25

8-8-08
I've been here in Mafeteng for two days now, setting up for my life for the next two years. There have been a few, very short-lived moments of panic, lots of walking and, thanks to Lizzie and Nicole (two PCV's who live in a village just outside Mafeteng), great food.

On Wednesday, my training group was sworn-in as the newest crop of PCV's in Lesotho. Speeches were given by our training director, the PC Country Director, our Associate PC Director, the Ambassador and a representative of Lesotho's Ministry of Health & Social Welfare. Kristan, who scored the highest in our group on the Sesotho test, gave an amazing speech in Sesotho and Kevin gave a great (campaign-worthy) speech in English. After pledging an oath of office (apparently it's the same one the military takes...or so I'm told) we received our signed certificates and officially became Peace Corps Volunteers. My counterpart at PSI, 'M'e Keletso, came to the ceremony, which was really nice as some Volunteers didn't have anyone from their organization there.

After the ceremony was over, it was time to chow down. The cooks out-did themselves and we all ate very well – rice, chicken, sausage, beef, veges, potatoes, papa, pudding and cake! Then, it was time for me to go. I think I'm the only one it my group who didn't stay until Thursday, but I also was one of only two who hadn't moved their things to site. 'M'e Keletso was kind enough to stay with me until Steveo, PSI's driver, showed up to pick up all my things. It's amazing that in two months I've gone from two bags of belongings to having enough stuff to fill up an SUV! 'M'e Keletso lives in Maseru, so she stayed behind, but Lizzie was able to grab a ride with us back to Mafeteng that way, and it was nice to have her company.

PSI once again completely came through and had everything ready for me when I arrived at my house (many Volunteers were missing some of the furniture their host organizations were required to provide). While Steveo unloaded the car my new 'M'e, 'M'e Maphole, showed me around the compound, including my brand-new, personal pit latrine. After my things were unloaded, she took me inside her house (which is like America...microwave, George Forman grill, satellite dish, etc.) and asked about my family back home and what work I was going to do here. She speaks excellent English and is a very sweet woman. She also decided that she wanted to change my Sesotho name. I really liked Neo, but she told me that Ausi Thato (taw-toe) was better for me...supposedly it means “beautiful” in Sesotho (although I've heard from some that that might not be an exact translation). Who can argue with that? :)

I spent Wednesday night unpacking and settling in with the help of my 'M'e's two grandchildren, a 7 year-old girl named Libuseng and an 8 year-old boy named Thuleli (two-ley-de) (she is raising them as both of her children have passed away). Despite asking if they could have my watch, phone and frisbee (because I can “just buy another one”), they weren't in the way too much. I ended the day with my first meal in my new home: Ramen. Guess some things never change.

Yesterday was pretty productive as well, I spent the day finishing unpacking and went into town to buy odds and ends for my place. Ashley, one of my fellow trainees who is living close to Mafeteng, came by to pick up some bedding I had brought from Maseru for her the day before and it was good to see a familiar face. We also saw Nicole and Lizzie in town and they invited me over for dinner. They made an incredible Thai noodle dish and we even had apple pie with ice cream for dessert! It's nice to have a little taste of home now and again.

And that brings me to today. Ashley is coming back into town this afternoon to do some shopping for her house and then spending the night as tomorrow we have our first all-district meeting where we will meet all the PCV's in the Mafeteng district. I'm really excited to get to know everyone here, absorb their wisdom and start my new life here.


8-13-08
Yesterday I celebrated my 25th birthday in Africa. Weird. I do not feel a quarter-century old, that's for sure. The day was both good and hard all at the same time. I started off the morning by running to Shoprite (the grocery store in town) to buy a cake to take to work as I found out at 4 p.m. the day before that it is a tradition in the office for the person celebrating to bring a cake. Of course by the time I discovered I didn't have baking soda or powder, it was after dark, and so I couldn't make anything from scratch. My co-workers sang “Happy Birthday” which was very sweet and then some went out on an outreach while I stayed behind at the office to learn about some record keeping procedures.

At noon I left to meet up with Nicole and Lizzie and we spent the afternoon hanging out and eating “American” food in celebration. I got a few phone calls from friends and family, lots of texts and a birthday card (way to think ahead CoCo!), which really helped me get through the day. I have to admit, though, that it just didn't feel the same as birthdays back home. I suspect it's a combination of being older and being here, but it was a little tough. I've had moments of homesickness since I arrived, and while they can be kind of intense, they usually come and go quickly. This is the first time I really felt, all day, that I was missing something back home. And I imagine that was only the first of many days like that to come.


8-17-08
I've finished my first week of work here in Mafeteng and thought an update was in order before I try to post this. I spent all last week observing, seeing how New Start Mafeteng (what PSI is called in Lesotho) does their work and writing down ideas of how and where I can help.

