Blag No More

As tempting as it is to continue to blag about my snafu-ridden reassimilation to american culture, the purpose for this blag is through. I'll update one more time when i get a cell phone to advertise my number.

Those of you who kept up with me, thank you.

Those of you who actually got off your sorry asses and wrote me letters, or at least emails, THANK YOU, you helped me to survive these past couple years. Your new task is to call/text/email me now that i'm here so we can have a real-life relationship!

Love you all,

Goodbye FOREVER

Rebecca Reilly: Stoic in Paisley

It's been requested that I write a 'farewell' post, summing up my experience here, saying goodbye, etc.

I can't do it.

These past two years aren't some seperate segment of my life that i can just 'sum up'. It's my life, and this is my home, and i do love it here. There's too much to think about, and i'm all spazzed out right now anyway with all these peace corps exit procedures and tests and saying goodbye to all my family and friends and neighbors and home and school etc etc etc. People keep requesting adages and bon mots and specific emotions from me. I have wrapped my feelings and thoughts about this up in a ball and hid it waay down in my psyche somewhere, and maybe i'll let them out nervous breakdown style when i'm safely back in the spare room at mom and dad's house in California.

I am very happy to leave, there is nothing more I can do here in Lesotho. I'm probably aiding them by departing because overzealous international aid is one of this country's biggest problems. That said, I've loved, learned, grown, done all sorts of cheesy things, in more ways than I can say, or know. I'm beyond happy that i was able to have this experience, and i will leave you with some pictures of my 'hood.

With my principal in my NEW TRACK SUIT!! it's the most amazing thing ever. Everything's funnier when wearing a tracksuit.

At the farewell my school did for me, some students did the gumboot dance, i think they call it 'stomp'ing or something like that in America, they stomp and beat the sides of their gumboots in cool dancy rhythms, started by the diamond mine workers in south africa. Anyway, they're wearing the mining outfit, and the one in front is the 'foreman', wearing a terrifying hand-knitted boss-man mask. The dance was SO COOL

Walking to school with some form D students

With friends

My host brother gifting me with a traditional basotho blanket to take home, it's so warm and pretty. As you can see, i'm super excited about this. also, please note: the dress i'm wearing I sewed myself with fabric from mozambique!

boo-tee-full

races

that scooped-out looking mountain behind the burned ruin is the one we call 'brokeback'

the view from my stoop

F- This List, I'd Rather Play Some Whist!

Things I've Lied About Recently
1. Being sick
2. Having important paperwork/appointments/etc. outside of school
3. How the car got scratched
4. My nationality (Russian)
5. How much money I have
6. Why I am leaving Thaba-Tseka so soon
7. My formative years spent at a boarding school in Germany
8. My familial relationship with Kelly Clarkson
9. What I think of my coworker's new weave


Things I've Stared at for Far Too Long
1. My ceiling
2. Brokeback mountain
3. The bit of stained glass hanging from my wardrobe
4. Raw meat
5. Crossword puzzles
6. Sheep
7. The growth behind the taxi driver's ear
8. My fingernails
9. Cliffsides
10. Cinderblocks
11. Blank pages
12. Car wrecks
13. Dirt paths
14. The surface of my desk
15. Clouds


P.S. I would like to announce that I am NO LONGER A RESIDENT OF THABA-TSEKA!!!!!
As of now I am enjoying the bright lights of the big city, then as of November 2 I will no longer be a volunteer, then as of November 11 I will no longer exist on the continent of Africa

COS conference party pics

the Thaba-Tseka girls (linds, vic, mad, me)

