A NEW JOB FOR JASON! (by Janeen)

The good news is that Jason has a JOB! After a few months of waiting and several interivews, he was offered two jobs in two days! He accepted the offer at Robert Half International and started today. Yipee! He enjoyed his last week of unemployment, except that this past week felt different than the 4 months prior because it felt more like a vacation! :)

He is working in the City of Industry. We've started the house hunt, but it's not as much fun as I thought it'd be. There is so much to think about (like being near a freeway, railroad, ugly power poles, good schools, the price of the house, the size of the house, whethere there is a good sized back yard...apparently people like concrete and swimming pools better than grass, etc.) The good thing is that the current commute isn't bad. It only took him 15 minutes to get there this morning. :) So we'll probably stay here at grandpa's for a while, save up some money and find a good house/neighborhood.

So here is how our last week went. Friday- new job for Jason, Monday- new dog, Tuesday- new car. The dog was an accident. We went "looking" without the intent to buy and fell in love. Our new addition is named Ntja (which means dog in Sesotho) and she is a Queensland Heeler Mix. The car was on purpose. Now that Jason has a full time job, we needed a second car, an unfortunate reality of living in LA. Our friend Brad helped us out and we got a really good deal on a 2008 used Toyota Pruis. So far we are happy with the decision (especially at the gas pump...Volvo $45, Prius $20).

This is Monday and here's hoping for another good week (but not quite so eventful). I'm on Spring Break (well at least the schools I sub at are) and this is the only time I have not been looking forward to it! Anyway, now its my turn for the job hunt. So far I'm not too excited about my prospects, but who knows come August districts might find out that they need to hire teachers!

I just wanted to let you know the good news! I hope you're all doing well.

Titles?!?!

I just realized that I'll have to be more creative with my titles since we can actually post on the same day we write blogs! :)

December 30, 2008 (written by Janeen)

Since we've been home for 5 weeks I thought it was time we update our blog. It was fun surprising our families by coming home early. We really enjoyed spending the holidays with family and are having fun being able to hang out with friends. Just last night I realized that it is fun to be able to go out in the dark. Though, I do miss the starry skies of Lesotho. The stars were truly amazing there.

We're trying to get back into the swing of things. I've told several people that it feels like we're on vacation (we have been house jumping and packing a lot of overnight bags), but we don't have the relax and enjoy yourself feeling of being on vacation because the reality is-- we're not! Jason has been job hunting on the internet. He even had a phone interview this morning. We'll see what comes out of that. If anything it was good interview practice! As for me, I am substitute teaching. I only got one day in before the school break, but hope it will pick up when school re-open next week. We've been catching up on movies and some TV shows (on DVD) that we've missed. I started reading again, which is nice. It took me almost a month to get back into it.

We recently found out the name of the new volunteer (Kelly) who is now living in our old home. It has been fun communicating with her via facebook.

On a sad note, (not to the point of crying) we lost all of our latest photos from Lesotho. Jason put them on my Mom & Dad's computer and deleted them off of the memory card. Then that computer got a virus and they had to reformat it. So they're gone for good. I was pretty upset at first, but I guess I still have the memories... just no photos to share with others. Its also unfortunate because we also lost the latest photos of the new classrooms at Jason's school. Maybe we can convince Kelly to take the trek over there and take photos!

Happy New Year! We look forward to seeing what's in store for us!

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!

October 22, 2008 (written by Janeen)

Alright, so some of my friends say, "You need to blog more" so here goes.

We are in Maseru today. I didn't have classes yesterday, so we came in and took care of some things like turn in some sponsorship applications for students at my school, close our Lesotho bank accounts, and print some photos. All things on my list are just about accomplished except that I can't find pink label stickers for my library. Jason said I can just send them once I get home. We have told everyone not to send any more packages or letters because at this point we might not get them! The bank took about 3 hours because we had to wait in line for 2 1/2. That was pretty boring, but at least that is done.

We're trying to wrap everything up. Yesterday Jason had to go to town to complain at the hardware store. The contractors have stopped construction because of waiting for materials. The hardware store said they would deliver the goods yesterday. We haven't heard yet if they did. We've still got our fingers crossed that it will be finished before we leave.

I have seen the exam that my students wrote and I think it seems pretty easy. I was pleased with the questions. I believe they were prepared and think that they should have done well. SO we'll find out in January how they did. I've already given the school secretary a self-addressed, stamped envelope for them to send me a copy of the results.

That's it for now. Look forward to see you all. Only 43 more days!

Building Update #2 October 14th, 2008 (written by Jason)

Hey everyone. Just wanted to show you a little bit of what is going on at the school. It is about 3/4 of the way done with the exterior of the 2 classrooms. I have almost completed all the play equipment. All I have to do is finish the Tire Climb thingee and I will be done. I am pretty exctied that it is looking so good and going so well. Sorry I don't have the time or energy to write more. But know that I love and miss you all

Jason