School

The school year is coming to an end, the kids are doing their final tests and then on Friday the school year is over.  The reception (Kindergarten) kids have already finished for the year and are out for the summer.  The oldest class (grade 7) has been out for about a month because they had a national standardized test in the middle of October and are waiting for the results.  The results should becoming back in December. 

I have to admit that I have not tried to take photos of the school while the kids are there because I am afraid that there will be kids everywhere asking me to come and take photos of them.  I am already surrounded by kids wanting my attention even when I do not have a camera in my hands.  I did bring my camera to the class 7 graduation, so I took a few pictures before we went into the church.  It was crazy and kids did some funny poses.

The first of three photos taken while the camera was around my neck, I did that so I could get some funny photos

Second Photo: You can notice that the kids on the left started to move towards the center.  One of the kids wears a yellow bag like a cape every day, it holds his books instead of a regular backpack.

Third Photo: I just noticed when I was looking at them now that there is a girl who is in the center of each one of these photos.  I do not know how she does it but she did.  Abby is in the background she is also being mobbed as well.

So my days are usually fairly open and I have quite a bit of flexibility in what I do.  Some times it feels like I am not doing anything.  Though I do not really know what else I could or can do because the school year is winding down.  My days always started by going to the reception (kindergarten) and reading a book to them and having them repeat back to me the words.  This usually is a little bit hard at the beginning of the week, but after they have heard it for 5 days they are really good at following along.  Then I go to class one and read the same story to them, they usually catch on faster.  When I am done I say good bye, and they all start screaming.  It started one day when they were yelling and I just left, so they got into the tradition of just yelling every time that I leave.  

After reading to those classes I read to class 3 and 4 three times a week, usually around 10 in the morning.  I also read to class 5 twice a week and class 6 once a week.  It has taken me a while to figure out what books I should read and how I should read them.  The first little while I was basing them on books that I had read in North America to North American Kids.  Their English comprehension is not as high as in North America, it makes sense because it is their second language. In the last few weeks I was reading the same book to basically the whole school.  But I was reading it differently for each class.  For the younger classes I would just read the main words, for the middle classes I would read the whole sentence but change the words into those they could understand.  For the older classes I would read the book as written and then ask them harder questions about the story. I would like to read to them more next year and maybe try to get the kids who do not understand to read more. It is hard with those who do not understand because they do not understand English and me I do not understand SeSotho.

I started in the last few weeks having fun with how I read to the classes.  I found out that kids like to whisper back the story to you and it gets kids engaged again.  I also have been reading pretending that we are underwater.  They love that and they still say the words, at first they just made noise while moving their finger in front of their lips. Though they are less into it when their teacher is in the room, because I think they are afraid that they are playing and will get into trouble.

This is the library, it is a regular classroom that has a single book shelf of books that I lend out to kids and teachers to read.

After I am done reading to the classes I am in the library during their lunch break.  They can come and ask for a ball to play with or they can read books.  The attendance to read books in the library comes and goes.  Some times it is completely full, other times there is no body there.  I have been getting National Geographic magazines those have gotten a few more kids interested in reading at lunch time. 

When school ends on Friday I will start working at Growing Nations.  I am going to be landscaping and writing a plan of where the landscaping will be going.  What the priorities could be and in what order things could happen. So I will be using some of my university planning education to use here in Lesotho.

Birding Here in Lesotho

As many of you know, or can see on the right hand side of the blog, I really like birding. And yes I have seen lots of new bird species, there have only been a few species that are the same both here and in North America.  Mostly birds that have been introduced to both areas, House Sparrows and Pigeons.  All of the other ones have been new, and that is pretty awesome.  Barn swallows are one of the few species that naturally live in both southern Africa and North America. There are some birds who live at sea that live both in North America and the coast of Africa but I do not think I have a good chance of seeing them.  Same goes with the oceanic birds that I saw while I was visiting New Zealand, odds are they will be too far away from shore to see them.

