Small thoughts 8

Taxi names, featuring some front-and-backers: Indian Ocean, The Palace, Jealous Don't (front) I'm Sorry (back), Romantic (front) Come Closer (back), Never Mind, Titanic (front) Don't Be Shy (back), Internet, Flashlight

Ugh taxi life would be so much easier if bo'me weren't so ginormous. They literally take up at least a seat and a half, and my butt gets to either jam into the person on the other side or precariously hang off the seat if it's the aisle seat. If taxis were airplanes, these ladies would be charged double.

The problem with the sun going down so early is that it's completely dark by 7pm, so I feel inclined to go to sleep shortly thereafter. This leads to being fully rested by 3 or 4 am, when the sun has definitely not come up yet, and won't for another three hours. Sigh.

Due to my injured condition, today my 'me asked me "u hlotse joang?" (How did you limp?) and when I didn't understand, she instructed me to answer "ke hlotse hantle." (I limped well). After looking up the word and realizing she was talking about me limping, I wonder if limping "well" is a good thing or a bad thing. 

I just wanna hike and travel and take showers.

Changing the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius on my weather app was probably the best thing I could have done for my weather-based sanity. Even though I can roughly fathom what temperature the number is, I can't fully wrap my brain around it and recognize what it feels like, anticipating and dreading the temperature. So that way, I can't really get in the mindset of cold. Like before I even go outside, I can't just put myself in a sulking-because-it's-cold kind of mood just because maybe I checked the weather and saw that it was some cold temperature I recognize, before I even went out into it and felt the actual temperature for myself.

"I'm with the Peace Corps." -me

"Peace what? What is that?" -Mosotho 

"The uh, the Peace Corpse." -me

"Oh the Peace Corpse. Yes I know them." -Mosotho 

Sigh. Lots of people know what it is, only if you pronounce it completely wrong. Silent letters aren't a thing in Sesotho.

Leonard, via whatsapp:

"I derived so much joy from watching a masotho struggle closing the window in the taxi. She never got it closed. the wind beat at her grimacing face with reckless abandon. 

I was so, so happy."

I am wearing the pants I bought in Maseru only I discover that the front pockets are fake. Life is cruel. 

I like to be warm, but these fumes from the paraffin heater are turning my stomach.

Another teacher just told me, "Yesterday you left without saying goodbye." Uhh I do that almost every day. Plus it's not like I'm gonna wait around another hour for you to get out of class just so I can say "see ya tomorrow."

My form C life skills class has turned into 1/4 teaching something legit, 1/4 answering random questions, and 1/2 explaining math concepts the other teacher just taught them.

Now that the weather is pretending to be cold, every bo'me is wearing a blanket as a skirt on top of her clothes. 

I can't reprimand my students with a straight face. Most of the time I think whatever shenanigans they're up to are funny. Maybe this is why they don't really take it seriously...We both are laughing at the fact that me trying to be an authority figure is hilarious. 

Sesotho is on google translate now! My life just got so much easier.

Strangely loud things that make my ears ring: the sound of a spoon scraping the last grains of rice out of an almost empty metal pot, the certain pitch of one teacher's voice as it echoes off the walls of the tiny staff room. Oww. 

The concept of having more than one day to complete an assignment is foreign to my students. I told them they had two days to turn in quiz corrections. One of them asked me if I wasn't coming in tomorrow. Another asked if tomorrow was a school holiday. No it's because some of you turn them in late anyway, so I might as well give everyone time to finish. 

Another PCV has mice in his house, so he devised a clever plan. He puts some peanut butter or other tempting food on the end of a long strip of cardboard, the food-laden end hanging off the edge of a table. When the mouse walks the plank, the cardboard tips over, dumping the mouse into a bucket of water underneath. Genius. 

It's easy to spot someone who isn't from the village: they have hair. 

I revised my dinner plans to make something that needs a long time to cook so I can stand over the stove and thaw out my hands. 

I used to be at school when they rang the tornado siren (that is our bell) at 7am. Now I hear it from my bed as I lay there pretending like I might get up soon. 

I'm afraid that I'll burn my house down if I use my big iron heater stove. But since the temp gets to freezing at night, my method is to now wear half the clothes I own to bed, get in my sleeping bag, and cover myself with blankets. 

Update: My 'me just came to my door and gave me the biggest, fluffiest blanket. She said something along the lines of don't use the iron stove as a heater or there will be smoke all up in my house. I figured. That's probably why the ceiling is black. She said that everyone in the family sleeps under four of these blankets. Right now I'm wrapped up in it, so warm, so happy.