uh oh face

cardboard chris conz, who met his untimely death later that evening

George Washington's Wooden Teeth Feature Strongly

15 Sept.
This past weekend there was a life skills day camp for 20 high schoolers which I had little to no part in helping, except for organizing food. Anyway I sat in on a session. It was agree/disagree scenarios and one of them caused particular strife for me. It was “a woman who carries a condom in her purse/pocket is ‘easy’” we (the PCVs) had just started to convince the kids that it was ok because she is looking out for her personal interests because of the ‘provider’ class (people aged 18-50, anyone able to work and provide for their family) 50% are HIV positive. ONE OUT OF TWO, holy hell. Anyway these bitch mediators from Catholic Relief Services went off about how condoms are bad, abstinence is the only solution, and even had the kids do an abstinence chant. These people are annihilating themselves and it’s hypocritical women like these that are making the problem so.much.worse. These kids are so lost and confused, half the people are telling them condoms are bad, and the other half are handing them out like candy.
It makes me feel so angry and hopeless! I like to pretend I’m doing some amount of work in the positive direction while I’m here, but instances like these make me re-realize that nothing I’m doing here will stick without local support, which is dubious at best. It’s exhausting and depressing and I’m tired and my spirit’s broken, so I’m quietly, guiltily sneaking back to my cushy carpeted insulated house complete with refrigerator and amenities, etc. in America.
Everyone (almost) that I’ve met here thinks that because I’m foreign/white/etc., I have some magical ability (in the form of money, candy, or other) to make their lives ok. I obviously do not possess this trait and so everyone around me is constantly/consistently disappointed in me, no matter what I accomplish, which admittedly hasn’t been a lot. After 2 YEARS of working on simple skills (adding and subtracting whole numbers), my students still don’t know it. I can’t get through to them; they will not/ cannot conceptualize anything. If it isn’t memorizable, they won’t ‘learn’ it. The weight of this has also contributed to the Breaking of Rebecca’s Spirit.
I came here so smug, thinking ‘I don’t expect to change or ‘help’ anything here anymore than I do by teaching in America, so therefore I can’t be disappointed when the inevitable happens and I do not, in fact, do much. But then I got here and this became my home and it’s dying. Not slowly or metaphorically but this country is in fact collapsing at an incredible rate and how can anyone sit back and watch this happen? I want so badly for this place to be at least OK, at least still in existence after 2040. I have this optimism and hope all inside me that won’t go away no matter how much I try to be logical and look at things realistically. And I want to believe even me, just as one person, can do something besides tell my students about George Washington’s wooden teeth for hours on end. People helping people. Maybe some student that actually listened to more of what I said than my nonsensical stories will go on to make a change, to do something good.

Things I’m Not Into, Lately
1. Shingles
2. Multiple food babies at one time from going for seconds/thirds at the boofay
3. Glitter in my eyeball
4. My students getting hard-ons when I’m trying to explain ‘combining like terms’ to them
5. The new science teacher doesn’t go to class, so the kids all complain to me.
6. I’ve had a cough/sore throat for 6 weeks
7. Listening to that R. Kelly ‘Believe’ song on repeat for 6 HOURS in the staff room because that’s all a coworker has on his cell phone, and Basotho seem to be immune to getting tired of repetition, song-wise
8. Flying rocks/debris hitting me when I walk home through the almost constant windstorms
9. Wearing a skirt without tights in windy weather around my students


Things I’m Into, Lately
1. My ‘me lent me some sheets! No more bare mattress
2. Tuna pasta
3. Carrot burgers
4. My close-of-service date was approved! Nov. 2: outta here
5. I’m getting cash in lieu of a plane ticket home and Peace Corps only uses American carriers, so if I buy my own ticket I save about 800USD! Cape Town, here I come!
6. My teaching experience here qualifies me for a teaching credential in California
7. Cutting my hair. I really want it to grow out, but whenever I’m bored in my hut I can’t help grabbing some scissors
8. Cuddling with the three remaining puppies, the professor, and parker
9. I ate insane amounts of cheese from the boofay
10. I finally made a playlist of all my very favourite songs, it makes me so happy! Every song is amazing, one after another!
11. Any movie featuring Robert Downey Jr. - I love him
12. “Imagination grill cheeses”- I butter and grill bread, and when I eat it I pretend there’s melty delicious cheese on it
13. Shouting punk rock lyrics/ the Lesotho national anthem into the wind when I walk home
14. Wearing sleeves, shades, and a scarf over my head/face (because of the wind) and a) pretending I’m riding in a convertible or b) seeing if people think I’m an albino and therefore leave me alone
15. Doing tai-chi with my overstressed students to calm/centre them

Future Vacation Highlights
1. Highest (commercial) bungee jump in the world! 710 feet, I’MA DO IT
2. Ghetto wine tour (includes sneaking into the backyard of a vineyard to drink wine from the bottle)
3. Dancing like a Fly Girl circa 1992
4. Hot Stone Massage
5. Buying fun boots and pretty dresses
6. Eating weird bush animals from MamaAfrica in Cape Town
7. Plundering the touristy craft stalls for local art
8. Gawking into N. Mandela’s former jail cell
9. Getting myself on a one-way San Diego bound plane

rock out....

