'The Lives of Jason and Janeen

A NEW JOB FOR JASON! (by Janeen)

2009-04-06T21:39:00.000+02:00

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?!?!

2008-12-30T20:14:00.001+02:00

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)

2008-12-30T19:56:00.001+02:00

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???

2008-11-19T09:22:00.001+02:00

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)

2008-11-17T16:50:00.000+02:00

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)

2008-11-14T18:14:00.002+02:00

“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)

2008-10-22T10:19:00.002+02:00

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)

2008-10-14T11:36:00.007+02:00

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

October 9, 2008 (by Janeen)

2008-10-09T13:42:00.003+02:00

This is just a short posting to tell about a funny comment I overheard today. During lunch time I heard a male teacher say to a female student, "Hey what have you been eating? Your 'mountains' are getting bigger." So you can figure out what 'mountains' are. I couldn't help but smile. At home he could get sued for a comment like that or even lose his job. Supposedly here, the 'mountains' aren't considered sexual and only 10% of guys are aroused by breasts here (so our Peace Corps trainers told us). Anyway, just wanted to share the highlight of my day. Jason's been in Maseru so yes, I am bored.

The good news is that all my grading is done! I won't have another big stack like that ANY more. Even when they write fourth quarter exams, I'll only have half the work I've had before because I won't have form C papers to grade. Its all winding down and it feels so good.

October 7, 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-10-08T20:40:00.000+02:00

I just realized that its been a while since we've updated a blog and though I don't really have much interesting to say... I know I'll hear complaints if we don't do this! :)

We are coming down to the end. This is my final week of teaching Form C classes. They write the English portion of the national exams next week Monday & Tuesday. After that I will only have 10 teaching periods per week. I have high ambitions of updating my resume, writing my Description of Service (DOS) for Peace Corps, and my site journal (something I'm supposedly supposed to have been doing all along for the volunteer who replaces me...oops). I think will all the extra free time those things will get done in no time. It feels great to almost be done. I have high hopes for my students.

We just found out that it is not likely that we will be replaced by a couple. So what will likely happen is that they will still put two volunteers in our area. They will just have separate housing. I'm sure one will be totally jealous of the other because our house has running water and electricity, but the volunteer who replaces Jason will have neither of those. Hopefully the two volunteers get along and they can have sleepovers and enjoy the electricity together!

Jason is in Maseru and schools were closed last week for independence break, so I don't have an update on the building. But, soon we'll take pictures of the progress and let you know what's happening. The walls were waist high before schools closed, so I'm sure they are just about done now.

Well I better get back to my last (for this quarter) pile of compositions. Can't wait to see you all. I'm looking forward to all the hugs we'll be getting.

September 18, 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-09-18T09:57:00.000+02:00

Well we have now completed our COS (close of service) conference. They do it early so that everyone knows all the logistics of things we have to do before we can get our “R” (as in Returned Peace Corps Volunteer). Getting on a computer has been a long line. For some reason there are a TON of volunteers in town. The seniors- our group (23 volunteers), the juniors- the CHED group (16 volunteers) were here for their one year re-connect, some of the sophomores- the ED group (not sure how many of them are here) are here for reasons I don't know, and even some of the freshman- the newest CHED group who've only been official volunteers for a month are also here. Back when we were new, we weren't allowed to come to Maseru for the first 3 months! Anyway all those people share 4 computers! I am typing this off line so that I don't waste any valuable time on the internet..

The conference was emotional, but no I didn't cry (but you can guess who did). They were trying to prepare us for the readjustment back to the states. Our boss calls it “reverse culture shock.” I don't know if they were trying to make us nervous or just trying to make us realize how difficult it will be. Apparently I'm going to want to talk about my time here and all of you won't understand (so they say). I mean I guess that's true because you didn't experience what we've experienced and your lives have continued and we haven't been a part of them at least not regularly and physically. So I guess you could say I am a little apprehensive about coming home. I mean I am excited to see everyone, but nervous about integrating. Not to mention finding a job in a time of economic decline. The pressure is more on Jason because I will most likely teach and therefore, he has to find a job first because that will determine our location.

So that's what I'm feeling right now. Pretty soon we'll start packing up our home and getting rid of stuff we're not taking with us. I guess now I can just focus on all the compositions I have to grade. I did an estimate the other day about how many I'll have completed by the time I am done and the grand total was 2,400! And that is compositions alone! I know you are all jealous and wish you could say you've accomplished such a feat! Love you all and can't wait to see you!

September 6, 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-09-06T08:37:00.000+02:00

Well I am in the middle of grading compositions-- so not fun. I have only finished one class, which means I am left with 90. The bad thing about it is that my form C students (76 of them) are already going to write another test this coming Wednesday and its another composition and letter. So basically if I finish this weekend, which I really should do, then more papers will almost immediately fall into my lap. The only good thing about it is that THIS IS THE LAST ONE for my form C students! WOO HOO!! After we end this quarter they write their national exams. I REALLY hope that they all pass English. They write on October 13th and 14th. So if you want to say an extra prayer for me and them on that day, we'd appreciate it! Oh yeah and don't forget that we are 9 hours ahead, so you can pray the day before. I'm not sure if post-dated prayers work, but the results won't be out until at least January, so it couldn't hurt!

Here is an update on the cat-- It has now been just over 2 weeks since he sliced open his belly (which we had a nurse friend visit this week and confirmed that the bump is probably a hernia). Unfortunately, the stitches opened up this week. The worst part is that this time we can't stitch him again. We tried, but I couldn't hold him down. He was WAY more squirmish and part of the skin was beginning to attach to the stuff underneath. It was bleeding a lot more and we just couldn't do it. SO... we are now letting nature take its course. We are no longer keeping him inside. We'll see if it heals. He is still active and does all the normal cat things.

That's it for my news. Jason's building is supposed to start next week. We're a little worried that it won't get finished, but we are still hoping for the best. He is just about finished with the renovations. He is only left with some final touches for the playground. For all those who donated, the photos I had printed are on their way to Lesotho and soon will be sent back to the states accompanied by an official thank you card. We haven't forgotten about you, but we're on African time!

Love you and miss you all. 89 days and counting!

August 26, 2008 Adventures of the Field Vets!

2008-08-26T19:36:00.000+02:00

August 26, 2008 (written by Jason)

Adventures of the Field Vets!

So this week Janeen and I felt like we needed yet another challenge in this road that has been our Peace Corps experience. Actually it was our cat that felt like we needed this experience. You see Tau, our cat, likes to go out at night and carouse with the ladies. Not a problem on most nights but Thursday of last week he came home with a huge gash on his belly.

The sad part was that I didn't know that it was a gash. I just thought that he might have cut himself or something. It wasn't until the following afternoon that Janeen discovered the disgusting truth. He cut himself pretty bad. The cut was about an inch long and it was pussing and being all gross. I thought that the best option at the time would be to super glue it shut. I remember hearing a radio program about how it was originally invented for that.

Well needless to say that did not work. It sure made a mess of his fur though. Got all caught up into one big knot. It was at this stage that we decided that we should stitch. Before we left Jeremy Ramsey gave me about 15 minutes of training in sutures. Using this knowledge we thought that it would be best to attempt that.

So that is what we did. Janeen held the cat down as he squirmed and cried and kicked. I went in with some suture kits that Jeremy provided. It was pretty awful. The stitches we not so bad but the skin in which they were going into was pretty tore up and so I had to go higher than I would have liked. It was not an experience that I wanted to repeat.

Unfortunately that is exactly what we had to do the next day. The rest of the super glue failed and we needed to finish the job. So again Janeen held the cat till her hands cramped and I stitched the cats stomach back together.

It is just another story that I can tell at those job interviews I hope to have when we return home in just a few months time. Which reminds me 100 days from today we fly home. Crazy right.

All the best
Jason

Kitty Update- August 23, 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-08-23T18:53:00.000+02:00

So have I told you that neither Jason nor myself have ever had any training as veterinarians? Well we have not, surprising I know. Jason came home last night and had the brilliant idea of super-gluing the cat's skin back together. He had all our friends (we had other PCVs over for dinner last night) convinced that actually super glue was invented for medicinal purposes and this was bound to work. Well it sorta worked. We glued the skin together and covered it with gauze and an ace bandage, which unfortunately the cat took that off. We examined the area again to find that there was still a small area that needed to be glued together. We tried once more to glue it together, this time upsetting the cat causing him to run from us. He immediately started licking the area and in doing so, ripped open the skin again. Then it was actually bleeding and quite a mess. We were able to glue part of it back together before going to bed and again we put the gauze and ace bandage on him. We also gave him some ibuprofen in cheese to ease the pain. He managed to get the bandage off in the middle of the night. We put it back on and when we got back from town, it was off yet again. We cleaned the wound and put some ointment on it. There is still a section that needs to be glued back together, but we wanted to wait until the ointment seeped into the skin a bit. Since we've been home he has been rather lethargic and has thrown up at least 5 times. It is so pitiful. I am a little afraid of having children because I feel so terrible for the cat. Imagine how I'd feel if my child was in pain!

The good news is that he is still walking around (with less energy than normal), still eating, and still using the litter box. Either tonight or tomorrow we will try one more time with the super glue. I just talked to my parents on the phone and they said that in the olden days people used to stitch it themselves. I guess we could try that, but that makes me a little queezy. At least with super glue the process is over quickly. Plus, I'm not sure we can get the cat to stay still long enough for stitches.

So that's the story with the cat. Tonight Jason made an awesome dinner. We got some special ingredients: bean sprouts, bock choy and tofu. They were fresh at the Chinese market this morning. Its always nice to get some good variety.

Well I've typed two blogs in two days. Don't get used to this-- on Tuesday my students write compositions. I'll try to remember to post some examples of student work so you can understand my situation!

August 22, 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-08-22T18:37:00.000+02:00

Hello everyone! This has been an eventful week. All my students wrote a test (the one that is easy to grade- reading comprehension and grammar) on Tuesday and I am just about finished up with those.

Next Tuesday they will write the one that is not so fun to grade- the composition and letter. Though,I do have one less class now. There are some new teachers in training and my form B language class was taken away. They were really upset, but I think they are OK now. I still teach them literature and see them twice a week. Jason and three other PCVS (Becky, Sasha, and Anne Marie) are doing workshops about
libraries. This morning they met with my teachers. It was good because they were able to reiterate some of the things that I've been saying and I think it helped my teachers with ideas of how to run the library once I am gone. We even had some of the students come in for a short while when they talked about care of books.

Jason went to the bank this week with the builder and his principal to withdraw the money for the new building. It was a frustrating day because they spent 3 1/2 hours being given the run around at the bank.

We had a pretty eventful Wednesday night. One of the teacher's windows were broken, students run a muck and it was complete chaos at night study. The full version of why & all the aftermath is about 2 pages typed and it is not a very uplifting story, so I don't want to post it on the blog. If your interested- email me and I will email you the whole story.

We are approaching the three month mark of coming home. With that said, packages should no longer be sent. We of course have LOVED & enjoyed everything sent. Now that we are thinking about coming home- we are also thinking about what to do with the things we have accumulated. Up until now we have been putting up letters
on our walls, and we pretty much wallpapered the entire room. Sometimes the cards have fallen down and we just recently decided that at this point we'll just leave them down, and not put up new ones! We would still appreciate some snail mail, but now that we have internet- its not as important!

We're basically wrapping things up and preparing our minds to go back to the states. I did almost cry at assembly the other day because I enjoy the days when the songs are lively. It makes for a happy start of the day. So I got to thinking that I would miss that and I would miss the students and then I got teary eyed. I had to put a stop to that though because I had to make an announcement and I didn't want to be crying as I told the students to collect their ties at short break!

Anyway, we miss you and are counting the days until our arrival--104!

Right now I feel sick to my stomach. Our cat has had an abnormal bump on his stomach since we've had him. We think it might be a hernia or something. It doesn't seem painful and we don't really have the means to take him to a vet. Anyway... last night he cut the skin off the edge of the bump and now part of his innards are exposed. It is so sad to look at him because he moves so gingerly and you can tell he is in pain. We still don't have the means to take him to a vet. Jason is in town right now at a workshop. When he left this morning, we knew he had injured himself, but didn't think that the skin was fully removed. Jeremy taught Jason how to suture before we left. Maybe when he gets home, he'll attempt that. I'm just sitting here, trying not to think about it because when I do I feel so helpless and sad. I mean I know I was going to have to say good-bye to him in a few months, but this almost seems worse. I mean if Jason can't suture him then what do we do? Would euthanizing him be better than letting him get sick? I really don't want to be thinking these things! :(

2008-08-18T16:40:00.002+02:00

August 19^th, 2008 (written by Jason)

Hey all! So good to hear from so many of you regarding our newly acquired internet access. Yes we are probably more excited than you about it and are really looking forward to more consistent communication with many of you. As many of you know, we will be coming home in about 4 months time and it would really mean a lot if you would send us e-mails, wall postings (Facebook) and comments on our blog. It is really encouraging to hear from you and we love reading every little note or diddy.

Many of you have asked about how my projects have been going and in a nutshell summary “GREAT!!” The community really rallied behind the project and gave a 110% to it. A laundry list of improvements got done in just 3 ½ weeks.

We repaired broken floors in 2 classes.
Added or expanded floors in 2 classes.
Repaired ceilings in 2 classes.
Repaired and painted roofs or 2 buildings.
Added and fixed a sidewalk.
Painted the outside and inside 2 buildings.
Repaired broken windows.
Replaced 4 old, broken doors.
Added steps to the 1^st grade classroom.
Cleaned up the school grounds.
Mended broken flower garden plots.
Built play areas for all grade levels.
Dugout the foundation area for a new building.
And provided temporary employment to almost 30 community members.

It is really a dramatic difference that has been made at the school and would not have been possible if not for the generous giving of all of you! You have made this school something that the students, teachers, and community can be proud of. As the saying goes here “We give you hands”.

But that is only phase 1. Now we are moving onto the next element in the school improvement project. This is the building of a new building altogether. A whole bunch more of you contributed to this project and we were with the help of Friends Of Lesotho we were able to get the entire $8,500.00 here. I deposited the check on Friday and we are going to order materials this week on Wednesday. It is going to be close but we are pushing for the buildings to be up in less than 3 months. We are going to be building 2 new buildings. The first will be to small classrooms to get the standard 5 class out of the chicken house and into something more befitting of children. The second will be a small office for the principal and deputy to share and use when hosting district officials and dignitaries and for storing textbooks, heaters and other school equipment. Neither building will be overly elaborate but they will be nice and functional.

You will also notice that I have posted some new pictures and a few YouTube videos. These are just some random things that I have seen whether at school or on vacation. The descriptions by them should be enough but if you have questions on what they are, please feel free to comment.

Hope all of you are happy and healthy. All our love.

Jason and Janeen

August 15th 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-08-15T14:35:00.002+02:00

Well we are back in Lesotho and have been for a few weeks. This is the first time we have had internet access for about a month or so. Today I have looked at Mike and Heidi’s engagement photos, pictures of Drew, and photos of Rachel & Kevin’s wedding. All that reminds us that we’ll be home in just about 3 ½ months! We are so excited!