The birds of Summer are starting to arrive.  The first one that I knew was a summer bird was the greater striped swallow.  We were finishing up a short hike to a nearby plateau, it took us 15-20 mins to get there.  We were sitting by the side of the river and a whole variety of swallows were flying by.  Then I was able to see the light rump of the swallow and when it got closer I could see what species it was.  It was really hard to take picture of it so I am sorry I do not have any.

I have also been getting my host family and neighbours interested in birds.  I have been asking for the SeSotho names of birds.  I am starting to learn some of them but others are quite hard.  I have also been lending my binoculars to them, but they mostly use them to see what their friends are doing from a long distance away.  They do like looking through my "Bird Dictionary", which I have out quite often. 

One evening last week as I was standing watching the sunset across the valley there was a weaver that I could not identify.  So I went and got my binoculars, my neighbour and I were looking through them trying to figure out what species it was.  Then I noticed not that far above me were two white birds flying.  I looked through the binoculars and saw their spoon bills.  Yup there were African Spoonbills in the Maphuts'eng valley.  They were only in the valley for around 20 mins.  We could see them fly down the valley then back up it for a while, then they flew out the same way that they entered.  It was crazy to see them in the valley as there is not really any suitable habitat for them.  They could have been in the valley because of the massive storm we had, it was quite the storm that lasted the whole afternoon.  There were so many swift species being pushed around by the wind before it hit.

 So a few nights ago there was some excitement in the chicken coop.  We got new chicks, at first there were 4 and then the cat got one so there were only three. They are dieing so fast my neighbour is going to give us a chicken because he has around 7. My host brother was a little bit sad that his chicks are dieing.  These are the chicks of the rooster that we ate a few weeks back.  The other rooster has to be kept on a leash in order for it not to try and hurt the hen or the chicken. It kind of has free range over the whole neighbourhood, when ever the leash is not tied to any thing.
But what was really exciting for me and my nkhono was a bird got stuck in the chicken coop. It was a Southern Masked-Weaver.  It was exciting for me because I got to get quite close to a weaver bird. My nkhono because we tried to get it out of there for quite a while. It would fly right past the open door and into the chicken wire on the other side of the coop.  I believe that it followed the other birds in to eat the chicken feed, mostly old papa.  And the other birds were smaller and were able to fly out through the chicken wire.  But this bird was just a little bit too big.  It also was able to get behind the reed screen that keeps out the wind and the wire. It was flopping around back there for quite a while. The next day I found a Southern Grey Sparrow in the chicken coop but it could fly out.  One side of the chicken coop has larger holes that it could get out of. 

Southern Masked-Weaver trying to get through the chicken wire

Weaver stuck between the reeds and the chicken wire

Birding has also been helpful in keeping my mind clear and helping me relax.  I find that when I am walking outside looking at birds I can not be stressed out.  I find that you have to have you mind clear and focus on exactly what you are looking at, so your mind can not stay focused on negative thoughts.  I have found it quite helpful on the few days that I have been stressed out to be distracted by the birds flying by as I go from one place to another. 
Though once I was listening to a conservation farming talk and there was a bird in the distance so I looked through my binoculars at it.  Not knowing that the whole group was about to turn my direction and look at the fields behind me.  I am sure that most of the people in the group instantly knew that I was not too interested in the different farming techniques that they were talking about. I now try to do it more subtly.

Food

I am writing this on Wednesday October 4^th, but I do not know when exactly I will be posting it.  The internet has gone down once again and I have no access to the outside world.  Including hearing about the strikes that are happening in South Africa, which have not effected us one bit.

I have had some questions about what types of food I have been eating since I got here.  Most meals have Papa, with is ground maize flour mixed with boiling water.  But I do want to mention the type of food I had yesterday because it was quite different.  My nkhono went to Maseru for a funeral over the weekend and when she got back she brought lots of goodies. 

