Training

I know, I’ve been really awful about updating this blog, but I will say in my defense that I do live in rural Africa.

I was told by nearly every RPCV, returned peace corps volunteer, that I spoke to that training was something that you couldn’t really describe and I have to agree.  Training for me was simultaneously one of the most exciting, boring, fun, painful, and ridiculous experiences of my life.  Take twenty adults, throw them into host families, treat them like children by telling them where they can’t go and what they can’t do, but also try and teach them a new language and attempt to give them a decent understanding of education, business, HIV/AIDS, general health, agriculture, and youth development…in 9 weeks.

Yea, it got kinda rough somedays….

My typical day would being at around 5am, when I would crawl out of my bed and turn on the kettle to begin heating my bath water.  I would then go back to sleep for about 45 minutes (the water takes that long to get hot at this altitude and it was waaaay too cold to think of doing anything else).  After getting washed and throwing all my wash water outside, it would be getting close to 6:30.  I would then cook and eat breakfast and then head off to school (which started around 7:30). Luckily for me, school was only a quick walk around my family’s donkey pen and across a soccer field.

We usually had an hour of Sesotho lessons in the morning and then hub would start.  These were the technical training sessions that involved all of us new trainees.  We would convene from our three separate villages into one (conveniently the one I lived in).  Hub sessions usually lasted until around 4pm and let me tell you, although most of the information given to us in those sessions will undoubtedly be helpful at some point in my two years here, I don’t think I’ve ever been so bored in my life.

After “school” was done, I would get together with my village ladies, Amanda and Cassie, and we would cook dinner together.  We’d then head back to our houses and I would generally be asleep by 8.  Sounds really early, but when you’re living by candle light, there’s not a whole lot you feel like doing after the sun has gone down.

The village that I lived in, Ha Taaso, was absolutely amazing.  I learned how to do all sorts of things; bake bread, wash all my clothes by hand, make leshelayshelay (a sorghum porridge), and how to deal with roosters crowing at all hours of the day.  Most of Lesotho is quite rural, with a plethora of goats, sheep, horses, chickens, cows, and dogs running around.  Keep in mind though that these dogs are not kept as pets but as guard animals and are treated as such.

We swore in, after having passed our final language interview on August 7^th.  A few of us, myself included, wore traditional dress known as seshoeshoe.  It was a really beautiful celebration in which our entire village participated.  They even prepared a feast for it!  It was also unfortunately sad since we all knew we were going to be leaving the next day for our brand new villages and totally on our own…