Barack from Lesotho???

So just a funny comment from the South African border gaurd- Barack Obama is apparently from Lesotho. He was born in Mafeteng and is the brother of the border gaurd. AND what's even better is that once he is president no one will need a passport to enter the US. Pretty cool huh?

November 17, 2008 (written by Janeen)

For those of you that don't have facebook and don't already know- We have sad news. Our cat died on his journey to his new home. Since we didn't have a carrier, he travelled in a box. The students also took him when we weren't there so we don't know how they "packaged" him up. He could have died from heat exhaustion, shock or even suffocation. We don't know and of course we played the “what if” game (e.g What if we had taken him to his new home, etc.) and felt guilty. But that of course only makes us feel worse. We are pretty upset about it. We had said our good byes, but we thought he'd live a bit longer. Its sad to think that the kids had to deal with burying him and of course opening up the box to find a dead cat. They also cried as they were burying him. :( The house is definitely lonely without the cat and I see him all over the house now. I guess its good that we are leaving soon. Miss you all!

November 12, 2008 (written by Janeen)

“Parting is such sweet sorrow” This was the quote on the wall today at Jason’s farewell bash. It is actually SO true. We are ready to go home to see friends and family, but it is sad to leave here. Lesotho has been our home for two years. We will miss it!

This week has been a whirlwind of emotions. My school closed today. Schools out for summer! I’m done grading. I’m only left with filling in one set of reports which should be done in no time. In fact I’ll probably finish just after I write this blog.

It has been some time since our last post, and that is mostly because we haven’t had much going on. Things were winding down. I, in fact, was quite bored for a couple weeks. I read a lot, took a nap every day, and played Jason’s game boy. Well those times are long gone. My students wrote their exam a week ago and since then we have been pretty busy.

Last Saturday we went for one last hoorah at Lord Fraser’s guest house in Wepener (our haven in times of needing some good food) with some other PCVs. It’s so unfortunate that they raised their prices. You can no longer get a good steak for 70 Rand ($7-8), it is now R85! I guess they knew that we have to get used to more expensive prices! I bet that Jason and I will think EVERYTHING is expensive when we first get back especially if we convert it into Rand!

On Sunday, my school hosted a launching for the Makaota Development fund. It is for students headed to tertiary education. There were lots of speeches and singing, then some good food. Jason got to witness the cow being slaughtered and got some good shots. I helped prepare the meat with the women by cutting the meat into smaller pieces. They had to stay up late but I wussed out.

I spent almost the whole day on Monday grading papers because I had to proctor exams Tuesday through Thursday… BORING (both the grading and the proctoring). The worst part was that I actually caught a boy cheating. Somehow he had gotten a copy of the test ahead of time, prepared answers, and brought the sheet to the exam room.

Wednesday was my farewell bash. There’s always a ceremony with Basotho, so the students danced, sang, and people gave speeches. It was nice and I truly felt appreciated. I received a Basotho hat and blanket, as well as a shield (for decoration) and a straw mat with several Basotho cultural items attached… you’ll understand when you see it. After the ceremony a bunch of kids wanted to take photos with me. Wearing the blanket and hat, I felt like the prom queen. I guess it helped that all the students were oohing and ahing at me. Any time you wear something cultural they just eat it up. On the days I need a confidence boost, I wear my seshoeshoe and EVERYONE tells me that I am beautiful. I wish there was something like that I could wear back home!

Just today, we went to one of Jason’s schools for his farewell bash. There was of course more singing, dancing and don’t forget the speeches. He also got a blanket and we were both given sandals that have cow hair as the straps. Trust me you will LOVE them. He was also given some other trinkets from his teachers like a straw tray, a coffee mug (written Farewell Jason and Jannel….who is Jannel?!?), and a mat with our names and a map of Lesotho stitched on it.

As we were waving good-bye to all the kids and of course listening to them talk about how great we are, it definitely felt like this is coming to an end. By the way moms, they also thanked you for giving birth to us, so you both got shout outs in our farewell ceremony! We will miss these people and will never forget what great moments we have shared here.

The sweet part of this good-bye though, is that we get to see all of you in just a few short weeks. We are counting down the days! Miss you all and can’t wait to get big hugs!