I had the regular bread and tea breakfast at home.  Then when I was going to make lunch I found out that the group that is visiting here had leftovers.  So I had sloppy joes for lunch, with cheese, something that we do not get a lot here. 

Then when I got home my nkhono was there and we had apples, oranges, ‘pop corn’ like snack that was mostly air.  Then I went with my host brother to pick up the rest of her stuff at the road side and when I go back we had KFC chicken.  Yup she had brought the family KFC for us to eat.  Then once we were done that then we had Makanyas, doughnuts. 

Then we had dinner which was chicken, papa, and gravy.  Gravy here is tomatoes and onions cooked with sugar and salt.  But we had green onions added as well.  It was wonderful.

Usually I have bread and tea for breakfast.  Then I am served ‘brunch’ at school.  Usually it is something with papa; I like the meals made at home a little bit more.  Then when I get home I get served another meal, usually with bread and tea.  Then we have dinner that is usually papa, moroho and gravy or eggs. 

Moroho, Papa and Eggs

How to Make Papa:

Get the water boiling, add ground maize, the stir a few times until it is done.  

Moroho:

Get greens from your garden, or from near your garden.  Then cut them up finely.  Then put some oil, not too much, and the cut greens into a pot and let them cook down.  Add quite a bit of salt and maybe BBQ seasoning and you are set. 

BaSotho gravy:

3 Tomatoes, half an onion, oil, teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of sugar.  Cook onions in oil first, then add tomatoes, salt and sugar.  Cook until the tomatoes have dissolved.  

Weather and Some More Photos

 The weather here is quite amazing and very varied.  One day it will be warm and sunny then the next there will be tons of wind and thunderstorms coming through, then the next will be really cold.  Other days I will be wearing long johns while I am at school in the class, then on the way home just wearing a t-shirt and paint I am sweating.  I know that thinking/talking about the weather is not something many people around here do, but I just wanted to share some of my thoughts about it.  I was also able to include a few pretty pictures of the area I am staying.

A thunderstorm in the distance at sunset

 There have been quite a few thunderstorms that would hit us during the night.  At first I was not able to sleep at all during the storms.  Now when the storms hit I wake up for the close lighting hits but sleep through the rest.  The big reason why I could not sleep through the storms is the sound of rain hitting the tin roofs.  I had to once put a pillow over my head so it was not as loud. One day I thought it was really raining and I put on all of my rain gear, got outside and it was barely spitting.  My host family just laughed at me, they do that quite a bit. Quite a few of the thunderstorms that hit have had hail, and that is really loud inside the buildings.  I had to stop reading in one of my classes because the hail was so loud that I could not even hear myself talking. And this is the winter, apparently these storms are nothing compared to the summer time.

Clouds from a distance thunderstorm

 The thunderstorms here also have huge anvils, that start to block out the sun an hour or more before the storm hits. So you know that a storm is going to hit and adjust your schedule.  Yesterday school got out early because many of the kids (and teachers) have to cross water courses to get home.  Many of them become impassible the hour after the rain has fallen.  There is a mostly dry creak bed between my house and the school and when it fills up nobody can cross it, but when it is not raining you do not really have to even cross on rocks it is so low.  (I should take pictures of the differences some time). 

Clouds at sunset

When there are thunderstorms in the evening, or even rain storms, there are really beautiful moments where the sun breaks through the clouds.   The house that I am staying in is up on a crest of a hill so it allows me to see both the sunrises and sunsets.  I have noticed that the clouds are really beautiful here, somebody said that the clouds are lower because we are higher up in elevation.  That might be why I think they are so beautiful but I do not know.

Rainbow view from the front porch

 I have found when the thunderstorms come through, at least the ones that have come so far, there are rainbows that are quite easy to see.  The picture above the sun is hitting the far side of the valley but where my house is the rain is still falling.  I was once outside and looked up and it was clear, and had been for a while and it was still raining.  I was trying to decide if it was okay to bring out my laundry to hang up and all of my host family was making fun of me.

