Day 27-Ty and Blue Mountain

Erika moved her flight up to spend a few days in the city with family friends before flying home so she left this morning for Joburg. But not before getting up super early Saturday morning to make her delicious bran muffins and bread for us. She also made some for her family friends and the driver taking her to the airport because she is the sweetest person ever. I’ll miss her lots!!

Melissa and I got dressed and called a taxi to take us to TY, I had planned to show her the weavers and may be go to Kome caves (some traditional homes built into the mountainside). We didn’t make it to the caves but we went to the weavers and got the full tour. Then we had lunch at Blue Mountain Inn. Randomly we bumped into Meagan who was having lunch there also with Peace Corp friends! It was really pretty so we sat outside and had pizza. I had forgotten that it was the last Saturday of the month when the Basotho Hat (a tourist shop downtown) has their monthly cultural fair. We were told it closed at 5pm so we took a cab back to Maseru right after lunch hoping to get there before it ended. We got there at 4pm but unfortunately they had already closed for the day. We came back to the Cottage, watched a movie and were lazy the rest of the evening:)

Day 26-Queen II and Baby Shower

I had a really awesome day today! The driver dropped me off at Queen II and then took Lina to the airport because she left today. I spent the morning at Queen II to get some input from the nutrition assistants, moms, caregivers, and children about what they would like to see happen at the hospital as far as play therapy. Everyone was very supportive and had good ideas about games, toys, etc. When I asked if there were any traditional Lesotho songs or stories, one of the little girls started telling a story called “Tselane and her mother” (apparently a very popular children’s story here, which sounded very similar to Little Red Riding Hood). When she started the story, parents and children came and gathered around to listen. It was so amazing to see people coming together like that! Another woman told a story and my favorite little girl in the ward, Kenuene, sang songs.
I went back to the clinic for the afternoon. Down in the break room, some of the staff were preparing food for the baby shower because two of the local doctors, Mme Mamello and another doctor, are pregnant! A bunch of the ladies got dressed up in shoeshoe (the traditional Sotho dresses) and around 4pm everyone went outside. After a song and prayer, the psychologist, Mme Lebo, had made up some baby shower games they played and then presented the two doctors with baby gifts. Afterwards there was a whole table of delicious sandwiches and cakes. It was really sweet!
Erika got home late in the evening from Thaba Seka and it was her last night in Lesotho:( We heated up leftovers and Erika, Melissa, and I spent the evening talking about her trip, gossiping, and laughing. It was a really good end to the week.

Ladies in traditional Sotho dresses


















They made Dr. Lindy stand in front:)


















Expectant mommies


















So precious


















Mme Lebo























I loved her tulip skirt!























Giving a speech


















Presenting the gifts


















Happy moms


















Party food

Day 24-New scholar, shopping, Bar One, and Regal

A new scholar arrived Wednesday morning. Her name is Melissa and she is a 2nd year resident at Baylor so she knows my dad! They hadn’t told us before that anyone else would be coming, so I was really excited that I wouldn’t be alone in the cottage for the next week and a half! She’s so nice and we get along really well.
I worked at the clinic for the morning and in the afternoon I went with Lina to downtown Maseru. She wanted to do some shopping so we walked to an area behind the main road where there are a lot of street vendors and little shops. She bought a few scarves and I checked out the Basotho blankets. We stopped at Lancer’s Inn after shopping and ate a piece of their famous Bar One cake. Everyone here raves about this chocolate cake being so delicious, but I think it’s mainly people who’ve been here a while and just missing food from back in the States! It was good but not the best I’ve ever had.
In the evening, we met up with Melissa and Erika at PnP for grocery shopping, and then went for dinner at an Indian restaurant called Regal. We drank wine, at good Indian food, and got to know each other. It was a fun evening!

Day 23-Kadi's Last Day

Today was Kadi's last day in Lesotho, it was so sad she had to leave. Last week we discovered that Me Mamello has the most amazing singing voice and she did the morning prayer so it was a really nice way to say good-bye. (I tried a million times to load the video of it but I think it’s too big) We'll miss you Kadi!!

Day 21-Church

Funniest video of the little kids.

Day 20-TY and the weavers, Cultural Fair, and Movie Night

On Saturday we were planning to go to TY, a town about an hour away known for their weavers who make really amazing tapestries and bags. We got picked up at 8:30am and stopped at four different weaver’s shops and everyone bought souvenirs and gifts for friends and family. Afterwards we drove back and went to the Cultural Fair in downtown Maseru. The fair was being held at Pioneer Mall and they were selling jewelry, Basotho hats, shoes, bags, and pastel artwork. So we did even more shopping! That evening Kadi, Erika, and I went over to the Baylor house with brownie mix to hang out with Meagan and a couple of her Peace Corp friends. We ordered pizza, made brownies, and watched a movie. Meagan and her friends have all been in Lesotho for two years so I think they were missing things like having a girl’s night!

