The Great Shearing

Before:

The first cut

notice the cow in the background trying to eat my head

Almost there.... Taking a break to menace said cowDone!

Thanks, Westlife, For The Best Decade Of My Life!

i rode a stallion up a mountain!

Then went to a staff party

Here are some photos of the area taken by ms. Pam who has a much better camera than I:

Prayer Flags

Lastly, I love it when random men with accordions show up by the riverside to play pied-piper with the children

She Has Freckles On Her, But She Is Nice

12 Feb
I had the best time evar last night. It started out kind of lame, though. It was raining like crazy and my house flooded again, so i was hiding in bed reading a book with my headlamp. Then i got up to go brush my teeth and was dancing across my hut when i noticed how slippery the floor was when i realized that i was EXACTLY REPRODUCING the end scene from the fine feature film: Step It Up 2: The Streets! HOLY CRAP! so I got all into it, dancing and swishing the water around, and did the banana-peel fall onto my butt a few times. THen i started doing risky-business type slides back and forth across my hut, when i crashed into my little table thingy that has all these tupperwares of flour, papa, sugar, oatmeal, etc. on them, and of course the only thing to fall was a bowl of eggs, which cracked all over the floor. I swept the mess into a dustpan and then as i was pouring water and soap over the area to clean it, i had an epiphony: soapy water is waay slipperyer than regular water! So i squirted dishsoap all over my floor where it mixed in the puddles and my whole house turned into a slip n slide! I danced and slid around for almost half the night. Today my butt and hands are so sore, but my heart and mind are oh so content.

Smushy Faced Children Follow Me

25 Jan
The bus was inexplicably 40 minutes early today, so i missed it and what is normally a 2 hour trip became a 10 hour long day of triumph!
Tally for the Day:

• strangers proposing: 6
• strangers proposing to me in front of their wives: 2
• pages read: 192
• failed hitch attempts: 3
• kidnapping attempts (where i'm the "kid"): 1
• mls of water for the day: 500
• food: none
• cute babies played with: 2
• Items demanded of me: my jacket, my shoes, my earrings (3 times), food, candy, toilet paper, money for beer and cigarettes

Taxi Tally: Occupants of the 14 person max. vehicle:
21 adults, 4 babies/toddlers, 4 giant duffel bags, a 9kg propane tank, 3 buckets full of godknowswhat, a chicken, 2 animal hide drums (of the musical variety), and about 157 flies.

29 Jan
I spend at least an hour every day circling my hut, swatting flies. One time i clocked in at 2 hours 10 mins. This is indicative of:
a) The number of flies in my hut
b) My dislike for flies
c) The range of activities available to me in my free time
d) All of the above

30 Jan

Things I Do When I'm Bored
1. make lists
2. swat flies
3. curse the existence of flies
4. do crosswords
5. teach myself to play vic's mandolin
6. read books
7. play with professor phonics
8. create/ convince myself i still have a life and future in America
9. draw pictures
10. shadow dance
11. Lift "weights" a.k.a. buckets of varying quantities of water
12. lay on my bed and stare at the ceiling
13. read more books.

2 Feb
My house gets secretly flooded during heavy rains. It took me a while to figure out what was going on. So my floor is concrete covered with mismatched pieces of plastic sheeting, and during heavy/prolonged rains water seeps in through the seam where the wall and floor meet, and collects beneath the plastic sheeting. I kept getting my socks/slippers soaked while walking around my house, but couldn't see any puddles. Finally i realized that if i step near a hole, water will geyser up. When i discovered these hidden geysers i tried to mop up the water, but more just kept coming. Then i realized the ENTIRE FLOOR was like a waterbed with too many holes, and it was still raining, so i retreated to high ground (my bed) and watched the progress. As the rains continued a lake started forming over near my door ( the lowest point of the floor), and two streams formed along seams in the sheeting, and the water trickled down to the lake. As a result of my bloodlust, there are quite a few discarded fly carcasses on the floor, who were then caught up in the deluge and also made their way down to the lake. I was waiting for my furniture to start floating away, too.
I suppose there was a good reason why the successful little pig made his house of brick, and not mud and cow dung.