Dust storms

The wind here is quite strong.  It makes the roof sound like it is taking off.  My host family makes fun of how I always mention how loud the wind can be.  Yesterday when I was going home from school it looked like there was a huge rain storm coming.  It turned out to be a little bit of rain and a whole ton of dust. The wind was so strong that it tore a roof off of a chicken barn and pushed over an outhouse in town.  The dust was so thick that you could not see any of the mountains that surround the valley.  It even was able to put a layer of dust on the inside of my room, even though there were no windows open.

Sunrise after a night of storms

This week has been an interesting week:
Their is an conservation farming conference this week and I have been taking part in it as much as I can when school is not happening.
There has been a field trip to a dam where all of the teachers went on the trip causing school to be cancelled for all of the students who did not go.
The day after the field trip most of the teachers did not show up because they got back at 3 in the morning and there were 300 kids will little to no supervision.

I also updated my background picture, it is now a view of the valley looking towards my home and the school that I work at.  And the mountains that are behind it

My Culture Shock

This week I experienced some major culture shock.  I am getting quite used to being at school and realizing I have no idea what is going on or what is happening.  For example this Monday I was going to read to one class, around 50-60 kids, but then when I got there it was actually over 100 kids because three different classes did not have teachers. They were the Reception (kindergarten), Class one and Class two students and they listened to me and the story and asked questions for 15 mins.  I was kind of shocked.  I have realized that it is normal for me to get to a classroom and there to be no teachers around and the kids are doing what ever they kind of want.

The Major Culture Shock that I got this week was on Wednesday at school.  My host brother was playing on one of the roundabout play pumps.  And another kid pushed him backwards into the center, he hit is head and had a huge gash on the back of his head (He is fine do not worry).  It happened at the end of lunch and there were no teachers around because they were all in a two hour staff meeting, about a field trip, that went through all the afternoon classes.  So while the teachers were busy in a meeting the kids ran around free doing what ever. I read to some of the classes I was scheduled in but had no idea what to do with the rest. 

When they were done the staff meeting about a field trip they then had another meeting, a prayer/bible study time.  During the prayer time my host brother came in and showed the teacher what had happened to his head.  By that time it had stopped bleeding and that is when I really felt out of place. I did not know how to comfort a child from Lesotho, did not know if they were going to give him first aid.  They did give him first aid, I watched to make sure that it was not negative but it was not the best.  Then they told him to go home and maybe go to the clinic the next day. 

When I go home my host brother had gone off to  play with friends and everything seemed to be okay.  I did not know if I should tell them that he needs to go and see a doctor or if that was not something they would do for that type of injury.  I looked to make sure that everything was alright and he was not going to have major complications.  I also told him that we needed to change the dressings sometime and I would help with that.  He seemed fine before bed and I thought that he might not need any more medical attention.

Then in the morning he did not feel well and was still in bed when it was time to go to school.  I check to see how he was doing and told my nkhono that he should go to a doctor.  I made it quite clear and he looked like he was not feeling well.  When I got home from school he was doing great and he had gotten the cut cleaned and got medicine and he is heading back on Monday.

The whole time I felt that I was totally out of place, did not know what the cultural norms were.  I did not even know the very basic things that I should be doing or saying.  It was the first time that I felt not apart of the culture in a way that I was not expecting.  I knew in some areas, especially the school that I would not know what to do, but this just took me by surprise.

On another note:  I have heard from some people that they would like some more information about the school, my home life here and the food that I have been eating.  I also want to share some of the crazy weather we have been having as well.  Those all will be blog posts coming up.  Unless something else crazy or exciting happens.

Post full of Pictures

This post will be mostly pictures with stories that go along with them. The internet where I go to write emails and post for my blog had been down for over a week.  I have done a lot of fun activities and experienced lots.  Here are a few photos to show you what all I have been doing.