Here is the short version of our vacation update: It was WAY too much driving. Of all the days we were gone, we only had 3 days that were not spent travelling. We did get to see a lot; the dunes in Namibia, the Okavango Delta in Botswana, Chobe National Park in Botswana, etc. Even though I was coming back to the immediate start of school I was happy to be in one place for a while! J

We’re back in the swing of things. Jason is working on a playground now as the last phase of his remodeling project. He just got the check for the building project deposited today. So next week they’ll get started building and hopefully we’ll see the finished project before we leave! Anyway, the kids are LOVING the playground. He’s built monkey bars, 2 swings, and is in the middle of building a fort-like structure. The kids are staying after school to play, which he says they never do.

Next week is when my grading starts. They write course works before their quarter exam (which is Sept 17th). Once 3rd quarter is over there is a short break (Sept 26-Oct 6). Once independence break is over, I don’t have to teach ½ my classes anymore because they write the national exams. The final exam is Nov. 7 and that won’t be as bad to grade because it will only be ½ the normal work load! It seems that time will just fly by.

That is the short update. We hope everyone is doing well! Miss you and love you lots!

We are finished fundraising!!

2008-07-19T13:17:00.000+02:00

So after begging and pleading with you to give, you all responded and gave. We have collected the amount of money needed at this time (and for all time) and we are super apprecitative to all of you. I will write more later but just want you to know that I am done asking for stuff and now I just get to share with you.

All the best
Jason

July 15, 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-07-19T13:13:00.000+02:00

“Measure twice, cut once.”

Jason's shop teacher taught him this, but we both seemed to forget this important piece of advice when getting windows for his school. If there were a window box with 16 window panes, you would think that each window is the same measurement, right? WRONG! They were only similar, but different enough to where the windows Jason purchased and had cut in town were not the right size. So we have learned two things -- 1. Measure twice, cut once (we learned it the HARD way) and 2. How to cut glass (Jason is pretty darn good now!)

Anyway, things are going well. We have been busy this winter with renovations at Jason's school. As soon as I finished grading I've headed out with him every day. We've painted, cut glass, repaired windows, built a movable wall to separate classes that meet in the same building, and that is only what WE'VE done. There have been several men and women from the community helping out. At the end of last week some of the community members were around as we were finishing working for the day and they said, “This is not Phechela Primary School. This is Phechela High School!”meaning that the school looks too nice to be a primary school.

We're headed out to our vacation next week. We're going to Namibia and Botswana. I'm excited to see the sand dunes in Namibia and more wild animals. We've been on two game drive type trips and the animals are so amazing!

Once we get back, it will be time for school to start again. For me, this quarter will start strangely because the students didn't finish writing exams last quarter. They are left with at least 2 days of exams. There was a nation-wide taxi strike and they didn't want the students to get stuck here, so the administration released them early. I'm not sure if they will write exams the first day back or what. We'll see.

On a final note I just want to mention that lambs are sooooooooooo cute. I'm not sure why, but here lambs are abundant in the winter season. I don't know if people breed them at a certain time or it is just nature. I would think that they would adjust and be born in warmer months since winter can be pretty harsh here. Anyway, they are adorable and every time I see one I almost always stop to watch them for a few minutes.

I better sign off now. I am supposed to meet Jason at school to work. He had to go to town this morning for some final supplies. Its now that we are missing Home Depot and cars that will take us where we want to go whenever we want to go!

Seriously close...

2008-07-06T14:29:00.002+02:00

July 6th, 2008 (written by Jason)

So it has been an incredible journey to get where we are today. I have been asking, begging pleading and what not. But today I am happy to announce we are almost there. This e-mail I received just the other day that informed us how close we are. Here is the e-mail in almost its entirety.

Hello Jason,

As of June 9^th, I had deposited $2,000 in the bank for Pachela School (NGO). Just this week, I received $2,152 in several checks, and before that, checks for $1000, $100, $100 and $3000. I’ll try to make a deposit later this week and send a summary report to you and our Donations Committee...Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks.

John H.

FOL Treasurer

This is huge news for us and we are so excited to say that we are just $148 away from being done with the fund raising portion of the project. It is a great place to be in. I am so pumped and it has all been because of all of you back home. So if you have been waiting to make that donation, now is the time. Even if it is just 20 bucks. That will get us about 1/7th of the way there. So here is that information again.

Make checks out to Friends of Lesotho. Memo line can say something like
"Pechela-Samuelian". If the checks are already made out with a different
memo line, just have them include a brief note explaining what the checks
are for.

Mail them to our Treasurer:

FOL
c/o John Hollister
4110 Denfeld Ave.
Kensington, MD 20895

I will post some more pictures of our progress and what has been going on at the school with the remodel. It is going really well without getting into all the details of it.

So anyway, we will talk to you all later. We do love and miss you all.

All the best,

Jason

Building Update #1

2008-06-29T11:20:00.006+02:00

June 29th, 2008 (written by Jason)
So we have officially started the renovations of Phechela Primary School. Here is a small flavor of what it is that we are working on. We have painted 2 out of 5 classrooms, we have repaired a sidewalk in front of the office, we have begun to paint the outside of the std. 6 and 7 building, we have repaired and extended the floors in the the std. 3-4 classrooms and we have completely painted, cleaned and organized the office. This was all in just the first week!

The people I am working with are so great. They are dedicated to making this school the best that it can be and are working so hard to accomplish that. And this is good because we have a lot more work to do. We still need to fix all the floors, repair the cracked walls, build and install 2 folding walls (I am designing and building them which is both fun and a little scary), repair the bathroom floors and walls, finish painting the interior and exteriors of the classrooms, and build and install some play equipment. I want to have all of this done by the middle of July but I don't know if that will be possible. We are certainly going to try though.

Otherwise, all is well. There is supposed to be a big taxi strike this week so we probably won't be traveling to much. We loved all the little messages about our anniversary. Thanks to all of you who remembered to drop a little note. I will try and get on to post some pictures in the next few weeks but I don't know how much I will able too. So be patient. I will get to it. All the best
Jason

June 27th 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-06-27T12:44:00.000+02:00

Just a short update: Jason started renovations on his school this week. Its going well. The workers are motivated and the school is looking great! Today is our fourth anniversary and we are going to pamper ourselves and head to Lady Brand, which is in South Africa. We are getting massages and eating good food that we don’t have to cook and clean up after! J

There is supposed to be yet another stay away starting on Monday. Apparently there will be a nation wide transport strike. I’m not sure what they are upset about this time. There have been several stay aways since we’ve been here. I’m not sure that they are effective, but I guess its better than violence and riots!

Not that the transport strike affects me much being that I now have loads of grading to do. They wrote my exam on Wednesday and pretty much all of Thursday I spent grading non-stop so that I can enjoy this weekend. I of course brought some along, but I intend to do it at a leisurely pace. Once I am finished I can help more at Jason’s school. I got to help one day this week. We painted a classroom. There is so much more to do!

Well the countdown is ON! We have about 5 months left. And for those of you who haven’t heard we are headed home December 4th! Miss you all!

Just a little more...

2008-06-19T12:22:00.003+02:00

June 19th, 2008 (written by Jason)

So after all the pleading and begging and what not we are almost there on the second of my two projects. Many different people have contributed to the success of the amount of money raised thus far and I have been blown away that total strangers are contributing to what could be construed as frivolous during this difficult economic period. You may not realize what you have done, but you have literally changed the world for an entire village and it is all possible because you decided that you wanted to do something to change the cycle of poverty.

However, the work is not over yet. We are just about $1000 dollars short of our second goal of $8500. This project is going to build 2 new classrooms, furnish them and make them a comfortable environment to learn in. It is such a super opportunity that the returned volunteer organization Friends of Lesotho has decided to help sponsor this project so that we could make all donations tax deductible. It is such a great thing that they have decided to do for us and we are so thankful for their help.

So if you have been waiting to give, now is the time. We are in the home stretch and as Janeen and I only have about 6 more months in country, we need to get cracking. If we can get the rest of the funds by mid-July, their should be plenty of time to get the school building built and ready to use for the next school year (which starts next January). This might be the only time where you can see you money directly at work from a charitable donation. It really is an exciting opportunity.

For those that have already donated to the other project, we will begin our renovation this coming Monday the 23rd. I will try my hardest to post updates of pictures and stories about how the progress of the restoration of the school is going. Also be looking in the mail for special thank you letters and pictures to those of you that have donated. I really do appreciate all that you gave.

For those of you that still want to make a donation, here is the information on where to send your donation.

Make checks out to Friends of Lesotho. Memo line can say something like "Pechela-Samuelian". If the checks are already made out with a different memo line, just have them include a brief note explaining what the checks are for.
Mail them to the Treasurer:

FOL
c/o John Hollister
4110 Denfeld Ave.
Kensington, MD 20895

We really do love all that you have done for our community and can't wait to show you all the pictures and tell you all the stories that have been building up over the last 2 years. We miss you all!
All the best
Jason

A really long blog

2008-06-05T13:11:00.001+02:00

June 3rd, 2008 (written by Jason)

So I just finished a wonderful book called The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. Now this is not a book that I would recommend to everyone. This book is really just for people who want to understand how society at large works. This can be useful in a number of contexts. If you are in business, it can be helpful understanding how social epidemics can be created or sustained in any number of fields. For common people, you can see how you fit into the schema of this complex world and how you can be part of the next major revolution.

I am saying this because that is where I am most interested. I am interested in finding how normal people play into starting social epidemics. What I mean is how are we, you, me everyone going to be part of the next major revolutions of the world. The revolutions I am talking about are the renewable energy revolution, the expansion of peoples in developing countries, and the openness and interconnected nature of our societies. It is by thinking about these things and getting the right people at the right time that we will see the threshold tip on a number of these issues and many more I don't have the energy or knowledge to discuss.

I do think that you should all start thinking about how you can affect change on a daily basis. I know for many of you, you feel trapped in your daily existence and that it can difficult to think about anything other than just day to day issues. However, if you do just a little analysis of your situation, invest a little time and energy into yourself and your education into something that interests you and then you use that to the best way you know how you may be the start of something big. I guess all that I am saying is don't forget to dream. If you are young or old remember that it is the dreamers that change the world. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that we would one day walk hand in hand white and black. JFK had a dream that we would see a man walk on the moon. Steve Jobs has the dream that each person on the planet might one day own and operate an ipod. Whether you dream is financially motivated or socially or based on a social imperative that you feel called to change, then think realistically about how you will achieve this.

Make connections. Utilize friends and families. Think big and who knows. You may have thought that you were done but really you were just getting started!I know I haven't really said anything about me or Janeen but this is what we are directly going through. We have to be the ones who push for this country. Many people here have lost that ambition to dream and change. It is part of the mission of Peace Corps to spread an alternative to just eating the same thing everyday or changing the way that you see yourself as part of the world. I feel that I am doing that here, but I also feel that we need to be reminded of this ourselves as we have been known to fall into complacency as well.

I hope I have inspired you today to to the best with what you can, where you are. If not, I hope that I haven't bored you too much!
All the best,
Jason

May 30th, 2008 (written by Jason)

So it is cold again. It isn't freezing yet, no snow or anything, but it is definitely cold. This means that we are once again back to eating lots of soup, drinking lots of tea and wearing lots more clothes. It is funny how the weather has such a direct impact on whether or not we will stay up past 7 p.m.

It also doesn't help that the electricity has been really inconsistent. It has been going off at nights due to the energy shortage that South Africa is experiencing. He is the hilarious part. Lesotho generates enough energy to meet its needs. However because of agreements that were made when the damns were being built, Lesotho must buy back the energy from South Africa that they are generating. Does this not seem absolutely crazy to anyone else? Therefore, when South Africa is running short on energy, which they are a lot lately, they pull from our grid.

It makes for long nights especially when the sun is usually fully set by half past 5. This has really affected our sleeping patterns too. We had been getting used to staying up at night watching DVD's and avi files that are swapped around Peace Corps, on our laptop. However, if you have ever tried to do anything on a laptop on battery alone (especially one that is 5 years old) it doesn't last very long. This week we were pleasantly surprised that on Wednesday night we were able to watch a whole movie and stay up past 9. This is a really big deal when it comes to sleep.

Seriously, think about it. If you sleep 8 hours a night and go to bed a 8, you wake up at 4 a.m. This being my normal waking time lately. Now, 4 a.m. in America and 4 a.m. in Lesotho are to totally different things. At home, I could get up make a cup of coffee, turn on the computer or TV and veg out until it is time to jump in the shower. All the while being nice and cozy warm in a heated home. 4 a.m. here entails laying in bed tossing and turning waiting for the sun to come up and provide the smallest amount of warmth so that your unheated house becomes slightly more bearable.

Now I know I am embellishing a little bit but really there is nothing to do at 4 a.m. that would not be absolutely freezing. I could go out and hang out with the herd boys as they take the cattle, sheep, donkies, etc. to be watered and fed. This would not be all that great though as they usually only know enough English to ask for money or if I have some cigarettes (which I don't. I quit years ago.). Those boys also tend to be pretty stinky because they use their blanket as their sleeping blanket, handkerchief, and a number of other things I would rather not think about. On top of that they very rarely wash those blankets. I know this as I have sat next to, walked by, and seen the green fog that comes off things in cartoons, coming from those blankets. Blech!

So needless to say I am a little sleep deprived. SO this is probably just ranting and raving but that is cool. Sorry if I offend anyone. I am seriously just telling it like it is. Life here can be stinky and hard. This is the truf!
All the best
Jason

2008-05-10T15:45:00.002+02:00

May 10th, 2008 (written by Jason)

So I am so happy to announce that the first of the two projects has been filled. The Peace Corps Partnership has been fully funded! So awesome! This is really amazing as we are getting that much closer to being 100% ready to go with our schools restoration. It is really fun because now I get to look at stuff and think, “Oooh we could use that! Yeah that would go great in the 1st grade class”. So needless to say I am really excited!
I also want to take this time to brag on some people. Both of our families (Janeen's and mine) have been so amazing during our time here. You really have no idea how much you mean to us and to see the interest you have taken in our projects has been really cool. I won't really get into specifics now, but you all know who you are.

One really cool thing to report on though is how my own little sister did not take my last blog lying down. Her and her friends got together and decided that they were going to take my advice and do some fundraisers for the school. They even started a little web-page which is super awesome. It is www.raisetheirroof.org So if you get a chance check out some of the things that they are planning. Like I said it is not the big stuff but the little stuff that change the world. So take my little sisters lead and do your own fundraising events!

I will hopefully have some updated information on how to send money to the building project this next week. It is really easy and it will be tax deductible which is dope-a-licious!

Other news with me:
This week we (3 friends and I) put on another series of workshops. The workshop is actually the funniest part of why we get together. It is actually just a blast hanging out with these other resource teachers. It is super fun!

Otherwise, ditto on what Janeen said. Super fun stuff that is Lesotho!
All the best
Jason

In Maseru Again

2008-05-10T14:29:00.000+02:00

May 10, 2008 (written by Janeen)

Well I as I am writing I am pretty restless. Jason and I went to bed last night around 8:30. Yes, its early but the electricity had gone out and we were tired from a long week. We were rudely awakened at 12:30 when our neighbor decided to turn on his music full blast. Finally at around 1 or so Jason decided to go and ask them to turn it down. Fortunately they did. We eventually fell back asleep until 3 when they decided to turn it back up again. This time Jason went over and turned it down himself. That STILL didn't work. The volume continued to increase again until finally at 4 AM it started to rain and boy was I giving thanks to the Lord! I've never been so happy to hear rain!

