) and we took off towards Bloemfontein just before noon. I managed to calm down, but then, naturally, we hit road construction.
Mom’s flight landed around 4:30pm and we were stuck on the road to Bloem when we were supposed to be driving to the airport. After three more delays thanks to construction, we were finally cruising. And then the kicker. After all the rain, the final stretch of road had been flooded so badly we couldn’t pass. We had to pay more money, turn around and take a long detour. This not only meant we were going to be lateR to pick up our car, but in addition, now we wouldn’t be passing the junction airport, so we’d have to take an extra (expensive) taxi to the airport.
Approximately 3:30pm we finally left the car rental place in Bloemfontein to head to Johannesburg. I was absolutely livid. We had had these grand plans of going to the Joburg airport and drinking bottomless coffee and eating delicious muffins all day long while waiting for my mom’s flight. When she arrived, we’d happily run into each others arms, smiling and crying… Instead, she was the one who had to wait in the airport for us.
We made it to Joburg several hours after she arrived and picked her up (there were indeed tears) and made our way to the place we’d be staying that night.
The next day we left for Kruger National Park to go on safari. We had quite a drive, but once we got past Nelspruit, it was beautiful. The plan was to stay in the park for three nights at two different camps, and during the days drive around the park to see as many animals as we could.
That day, we barely arrived at the gate in time. The man admitting us told us we had to go as fast as the speed limit would allow us or we might not make it into the camp. We were not to stop for any animal because otherwise we might be locked out, stuck in the park after dark. (Actually, I’m not really sure what would have happened to us if we didn’t make it into our camp, but we didn’t really want to find out.) So we drove… but within the first five minutes of being in the park, we had to stop because there were so many cars blocking the road, all looking at lions. No big deal, LIONS were the first animals we saw upon entering the park. We could only look for a short while before continuing on. Next, we saw rhinos off on the left, and after a little while more, we had to stop. There was an enormous elephant right in the road. It walked around eating for a while before we could pass it but eventually, we did make it past and made it to the camp in time.
The next two days we left our camp early to go out and see as many animals as we could. The list of animals we saw includes: lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalo, kudu, impala, waterbuck, crocodiles, hippos, hyenas, giraffes, zebras, vultures, monkeys and probably several more that I’ve forgotten about. After two and a half days total of driving around, my legs were stiff from lack of exercise but my camera was full and I definitely had a new appreciation for all of Africa’s animals. Safari was incredible.
After safari, we headed back to Bloem to return the car and as an intermediate stop before reaching Lesotho, the second stop on our voyage. We had lovely accommodation there and enjoyed muffins and bottomless coffee before returning to Lesotho. That day, as my mother is proud to report, we took 6 taxis in order to get back to my stop, and then had to walk 45 minutes to get home. We didn’t reach my stop until dark but several students came to pick us up and help carry luggage in to Sekameng.
Over the next few days, Mom learned what it was like to live in Sekameng. When we arrived, there was no running water, so we had to wait and hope and pray that it’d be there the next day. We cooked by candlelight and went to sleep fairly early after a busy and exhausting day.
Tuesday and Wednesday we walked around my village. She met the other teachers at my school and many of my students. We did laundry in cold water, baked bread and ate chaka-laka, motoho and papa. I think she really enjoyed it; I know I loved showing her the life I've made here.
On Thursday, we climbed the nearby mountain, Kolo. It was an all-day affair. We left around 8am and made it back to my house just before 3pm. We had to walk there, then go up, come down and walk back… by the end of the day, I think we all had blisters on our feet and our legs were definitely sore.
That night we went to stay with my Kenyan friends so Mom could meet them too, and the next day was a trip (back again) to Bloemfontein to fly to Cape Town, where we are now. I still love this place. So far, we’ve seen penguins at Boulders, climbed (the back of and hiked around) Table Mountain, shopped for gifts, eaten at Eastern Food Bazaar (honestly one of my favorite restaurants), and gotten lost driving around the city plenty of times. It’s great to be back here.
Today, we were supposed to tour Robben Island, but unfortunately the weather has not been cooperative. It has rained off and on and is just generally cold and windy. Instead, I think we’ll head over to the waterfront and shop more.
Tomorrow, we have a wine tour scheduled. We’ll visit several vineyards and taste wines, cheeses and chocolates. Tuesday is the day we split; she’ll go back to Joburg to fly home and I’ll go back to Lesotho.
It has been a whirlwind two weeks with three great mini-vacations. It’ll be sad to see Mom go but I know the rest of the family at home misses her a ton. She’ll go home with lots of good pictures and memories and it’ll be really nice for me to be able to talk with her about Lesotho and South Africa once I get home.
Time to get ready for another day – hot showers are so great!
Love from Africa,
-Katie (&mom)
My students completed all their exams (successfully, I believe) and have begun helping their family to harvest their crops: maize, sorghum, beans, etc. The external classes (Forms C and E) are still coming to school for winter classes. Luckily these start an hour later than school did and only go until about 1pm.
When I wrote last, I was in Maseru working on some things for Peace Corps but mostly just waiting for my mom to arrive. On Wednesday morning, I got up early, took a hot shower (!!!) and made it to the border fairly early. I met Kimiko there (she was coming with us on safari) and we found the taxi to Bloemfontein, where we’d rent the car to drive to Joburg airport and pick up Mom. The weather was pretty bad, cold and rainy with no sunshine in sight. We found our taxi and were the second and third people in a taxi that was supposed to hold 22 people. When planning, I’d built in extra time in case we had to wait for a taxi to fill or couldn’t quite get to the border early enough. When we got to the taxi before 9 and it still hadn’t filled at 11, I started getting nervous. Finally we had enough people to fill a small taxi (only 15 people needed) and we took off towards Bloemfontein just before noon. I managed to calm down, but then, naturally, we hit road construction.
Mom’s flight landed around 4:30pm and we were stuck on the road to Bloem when we were supposed to be driving to the airport. After three more delays thanks to construction, we were finally cruising. And then the kicker. After all the rain, the final stretch of road had been flooded so badly we couldn’t pass. We had to pay more money, turn around and take a long detour. This not only meant we were going to be lateR to pick up our car, but in addition, now we wouldn’t be passing the junction airport, so we’d have to take an extra (expensive) taxi to the airport.
Approximately 3:30pm we finally left the car rental place in Bloemfontein to head to Johannesburg. I was absolutely livid. We had had these grand plans of going to the Joburg airport and drinking bottomless coffee and eating delicious muffins all day long while waiting for my mom’s flight. When she arrived, we’d happily run into each others arms, smiling and crying… Instead, she was the one who had to wait in the airport for us.
We made it to Joburg several hours after she arrived and picked her up (there were indeed tears) and made our way to the place we’d be staying that night.
The next day we left for Kruger National Park to go on safari. We had quite a drive, but once we got past Nelspruit, it was beautiful. The plan was to stay in the park for three nights at two different camps, and during the days drive around the park to see as many animals as we could.
That day, we barely arrived at the gate in time. The man admitting us told us we had to go as fast as the speed limit would allow us or we might not make it into the camp. We were not to stop for any animal because otherwise we might be locked out, stuck in the park after dark. (Actually, I’m not really sure what would have happened to us if we didn’t make it into our camp, but we didn’t really want to find out.) So we drove… but within the first five minutes of being in the park, we had to stop because there were so many cars blocking the road, all looking at lions. No big deal, LIONS were the first animals we saw upon entering the park. We could only look for a short while before continuing on. Next, we saw rhinos off on the left, and after a little while more, we had to stop. There was an enormous elephant right in the road. It walked around eating for a while before we could pass it but eventually, we did make it past and made it to the camp in time.
The next two days we left our camp early to go out and see as many animals as we could. The list of animals we saw includes: lions, elephants, rhinos, buffalo, kudu, impala, waterbuck, crocodiles, hippos, hyenas, giraffes, zebras, vultures, monkeys and probably several more that I’ve forgotten about. After two and a half days total of driving around, my legs were stiff from lack of exercise but my camera was full and I definitely had a new appreciation for all of Africa’s animals. Safari was incredible.
After safari, we headed back to Bloem to return the car and as an intermediate stop before reaching Lesotho, the second stop on our voyage. We had lovely accommodation there and enjoyed muffins and bottomless coffee before returning to Lesotho. That day, as my mother is proud to report, we took 6 taxis in order to get back to my stop, and then had to walk 45 minutes to get home. We didn’t reach my stop until dark but several students came to pick us up and help carry luggage in to Sekameng.
Over the next few days, Mom learned what it was like to live in Sekameng. When we arrived, there was no running water, so we had to wait and hope and pray that it’d be there the next day. We cooked by candlelight and went to sleep fairly early after a busy and exhausting day.
Tuesday and Wednesday we walked around my village. She met the other teachers at my school and many of my students. We did laundry in cold water, baked bread and ate chaka-laka, motoho and papa. I think she really enjoyed it; I know I loved showing her the life I've made here.
On Thursday, we climbed the nearby mountain, Kolo. It was an all-day affair. We left around 8am and made it back to my house just before 3pm. We had to walk there, then go up, come down and walk back… by the end of the day, I think we all had blisters on our feet and our legs were definitely sore.
