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