Brushing sheep's wool


















Spinning wool into string























Dyed yarn


















Pretty weaving, this was our third stop


















Meagan, Kadi, and Peace Corp friends

Day 18-Laundry

Desperation was setting in at the Baylor Cottage. Our washing machine was taken away a week and a half ago. Therefore it has been nearly three weeks since I have washed my clothes and I was down to my last pair of underwear! Erika had already decided to try washing clothes by hand and rubbed some nasty blisters on her hands in the process. Kadi and I had avoided that route but by Thursday, Kadi finally broke down and decided to go to the Baylor House to do laundry. I had planned to go with her but when I saw the massive amount of laundry Kadi had, I didn’t think there was any way both of us would be able to get all our washing down in one day! Jenny had also told us that the washing machine at Baylor house will wash the clothes, but leaves them sopping wet. So it’s basically like washing all your clothes by hand anyway! It was very lucky that I didn’t end up going with her because Kadi locking herself out of the house and spent the whole day wringing out her laundry by hand. I ended up washing clothes by hand in the bathroom sink later that night.

Day 16 and 17

Tuesday I spent the morning working at Queen II. At 3pm Kadi and I went back to Malealea to pick up Erika. She had spent the night at the teen camp and worked all day with the boys pick axing the new road! She had many new blisters (in addition to the ones she had acquired doing laundry on Sunday) and was very exhausted when we picked her up. But luckily the driver, Tlati, got us home very quickly! Wednesday I spent the day at Baylor doing nutrition research.

Day 14

My first real day on the Nutrition Project and I was kinda on my own. Jaime or Akash are the doctors I would normally be with working at Queen II but both of them were out of town this week so Smita was the doctor in charge (but she's never worked at Queen II before so I tried to stay out of the way). I spent the morning with the NA on duty, Me Mokamohelo. She was really nice and together we cleaned out the cabinets in the NA kitchen where there were toys and games that hadn't been used in a while. I have no idea how I managed to suppress my manic fear of roaches because EVERYTHING was covered in them!!! It was really disgusting but I did survive (mainly because Me Mokamohelo did most of the cleaning and I helped sort everything!). Then I took an inventory of all the toys and games in the NA kitchen and the unused playroom next door. After lunch I went back to Baylor and did research on malnutrition and play therapy for the rest of the afternoon.

Day 13-Hamamochochoko Mohalalitoe

We made it for the church service this week at the children’s home, Hamamochochoko Mohalalitoe. In English it’s called the Ensure Salvation Children’s Home but we learned last week that when you tell this to the cab drivers they have no idea what you are talking about. So yes it took a while but I do know how to say the Sesotho name correctly in order to get picked up at the right place! The kids were excited to have us visit again. I was walking around with some of the toddlers singing the ABCs song and “If You’re Happy and You Know It”. Really cute because they don’t actually speak much English so they just kinda say the words and don’t really know what they mean! Afterwards we took a cab to the mall and had lunch at this restaurant called Renaissance (really good food!) with one of the Peace Corp volunteers, Tam, who Erika is going to spend a few days with “roughing it” in Thaba Seka. It’s a much more rural town, you carry your own water from the pump, no electricity, and therefore no heat in the freezing cold of winter…so yeah I think I’m just fine with the Baylor Cottage! But it was interesting to hear what she’s been working on for two years and what her village is like.

Little toddlers sleeping during church

Dancing after the church service, they were really good!

More dancing

Older girls hanging out

Stealing my camera to take pictures of each other

Day 12-Malealea and SOS Teen Camp

Malealea is a town about two hours from Maseru up in the mountains. One of the drivers, Jef, picked us up at 7:30am and drove us there. I had brought a book to read in the car but quickly realized that that definitely wasn’t a good idea once we were off the main road and driving up steep, rocky terrain! We got to Malealea around 9:30am and were planning to do the pony trekking. However the SOS orphanage across the road from the Baylor Clinic was having a teen camp in Malealea for two weeks so we decided to go visit with the kids first. One of the camp leaders picked us up and drove us to where the boys were building a road to connect the main road to the camp. The boys eyed us very suspiciously when we offered to help and it was probably with good reason because Kadi and I only lasted about 20 min using the pick axes! The manual labor was much harder than it looked, but fortunately they were finishing and heading back to camp to eat breakfast. We went along and said met some of the teen girls, and then the driver took us back for our two hour pony trek. The trail through the mountains and small villages was amazing!

Kadi using the pick ax










Dog at Malealea Lodge that kinda looked like Bailey (this is for you Mackenzie!)











Kadi with the peacocks at Malealea Lodge











Erika dumping the wheelbarrow at the road building site











Erika on her pony











Little boy leading my horse to the trail














My pony














Trekking











More trekking












We took a stop and this was the view











Everyone had to take a turn pretending to jump off the edge of the cliff










Erika jumping














Kadi jumping














I really liked these round houses, they look so much warmer than the Cottage!










Giant aloe vera











Girls at teen camp












Helping wash dishes











Cutting up tripe...unlike Erika and I's thinking this is NOT a type of fish!