That night we went to stay with my Kenyan friends so Mom could meet them too, and the next day was a trip (back again) to Bloemfontein to fly to Cape Town, where we are now. I still love this place. So far, we’ve seen penguins at Boulders, climbed (the back of and hiked around) Table Mountain, shopped for gifts, eaten at Eastern Food Bazaar (honestly one of my favorite restaurants), and gotten lost driving around the city plenty of times. It’s great to be back here.
Today, we were supposed to tour Robben Island, but unfortunately the weather has not been cooperative. It has rained off and on and is just generally cold and windy. Instead, I think we’ll head over to the waterfront and shop more.
Tomorrow, we have a wine tour scheduled. We’ll visit several vineyards and taste wines, cheeses and chocolates. Tuesday is the day we split; she’ll go back to Joburg to fly home and I’ll go back to Lesotho.
It has been a whirlwind two weeks with three great mini-vacations. It’ll be sad to see Mom go but I know the rest of the family at home misses her a ton. She’ll go home with lots of good pictures and memories and it’ll be really nice for me to be able to talk with her about Lesotho and South Africa once I get home.
Time to get ready for another day – hot showers are so great!
Love from Africa,
-Katie (&mom)
Saturday, June 4, 2011
World on Fire
School is almost out and winter is definitely here.
My house is consistently 45 degrees at night and in addition to sleeping in long pants, wool socks, several layers on top plus gloves and a hat, I have 4 very warm blankets on my bed at all times. It. Is. Cold. Last winter was never this bad (or my memory has just faded with the heat of summer). I've used my heater. Multiple times. I admit it. Last year I hesitated (we were having a contest to see who could last the longest without using their heater and in my mind, I won) but this year I've come around. Plus, the previous volunteer left me several partially full tanks of gas. Plus, it's just not worth it. Cold is miserable. Everyone turns into monsters and my students hate it even more. Imagine sitting in a freezing cold classroom with no heat and broken windows. It's basically sitting outside (in the shade)... you wouldn't like it either.
Enough complaining about the cold. We have one more week of exams at school... I cannot believe the first semester is already almost finished! I actually finished my exams (and grading and reporting!) yesterday because my MOM IS COMING ON WEDNESDAY!!! We have quite the vacation planned: safaris, my school, climbing some mountains, and then we'll end our time together in Cape Town (probably my new favorite place). I am so thrilled to be able to share my new life here with someone from home. I put plenty of blankets on her bed too, and will graciously share my heater :)
As always, I have many stories from the past month to share and I'll do my best with the time I still have in town before Vodacom closes for the day. First and most recent...
The other week I made a batch of chili. I started with dry beans, cooked them, let them soak, added spices, cooked them some more (dry beans take FOREVER to cook), and worked on the other ingredients too. I was so excited. I'd inherited chili powder and cumin from other volunteers when they left so I had the fixins for a really delicious pot of chili. It turned out really well. Not so spicy that I couldn't taste everything, but it packed enough heat to warm me up. I've also almost perfected bread-making, so I had some tasty bread to go with my chili. The first batch was so good that when it was finished, I decided to make another batch. Now, I decided this late in the evening. Ok, it was actually only about 6:30 but I usually crawl into bed to read or watch a movie on my iPod around 7. It was getting late. I put the beans on to boil and got ready for bed. I crawled into bed and watched a movie, blew out my lamp, rolled over and went to sleep.
The next morning I woke up to one of the most foul smells I have ever encountered. I had left my burner on. All night. The beans had hydrated, cooked, and completely dehydrated to tiny little shriveled black nuggets of burn. To make matters worse, I had unplugged my carbon monoxide detector because it goes off whenever I bake bread or have my heater on, both of which I had done. Before you scold me, please understand I completely realize all the dangers of this. I could have burned my house down. I could have suffered carbon monoxide poisoning. I could have... and the list goes on. I am alive and completely fine (I sleep with my bedroom door closed which helped a lot), though my house still smells terribly of burned beans. This was on Tuesday night. It is now Saturday and my house STILL gives off the odor of burn. My students tell me I smell like tobacco. Gross. Lesson learned. I will not cook dry beans overnight ever again.
In better news, the alternator for the school's main generator has been fixed. I finally got all the money from Hilbert Middle and High Schools and my principal will go and pick it up hopefully sometime this week! One more step on the long way to electricity! Thanks again, Hilbert - we could not have done it without you!
Last week we decided to take the students out to the dirt road from the main road to my village and do some road work. They had shovels, pick axes, wheelbarrows and a lot of patience. We split the students by class, so my group, the Form B students, were second farthest from school. In all modesty, I worked harder than most of my students, but it was great fun. We picked up rocks and put them into the big crevices in the road to try to even it out. Some of the boys would go and chop up termite mounds and bring big chunks of them to smash into the smaller cracks that wouldn't hold rocks. We had it down to a system.
It was interesting though, trying to explain to students why exactly we were out doing work on the road. "It's just the right thing to do" didn't quite cut it, so I took a different approach. I asked them where they ate lunch each day and how they thought the food magically appeared in the kitchen. That seemed to work a bit better... Ultimately, I'm not sure if they really understood the significance or the reason we were out there, but I was so proud of all the students. Plus it gave me an excuse to throw some big rocks around and impress them with how strong I am. Ha.
As I was walking out of my village this morning (before I got a lift - all the way to town!), I walked past some funeral tents. Apparently the former chief of a neighboring village passed away. Men were out working on the tent and manly things while the women were bustling around making preparations involving food and hospitality things. At that same moment, Sarah McLachlan's song "World on Fire" shuffled onto my iPod. If you haven't heard the song, give it a listen. Actually, even better, go to youtube and look up the music video. Homework for the weekend - ponder that song.
I've been reading a book called "Dead Aid" ... about how aid in Africa is not only not helping, but actually hindering African development. It's an interesting concept - check it out if you get a chance. It's really an interesting combination. The song and the book... it really struck me this morning.
The rest of the weekend will hopefully be relaxing. I have some laundry to do before Mom comes, but depending on the water situation I may have to postpone that. Too bad. A teacher friend and I are planning on baking apple pie tomorrow, even though I have never in my life successfully made a pie crust. I can make graham cracker crusts like it's my job, but pie crust will be interesting. (Brian - I'll let you know how it goes!) I am, thankfully, an apple expert, so that part is well taken care of.
Well, my computer is about charged and actually my fingers are getting a little chilly. Hope all is well at home in the great US of A. Enjoy the summer (and being done with school)... congrats to the graduates (my brother and several friends :) !!)
Love from Africa,
Katie
My house is consistently 45 degrees at night and in addition to sleeping in long pants, wool socks, several layers on top plus gloves and a hat, I have 4 very warm blankets on my bed at all times. It. Is. Cold. Last winter was never this bad (or my memory has just faded with the heat of summer). I've used my heater. Multiple times. I admit it. Last year I hesitated (we were having a contest to see who could last the longest without using their heater and in my mind, I won) but this year I've come around. Plus, the previous volunteer left me several partially full tanks of gas. Plus, it's just not worth it. Cold is miserable. Everyone turns into monsters and my students hate it even more. Imagine sitting in a freezing cold classroom with no heat and broken windows. It's basically sitting outside (in the shade)... you wouldn't like it either.
Enough complaining about the cold. We have one more week of exams at school... I cannot believe the first semester is already almost finished! I actually finished my exams (and grading and reporting!) yesterday because my MOM IS COMING ON WEDNESDAY!!! We have quite the vacation planned: safaris, my school, climbing some mountains, and then we'll end our time together in Cape Town (probably my new favorite place). I am so thrilled to be able to share my new life here with someone from home. I put plenty of blankets on her bed too, and will graciously share my heater :)
As always, I have many stories from the past month to share and I'll do my best with the time I still have in town before Vodacom closes for the day. First and most recent...
The other week I made a batch of chili. I started with dry beans, cooked them, let them soak, added spices, cooked them some more (dry beans take FOREVER to cook), and worked on the other ingredients too. I was so excited. I'd inherited chili powder and cumin from other volunteers when they left so I had the fixins for a really delicious pot of chili. It turned out really well. Not so spicy that I couldn't taste everything, but it packed enough heat to warm me up. I've also almost perfected bread-making, so I had some tasty bread to go with my chili. The first batch was so good that when it was finished, I decided to make another batch. Now, I decided this late in the evening. Ok, it was actually only about 6:30 but I usually crawl into bed to read or watch a movie on my iPod around 7. It was getting late. I put the beans on to boil and got ready for bed. I crawled into bed and watched a movie, blew out my lamp, rolled over and went to sleep.
The next morning I woke up to one of the most foul smells I have ever encountered. I had left my burner on. All night. The beans had hydrated, cooked, and completely dehydrated to tiny little shriveled black nuggets of burn. To make matters worse, I had unplugged my carbon monoxide detector because it goes off whenever I bake bread or have my heater on, both of which I had done. Before you scold me, please understand I completely realize all the dangers of this. I could have burned my house down. I could have suffered carbon monoxide poisoning. I could have... and the list goes on. I am alive and completely fine (I sleep with my bedroom door closed which helped a lot), though my house still smells terribly of burned beans. This was on Tuesday night. It is now Saturday and my house STILL gives off the odor of burn. My students tell me I smell like tobacco. Gross. Lesson learned. I will not cook dry beans overnight ever again.
