My little sister from Ha Makebe -- Ausi Nthandeki

My supervisor and counterpart at my new site -- Ntate Mhau

Yes, the food at the village feast was this good.

The view from my doorstep in Ha Makebe.


It's official! I'm now a Peace Corps Volunteer.

Tomorrow I leave for my permanent site to start my two years of service. I'm incredibly excited to finally be working with my community, but I'm also a little nervous about starting something new.
What will I do in the next three months? Mostly observe. It is my job to listen and learn -- to know my community and my organization.

Here are a few random pictures of Lesotho. I haven't been able to load any pictures yet so I am not the photographer for any of these pictures, but hopefully they give you a bit more of an idea about what life is like here. If you want to see more pictures follow the link to Kelly's site and then click on her link to photos.

Thank you Kelly!

Are we there yet?

I left Tuesday morning for my new home in the mountains of Lesotho. The drive to my village is breathtaking...(and lunch taking, but we'll get to that later). After an 11 hour ride I finally arrived at my site.

After moving everything into my newly re-mudded/dunged (still wet) rondaval, my counterpart, supervisor and I were attempting to fix my gas heater when a chicken decided to enter my home. After a furry of feathers and clucks, my counterpart finally caught the chicken, but not before my room had a chicken feather carpet. Though, I think all the excitement combined with a very intense car ride finally got to me. Immediately after the chicken vacated my home, I ran outside and threw up. Ah, welcome home.

I am living in a rondaval which overlooks the Mokhotlong River. The mountains which surround the village are dramatic and stunning. The highest peaks are snow-covered. It is about a two and a half hour ride to the camptown from my village. The ride is fairly pleasant though -- I only feared for my life a couple times. However, on the weekends there is no vehicle into town. So, often I will make the 4 hour trek to town on foot. After seeing the path (walking on the road would take twice as long) which starts off with a steep drop down the mountain side, I am convinced that I will either be in the best shape of my life or dead by the end of service.

I'm back in Maseru now to take my language test (tomorrow) and finally swear in as a Peace Corps Volunteer (Wednesday). Thursday will be the first day of my two years at site. I still hope to update you all on a semi regular basis, but I know communication will become much more difficult now.

My time on the internet is running out, but I love and miss you all. Salang Hantle.

Our training group left our villages Friday, which meant saying good-bye to our host families. It was harder than I expected. I am incredibly blessed to have such a great family in my life.

Tomorrow I will have a workshop with my future supervisor and then on Tuesday I will ride across the country to view my site. This includes moving into my rondaval, meeting my community and being introduced to my new work site.

Unfortunately, I injured my back so moving will be even more of a challenge. However, while recovering at the t-house I met one of the volunteers in my district (Violeta) who immediately put me at ease about my new site. It sounds peaceful and beautiful.

It will take about 8-10 hours to get to my site if everything goes according to plan. Some of you are probably wondering why it will take so long to travel what seems like a relatively short distance, but if you happen to be looking at a topographical map or one showing the lack of paved roads in the region, I'm sure you'll understand.

Next Sunday I have my Sesotho language assessment test. Assuming I pass, I will then officially swear in next week. Then, I will move to my site permanently.

These next two weeks will be intense, but it's exciting to finally be going somewhere permanent.

As always, thank you all for your support...you're thoughts, prayers, e-mails... I am very aware that I could not be here if it weren't for all of you.

Site Announcements!

Today, while dining with the US Ambassador to Lesotho, our training group was surprised with site announcements! So, I now know the village I will be living in for the next two years and I have a general idea of the work I will be doing.

I will be in the eastern highlands of Lesotho in a small remote village helping local farmers with improved permaculture techniques as well as small business and HIV/AIDS education. I will also be assisting with non-formal education of local herd boys. (For security reasons I am enouraged not to post my exact site online, but if you're curious, send me an e-mail.) I only have limited information so far, but I'll tell you more after my site visit in a couple weeks.

I am very excited about this placement. Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers.

WEEK ONE IN MY TRAINING VILLAGE

As I write this I am sitting cross-legged in front of my small gas powered space heater, trying not to catch my long underwear on fire. I am writing by candlelight (with the help of a headlamp) and I'm snacking on a few apricot cookies left over from the plane ride here two weeks ago.

Outside the weather is menacing -- hail and lightening. It's funny to think that just this morning I thought the light rain and pigeons on my tin roof were noisey...

This past week has been intense with training, family time and general adjustment to my village, but it's also been a lot of fun.

I feel so blessed to have the most amazing host family. They make me laugh constanntly and they make me feel like I belong with them.

I also live close to another trainee who has inspired me to start running again. So, this week, I have been able to watch the sun rise over my small mountain village every morning.

There is so much more I would love to tell you, but time on the internet is so limited. Please keep me in your thougts and prayers...especially about site placement which will happen in the next few weeks. This is when I will find out where I will be living for the next two years!

A Quick Update

Tomorrow my training group and I will leave the small compound we've been living in in Maseru. We will be divided into groups, with each person living with a different host family in a traditional rondavel. This is where I will stay for the remainder of training.

I've heard the village I will be living in is beautiful, though, I think it would be difficult to find a place in this country that isn't. I'm also looking forward to living without electricity and running water. 'M'e has already given us a lesson on how to take a bucket bath and I've bought a large pack of candles for the incredibly dark nights. It gets dark very early here and when the sun goes down, it is very cold. People keep reminding me that July is the coldest month here, but I think I'm still in denial. Despite the cold mornings and nights, the sun here is very intense and when it is clear, the days have gotten very warm.

I'm very excited to be out of the city, but this also means I'll have even less access to the internet...but please keep writing me!

In the future I plan to write these posts in advance so I am not pressured by the clock, but for right now, please bear with me as I give you little glimpses into life here. Please also check out the blogs I've linked on the right hand side. I am here with a talented group of people who run very informative blogs. I think some even have pictures. I'll try to post pictures sometime in the future...but it may take awhile.

**Thank you to everyone who left comments on my previous entry. I'm so thankful for your words of encouragement.