I Will Bathe Myself Sometime This Year

10 Jan

AMERICA
America is a land of dreams, one that already feels like a dream. I spent 3 weeks in a haze of remembered things, people, places, etc. I think the thing i liked best was belonging. People took me as i was, as just another human rather than "the whitey" or "the foreigner". Nobody shouted, jeered, mocked, whistled, stared, or asked me for shit as i passed them on the street. Nobody paid any attention whatsoever! Anonymity is amazing.
I (un)fortunately both reaffirmed old connections and relationships and made new ones. It's good (great) in theory because these are amazing people but it sucks because i was just getting used to going without, and now i'm back to being without.
SUMMARY OF AMERICA:
10. freedom
9. pavement
8. strip malls
7. beer
6. all the food groups
5. sushi
4. friends
3. boys
2. feeling like home
1. instant gratification

20 Jan

USA officially gets a new president today! I'm excited to watch the inaugeration (streaming live all over africa!). It's a bit weird though because I've gone throught this whole election process from the outside. I YouTubed Obama's acceptance speech when i was home for christmas and it was the first time i've ever heard him speak before. His voice is much deeper and more resonant that i had imagined from the photos.
Today is also the second day of school! I'm only teaching 3 classes this year (2 science 1 math) so I'll have time for other projects. Also I'm the one that made teh school's timetable this year, so i personally have an awesome class sched! No classes early morn, after lunch, or on fridays! woo 3 day weekend! So anyways, what will i do with all this free time? I have many plans:
1) Trees! This is a hanously barren country, and the most offensive part is that my school campus doesn't have a single tree, nothing even near! So I'm applying for a small grant to buy shovels/water cans (which will then be used in the agriculture program) and i'm getting 200 seedlings from the ministry of forestry.
2) Scholarships- I'm trying to get scholarships for school fees for a handful of incredible students who can't afford to come to school anymore. [it's US$65 per year to attend school. If ANYONE reading this wants to sponsor one of my kids, I'll send you letters, background, photos, progress reports, whatever you need. It would make such a huge impact, and not in the amorphous "where's my money going" sally-struthers sort of way. If you're interested, email me for more info: rereilly at gmail dot com]
3) Math Club! I'm going to train some of my best students to become tutors, then I'm going to have a one day a week after school math time, where kids can work on their assignments, get help, and play maths games. (I introduced "multiplication bingo" and they're completely obsessed with it! they want to play everyday, and they want to come after school to play! every time i see them they yell "BINGO!" now. they think it's the greatest thing ever)
4) Thaba-Tseka district is holding a Diversity Camp, where 25 students from around the district come in for a day and a half and do life skillz sessions, HIV/AIDS awareness stuff, career workshops, etc. and i'm excited to help out with it.
5) A tome entitled "Survival for the Teacher Who Isn't" (1984) [type-writered, spiral bound] was unearthed from the peace corps technical library, and it's a great, fairly comprehensive resource for pcvs that teach during their service. The maths and science teachers in my group have taken it upon ourselves to overhaul/revamp/bathe in sparkles this book. I'm super excited about this project because it involves one of my favorite activities: writing about teaching + science! Right now madeline and I are in charge of the "methodology/motivation" chapter. Also I'm doing the visual aids portion, and contributing to the classroom games/science labs and demos/ math teaching techniques sections.

Donations to the Poor Mountain Girl Living in a Hut

So, this list is mostly for my mom. But if others want to use the following information in a way that is beneficial to me, i will not complain.