In better news, the alternator for the school's main generator has been fixed. I finally got all the money from Hilbert Middle and High Schools and my principal will go and pick it up hopefully sometime this week! One more step on the long way to electricity! Thanks again, Hilbert - we could not have done it without you!
Last week we decided to take the students out to the dirt road from the main road to my village and do some road work. They had shovels, pick axes, wheelbarrows and a lot of patience. We split the students by class, so my group, the Form B students, were second farthest from school. In all modesty, I worked harder than most of my students, but it was great fun. We picked up rocks and put them into the big crevices in the road to try to even it out. Some of the boys would go and chop up termite mounds and bring big chunks of them to smash into the smaller cracks that wouldn't hold rocks. We had it down to a system.
It was interesting though, trying to explain to students why exactly we were out doing work on the road. "It's just the right thing to do" didn't quite cut it, so I took a different approach. I asked them where they ate lunch each day and how they thought the food magically appeared in the kitchen. That seemed to work a bit better... Ultimately, I'm not sure if they really understood the significance or the reason we were out there, but I was so proud of all the students. Plus it gave me an excuse to throw some big rocks around and impress them with how strong I am. Ha.
As I was walking out of my village this morning (before I got a lift - all the way to town!), I walked past some funeral tents. Apparently the former chief of a neighboring village passed away. Men were out working on the tent and manly things while the women were bustling around making preparations involving food and hospitality things. At that same moment, Sarah McLachlan's song "World on Fire" shuffled onto my iPod. If you haven't heard the song, give it a listen. Actually, even better, go to youtube and look up the music video. Homework for the weekend - ponder that song.
I've been reading a book called "Dead Aid" ... about how aid in Africa is not only not helping, but actually hindering African development. It's an interesting concept - check it out if you get a chance. It's really an interesting combination. The song and the book... it really struck me this morning.
The rest of the weekend will hopefully be relaxing. I have some laundry to do before Mom comes, but depending on the water situation I may have to postpone that. Too bad. A teacher friend and I are planning on baking apple pie tomorrow, even though I have never in my life successfully made a pie crust. I can make graham cracker crusts like it's my job, but pie crust will be interesting. (Brian - I'll let you know how it goes!) I am, thankfully, an apple expert, so that part is well taken care of.
Well, my computer is about charged and actually my fingers are getting a little chilly. Hope all is well at home in the great US of A. Enjoy the summer (and being done with school)... congrats to the graduates (my brother and several friends :) !!)
Love from Africa,
Katie
Saturday, April 30, 2011
April 29th
Greetings and Happy Spring!
At least I imagine it to be springtime there. Here it is definitely fall, though probably closer to winter. The temps at night are pretty chilly, but thankfully when the sun is out, it’s not too bad. Apologies for not writing more frequently. I always intend to, but then find something else to do. I’ve also been journaling more frequently, so I feel as though I have less to tell you all, even though that’s clearly not the case.
The first quarter of the school year just ended before Easter. Because Easter was so late this year, the first quarter was unusually long. I was definitely ready for a vacation. Ever since I arrived in Lesotho and heard about the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town, I knew I wanted to run it. Last year we registered too late; all 14,000 spaces had been filled. This year we registered much earlier; there was no way I would miss the race two years in a row.
The marathon is always on the day before Easter. There is an ultra marathon (56km or about 35 miles) and a half marathon (standard 21.1km or 13.1 miles). I opted for the half, even though I’ve run two full marathons before. I was concerned about training and just how painful an ultra might be. Part of the tradition of this race (for other volunteers at least) is renting a car and driving from Bloemfontein to Cape Town (look on a map… it is a long distance). So on Wednesday morning last week, we made it to the border by 6am, were in Bloemfontein by 8, the airport by 9, McDonalds at 10 and on the road to CT by 11. We drove and drove… and drove some more. We were 8 altogether, two cars full of very excited runners and supporters.
We had two cute little cars, not too much leg room and even less trunk space, but we had music (iTrips must be one of the best inventions) so we were fine. I was one of the registered drivers (one of the few manual drivers) so I pulled the car around to load it up, turned it off and went inside to get the copilot and passengers so we could take off. We loaded the trunk (very full) and piled in, only to find out that the car would not start. I tried everything. I jiggled the steering wheel; I gave it a little gas as it was starting; I turned it completely off, locked the doors, unlocked the doors, crossed my fingers and tried again. Nothing. Finally, after a frustrating couple of minutes, I went back in to the desk and explained the situation. The man who had showed me where the car was came back out and said he’d take care of it. He tried everything I did and then started fiddling with the fuel hose (I think? That’s what a friend said it was at least) … still no luck. We went back in and the manager behind the desk said, “Forget about that one, I’ll upgrade you, free of charge, so you won’t have to worry about your car starting when you’re actually on your trip.” SCORE! UPGRADE! We were pretty psyched, imagining all sorts of large vehicles with ample leg room and some other super fancy features. Ha. Boy, were we wrong. The upgrade did indeed have a little more leg room and definitely more oomph than its predecessor, but noticeably less trunk space. It was a tight fit, but we made it work (story of Peace Corps, really) and got on the road.
The drive was long. Very, very long. We made only a few stops for gas and snack breaks and still only made it to Cape Town at 11pm. Now, I’ve never really lived in a city. I grew up in suburbia, went to school in very rural Iowa and currently live in a very rural village in Lesotho. I have never been a city driver. However, I was behind the wheel and had to find our hostel… let’s just say I learned city driving pretty quickly. I managed to stay on the correct side of the road (the left side) and go the correct way on one-way streets. We only got a little lost coming in to the city, but that was easily fixed. Parking was another story though. To park in front of our hostel was about R10 at night, or R9 per hour during the day. We ended up parking the cars a 30minute walk away, in a sort of residential area. This way we didn’t have to worry about being towed or spending a fortune (parking ramps were definitely not any cheaper).
The next day we spent primarily in town. We walked around, taking in the sights and sounds. It may have been because we’d all been in Lesotho so long, but everyone loved Cape Town. It has anything anyone could ever want. There is a beach not too far away, a huge mall (not quite MoA, but still, very large), plenty of outdoorsy things to do (Table Mountain or other hikes), nice bays and Cape Point not too far, Robben Island (regrettably we didn’t make this trip), penguins at Boulders and so much to do and see in town as well. The food was phenomenal. We ate like kings and queens. I think my favorite meals had to be Mexican (frozen blended margaritas!), sushi (real sushi, not the kind Kimiko and I make, which is also delicious but without fish), and a restaurant called Eastern Food Bazaar. EFB had every kind of eastern Asian food imaginable, in generous portions for very reasonable prices. The menu spanned the whole back wall and the restaurant was the length of a city block, but in the middle, so there were two entrances. It smelled amazing and tasted even better. The chefs prepared your food before your eyes and then you took it and sat down at a table to eat. We all left incredibly full but very satisfied, and willing to go back the next day. There were also a couple nights we ate in – one night we made pizza and another (the pre-race night) pasta. Those were also excellent meals even though they are common for us in Lesotho when we get together.
We spent the next day (Friday) at Kalk Bay, visiting the delicious bakery there and walking along the beach, taking in the sights. There was also a bookstore that lured us all in (until we caught a glimpse of the prices!). We had lunch there at a nice little restaurant – lots of pasta with seafood. Kalk Bay is also home to the original (yes, the very first) Fish’n’Chips place, called Kalky’s. We looked at the line and the runners agreed – greasy food maybe wasn’t the best option the afternoon before a race, so we opted for the café instead.
Saturday was the big day. The alarm went off at 3:50am. It was kind of cool how all four of the runners got down from the top bunks simultaneously, grabbed clothes and shoes and water, and headed out to get ready. We met in the kitchen for breakfast and coffee and stretching. It was a very entertaining breakfast, as people who had been out the night before were passing through the kitchen on their way to bed. They were all very confused as to why we were awake and especially as to why we were dressed as if we were going to run a marathon (I can’t imagine why!).
We left the hostel right on time, about 4:45am and headed to the parking area we’d found the day before on our drive-around. It was a little ways away from our hostel, so I was really glad to have the cars. We called a couple other friends who were staying with their parents and met up with them as well so we could start the half marathon together, while the two running the ultra split off to get ready. The half started at 6am and the ultra started at 6:25. The cannon went off at 6am sharp, and we didn’t even cross the starting line until 6:05.
I ran a pretty good race. It definitely wasn’t as fast a time as I wanted, but I still feel pretty good about it because there were so many runners I spent over the first 10k (half of the race) simply trying to pass the people I knew I was faster than. There was a substantial hill about 2/3 of the way through the race, and I continued to pass people here. I want to believe that was my altitude training kicking in, but I really can’t tell. The last 3-4km were a bit rough; it seemed like the last 5 or so were all gradually uphill, which really hurt after I had been pushing myself so hard the first part of the race.