I also had a fundraiser yesterday evening where I taught students how to line dance. It didn't quite work out as I had planned. More students paid the entrance fee than were willing to dance so I think they may have thought it was a show. We only charged a 1 Maluti entrance fee, so I don't feel too bad. Very unfortunately I found out as the event was starting that I am supposed to pay 100 Maluti for the use of the school hall. Which means that after all the hard work of running around setting things up and figuring out the electricity (the hall's electricity was out-it's a prepaid system so we had to rig up several extension cords to get electricity from a classroom), I will only have raised 16 Maluti (roughly equivalent to $2). I am going to complain to my principal. He's not the one running the hall, but he may get the fee waived. The guy in charge had a school prefect come and tell me about the fee right as the event was starting. I understand that the hall is supposed to be used to make money, however, I am trying to get supplies for a school club. So it doesn't really make sense to me.

Anyway, we are in Maseru again because Jason put a new operating system on our computer and we can't access all the old files on our computer. He wants to search the internet to see if he can find a remedy for this problem. I was also up for accompanying him since we have had problems with both water and electricity this week. I'm not sure if we've mentioned before but both South Africa and Lesotho are experiencing power shortages so there are rolling black outs. We've spent the last 3 nights in candle light. The pump broke this week so we didn't have water for a few days. So life has been pretty rustic. Last week when we were here it had been over a month since I had showered, not bathed, showered. Let me tell you--- showers are NICE! Maseru is not safe from the power outages, but at least I can shower again.

This blog sounds a little negative and whiny but I have one more not fun thing to share. As of Friday I now have 78 letters, 176 compositions, and 283 literature essays to grade. Oh so much fun. Do you feel bad for me yet???? :) When I am finished, I am going to post the best and worst composition so that all of you can get a feel of what a joy it is to grade compositions! :)Other than that things are going well. I am just busy working.

We are really excited that one of Jason's projects is now fully funded. He has two projects. 1)Listed on the Peace Corps website- to refurbish one of his schools. and 2)Not listed on a website and at this time information on donating is not available, but his parents have started raising funds to build the same school a new classroom block (2 classrooms) so that the standard 5 students do not have to meet in the old chicken coop. I'm sure I am just being repetitive because I think he has explained all this before. We are just really excited that the funds are available and the students will have a more conducive learning environment. The teachers work hard and the school deserves this. So, if you didn't donate to the first project. There is still a chance! For those of you who have donated already THANK YOU! :) We don't know who you are yet, because Peace Corps has those records, but we will know soon and you will get a proper thank you from us and the school!

Despite the negativity in this blog, we are doing OK. Rough days come and go, but there are some good days too. Like for example, I have been pretty upset about one of my classes because many students were not trying and not doing assignments. Well this week every single one of them did their assignments. I was SO excited and they were too. They all cheered and I even ululated, which made them laugh. I rewarded them by doing a "listening comprehension" activity (aka listen to a couple songs on my ipod and discuss what is being said). Sometimes its harder to remember the positive things, though.

By the way, we are going to become an aunt and uncle for the first time pretty soon! Make sure you all give Drew extra hugs and kisses for us!

We miss you all and hope that you all are doing well.

Addition

2008-05-02T10:44:00.003+02:00

May 2nd, 2008 (Written by Jason)

Sorry about this but I needed to stress the importance of getting this done soon. You see we are coming up to the end of our service in like 7 months. I need this to be understood that I have to have this thing finished by the time I go home. If I don't, then I have to stop the project and turn in the money back to Peace Corps. It sucks but that is the reality that I am facing. I hate to put this additional pressure on you all but now you see what we are working with. So please use those creative juices that you have and lets make a school building!

All the Best
Jason

April 29th, 2008

2008-05-01T14:41:00.004+02:00

April 29, 2008 (written by Jason)

So it has been way to long since I have written a blog. I am really sorry about that. It is not that I not been around a computer. It is just that every time I get around a computer I have a lot to do. You see for the past 5-6 months I have been working on making a wiki for the southern Africa region of volunteers. So pretty much everytime I step into the office I do nothing but work on that.

However a few weeks ago we officially launched the site. If you want to see what it is that I have been working on you can check it out at http://www.wikisarvn.pbwiki.com/ . It is pretty sweet and I would love to hear any constructive criticisim you have of it. It would really help us out.

So I know that many of you have already made contributions to my projects that I got going on and that is really really awesome of you all. I will have something special for you early contributors when I arrive home. However, there still is a lot of money left to be raised. We know that times are tough right now around the world (rising gas, food, etc.) and no one is immune. We have been feeling the extra strain of the rising gas prices here especially. So what better time to get together with a few family and friends and come up with a simple fundraising idea?

Here is a photo of my parents and some of their friends after a fundraiser that they did to help fund the new school building project. They called the fund raiser "Wood for Africa". You see a tree fell down at my parents place and so they decided to cut up the wood and sell off the cords. They made $700 bucks! Isn't that unbelievable?!

So if these middle aged (and some not so much middle but upper middle aged) people can spend a weekend cutting wood, what can you do?

Maybe the whole fundraiser thing though isn't your speed. Maybe you want to just give some money. Well there still is the other way of just giving us the money. You can contribute directly to the Peace Corps @ https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=632-047

We are also thinking about doing a buy-a-brick fundraising thingee. There will be different level bricks you can buy. We are thinking about doing a $10, $25, $50, $100, and up. What we will do is make a plaque to recognize you contribution (previous donors will automatically included. Although if you want to do this again, you can!). So if you want in on this action. Send me an e-mail here jason.samuelian@gmail.com

Well that just about wraps it up for me. But here is all we got so far done on the new building. We still need about $6,500. So think about what you can do!

2008-04-19T14:30:00.001+02:00

April 14, 2008 (written by Janeen)

Well it seems that it has been a while since I have written a blog. So I hope not to go on forever boring you with details of my life. I’ll first give you a health update. My eyes are not entirely healed despite the fact that I’ve been on meds for over a month. I think the problem is that I still live in a dusty environment and it won’t fully heal until I don’t. So the Peace Corps doctor said that as long as it doesn’t flare up again, I’ll just wait until I go home to see another specialist. Peace Corps will pay for this. If I have more troubles I’ll go back to Bloemfontein.

Not much has been going on. This is the 4th week of second quarter. I’ve already been busy grading my students’ work. It is such a chore! But I know they can’t improve unless they get feedback from me. Also, by grading their work I can see their strengths and weaknesses and base my lessons on that. I’m pretty sure that if the Form C students took the English exam now they’d do pretty decently. We are basically reviewing grammar topics until the exam comes. The only new knowledge they are getting is from literature, which we are almost done with the short stories book. After that it is on to poetry and I am pretty much dreading that. I don’t really enjoy poetry myself and I’m not so sure how well I’d be able to teach it.

Jason and I have two side things going. He just started an income generating project for my school. All students have to have their heads shaved for school. So we bought electric clippers and have students cutting hair twice a week for 5 Maloti. Last year my principal suspended students from an exam until they cut their hair. Students were frantically running around finding whatever they could to cut their hair! Now this should never happen again because hair cuts will be available regularly and we are charging ½ the price that they would get in town. My project is actually a “Healthy Living” Club. So far we have met once and we did aerobics. It was fun. I have 36 members. I even have 5 boys! We are not only doing aerobics. We will also have discussions on how to live healthily (here is where I can get some good HIV/AIDS education in). I also want to give cooking demonstrations on how to eat healthfully. I am really excited about this and so far it seems like fun!

“Waiting is one of life’s hardships.” (Lemony Snicket, Horseradish p. 154) This statement is so true! Grandpa Durkee sent this book to us and it is pretty hilarious, sad, and just the bitter truth! It is full of short sayings about life. It is like a coffee table book. Anyway I wanted to share this quote with you because I’ve been ready to come home since January! Now it is April and I still feel the same way. In the first year we had ups and downs of homesickness. This is by far the longest spout and we’re pretty sure it probably won’t go away until we come home. We have less than 8 months! We know we’ll make it through but are at the point where we want to get on with our lives. I want a baby. Jason wants to go to business school. I’m sure Andy and Mari know exactly how we feel! So at this point we are just waiting. I’m sure the time will pass quickly enough and we’ll still have some great experiences, but we’ll miss out on a lot too!

Winter is approaching. As it is warming up for you all its getting colder for us! The name of the game here is to wear everything you own to keep warm. My outfits are pretty interesting.

Anyway, on Friday (18th) I get to go to Qoaqoa with the Form C students. It is a Basotho cultural village in South Africa. I am pretty excited about it. Jason is headed to Maseru for a meeting that day, so that is why you get to read my update! Well now that I’ve typed a page, I think its time to go. I miss In N’ Out, I miss good Mexican food (Taco Lita, Taco Treat, even Taco Bell), I miss California Pizza Kitchen, I miss pizza with pepperoni, I miss bread sticks from Olive Garden, I miss… the list could go on, my mouth could water and my stomach can grumble more, but most of all I miss YOU!

St. Patricks Weekend

2008-03-14T14:48:00.002+02:00

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

2008-03-06T07:06:00.002+02:00

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

February 26, 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-02-26T07:36:00.002+02:00

I went to the eye doctor in Bloemfontein again yesterday (which is kinda a bummer because I had to miss school yet again and the stress is on since I am teaching Form C students who will write a national exam at the end of the year). So basically I am getting multiple styes in my eyes. The problem is that they are releasing the fluid into my eyes. Since my eye is blocking the release, they get clogged and become chronicly infected, which basically means that the fluid hardens and can no longer come out on its own. Last week when I went she had to cut them out. Which was quite strange as I have never had anything done to my eyes. The strangest part was when I opened my eyes and could see a red tint from the blood. My eyes are healing fine from the minor "surgery" (I think Jason may have freaked some people out with his blog). I went back yesterday because I thought that she had missed one of the clumps, when it turns out what I was feeling was just scar tissue. I realized I was probably wrong as the swelling finally started going down on Saturday, but the Peace Corps medical officer said I should go again since they were already making a trip to Bloemfontein with another volunteer. I'm glad I went because she helped tell me what to do to get the rest of these infections taken care of. (e.g wash my eyes with hot water twice daily, use the ointment she prescribed, but rub it in- I wasn't doing that before) She also prescribed doxycyclin (sp) to thin out the liquid. That is a malaria medication that is often used to get rid of acne. And I guess you could basically say that I have acne in my eyes- GROSS! :) So there is the update. I am at the office waiting for staff to get in so I can get my meds and a reimbursement and go home. I am hoping to make it back before my 11 o'clock classes, but that might be wishful thinking!

Well now that you have my health update. I can tell you what else is going on-- don't worry its not much. I am teaching away. I have been busy because I try to make up the time I missed while at the doctor's. Plus I have been grading the first exam. I'm sure I'll finish just in time for them to write their first quarter exams! Lucky me! Fortunately Jason has helped a bit. He has been bored. Not many of his teachers have been asking for his help, so he has not been doing much while at school. So when he comes home he wants to hang out with me and then gets bummed when I am busy. And the problem is he doesn't want to be busy for busy's sake. He wants to do something that matters.

The days that we want to come home are more frequent than they have been the previous year. I've already got a mental count down for the number of months (9). It will probably get even harder come May when our nephew will arrive and in July and August when Rachel & Kevin and Mike & Heidi are getting married. We hope everyone knows that we REEEEEEALLY want to be with you all and miss you SO much. It has been nice getting some emails from people recently. Maybe since our blogs have been a tad morose people feel like telling us we are missed (which makes us feel really good!). Well it is almost time for me to head out so I'll sign off here. I hope everyone has a very special leap year day! :)

2008-02-22T15:20:00.002+02:00

February 20th, 2008 (written by Jason)

Hey all! So I had just started a blog that was going to be a bitch fest and then I decided, why do I want to do that? I am sure these good people reading this blog don’t want to hear me bemoan the same old crap day after day. So I won’t. That’s right. I am making a conscious decision to keep this blog positive and by golly that is what I am gonna do!

So last you all heard, my school had started well and we were plugging right along. That has continued to happen over the course of the last month. Although we do waver from time to time, the school is doing well and staying on track. One of the more successful stories out of that has been the parents’ council. They have really stepped up and taken the initiative at restoring one of the classrooms by themselves. It has been really inspiring watching them over the weeks collecting mud, stones and even cinderblock bricks to repair the wall between the two classes. As you can see they have smeared it with a thick mud. This will help diffuse some of the sound and can also be use as a giant tack board. It is pretty sweet. You can also see how they have smeared a lighter color mud on the walls that really brightens the place up! It is so cool!

But we are no where near done. There are still all kinds of opportunities for you to get involved in helping our school raise some much need funds. There are two different projects. There have been some questions about this. One is being sponsored by my parents. They took it upon themselves to help raise enough money to build a new classroom. They are doing fundraising projects to achieve this goal like a yard sale and selling a cord of wood from a tree that fell in our backyard. So far they have raised about a $1200! This is great but it is still well short of our goal of $7000. This project as of right now is not tax deductible because my parents are collecting the money. I am working on getting a partner here that you can send your money to so that all donations will be tax deductible. But do be thinking about interesting and creative ways that you might be able to raise some money for this project.

The other project is the school restoration. This will not include any new buildings but will be a total refinishing of the school. We are talking new chalkboards, windows, doors, paint, etc. It will make the school functional again as opposed to its current state in most of the classroom. Any extra money from this project will go towards stoves for those oh so cold winter school days. Brrrrr!! This project you can donate directly too by going to https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=632-047&region=africa . All donations made here are tax deductible.

So be thinking about it. I don’t want to pressure you but this would really mean a lot to me and the community that I am working with. Anyone that does sponsor one of these projects will be recognized on a memorial plaque that I am going to make and will be thanked by me personally with a little gift from Lesotho for you to remember you donations that you made to the community here.

Other than that, we have been hearing sporadically from a few of you and that is great. Right now we are feeling a little homesick and would love to hear from a lot of you. So send those e-mails and letters. It will take a few minutes out of your busy day but it truly does mean so much to us. We hope to hear from you soon and that you are all doing well.
All the best
Jason

February 8, 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-02-08T11:20:00.001+02:00

Well this morning I woke up with a swollen eye, and am now in Maseru (3 hours after leaving my site). The Peace Corps doctor decided to refer me to an optomologist. He said that the optomologist is normally busy and might not be able to get me in today. Which is true. He called and I can't get in for the next month because THE optomologist is out of the country. So I may have to go to Bloemfontein. We are just concerned because it is recurring and I don't even know what it is. I thought it was a stye, but I've got them in both eyes and the pimple looking whiteness has gone away and left a small hard bump on my eyelid. Today is the second time my left eye has been swollen. Now that I have somewhat described my condition, I will move on.

The past few weeks have been the roughest by far of all my service. I don't really want to get into it on my blog for all to see, but it was the first time that I actually felt like coming home. I of course still want to come home and can't wait until the end of 2008, but I'm sure we'll stick it out!

I was thinking about trying to get back for my afternoon classes at 2:00, but I now realize that was wishful thinking. But am bummed that all I came for was to find out that the optomologist is out of the country!

Jason and I are planning on going to Bloemfontein for Valentine's weekend. We'll get to watch a movie. Has anyone seen any good movies you'd like to recommend? It will be nice to get away for the weekend.

Love you and miss you all! P.S. We've only gotten 1 letter in the past 3 weeks. :( (Yes I am trying to guilt some of you into writing!!)

A new start...

2008-01-28T11:31:00.000+02:00

January 24, 2008 (Written by Jason)

Good day to all our faithful readers out there in cyberspace. Over the last year and a few months you have followed the trails and tribulations of living as a cross-cultural, diplomatically placed volunteer here in the country of Lesotho. It has been a strange year, one full of extreme highs and disparaging lows. But through it all I have received many e-mails asking how if you were able to, how you could help.

