Sunday, June 7, 2009

lesotho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Howdy homies,
So I’m in Lesotho! It’s fabulous. It’s been much warmer than I had anticipated. Our welcoming was incredible; a group of women who are our teachers sang a song and danced as our van drove into the Training Center. I call it post, the compound and site too if it gets confusing. There are 16 of us total including a married couple in their fifties. The rest of us are 22-30 years old with all the ages being equally dispersed. There might be an extra 22 or 23 year old.
Our training center is in Maseru which is in the LOWLANDS part of the country. There are lowlands, foothills and highlands. I jogged today with another PCT and a PCV and couldn’t handle it. I think the elevation really got to me. I should be fine and will continue to drink a bunch of water and just start working out a little bit at a time. We’ve only been here for 3 days, so I should get used to the elevation soon. Other than that I’ve been great! I’m eating better here than I was at home. They feed us 3 times a day and there is a bowl of fruit and biscuits around most of the time. They are accommodating my vegetarian diet and my host family will too. We start community based training on week 2 which starts on June 15th. I can’t wait to get into a village! But I definitely want to learn some more Sesotho. So far it’s been easy, but I only know how to say “Hi, my name is Emily….thank you….what is your name.” Pronunciation is key.
So yeah, Lesotho is awesome! I won’t be able to take pictures of the city(maseru) for awhile. Actually, I’m not sure when I’ll be able to do that. It’s not good to show you have a camera out in public. There are a lot of rules in order to keep safe. We just learned where we can and cannot walk, who we shouldn’t talk to, and how to safeguard our stuff after shopping. It’s obvious where you shop based on the bags so we are to keep everything in our backpacks. So pictures of the site, the other PCT’s and whatever else I can find will come soon!
Thank you for reading and please tell others to do so as well. I have limited internet access which is difficult to use. We have to stand on a mound of rocks and then try to maneuver the touch pad on our laptops!! But at least we have it right?? 
Khotso, Pula, Nala!
Peace, Rain, Prosperity!

Emily

4 comments:

  1. Lumela Emily!Great to hear from you and you have made it safely!! So glad you have internet access so you can keep us updated on your happenings! Love, mom & daddyo

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  2. i am so happy you are having fun. i will be sending you a letter soon i just have to figure out what to say... apparently you need words to have a letter.... well i got to go to bed soon. good to hear from you!!!!

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  3. Yay! I'm so glad you made it safely and everything is going well. And that you can update your blog! Rest asssured I'll be vicariously living through you for two years. ;) Keep us posted!

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