Except
for a few random coldish days, that fiendish beast they call winter is gone. I
know that my mood has drastically improved in part because I’m not huddling in
zillions of layers and feeling generally shivery and creaky. The switch was
pretty fast, too. There are pink splotches of peach trees with blooms absolutely
everywhere. Some of them don’t even look real.
Justin and Mary, the veterans of
Quthing, said that this exact week last year, it was snowing. Apparently last
winter wasn’t as harsh as this year’s, but it was longer. Spring also brings a
bunch of little fuzz ball puppies wandering around people’s yards. Good thing I
got the cutest one ;).
Just now when I woke up from a nap, it was even raining outside.
First precipitation since it snowed when I was in Namibia. The seasons have
been as follows: wet, wet and hot, annoying cold, snow, more annoying cold,
then sudden warmth and wind/dust.
To
prepare for the district cultural day on Friday, the students got afternoon
classes off for like two weeks. Thursday was the dress rehearsal. There were
dances, a skit, storytelling, and a performance of some stringed instrument,
all in various traditional outfits. The booty pop dance (called litolobonya)
was done in these white plastic grass skirts with strings of bottle caps under
the butt that made noise with each pop, the storytelling was done by a form C
girl in an animal skin skirt, no shirt (like I said before, boobs aren’t really
a big deal here), and long strands of beads criss-crossing her torso, the skit
was done in seshoeshoe [South African patterned cloth] skirts and blankets, and
the stringed instrument boy was wearing some kind of animal loin cloth wrap
thing and an animal skin hat. They were quite good.
Friday morning, I went with
about 45 kids and most of the other teachers into Quthing town. In the taxi, I sat in the
front where there was a speaker right above my head, and the house music was
pounding into every organ of my body. The kids were bouncing around in the
back, not content unless the music was literally all the way up. I stepped out
of the taxi with my hearing dampened a bit, and it took a while for it to come
back completely. We ended up at the high school in town where a few other
schools had already arrived. We were ushered to a classroom to wait around. I
decided that, this being a Basotho-organized event, we would probably be
waiting around forever until things got started. I decided to ditch and go meet
Justin and Mary in the lower part of town at the new fish and chips restaurant.
I was debating whether to go back and watch the performances, but by 12:30,
well after I had escaped and we had finished eating, there were still taxis full of students from
other schools rolling through town, arriving that late. I decided a while ago
that even though Basotho don’t think of their time as valuable, mine still is.
So I thought that my watching the dress rehearsal the day before was good
enough, and headed up to Mohale’s Hoek where I met up with a bunch of people.
It’s
amazing how seeing my fellow PCVs makes me feel a lot better about life. Plus
my friend Lee, having previously decided to ET [early terminate] after this
school year is over, has decided to stay. Part of the reasoning explained to me is that the
future has definite risks, but the potential benefits are unknown and could be
really good. No way to know unless you stick around. The other thing that’s
making me and others feel better about PC is the arrival of the new HY [healthy youth-
the other sector here besides education] volunteers, and it’s fun
meeting cool, new people. This past weekend, I found a few of these newbies
plus a few in my group at the hotel in Mohale’s Hoek, the district to the
north. I’ve found that I rarely now go to my own camptown, favoring this one.
Just to give you a little perspective for how desolate my own district is, the
people who all just happened to be at the hotel sitting around this one table
was more people than there are volunteers in my entire district. So yeah, it’s
more fun to come up here. That afternoon, that group plus a few more went to
Taylor’s [a second-year HY] house to hang out. We attempted to cook meat on his little
bbq outside, and we played cards and other games we borrowed from one of the PC staff
members who is obsessed with board games and the like. We all slept there at his palatial house. My house is one room. His house is at least 6, plus water,
electricity, the works. So fancy.
The
next morning, my hitch buddy Lee and I easily found rides up to Mafeteng, the
town to the north. We met up with Kristin and we all rode with one of her
school’s teachers to Maseru. I bought a bunch of dog stuff, but I was really
jonesin for a pizza. We found this place at the mall where you have to buy 2 pizzas
together in the same box. It was kind of weird, but the pizzas were awesome.
The Ed14s just had their COS (close of service) conference. They're leaving so soon! Makes me realize I've almost been here a year.
And life goes on.
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