The library where I spend most of my time

I have been spending most of my time in the library when I am at school.  I have been looking through all of the books that are in there, determining reading level and topics.  I have read quite a few novels, and many picture books.  Over the lunch hour kids can come in and read books.  I have been teaching them about setting, plot and characters.  I use that to quiz the kids when they want a new book, to see if they have actually read the book.  They are starting to know what I am asking and that is wonderful.  I also spend rest of my day reading books to all of the different classes.  I realized fairly quickly that I was picking out books that were too hard for them to understand through my accent.  But not I think I have figured it out. 

Khotliso and his pet Rooster

This is my host brother, and he is tons of fun to be around.  This was one of his pet roosters. The key part of that sentence is the word "WAS".  Yes, I helped butcher that very rooster for dinner.  I do not know if I really helped with the cooking of the chicken or just witnessed the whole thing happen around me. 

The chicken cooking

The most of what I did was built up the fire for the pot with the chicken. So really I did not do a whole lot.  My host family does most of the cooking for the household in a separate hut near our house.  The house does have a kitchen with a gas stove, but gas is quite expensive and there are many trees around that they can use. 

My next door neighbour

 This is my next door neighbour and his goat.  Every day he watches his families goats in the country side.  One day they said that I could go along with them.  Everybody in my neighbourhood thought it would be hilarious if I would do that for a day.  The reason why he is holding the goat is because animals are really scared of me here.  This kid goat was more scared of me trying to pet it than another one of my neighbours trying to scare it.

My next door neighbours

 These are two of boys that live in my neighbourhood.  They usually visit every day around dinner time and stay over until it is time for bed.  We head to bed around 8 each night.  At first it was weird to go to bed so early, but now it is quite normal.  During the time that they, along with many other neighbouring kids are visiting we do a short bible study.  We find a passage and I read it in English and they read it in SeSotho.  I still no very little in SeSotho and have no idea what they are saying when they are over.  Once and a while they will tell e what they are saying in English. I realized that I do not have a picture of Hopalong, my host sister. I will take one soon to post.

Nkhono Norah and Nkhono Masechaba

I went on a hike with my host grandmother (Nkhono) Masechaba on the right and her childhood friend Norah.  They noticed that I was taking pictures of them looking at the valley and then they started dancing so I could take pictures of them.  Nkhono Norah spent time in South Africa working so she knows English quite well, we seem to visit with her every Sunday afternoon.  This week we traveled to the top of a plateau near by. It had amazing views of the valley.  We also visited where Nkhono grew up and saw many of her relatives.  It was fun, a lot of talking in SeSotho but I will understand in time. Here are some of the pictures that I took while looking out over the valley.

View of the Valley looking to the East

Another view of the Valley Looking East

A view of the valley looking South-West

A view of a home looking down from the Plateau

Dinosaur Foot Prints

At the top of the Plateaus that are near my host house has many dinosaur foot prints.  At first I did not believe that they were actually up there.  Most of them are circle imprints in the rocks and you can not tell if they are erosion or not.  But then we found these ones that you can actually see three toe prints into the stone.

The view out of my bedroom window

Flowering peach tree

I have to say that the house that I am staying in is a beautiful location.  My bedroom window over looks the whole valley.  We are at the top of the ridge so the sunsets are right behind us.  And they are beautiful.  I can also see the sunrise over the mountains on the other side of the valley.  The whole country side seems to be getting greener and greener.  When we first arrived the peach trees were just starting to bloom, now most of them were done flowering. My nkhono has many of peach trees growing in her front yard.  They were beautiful to see all over the valley.

Sunset from the ridge near my host families home

Here in Lesotho

I have had an eventful week here in Lesotho.  I have had a great time getting to know the area and what kind of job I will be doing in the school for the next year.   It has taken quite a bit to get used to how the school is run down here, very different than else where that I have experienced.  My host family is a lot of fun, even if I do not understand them most of the time.  The weather is not quite as cold as I fear but still cool.