Package Wonders
goldfish crackers/ cheeze-its
pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, pistachios, almonds (tamari roasted!), cashews
dried fruit (mango, apricot, and cranberries are faves but all are good. except prunes, not so into those)
candy (dark chocolate, nerds, skittles, starburst, cookies n cream bars, andes mints, reeses, chewy spree, sour straws, sour patch kids, etc etc etc)
that cheesy soup mix stuff from bear creek or whatever
crystal light or other drink mix (all flavors except orange, all brands except Tang. i can actually get that here.)
salmon/tuna steaks from t. joes
salsa con queso dip
mini whiskey bottles
fun food mixes (just add water type stuff: scone mixes, soup mixes, etc)
other fun trader joesy type foods, or snack type foods
cholula
magazines (make magazine, scientific american, wired, intouch, us weekly)
glitter (fine grain, a range of colors (unmixed))
pencils, pens, erasers, rulers, etc. to give away to my students for being good
new music! data cds are ok because i have access to computers
tv shows (30 rock, coupling, how i met your mother, the office)
new anime (dan i think that one's up to you, unless other readers also enjoy anime....)
movies (any and all, pretty much)
love letters
photos

Slap that Baby, Make him Dance

So, i'm back in country! I'm in the capital now until mid-month, there's a slew of conferences and things i have to attend here before i go back to my hut. Which is good, i'm getting a slow step-down from America. First i went to Durban, in South Africa for 4 days or so. we stayed at an amazing hostel right on the beach about 45mins outside of the city, which was nice. it was just slow and relaxed and i sat on the beach all day. I got off the plane from san diego in johannesberg (about 30 hours of travel time), then hopped on a 7 hour bus to durban, then met some friends at a restaurant there where i changed in the restaurant bathroom, passed off my bags to some friends that were going back to the hostel, and went straight out to a club to go dance, and was up til oh-dark-thirty in the morning. The next day (new years eve) my immune system, after a month of near constant abuse, decided to say fuck you, and shut down.
new years eve i spent on a stool in some club trying to get the energy to dance to like half a song, then going to sit back down, and new years day i woke up with no voice, swollen lungs, and mucus everywhere. i was a wreck. so i stayed as horizontal as possible the next few days, on the beach or in bed in our closet-like room in the hostel. I'm still kind of gross and mucusy but am slowly getting better. unfortunately STUPID M_F-ING METH HEADS have ruined my life here as well. South Africa just made sudafed no longer over-the-counter, so i can't get any decongestant.

Oh! and we had a twilight-zone sort of moment in Durban, we were on a taxi, trying to get to the taxi rank where the long distance taxis are, so we could get back to lesotho and the driver and the conductor of our taxi had never heard of lesotho before! I understand americans not knowing, but them not knowing was like a californian having never heard of nevada. it's totally crazy. So we pulled out a map and showed them the country of lesotho, you know, that country that is encased within their home country of south africa. So they went to the police station to ask them if they'd heard of Lesotho, and how to get there. We were so exasperated. finally we got dropped off where we started, with a refund, and had to try again with a new taxi.

I'm gearing up for a week of different conferences here in the capital. One starts tomorrow, the "all volunteer conference" where all 80-90 volunteers in Lesotho come together to do god knows what (i haven't attended one of these before, so i have no idea what it entails). and I've been asked to emcee! woo! i guess i'm entertaining... unfortunately i'm only funny when in small groups/not on the spot, so i don't know if i'll accept the gig or not. my public speaking skillz are not that great.

So I'm going to start some sort of soccer program with my neighborhood when i go back. I received a very generous donation of three soccerballs from a friend in America, and I'm excited to go back and play! I think I'll keep one at my house, one at Vic's house (her place borders the soccer field) and one at school. oh! and Jason, if you are reading this 1. thanks! and 2. i lost the address for your music server, can you email it to me? rereilly at gmail

It's now time for... quote of the week! this gem comes from Ms. Britney Spears
"Love me, hate me, think what you will about me, but all of the boys and all of the girls are begging to if you seek Amy."
once you puzzle that one through, you will be on step closer to nirvana, and one-ness with the divine essence of the mulitverse.