FUNDRAISING!

SO, on a different note.

Victoria and I are trying to get an assembly hall-lunch room-library-study area building put up at my high school. My school is only 4 years old, but we're fast becoming one of the best in the nation, the teachers and students are all so dedicated, and they work so hard, i really think a lot of these students will go on to do something great with their lives.

Because my school is so new, they have very little in terms of resources. The entire school consists of 9 classrooms, some outdoor latrines, a lab (with almost no actual lab materials), and a building with a staff room and principal's/secretary's offices. They have to have daily assembly outside, which is really unfortunate in summer because it's always raining, and in winter because it's freezing cold and very windy. They have nowhere to sit and eat lunch, and I'm organizing a library, so about 1000 books will arrive next may, with nowhere to be stored or read. Also fofr the standardized tests they have every year, there is nowhere for the students to take the exams. This building will be great for all of these things (Assembly hall, library, study space, exam hall, lunchroom, etc). An estimate and a sketch are going to be made up soon, which i will post.

The idea was put to me by my host family, my "mom" is chairman of the school board, and her oldest daughter owns a contracting company, and they are very motivated to organize everything, we are getting windows and doors donated, and we will hold fundraisers in town, BUT, this building will cost about $20,000 US, which is waaay more than these villagers that live on 2,400 USD a year can raise. So soon i will begin fundraising in earnest, but for a heads up, anyone who was interested in sponsoring a child (which is still an option) may want to divert their funds to the Hall! A website is being set up that you will be able to donate directly to.

I realize America/ the world is in some sort of "recession" and whatnot, but as poor as you guys feel, you are still incredibly unimaginably rich compared to my students, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc. And this hall will last a long time, and make such a HUGE difference to these kids.

Please tap into your sense of compassion, forego eating out or candy or something superfluous for a little while, and instead give the money to these wonderful kids who have all the odds in the world stacked up against them.

Wah- waah (sad face)

So.... my ipod spontaneously combusted. literally (kind of). i was listening to it in my speakers no prob, and it paused for no reason, so i turned it off, but it was frozen, which happens plenty so i did the magic reset thing. and when it reset it insisted i plug into itunes before it can be normal again. so i plug into itunes, and itunes sez i must "restore" it. which means EVERYTHING will be deleted.

So i get scared, and take it to the IT specialist in the office in the capital. and he uses his linux system to look at it, and it says there are only 1.16 GB of corrupted music. There should have been 60 GB music, 4 GB pictures, and like 10GB of movies....

So i get real sad, have 2 whole beers with lunch, and decide i will restore it. But my ipod decided to get all sassy and won't let any computer restore or reformat or anything! It won't let me move on! So IT specialist has it again for the day. i think he is intrigued by this.

I am just real sad. I'd think, a lot of times while on the bus or travelling around, what if my stuff was stolen, what would i miss the most? it's my ipod. ok. but, i am putting it in a box. i will not dwell.

Other than that, i'm too lazy to tell you the story of the 3 week old cous cous. it's a good one though. In general, i feel like everything is just same old same old, and so i just can't get inspired to write an actual blog post. hence all the photos and lists.

People who are writing me letters are getting good stories in return though. well, good stories is interpretable, they're getting random stories from day to day life. Maybe if you write me a letter (even writing an email, then printing and mailing it to me works well), i will tell you fun stories!


love you all

The Mystery of the 3 Week Old CousCous

Easter, Shmeister. Put it in Your Keister!

Goals for Easter Vacay 2009

1. Climb to the highest point in an area
2. bathe in a waterfall
3. build a badass sandcastle
4. hammock joust
5. find monkeys
A. befriend a monkey
a. trade headband for very powerful ring with said monkey
a.1. convince said monkey to wear said headband
6. Madeline needs to buy jellies and a floppy hat
* Please note: Rebecca would also like a floppy hat



10 Things to Quicken My Heart [Easter]

10. Backflips in the waves
9. midnight full moon shark infested waters of the indian ocean skinny dipping
8. building drip sandcastles
7. drinking with friends
6. sangria
5. foliage
4. cuddling
3. making fires and sitting by them
2. hammocks
1. Brett the helper -- with headband



