Pictures!

Finally! Thanks Mom for funding the External Hard Drive that made this possible. Now, without further ado, some pictures from my house and my school. Pictures from vacation will come next time.

So, I'm actually at the PC Training Center here, on the day of Swearing In. I'm pinning my name on the big Lesotho map where my site is. Not sure if it's usually a ceremonial thing, but about 4 of us pretended it was. Notice my Seshoeshoe shirt (very popular with the Bo'me) and my back sweat - apparently, it was really hot here once. Seems like a distant memory.

School

A view from my school on a cloudy day. I teach on top of a mountain, though in Lesotho terms, it's called a hill. Here you see one of the toilets, not very exciting. The point is, look, I'm in the clouds!

But when the weather is nicer, it's quite beautiful up here. On a hot day, the wind you get on the mountain top is refreshing.

"Lesotho, Fatse La Bontata Rona..." 

These aren't my students - this was on a school field trip to a Cave Village called Ha Kome, where we saw many other schools too. Some kids were sitting hanging over a ledge overlooking this expansive mountain landscape, and I thought the silhouettes made for a nice picture. This is currently the wallpaper on my computer.

This is just a completely silly response to a recent test question. Actually it's kind of cute. Nevermind that the answer to "Organ that produces sperm" is "male and female." In case you can't read it, the question is "Describe, in detail, the process of fertilization in humans." The answer is "human have a baby and have a big house. Human have money but not all. The want a work because she want a money." This was FAR from the worst answer I got to this question. The worst was "Tail. Uclens. Tail. Uclens. Tail."

FASFAC - Form A Super Fun Academic Competition

I had a competition in my classes for a month. I divided the class into teams of 9, and the team with the highest test average for the month won. The winning team got a pen, a goofy certificate, and got to come to my house for home-made chili. It was a blast.

Here's one of the certificates. Palesa Mokete is the "magrabilitationalism" girl. I drew everything on the certificate, then gave it to another teacher who helped with the compteition, to add some color.  She unknowingly drew a Jewish star (in Christmas colors, no less) which gave me a good laugh.

5 of the winners, at my house, eating chili and showing off their sweet new certificates. From left to right, Ntsoaki Morake, Palesa "Magrabilitationalism" Mokete, Dimakatso Nkabane, Puseletso Lentjeka, and Mankoane Maimane. All really good kids, and some of them are really bright (hence them winning).

Showing the kids my music, and pictures of my family and America. A very Peace Corps picture, no doubt.

They took my camera and started playing with it out on my front lawn. This is just a ridiculous picture that I can't stop laughing at. In my head, Palesa is screaming "Magrabilitationalism!" and Puseletso is saying "What the F are you thinking?" 

Finally, one last picture, this one of Selabalo, the 4 year old I talk about from time to time. This is also on my front lawn.

Enjoy! Ke tla ngola hape haufinyane (I'll write again soon).

The Good, The Bad, The Weird

Good: My principal and I have agreed on what we hope will become my secondary project as a PCV. It's a lofty goal but we're optimistic. With the help of some students and probably some other PCVs, I'll be writing a series of study guides for maths/science courses. We will distribute them to our students, and what's better, we aim to publish them professionally, and sell them around Lesotho. The money will be reinvested in our school, which, since it's still brand new, has all kinds of worthwhile uses for it. Today we took the first steps to begin the project, by soliciting students who want to join the team. Response was positive.

Bad: Yesterday, some of our primary school students attempted to rape one of our secondary students. Somehow school staff caught them, and fortunately the girl is okay. The punishment for the guilty students? We call their parents... that's it. I'm definitely not in Pikesville anymore.

Weird: I've been trying to teach Selabalo, the adorable 4 year old chatterbox across the street from me, basic greetings in Sekhooa (English). Now when I say "How are you?" she knows to reply "I am fine." Lately I've been struggling to get her to ask me how I am back. It's turned into a sort of Abbott and Costello routine, where every time I explain that she should say "I am fine, how are you?" she hears the "how are you?" part, and just shouts "I am fine!" and laughs. It's a lot of fun for us both. So, I was at Selabalo's house the other day, chatting with her mom, as she sat on the kitchen table echoing various English words she picked up as we spoke, and also shouting various terms she's overheard elsewhere (once she randomly screamed "conference center!"). As I said goodbye to them both, and as I was about to pull the door closed behind me, Selabalo looks at me and yells "They slept together!" and grins innocently.

You are my magrabilitationalizm!

Here's the contents of a composition written by one of my Form A students in her English class. I was bored one day and started reading some of these essays, and really loved this one. Besides typing it, I haven't changed anything.

Note: This received a 66%, one of the top in the class.
Also note: I have no clue what magrabilitationalizm is, except that I've since asked the girl, and she says she read it in the dictionary, and it means love.

