September 2, 2007 (written by Janeen)

YIPPEE! Today is hot! Ok I bet all you are still experiencing some temps in the 100s, but I am happy to see the warmth of spring and am even excited for summer to come!

Things here are going well. Next weekend we are having a little celebration for Jason’s birthday. It will be a little early, but what can you do when your birthday is on a Tuesday and your closest (geographically) friends live at least an hour or more away via public transport, which means it could be SEVERAL hours away? After the bash, my school is having a pageant and a talent show. We are having this event to raise funds for the 30th anniversary celebration that my school will have on the 6th of October. They think that the king will come to the anniversary celebration and want to make the place look spiffy as well as have some nice eats. SO… we have to raise funds to do so. One fundraiser fizzled, but I think we can try it again. We only raised 60 rand (the equivalent of just less than $10) in a photo taking fundraiser. My guess was that many kids had not budgeted to spend 5 rand on a photo. Many students went home this weekend so maybe they will want to buy a photo for 5 rand this week! On Friday we raised 800 rand by charging students a 2 rand entrance fee to watch a movie. Jason and I suggested this a LONG time ago. We wanted them to buy a projector and pay for the projector by showing movies. NOW that they see a need for it, it sounds like a good idea. This time they just had three TV screens. Maybe they’ll rethink our idea after the 30th celebration. Anyway, so the Miss Tšakholo pageant and talent show will be this Saturday. I think it will go well. I am helping to coordinate it, but the prefects are the ones who are really putting on the show. One class is organizing a raffle too-- all this to raise funds for the 30th celebration. It’s funny to me that they make a big deal over this event, but only left 2 months to plan it---including raising funds! I’m sure things will turn out fine, but will just be busy until then.

So today as I put on a nice, strapless summer dress that Jason bought me for our anniversary, I felt almost naked. The dress comes down to my knees (which haven’t seen much sunlight since maybe May) and exposing my upper chest and arms is just so strange. Anyway, that made me start thinking about the expectations that I had before coming here. Many of my expectations are false and made me laugh at myself a bit.

For example:
I thought that I might want to wear socks with all my shoes because it would be so dirty here…false. (Socks with dress shoes… what was I thinking?!?)
I thought that I would not care about what I look like… false. (My colleagues often dress WAY better than I do. Though there is some truth to this statement. I hardly ever wear make-up and during the winter I didn’t care if anything matched as long as I was warm!)
I thought I would not shave my legs… false. (I just can’t stand the itching AND my legs are pretty hairy even if it is blond!)
I thought that I would gain weight from eating a heavy starch diet… false. (I have actually lost weight and don’t eat the traditional Basotho food every day thus minimizing my starches)
I thought I would be living without electricity and running water… false (though I am not sad that I don’t have to make that sacrifice)
I thought that pit latrines would just be holes in the ground that you have to crouch down over to use the toilet… false (pit latrines actually have a toilet seat)
I thought I would become fluent in Sesotho…false (I teach English, hence I speak English. My Sesotho has probably decreased since training)
I thought I would have to wear dresses and skirts all the time… false (thankfully! We had to wear them in training and I was missing pants)
I thought that I would be teaching the beginning of English language…false (Most of my students have a basic level of English. I just have to improve it and help them understand their reading)
I’m sure there are more expectations I had that turned out to be false, but those are all I can think of right now.