I finished in 1hour, 59minutes. I’m pleased with sub-2 hours and know I could have done better if it weren’t for all the people I had to try to pass early on in the race. All in all, a fun time, though the crowd did not cheer nearly as much as that of the Twin Cities Marathon.
After we met up with other friends who’d finished, the big group of us went to the International hospitality tent, where we were served lasagna, sandwiches, salad, bread, fruit and whatever we wanted to drink. It was a nice post-run meal and a good chance to meet some of my friends’ parents who had come to visit them and see them run, as well as see Lesotho and Cape Town. Then, a handful of us made our way back to meet up with the ultra runners as they were on their home stretch. We ran with each of them for maybe a kilometer or two, to boost them on towards the finish line. Both were in pretty serious pain but they both finished in great time.
The rest of the day we relaxed and walked a little to try to ease up the soreness and stiffness. That evening we had dinner with all the parents and volunteers who were there at a nice Portugese (I think?) place. I don’t remember much from that night except that the food was good and I was incredibly tired. When we got back to the hostel, I took a quick nap and told my friends to wake me up when we were going to go out. Instead, I woke up at 2am with my contacts in and my clothes on. The room was dark; my friends had already gone to bed. I obviously missed the fun. The next morning when I asked them why they didn’t get me up to go out, they said they tried and I got really sassy and told them to leave me alone so I could sleep. Ha! Ultimately, I think that was the better option.
Sunday was kind of crummy. It alternated between drizzle and light rain the whole day. We drove down towards Cape Point and saw the penguin colony at Boulders (near Simons Town). Penguins have long been one of my favorite animals so it was incredible to see them so close! I have more pictures of penguins from the trip than everything else combined (I unfortunately didn’t take many photos). We piled into the cars again and were off to explore Cape Point. It ended up costing more than we wanted to pay, so we just found a little beach to walk around and take some pictures, pretending like we were at the point.
We had Eastern Food Bazaar for dinner and then went out on Long Street. It was so fun to be out after dark and see people other than volunteers and Basotho! Monday was the last day in Cape Town, so we had to make it good. We’d seen an advertisement for all-you-can-eat sushi and decided that sounded like a good lunch option. When we got to the restaurant, we realized it was only between 6 and 9pm, for dinner. We had sushi anyway, and headed to the waterfront to see the mall and other sights. We had draft beer at a nice Belgian restaurant and brewery, and watched people at the pier. I went with the Swazi volunteers around the mall before heading back to the hostel to get ready for Mexican food for dinner.
We went out again on Long street on Monday night, since it was the last night there, and had McDonalds at 3am. Oh, the joys of civilization! I realize the above is just a very brief summary of my trip and I do hope to write more, but the generator just turned off and I want to save some battery for the weekend… plus, the chief of the village and all the teachers and male students are outside, trying to deal with a man who apparently just tried to kidnap some girl and marry her. Cultural differences indeed!
I’ll fill you in on that after I figure out what’s happening. Until then, I hope all is well in the States and in your lives.
My love from Africa,
-Katie
At least I imagine it to be springtime there. Here it is definitely fall, though probably closer to winter. The temps at night are pretty chilly, but thankfully when the sun is out, it’s not too bad. Apologies for not writing more frequently. I always intend to, but then find something else to do. I’ve also been journaling more frequently, so I feel as though I have less to tell you all, even though that’s clearly not the case.
The first quarter of the school year just ended before Easter. Because Easter was so late this year, the first quarter was unusually long. I was definitely ready for a vacation. Ever since I arrived in Lesotho and heard about the Two Oceans Marathon in Cape Town, I knew I wanted to run it. Last year we registered too late; all 14,000 spaces had been filled. This year we registered much earlier; there was no way I would miss the race two years in a row.
The marathon is always on the day before Easter. There is an ultra marathon (56km or about 35 miles) and a half marathon (standard 21.1km or 13.1 miles). I opted for the half, even though I’ve run two full marathons before. I was concerned about training and just how painful an ultra might be. Part of the tradition of this race (for other volunteers at least) is renting a car and driving from Bloemfontein to Cape Town (look on a map… it is a long distance). So on Wednesday morning last week, we made it to the border by 6am, were in Bloemfontein by 8, the airport by 9, McDonalds at 10 and on the road to CT by 11. We drove and drove… and drove some more. We were 8 altogether, two cars full of very excited runners and supporters.
We had two cute little cars, not too much leg room and even less trunk space, but we had music (iTrips must be one of the best inventions) so we were fine. I was one of the registered drivers (one of the few manual drivers) so I pulled the car around to load it up, turned it off and went inside to get the copilot and passengers so we could take off. We loaded the trunk (very full) and piled in, only to find out that the car would not start. I tried everything. I jiggled the steering wheel; I gave it a little gas as it was starting; I turned it completely off, locked the doors, unlocked the doors, crossed my fingers and tried again. Nothing. Finally, after a frustrating couple of minutes, I went back in to the desk and explained the situation. The man who had showed me where the car was came back out and said he’d take care of it. He tried everything I did and then started fiddling with the fuel hose (I think? That’s what a friend said it was at least) … still no luck. We went back in and the manager behind the desk said, “Forget about that one, I’ll upgrade you, free of charge, so you won’t have to worry about your car starting when you’re actually on your trip.” SCORE! UPGRADE! We were pretty psyched, imagining all sorts of large vehicles with ample leg room and some other super fancy features. Ha. Boy, were we wrong. The upgrade did indeed have a little more leg room and definitely more oomph than its predecessor, but noticeably less trunk space. It was a tight fit, but we made it work (story of Peace Corps, really) and got on the road.
The drive was long. Very, very long. We made only a few stops for gas and snack breaks and still only made it to Cape Town at 11pm. Now, I’ve never really lived in a city. I grew up in suburbia, went to school in very rural Iowa and currently live in a very rural village in Lesotho. I have never been a city driver. However, I was behind the wheel and had to find our hostel… let’s just say I learned city driving pretty quickly. I managed to stay on the correct side of the road (the left side) and go the correct way on one-way streets. We only got a little lost coming in to the city, but that was easily fixed. Parking was another story though. To park in front of our hostel was about R10 at night, or R9 per hour during the day. We ended up parking the cars a 30minute walk away, in a sort of residential area. This way we didn’t have to worry about being towed or spending a fortune (parking ramps were definitely not any cheaper).
The next day we spent primarily in town. We walked around, taking in the sights and sounds. It may have been because we’d all been in Lesotho so long, but everyone loved Cape Town. It has anything anyone could ever want. There is a beach not too far away, a huge mall (not quite MoA, but still, very large), plenty of outdoorsy things to do (Table Mountain or other hikes), nice bays and Cape Point not too far, Robben Island (regrettably we didn’t make this trip), penguins at Boulders and so much to do and see in town as well. The food was phenomenal. We ate like kings and queens. I think my favorite meals had to be Mexican (frozen blended margaritas!), sushi (real sushi, not the kind Kimiko and I make, which is also delicious but without fish), and a restaurant called Eastern Food Bazaar. EFB had every kind of eastern Asian food imaginable, in generous portions for very reasonable prices. The menu spanned the whole back wall and the restaurant was the length of a city block, but in the middle, so there were two entrances. It smelled amazing and tasted even better. The chefs prepared your food before your eyes and then you took it and sat down at a table to eat. We all left incredibly full but very satisfied, and willing to go back the next day. There were also a couple nights we ate in – one night we made pizza and another (the pre-race night) pasta. Those were also excellent meals even though they are common for us in Lesotho when we get together.
We spent the next day (Friday) at Kalk Bay, visiting the delicious bakery there and walking along the beach, taking in the sights. There was also a bookstore that lured us all in (until we caught a glimpse of the prices!). We had lunch there at a nice little restaurant – lots of pasta with seafood. Kalk Bay is also home to the original (yes, the very first) Fish’n’Chips place, called Kalky’s. We looked at the line and the runners agreed – greasy food maybe wasn’t the best option the afternoon before a race, so we opted for the café instead.
Saturday was the big day. The alarm went off at 3:50am. It was kind of cool how all four of the runners got down from the top bunks simultaneously, grabbed clothes and shoes and water, and headed out to get ready. We met in the kitchen for breakfast and coffee and stretching. It was a very entertaining breakfast, as people who had been out the night before were passing through the kitchen on their way to bed. They were all very confused as to why we were awake and especially as to why we were dressed as if we were going to run a marathon (I can’t imagine why!).
We left the hostel right on time, about 4:45am and headed to the parking area we’d found the day before on our drive-around. It was a little ways away from our hostel, so I was really glad to have the cars. We called a couple other friends who were staying with their parents and met up with them as well so we could start the half marathon together, while the two running the ultra split off to get ready. The half started at 6am and the ultra started at 6:25. The cannon went off at 6am sharp, and we didn’t even cross the starting line until 6:05.
I ran a pretty good race. It definitely wasn’t as fast a time as I wanted, but I still feel pretty good about it because there were so many runners I spent over the first 10k (half of the race) simply trying to pass the people I knew I was faster than. There was a substantial hill about 2/3 of the way through the race, and I continued to pass people here. I want to believe that was my altitude training kicking in, but I really can’t tell. The last 3-4km were a bit rough; it seemed like the last 5 or so were all gradually uphill, which really hurt after I had been pushing myself so hard the first part of the race.