A day I will never forget in my life

A day I will never for get is this, when I come to school on food I found that its too late so I see a van coming on the rode my heard becomes as white as an angles' kiss , so when this van is near to me I ask a lift to that men so he said: 'Get in my child , I was so terrified of this men because his face was not happy ,  his eyes was red and I think that he is a criminal person

When the van is near to the board which is written stop , I ask him to stay there so his face changes and shouted at me , I was so terrified I was asking GOT TO HELP ME , I was taking a big stone in my school bag and that man was driving this van so fast and he looks so very dangerous when I take that stone and he did no see me when he was doing this nonsense. I broke that window with that stone and jump out of that van I was so happy . My words were this to got  : "GOT I LOVE you, you are my magrabilitationalizm who I am proud by him and who I trust him Thank you for taking me out of this van

I was disgusted about that men that he is a bad behaviour men he was going to kill me and I was disgusted him so fastly because he become agumentative when I ask him to get out and thinks that he is an informer because he talks too much .

I found myself wondering because I was late to school . I found my teachers in the office roon and I was going appologise because I was late . I was telling them what is has happen . They were happy to me because I pass English club by Top 10 Sesotho by 6 stars   I was so happy

so when we arrive home I tolt my parents that has has happen when I comes to school and when I am at school . And my father make sure that he pay bus fare for me every day They were happy when I tell them that I have pass my exam

Damn.

What an intense, weird day.

It was just my second day back to real teaching, after Phase 3, vacation, and 1.5 weeks of exams. I woke up extra early this morning to plan my maths lesson, since I had a double period with my Form A's (all 117 of them) to start the school day. I had two cups of coffee. Little did I know, I would do little actual teaching today.

I wore my Orioles hat to school. I've never worn a hat to school before, but my principal did the other day, so I realized it's okay. At morning assembly kids stared at me like I died my hair pink... I guess I should be used to this level of fascination by now. I decided I'd use the opportunity to tell Form A all about the Orioles and how "awesome" they are (I would conveniently omit that they're currently an MLB worst 2-13). But, instead I spent 20 minutes ushering the kids to get into their @&#!ing seats and get out their books. I had gotten as far as writing "Baltimore" on the board, when I lost my patience and told them I'm scrapping the story. I yelled for a while, I might have said @&#!, and they eventually behaved. After 20 minutes of decent behavior, they began to act horribly again. I calmly walked out of the classroom, refusing to allow myself to get too irritated. It's only the second time I've ever walked out, and it freaked them out.

Five minutes later, a few ambassadors found me outside, apologized, and begged me to come back. After some thought, I gave in. I then instructed them, "Raise your hand if you want to learn, get up and leave the room if you don't." I told them I would not try to teach them if they didn't want to learn. Every hand went up, and I resumed teaching. After what was already a really eventful morning, I thought I was finally in the clear, but I couldn't possibly have predicted what was about to happen.

I had a very functional class for about five minutes. It was great. I felt like I got the point across (indeed, maybe I did). I was writing something on the board about angles and degrees, when in the back of the class, someone screamed very loudly. My eyes rolled, thinking there must be a rat. But the tortured screaming didn't stop. I turned around and saw students crowding together as panic spread through the room. I pushed my way to the center to find a young girl, Mabatho, screaming and convulsing. Students were laying her down on a bench. Slowly she stopped screaming, but the seizure continued as her eyes welled with tears. Some students removed her shoes and held her feet, some students were stretching her arms out, one boy was trying to rapidly wobble her head around. Most were just standing on desks trying to see what was happening. It was complete chaos. I yelled at a student to go get the other teachers, I tried to back people off. I tried to get Tsepang to stop moving her head all over the place. I put my hand on her side, gently but firmly, trying to gauge how severly she was shaking, and, maybe, to comfort her. As she began to move a bit less, I told her she was OK and to try to relax. Soon, every teacher was there, and the entire student body was trying to get a good view. Most of us teachers went into crowd control. Gradually the chaos died down, and we carried Mabatho to another room with a mattress.

She lay there, keeping herself remarkably composed, and speaking very little, for about an hour. I spoke with the PC doctor, who instructed us to bring her to the local hospital. An hour and a half later, three of us did. Over the course of a few hours there (skipping my science class, by the way), I learned that she also had 3 seizures last week, and that she has a family history of epilepsy. Sure enough, she was diagnosed as epileptic and was prescribed anti-convulsive medication. Clearly, this was an absolutely awful week and a half for her (especially considering that through it all, her mother, the only parent at home, has been in South Africa, probably completely in the dark about this). Let's hope the drugs work.

After the dust settled and we drove her to her house, I returned to school in time for a soccer game with about 20 students, plus a few teachers and other locals. In another completely out-of-the-ordinary twist, I actually played the whole game (albeit 75% as goalie). Who knew I play soccer, and against Africans no less? It was a perfect way to clear my mind after everything else. I reached home shortly before dark, buried myself in a tub of peanut butter (note - thanks Lof for sending me gourmet PB, it's excellent, though probably cost you a fortune to ship), and, in one final deviation from the norm, I ate a kiwi.