Saturday, February 21, 2004

Shelley cut my hair this morning! And my blog has 1000 hits!


Here's me sitting in the tub so Shelley could cut my hair.


Here's me with my new haircut!

  Friday, February 20, 2004

I had my first independent adventure today. I took public transportation to Mafeteng all by myself! I got on the taxi headed for Mafeteng at about 9:30am. But since the taxi would not leave until people occupied every little space, we didn’t actually pull out of Maseru until 11am. The thing that struck me is that I wasn’t the only one who was waiting for an hour and a half to go on the hour-long drive, but no one else seemed to mind. It’s such a contrast to the US where we consider every moment precious, and a wasted minute is the end of the world.

During my wait, though, I saw the most fascinating thing. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned all the interesting things that the women carry on their heads…full buckets of water, groceries, stacks of books, whole suitcases, etc. And although it seems amazing, nothing topped what I saw today: a woman carrying a watermelon on her head! And I mean a HUGE watermelon. I don’t understand how it didn’t just roll off. I saw it, but I still don’t believe it.

I finally arrived in Mafeteng and took another taxi to the hospital, waiting another 20 minutes until THAT taxi was full. I talked to a few very helpful people, basically everyone except the person I had an appointment with since she decided not to go to work today. Then I hopped in another taxi to take me back to town. During the four-minute ride back to town, it started to POUR! At what seemed to be the most severe part of the storm, I had to get out of the taxi and try to find the District AIDS Task Force (DATF). It turns out I was wrong…the storm got worse. I thought the watermelon woman was incredible, but even more incredible than that were the huge balls of hail that were falling in 70-degree weather. And I mean PAINFUL hail. I went on searching for the DATF building, and on the way I passed several groups of Basutho standing under awnings to wait out the storm. They were all excitedly shouting at me in Sesotho and seemed to be pretty amused at the sight of me walking around in the middle of the storm. I eventually found the DATF building, but not before I was wet…REALLY wet. But it was definitely worth it because ‘Me Maliehi was incredibly helpful, and with her help, I was able to make a lot of headway on the Mafeteng VCT referral system.

But my business was done, so I bought some bread off a woman’s head and then hopped into a taxi to wait an hour before we were on our way back to Maseru. I was back at Lancer’s just after 5pm, and felt for the first time since I have been here like I was “home sweet home”. My day was a long one, but a productive one, and at least now I know that I will survive when Shelley leaves me in April. :o)

  Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Prepare yourselves for a LONG entry. Who knew 24 hours could bring so many adventures!?!

We got picked up yesterday at around 6:30 pm to go to Mapoteng. This was, of course, two hours later than expected, but Shelley and I, of course, had been waiting anxiously since 4:00 pm because we are totally unable to adjust to “Africa time”. For those of you who are not aware, “Africa time” means slow and late.

Slow, however, does not describe our ride there. Our driver, Bushy, was very eager to make up for lost time. Have I mentioned how WINDY the roads are here? VERY windy. But we were at Maluti hospital by 7:30 and Pam and Dick (they are so great!) served us a wonderful Ramen noodles meal during which we met a few American medical students doing a one-month rotation at Maluti. It was really great to gain a more clinical perspective.

We were staying in one of the guesthouses. It was a very nice place… no Lancer’s… but way more than adequate. We were sharing the house with an Argentinean doctor and a doctor who had just arrived that day from the Congo. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to visit much since we were out the door by 7:30. We had a DELICIOUS breakfast with Pam and Dick (have I mentioned how great they are?) and soon enough, we were on our way with the hospital social worker to visit the villages.

I suppose I should back up and tell you WHY we went to Mapoteng. On Friday, we got a call from Ntate Mokhutu. A couple schools were threatening to kick the kids out of school unless they received at least their registration fees right away. I had already received US $525 from all of you back home and Shelley got about US $160, so we had just under 5000 R between the two of us. We agreed to pay part of the school fees this week and just continue to hope and pray for more to cover the rest of the year.

