Per The Request Of My Abuti

Dear Mike,

Heyyyyyy brother. Did you even know you were my abuti? Well, abuti means older brother, so you are. This post is for you.

Love,
Your baby brother (there's no word for that)

---------------------

Alright so, here's why this entry is for Mike. Shortly after my last post, we had a conversation on the phone. In discussing all the random stories I had just written about, he suggested that I keep a better record of the weird-and-random-yet-revealing stories that I live each day. He loves the weirdness, and I love the weirdness. I told him I'd try. And so, the following Monday at school, when that day's weirdness unfolded, I whipped out some scratch paper and wrote it down. Then I added to it Tuesday. And Wednesday. And almost every day since.

Now, there is one other element to this story that makes me happy. The night before I left Baltimore to join Peace Corps, we went out for a celebratory dinner. It was Mike, my future sister-in-law Becca, my mom, and I (it was a combination Eric's birthday/Eric's moving to Africa for 2 years tomorrow/Mike and Becca just got engaged dinner, so suffice it to say, we went all out, it was outstanding, and I've eaten nothing nearly as good since that night.) At dinner, Mike and Becca gave me a really great journal to take to Africa (black with gold-trimmed pages and a sewn-in bookmark, the whole 9 yards).

I was excited about it, but regrettably, I haven't used it all that much. I never really kept a journal at home, and I already keep up this blog here in Lesotho, so I just haven't quite pulled it together to write as much as they and I hoped. But... now I have the perfect use for it. So, thanks Mike for providing me with the inspiration to keep what will henceforth be called the Annals Of Weirdness (AOW), and thanks Mike and Becca for the means to do so in a highly tasteful way. Here's to hoping the weird never stops.

Below are the first few entries from the AOW. Looking over them, I'm surprised by what a good picture they paint of what much of my life here is like.

Disclaimer: The AOW is an expression of what is weird based solely on my own standards. Or, more accurately, what I remember my standards to have been before coming here. It is therefore highly subjective. If anyone reading excerpts from the AOW finds these things to be un-weird, you are invited to yell about it in the comments section.

-------------------

Monday, 20 Sept 2010
- Tsemase [a student] being punished with squats. Refuses due to leg injury. Alternative (my suggestion) is rolling around on dusty floor. Refuses that too, instead choosing 5 lashes with PVC pipe on the ass. After it's over I am cringing, and I ask if that was better than rolling on floor. He says yes.

Tuesday, 21 Sept 2010
- A major breakthrough - we begin scheduling meetings in advance, to hold them during break to reduce cancellation of class [I've been suggesting to my principal that we try not to cancel class for impromptu meetings quite so often]. But the meeting is to arrange a film show to raise funds, and in the end we cancel 3 classes for the film show. 1 step forward, 2 steps back...

Wednesday, 22 Sept 2010
- Decision to arrange "Fun Day" this coming Friday to raise funds. Students can wear "funny clothes" to school, but they must pay R1.00. Alternatively, they can choose to wear their uniform as usual, but they must pay... R1. If a student simply can't afford it, their best recourse is to skip school.
- The village drunk aggressively stops me as I'm walking at dusk, to introduce me to Bokang, the local shop owner, who is one of my closest friends in the village. He says that Bokang is his best friend, except that he can't even tell me Bokang's name.

Thursday, 23 Sept 2010
- At 6:45am, I'm walking to school with a student and the same village drunk screams to me from far away, "I am from Switzerland!!" I tell the student that this is why you shouldn't drink alcohol.

Friday, 24 Sept 2010
- "Fun Day" is a Halloween day basically. There are cross-dressers, wigs, bizarre masks. But about 25-30% of students seem to have skipped school. Principal gets up at assembly and makes a powerful speech about time running out before exams, but is wearing a plastic clown mask the whole time. After assembly we are all so entertained that no one bothers to have classes.

Monday, 27 Sept 2010
- Going on a run down the road, nearing the end and feeling tired. A group of barefoot orphan girls between Standard 1 and Standard 5 [1st-5th grade] start jumping up and down as they see me approaching (I've met 1 of them before). As I pass they start running with me. I try to run fast uphill, just to see if I can outlast them. I cannot. They are grinning and laughing the entire time (about 3 minutes).


Tuesday, 28 Sept 2010
- One of my favorite students, Palesa, is about to write an English test that I'm helping to invigilate [ie catch cheaters], but she has her head on the desk and she is crying. I take her outside to talk and she tells me she has such horrible pain in the bones of both arms that she cannot hold a pencil. She says it has happened in the past. I suggest that she goes to the doctor, but she says her mother does not have the R15 [$2] to pay. I tell her I'm sorry, and to go to get some medicine. I'm pretty certain I'll give her R15 tomorrow. 
- Went running, same route and time as yesterday. Instead of 3 girls following me like yesterday, it is now 6. They are really impressive, and though it's a bit embarrassing running past my students with 6 small girls following, they are adorable and it's kinda fun. They run all the way to my house and I invite them inside for a glass of water.