Well now is that time. This week we began our second school year here in our village of Tsa-Kholo. I returned to school to find that after a great meeting with about 100 parents at the end of the school year about restoring the school, that work had already been done to this effect. I have told you all about how our class 5 is meeting in an old chicken coupe and that our class 3 and 4 share a large hall with no walls separating the 2 classes (hence it gets extremely loud in there). I haven’t really shared about our class 1 and 2 that meet in a building that was originally used as the first church on the site back around 1930. Yeah it is that old.

Over the years they have done the best they can installing windows and what not but they never got around to building the wall up to the roof and therefore it is like the class 1 and 2 are in the same room. Once again it gets extremely noisy during lessons and activities. Well, after a long and wonderful break from school, I returned to find that the parents of the school had torn down the old wall that was made of mud bricks and had begun building up a new wall of cinder blocks that had been scavenged from around the community.

The parents haven’t stopped there either. The parents have continued to gather bricks from around the community, while also smearing the wall with a nice thick clay, so that the wall can be used like a giant cork board. It is so cool. While working on the wall, some other parents cleaned and repaired (as best they can) the rest of the classes so that on the first day of the school, the teachers were able to come right in and start teaching classes.

Now if you have been following my blogs from the beginning you would realize that this is a dramatic difference from last year, when it took about 3 weeks for us to finally get down to the business of teaching. And that is not the only thing. This school, named Phechela Primary, is so motivated for change and progress that they have been going the entire school day taking only the breaks that they have scheduled and following the school time table as far as I have seen.

You may be thinking ‘well so they are doing what they are supposed to. Big deal!’ What you don’t understand is that this is a massive change in approach and philosophy. Last year I could barley get anyone to listen the smallest suggestions that I made. This year though, it is like everything that comes out of my mouth is gold the way that they are responding. I would say that 90% of my suggestions have been attempted or implemented and we are only going on day 4 of the first week of school. It is AWESOME!!

That all being said, I have decided to go forward with a project that I put in an application for earlier this year due to the nature of the commitment that I have seen thus far in words and in action. The project in its very basic form is a complete overhaul of the schools infrastructure. At its very core it is to provide a place that is safe , clean and more efficient than the current areas that exist for learning at the school. We will do this by repairing walls and floors, adding and completing walls in buildings to provide separate learning areas, new chalkboards, new doors and windows for classes that need them, and improving the facilities so that it is more conducive to continued learning.

However, I can only do this with your help. The Peace Corps does not provide funds for projects like this anymore. They have created an office called the Office of Private Sector Initiatives that handles projects for volunteers and gives family members and friends an outlet to donate to those projects. My community and I have completed an application for such a project and it has been approved by OPSI. They have issued me a project # which means that I can begin asking for support and help from all of you out there. If you feel that this is something that you would be interested in doing, please go to

https://www.peacecorps.gov/resources/donors/contribute/projdetail.cfm?projdesc=632-047&region=africa

Then you can look for my project with the # 632-047. You can read more about the history of the school and the goals of the project. Also you can choose at that point if you want to make a donation to my project.

Once the full amount of the project has been funded, OPSI will cut me a check which I will then deposit in a bank account here and we will begin the reconstruction of my beautiful school. The only constraints that I am under are that I can not begin to work until I have received all of my funding. Now this may seem cruel but it is important as they don’t want half built libraries and pit latrines to be the legacy of Peace Corps volunteers. So it means that I need you to e-mail your friends and family, post notices at schools and churches, and help me get this thing funded!! The sooner it is, the sooner these beautiful kids can learn in an environment that is suitable and appropriate.

If you have ever felt that your donations go to some nameless project at best and at worst into the pockets of corrupt charities, this is your chance to donate directly to a school and a group that needs it. I will of course be updating this blog with pictures and links to pictures as often as I can and you will see your money directly at work. How cool is that?!?

Ok so that is it. No more begging for me. I hope that you feel compelled to give. I pray that this finds you all happy and healthy in the New Year. All the best

Jason

January 18, 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-01-18T07:57:00.000+02:00

Well we are done with our all volunteer conference/one year reconnect with our group. It was nice to be in Maseru and with other volunteers. School starts on Monday and things will get busy (at least for me). Right now I am waiting to see our doctor. I've got some funky things going on with my eyes. I had what I thought was a stye in one eye, then the exact same thing happened in the other eye, but worse. Now in each eye I have a small bump. So I might go on antibiotics. Well there's my health update for the year, sorry to bore you I am just tired of waiting! Miss you! Love you!

January 10th, 2008 (written by Jason)

2008-01-14T11:22:00.001+02:00

Hello to all our loyal readers around the blog-o-sphere. I know that it has been quite a while since we have written anything. I know also that to many of you this is your only link to our adventure here in the mountain kingdom and that you look forward to reading about what we are doing. For this I am truly sorry but as I have mentioned many times before our internet use here is inconsistent at best and when we do get on it is usually to catch up on e-mails, check out the latest happenings in the news and maybe see what friends are doing on Facebook. We rarely have uninterrupted time to use the computer and write out a blog and then get on both websites to update them (hence the incongruity sometimes). We are going to be trying to be more diligent now that we are back home and we have our own computer.

You see for the majority of the last month we have been in and out of Lesotho on holiday/vacation. School let out for us around Nov. 30 and this afforded us about 6 weeks to do what we want. Before we could get to traveling and vacation we did a few technical trainings for the new group that arrived here around the 10th of November. This sucked up the first part of December.

About mid-December we left for our trips that included going to Cape Town and the surrounding area and touring Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe with Janeen’s family. I don’t want to bore you with everything that we did during that time but I do want to give you the highlights (and lowlights) of the trip.
Cape Town and surrounding area
• Great White Shark Cage Experience (seasick for the first time in my life)
• Camping
• Wine Tasting in Stellenbosch (awesome wine and cheese; check out Goats do Roam from the Fairview Vineyards. Easy drinking red blend)
• Table Mountain (didn’t hike it because we are lazy but it is beautiful)
• Beach
• Cape Point and crazy baboons
• Long Street (ripped off at a bar that raised its prices after 10 p.m. and had it printed in fine print on the last page of the menu.)
• Great food
• New Friends (Abby, Meera and Tamar and Christoff)
• Sleeping in

You can see we packed a bunch of stuff into a very short period of time. This is how we do things here though: long periods of work followed by sprint vacations. It is the only way we can do things affordably (you know we only get paid $235 a month, right?).

Almost immediately after coming home from Cape Town, Janeen’s family arrived from the states. It was so great having them here for Christmas and New Years. We had the joy of having Janeen’s parents, her brother and his wife, her sister, and her grandparents with us for 2 weeks. It was so cool being able to see them that it just made everything else just pale in comparison. Not to say that we didn’t do some amazing things. Here is a concise list. I am being serious too. We did way more than just the stuff mentioned here.

Lesotho
• Christmas Eve dinner of pea soup, Thai cucumber salad, rice and home made bread. It was a weird combo but it was the easiest thing we could do for 9 people on short notice (We thought we would have dinner at the hotel we were staying at, but it closed its services).
• Windy mountain roads are even more fun in the rain (right Carla ;-))
• Horse riding in the mud
• Amazing Christmas dinner
• Mountains- Yes grandpa there ARE mountains in Lesotho!!

Kosi Bay
• Lake system boat ride
• Hippos and birdlife
• Monkeys on the deck eating a mango at 3:30 a.m.
• Watched a Loggerhead turtle come up the beach, lay its eggs, bury them and go back to the ocean (long walk on the beach)
• Snorkeling (Devil Fish and Morrey Eels)

Victoria Falls (Zimbabwe side)
• Victoria Falls Hotel (a colonial beauty)
• Depressed economy (shelves were empty at the store and restaurants had more things missing from the menu than on them)
• Curio Markets and aggressive traders
• Bungee Jumping (only Jason)
• Gorge Swinging (unbelievable and again only Jason did this)
• Gorge Zip-Line
• River Cruise (that we missed because of the bungee jumping)
• The Falls (the awesome power of the Victoria Falls)
• Elephant interaction and riding
• Walk with lion cubs (so cool)
• Being chased by monkeys (both Janeen and Andy had an unwelcome monkey encounter)

Sabi Sands Reserve (Vuyetela)
• Big 5 Action (Lions, Elephants, Buffalo, Rhino (white), and a Leopard!! So cool)
• Best Massage in a year
• Lazy Afternoons in the plunge pool
• Amazing food!
• Great service
• Saying good-bye to family for another year 

Of course this is just a list of what we did and doesn’t really tell you anything about them. If you want to know about anything in further detail, either Janeen or I would love to fill you in. All you have to do is drop us a little message at either janeen_samuelian@yahoo.com or jason.samuelian@gmail.com and we will get back to you with details about a specific thing. We would love to be able to write about all of them but it would make a blog of like 20 pages and we know that you have lives and jobs that need attending too.

We know that many of you also would like to see what we did. For this we left it up to our family of paparazzi that followed us around. Janeen’s grandfather, father and brother all had really nice cameras so we just let them be our official photographers for this vacation. To view the photos all you have to do is go to Andy & Mari’s website at www.thelansfords.com From there you can read about their perspective of the vacation and check out some of our older photos from Lesotho and some new ones from this last vacation.

Let me know if you want to hear about anything in particular, otherwise I am just going to bore you with what is happening this year and what to expect from us in the upcoming year.

We love and miss you all.
Jason

January 10, 2008 (written by Janeen)
Jason did a great job at summarizing our trip. I tried to do that in a letter to his parents and it took me about 3 pages- hand written. So, mom and dad Sam expect a novel sometime soon. That is, of course, if it actually gets to you. Jason and Andy have kinda had a correspondence poker game going since we’ve been gone. I say kinda because it takes a long time, Andy took FOREVER to respond and they’ve pretty much just done 2 hands in 14 months! (Yes, I can still rile my brother up even though I am thousands of miles away!) Anyway back on track here… Jason folded his hand and we mailed the cards back to Andy in a letter sent back in September (Yes, I keep a list of the letters I send. Have you noticed that there is a small number on the left hand corner of the envelope?) and Andy hasn’t received that letter. So that saddens me to know that some letters are not getting back home. But, I guess if only a few don’t make it that is a pretty good percentage being that I have written about 325 since we’ve been gone. I respond to all letters or packages that are sent to us. So if you’ve written a letter and have not gotten a response, we either never got the letter OR my response is lost in post office space.

Today was the first day back on the job. We had a staff meeting that was supposed to start at 9:00am, but didn’t start until 10:00am because some members of staff weren’t here. This same meeting went until 3:00pm. There was sort of a break when the heads of departments were meeting to discuss which teachers would teach what classes, but we all had to hang around because there was not a specified time to meet back. At the end of the meeting it was discussed that we should start on time. I also put my two cents in that we should designate an end time and stay on task so that we can be done at a reasonable time. I didn’t mention this, but I think that it might even be helpful if the agenda was drawn ahead of time so that if there were other issues that needed to be addressed, staff members could bring them to the administration to either put them on the agenda or be saved for a later date. Maybe this is just my Americanism coming forth, but it does seem that the teachers here have other things they need to do and that they value their time and don’t want it wasted. Many times I feel like things can be done more efficiently, but maybe my culture is just different than theirs. Maybe they want the whole staff to be involved in decision making that I would deem fit for the administration. I just don’t know. Regardless I am only here for one more school year and I am still learning a lot even if I get frustrated sometimes.

We got the results back from the Junior Certificate exam (taken by Form C students) and our school did fairly well. We got 9 merit passes which is less than last year, but everyone was worried and in crisis-mode over these students that these results were not expected. We did have 5 failures, which they were upset about, but not surprised. One of the failures was a girl who got pregnant during the winter was expelled from school and went into labor while writing her exams. Needless to say she did not complete all of her exams so she failed. I am teaching 2 classes of Form C this year and the pressure is on to get good results. Not a single student earned an “A” in English from our school, so my goal is to get at least one. My principal says 20, but I try to be more realistic. I’ll of course be back in the good ‘ol US of A when the results are out, but will still be very interested in how my students perform.

I am working on a series of study skills workshops to do with students at the beginning of the year. I brought it to the attention of staff today and the idea was well received. I had 4 teachers volunteer to help, which I was very happy about. This way if it turns out to be good, they can continue teaching them when I am gone. I am also trying to type out a curriculum so that I can share it with other Peace Corps volunteers.

Today I also found out my work load. I will be teaching 3 more class periods than last year, and I will have different classes. I am kinda bummed about that and asked to switch, but it didn’t work out. I will have C1 (had them), C4 (new), B1 (had them), and A1 (new). I wanted to teach C1, C2, B1, and B2 to keep all my students since I know their names and their abilities. My head of department said that they wanted me to teach one form A class to help lay the foundation for their later years. Oh well, I’ll just have to learn about 100 new faces and names. I did it once, I’m sure I can do it again. The part about teaching 3 extra hours I am not stoked about since I have other things I want to work on like the study skills workshops, but I don’t always get what I want (despite what my husband might say!!).

Now that I’ve written a novel (sorry!), I have only one more thing to say. Thank you to all of you who have sent us packages and letters. We had another Christmas when we returned home from vacation and opened 11 packages! Five of them were those from my mom and grandparents that were being held hostage with a ridiculous tax rate since October. They were finally released for the bargain price of 10 Rand each! I have been working hard to respond to letters that we got while out on vacation. I’ve written about 15 since we’ve been back and still have 7 letters waiting for responses. I’ll try to get them done before school starts on the 21st because after that my main focus will be school and hanging out with my hubby (he doesn’t like it when I ignore him and write letters).

We’ll be home this year! YIPPEEEEE! Is it bad that we are already counting down? There are only 11 months until we are home. I’m told the second year goes by too fast, but I think I am OK with that.

Love you and miss you all,
Janeen

December 5, 2007 (written by Janeen)

2008-01-03T09:04:00.000+02:00

Well I have been in Maseru since Sunday and have not had a chance to write a blog. Everytime I've come to get on the computers there have been several people waiting and all I've had time to do (without feeling guilty) is read my emails.

Things are going well. I am here helping with training of the new group. They are practice teaching this week. A school is having a summer session strictly for the new volunteers to practice. I think it is great practice for them and they are doing really well and responding to our critiques. I'm almost running out of suggestions!

There are less than three weeks until the whole Lansford clan comes out to Lesotho and we are really looking forward to their arrival. It will make it much easier being away from home for Christmas! Fortunately we get to go to Cape Town before they arrive. I think it would be pretty torturous having not all that much to do while we waited for them to arrive.

I am getting my mid-service medical done while I am here. So far all I've done is my TB test. It's only been 24 hours, but I am pretty sure that I am TB free (which is actually a good thing because some volunteers do get TB). I'll be sure to let you all know the final results after I find out tomorrow!

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season. We've been getting into the spirit by playing Christmas music, but somehow it feels strange singing along to wintry songs in summer, but it makes me happy! Miss you and love you all!

January 3, 2008 (written by Janeen)

2008-01-03T08:55:00.000+02:00

Happy New Year! We hope that everyone is enjoying 2008 so far! We had a great Christmas and are enjoying spending time with family. We miss you all and will get a good update typed out when all settles down a bit. Be prepared for "Back from Vacation" blues from us!