Erika got some tripe to go...I had no intention of going near it but I decided to be very adventurous and try a bite! The spices were really good but I wasn't crazy about the chewy texture.

Day 11

Spent the day at Baylor doing research for the Nutrition Project. In the evening we went to the grocery store, made dinner at the Cottage, and watched Pride and Prejudice (thanks to Olivia for the DVDs:). Had to go to bed early because in the morning we were getting up to go to Malealea!

Day 10-Queen II and New Project!

Queen II
Queen Elizabeth II is the national hospital of Lesotho. It’s a very different experience from working at the Baylor Clinic and I don’t think I’ll ever forget my first day there. Many people had told me about the conditions at Queen II: roaches running all over the walls, small, dirty rooms crammed with many beds, everything is constantly in short supply-doctors, nurses, space, and especially medical supplies. Even with all the forewarnings it was still a very shocking to experience Queen II firsthand where things were exactly as I had heard them described. The first morning was rough and it was definitely an eye-opening experience to see what the only government run hospital in a poor third world country looks like. It took some getting used to and it’s still not easy to watch some of the sickest children in the world dying of AIDS in those hospital beds, but there are some wonderful stories of children who are recovering from malnutrition, TB, and many other preventable diseases. I spent the day shadowing Jaime and she was really great helping me get to know the hospital and brainstorming ideas for the project I hope to work on there.
Nutrition/Play Therapy Project
I plan to spend the next four weeks at Queen II getting a new project underway in the Children’s Medical Ward. The project focuses on the Nutrition Assistants, NAs, whose job is to provide formula night and day for the babies in the malnutrition ward. The NA job description also calls for them to ensure that the children are meeting developmental and social goals (especially important for malnourished babies), though that part of the job has fallen by the wayside. I’m hoping with this project to provide training in developmental intervention and play therapy so that the Nutrition Assistants can provide better care for these sick children.

Fat Cakes

I bought fat cakes today after lunch from the fat cake lady who sells food on the road outside of the clinic. Fat cakes are basically balls of fried dough and they taste delicious eaten with a little honey.

Day 9

Worked on Dosing Syringe Project in the morning. At lunchtime, Lina and I went to see the Fat Cake Lady and she had made lunch for us! The lunch-beef stew with potatos, papa (it’s similar to grits or mashed potatoes and eaten with every meal here), and spinach (like collards)-was amazing. Most delicious meal and there was a ton of food leftover. We brought her some of the food back and she was already planning another meal for us next week. Such a nice lady!

Day 8

It was so hard to get up in the morning after a late night watching the World Cup and just baaarely made it to work on time! I spent the morning working on the Dosing Syringe Project with Lina. The purpose of the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of these clips attached to the syringe that allow the exact dosage to be drawn up rather than the caregiver having to measure the medicine. We marked 70 patients on one of the ARV medications, Kaletra, for evaluation. Still working on the details but we got two patients evaluated today. Erika and I will meet with Dr. Smita tomorrow to discuss the database project and a possible outreach trip this Sunday to Qachas (I’ve been practicing but I’m still not exactly sure how to say this name…there is some very complex tongue clicking involved!).
I came back to the Cottage for dinner. Then read a book, showered, and bed. It got much colder over the weekend so by the time the sun goes down at 5:45pm, all I want to do is curl up in front of the propane heater under a giant blanket with two pairs of socks on…which is exactly what I did!

Day 7

Fruit and Veg
Kadi, Erika, and I woke up early Sunday morning and went to Fruit and Veg (the Lesotho version of Whole Foods). We bought trail mix and fresh juice and then walked several blocks to Pioneer Mall.




Life’s Comfort Solutions
Kadi really wanted to buy jerseys from this store in the mall called Life’s Comfort Solutions. They also sell traditional Basotho blankets which only cost R 90-150 so I definitely want to go back and buy one. Unfortunately they didn’t have the jerseys Kadi wanted but we ended up buying something better-an official Fifa soccer ball to take to the orphanage!


Orphanage
From the mall we took a cab to the orphanage where the children-led church service was just ending. As soon as we walked in, little children ran up to us and wanted to sit in our laps. We sang songs and the leader presented our soccer ball to the kids. The kids loved the ball and were really excited to go outside after church and play! The little ones were really entertained when I took videos of them and played them back on my camera for them. We kicked an old soccer ball around with several kids before Kadi took a taxi back. Then Erika got her nails painted at the local salon where the older girls get their hair done. We played with the little children for another hour before taking a cab back.


Spain vs. Netherlands
We went to the Maseru Sun Hotel to watch the World Cup Final where they projected the game on a big screen. It was packed when we got there and people were going craazyyy, mostly for Spain so we had to cheer for the Netherlands! Erika even decided to be really festive and wear my orange loofa in her hair. So attractive! They lost and I thought I was going to have some permanent hearing damage from all of the vuvuzelas. But it was so exciting to know we were only four hours away from Johannesburg where everything was happening!

Best day so far:)