Small thoughts 12

or "Adventures with Form B"

Taxis: Wild Cat, Tribal War!!!, Section Three, Back Home, Section Four, Bit By Bit

I always like how successive evolutions of my keychain make different noises. Different places and/or responsibilities, aka different keys and accompaniments, make different jangles. For example, now I have my door key, my burglar bars key, the PC office plastic magnetic key, a flash drive, and my always-trusty compass/thermometer/whistle on a big carabiner and lanyard. A little tinkley, but mostly hollow plastic noises. A small soundtrack to my life at the moment.

Psh who needs perforated toilet paper?

Brotso Pula Nala. 

Data you enjoy wasting is not data wasted.

Me, to another teacher who has a new wig/weave thing, "'Me, your hair looks nice." 

Her, sassily, "Thank you! I borrowed somebody else's hair!"

Hah I told my principal that I had to go to Mafeteng later this week to go to the Resource Volunteer (current vols who help run training for the incoming ones) meeting, and that I would have to go to TY to help with training a few times over the next few months. She was like, "Oohh they chose you to be a resource because they think that you are a good teacher and that you work very hard. Congratulations." I'm just gonna let her be impressed with me and not tell her I was not royally appointed, but signed up voluntarily. 

I was explaining why a pie chart is called a pie chart in form B, like you're looking down at an unevenly-sliced pie, and one kid blurts out, "Don't talk to us about pie!" Jeez, man, I don't have any pie either. Calm down. 

I was standing outside the classroom when the form Bs were kind of debating with the geography and science teachers, having a hard time understanding that the sun is much bigger than the earth and that the earth revolves around the sun. Yeesh. 

As the teachers walked slower than snails up the hill to the soccer field where we were having a pitso (village meeting), I wanted to tell them that my grandmother walks faster than them. Because my host grandmother was literally there walking faster than them, blasting past them as she walked up the hill. Now that's my kinda pace!

I just got a hitch out of town without trying with three very fashionable ladies. No need to fend off annoying bontate. 

Vodacom wishes me a "joyful and blessed day" for my birthday. Is this the equivalent of getting a birthday card from the dentist?

Update: the bank also just sent me a happy birthday text. Almost 2 weeks late. Thanks?

I just got in a taxi and, for whatever reason I couldn't decipher from their Sesotho, the driver tells me and this other passenger to "please hide yourself." So we laid down across the seats for like 5 minutes, then he says we can sit up again. Running from the po po?

There are 23 bodies in this 15 passenger van. At what point do we officially become a clown car?

Partially in an attempt not to eat as much junk, I told the other teachers I didn't want papa with lunch. They were quite confused when I said I was tired of papa all the time. Then they asked me what the staple food of America was. I couldn't think of a food so common you would eat it every day. Do tacos count?

Apparently earlier this year, some of the Form Bs threatened to kill one of the super mean teachers. Honestly I don't blame them. She's horrible. 

In interviews, sometimes people get asked what is the best piece of advice they've ever received. In my experience, this question is unanswerable because advice from others is basically useless, for two reasons: A) advice may only make sense in retrospect after you've figured it out for yourself. Self-discovery is almost always more effective than being taught by others. Before figuring something out on your own, you're not likely to heed their advice anyway, and B) a lot of what other people tell you is utter BS. 

After months and months, there is water back at my tap! Alhumdulilah!

There are several kids, the oldest being probably 5 years old, playing outside with, among other things, both my trash fire and a razor blade. Yet they're perfectly fine. American parenting is so paranoid.

Welp, my second greatest fear has happened. My gas ran out when I was in the middle of making cornbread. 😭

It's so cute how people in America freak out at the notion of (the PCV necessity that is) hitch hiking. 

I keep having dreams where I'm stuffing myself at an unlimited buffet of chocolate. Sigh. 

My dog's name is Bo, short for Bosiu, which means night in Sesotho. However, the form Bs, always the little troublemakers that they are, decided that the dog's English name is Senseman- pronounced like "sandsMEN!" I have no idea where this came from. Every time they run past the dog on their way to get lunch, they yell to it, "Senseman! Hey Senseman!!"

I was walking along to school this morning and paused on the side of the path to let two bo'me go by. One of them just kinda grabbed my boob and shook it around a little, saying what I imagine was something like "aw look it's so cute" in that kind of baby tone. Well hello to you too. 

Sudoku portals you into a time warp. I'm working on a puzzle and suddenly it's an hour later. How does that happen?

Yesterday I told one of the other teachers at school about the glory that is peanut butter on a banana. She looked at me like that was the grossest thing she'd ever heard of. I feel sorry for you, Basotho, ye of little food exposure.