8 May 2016: 5 weeks

                Today marks 19 months I’ve been in Lesotho. I’m not meticulously counting, nor do I have a website saved in my favorites that tells me how many days until the last day of school or anything. Lies. I totally do.

                Yesterday I got back to my village after spending 3 much-needed days away in Mohale’s Hoek with Jen. We were supposed to go to Qacha’s Nek (the town on the end of the line way to the east, about 5 hours away from Quthing), but everyone who lives there was either gonna be away or they were sick. And then when I arrived in Mohale’s Hoek, I realized that no one we normally hang out with there would be there either. So Jen and I just hung out, and that was perfectly fine. I was quite happy to be there after a record 5 weeks in my village. That doesn’t really sound like a lot, but trust me, it is. Try to stay only in your neighborhood for 5 weeks, and the only talking you do is with a few neighbors about how they are, the weather, and your dog, and when you walk to the neighborhood corner store, the only fresh food they have on hand is onions. Then tell me how you feel. Anyway, I got all the “town foods,” including chicken, pizza, chocolate, an ice cream bar, and these new twisty makoenyas (little fried breads) with some kind of sugar glaze. Amazing. We even found a little shop where they sold Lesotho- and Mohale’s Hoek-themed screen printed shirts. We wanted to get Leja Ntja (dog eater) shirts, which is the name of this district’s soccer team, but they only had tiny sizes. Oh well. We’ll check back later.

                In several burst of small news, 1) My big hard drive is KIA, so I have to figure out how to fix it. Until then, this shared drive will be out of commission for everyone in the area who relies on it for movies and such. 2) Dog food is heavy. 3) I’m waiting on my new driver’s license to come in the mail so a few friends and I can rent a car to drive to Swaziland soon. I’m afraid it might come too late, but in that case we’ll just have another one of us rent it, and they’ll have to just take an extra precious vacation day.