Saturday, February 28, 2004

We had such a great time in TY! The name of the town is really Teyateyaneng, but even the Basotho can’t pronounce it, so they call it TY. :o) Shelley and I never would have made it there without Qachile and we CERTAINLY never would have made it back ALIVE without her.

Public transportation is truly an adventure. But three taxis and we were in TY. The weavings here are AMAZING!!! Watching the women create such amazing artwork with yarn makes my knitting seem so sad really.


Shelley and I went a bit crazy on the souvenirs and then we were off to my first real traditional brie, complete with lamb, steak, sausage, and papa. Qachile’s favorite foods and good stuff! Papa is actually a bit odd. The best way I can describe it is sort of half mashed potatoes, half bread.


Not much longer and we were back on public transport. But instead of the normal van taxi, we got on a mini-bus taxi…the first we’ve seen. Just after we got on, the mini-bus picked up two guys who were WICKED intoxicated. They sat behind Shelley and I. After a few minutes, they started to touch our hair. You should have heard Qachile! I had never seen her even without a smile on her face, but she was chewing them out! About 20 minutes later, they started at it again. Qachile jumped into action again. She warned the conductor (every taxi has a driver and a conductor) that we would get off if they didn’t control the guys. The conductor got them to calm down. But I guess they forgot because 20 minutes later, they touched Shelley’s hair one last time. Once again, Qachile started going off in quick, angry Sesotho. The guys were kicked off the bus and that’s the last we saw of them. Qachile a motsoalle le motlatsetsi oa ka…Qachile is our friend and our protector. :o)

As an interesting tid-bit that I haven't shared with you yet, but it is not uncommon to see here at all. Here's a picture of Qachile and Shelley in front of a house made completely of cans. Do Basotho know how to recycle or what!?!

  Friday, February 27, 2004

We certainly rewarded ourselves after a hard week! We had the PSI staff over for a mini-brie (aka party). We had good drinks, good snacks


and pizza, and music going on my computer (thanks Buck)…it was like a real party. Since we do most of our work out of the office, we haven’t had the chance to get to know anybody very well. But now we know everybody VERY well.


When we broke out the cards, they were all about playing Crazy Eights. But we decided to teach them some more party-style games. We first played drug-dealer. If you don’t know how to play, it’s too hard to explain, so too bad. They LOVED it. I have never seen people laugh so hard while playing cards…at least not until we taught them Liar (known more commonly in the US by a not-so-nice name). They stayed for a few hours and I think it was the first time I have had laughing-for-hours fun.


They gave me a new Sesotho name! It turns out that Lerato is just about one of the most common names in the country, and they thought it was too boring. And since it was just given to me by some random guy in a bar, I decided to take their name for me instead. So my new Sesotho name is Senate. This is not pronounced like the elected body of American politicians. It is pronounced, say-NAW-tay. It is the same name as the princess and they tell me it means "loved by many".

  Thursday, February 26, 2004

What a busy week! We were SUPER busy with meetings all over the place…especially Shelley. I had more work confined to the chalet, but definitely got around town enough for my liking.

We have taken this week to spending our lunch breaks at the pool (since it was beautiful EVERY day since Monday). Lunch here is always at 1:00 sharp. It’s so funny to be in a total non-time-oriented society that is completely shut down from 1:00 to 2:00 exactly. So we’ve started to learn that meetings cannot be made and phones will not be answered for that hour. We burned by Wednesday.

Shelley burned badly. She thought she didn’t need sunscreen at all. I, of course, know better. I used sunscreen. I just decided to do it myself and all very quickly…I have quite the interesting designs on my back.

And even though we’ve put in a few pretty intense days of work already, we’ll probably be up past midnight doing work tonight. Gotta get ahead for the weekend! :o)

  Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Shelley and I have friends! Sunday afternoon we had lunch with Qachile at the really great pizza place across the street. And since all our friends seem to be the people that are serving us, we are of course friends with our waitress, Puleng, at the pizza place. So desperate for some company other than each other, we told Puleng to stop by anytime. We left and by 6:30, Puleng arrived with her friend, Evelyn, who is also a waitress. We gave them drinks and snacks, showed them pictures, and talked for a while, and they left around 8:00.

But the social activity doesn’t stop there! Around 5:00 today (Monday), our Dutch friend Daan (who works at the hotel) came to pick us up to take us to a HASH. This is quite possibly the most fun group of people I’ll ever meet. They call themselves a drinking club with a running problem. You run or walk…or in my case, half-run and half-walk…cross-country over a trail that was set by a couple hashers the day before. But the crazy part is that they don’t tell you where the trail starts, so everybody goes in different directions until someone honks a horn meaning they found the trail…of course they have false trails too, so you have to be careful. The trail is marked by paper, but as long as you stay behind a group of runners, you pretty much just follow them. And of course even if you are running, you can’t run the whole time since there are the occasional rocks to climb over or marsh to maneuver around. It’s about the truest “cross-country” experience a runner could hope for (as is evidenced by my muddy shoes).


The whole run lasted almost an hour and a half and then it’s all over and you drink. Most people opt for pop or juice, but some people don’t have a choice. The whole group stands in a circle (probably 50 in all, mostly expats) and then the little rituals take place. As newcomers, Shelley and I were “invited” to take place. Since Shelley and I were also accompanied by another newcomer, Drew from Vermont, the Dutch leader of the group joked, “They’re taking over the Danes!” Then they all did a little cheer ending in, “Drink it down, down, down, down…down, down, down, down…” They repeated this chant for the scouts, a guy who was on his 50th HASH, and the “sinners”. And the best part is that they do this every Monday!!!

So then we went to our meeting with the Arise and Shine group at Lesotho College of Education. We came back and invited Daan for a late dinner. Shelley and I made peanut butter chicken (with crunchy Skippy), garlic and soy green beans, and creamy spinach pasta. And then we played cards until almost 1 am. A late night, but definitely worth it…we needed some social activity…knitting can only serve as entertainment for so long.