2007-11-26T21:04:00.001+02:00

November 26, 2006 (written by Janeen)

Today feels a little more like the Christmas season. I put up the few decorations we have and we are listening to Christmas music. It’s fun!

Here is the anticipated list that I promised in my last blog. I know the suspense is high!!!

As the anniversary of being in Lesotho has come and gone, I thought I’d create a list of things that I have learned and how I’ve changed.

Things I’ve Learned and How I’ve Changed

I can now bridge cards when shuffling

I am willing to try new foods and have found that I do like onions. I’ve even gone so far as eaten some raw, though I still don’t want to put them on my hamburgers.

Sadly, I have become more cynical and jaded. Many people want to help poor people in developing countries and their way of helping is often sending money. I know that a lot of money is being sent to Lesotho in general. It doesn’t seem to be helping the people that need it most, but the ministers get to drive around in Mercedes Benz cars. Does that sound right?!?!

I have a new love for cats. Don’t worry I have not become a cat lady, but I no longer fear them and even would go as far as saying that I love the little guy that we’ve got! AND I wouldn’t be opposed to having a cat when I get home.

We’ve changed the way we shop for food. This is mainly out of necessity, but we make a list of the meals we want to eat for the week and only buy the things we need. This has also changed how we eat. If we didn’t buy snack food, we don’t eat snack food. Of course its not like home where you can jump in your car when you have a craving. We have to walk to the road, wait for a taxi, & ride to town. It is a pretty big deal! Needless to say we’ve both lost weight. I gained some back after the vacation with Jason’s family, but we both look and feel healthy. We hope that we can keep that trend going when we get home!

I am now afraid of dogs. At least I am here in Lesotho. Even the ones that look cute can run at you out of the blue. They are trained to be mean and they are. Jason has been rushed at and almost attacked at least 3 times. I wouldn’t hesitate to throw a rock at a dog if I felt I was in danger, and that wasn’t the case when I first arrived.

I’ve learned that making fresh bread is not only delicious but rewarding, especially if you tried something new. Today I just made ginger bread and it was pretty good for a first attempt.

I’ve learned that you can make some pretty neat toys with what you may normally just throw away.

I’ve realized that we make A LOT of trash. We’ve tried to cut down by utilizing every last resource and making a compost pile, but we still have a large footprint on the earth. I’ll keep this in mind when I get home and hopefully keep the same ideals of making the smallest footprint possible. In fact I have told Jason that when we shop for a house, finding a community that recycles is important to me.

I’ve learned that you can bake almost anything in a Dutch oven.

I’ve learned to appreciate all the resources we have at home. You don’t realize what you’ve got until its gone!

I’ve learned how to bathe with a small amount of water. Albeit, I still enjoy some nice long hot showers.

I’ve learned to appreciate the rain. At home I looked at is as a nuisance that made my hair frizzy and made all the California drivers forget how to drive. Here, I see it as a necessity and it is especially for those who depend on their fields to support them. In fact, I get excited when it rains here. I even jumped up and down with joy when the first rains of the season came.

I have learned to be more patient. The emphasis here is on the more as I have not perfected this trait and don’t think I ever will. There is a part of me that screams inside every time we have a staff meeting that takes three hours when it could have been done in one.

I have found that it is pretty cool to be able to go outside to your garden
and pick fresh vegetables for a meal. Of course all I have done to help with the garden is provide student workers (weeding is a good punishment) and I occasionally water the garden. I give Jason all the credit for the success. We have corn, green beans, peas, sunflowers, tomatoes, cucumber, rape, swiss chard, onions, basil, cilantro, green squash, and carrots. Its SWEET!

I’ve been reassured that God provides for us. We get paid quarterly which makes it difficult to budget for 3 months on an already small salary. We usually are penny pinching towards the end of the pay period, but we always seem to make it. This last time we got a generous gift from a couple of Irish people who were visiting Lesotho and that helped get us through without stress to the next pay check.

I’ve learned that there will always be challenges and you have to give it all you got and just accept that everything is not going to be perfect.

That is about all I can think of for now. I’ll update my list as I think of more. Hope you enjoyed reading it!

November 26th, 2007

Hey to all my friends and family around the globe. It has been a few weeks since I have written anything other than my Thanksgiving wishes. I hope that you are all enjoying the holiday season (Hanukkah starts on Dec. 4th) and are enjoying all those sweet foods and wonderful parties. We are not alone (lots of friends) here and that makes being away from you a little bit easier.

Despite some sad news last week (my favorite teacher’s husband died) we are doing really pretty well. As you have read in Janeen’s blog we are learning a lot about ourselves and our world. The fun part is that we get to impart some of this knowledge onto our fellow volunteers. Last week Janeen and I did 3 days of technical training with the new group. They are 23 bright and eager people from a variety of different backgrounds and places around the U.S. It is really nice being around their optimism and exuberant energy. It refreshes the body and soul.

On top of being around those positive new people, we were also invited to go to the American Ambassadors house for Thanksgiving dinner. We wouldn’t really have been normally invited but he had invited all of the trainees to dinner and since we were in town we got a chance to go with them. Let me tell you, it was awesome. We arrived about an hour before dinner after a long day of thundershowers. It was cool but not cold and he had a heated pool for us to swim in. Now I have not swam in a heated pool for maybe a year and a half and after living in Lesotho for so long it really did feel like a giant chlorinated bath. It was pretty outstanding.

After swimming and playing the mandatory pool games (marco polo, colors, etc.) we sat down to a huge feast. I have eaten well here at funerals or other parties but we Americans know how to party. There were approximately 40 people there and we had 4 turkeys with like 12 sides. This does not include all the chips and fresh veggie platters before dinner. These were all washed down with beer, wine and soda provided by the Ambassador. After dinner we enjoyed all 6 desserts. That’s right 6 desserts. We definitely pigged out. I had to sit down multiple times after dinner and just breathe so that I would not go into food shock. It was pretty great!

All in all though I would say the best part of being at the ambassadors was the way that he made us feel. Our previous ambassador did not exactly reach out to Peace Corps as part of the mission in Lesotho. In contrast the current ambassador expressed his feeling of gratitude to us as members of the greater mission of the United States government and welcomed us as informal ambassadors to the country of Lesotho. He really made us feel like we are part of something larger than ourselves and even though we don’t get all the perks and respect of the state department people, we are still important to what is going on here. It was a really nice thing to hear especially at this point in our service.

I concluded the evening running around and playing with kids for about an hour (doesn’t sound like me at all right? Could have been rubbing shoulders with the ambassador instead I was the clown for the kids. Man where are my priorities?). It was a blast. I don’t really get to do it all that often at school because if you play with 1 child in 2 minutes you will have 100 around you. This can be seriously overwhelming. So I enjoyed not having more than 5 at one time that I would get mobbed by. It was really fun. I was a tickle monster.

So now we are back home. It rained really well today. We are happy about that to be sure. We hope that the weather wherever you are is good and that you are happy and safe.

All the best, Jason

November 24, 2007(written by Janeen)

Well it has been quite some time since I have last written a blog. The last month or so I have been busy with school, but I am happy to say that on November 21st I finished my last obligation for the school year. I am done grading, done with meetings, done with everything for 2 months! School starts again January 21st. Of course I still have projects to work on, but I can take a very relaxed pace. AND even better is that we have family coming in less than a month! YIPPEE! Mom, Dad, Grandma & Grandpa Lansford, Andy, Mari, & Lynette all arrive December 23rd. We’ll definitely be having a Merry Christmas here!

Jason and I just finished two days helping train the new group of education volunteers. Today they are going to the village. I can remember the strange overwhelming feeling of going to the village and having NO IDEA what they were saying to me. I just told some of them the story about how our mother wanted us to iron the clothes we were wearing. The situation went something like this: When she mentioned something about ironing, I brought different clothes for her to iron. Then I took the ironing board into our bedroom thinking she wanted me to iron there. Finally after at least 20 minutes or so, we changed clothes so that she could iron the clothes we were wearing. My skirt was a peasant style skirt that is supposed to be wrinkled, so she struggled to iron that and I didn’t have the heart (or the words) to tell her not to iron it. So I had creased ironed in wrinkles on my skirt that day!!

Since we have now passed the year mark, (Yes we have been gone a year now!) I’ve been thinking about making a list talking about how I’ve changed and what I’ve learned. Now that I’ll have more time at home I’ll be sure to get on that and get it posted. Some things will be funny, some will be sad, and some neutral. Here’s one example: I have learned how to bridge when shuffling cards. Some of you may not be impressed, but it is something I’ve always wanted to be able to do and just thought that I was completely incompetent, BUT I have learned that I am not! You should all be proud!

Well I need to sign off now so I can make it to the post office before it closes. We’ve had some difficulties with packages here. Lesotho started charging outrageous taxes to pick up boxes. It has been fixed and we recently got 3 packages (1 from Gma & Gpa D & 2 from Aunt Sharon & Uncle Bob—Thanks!) without the taxes, but we have 5 waiting for us that we could not afford to pick up. For some reason the Maseru post office can’t relay the message of canceling the fees to our post office. So, I have to run to the post office today and get some proof that the taxes should be removed in order to pick up the 5 packages waiting for us! Whew! Now after explaining all that I really have to go!

We send our love to all of you and are certainly thinking of all our friends and family as the Christmas holiday approaches.

We hope you have a wonderful season.

2007-11-23T09:32:00.000+02:00

November 22, 2007 (written by Jason and Janeen)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! We love and miss you all and we hope that you have a happy and healthy holiday!! All our Love

2007-11-10T10:30:00.000+02:00

November 10, 2007 (written by Jason)

Hey all the peoples in the world. It is Jason yet again. I know you are all thinking, 'why hasn't Janeen written a blog in a while'? The short answer is, is that she is marking like a mad woman. You see our jobs are inherenetly different. She has a lot of marking at the end of the quarters while I have very little work all the time. So I have time to do things like read, blog, ponder the deep questions of life and other such endevours. Thus many of you can spend you days (or nights) being bored to death by my irrelevant comments about life and the nature of things.

Life is getting back to somewhat semblance of normallcy. I am in Maseru for a meeting and because of this I will be missing the funeral of Motlatsi. I am pretty good about this though as I am slowly coming to terms with his death and what that means at large. I am feeling really weird about being so self-absorbed about this. I mean, he was 16 years old. His family seems to be taking it in stride but I am having a really hard time moving past it. It affected my whole last week and I was a rather large pain in the butt to live with (sorry Janeen).

I will work this out but it is just really stupid. I don't want to feel bad about feeling bad, but what can you do?
Otherwise, we still don't know anything about the packages. We will keep you up to date as we love getting packages here. It really makes us happy when we open them and see all the love poured out on us. Please keep sending letters and cards. We love those just as much.

My best friend comes in just 17 days and I am PUMPED!! Can't wait to see him.

All the best
Jason

2007-11-05T19:00:00.000+02:00

November 5, 2007 (written by Jason)

So last week I wrote a really emotional e-mail. I really appreciate all the words of encouragement. It has been a long and really weird week. It was emotional going to school today talking to the teachers about the funeral and working out how it is going to work. It looks like due to a prior commitment that I won’t be going to the boy’s funeral. I think that this is probably better for me anyway. I am going to go to the families house on Thursday and pay my respects then.

The crazy part is that we have been gone now for exactly 1 year. We had our going away party on the 3rd of last year. We then left for Washington on the 4th really early in the morning. I can’t believe that this year has already flown by. It is totally nuts. We have had our ups and downs here but I still feel that we are happy to have come.

One thing that is frustrating is that the postal service here has decided that it is going to start charging sales tax (on what exactly we still don’t know) that is about 20 to 30 US dollars per package. Needless to say because our salaries are around 250 dollars they are sitting in storage until we get paid or they revoke the sales tax. My favorite part about all this is that the post office never notified us that this change would take place. We just went in one day and the charge had increased by 500%. It is so the way things sometimes work here. Cracks me up!
Well I hope that you are all doing good. We love and miss you all. Drop us a line if you get a chance!
Peace Corps Out!
Jason

2007-11-01T09:29:00.000+02:00

November 1, 2007 (written by Jason)

Hello to all the readers around the globe. I hope that as you are reading this that you are happy and healthy. Life here is an up and down journey as I know that many of your lives are as well. Last time I posted a rather extensive blog (one person even called it a novel). I am really sorry about that but I am trying to get you to understand the depth and gravitas of what we are experiencing here.

Along that line, almost immediately after I posted the blog I wrote last week, a teacher from one of my schools called me to notify me that one of our students had passed away. His name was Motlatsi and he was in standard 6 (Sixth Grade). He was a young and beautiful person. He was one of the few students that took it upon themselves to really engage me as an adult and as a person. He was tall and handsome and his singing voice rang exquisitely above all the rest as he sang in the school choir.

I think what is most difficult about this is that he probably died of something that if he were in a country where his health was monitored and the right medicines were administered, he may have gone on to be a productive and integral part of figuring things out in this country. The death of one so young with so much promise makes my heart heavy with the tears I can not shed. I feel nothing but regret and sadness but my heart won’t let me weep. I think this is part of the self-preservation that takes place here.

We are ensconced in so much death. Basotho family members, colleagues, neighbors and students die every week. With the prevalence of HIV/AIDS in our country we see funeral tents up all around the country side on Friday and Saturday (the traditional days to bury someone here). We become callused to these events.

Yet when someone young or close dies, it rips the callus of our hearts and exposes the raw flesh underneath. We have little to buffer us from the blow that this brings to us. It is so real and so raw, it is difficult to know what to do with this. We sit and we try and understand why but we are often found wanting.

All the best
Jason

2007-10-26T10:01:00.000+02:00

October 26th, 2007 (written by Jason)

Hey all! How cool is it that I have been able to post a blog twice this week? I mean man this is the cat’s pajamas. I really appreciate all the well wishers that sent me their stories telling me about their experiences with being sick. I am currently asking them if I can post them because they are super funny. Not to make fun of their pain but so that you can feel their pain as I did and put perspective on how I felt this week.
I am fine today, finally. I missed 3 days of work this week; 2 because of my sickness and today because the weather is getting nasty. So I am making the most of it by posting another blog and sending out a message of love and inspiration to you. You guys are all so good to us. The people that have sent care packages, and you know who you are and those many of you who have sent e-mails and letters, have really blessed our hearts.

Many of you have heard that we have a few students staying with us because of their mothers lack of funds to pay for housing for them. We have decided that because of the shear size of our house that we would open our doors to them and give them a free place to stay.
This has been one of the most rewarding parts of our service thus far. I see in a personal way the way I am able to influence these kids to make good decisions and teach them discipline in their lives. We are also able to provide them with new foods and experiences that they would not normally have (pizza, lentil burgers, stir-fry, etc.). It is really a neat little family we have founded here. In many ways I feel that we get more out of them than they get from us.

Peace Corps service is filled with all sorts of highs and lows. This year we have been stuck in the monotonous routine of daily schedules like many of you back home and have experienced all sorts of interesting and strange cultural interaction that is far from the normative. I want to share a letter that a friend and colleague wrote some time ago. She is far more insightful and reflective on life here, than I have been in the numerous blogs I have written. I hope you enjoy her letter and that it gives you a small picture as to life here.