Highlights [Easter]

1. See previous list
2. food poisoning twice in two weeks (doh!)
3. meeting a former employee of Jaime Oliver
4. burning myself 3 1/2 times on various hot substances/objects
5. Dreaming of a chuck-e-cheese shipwreck
6. Sitting on a couch with jack/brett/mad watching the foliage for 5 hours
7. Creepy assholes harassing/molesting me in my sleep (3 times) (triple doh!)
8. My hair= a fro the whole week
9. Wearing dresses that end above my knees
10. Minimal sunburnage
11. Buying purple tights
12. Road trip with best playlist evar
13. Harassing the attractive bartender into having a dance party, then being unable to attend
14. Not getting eaten by sharks
15. 3 giant friendly dogs adopted us for the day! (we named them jellybean, fetch, and lamp)
16. pineapples (with rum, sometimes)
17. monkeys of indeterminate species
18. untended cows that go for a jaunt to the beach to sunbathe and wade in the shallows

I Can't Imagine Anything Higher Than This

Beaches + Monkeys + Hammocks = Happy Rebecca

and also these cows that like to go on outings to the beach

The Questionable Inner Workings of Youth Today

Questions I've Received Lately
1. What did you eat for breakfast
2. Can i see a person with HIV and AIDS
3. Who is the new president
4. If i have sex with 5 boys in one day, will i get sick or pregnant
5. If i have sex with 5 boys unprepared, will i get sick or pregnant
6. If i have one baby that is 12 months, can i make another
7. Are there people on other planets
8. What do these words mean: admire, fortune, conflict, fakalakabusted
9. When is maths club
10. How old are you/ How many are you in your family
11. Is Eminem your father
12. Is Rihanna your cousin
13. Where are China, Japan, and Brazil
14. What is osmosis
15. If my period is only 3 days do i have a problem
16. By the time you want to be married you should tell me
17. What can i do to make the labia grow longer what is the function of the labia what happens if they are too long
18. What if Mugabe can say he wants to marry you will you agree
19. Are there poor people in America
20. Do you have cows in America
21. If i want to marry the American, what can i do
22. Madam at Ha Matala (a village) at Maseru (district) there was a man who rape the pig why do that man do that to the pig when there are many prostitutes
23. If there are pimples on my genitals do i have a problem
24. If i make unprotected sex with my boyfriend and he tells me a week later that he is HIV positive, will i have HIV
25. How do i factorise
26. Am i at high risk if i make abortion/ will it be wrong if i can make abortion
27. Is oral sex nice? What is it?
28. Madam my brother says he will marry you he is very handsome so what if you can say o.k.

Things I Wonder About
1. Why bees always hang around the pit of my latrine so i'm scared to sit down because they'll sting my butt
2. If kitty AIDS is as prevalent as human AIDS and will parker get it because she's a cat-slut
3. If the real GRE is as easy as the practice problems in my "Cracking the GRE" book
4. If Michelle Obama is dead. A student today asked if she was because they heard she was in a fatal car accident. [Note: it was Zimbabwe's PM's wife who died]
5. If my class discussions about sex, pregnancy, HIV/AIDS are actually helping/educating my students at all
6. Have I become a glorified condom machine?
7. If my new haircut makes me look butch (almost nobody at school noticed, because here everyone's hair is fake and changes dramatically every month or so, so they don't realize it's a big deal for a whitey to lose that much hair)
8. A student gave me a cob of corn in class today. Is this the Lesotho equivalent of giving the teacher an apple?

Madam, You Look So Sharp!

My skool won a debate (topic: should HIV testing be compulsory in Lesotho) and so the next week friday we had no classes and there was a DJ and we made a crap ton of samp (corn based porridgy dish that's SO tasty) and the teachers had to dress in the student uniform, and the students got to dress in private clothes, it was so cute, these kids dressed to the nines. anyway, on with the photos:

The "hip hop boys"

all the ladiez in the kitchen

woo hoo first day of skool!