On to the next leg of PC life...

Hey hey,

So I thought you all might be interested to know about where exactly i'll be for the next two years...I was certainly excited. I've had about enough of living out of my suitcase with only half of the stuff that I brought to country!!! ANyway, they told us our assignments on Wednesday, a few days ago and we were all happy. (Well, for the most part...)

Anyway, I'll be in Leribe district which is in the northwestern part of Lesotho (very near the South African city of Ficksburg, which is awesome) in a small village just south of the camptown Pitseng. If [and I say IF because it's definitely not an easy task] you find a large map of Lesotho, look it up and check it out. I'll be working with a Disabled group...I have no idea what exactly I'll be doing, but I will find out soon enough! The kid that I'm replacing is actually extending his service for a couple months, so I will overlap with him for one month. This is really beneficial because he has been there for the past two years and he can show me the ropes and tell me where to go and get things and what works and share good ideas and what not... Most volunteers COS (close of service) before the new volunteer takes over their site, which is ridiculous on the PC's part because HOW IN THE WORLD ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE SURE PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS ARE SUSTAINABLE if you don't know what you're walking into??? Like some other trainees won't even MEET the people they're replacing...In other words, I'm lucky!

So we meet our supervisors and possibly counterparts tomorrow morning and shortly after start the chaotic MOVE to our new homes...which let me give you a picture: I have my suitcase and groceries in the kitchen at the training center, my basins and buckets and mop and pots outside on the front porch somewhere, my hiking pack still full of stuff that i haven't used in the past two months in our shared bunk room as well as toothbrushes and shoes and towels and clothes and electronic charger things and chocolate bars in and around my own bunkbed.... and that's just MY stuff. There are 19 other trainees who are in the same boat... Hmmm. Maybe I'll take some pictures to prove this... Forreal chaos that won't be fun. But i'm happy to finally have all my stuff in one place and finally get to do WORK here!!

Let me just tell you. I already have some weird and Only in Africa stories and I only just moved out of the village yesterday, only to move into a new one tomorrow. Stories about dog fights and cows and farts and guard rails (or lack of guard rails) and dongas and bicycles!!! and weird squash-like vegetables called mokopus... These have been our normal topics of conversation for the 5 of us that lived in Mokhethoaneng for the past 6 weeks, so trust me when I get home... I will be overwhelmed by not having these "normal" conversations i'm sure...

Hope you have enjoyed your summer so far...oh that reminds me we had a weird storm last week with really strong gusts of wind and sleet and rain and i honestly was scared for a few minutes that my tin roof was going to fly off my room!!! Over that! Now looking forward to warmer weather!!!

Kbye<3 Am

XOXOX to everyone!