General Updates
1. There are 5 puppies who think i am their mother because the professor abandoned them
2. While being super cute, they smell really bad (like dead sheep) and whine a lot
3. all my sheets and towels were lost during a transportation snafu, so now i sleep on a bare mattress with just blankets (i feel like a college boy)
4. i love chocolate much more than i ever have before
5. i've cried in public 7 times in the last month
6. My immune system no longer exists, i have multiple viruses attacking my body at all times
7. Thanks for the birthday wishes, gramma and uncle jim!
8. My principal continues to view me as free labor to exploit as much as possible before i leave
9. teenagers' BO smells really funky
10. spring is coming!
11. there was a 3 hour assembly at school informing the students about swine flu and advising them to be vigilant
12. Parker came home! after 4 months she reappeared, heavily pregnant. woo small fuzzy animals!
13. There's graffiti on the back of a road sign in TT that's supposed to say "all people like sex" but the paint on the s dripped, so it looks like it says "all people like bex" and this makes me smile to myself
14. I JUST FINISHED MY COS (close of service) CONFERENCE!

MOçAMBIQUE, M'Lady

finally! some mystery illnesses and now the known illness of shingles is causing my blog-related apathy. actually it's causing a more general malaise, which is reaching its apathetic little fingers into all corners of my life.

hopefully my immune system is more robust than victoria's grandmother's, who had shingles for 10 YEARS. ugh that sounds awful.

anyways, where did i leave off?

Moçimboa de Praia

1. They speak portugues in moçambique. it's weird, and also a lot of fun to say "hola!" in africa and people respond!

2. luckily my spanish came back to me surprisingly quickly, and i picked up the differences between spanish and portugues pretty quickly, so i was able to understand people! and to speak to them! in whole conversations (kind of)!

3. i can't remember if i included this in the last post, because technically it's a Tanzania event, when people found out we were american, they would get this really concerned look on their face, put their hand on our arm, and intone "i'm SO sorry for your loss". we were really confused, and asked "what loss?" "michael jackson, of course!"

so for the rest of my life, when someone asks where i was when michael jackson died, i can say Dar Es Salaam

4. The bus pulled up to our guesthouse-thang at 3:30am and the conductor was shouting PEMBAPEMBA PEMBA like it was an air-raid or something, we flipped out and ran to the bus thinking we'd miss it, and then ended up circling the town for another 2 hours, we passed our guesthouse like 5 more times. stupid.

5. On this very same bus, after we had been on the road for a couple hours (on the bus for about 4 hours), this awful smell permeated the bus, so i covered my nose with my scarf, and then finally it reached up to the driver, who pulled over to the side of the road, and everyone rushed off the bus. we were so confused as to what was happening. a baby at the back had exploded! vomit and diarrhea were shooting out of all orifices of this baby, it was so gross! so we all stood around on the side of the road while a couple people wiped up the bus, and one woman walked around holding the baby by one arm while it spewed its innards.

Later that trip, we were really hungry and had no money, so were trying to barter half a jar of peanut butter for a couple bread rolls through the window of the bus. The small child selling bread was not agreeing to our suggestion but we kept haggling until the bus driver took our peanut butter away and just bought us two rolls. for that we were infinitely grateful. Thank you, busdriver!

Pemba

1. This little beach town had many an unfriendly expat. not much tourism, but the hostel where we stayed had a big screen tv with MTV music videos playing nonstop! we were completely entranced. also there were girly magazines from 2006, so we watched tv and read old fashion tips for the whole day. other looked at us like "ew, stupid americans travel around africa and only want to watch mtv" but we bore their judgements well. we did not care.

2. There was some ngo called "elephant human relations aid", and we kept seeing them on our trip, first in mtwara/mikindani, then again in pemba! the logo on their car was like the sistine chapel with adam and god almost touching, except it was a person's hand, and an elephant's trunk. we mocked them a lot, mostly because we were bitter that they kept seeing us and not offering us a ride.