Just so you know you can write us anytime regarding any questions you have and I would love to expound on them in detail. Love you all
Jason

Taken from http://www.bu.edu/africa/outreach/outside_do.html

Knowledge is like a baobab tree -- no two hands can encompass it." (Ghanaian proverb)
March 24, 2007
Public Letter #7:
"What Can I Send You?"
This letter is tough to write and maybe tough to read. It's my answer to your question, "What can I send you? What do you need?" Maybe you've asked it and maybe I've answered, "Soccer balls for children. Sports bras for teen girls on the track team. Easy-to-read books for students and 2007 calendars for schools. Hands-on activity books for teachers."

But these are not things that people in my village truly need. They are short-gap answers – things that you can send and I can give that make both of us, as Americans, feel good, feel like we've addressed, in some small way, the poverty that is Africa.

But poverty is huge, grinding, complex, layered. It has no easy solution. The soccer balls get confiscated by older kids or punctured on barbed wire fences. The girls' running team disbands because the teacher is "sick." Books are locked away in the principal's office. A teacher decides she has no time to do hands-on learning activities because she's pressured to keep up with the syllabus.

It's like giving a child candy – the pleasure is momentary, for the child and the giver. The candy solves no major problem, perhaps even creates one.

What Kids Need is Education

What the children need is education – school fees and school texts for secondary school, school shoes and school uniforms for standards (grades) 1-12. School uniforms cost $10 - $30; shoes cost $10-$30 and feet keep growing; a year of high school texts costs $35; high school fees range from $150 to $800/year, depending on the school. These are huge amounts for a country whose people live on $1 or $2/day = just $400-$1000/year. I remember the Tibetan community trying to get us Madisonians each to support one child in Daramsala, northern India, for $245/year. While it was an attractive idea for me, I never did it. I figured I was putting out thousands of dollars a year for "my own" Tibetan refugee family, and that was enough.

Like you, I also saw the "Adopt a Child" ads in the back of magazines. Now I'm at the other side of those glossy photos, and I see that "adopting a child" truly makes a difference in a child's life. Education is one answer. If you want to help one child, send money to Friends of Lesotho. They are helping us Peace Corps Volunteers provide high school scholarships – we can each nominate five village children, and I've already located my five. Each will receive 500 Rand ($90) toward school fees – a great program. ( www.friendsoflesotho.org) Mention my name. Maybe we can get 100 drop-outs and orphans back in school.

What Adults Need Are Jobs

But Lesotho doesn't need to save one child – it needs to support 100,000 orphans, and to give education to ALL its children. To do this, yes, it needs help from outside Lesotho. But the country needs jobs. Parents want to support and educate their OWN children and the nieces and nephews of their sisters and brothers who've died, who've they promised, on deathbeds, in tears, that yes, they'd look after the children. So it's jobs we need, if we're to educate children.

And where are the jobs? For Basotho people, jobs are not in Lesotho. Just a few government jobs, which are shabby, which lack the infrastructure that makes government effective, and which invite "dipping into the till." Oh, one can be a driver of taxi's, or a farmer, or a shop keeper, but here we're talking about eeking by – taking the small, sweating coins of one's neighbors.

There are jobs in South Africa – grueling jobs in the diamond or copper mines or in textile factories owned by the Chinese. There are jobs in America – for doctors, scientists, professors. So Lesotho sends its strong and able men, its educated men and women, far away. Do they come back? Do they better Lesotho? They do, but it's not a viable solution. The men in South Africa come back shells of men, and they bring HIV/AIDS. The sisters and brothers in America help younger siblings come to America, leaving elderly mothers in the village, without help for everyday chores, without daughters and sons for everyday laughter.

The World Steals from Africa

Lesotho is a country / Africa is a continent stripped of resources, from its diamonds and spices and endangered species to its doctors and nurses and writers. The world has taken from Africa, but not given back. It's a continent of 52 countries, unconnected by highways, airports, trains or train tracks, ships or shipping companies. A company from China or Germany opens a factory here, creates "jobs" (cheap labor). The company does not build an Interstate highway. It builds a little highway or water way that is unashamedly direct – from the factory to the port, or from the factory to the airport. It must make a profit; it cannot afford to build a road for the "people."

It's easy for Americans to think of Africa being poor, a wasteland, a pit of problems. It's harder for us to acknowledge or research how much of our greatness, how much of our wealth came and continues to come from African mines, mountains, veldts. It's harder to count how many nurses and doctors in our hospitals and HMO's come from countries with African names, how many professors in our in our universities represent the best and brightest of their own countries. It's harder yet to see how inter-locking directorates of global corporations (South African Airlines / Shell Oil / KFC / banks) skim the cream off the continent. Africa staffs and supplies not just North America, but also South America, China, Europe.

So, yes, please keep sending the soccer balls and children's books. But know they are not really what my village needs.

What My Village Needs

It is hard for you to send initiative and problem solving skills. That's what my village needs. When you think how you yourself learned "initiative" and "problem solving", you'll think of a long line of experiences, tiny successes that came from kindergarten (which we don't have here), summer camp (which we don't have here), sports teams (which we don't have here), singing in a musical or acting in a play (no after-school activities here), or the attention of a gifted teacher or doting relative (which hardly exist in this adult-impoverished society).

The hardest time of day for me here is 4 pm in the afternoon. I usually need to walk uptown to buy some tomatoes or to go to the post office. Schools are out, and the road is lined with kids, still in their school uniforms, with NOTHING to do. They just "hang." Well, teens everywhere like to hang, talk to best friends, call out and tease classmates, flirt with the older boys (taxi drivers), smoke their first cigarettes. But teens in many other countries have options – they can work on a computer; play on a soccer team; do homework using charts, graphs, calculators, magic markers, glitter; go to a mall; read a magazine in a library. They can take ballet or piano lessons or play in a garage band. They might own or be able to use a camera, an i-pod, a CD player, a camera phone. All these create early experiences with initiative and problem solving.

My high school teacher Volunteer friend Sara up the hill says that when she gives her kids an assignment to compose, "How I'd solve Lesotho's problems if I were Prime Minister," they all write, "I'd ask America for more money."

In Lesotho, problem solving and funding and new projects come from the Outside. Someone like me turns up (virtually unsolicited), in a village so people ask, "What can you give us?" That was what I encountered my first day here (Public Letter #4 – One Day Down, 724 to Go). It's what I meet daily, in various forms. Kids say, "Give me money?" "Give me candy?" Adults say, "When are you going to invite me to dinner?" "When are you going to do a workshop at my school?"

What White People Are Good For

White people arepeople who are here briefly, who go away, who somehow have access to resources that the village doesn't. Get what you can, while you can.

Peace Corps asks us to create SUSTAINABLE projects. The country is a skeleton of past projects brought by various NGO's (non-governmental organizations like Red Cross or World Vision, etc.) Clinics unstaffed; empty teacher resource centers used as a place to urinate; shells of buildings with peeling signs in front of them, like "GDZ Germany Seedling Center" or "Community Sewing School." The volunteer leaves, the project collapses.

It's not because people are lazy – it's because they are not skilled, not confident, not persistent, don't have telephone networks and acquaintance networks and computer networks to put them in touch with real help. Volunteers can start a project; we can seldom stick around to maintain it.

What I call "initiative" and "problem solving skills" are in reality skills built on huge, interlinked infrastructure systems. Infrastructure – it's a boring word – but it's what my village needs. Roads that lead somewhere; a public official who can get you a service you need; a service that is hooked to other services.

The idea that a Peace Corps Volunteer can do anything more than be friendly to neighborhood kids and teach a few people a few things is pretty ridiculous. Do we need 10,000 computers – which I might write a grant for? No – we need 10,000,000 computers. Do we need 2,000 trees planted – which I might help with? No – we need 2,000,000,000 trees planted. Do we need South Africa to complete Phase II of the Katze Dam and pay us $2.65 million Rand a year for the water? No – we need South Africa to help us train a generation of hydro-engineers, so we can manage our own damn dam, and by the way, the price should be $2.65 million Rand per day, not per year.

That's what we need. Some hard negotiators who quit giving away the continent.

And Now for The Good News

To end on a positive note – two items:I recently sent a set of 90 slides on a CD for a PowerPoint presentation for the Wisconsin Council for the Social Studies conference. We did a "live by telephone" interconnect, with me yakking in the background on a speaker phone, while the slides cycled through. What I tried to show in the slides was the absolute, stark beauty of this country, and the joy and resourcefulness of children. Children here, without "options" or "infrastructure" and with few adults in their lives, create volumes of laughter, joy, fun, games. They are strong, lovely, imaginative. The slides show them building clay animals with mud from the river, playing games with old wheel rims, playing dolls and house with scraps from the trash heap. They are merry and strong. I think many American kids would love their freedom to roam, and their dawn-to-dusk days outdoors amidst majestic mountains and bleating baby goats and meandering river gullies.

With a bit of inquiry (initiative, problem solving), I think you can get your hands on a copy of the CD, if you'd like to see it or to show it to your kids.

The second positive thought I have about what you can "do" for Africa is what you are already doing – loving children and giving them genuine attention, building stronger local communities with community planning and recycling, teaching problem solving and initiative, being empathetic, working to end the wars in Iraq and in the Sudan, writing me letters to reflect on our shared lives on this planet. These are the things that matter, that in the long run help Africa and help America. Africa's problems will be solved by a world of educated and empathetic people, by a planet not racked by global warming, by governments not at war, by a sense that we are a global community and must reprioritize resources for "people."

What can I send YOU?

I send you love from Lesotho. Autumn is on its way. The mornings are now often chilly. Inside my rondavel the candle is burning; the two teen boys who live with 'M'e Mabokang in the big(ger) house are laughing, bringing buckets of water. Our rooster is crowing. A new day dawns.

Madeline / Sesotho name "M'e Lerato" (Lerato = Love)

NOTE ADDRESS**:1/2007 – 11/30/08
Madeline Uraneck / ('M'e Lerato)
PO Box 172Mt. Morosi, 750 LESOTHO AFRICA
E-mail – for best results e-mail it AND air mail it. 90 cents to air mail a letter from USA to Lesothoglobalmaddy@gmail.com (I get to Internet sites only rarely)
After 1/2009:C/o Marilee Sushoreba1818 Adams StreetMadison WI 53711 *** USA(608) 255-0772 E-mail: msushore@facstaff.wisc.edu**

(Any mail previously sent to Maseru will reach me, don't worry)

PREVIOUS PUBLIC LETTERS
Request them (one or two – not all) from my sister Susan in Oregon: s_uraneck@yahoo.com
1. First Impressions (November 11, 2006) – via e-mail
2. First Impressions, Continued: A Mountain Village (November 16, 2006) - hand-written
3. HIV/AIDS in Lesotho (December 4, 2006) – via e-mailPublished in WorldView Magazine
4. What's Your Name? 4 Weeks in a Basotho Village (December 31, 2006) – via e-mail
5. One Day Down: 724 to go (January 3, 2007) – via e-mail
6. Collecting Best Days (February 26, 2007) – via e-mail
7. What Can I Send You? (March 24, 2007) – via e-mail

Why I hate being sick...

2007-10-22T14:04:00.000+02:00

October 22, 2007 (written by Jason)

So today I am sick. Yeah I know we all get sick it is just part of life. But this is the annoying sick. Not the debilitating sick that some of us get from time to time. This is the swollen throat, itchy eyes, achy muscles sick that could go one of two ways. It could be done and over with tomorrow, to where I feel good enough to return to work. Or I could slide farther down into the hole that is sick and not get out of bed. Now if I had my choice I would rather go to work tomorrow. Sure there might not be a lot to do there (I mean there is tons to do but very little that gets done), but it sure beats sitting around the house all day. Even if I did get the internet back up!

That does rock by the way! Now I can hear from you. Tell me about the worst time you got sick. Where were you? Did you have anybody to take care of you? Give me the gory details. I hope that this at least makes you laugh!

And I hope too that tomorrow finds me on my way to school and not stuck trying to stay warm eating soup and lying around.
All the best
Jason

October 21, 2007 (written by Janeen)

2007-10-21T14:59:00.000+02:00

Well I am in Maseru and will be here all week! If you want to send an email, I'll be likely to respond! Yes, we are still alive despite the absence of a new blog post! :) Here is what we've written recently (one from Jason and a boring one from me).

October 20, 2007(written by Jason)
Hello to all my peeps out there in cyberland! This is Jason coming at you for the first time in 2 months or so. What is up with that? I promised that I would do my best to be on top of blogging so that I would make sure that you weren’t left out in the cold as to what is going on with us. I have failed you all and for that I am deeply sorry.

But now I have the chance to make up for lost time. I am going to come to you with a super long special edition (that most of you will probably just ignore anyway! he he he). As you can tell I am in kind of a giddy mood this morning. I made pancakes and coffee and that just puts in me in a good mood I guess. This is also the first blog that I am writing from the laptop that my parents lugged to Lesotho on their vacation, but I am getting way ahead of myself.

These last few months flew by with my birthday, my family coming to visit and lots of other little activities thrown in to keep us exceedingly busy. Way back in the beginning of September, the Education group of 2005-2007 had their COS (close of service) conference. I got a chance to be there as I am part of the group known as PSN (peer support network) to do a session on grief and loss. It sounds like a crappy topic to talk about but it is really important as Peace Corps volunteers we are thrown in the midst of a hectic life and have very few opportunities to actually reflect about what we are going through and what that means to us a people in the great big world. It was a great session and I cried (if you know me you know that is really not that strange. I cry at Kodak commercials like Lloyd and Harry in Dumb and Dumber).

After that, we had my birthday party. I can’t believe that I am already 28 years old. I know that for some of you out there that 28 seems very young and that you would give your right ear (or maybe a finger nail) to be 28 again. However to me, 28 is getting up there. Most of my friends, from what I hear are already having their second or third child, while Janeen and I are still globe trotting, playing development worker and what not. It is not that I am not happy about that but I definitely won’t be a millionaire before 30, unless something drastic happens in the year when I get home. But that is ok too. Too much pressure sometimes is put on making money and not enough is put on living life and that is definitely what Janeen and I are doing. We are making the most of our crazy lives and are having a blast doing it.

Lesotho as we have said has had a rather large drought for some time. Well the day after my family arrived for their vacation with us, the heavens decided that it was time for a thorough soaking of this parched country. My brother claims that he has a direct line to God and that his prayers made the difference. We seem to think that God was just impressed to hear from Mike and decided to show him what was up. The funny part is since it started raining, it hasn’t really let up. I mean some rain is good; a lot of rain is better but flooding rains, come on already. My buddy up the hill or mountain lives in a village that you have to cross a river by boat to get there and he said that 2 people have drowned in the last month. So thanks a lot Mike!! Way to go!

More about my family's visit. What can I tell you? They came, they saw, they cried…The story behind this is that my school that I work for wanted to do something nice for my family. So, they put the whole school in the large building and had songs and speeches, a traditional way to honor people in this culture. Then at the end of the celebration, they brought out some gifts for my mom and my brothers fiancé. This was when the water works turned on. I mean they went for it too. It was at this time that my teachers began to worry that they had insulted my family or something. You see, crying is not that common amongst adults here except at funerals or if your football team loses. So when they saw them crying when they brought out the gifts, they got a very frightened looks on their faces. I had to explain that they were crying out of happiness and that they should not be worried. This seemed to amuse them, but I don’t think that they really fully believed me.

We had a great time traveling around in our little car, seeing many parts of the Southern Africa region before they had to head back home. It was really a great time to be together even if my parents did think that they were going into the middle of the bush. In case I haven’t said this in the past, Lesotho is not the bush. It is sparsely vegetated and even less so after a long drought. So if you think that I have to hack my way through the jungle to get to school, readjust your radar to think of something like New Mexico or Arizona.

