St. Patricks Weekend

March 14th, 2008 (Written by Janeen)
Jason just passed over the computer to me to write a blog. So mine will appear first. :) I have a funny story for you all:

This week I have been on duty which means that I am out patrolling the campus at 7 am while the students should be studying. They are in the midst of writing their quarter one exams (which means I have A LOT of grading to do— 290 literature essays, 180 compositions on a variety of topics- one of which is the time I visited the traditional doctor, 180 grammar and reading comprehension papers… anyone jealous??? Now back to the story…). So, all the students are in the hall for study time.

Anyway, yesterday morning our cat (Tau) did not stroll in at 6 am like he normally does after his night of gallivanting. I was a bit concerned, but was just hoping he would show up. I went out for duty and had just gotten the students settled down in the hall reading their notes when all of a sudden I hear screaming and see a bunch of students running out of the hall. I asked them what was going on and could not think of what would make them so upset. They didn’t hear me so I had to yell and finally was told, “Madam, a cat.” Knowing it was my cat, I ran in the hall and tried to find where he was. Students were jumping on top of their desks, others were screaming, and yet others were chasing our cat. Finally he broke loose and was able to run outside of the hall. He ran along some of the classes. I was running after him mainly to get the students away, but the students were also running after him. So I stopped and yelled at the kids that it was my cat and that they needed to go back inside the hall. Unfortunately there were already 2 classes outside picking up trash and I only stopped a few students when I yelled at them to get back in the hall. So they were all running after our poor cat and some students even went to the extent of trying to stone him. I’m not sure what happened, but he somehow managed to get away from the chasing students.

Here is my morning announcement at assembly, “I am sure you are all aware that it was my cat that caused the chaos this morning and I apologize for the disruption. However, my cat has now gone missing because you all scared him away. If you see him, please leave him alone. He is five times smaller than you, so you should not be afraid of him.”

A few hours later Tau came home somewhat safely. The pads on his paws have been torn and his nails have been filed down to a nub. But he is back and I am sure he won’t be making any more surprise visits to the hall. Jason thought that Tau had heard my voice on the other side of the hall and thought that going through the hall would be the shortest way to me. I am also not quite sure why the students were so upset over a cat. Maybe they were just surprised and once they started screaming it was infectious.

Anyway, once it was all over, I thought it was quite comical and thought you would enjoy it. I better get back to grading. Love and miss you all!

March 14th, 2008 (Written by Jason)

So it is 3:48 a.m. and I can’t sleep so I decided to get up and do some work. It is not that uncommon for me to wake up in the wee hours of the morning because we go to bed relatively early here. Our normal time to go to sleep I would have to say is probably close to 9:00 p.m. It is actually kind of nice to be up this early. Things here can get pretty hectic with all the students coming and going from the house. I like the early morning. I call it my thinking/brainstorming time. If you ever want to clear your mind and be able to brain storm try and wake up early as possible when it is quiet. You will be amazed at the thoughts that run through your head. It is kind of fun.

This week has been a good one. Not doing a lot at the schools right now because of Moshoeshoe’s day (the founder of the Basotho nation and therefore a national holiday) and the end of the first quarter. But just because I am not doing a lot at my schools doesn’t mean a lot of stuff is going on. On Tuesday (Moshoeshoe’s Day) we went up to my school, Phechela Primary for school singing and athletics competitions. Basotho people don’t have a lot to celebrate so when they have something, they cut loose. It was fun watching the children and adults get really into the athletics competitions. There was dancing and singing whenever their school came in a placing position. Often times a whole herd of students and adults would rush out to congratulate their champion.

Because a lot is not going on at school, I have been in the capital a lot recently doing all kinds of stuff for the advancement of my assignment and the advancement of Peace Corps. As I wrote last week, a newly formed committee and myself partnered together to clean the transit house for volunteers in the capital. It was a lot of work but we felt really good about the progress we made and it actually feels like a place that you would want to stay now.

Janeen and I are in Maseru together for the first time in a long time to have a weekend in the city. We are going to go to a party at the Lesotho Sun tonight for St. Patrick’s Day which should be fun. We are then going to hang out over the weekend catching up on blogs (hence this thing) and responding to e-mails and other business. Then on Monday we will be attending the Irish Ambassadors Reception for St. Patrick’s Day. It is their biggest party of the year and we have heard that the King is likely to be there so if he is we will try and snap a few photos with him. I have heard that he is very kind but a little shy. Hopefully we will see.

Then after the party Janeen will return home to continue marking as I stay in the capital for a few more days. I am working with another committee to build a Wiki for volunteers in the Southern Africa region. I don’t know if any of you have tried to build a web-page before, but getting it to look and feel right is a huge task. It is made even more so when you have the internet connection that we do here. Now don’t get me wrong I am glad to have it. We are very fortunate to have the internet at all but it is a huge change from home. I was talking to a friend the other day who said that he was getting 15 mbps (megabytes per second) that is like getting a 5 mb song in a 1/3 of a second. FAST!! Here we are getting just about 80 kbps. Do you remember the days of 56 kbps modems? Yeah we are just barely above that speed. So think about that when you are asking me for photos (which are 3 to 6 mb) and movies. I will hopefully get some posted but that is just because I will have 2 full days on the computers.

Well that just about does it. I would love to hear from any of you. I know you are probably loving the spring weather after what sounded like a cold and rainy/ snowy winter. Yesterday was the first day it felt like autumn was coming. I am not ready for the cold again. Oh well. I will live.
All the best
Jason

Back in the city

March 6th, 2008 (written by Jason)

So I know what you are thinking. Why isn't Jason ever with his wife? When he is writting these long boring blogs what is his wife doing? Well the short answer is that she is BUSY! She, as many of you know, is teaching a lot this year. 28 teaching hours which means that she is doing a full time job with a part time job on the side (marking papers).

But what does this have to do with why I am here? Well the answer is I am working on secondary and tertiary projects. This week, we are in the process of cleaning and reorganizing the volunteer transit house. This is the place that volunteers stay when they are in the capital. I was nominated to be the chairperson of this committee. We are busy painting and cleaning to make the house as nice as possible for all volunteers who stay there.

I am doing this mainly because lately my teachers have been less interested in working with me. This is not a bad thing because I am seeing really positive results in how they act and behave. It is really inspiring to see teachers that last year thought a text-book was something for the kids to use only to revise with. Now they are using them intelligently and consistently which is a remarkable change.

I have been doing some primary project stuff though too. Last week we (me and 2 other volunteers) held 3 workshops in different villages on using manipulatives in for teaching math. It went really well though there was still some feedback that the food provided was inadequate. Oh well you can't win them all.

As for now though I need to cut this short. Thanks for all the recent e-mails and what not. We love you more than we can say.
All the best,
Jason