I finished in 1hour, 59minutes. I’m pleased with sub-2 hours and know I could have done better if it weren’t for all the people I had to try to pass early on in the race. All in all, a fun time, though the crowd did not cheer nearly as much as that of the Twin Cities Marathon.
After we met up with other friends who’d finished, the big group of us went to the International hospitality tent, where we were served lasagna, sandwiches, salad, bread, fruit and whatever we wanted to drink. It was a nice post-run meal and a good chance to meet some of my friends’ parents who had come to visit them and see them run, as well as see Lesotho and Cape Town. Then, a handful of us made our way back to meet up with the ultra runners as they were on their home stretch. We ran with each of them for maybe a kilometer or two, to boost them on towards the finish line. Both were in pretty serious pain but they both finished in great time.
The rest of the day we relaxed and walked a little to try to ease up the soreness and stiffness. That evening we had dinner with all the parents and volunteers who were there at a nice Portugese (I think?) place. I don’t remember much from that night except that the food was good and I was incredibly tired. When we got back to the hostel, I took a quick nap and told my friends to wake me up when we were going to go out. Instead, I woke up at 2am with my contacts in and my clothes on. The room was dark; my friends had already gone to bed. I obviously missed the fun. The next morning when I asked them why they didn’t get me up to go out, they said they tried and I got really sassy and told them to leave me alone so I could sleep. Ha! Ultimately, I think that was the better option.
Sunday was kind of crummy. It alternated between drizzle and light rain the whole day. We drove down towards Cape Point and saw the penguin colony at Boulders (near Simons Town). Penguins have long been one of my favorite animals so it was incredible to see them so close! I have more pictures of penguins from the trip than everything else combined (I unfortunately didn’t take many photos). We piled into the cars again and were off to explore Cape Point. It ended up costing more than we wanted to pay, so we just found a little beach to walk around and take some pictures, pretending like we were at the point.
We had Eastern Food Bazaar for dinner and then went out on Long Street. It was so fun to be out after dark and see people other than volunteers and Basotho! Monday was the last day in Cape Town, so we had to make it good. We’d seen an advertisement for all-you-can-eat sushi and decided that sounded like a good lunch option. When we got to the restaurant, we realized it was only between 6 and 9pm, for dinner. We had sushi anyway, and headed to the waterfront to see the mall and other sights. We had draft beer at a nice Belgian restaurant and brewery, and watched people at the pier. I went with the Swazi volunteers around the mall before heading back to the hostel to get ready for Mexican food for dinner.
We went out again on Long street on Monday night, since it was the last night there, and had McDonalds at 3am. Oh, the joys of civilization! I realize the above is just a very brief summary of my trip and I do hope to write more, but the generator just turned off and I want to save some battery for the weekend… plus, the chief of the village and all the teachers and male students are outside, trying to deal with a man who apparently just tried to kidnap some girl and marry her. Cultural differences indeed!
I’ll fill you in on that after I figure out what’s happening. Until then, I hope all is well in the States and in your lives.
My love from Africa,
-Katie
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Week 6
Greetings friends and family,
I’m having a hard time believing February is almost over, but I find myself writing exams because it is the end of the month. The sixth week of school is coming to a close and its time to find out exactly how much my students have learned. They’ll write math tomorrow, and physics early next week, just in time to welcome March.
This week marked the start of preparation for our track and field day next week; students started practicing running, jumping and throwing. On Monday, we separated boys and girls and took them running. Some of the girls really were not thrilled about having to run and stopped after less than ten minutes, but there are definitely some natural athletes. I’ve run a crowded marathon before, but when I was running with over a hundred girls, I was beyond crowded, plus the ground was really uneven. I think I probably elbowed several girls in the head and may have stepped on a few, but we made it. The most amusing thing to me was that when they run, they all run in sync. Left, right, left, right… and they sing to the beat of their stomping feet while they run. Now, I can carry on easy conversation while I run but singing is out of the question. It was definitely an experience.
On Tuesday, I took the girls running long distances with me on my training run. We went out on one of my favorite routes and stopped to stretch a while before turning back. On the way back, we did a line drill where the last person has to run up and pull ahead of the first person. At first they were confused, but once they understood what we were doing, they ran fast. I guess it didn’t click with them that the faster the first person goes, the faster everyone else has to go too. We sprinted to the finish – the girls I was running the drill with all outran me. They are so lucky to be African and living at such a high elevation. I was amazed so many of them could keep up with me on a training run when so few of them exercise regularly, if at all.
Today we added jumping to the mix. I’ve seen some talented athletes at various track meets, but watching some of these kids jump… wow. Their long jump technique seemed ok (not like I know a whole lot), but the high jump was pretty amusing. Rather than coming at the jump from off to one side, they came at it straight on, and somehow managed to land on their feet (most of the time). I’ll take some photos and video next week when the students compete so I can post them or show you all when I get home. I saw some amazing jumpers today.
Teaching continues to keep me partly busy and pretty entertained. Earlier this week, I was talking with my students about something we did last year in math, and I made some joke about their math teacher last year and teasing them about how lucky they were to have me again this year. A couple of them were so sweet, “Madam, and you will teach us next year for our JC exam!” It broke my heart to tell them that I’d most likely be back in America. “Oh, madam! You can only teach us here for two years?” I said yes, but that I would miss them terribly, and as soon as their exam results were released, I would call Ntate Kolobe to ask how they had done. One boy, sometimes troublesome, but always quick to respond, looks at me and says completely sincerely, “Madam, you can just change your name and come back for two more years!” I almost died.
Today I taught physics in Form A1. Because it was the last class for them before their exam next week, we finished the lesson a little early. I gave them the scope of their exam, and asked if they had any questions. For the longest time, they have been (seemingly) terrified of me, very quiet and respectful in class, hesitant to raise their hands, ask questions, or respond to anything I ask as I teach. Something must have changed recently because all of a sudden they were interested in everything. “Madam, do you speak Sesotho?” “I know some words but I’m not very good at it.” I told them I spoke some Spanish and Italian and they wanted to know if I knew French. One way people ggreet each other here (usually men) is “Ola” … it absolutely blew their minds that “ola” comes from the Spanish “Hola.” The boys were all giggles as I showed them how to say hello or good morning in Spanish, French, Portugese and Italian.
Then came the questions about America. “Madam, how did you get to Lesotho?” … “What do you think – do you think I walked?” … “No, madam, I think you took an airplane!” … “Yes, you’re right, but I actually took three plans.” … “Ach, madam, it’s too many! How many days did you take?” I gave them the condensed version of how I got to Lesotho from Minnesota. Then they wanted to know what I did before I came. When I told them I was a student not so long ago, they asked how many babies I had (by far one of the funniest questions I get). I said, “No babies! I’m too young for babies!” which of course leads to the question about a husband: “Nope, no husband either.” “Ah, but madam, how old are you?!” I like this question too, and my response is always the same: “How old do you think I am?” Their guesses are funny; today’s were especially so. “18!” Nope. “30!” Not quite. “20!” Closer… Finally a student from last year chipped in and they came to 23. Then came a lot of mumbling in Sesotho and I imagine they were thinking of their closest relative who is nearly my age, trying to set us up. It has happened before.
There are a couple boys who are especially characters. Last week when I overheard them speaking in Sesotho (strictly forbidden, especially in the classroom where the language of instruction is English). I asked them, “Gentlemen, why are you using Sesotho? What would Ntate Kolobe think?” They looked up at me and, without missing a beat, one of them responded, “No, madam, it is Afrikaans!” I had to give him credit for that one.
I’m really enjoying having fewer classes this year. I feel like I’m much better able to get to know students and work with the students (and teachers) in other ways. I’ve been able to sit in on Form E math and English lessons so far, and hope to observe more classes as the year progresses. Math class was especially helpful because I got to see firsthand what students are struggling with, even in Form E. Later in the year, I’m really hoping to help lead some study sessions, or just act as a tutor for them. The exams they’ll write in October are pretty challenging, and it really is hard to completely cover a syllabus in one year.
I was helping some students with math problems last weekend. They’d brought in several probability problems and after we’d exhausted those, they pulled out some old exams. There were some questions that I had to think about for a little bit before I could jump in and help them; the key to the proof wasn’t immediately apparent. I followed my intuition and eventually we came to the solution. They were SO impressed. “Ah, madam, you need to be teaching Form D and E, not just A and B!” I cannot even express how good that made me feel. It also made me wonder if they think I don’t know mathematics as well as the other teachers who teach it at higher levels. In any case, I cherish that compliment.
Plans for April are firming up – it’s less than 2 months until departure for Cape Town and the Two Oceans (Half) Marathon! – we have a place to stay in CT as well as a pair of cars rented for the appropriate dates. I need to keep my training up, which shouldn’t be too much of an issue, as long as the rain is reasonable. It’s been raining off and on at night, but thankfully nothing quite as intense as 3 straight days of rain. Sunday was my first long run around home. From the junction with the tar road, I went a ways to a T in the road, then turned around and ran back to school. It was 70 minutes (probably about 8 miles) and I honestly felt great, even though it was the heat of the day (I gobbed on the sunscreen though, so thankfully my face is still on).