Now we are back into somewhat normal life here. I am clocking the KM away on my bike as I have ridden it 9 times in the last 14 days. School is also winding down for us and I am trying to get my teachers to start preparing for next year and the years after that by encouraging small changes to the way they teach. This week for example, I taught my class 1/2 teacher to do a morning introduction activity that involved the date, the weather, the alphabet and some songs. It sounds rather basic but this was a huge improvement for this teacher. She loves it, the kids love it and I am just glad to see them doing something that I recommend. All in all a pretty big success in a land with few success to be had.

Just so you know, my family is thinking about putting together a project to help my school. I will be writing more about that including putting the proposal up in the following weeks. If you are interested in helping, shoot me an e-mail and I can give you more details. Until then please don’t forget to write (e-mail, snail mail, carrier pigeon, whatever). We love getting little notes hearing what you are up to. Also make sure to pass these sites on to your friends and let them know that some people are somewhere doing something… I think
All the best, Jason

October 11, 2007(written by Janeen)
Well we have been back in Lesotho for four days. It was great to see Mom & Dad Sam as well as Mike and his fiancée Heidi (we really like her by the way). We did some site-seeing in Lesotho and then headed to South Africa, where we went to Durban, followed by St. Lucia where we went on some game drives. Unfortunately we only saw 2 (buffalo and rhino) out of the “Big 5” animals. The elephants, lions, and leopards were hiding that day. We saw A LOT of deer, different types too. We also saw some baboons, monkeys, zebra, and giraffe. It was pretty impressive to just be driving along and seeing these animals right next to the car. The last stop was Swaziland. We were all impressed with Swaziland. I thought that it would be a lot like Lesotho, and there were many similarities, but overall I would say that Swaziland is more developed. We stayed at Mvubu Falls Hotel, went craft shopping, and also hiked to the falls.

The trip of course had to come to an end. Last Sunday we made the ever so pleasant 6 hour trip from Johannesburg to Maseru cramped in a 15 passenger taxi with our bags (and all the other passenger’s bags). Fortunately Jason and I packed VERY light. We each only brought a small backpack. We’ve gotten quite used to wearing our clothes more than once. It was hard saying good-bye knowing that it will be over a year before we see them again AND knowing that Mike & Heidi will be married by the time we come home. It’s been a challenge getting back into the swing of things.

I only have one month left of the school year. We went 2 weeks longer over the winter and now we will have an extra long summer break! I still have a lot I want to cover before school is out, but the break will be VERY nice because Kelly is coming for a visit at the end of November and my family is coming in December. Plus I have some activities I want to develop for next year that I just don’t have the energy to complete after school.

I will be in Maseru for an entire week beginning Oct. 21st through the 26th (that means I’ll have internet access all week if you want to email). I will be working on developing some lesson plans and helping prepare for the next group of education volunteers who will arrive in November, which means that we have almost been here a year. It’s crazy because it feels like it has gone so quickly, but yet we are only about ½ way done. We still REALLY miss family and friends too. I do have to mention that our mail has been trickling down. There are only about 3 or 4 people who still mail on a somewhat regular basis, and just so you know my letter writing policy states that “I will only write to those who write to us! AND I’ll send birthday cards if I know when your birthday is.” So if you haven’t gotten a letter from us, (or pretty much, me…Jason MIGHT tag a short note at the end) it’s because you haven’t written us!

OK enough of the guilt trip. We hope all is going well in your half of the hemisphere. By the way we finally got rain! It had been dry for quite some time. We had a lake at the bottom of our mountain that had completely dried up, animals had started to die of dehydration, but the rains have finally blessed us. In fact we had a short shower today. We hope it keeps up!Love you and miss you all!

September 2, 2007 (written by Janeen)

2007-09-05T16:30:00.000+02:00

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.

August 16, 2007 (written by Janeen)

2007-08-22T11:41:00.000+02:00

Good news! Today some girls in form C really put a smile on my face. I have received some books from home to add to the school library. Thankfully, I did not have to start a library from the beginning. At least there was something already in place that I get to help enhance. Anyway, my parents and grandparents have both sent some books. It has taken me some time to get them into the library (about a month) because I had to rearrange a bit, stamp the books with the school stamp, and glue in a small piece of paper for the return dates (plus it was winter break). Today 3 girls came in to check out a book and they squealed with excitement when I told them that there were new books. I couldn’t help but smile as they oohed and ahed over the new books. They were so excited that they had a hard time deciding which book they wanted to check out! So that made me feel good. Even if the library is often a disaster and many students can’t put the books away properly—I guess it is good that they are reading!

I just wrote a grant from Friends of Lesotho, and I was granted 500 rand to purchase different colored stickers to put on the spines of books. They are already in categories, but students have a hard time putting them back where they found them. So, I am hoping that the new color coded sticker system will help in maintaining the organization of the library. The idea is to create a system that will be easy to manage and someone will actually keep it up when I leave!

Other than that I am keeping busy. My form A students wrote their first quarter 3 exam yesterday. I am already half way done with the grading! Yippee! No composition this time though, so that always makes it easier. My form B students will write their first quarter 3 exam next week and they will have a composition. I am also working on developing a rubric so that I can be consistent when I grade the compositions and so that the students can know what to expect. I will share this with my colleagues too. It seems that I always have something to do and am working constantly from 7:40 until 4:30 everyday with almost no breaks in between. Then of course at 4:30 its just about time to start preparing dinner as well as dish out punishments to students who have not done their assignments! I’m often tired at 6:30, when we have just finished dinner and the dishes. We have been crawling into bed then and watching a DVD. It is still pretty cold at night, so it’s really the only warm spot! Did I mention it is REALLY hard to get out of bed at night?

Oh yeah! I also got nominated to be on the party planning committee to plan the 30th celebration of our school. I was not too excited about that, but the way they do it here is not very democratic. Here is how the meeting went. “We need a committee of teachers and I want to spend roughly 15,000 rand to throw this party. The committee will plan the program and find funds for the event. The planning needs not interfere with classes.”—headmaster. “We need to all use our outside resources to fund this”—head of English dept. “The committee members also need to be responsible”—teacher. “I nominate M’e Janeen”—deputy headmaster. “I second that”—another teacher… and BOOM I am on the committee along with 7 other staff members. One teacher appealed, but someone had already seconded that she be on the committee and of course she is on it whether she likes it or not! We’ve been meeting often, which means I have less time to work on my other mini-projects, but oh well. I am here as a volunteer at the school and this is what they want me doing. We’ve already planned a picture taking fundraiser—charging 5 rand per print when it costs 2. They are also going to show some movies and charge 2 rand as an entrance fee. We have written letters to businesses around to solicit funds as well. Apparently they want to raise funds to pay for the event initially and then any excess money they raise will be used towards development: like repairing the classrooms, building a science lab, etc. We’ll see what happens. At the event we may be selling T-shirts to raise funds as well as possibly doing an auction. We don’t have much time to plan this huge event as it will be on the 6th of October, so we’ll see what gets done. I have luckily stayed off the radar from taking any integral roles on the committee (i.e. chairperson, secretary, or treasurer).

Things are going well though! Jason is pretty busy too. He has been running to and from Maseru. Our funds have been interesting. We did take a nice vacation to Mauritius, and now we are 2 weeks away from being paid and we have about 575 rand left. I think we won’t starve, but we will probably have a larger than normal list of things we want when Sept. 1st rolls around! Peace Corps only pays us once every 3 months because all banks here charge a fee for EVERYTHING (deposits, withdrawals, ATM, going into the bank…everything!). So they save money by doing it that way, but it usually makes things tight around the last couple of weeks! Especially this time because we did a bit more visiting of other volunteers while we were out of school. Transport costs are usually the killer!

Well I guess it has been a while since I have written a blog and that is apparent by the way I have rambled on. So I hope I haven’t bored you too much!

Lots of love, Janeen

P.S. I had a really good lesson this week about question tags with my form B students. I get happy when that happens. That is really great, isn’t it?

2007-08-11T15:03:00.000+02:00

August 11th, 2007

So I am here again. Man I am here way to often! But oh well that is the way the cookie crombles! I am here again on committee a.k.a. work group stuff. Got to get the Worldwise Schools stuff going and keep the Technology rolling to all the PCV's in the country (those were the two committees that I was in town for). The committees are actually really committed to improving processes and procedures here. It is a slow process but we are really doing some good things that will benefit the volunteers and more importantly the Basotho people.

I have had a lot of time as well to hang out with our new country director. His name is Ted Mooney and he is a super cool cat from New England. He was in the Hi-Tech sector and retired from his company in 2000. He did some consulting after that and decided that he wanted to make his way back to Peace Corps (he served in Senegal in the early 80's). I am learning a lot about him and we get to talk shop (hi-tech markets and the fall of the stock market). It is really fun and pushing me to keep learning while I am here.

Otherwise, we are back in school and doing well. We will be trying to be more up to date on the blogging and e-mailing. It is hard but we love to do it. We also love hearing from you (have I said this before) and would love to get some e-mails and letters. Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma D., Carla and Jack, and others for the awesome books! The school loves them!
Hope you are all well
All the best
Jason

Our Vacation

2007-07-28T15:08:00.001+02:00

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

2007-07-11T15:25:00.000+02:00

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

2007-07-04T15:45:00.000+02:00

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

2007-07-04T11:48:00.000+02:00

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

2007-06-29T14:05:00.000+02:00

June 29th, 2007 (written by Jason)

Hey all. Back again with a brand new addition! After a large snow storm earlier this week we are in town for the funeral of our village mother. It is a weird time for us as we have not really thought about what that would be like and what that would entail. Janeen was just saying that she had kind of dealt with it (as we found out about her passing on June 9th) but now that we are about to go and see our village again, that she is unsure how she will react.

I know that it will be a difficult time as this is the first real death that we have had to deal with. It is a strange feeling as we think of death in totally different perspective than than they do here. We have had friends lose some family members from home and the perspective that the people here have on it is, get over it. It is just death after all. I mean we see funerals every weekend as they are publicized with the huge rented tents that people get to honor the family members.

Anyway, this is on the heels of some other rather disappointing news. We found out this week that the Lesotho government has put an indefinite hold on all adoptions both in country and international. This comes as a surprise to us and it is a little disheartening as we had really gotten excited about the possibility. We have not given up hope yet but we are not really sure where this will put us in 18 months. So some prayers and petitions on our behalf would go a long way right now.

We do have a small (or rather large) bright spot in our future. We are headed to the islands of Mauritius in little less than 2 weeks. It will be a nice break from the inconsistent and some what bitter cold of Lesotho. We are going with some friends of ours here and are really excited. I think I am even going to finally get to try Kite Surfing (pending the wifes approval).

Anyway that is pretty much the scoop this week. Hope you are all well and happy.

All the Best
Jason

2007-06-23T16:30:00.000+02:00

June 23rd, 2007 (written by Jason)

Hello all of you all around the globe! I am away from my wife for officially the longest period of time that I have ever spent away from her. We have been married for 3 years on June 27th, 2007 and have been together for about 4 years. In that time the longest that I have been away from her was a period of time that we have spent apart was 3 days. Coming to this week, I have now been away from my amazing, beautiful, sophisticated and intelligent wife. So needless to say that I miss her.

However, the reason that I spent the week away from my gorgeous spouse was that I went up to the mountain to visit a good friend of mine. He was an 8 hour bus ride up the hill. I was not doing very well as I had developed as they call it here, symptoms of the common cold. They would also say "I am suffering from the common cold." It kind of kills me. Anyway, after getting up there I found that I am extremely glad to be living where I am living. The mountains while being very nice and pretty, it is super isolated. We had a good time altogether reading and enjoying it not being cold.

So now I am in Maseru again. I am here for a nerdling convention, otherwise known as the Technology committee. We basically are going to meet to and discuss ways that we can make volunteers lives easier while in country. We also will discuss how to create better opportunities to communicate our experiences here with technology and media. So that is what is going on here.

As you may know we are wrapping up the school for the first term. Janeen is working hard grading her students mid-term papers and would love to hear from all of you. I am so glad to read e-mails from you all and look forward to them. I hope you can get a chance to write to us and send us a quick note. All our love
Jason

2007-06-11T16:59:00.000+02:00

June 11th, 2007 (Written by Jason and Janeen)

Today brings some sad news. On Saturday we were helping our friends with their 3 v. 3 soccer tourney which went really well. After the event we went to a local hotel for pizza and drinks to unwind and relax. Janeen and I were sitting waiting for our food when Janeen received a phone call. On the other end was a friend of ours who called to tell us that our Me’ (Mother) from our village stay had passed away. She was the one that I had written about many times how I was worried that she was not receiving the medical attention that she needed. It is a very sad loss for the both of us but we are going on as we knew that this would be a reality in our lives when we moved here. This is definitely the closest person to us that has passed away and has brought the reality of HIV/AIDS home for both of us.

On other news, I finally got our tickets for Mauritius after spending an entire day waiting and then having to return today to retrieve them. I left this morning with some friends who stayed the night, to go to the border and cross into South Africa to meet a courier. It was not until I got to the border that I realized that my passport was sitting in the closet back home. So I then had to go back home, collect my passport and go back over the border. I went to a little place that knows us well and they had the package that the courier left ready and waiting for me. It was great.

The weather has continued to be cold and rainy (off and on). We do love the sun so much now though as it is the warmest heater around and it is free. We are looking forward to some time off in a few weeks. Jason is going to go up to Thaba-Tseka to visit with a volunteer in the mountains. He will be packing all his warm clothes for that one and it will still probably be just enough. Janeen however will be holding down the fort here as she has school until the 29th of June.

After that we are going to be hosting some volunteers for a curriculum writing workshop in which we will try and add some detailed lessons for English teachers about HIV/AIDS. The goal is to make them something that can integrate in with a day’s lesson planning instead of having to think about how the volunteer can add HIV/AIDS into a lesson. This will hopefully reduce the workload of the teacher and get them to be more proactive about having HIV/AIDS stuff in their classroom.

Then we are off to Mauritius for a well deserved break from the cold. We will be staying there for a week before we return back home for a few weeks before the beginning of the 3rd quarter.

Adoption update: We are in the initial stages of communication with the Ministry of Social Welfare. They have told us that we have to work with an Adoption agency from home and so far they are only working with 2 agencies in the US; neither of which is in California. So we are excited but we still have a long way to go before the end of this process.
We would love to hear from any of you and hope that you are doing well. All the Best
Jason and Janeen

2007-06-04T12:40:00.000+02:00

June 4, 2007 (written by Jason)
Hey there kids! Hope this finds you all doing really well. We noticed that our page views kind of peaked off in March. This is probably because we have not been posting as diligently as we were towards the beginning of our service. So I vow here and now that I will try and be more diligent in posting. However, this will probably be on our other website as I still can't get the school computer to work right. That address again is,
www.lifeofanominee.blogspot.com

Anyway, Janeen filled you all in on the haps with the Irish Ambassador. That was really fun being able to have a really deep and intellectual conversation with a seasoned verteran in the "system". He was extremely knowledgable about his job and had lots of interesting stories. I hope that over the next few years I am able to pow-wow with him and his family a little bit more.

Going into exams this week means that my first 2 quarters are pretty much done. The teachers are really just proctoring examinations. This means that I will really just be hanging around doing nothing but planning for the next term. It is good though because the teachers I think are sick of me telling them that they are doing good but they could still do "this and that" better. It does also give me a chance to catch up on some all important reading and journaling too.