This week, my first week on the job, I was asked to fill in for the Grade 5 teacher who was going into town for an appointment.  I was a quite worried at the time about how the day would run.  I covered for the teacher on Thursday and on Wednesday after school I did not even know the regular routine.  I had to ask about what time lunch happened, which is different for each class, I also had no idea when school got out for the day.  So I went to the principal and had a whole list of questions that I had.  I also made sure that I had an exit plan for if the class was not listening at all.  The teachers here use corporal punishment and I was afraid that the kids would not listen to me because I would not punish them. 

The day went well, the morning much better than the afternoon.  First thing in the morning I taught them Math, multiplication of money, and marked their compositions (moqoqo is SeSotho, two click in the word).  Then I tried to teach them about Canada but they did not seem too interested. Then I taught them about the Lesotho Highlands Dam project, which is a set of dams to transfer water to South Africa. They loved that I had posters to show them and they were really interested in the topic.  Then after lunch I tried to teach them Slang.  I realized that they did not know many of the phrases that I would say to them.  So I decided to teach them those phrases.  For 2 hours I tried to explain and show the difference between “How are you doing” and “What are you doing”. I would not let them leave for home until they could answer the questions.  It caused a bit of confusion at the end of the day.

On regular days I look after the library during the break time where kids can come and read.  I apparently am very strict with the kids.  I did not realize it but I do not let them even try to goof off so they listen to me quite nicely.

My host family have a wonderful house over looking the whole valley.  I have a room to myself that has a double bed, so my room here is as nice if not nicer than at home in Canada. They have an outhouse, but it does not smell as bad as the ones up at Silver Lake so it is not bad at all, though it is a little bit short so I can not stand up in it. There is a wonderful garden with lots of peach trees.

My host family consists of three people, and a whole bunch of neighbours who always visit.  I have a Nkhono, or host mother, who is very impressed that I can cook and clean.  I have a host brother who is in grade five at the school I work at. I also have a host sister who is in grade 8 at the high school.  Every night there are numerous people to come and visit the house to come and say hi.  I have not learned many of their names but am starting to.  Most of the time I do not understand what they are talking about either as it is all in SeSotho, but I can usually understand what the conversation is about by their brief English explanations.

The house is apparently two villages away from the school; but it only takes me around 15 mins to walk between home and school.  I have also found out from my host brother that I walk really fast.  Yesterday on the way to school he was making fun of the way that I walk.   I do not really mind the walk because it is so beautiful here.

The weather is quite nice here actually.  I find that I have to wear lots of layers to bed, lots.  I wear long johns (two layers) and then I am under 3 big blankets. Under all of the layers I stay nice and warm.  I wear numerous layers in the morning and then slowly take them off during the day, but by the time night comes along the layers need to be put on again.  Many people ask me if I am cold and when I say no people look at me like I am crazy.  I explain about how cold Canada gets and then I get a whole bunch of funny expressions as I am explaining.    

I know this post was long and will put pictures up with my next one, I have not had the time to download any of my pictures yet. I also does not look quite like my background picture on my blog, I will up date that as well.

Heading to Lesotho

This week has been quite a busy week.  We have spent most of the time here inside of the old prison.  It actually does not feel much like a prison, though I have never been to an active one so I do not have any frame of reference.  While we are here we did some sessions about the policies of MCC and how to do accounting for the items that we buy.  We also got to ride on the Combies, or the mini buses, we only took a short trip downtown then a quick ride back to the Prison.  We also went to the museum for the area so we had a better understanding of the local history.  

Then this afternoon we went on a Safari, not really we just walked around a game reserve.  It was awesome I saw over 10 new bird species, my total number for the trip is around 36.  We also saw a family of Giraffes.  It was amazing how cool it was to see them.  There was no fence in our way but we did stay a ways back because there was a small baby and we did not want to startle them.  There were also Impala, Wildebeest and Zebras there as well.  The birds we saw were quite a range, there was an eagle and many small birds flying around.  I am glad that I looked through my bird book before I came over here. 