Other things to look forward to include: Athletics Day (aka Track and Field Day), next Friday. March 11th is Moshoeshoe’s (moh-SHWAY-shway) Day and rumor has it the teachers might be taking a trip up north to one of the parks. Nothing has been verified but that doesn’t mean it can’t be thrown together in the last minute. Even if we don’t take a trip, I’m sure something fun will come up; after all, it’s a long weekend!
Time now to type up a couple physics exams (so they can be copied tomorrow) and then sleep. Since I was on duty last week, I got used to waking up shortly after 6… a habit that has stuck around well into this week. Anyone who knows me even a little is likely well aware that I love my sleep, and if I don’t get enough, well, it’s not pretty. I’m worried that if I take a nap I won’t sleep at night, so I don’t nap. I just try to sleep earlier and earlier each night, but of course that doesn’t work. After athletics practice, we usually play some soccer. Then cooking, cleaning, classwork… early bed just doesn’t work. Ok, enough complaining. Hope this finds you all healthy and happy in life. I’m thrilled people still enjoy hearing about my remote little life in Lesotho, so thank you for reading.
Love from Africa,
-Katie
I’m having a hard time believing February is almost over, but I find myself writing exams because it is the end of the month. The sixth week of school is coming to a close and its time to find out exactly how much my students have learned. They’ll write math tomorrow, and physics early next week, just in time to welcome March.
This week marked the start of preparation for our track and field day next week; students started practicing running, jumping and throwing. On Monday, we separated boys and girls and took them running. Some of the girls really were not thrilled about having to run and stopped after less than ten minutes, but there are definitely some natural athletes. I’ve run a crowded marathon before, but when I was running with over a hundred girls, I was beyond crowded, plus the ground was really uneven. I think I probably elbowed several girls in the head and may have stepped on a few, but we made it. The most amusing thing to me was that when they run, they all run in sync. Left, right, left, right… and they sing to the beat of their stomping feet while they run. Now, I can carry on easy conversation while I run but singing is out of the question. It was definitely an experience.
On Tuesday, I took the girls running long distances with me on my training run. We went out on one of my favorite routes and stopped to stretch a while before turning back. On the way back, we did a line drill where the last person has to run up and pull ahead of the first person. At first they were confused, but once they understood what we were doing, they ran fast. I guess it didn’t click with them that the faster the first person goes, the faster everyone else has to go too. We sprinted to the finish – the girls I was running the drill with all outran me. They are so lucky to be African and living at such a high elevation. I was amazed so many of them could keep up with me on a training run when so few of them exercise regularly, if at all.
Today we added jumping to the mix. I’ve seen some talented athletes at various track meets, but watching some of these kids jump… wow. Their long jump technique seemed ok (not like I know a whole lot), but the high jump was pretty amusing. Rather than coming at the jump from off to one side, they came at it straight on, and somehow managed to land on their feet (most of the time). I’ll take some photos and video next week when the students compete so I can post them or show you all when I get home. I saw some amazing jumpers today.
Teaching continues to keep me partly busy and pretty entertained. Earlier this week, I was talking with my students about something we did last year in math, and I made some joke about their math teacher last year and teasing them about how lucky they were to have me again this year. A couple of them were so sweet, “Madam, and you will teach us next year for our JC exam!” It broke my heart to tell them that I’d most likely be back in America. “Oh, madam! You can only teach us here for two years?” I said yes, but that I would miss them terribly, and as soon as their exam results were released, I would call Ntate Kolobe to ask how they had done. One boy, sometimes troublesome, but always quick to respond, looks at me and says completely sincerely, “Madam, you can just change your name and come back for two more years!” I almost died.
Today I taught physics in Form A1. Because it was the last class for them before their exam next week, we finished the lesson a little early. I gave them the scope of their exam, and asked if they had any questions. For the longest time, they have been (seemingly) terrified of me, very quiet and respectful in class, hesitant to raise their hands, ask questions, or respond to anything I ask as I teach. Something must have changed recently because all of a sudden they were interested in everything. “Madam, do you speak Sesotho?” “I know some words but I’m not very good at it.” I told them I spoke some Spanish and Italian and they wanted to know if I knew French. One way people ggreet each other here (usually men) is “Ola” … it absolutely blew their minds that “ola” comes from the Spanish “Hola.” The boys were all giggles as I showed them how to say hello or good morning in Spanish, French, Portugese and Italian.
Then came the questions about America. “Madam, how did you get to Lesotho?” … “What do you think – do you think I walked?” … “No, madam, I think you took an airplane!” … “Yes, you’re right, but I actually took three plans.” … “Ach, madam, it’s too many! How many days did you take?” I gave them the condensed version of how I got to Lesotho from Minnesota. Then they wanted to know what I did before I came. When I told them I was a student not so long ago, they asked how many babies I had (by far one of the funniest questions I get). I said, “No babies! I’m too young for babies!” which of course leads to the question about a husband: “Nope, no husband either.” “Ah, but madam, how old are you?!” I like this question too, and my response is always the same: “How old do you think I am?” Their guesses are funny; today’s were especially so. “18!” Nope. “30!” Not quite. “20!” Closer… Finally a student from last year chipped in and they came to 23. Then came a lot of mumbling in Sesotho and I imagine they were thinking of their closest relative who is nearly my age, trying to set us up. It has happened before.
There are a couple boys who are especially characters. Last week when I overheard them speaking in Sesotho (strictly forbidden, especially in the classroom where the language of instruction is English). I asked them, “Gentlemen, why are you using Sesotho? What would Ntate Kolobe think?” They looked up at me and, without missing a beat, one of them responded, “No, madam, it is Afrikaans!” I had to give him credit for that one.
I’m really enjoying having fewer classes this year. I feel like I’m much better able to get to know students and work with the students (and teachers) in other ways. I’ve been able to sit in on Form E math and English lessons so far, and hope to observe more classes as the year progresses. Math class was especially helpful because I got to see firsthand what students are struggling with, even in Form E. Later in the year, I’m really hoping to help lead some study sessions, or just act as a tutor for them. The exams they’ll write in October are pretty challenging, and it really is hard to completely cover a syllabus in one year.
I was helping some students with math problems last weekend. They’d brought in several probability problems and after we’d exhausted those, they pulled out some old exams. There were some questions that I had to think about for a little bit before I could jump in and help them; the key to the proof wasn’t immediately apparent. I followed my intuition and eventually we came to the solution. They were SO impressed. “Ah, madam, you need to be teaching Form D and E, not just A and B!” I cannot even express how good that made me feel. It also made me wonder if they think I don’t know mathematics as well as the other teachers who teach it at higher levels. In any case, I cherish that compliment.
Plans for April are firming up – it’s less than 2 months until departure for Cape Town and the Two Oceans (Half) Marathon! – we have a place to stay in CT as well as a pair of cars rented for the appropriate dates. I need to keep my training up, which shouldn’t be too much of an issue, as long as the rain is reasonable. It’s been raining off and on at night, but thankfully nothing quite as intense as 3 straight days of rain. Sunday was my first long run around home. From the junction with the tar road, I went a ways to a T in the road, then turned around and ran back to school. It was 70 minutes (probably about 8 miles) and I honestly felt great, even though it was the heat of the day (I gobbed on the sunscreen though, so thankfully my face is still on).
Other things to look forward to include: Athletics Day (aka Track and Field Day), next Friday. March 11th is Moshoeshoe’s (moh-SHWAY-shway) Day and rumor has it the teachers might be taking a trip up north to one of the parks. Nothing has been verified but that doesn’t mean it can’t be thrown together in the last minute. Even if we don’t take a trip, I’m sure something fun will come up; after all, it’s a long weekend!
Time now to type up a couple physics exams (so they can be copied tomorrow) and then sleep. Since I was on duty last week, I got used to waking up shortly after 6… a habit that has stuck around well into this week. Anyone who knows me even a little is likely well aware that I love my sleep, and if I don’t get enough, well, it’s not pretty. I’m worried that if I take a nap I won’t sleep at night, so I don’t nap. I just try to sleep earlier and earlier each night, but of course that doesn’t work. After athletics practice, we usually play some soccer. Then cooking, cleaning, classwork… early bed just doesn’t work. Ok, enough complaining. Hope this finds you all healthy and happy in life. I’m thrilled people still enjoy hearing about my remote little life in Lesotho, so thank you for reading.
Love from Africa,
-Katie
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
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
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
Monday, January 10, 2011
Back at Home
January 6, 2011
Happy New Year!
I cannot believe it is already 2011… or should I say I cannot believe how quickly (and simultaneously slowly!) 2010 passed. It was an eventful year, that’s for sure… plenty of ups and downs, maybe a few sideways too. My entire 2010 was spent in Lesotho (with few exceptions as I journeyed to other parts of southern Africa), which amazes me. I never thought I would spend more than an entire year away from America, but here I am, still plugging away.
My summer holidays have also flown by. One year ago tomorrow (January 7th) I swore in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer; in a week and a half, I’ll be starting my second (and final!) year of teaching. Thanks to lots of bus trips recently (gotta love vacations on a PC budget!), I’ve had time to reflect on the past year and sort of figure out what I want from 2011. I don’t know that I have any official resolutions, but I think 2011 will be a good year.
