Whenever a kid thinks something is awesome, they say it's "so wow." Example: "'Me Senate [that's me], your hair looks so wow!"
Tidbits learned while hanging out with the form Cs: if you touch a dog's tail, it will steal eggs and eat them. Also if you feed a dog a scorpion, it will become very aggressive and dangerous. I believe it. I mean, I've eaten a scorpion (fun story), and I grossed out so much, some might have misconstrued it as aggression and danger.
I am now under the apprenticeship of one of my students who is attempting to teach me how to whistle like a herdboy. If I learn anything besides how to stop spitting all over the place, I'll let y'all know.
I was talking to my students at break about the difference between accents when saying the word "computer," That Basotho say it like "computah" and Americans say it like "cumpuder". Then one girl goes, "My grandmother says it like 'compuuuutah.' She even named her dog Computer!" Wow, ok then. It seems we've got a tech savvy granny on our hands.
Self defense class #1 = success. Soon these girls will be ready to kick some major rapist butt.
Class is put on hold for a form A girl who is crying and shaking and can't speak because someone in her village siced a tokolosi (little Basotho demon) on her. Brb.
Apparently there were women in the caves far away calling to her.
After a little further investigation, another volunteer Colleen said that one of her girls was once "possessed by a demon" and started screaming at the top of her lungs at assembly.
The perfect lazy Sunday. I never changed out of the clothes I slept in, and the farthest I walked was to my latrine and back.
I've been in Lesotho for a year and a half. What is life?
Not only are baby donkeys insanely fuzzy, but they run in circles and jump and kick and roll around just out of (what I want to believe is) sheer joy for life. Every time I see one, I melt a little.
I was helping some neighbor girls with their grade 6 English homework this morning. The teacher wanted them to practice putting verbs in front of adverbs. One of the exercises was "Senate ________ slowly. Lerato ________ fastly." Yes, it was the teacher who has the students copy down "fastly." Come on, people. Get it together.
Today in form B, it was supposed to be a computer period, but the electricity credits ran out at school. So instead, we played games outside. The first game we played was red light green light. But it took an unexpectedly long time to get started because I had to explain the colors of a "traffic robot" to kids who had mostly never seen one- that red meant stop and green meant go. It took a minute, but after they got the hang of it, they loved the game.
My dog's food is advertised as "chicken flavour." Out of curiosity, I ate a piece. Nope, I'd classify it more as "cardboard flavour."
Yesterday, I announced to the Form Bs that they would have a quiz the next day, as they do about every other Friday. They replied, no, we are going to a soccer tournament in [some
nearby village], so there is no class tomorrow. AS PER USUAL no one told me about this. I asked another teacher about it, and he said we may have morning classes, but it wasn't confirmed. The cell signal has been out for a few days, so there was no way for him to let me know later, and I had to leave school after lunch. Foolishly, I assumed that there would be morning classes, forgetting that in Lesotho, when given the choice between having class and canceling it, 99% of the time it's cancelled. This morning, I woke up around 6, got dressed, etc. and headed out like a good little worker bee. On my way, some boys, my students, called down to me from a house higher on the hill. "'Me Senate, where are you going?" "To school." "There is no school today." Of course. I'm not even mad about it, as I might have been last year. Just gotta roll with the Basotho punches. Now I can go back to bed.
I just got interviewed for the census! I'm gonna be counted toward Lesotho's population, I guess. Some of the questions were weird, like "Are your parents still alive?" Yes. "Have you ever been pregnant?" No. And "What is your main source of heating?" Do blankets count? Pretty cool, nonetheless.
Overheard on whatsapp: fun with Sesotho
Here's a fun one: u tsoele ntjeng. It literally translates as you're out of dogs but means "dressed to kill/ looks really good"
And cue gasp. Overheard on Whatsapp:
"During an epic long meeting all in Sesotho my principal gets a phone call. When he hangs up he asks me the meaning of intimacy. I say it depends on the context. Come to find out, a male teacher at St. Bonafice school in Maputsoe was being "intimate" (let's call it what it is, was raping) a 17 y/o student. When he found out she was pregnant he killed her. He dumped her body in the sewer or pit latrine. I feel like puking."
WTF, Lesotho! Get it together!!!
Shaving? What are this?
My training group has lost so many people that someone changed our Whatsapp group icon to the Survivor logo. Outwit, outplay, outlast indeed.
This afternoon some form B boys got a dead rat scooped up on a stick and were scaring the daylights out of girls sitting around eating lunch outside. Then one of the always-up-to-no-good form C girls got it by the tail, carried it across the yard, and put it in a corn poof snack bag. Knowing her, she was planning to save it to give to someone to freak them out.
I was walking with a little abuti at my heels when he goes, "'Si Senate, u motsoeu hobaneng?" Sis Senate, why are you white?
Oh my god, Karen. You can't just ask people why they're white.
I was just greeted with, "Good morning this afternoon!" Gotta cover all your bases, I guess.
A strategically arranged heap of grass is keeping me perfectly safe and dry in a storm. Way to go, thatch.
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