The Giraffes when we first saw them.  There were Zebras in front of them and Wildebeests to the left.

Here you can see the younger Giraffes, they are on the right hand side.  The baby Giraffe is quite small and was running and playing around.

We are going to leave for Lesotho tomorrow morning.  It will be an early morning, leaving at 6am. The ride should be fun, there is a whole group of us going.  There is Abby and I who will be staying in Lesotho for SALT, and Festus and Hannah who will be coming with us and then heading back to South Africa to work/volunteer here.  We will be stopping for cool birds and apparently there is a section were monkeys like to eat the food that has been dropped from passing truck.  It should be fun


I should mention how the weather will be like when we arrive in Lesotho.  Now here in Pietermaritzburg the weather is wonderful.  It has been warm and sunny, though one day it was a little bit drizzly but not too bad.  In Maphutseng Valley it will be quite cold for the next few weeks, hopefully just a few.  According to the internet the temperature the first night we are there is going to be going down to -1C.  On the right hand side of my blog there should be a reading of the weather I am experiencing in Lesotho.  And with no central heating it will be quite cold, I am glad that I brought so many layers, I might have to wear them all on Thursday.  

In South Africa

I have made it to South Africa, currently I am at Project Gateway in Pietermaritzburg.  It is the location for the MCC office for South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland.  We, the SALTers, are going to be staying here for a week to have some specific in-country training.  We are going to have a fairly relaxed few days at first and then we will start getting into the information parts.

Our flights to South Africa were quite uneventful, we did not miss any flight and most of them got in early.  The flights were long, 18 hours on one plane was kind of annoying but we got through it.  It was nice that there were empty seats near us and we were able to spread out.  We a short layover in Jo-burg, which was nice break from the planes.  Our last flight we were given a snack, and it was quite nice. Unlike in North America the snack was wonderful.  It was a wrap with veggies and meat and a small cup of mousse.  It was called a "Snack Meal".

Project Gateway is an interesting church based non-profit organization, which is supported and controlled by the local community churches.  It is based in an old historical jail.  Yup I am currently staying in a jail.  The jail buildings have renovated and it is now a very nice location.  There is a computer literacy center to teach people basic computer skills, a SALTer named Jesse is going to be working with that part. 

Getting Ready to Fly

I am getting ready to head out on my flight to South Africa. The week here in Akron, PA feels like it has gone by so fast but I also feel like I have know my friends here for such a long time. I guess that is what happens when you spend all of your waking hours with the same people.  Here in Akron there are not only young Adults being trained to go overseas there are also young adults coming from around the world to come and serve in North America.

I realize for many of the people who will be reading my blog MCC is a confusing organization.  So here is some basic information background information for you.  If you would like to find more information about these programs click on the names which are links. 
MCC - Mennonite Central Committee -  Is an international organization works for relief, development and peace in the name of Christ.  The focus on relationships between people and partner organizations.
SALT is a program that brings North American's to volunteer through MCC through out the world.  SALT stands for Serving and Learning Together, participants do not go over to a different country with all of the answers but go to learn as well.
YAMEN (Young Anabaptist Mennonite Exchange Network) is a program where MCC gets young adult volunteers from the global south and places them in volunteer positions through out the Global South. 
IVEP (International Volunteer Exchange Program) is a program where MCC find young adult volunteers from around the world to serve in North America.

While I have been in Akron I had a wonderful roommate, Rorisang, from Lesotho who will be doing his IVEP time in Abbotsford BC.  His home community is Qacha's Nek, which is located around 4 hour drive from Maphuts'eng Valley (were I will be living this next year).  He has been a great roommate and we have learned a lot from each other.  I have been giving pointers about Canadian Culture and language differences.  While he is trying to teach me his language, which has some sweet sounds to learn. In words with a 'q' those are clicks in which you pronounce the vowel after the q when you make the click. I am having problems with 'qa' sound,  I am making more a 'qna' sound instead.