Shortly after Christmas, my friend (Kimiko) and I ventured up to Mozambique. It was quite the endeavor just to get there: 5-6 hour taxi from Maseru to Pretoria, then an overnight bus from Pretoria to Maputo. Now in order to enter Mozambique, one needs a traveler’s visa, which we had not managed to secure before departure. This meant several things. First, InterCape had the right to deny us our seats on the bus (we prayed they wouldn’t and thankfully they had mercy). It also meant that we still needed to get them… so when we arrived at the border to Mozambique, we had to get out of the bus (mind you this is approximately 5am) and run. We ran along all the cars waiting to go through the border, we ran to get our passports stamped out of South Africa, and we ran to the desk where we could apply for (and hopefully receive) our visas into Mozambique.
Now, Moz is a great place (really, I loved almost every minute of it) but in Southern Africa, it is high summer, and Moz is mostly coastline and jungle-ish so it was beyond humid. I’m not quite sure how hot it actually got, but it was definitely a rude awakening from our comfortable air-conditioned slumbers on the bus.
The funny thing about a couple people running for something with a lot of other people around is that it inspires everyone to start running. Soon, probably a third of the passengers from our bus were running with us, as well as some of the locals. I doubt they had any reason to run, but I’m sure when a lot of foreigners are running towards your border post, you feel like you might be missing something. We got to the desk (absolutely dripping) and frantically began filling out the application. Thankfully we were all working together – it was pretty confusing. After a hefty fine and a photo (before which I was not warned, so I look appropriately grumpy), I had my visa in my passport and Kimiko and I were running back to the bus. I’m not sure whether the bus would have actually left anyone behind or not, but the guy giving us directions had us just scared enough to think he might.
Back on the bus, we relaxed and “ooh-ed” and “aah-ed” as we passed mango trees and palm trees and caught an occasional glimpse of the ocean… taking in our new surroundings. Unfortunately for us, the air conditioning on the bus had been turned off, so we were left sweating for the remaining hour and a half to Mozambique’s capital.
Our hostel picked us up from the bus stop so we didn’t have to wait too long before we could go somewhere and shower. That day we walked around Maputo, taking in the sights and sounds (and smells!), visiting the craft market, the fish market, walking along the beach… it truly was (a very hot and humid) paradise.
Along the beach, there were carts where men were cutting coconuts up. We had to try one… several chops and two straws later, we were drinking fresh coconut milk. Wow. We stopped at the next cart. Several more chops and we had two spoon/scrapers made from the shell. We were both in heaven – fresh coconut milk and then the softest, sweetest coconut flesh I have ever tasted.
Next up was the fish market. You could smell it a mile away, but it didn’t smell bad fishy, just fresh fishy. As tourists, we stuck out, and were soon joined by a guy who claimed his name was Joe (I think?). He said he was a chef and worked at a nice restaurant; he wanted to help us find fish and cook it for us. Of course he did. Nonetheless, it was nice to have some sort of a guide around the chaos of a fish market: crabs, lobster, mussels, fish, prawns, clams… they had everything, freshly caught that morning, just waiting for us to buy it, cook it and eat it.
We settled on some kind of fish (forgive me, I don’t remember the name) and relaxed in the shade while our meal was being prepared. Now, I like to think I’ve had some good fish in my life (my aunt’s salmon, for example, or surf and turf on New Years), but this topped them all. I don’t want to even try to put it into words; it was just that good.
Bellies full, we meandered back towards the beach and caught a small rickshaw-like open-air taxi that couldn’t have held more than two people. It brought us around town a while and ultimately back to the craft market. We made some (way too many, ha) purchases and headed back to the hostel, picking up food for dinner.
As we were preparing food and eating, we met some other Peace Corps Volunteers from Swaziland… an awesome addition to our vacation. We were both pretty exhausted, so almost immediately after dinner, we went to bed, anticipating the early shuttle up to Tofo the next morning.
Well, the shuttle that was supposed to be leaving at 6am didn’t end up leaving until shortly after 11am. It turns out Mozambique is also on African time. The shuttle took us close to 10 hours with potty breaks (for all 30 passengers who have been drinking water and other things since 6am) and frequent mini-bus maintenance checks. We were all a little frustrated since this delay seriously cut into our beach time, but there wasn’t really anything to do. This is Africa; deal with it.
The backpackers where we stayed in Tofo was absolutely huge. There was a large space set aside for camping (if you brought your own tent), several tents provided by the hostel with cots inside, plenty of dorms and maybe even a few doubles. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed in such a (relatively) small place with so many people! It had a stage set up for the Tofo Earth Festival (there was live music every night we were there), and of course a set of stairs leading right down to the beach. We stayed in a dorm for 16 people. Yes. Sixteen people. There were 8 bunk beds, each with two mosquito nets (one top, one bottom) and (get ready for it) exactly two ceiling fans to cool all 16 of us down. Needless to say, we sweat through each night; the fans were barely any comfort.
The weather up in Tofo was actually hotter and more humid (I thought at least) than Maputo. The ocean was right there, so thankfully I could “cool down” whenever I wanted to, but as soon as I got out, the sun would dry me off (and burn me), and then I’d go right back to being hot again. Plus, the ocean itself was bathtub temperature – not very refreshing.
Kimiko and I sort of did our own thing most of the time, and that worked well. We each got what we wanted out of the vacation and still had a blast when we were together. I spent a lot of time on the beach and in the water with the Swazi PCVs. It felt like every five minutes (when I wasn’t in the water, bouncing in the waves) I was reapplying sunscreen, and somehow I still managed to burn. I blame the malaria medicine (and the fact that I instantly sweat off any lotion I applied).
On the first afternoon in Tofo, a jellyfish stung me. It was kind of neat to say that I’d been stung, and as silly as it sounds, I was strangely proud of my encounter. The next day, a friend picked one up, discovered it was moving, and also that his hand stung quite bad. I told him we should start a club.
Whale sharks apparently number only around one thousand in the world’s oceans, and almost a third of those are said to be off the cost of Mozambique, specifically Inhambane, where we were. I have several friends (who have also been to Tofo) who swam with whale sharks and couldn’t recommend it highly enough. Sadly, they had more luck than we did. The guide and driver of our boat didn’t have a lot of luck locating any whale sharks, so after maybe 30 minutes of driving around looking, they stopped by a reef and let us hop in to cool down. It felt great to get into the water, but Kimiko and I (and the other ocean safari-goers) swam through a herd (pack? gang? flock?) of jellyfish, and were stung all up and down our arms. I stopped feeling special and started hating the little buggers. As I learned from Finding Nemo, the heads don’t sting, only the long flowy tentacles… which are really hard to see. They’re also longer than (I thought) they should be, so even if you see the top and try to avoid them, the arms usually manage to get you anyway. The second time I got in the water was to try to swim with dolphins who were hanging around the boat, I got stung on the mouth… and called it quits.
The coolest part for me was definitely seeing dolphins. They would come up and jump in groups of two or three, and once got quite close to the boat. I’ve seen dolphins in the Zoo before, where they swim around and around that tank, but this was different. To happen to see many of them out in their natural habitat was incredible, and to be in the water with them would have been amazing.
We didn’t have a chance to go again the next day (even though we could have because we didn’t swim with anything) because we headed back to Maputo, but it is definitely something I would try again! Even though we had pretty bad luck with the animals, it was so nice to be on a boat again. I was counting the months since I’ve been to my cabin and I think it’s close to a year and a half since I’ve been in a boat!
Even though we spent a fair amount of time at the market in Maputo, the market in Tofo still drew us in almost every day. The mangoes cost 5 to 10 meticais ($1=m32) and were absolutely perfectly ripe. I learned how to peel them with my teeth (thanks to my friend from Grinnell for inspiration!) but still got juice all over every time. The produce was stunning – so many bright colors of every fruit and vegetable; I was in heaven. The arts and crafts were also beautiful: paintings, wood-carvings, jewelry made from bone and shell and wood… it was hard not to want to buy everything. All the artists had a story: one learned their trade from his grandfather; one was trying to get through school and did art on the side to pay the bills… each greeted us with a smile and tried to charge us way too much. From everything I read, the markets have two prices, one for the natives and one for the tourists, and bargaining is expected. I’ve never been particularly good at selling things, and apparently I’m not very good at buying them either. I felt wrong trying to tell these people that their hard work wasn’t worth that much to me, that I didn’t want to pay (the equivalent of) $10, I would only pay $3. I got over it enough to buy souvenirs.
-------------------------
Unfortunately, I’m currently running out of time in town before things start to close up, so I’ll end this, my Moz: Part 1 update, and promise to write more later.
Hope all is well in the wonderful land of America!
Love from Africa,
-Katie
Happy New Year!
I cannot believe it is already 2011… or should I say I cannot believe how quickly (and simultaneously slowly!) 2010 passed. It was an eventful year, that’s for sure… plenty of ups and downs, maybe a few sideways too. My entire 2010 was spent in Lesotho (with few exceptions as I journeyed to other parts of southern Africa), which amazes me. I never thought I would spend more than an entire year away from America, but here I am, still plugging away.
