Hello my lovely friends and family!
Simply trucking along with my Lesotho life! (Disclaimer: this blog post is written from my own personal views as a U.S. Citizen with no affiliation with Peace Corps or the US Government)
I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about how all of the US government actions are affecting us. I talked about it a bit in my last post and not much has changed. The health volunteers here are being effected much more with staff being laid off and projects being shut down due to changes in/a new lack of funding. Lesotho got a shoutout by Trump for being a country “no one has ever heard of” so that was unfortunate and sad to see how much that comment effected everyone I work and live with. We’ve all heard of it! Thankfully there’s been no mention of us being sent home and hopefully we’ll be able to finish out service! In all of this craziness, I’ve realized I very much do not want to be sent back to the US for now and truly am very content in my life here.
“So what’s new?” You may ask… Well let me tell ya!
Peach season!!! Last year my host sister and I made mangangangjana (dried peaches) and this year we’re canning them instead. We shook down our peach trees last weekend and peeled and cut buckets on buckets of peaches. My host sister produced probably 20 plus empty mayonnaise jars. I did not question how much mayonnaise she was consuming. I produced a measly 3 empty peanut butter jars. “Wow, ausi you eat a loooooot of peanut butter.” And then told me how fat I must be getting from all that peanut butter… So that felt good.
Despite our grant (to fund a water source for the greenhouse) being completely paused and on its way to cancellation, we managed to find a system (classes taking turns bringing up water from the river each day) to plant the greenhouse and the cabbages in there are flourishing! Veggies for school lunch! Yay! Feels good to have come up with a solution (albeit hopefully temporary and not ideal) to still achieve the goal of introducing some nutrition to the school.
Had a lovely long weekend with friends at Semonkong. A few of us abseiled down the waterfall - a guinness world record highest abseil! So that was fun and was on my Lesotho bucket list to do while living here. Always love and take great joy from my time with all my favorite friends!
Marathon training is underway for the Victoria Falls Marathon. I have run the exact same route for almost every run. Up and down that rocky, uneven dirt road. Although I did meet one of the other volunteers in town last weekend for our long run and we ran up to the South African border and back! Running has always helped me to be vigilant about taking care of myself and having a good daily routine, and all around mentally it does wonders! So being on this training plan has really helped me in the emotional and mental challenges of being here.
Post Peace Corps thoughts are beginning to creep in… Ahh! It’s spooky and I simultaneously love and hate that I get to think about what’s next. I’m worried there won’t be a ton of opportunities to stick in the international/development world upon returning to the US and I might have to pivot. Should I move back to the US? Where should I live and what should I do? Back to the communications world? Give a go with journalism? Stick with the international aid/humanitarian sector? Should I extend with Peace Corps in a different country for another year? So many options (which I am incredibly privileged to have) that are stressing me out and getting me excited about another new thing. If you have any thoughts or ideas for me here, I’d love to hear ‘em!
My students continue to be a favorite part of my time here. They’re awesome and hilarious and I just love them so much!
New spelling club alert! We had our first spelling bee against other schools last Friday and they crushed it, securing second place among 5 schools. Everything I love to do as a teacher (spelling club, ESL, math) is everything I would hate doing as a student and the irony is making me laugh.
A big tragedy in the village 2 weeks ago. My favorite taxi driver was shot and killed right in front of our school one night. Still, no one knows who did it or the motive. It’s been a big deal and sadness for many because he was very widely loved and adored by the whole village. He was honestly one of the kindest people I’ve met here and I was distraught to hear about what happened. Unfortunately, domestic disputes are often handled in this way and that’s why the murder rate in Lesotho is so high. But I never really expected to see and deal with that in my village and it’s been very sad to see.
This is going to be super sappy so I apologize in advance - but I had this moment the other day while I was sitting on my neighbors porch while she was washing her buckets, just chatting one evening. And I just realized how sweet and ordinary that moment was, that here I am, surrounded by thatch roof huts as the sun goes down in our little valley, getting to talk with an inspirational woman I am lucky enough to live next to. How special and rare to witness and be a part of the ordinary. I am very aware lately that I’m living a perfectly uncomfortable, sweet, untamed, unique life that’s all mine! And this is very nostalgic of me but as many of you know even while I don’t show it often, I feel things very deeply and that fact about me has just become more and more true living here. Really been diving into all the positive and negative emotions and pushing my emotional comfort zone further than I knew it could go lately!
Still out here. Still doing well. Still really glad this is the path I’ve ended up on. I miss and love you all dearly! And I’m shocked so many people still read these things, so thank you! It feels special to have so many people in my corner :)
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