Our Vacation

July 28, 2007 (written by Jason)

Greetings to all my peeps out in the world. So we are back in our home country of Lesotho after such an amazing, amazing time in the beautiful island nation of Mauritius. It is an amazing place that very few Americans ever get to experience because of the location. However if you ever have a chance to get to Africa and want to spend some time unwinding from that ever stressful Safari, Mauritius is the place to do it.

First off, the island is goregous. I mean seriously all you have to do to see what I am talking about is look at Google Images and type in Mauritius. The place is like something out of a story book. The green mountains jut out of the endless fields of sugarcane and end in the bluest water that I may have ever seen. Then with the beautiful environment came a hotel that felt like we were in the Taj Mahal after being at our site for nearly 8 months now. On top of all this the people of the island were nice and helpful in nearly every way. They made us feel safe and protected and above all relaxed.

But the vacation was not the only exciting thing to go on for us. As many of you know Harry Potter 7 hit the shelves on the 21st of July. I was the 5th person to purchase the book at the Mauritius Airport and I finished it in under 2 days. I won't say anything else to ruin it for those who haven't read it (unlike the NY Times), but it was a great book. Well done Ms. Rowling, well done.

Well that is pretty much it for us right now. School starts back up on the 1st of August and that will keep us pretty busy until my parents and siblings visit at the end of September. I am super excited about their coming and can't wait to see them. Keep letters and e-mails coming as we really miss all of you right now. We love you!
All the best
Jason

July 11, 2007 (written by Jason)

Hello friends out there in the world. We are coming from you live t-minus 3 days until our island vacation. We are so excited about getting away for a few days that it has been hard to focus on anything else as of late. However we are getting some stuff done. Janeen finished all her reports, early, at that. She also has finished the leveling which she has talked about in other blogs. It is kind of a strange practice but the people here really enjoy knowing how they compare to eachother I guess.

I have been keeping busy too. Today I was involved in a panel discussion with the new volunteers where we talked about the diversity of Peace Corps here in Lesotho. We talked about odd cultural interactions and the funny and sometimes ridiculous situations that go on here. All in all the PCT's said that it was the best training that they had so far. And as an added perk I got to have a nice lunch paid for by Peace Corps.
So I am waiting for my wife to arrive tomorrow so that we can spend a few days with friends before heading out to Jo'Burg. We hope that you are all enjoying your summers. We have heard it is hot but I hope that you are happy.
All the best
Jason

July 4, 2007 (written by Janeen)

Lumelang and Happy 4^th of July! It has been quite some time since I have written a blog. Jason has been to Maseru one more time than me and we were having problems with our internet connection here at school. My school just got internet. They already had the idea in their heads and then they saw our phone and access and decided to go ahead with it. We are actually using their Bluetooth connector right now with our air time. Another funny thing is that here you pre-pay for electricity. Each house has a box, but you have to buy it in town. So, the school was out of electricity, and we couldn’t use the computer there & now one is in our living room! ;) It feels strange having a computer in my home!

Anyway, I am proud to say that I finished grading my 200 exams today. It is such a relief! Now all I am left with are the reports and they should not be too bad. I was lucky to have help grading from our visitors. We have a few friends staying with us right now. The initial intent was to work on generating some curriculum that integrates HIV/AIDS education into our English lessons this week. We have done some of that, but not too much (because I still have been grading). We are planning to continue working tomorrow and the next day.

So there won’t be any fireworks for us tonight, but we do have some decorations thanks to our friend Bari. She sent flag socks; flag pinwheels; red, white, & blue star necklaces; and a sign. There are six of us celebrating together. We are going to BBQ some chicken and hang out.

Well, not much else is going on. It is nice having a break from teaching. I am really looking forward to getting out of the cold and going to Mauritius! :) We send our love & miss you all so much!

Love,
Janeen

July 4th, 2007 (written by Jason)

Hello to all of you back home and happy 4th of July. We are at home enjoying the holiday with a few friends from here. We are also enjoying a reprieve from the cold streak of last week. We didn't really talk about it but we got a nice snow storm at our house. We had 3-4" of snow on our anniversary (June 27th) which was kind of strange. We figured that it might be the last time that we have snow on our anniversary unless of course it snows again next year.

As I am typing this Janeen has just wrapped up her final composition and is finished with her marking for the 2nd quarter. WOO HOO! It is really a big achievement as she had 204 to mark. That is a whole lot of reading as you all may know. She is still finding time though to respond to the many letters we have received lately. Good job and keep it up.

We hope that you all enjoy a great day of barbecue and weeny roasts. Have a few extra burgers for us and let us know what your favorite toppings are? Don't forget that comments and e-mails are really appreciated as well as the traditional snail mail. All the best,
Jason