My summer holidays have also flown by. One year ago tomorrow (January 7th) I swore in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer; in a week and a half, I’ll be starting my second (and final!) year of teaching. Thanks to lots of bus trips recently (gotta love vacations on a PC budget!), I’ve had time to reflect on the past year and sort of figure out what I want from 2011. I don’t know that I have any official resolutions, but I think 2011 will be a good year.
Shortly after Christmas, my friend (Kimiko) and I ventured up to Mozambique. It was quite the endeavor just to get there: 5-6 hour taxi from Maseru to Pretoria, then an overnight bus from Pretoria to Maputo. Now in order to enter Mozambique, one needs a traveler’s visa, which we had not managed to secure before departure. This meant several things. First, InterCape had the right to deny us our seats on the bus (we prayed they wouldn’t and thankfully they had mercy). It also meant that we still needed to get them… so when we arrived at the border to Mozambique, we had to get out of the bus (mind you this is approximately 5am) and run. We ran along all the cars waiting to go through the border, we ran to get our passports stamped out of South Africa, and we ran to the desk where we could apply for (and hopefully receive) our visas into Mozambique.
Now, Moz is a great place (really, I loved almost every minute of it) but in Southern Africa, it is high summer, and Moz is mostly coastline and jungle-ish so it was beyond humid. I’m not quite sure how hot it actually got, but it was definitely a rude awakening from our comfortable air-conditioned slumbers on the bus.
The funny thing about a couple people running for something with a lot of other people around is that it inspires everyone to start running. Soon, probably a third of the passengers from our bus were running with us, as well as some of the locals. I doubt they had any reason to run, but I’m sure when a lot of foreigners are running towards your border post, you feel like you might be missing something. We got to the desk (absolutely dripping) and frantically began filling out the application. Thankfully we were all working together – it was pretty confusing. After a hefty fine and a photo (before which I was not warned, so I look appropriately grumpy), I had my visa in my passport and Kimiko and I were running back to the bus. I’m not sure whether the bus would have actually left anyone behind or not, but the guy giving us directions had us just scared enough to think he might.
Back on the bus, we relaxed and “ooh-ed” and “aah-ed” as we passed mango trees and palm trees and caught an occasional glimpse of the ocean… taking in our new surroundings. Unfortunately for us, the air conditioning on the bus had been turned off, so we were left sweating for the remaining hour and a half to Mozambique’s capital.
Our hostel picked us up from the bus stop so we didn’t have to wait too long before we could go somewhere and shower. That day we walked around Maputo, taking in the sights and sounds (and smells!), visiting the craft market, the fish market, walking along the beach… it truly was (a very hot and humid) paradise.
Along the beach, there were carts where men were cutting coconuts up. We had to try one… several chops and two straws later, we were drinking fresh coconut milk. Wow. We stopped at the next cart. Several more chops and we had two spoon/scrapers made from the shell. We were both in heaven – fresh coconut milk and then the softest, sweetest coconut flesh I have ever tasted.
Next up was the fish market. You could smell it a mile away, but it didn’t smell bad fishy, just fresh fishy. As tourists, we stuck out, and were soon joined by a guy who claimed his name was Joe (I think?). He said he was a chef and worked at a nice restaurant; he wanted to help us find fish and cook it for us. Of course he did. Nonetheless, it was nice to have some sort of a guide around the chaos of a fish market: crabs, lobster, mussels, fish, prawns, clams… they had everything, freshly caught that morning, just waiting for us to buy it, cook it and eat it.
We settled on some kind of fish (forgive me, I don’t remember the name) and relaxed in the shade while our meal was being prepared. Now, I like to think I’ve had some good fish in my life (my aunt’s salmon, for example, or surf and turf on New Years), but this topped them all. I don’t want to even try to put it into words; it was just that good.
Bellies full, we meandered back towards the beach and caught a small rickshaw-like open-air taxi that couldn’t have held more than two people. It brought us around town a while and ultimately back to the craft market. We made some (way too many, ha) purchases and headed back to the hostel, picking up food for dinner.
As we were preparing food and eating, we met some other Peace Corps Volunteers from Swaziland… an awesome addition to our vacation. We were both pretty exhausted, so almost immediately after dinner, we went to bed, anticipating the early shuttle up to Tofo the next morning.
Well, the shuttle that was supposed to be leaving at 6am didn’t end up leaving until shortly after 11am. It turns out Mozambique is also on African time. The shuttle took us close to 10 hours with potty breaks (for all 30 passengers who have been drinking water and other things since 6am) and frequent mini-bus maintenance checks. We were all a little frustrated since this delay seriously cut into our beach time, but there wasn’t really anything to do. This is Africa; deal with it.
The backpackers where we stayed in Tofo was absolutely huge. There was a large space set aside for camping (if you brought your own tent), several tents provided by the hostel with cots inside, plenty of dorms and maybe even a few doubles. I don’t think I’ve ever stayed in such a (relatively) small place with so many people! It had a stage set up for the Tofo Earth Festival (there was live music every night we were there), and of course a set of stairs leading right down to the beach. We stayed in a dorm for 16 people. Yes. Sixteen people. There were 8 bunk beds, each with two mosquito nets (one top, one bottom) and (get ready for it) exactly two ceiling fans to cool all 16 of us down. Needless to say, we sweat through each night; the fans were barely any comfort.
The weather up in Tofo was actually hotter and more humid (I thought at least) than Maputo. The ocean was right there, so thankfully I could “cool down” whenever I wanted to, but as soon as I got out, the sun would dry me off (and burn me), and then I’d go right back to being hot again. Plus, the ocean itself was bathtub temperature – not very refreshing.
Kimiko and I sort of did our own thing most of the time, and that worked well. We each got what we wanted out of the vacation and still had a blast when we were together. I spent a lot of time on the beach and in the water with the Swazi PCVs. It felt like every five minutes (when I wasn’t in the water, bouncing in the waves) I was reapplying sunscreen, and somehow I still managed to burn. I blame the malaria medicine (and the fact that I instantly sweat off any lotion I applied).
On the first afternoon in Tofo, a jellyfish stung me. It was kind of neat to say that I’d been stung, and as silly as it sounds, I was strangely proud of my encounter. The next day, a friend picked one up, discovered it was moving, and also that his hand stung quite bad. I told him we should start a club.
Whale sharks apparently number only around one thousand in the world’s oceans, and almost a third of those are said to be off the cost of Mozambique, specifically Inhambane, where we were. I have several friends (who have also been to Tofo) who swam with whale sharks and couldn’t recommend it highly enough. Sadly, they had more luck than we did. The guide and driver of our boat didn’t have a lot of luck locating any whale sharks, so after maybe 30 minutes of driving around looking, they stopped by a reef and let us hop in to cool down. It felt great to get into the water, but Kimiko and I (and the other ocean safari-goers) swam through a herd (pack? gang? flock?) of jellyfish, and were stung all up and down our arms. I stopped feeling special and started hating the little buggers. As I learned from Finding Nemo, the heads don’t sting, only the long flowy tentacles… which are really hard to see. They’re also longer than (I thought) they should be, so even if you see the top and try to avoid them, the arms usually manage to get you anyway. The second time I got in the water was to try to swim with dolphins who were hanging around the boat, I got stung on the mouth… and called it quits.
The coolest part for me was definitely seeing dolphins. They would come up and jump in groups of two or three, and once got quite close to the boat. I’ve seen dolphins in the Zoo before, where they swim around and around that tank, but this was different. To happen to see many of them out in their natural habitat was incredible, and to be in the water with them would have been amazing.
We didn’t have a chance to go again the next day (even though we could have because we didn’t swim with anything) because we headed back to Maputo, but it is definitely something I would try again! Even though we had pretty bad luck with the animals, it was so nice to be on a boat again. I was counting the months since I’ve been to my cabin and I think it’s close to a year and a half since I’ve been in a boat!
Even though we spent a fair amount of time at the market in Maputo, the market in Tofo still drew us in almost every day. The mangoes cost 5 to 10 meticais ($1=m32) and were absolutely perfectly ripe. I learned how to peel them with my teeth (thanks to my friend from Grinnell for inspiration!) but still got juice all over every time. The produce was stunning – so many bright colors of every fruit and vegetable; I was in heaven. The arts and crafts were also beautiful: paintings, wood-carvings, jewelry made from bone and shell and wood… it was hard not to want to buy everything. All the artists had a story: one learned their trade from his grandfather; one was trying to get through school and did art on the side to pay the bills… each greeted us with a smile and tried to charge us way too much. From everything I read, the markets have two prices, one for the natives and one for the tourists, and bargaining is expected. I’ve never been particularly good at selling things, and apparently I’m not very good at buying them either. I felt wrong trying to tell these people that their hard work wasn’t worth that much to me, that I didn’t want to pay (the equivalent of) $10, I would only pay $3. I got over it enough to buy souvenirs.
-------------------------
Unfortunately, I’m currently running out of time in town before things start to close up, so I’ll end this, my Moz: Part 1 update, and promise to write more later.
Hope all is well in the wonderful land of America!
Love from Africa,
-Katie
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