Our first stop was Mapoteng High School. Here, we paid for the registration fees of each of the 8 students in need. We were able to meet with 4 of them and give them pencil sets (provided by the Croatian Fraternal Union…thanks Nana and Pap Pap!). Each of them have such amazing stories, especially Thabiso. I look forward to sharing all of them with you…in a more private forum. :o) Pictured from left to right are: Thabiso (22), Nthabiseng (18), ‘Mapula (17), and Mamello (17).


Stop #2 was Dahone High School where we met Nthabiseng (20). She is in her last year there (Form E), and VERY bright. She hopes to continue at Maluti’s nursing school next year. She definitely has something very special about her! Shelley and I were very happy to pay for her registration fees and first quarter and to give her pencils and a really nice journal that was included among the donations given by Shelley’s tennis team.


Our third stop was to Bophelong School to pay the registration fees and first quarter for Molibeli (22). Although we did not meet Molibeli, we were greeted by a mob of kids…in the most literal sense I have ever experienced. I think the pictures speak for themselves. We were actually trapped for several minutes in the center of a circle of very excited kids!






Fobane Primary School was our fourth stop. We thought nothing could top our arrival at Bophelong School, but the tunnel of excited clapping, singing, and dancing students that welcomed us was so fantastically overwhelming…it is definitely among my life’s favorite moments. I only wish I had a video camera so I could share that moment with all of you who have helped with the school fees. There we paid for the registration fees and first quarter for (pictured left to right): Eti (13), ‘Mamathealira (13), and Mpolokeng (11). All the girls were so special. Mpolokeng is incredibly bright…second in her class. She is the youngest of 5 kids with no parents, and someone described her to us as “the responsible one”. Then we were asked to speak in one of the classrooms to motivate the oldest group to stay in school. The teacher is convinced that what we said will make a huge difference…I think they just liked the Nerds and Jolly Ranchers we gave them.


Our fifth and final stop was to Fobane High School. Here, we paid for each of three students in full (pictured left to right): Aletta (16), Majena (17), and Phokeng (13). It only made us wish that much more that we will be able to return soon with the remaining school fees. But all in all, with your support, we were able to help out 16 kids today!


We were given a great farewell from Fobane by a few of the primary school girls who were hamming it up for the camera. They chased us halfway down the road exchanging different poses with Shelley…I only wish I had been able to capture some of Shelley’s poses on camera. :o)


But our adventures don’t stop there! After visiting all the schools, we made a quick stop in Mapotsoe where Shelley and I hopped out to get a “Coke Light”. On our way back to the car, three guys made a very tricky attempt to get into Shelley’s backpack. One stood in front of her to stall her, one went behind her to get into the bag, and the third stood between two fruit stands to block my way. I pushed past the guy in front of me and realized what was going on when I saw the guy’s hand in Shelley’s backpack. So I yelled at the guy and scared him off… and fortunately, he didn’t have time to grab the camera that was in the pouch he was after. Don’t worry, Mom, it was a crowded street… they wouldn’t have done anything worse than pick pocketing. We learned later that Mapotsoe is worse than Maseru for crime. Pam and Dick hadn’t realized we were going there or else they would have warned us. But no harm done, and I got a cool story for my blog!

But there’s still more! Since Mokhutu was actually in Johannesburg and flying into Maseru this evening, he thought it would be a great idea for us to meet him in Maseru with his car. And since Shelley can only drive an automatic, I was the lucky driver! Driving backwards really isn’t as hard as I thought it would be…because it’s all backwards! Even the direction you turn the key in the ignition and the side that the turn signal is on (which I had serious issues with…although I only had to make 3 turns so it really didn’t matter much). And I didn’t get lost! Which really isn’t impressive since there’s really only one main road between Mapoteng and Maseru. And I only stalled once! Which really isn’t bad when you consider the time I did NOT stall when I had to stop uphill on a REALLY bumpy dirt road so the herd boy could get the donkeys out of the way. I wouldn’t call it a smooth ride (windy roads mean lots of shifting…with my left hand, of course!), but it was definitely a safe ride (don’t worry, Mom).

And THAT actually DOES end our adventures for the day.