February Pen Pal Letter

Lumela Mr. Diersen, Mrs. Sparling and students!

I'm glad to hear from you all! I hope everyone had a great holidays! It is wonderful you are able to read my blog and keep up with what I have going on here.

The playgrounds were delivered about two weeks ago but still haven't been installed. The schools need to secure the equipment into the ground before the children can play on them, but they are saying they don't have any money to pay for concrete or stakes. 'M'e Blossom, who works for the Ministry of Education and whom I'm working with to get the playgrounds installed, and I are trying to find some solutions, but it may be a month or two before all four are ready for children to play on. One of the big problems is that ECCD teachers (preschool teachers) in Lesotho are not paid by the government, they collect school fees paid by their students' parents. Before the teachers can take their pay, they must deduct expenses like rent for the school building and supplies and food for the students. Often, parents do not pay the school fees but many of the teachers will keep the children on anyway. This means the teachers end up with very little money for both school improvement and their own expenses. Lesotho is in the process of including ECCD schools into the government system, but this is going to take years.

Turkey was wonderful! The pictures just don't do it justice, the architecture and mosques are beautiful. Istanbul is hard for me to describe, but it is a very interesting city unlike any place I've ever been before. The people were friendly and in the tourist areas I was fine getting along speaking English. Thankfully my friend Josh speaks Turkish so most of the time he communicated for me. The dog stayed in the area when we left on the ferry. There are many stray dogs and cats in Istanbul, and apparently the city tags them but then generally leaves them alone. She seemed very healthy and friendly so I'm sure she is continuing to help guide visitors up to the castle! :)

It is still summer here, in the 80s and sometimes low 90s, but I can tell it will come to an end soon. As I live in the lowlands it stays warm here longer than in the mountains, but it will start cooling off in March and the cold will be here in force by May. I'm not looking forward to winter but am ready for it to be fall; the hot weather gets really old when there is no air conditioning and you have to walk everywhere! The rain was late this year, but now it is raining every few days making Lesotho very green and beautiful. I agree, it looks so nice right now.

I will be celebrating St. Patrick's Day with other PCVs but Lesotho doesn't celebrate that holiday. On March 11 Basotho will celebrate Moshoeshoe's (Ma-shway-shway's) Day. This holiday honors the first king of Lesotho. Easter is a national holiday in Lesotho and businesses and government offices are closed on Good Friday and the Monday after Easter. The holiday is celebrated similarly to in the U.S.A.

I am really glad to hear the basketball teams are playing well! Are either going on to the state tournament? Unfortunately I did not get to see the Super Bowl. I did miss the food and commercials! American football is not popular here so the game was only shown on American cable channels, which most Basotho who can afford a satellite dish don't subscribe to. Basotho love soccer, which is called football here. The bo-ntate gather every weekend to watch matches held all over the world.

I actually just saw Anna today for the first time in a few months. She is living with her mother in her village, Thabana Morena, and seems to be doing well. Her finger is still healing but it no longer bandaged. She is back in school and seems happy and healthy. Another PCV and I are still hoping to get her some assistance with school uniforms, clothing and food but the process is hard and slow here.

I have found some candy here that I like, mostly chocolate, but I have to be careful not to eat too much! There aren't really candies like Starburst or Skittles here but I've also had to be careful about asking for too much of that from home as well. Now that it is summer there are many fruits available, including peaches, tangerines and mangoes, which I really enjoy. It is sad that they are only available a few months a year!

It is hard to say exactly how much time I have left in Peace Corps. I can COS (close of service), meaning I've finished my service and can receive all the benefits of being a RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer), as early as May 2010. I can also stay as long as September 2010 without extending my service into a third year. When I COS will just depend on what projects I have going on and when they finish up. I will have a better idea of this in November or so.

People here are very excited about our new president and have been talking a lot about him ever since the elections. Many people in Africa would like him to fix the problems here, so most of my conversations have been about realistic expectations and also explaining how our government works. Since the inauguration I've been hearing less about Obama, but I think many Basotho are watching our country very carefully to see how things change under his leadership.

It was good to hear from you all again and I look forward to your next letter soon! I am leaving for vacation in a few days as a friend from Iowa is coming to visit and we're spending some time in Cape Town, Lesotho and Mozambique. I will be able to tell you all about it in my next letter!

Take care and I hope the cold Iowa winter ends a bit sooner than the groundhog predicted!

Khotso! (Peace)
Kelly