I have met the person who will be serving in the Maphuts'eng valley with me next year.  Her name is Abby and she is going to be working at Growing Nations in the field of conservation farming.  We have the same type of humor and I think we are going to get a long.  Rori has been teaching both of us to do some of the traditional Basotho dances. I must have to admit I was one of the first people that Rori tried to teach and I was one of the last people to catch on.  The type of dancing is mostly about making beats by hitting your legs or stomping.  When you hit our legs in different places they make different sounds, this is accented by wear a certain type of paints and Gumboot.

Here is a video of us dancing out side after quite a bit of practice:

Video of Sesotho Dancing

I am currently in the Harrisburg airport waiting for my flight to Washington on my 30 hour journey.  There are 5 of us heading down to Durban, there we will have around a week of orientation specific to the countries that we are going to.  All of the other SALTers will be staying in South Africa, while one of the YAMENers is staying in South Africa while the other is going to Swaziland.

My Fellow SALTers on the way to South Africa (in front of an A380)

I did not get a great night sleep because I was getting up at all a hours to say good bye to my friends that I made during our short week together.  Here at the Harrisburg Airport we had the chance to see many other SALTers and IVEPers go on their way.  The plane to Toronto is one of the smallest commercial planes I have ever seen.  Only 18 seats and each time there are SALTers we seem to make up a large part of the plane.

 SALTers and IVEPers on the way to their placements in Harrisburg Airport

My Last Day in Canada

It is my last day in Canada, I can hardly believe it.  I have been talking about going overseas for years now, and it was always something that was going to happen in the future.  Now the future is here, only 12 hours left in Canada, if no issues arise.

I did have one issue that did come up as I was packing.  I did such a good job of organizing all of my stuff it was fairly easy to pack my things.  But then I realized, with my mom's help, that I had put everything that was heavy in one bag and left the other bag nice and light.  I could barely lift one of the bags while the other was no heavier than my carry on bags.  After a few repackings I was able to make both of the bags around equal and hopefully under the weight limit for flying.

I am heading to bed as I have to get up quite early tomorrow, around 5 so that we can be at the airport in plenty of time.  I fly from London to Toronto, where I have to go through US customs.  Hopefully all goes well, I only have around an hour to change planes.  Then I am on another short flight to Harrisburg where there are only 8 other people on the flight with me.  Not the smallest plane I have been on, but quite small.

I should also mention that the weather in Lesotho is going to be quite cold when I get down there.  I got an email from the people with MCC who are in South Africa telling us that it was snowing everywhere.  They were quite right about that.  I looked on the internet for news and found this article.  There was snow in every state of South Africa, with more on the way.  It snows across the country of South Africa only once and a while.  While it looks like where I am going in Lesotho has had snow over the last few days.  It might be a wintery wonderland when I get there.

Signing up for Email Notification

I have heard from many people that that would love to follow my blog next year but they are afraid that they will forget to check the website.  I have found a way where you can submit your email and you can get an email stating that my blog has been updated, so you do not have to check to see if I have updated it.  The box where you can put your email in is located on the right hand side of this page.  Once you have submitted your email you will receive a conformation email that will have a link with some steps to follow.

Learning About My Position

I have found out that I am going to Lesotho in August for one year.  I will be staying in the rural country side, near the community of Mohale's Hoek.  I will be my first time going to the African Continent.  Many if not all of my daily activities next year will be completely different from what I am experiencing right now.  One thing that I might already have experience with is the stars and shadows.  My memory from my time in New Zealand is that your sense of direction is off, your shadow points south rather than the north as it would in the northern Hemisphere.  Most of the stars will be different as well, except for those along the horizon.  I remember looking up in New Zealand and not recognizing a single thing. 
During that year I will be working in a elementary school, it should be quite the learning experience.  I hope that my experience in both in elementary school and volunteering at camp will help me in any issues that arise.

I hope to write more over the next few weeks