Monday and Wednesday I went with some of the workers on outreach, which means two educators and two counselor/testers go out of the office and to a site to do HIV counseling and testing, bringing services to the people so that they are more likely to test than if they had to come to the office to do it. Both of the outreaches I went on where at schools, but they also do outreach to villages, special events, etc. to bring services to under-served populations or places where people live too far from town or cannot afford the transport costs to come in and get tested. The outreaches generally go like this:

We start by introducing ourselves...in Sesotho, of course. “Lumela bo-'m'e le bo-ntate. Lebitso la ka ke Ausi Thato. Ke haeso America, empa ke lula Mafeteng. Ke sebesta PSI/New Start. Ke moitaopi oa Peace Corps.” (“Hello ladies and gentleman. My name is Ausi Thato. I am from America, but I live in Mafeteng. I work at PSI/New Start. I am a Peace Corps Volunteer.”) Everyone claps at the funny white girl speaking Sesotho. I sit down. After the rest of the staff introduce themselves, the two educators lead a session where they discuss why it is important to be tested for HIV, what to expect during a counseling and testing session, facts and myths about HIV/AIDS, do condom demos (depending on the age group they don't always do this) and answer questions from the audience about HIV/AIDS. Of course this is all in Sesotho so I can't understand it, but people seem really engaged and ask a lot of questions. And my co-workers are great at translating things for me so I can at least understand what types of questions people are asking.

After the education and Q&A session, the counselor/testers go into private rooms and anyone who would like to be tested for HIV has the opportunity to do so. At both outreaches last week the lines were incredibly long...they couldn't get through everyone so will have to go back to finish testing at a later date. Since the counseling/testing sessions are private, I cannot sit in on one. Generally what happens though is the counselor/tester will as the person who wants to be tested about not only their medical and sexual history, but also about their support network, what they plan to do if they find they are HIV+ and what behaviors they can change and steps they can take to reduce their risk of becoming infected or to keep from infecting others if they are HIV+. After all these questions and discussions, the person must decide if he/she is ready to be tested for HIV. If they are, the counselor/tester will administer the test and then provide any referral information necessary. For example, if the person is HIV+, he/she will be given information about area support groups, nutrition tips and information on a local clinic and doctor where he/she obtain his/her CD4 count (the level of T helper cells in the body...T helper cells are the immune system cells that HIV attacks and destroys) to determine if he/she needs to go on ARV's (drugs that help slow the progression of HIV).

While people are in line to be tested, the educators will play games and sing songs with the children (as I've mentioned before, Basotho are crazy about singing), usually incorporating some kind of healthy living or HIV message. I mostly watched these as I don't know any of the games or songs and when I do participate, the kids gawk. I suppose I'll get used to it, but I'm not really just yet. On the positive side, my sitting out from the games meant that many of the teachers would come up and talk to me. School in Lesotho is taught in English, so the teachers are usually quite eager to practice their language skills. I was surprised by many of the questions I was asked, though. Myths about HIV/AIDS are rampant here and I had to answer some very creative “scenarios.” One I've got more than once is the question about a cure. It seems many people here think a cure exists and that Europe or America won't give it to Africans or that we are lying and saying we don't have it. Generally I explain that people in America have HIV, and die from it, just like in Africa, but that doesn't always seem to convince people. At any rate, the questions gave me the idea to work with some of the PC resource teacher Volunteers (they train Basotho teachers) to have New Start do an outreach with teachers only, to help answer some of these questions and make sure the people who are ultimately giving the students the answers have the correct info. We'll see if I can get it off the ground, but at least it's a place to start.

On Saturday I went with some of the New Start educators to a Kick 4 Life event out in a village about 45 minutes from town. Kick 4 Life is a program that uses soccer to introduce positive living and HIV topics to kids...you know, the old trick them into learning thing. It was the most fun I had all week, which is really impressive given that I'm not huge into sports and I have never played soccer in my life. What impressed me was the incredible amount of enthusiastic participation by the kids. I mean, kids in the states usually just sit around at stuff like this, thinking they are too cool for games or anything that's not a “serious” sport. Hundreds of kids showed up at this village and all of them were laughing, participating and actually able to recite topics that they had learned. After the games and a ceremony for the kids who had completed the program, the coaches (New Start educators and some Kick 4 Life staff that had come from Maseru, along with two local people from the village who had been running the program with the kids for the last six weeks) played a soccer game. They asked me to play but I had to decline since I know nothing more about soccer and have never actually played it. Plus, I think the kids just wanted to laugh at the white girl trying to kick the ball. Instead, I joined the bo-'M'e who were preparing sandwiches for the kids and coaches. While sound may seem boring, and I'm certainly not the domestic type, I enjoyed hanging out with the women and they were very appreciative that I would help them, because it's not something that young people or men (and some how being white here gives you the status of a man) ever do. Some even spoke English, so while the others rattled on in excited Sesotho, they would translate so I could answer their questions. In all seriousness, I really think the women in this country are totally in charge, they just let the bo-Ntate think the opposite. It was a trip!

Besides work, I kept busy this week spending time with Nicole, learning more about Mafeteng and what she's done during her service here. She's been so sweet helping me meet people and keeping me from spending every spare minute alone in my house. On Thursday my counterpart, 'M'e Keletso decided that my hair needed to be braided and proceeded to spend nearly 5 hours putting my hair into tiny braids. Yes, I have a picture. :) I also went to visit Ashley at her site on Saturday night. Her village is beautiful and we even had chocolate cake after dinner! This morning she showed me the clinic where she's working and it seems like a great place where she will really be able to help out a lot.

And here I am, getting ready to go to bed after spending 3 hours taking out all those braids. Yes, I have pictures of that too. I'm looking forward to next week being a little more productive...now that I know generally how things work, I have a list of questions I want to ask and projects I want to look into. Things are off to a slow, but encouraging, start.