3. savannah is a delicious cider sold around africa, and here they put lime in it!! the difference is life changing! it's like corona vs. corona w/ lime (in terms of taste difference)

4. There was a traditional dance show for the tourists, and we neglected to go over to watch it. as an excuse, madeline said "my life is an african dance."

which is absolutely true. our lives are an african dance.

Ilha de Moçambique

1. Our taxi never showed up to bring us to the bus, so we hitched from pemba to the ilha. Thusly a 5 hour trip became 10 hours, and we spend probably 2 1/2 times as much money. curses! but we did not die, and still have all our limbs; both of which are things to be happy about.

The ilha de moçambique is the former capital of moçambique, from when it was controlled by the portuguese. Now it's been mostly abandoned, and is a surreal ghost town neverland sort of place full of big beautiful whitewashed spanish style buildings with all these plazas and statues and gazebos and wide treelined cobbled walkways, except they're mostly abandoned and crumbling apart, with figs (banyans) growing in and through the walls, and the whole island is overrun with street children.

3. when we arrived at the ilha, a bunch of small boys (7-10 years old) surrounded us and were saying "my name is (breakfast, juck chuck, go, etc) i will be your wife i make good kissing, don't go to your hotel, come stay at my house, i don't work i will just pleasure you all day" etc etc. Street kids harassing us is not new, but a child prostitution ring is unusual, to say the least. The kids were following us around and becoming really annoying, so vic says, "where's freddy mercury?!", whips out the painting she bought in its cardboard tube and starts whacking the kids with it. They dispersed quickly after that.

4. The hospital is (was) this huge grandiose 3 building structure that takes up a whole block, the walls and ceilings are crumbled through, with trees growing in the buildings. It's still in use, and the patients were waiting beneath the boughs of the trees to be called into the doctor.

Also there's a crazy woman living in the maternity ward, she just sits in the corner smoking cigarettes backwards. The hospital workers chase her out periodically, but she just comes back in.
below is a pic of the front of the hospital buildings

5. Cher is EVERYWHERE. almost every place i've been to in africa has played cher at least once. also while at the bar where we heard cher, a toddler ran past our table carrying a butcher knife almost as tall as she was.

6. Seafood sellers wander around the town with their catch of brightly colored fish on a line in one hand, and a scale and knife in the other. people will stop them, they'll hack off a section of fish and weigh it right in front of you.

7. We were trying to buy bread, and the woman at the market was out, so we followed a small child through the streets, into a doorway, through a tunnel lined with other small children, and out into a secret courtyard, with other doorways leading to other tunnels and courtyards, and stairways leading up to the "second stories", which, due to the lack of ceilings, were like rooftop balconies. There was no bread back there either, but this whole other city, apart from the streets and building fronts, was incredible.

8. The one atm on the ille was not functioning, and we were out of money. we managed to spend very little while we were there, and the mistress of our guesthouse was the most awesome woman i've ever met, and was driving out to the nearest big city (Nampula, 4ish hours away) so she both gave us a ride, and dropped us at an atm to get money out and pay her!

Nampula-Beira= NOTHING

Vilankulous
1. Finally, we arrived in a place with other tourists! (this shouldn't be exciting, but it was. we wanted to meet some other fun people)

the other tourists we met were very awesome, two of which we ended up travelling with for the rest of our trip.

2. i got to snorkel and it was a lot of fun. there were lots of fish, but they weren't very exciting. boo.

3. we sailed on a dhow, which was SUPER COOL. see a couple posts ago for a photo of a dhow.

4. other miscellania: a) goldfish is a very good south african band, and b) beaver canoe is a questionably named chain of restaurants in zimbabwe.

Tofo

1. awesome waves to bodysurf

2. a continuance of the awesome beaches

3. fun beach parties with all sorts of other people we met. being peace corps is like a fun club, whenever we meet other volunteers we hang out.

4. we drank a lot of local rum called "tipo tinto" and talked like pirates

5. we spent a lot of money to go on a whale shark tour, and there were NO WHALE SHARKS. stupid jerks.

here's our new band photo:Then to maputo (moz's capital), then to johannesberg, then bloemfontein, then maseru, then finally homehomehome to thaba-tseka.