Stuff things in a turkey's butt.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I miss all of you soooo much. I hope you all don’t miss me tooo much and cry into your turkey. I finally went to the dentist this morning. I have been having a lot of trouble eating and drinking because my tooth was so painful. Apparently the crown I got right before leaving Cali was too big in one spot, and was putting a lot of pressure on the tooth above it, making it hurty. So the dentist drilled off a bunch of my crown, and my tooth feels all rough and rounded off and weird. He said it will take a few days for my ouchy tooth to relax and stop hurting, and gave me a prescription for “brufen” which apparently is ibuprofen. Woopie. Hopefully I will be able to eat lots of food for thanksgiving though! I’ll load up on brufen before I go.

So I got to go visit a current PCV at her site for a few days, and it was awesome! She is in Quthing in the South of the country up in the mountains. They were these rolling green mountains with farm plots cut out of the sides of the mountains. Terracing I think it’s called. I got to experience Lesotho transport. This consists of busses (like school busses) which I did not take, Sprinters (22 passenger mini buses), Combis (15 passenger vans) and 4 plus 1s (sedan taxis). So on one of my sprinters, there were 36 people we counted. This is normal apparently, I had a fat lady from across the aisle leaning on me, I don’t know where that half of her ass was, and another guy’s butt in my face, and he kept dancing to the music (which I’ll tell you about later) and shaking his butt in my face. And in Lesotho they think that open windows on cars are the way you get tb and common colds, so they keep them closed. Ick. Then we had a combi (15 passenger) with 21 people on it at one point. It was barely moving, I thought the engine would die. We got around ok though.

Anyway the site, so amazing! And her little roundavel was very cute. She had no electricity or running water, but that wasn’t a big deal at all. We cooked dinner on the propane stove, read books, talked, and she had a nice double bed so I didn’t have to sleep on the floor, which was very clean anyway so I wouldn’t have minded. I think I want to be placed in the mountains. We went on a hike, straight up a mountain and it was beautiful, but the air up here is so thin, my lungs felt like they were dying.

Oh! Revelation! Very few people in Lesotho die each year as a result of AIDS. However, thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of people die from things like a broken heart, a headache, the common cold, a broken finger, etc. it’s way taboo to die of aids.

So it’s been asked, where I am living. It’s this compound walled with a few rooms with 3 sets of bunk beds each, a living room with a couple couches, and another building with our classroom and eating hall area. There are 23 trainees and ‘me mamothe, who is our main lady that are living there, and others who come each day. It feels like what camp would be like, we are all in bunks and have no personal space AT ALL and spend every second of every day together. Luckily I love all my co-trainees and don’t mind too much being with them. In the evenings we play campy games like charades and question games and other stuff. It’s fun, but is a bit much sometimes, so I retreat into my noise-cancelling headphones and my book.
Oh, and to everyone writing me emails, I know I haven’t been responding, I only have time to read and then blog, and so let everyone know what’s up.. one day I’ll put aside more time to send you personal notes because I’ve been thinking about all of you a lot, and wondering how life’s going without me and stuff. So, no I am not ignoring you.

And my co-trainees I guess are reading this blog, too. Why? I don’t know. Maybe if they forget what they did today? To see if I gossip about them? Or I am just so magnetic, and my story writing style is irresistible they must live through me.
The school system here is pretty much atrocious. All of the principals are corrupt and steal money, the teachers are beat down and don’t come to class a lot, and the students are left with exams written for british students, subject matter that doesn’t pertain to them, an outdated colonial school system set up that is centered around English, rather than sesotho. One school i went to had 15 computers donated, but the school doesn't have electricity, so is unable to use the computers. and they won't give them up because people here are very possesive of free stuff/supplies etc. the principal had just embezzled 35,000 rand, the classrooms all had broken windows, students were pulled out of the middle of their end of year exams to have their heads shaved and so didn't have enough time to finish, ugh. (all students here must keep their heads shaved. if not they get beaten or expelled) oh yeah, and students are all afraid to ask or answer questions because they get beaten if they're wrong, or ask sometihng the teacher doesnt know. they get beaten for everything pretty much, and are only taught to memorize and regurgitate. lame.

i'm going to the ambassadors' for t-day, i'm really really really happy to hopefully get an americanish meal. with turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy. and cheese.


oh crap out of time


eat stuff for me!