I am also starting the process for a Peace Corps Partnership Grant. This is where all those of you who feel compeled, will be able to give to an actual project that I am involved in. It won't be too much money and it will go to something amazing. I am just building anticipation though as it still needs to be approved by our out-going Country Director. So stay tuned...

Hope that you all are doing great. We would love to hear from all of you. So send us an e-mail, letter, messenger pigeon or any other such device any time.
All the best
Jason

June 4, 2007 (written by Janeen)

So we're in Maseru again, but today we have a meeting scheduled with the Department of Social Welfare at 2. We are going to talk with the head of the department about the adoption process and hopefully get the ball rolling today. We are very excited and are praying for a smooth process.

This weekend has been enjoyable. On Saturday we went up to TY to join our friends as they celebrated 2 girls' birthdays. It was fun and we got to see some volunteers from the northern part of the country that we have not seen in over a month.

Yesterday afternoon we enjoyed lunch with the Irish Ambassador and his wife. They are very generous people. Jason met Dee when she was at our school finding students to give scholarships. She also works a lot with different orphanages in Lesotho. They both have big hearts and especially enjoy the children here. It was great to be able to sit and talk with them.

Well we'll hopefully have an update for you about the adoption process soon, but you'll have to check the other blog because we will not be in Maseru for a while (I have used up my 5 days. Luckily the quarter is almost over.)

2007-05-29T11:25:00.000+02:00

May 29, 2007 (written by Jason)

So yet another exciting adventure in the story of Jason and Janeen. I am in Maseru for a medical appointment, which they did not have me down for and am taking care of some other business whilst I am here. We are now in the thick of winter and have offically survived our first frost filled week. The coldest day of the last week was Tuesday. Janeen in her blog said that "Jason thinks that if it were to rain today, that it would not be rain, but snow." Well shortly thereafter it surely did do just that.

After figuring out the coal stove we did eventually warm during the evenings, however by this time I had already got some sort of flu bug. It lead to many trips to the toilet on Friday and basically ruined the plans for us to head to a friend's place in the mountains. We did get to see our friend off though who is just finishing her service. It was a good weekend.

Now I am killing time waiting for the doctor as they did not make me an appointment. So I hope that you all are reading this and checking up on us from time to time. All our Love!

2007-05-23T01:16:00.000+02:00

May 21, 2007 (written by Janeen)

Brrrrr! I am writing to you with my long underwear, a t-shirt, a fleece jacket, and my windbreaker on AND I am still cold! I also am wearing an earmuff type headband, a scarf, tights, pants, and gloves. I guess the only way to get warm is to put even more clothing on! Winter has arrived! I think it is worse today because it is so windy! Jason thinks that if it were to rain today, that it would not be rain, but snow. Poor me! I’ve only ever lived in Southern California and this cold thing is NOT my cup of tea. Not to mention that I have had several cups of tea and coffee already today!

I am proctoring an exam for students who missed the English exam last Monday. Many students were absent because they had to go home to collect school fees. In fact, I’ve had one student who is in my B1 class who has not returned since they have asked for the second quarter school fees. I hope that he can make it back, but he has been gone over a week now and of course is missing important information in all classes! I asked about him from other students and they were not able to tell me anything. Its sad to think that he has dropped out because his family is not able to pay. It of course makes me want to pay for his schooling and then I think about all the kids who can’t even afford to come to school at all. Of course orphans get their school fees paid for by the government, but that does not include the cost of renting books, uniforms, or any additional fees that schools have (i.e. my school has a building fee and a computer fee). So THAT makes me want to pay for everyone! Of course I can’t afford to do that, but I just wish that they could all get a good education.

That’s enough blabbery thoughts for today. We get our next stipend on June 1, and we are crunching pennies (we get paid once every 3 months because the bank charges even for deposits & Peace Corps wants to save $)! The joys of Peace Corps volunteers!  Miss you and love you all!

May 22, 2007 (written by Jason)

Ok so I will second the cold thing. Today on my way to school I wore a t-shirt, a wool sweater, a windproof vest and an outer shell jacket. Even with all of these things the wind bites through me like a knife. I can’t even begin to imagine the poor little boys and girls who have nothing but thin outer jackets, wholly shoes and thin pants or skirts with no stockings. It makes me want to hold all of them all day so that they stop shivering. The teachers at my school do what they can but it is so little and there are so many.

Things have been tough emotionally lately. I know that I am making an impact on my teachers but the progress is slow and the results are poor. Tomorrow, they want me to give a few model lessons. I am fine with this as the lessons that I have observed are very weak. I hope that I will be of some help to these teachers! Who knows though really?

One positive thing is that my school did finally finish their grant proposal for the U.S. Embassy grant. I think that our chances are pretty weak but who knows right?? Ok I am cold now to the core and am going to go home and start a fire. God bless the coal stove.
All the best
Jason

2007-05-14T12:42:00.000+02:00

May 14, 2007 (written by Jason)

Ok So I just wanted to say a quick whats up to everyone. As Janeen said we had a nice wekend and it was fun to get on the internet and do somethings (inclding the update of this site. Hope you enjoy!). I also have been trying to stay much more motivated as I often run out of things to do at school. This means I have been writing out the projects that I am actively involved in and am trying to get them accomplished in a timely manner. It is a good way to stay organized and focused on what needs to get done now and in the future.

I finally got a crop in the ground so soon I could even call myself a farmer. That should be fun. We planted beans, peas, onions, carrots and of course rape. That is right their is a plant called rape. Apperently it is a lot like spinach so we will see.

Well I better go. Janeen already left for the market and I am meeting her. All our love to you, wherever this may find you!

May 14, 2007 (written by Janeen)

This weekend we have spent our time in Maseru lounging around at the transit house (a house owned by Peace Corps for volunteer use when in Maseru). We have watched several movies and taken a few hot showers. (NICE—especially since we didn’t have to heat the water on the stove before jumping into the shower) Yesterday we also had the opportunity to visit with the directors of Beautiful Gate, a center that cares for abandoned and HIV/AIDS affected children. They are just about to move into permanent facilities and they are amazing. Just talking with them got us excited. According to Lesotho law, we are unable to adopt directly through the center, but the kids there were absolutely adorable. The visit was very affirming and even though we were already convinced that we want to adopt here, we became even more assured! In fact, Jason even picked up a baby to hold ALL BY HIMSELF. Normally, I have to shove a baby at him and say, “You need practice.” At the center, there were 2 rooms of children. The first room we visited had the toddlers. One three-year-old child came up to us right away and grabbed my hand. He was so cute, and has quite a sad story. He is the oldest one there and has seen many other children come and go. We were told that each time new prospective parents come through, he is hoping that they will be his! Apparently his new parents have been in the process of adopting him for over a year now, and have had so much trouble, that they are starting back at square one again! Anyway, today we are headed back home. Jason is trying to download a later edition of Internet Explorer in hopes that we will be able to post blogs to this site. We’ll see!

May 12, 2007 (written by Janeen)

Yeah! We are finally able to post on our site!! In town the internet has been sketchy and we have been unable to post here. However, I am in Maseru right now and it now works at the Peace Corps office! yippee! They just installed new computers here and we can now publish blogs here, where the internet is much faster than elsewhere.
ALSO, we have internet at our site now. We spent the big bucks and bought a bluetooth phone, so that we could have access using the computers at my school. We have had that for about a month, but it is still terribly slow and a tad expensive for a Peace Corps salary (roughly 20-30 licente a minute). HOWEVER, we just found out that we can purchase data bundles instead of using air time for the internet. We can purchase 10 mega-bites for 10 rand. Now, that turns out to be 2-3 licente per minute-- very affordable, even on a Peace Corps budget! The internet is still slow, but it is not the amount of minutes that matter, it is the amount of information being sent/received so we can be on for longer and have it cost less. Yeah! So, all of you that complain about your hand cramping when writing letters, can now just email! :) Though the snail mail letters really do make us feel good, so those can still keep coming & I will still be writing responses!

By the way, we have been posting on Jason's blog www.lifeofanominee.blogspot.com since this site has been finicky. If there are no posts here, be sure to check that one out.

Well, I have several papers to grade this weekend, so I better get going.

Lots of love-- Janeen

2007-05-02T17:25:00.000+02:00

May 2, 2007 (written by Janeen)
Well it has been a while since I have written a blog! Our computers at school are finally virus free and all the software works. Yippee! Jason had to download something off the internet in order to fix the problem. He finished fixing everything just after we got back from vacation. I just realized that the last blog I wrote was a bit of a sad one. I was having a hard time getting back into the swing of things. I have good news to report that I am doing much better. I taught some good lessons and am enjoying my students again. We have already given the first exam for the second quarter. For my form A students it was a reading comprehension exam and for form B it was a composition. I am finished grading the form A students’ exams and am going to start the form B students’ exams today. I also gave them 3 choices for topics so at least I won’t have to read 100 of the same paper!

It is starting to get pretty cold here. In fact the other day it was snowing. It wasn’t cold enough for it to stay on the ground, but it was definitely snowing! I’ve heard the winter here is harder to bear because there is no escape from the cold. You go from a cold building to another cold building. At home you only have to brave the cold when you leave a building! Jason and I have a coal stove that we are going to test out. Our other option is our standing gas heater (I’m told that only heats a small radius). The days are not unbearable. I’ve been wearing layers, and shedding some throughout the day. The evenings are the challenge, which is why we will probably start going to bed at like 7!

Before I blab on too much, I need to share an experience that really touched me this week. Yesterday we were traveling on a bus back home from town and this frail man got on just before the bus left the rank. He had sores on his face and his entire face was sunken in so much that I could see all the facial bones. Jason noticed him right away and pointed him out to me. I realize we were speculating, but he had the signs of a person with AIDS. It really hit me hard to see a person in this condition because it made the disease real. Because there are no signs when a person is HIV positive, the reality of the disease has not really affected me. As of now, we have not been to any funerals and most of the funerals we have heard about have been from car accidents. Seeing him made me realize that about 25% (or more) of people in this country will die in that way. The only thing they can do is go on ARVs which only allows them to live longer. The HIV will eventually progress into AIDS and they will die. I guess there is some hope though. Magic Johnson is still living a healthy life. Though he is not living in a country where opportunistic diseases are rampant (TB, etc). Grandpa Durkee just sent me an article with an interesting statistic- There is an 85% fatality rate of people with both HIV and TB. Anyway, it hit me this week. I am going to continue to have conversations with my students about it. I also had an idea of creating a lesson plan book with ready made lessons that integrate HIV/AIDS education into English. The thought is that the students need to talk about it enough that they feel comfortable talking about it. The language needs to become regular so that there is not so much shock factor and if or when the disease affects them (I don’t think there is anyone not affected by the disease), they will be prepared.

Once again, it has been almost 6 month since we have been here and we still miss you all like crazy! All these births and weddings are making us miss you even more! We send our love and wish we could be there with you sharing your memories!

May 2, 2007 (written by Jason)

Hello to all my huge fans out there. I know we have not been blogging as much as I said we would but you have to understand that life here moves at a totally different pace than back home. Our lives are really a number of boring routines that you would have a hard time reading if we were to just write the same things over and over again. It is like when we get together with PCV’s, we know that certain things will dominate conversation; e.g. Politics, Corporal Punishment in the classroom, and who is “hooking up” with whom around the Peace Corps circles. But I digress, as some memorable stuff is going on.

So it took me about 6 months but for the first time I actually was thronged by a group of kids at school. Many of you back home know that kids and I just get each other but for some reason or another I was keeping my distance from kids and what not. Today though after reading an entire Newsweek magazine waiting for class to start, I asked myself a simple question; “How badly do these kids need an adult to just recognize them?”

This was spurred on by one little boy Neo, who is in standard 1. He is this cute little independent man but whenever I am outside, he is right there beside me grabbing my hand and leaning against me. This led me to my experiment. So today at lunch, I took the kids out to the play area (a big grass lot) and played helicopter and airplane. I had to quit after about 30 kids though because by then, I had the entire 1, 2, and 3 classes mobbing me wanting me to swing them around. The truly sad part was after we quit, the students just wanted to be near me. Students were holding my hands, touching my clothes, just wanting to be near an adult who took interest in them. It was exhausting but fun and exhilarating as well.

Otherwise, things are going along as normal. School is fine. We would love to hear from anyone out there. We miss you all. Take care!
Jason

2007-04-17T17:10:00.000+02:00

April 17, 2007 (written by Jason)

Well I have been talking about doing this for a while but it finally happened. I got the internet hooked up at our site. It isn’t fast or flashy (yet) but it is the internet with e-mail and blogging capabilities. I am super excited as it isn’t really even that expensive. I hope to open the service up to the students, if I can get some funding from the school to do that. I want to be able to show them the basics of the internet and how it can help them with research and other things. It is pretty cool though. I also hope to get instant messenger back up on this computer so that we can set times to have live chats with groups of people back home. I think that it would really enhance our experience here and yours back at home. If you have any other ideas, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or shoot an e-mail to me or Janeen @
jason.samuelian@gmail.com
janeen_samuelian@yahoo.com

All the best
Jason

2007-04-14T12:35:00.000+02:00

April 13th, 2007 (written by Jason)

What a crazy couple of weeks it has been. We are just beginning to settle back in to our quiet little lives here in Tsa-Kholo after the last few weeks of “big city” life and vacation. The transition has been a little difficult after having some well needed time off and time away. That is the problem though. We have heard with people going on vacation is that when they return to their homes in Lesotho, there is some feeling of dread. Not that we dread living here, which is not the case at all. It is just that after being able to drive (a rental car with the drivers side on the right; manual transmission which was weird but you get used to it), stay out at night passed 7 p.m., go to restaurants and the movies (we saw 300 and Music and Lyrics), and just feel like life was a little more normal, going back to a cold house with a single light bulb hanging from the roof and a bathroom that smells like an odd combination of mildew and poop, is a little depressing (for those living in houses with none of these features I imagine the feeling is even more intensified).
Work can also be disappointing. I know that the first quarter can start slowly no matter where you are, but seeing that same pace carried into the next quarter is down right frustrating. I sat in class today and waited for 30 minutes while the teacher asked, “If you don’t understand ask me questions.” This is massively frustrating as the teacher knows that you are there to observe the best that she has to offer and that is pretty much the extent of her ability.
But it is not all bad being back in Lesotho. I have found that I have a liking to some of the simpler foods here. Roast corn known as Pone (not at all like roast corn in America) is one of my favorite snacks/meals here. It kind of tastes like unflavored corn-nuts or pop corn kernels partially popped. The pace of life is also kind of fun. I do like having long bike rides to think about things in life and taking naps in the afternoon after work. It is a pace of life that I know will not be able to be emulated as much back home, especially once we start a family.
It has also been great being home because we get to hear from all of you. Your packages and letters, this means we did receive it Kyle, Ronnie and yes you too Dakota ;-) have made all the difference in turning a bad day into a manageable one, although it does make us miss you something fierce. This is especially pertinent to all of you back home having babies. It really makes us wish that we could be there and celebrate the new lives with you.
One more quick shout out and then I am done. Congratulations to our best friends, Brad Blaze and Valerie Jorritsma (now Valerie Blaze), in the whole world on finally tying the knot. We have tried calling a few times to wish you well but have been unable to get a hold of you. This is the next best thing though. Announcing to the world, via the internet, our heart felt love and congratulations to you. Hope that you had a great time at the Adventura Spa Palace!
I think that is all I got to say today. We are still working on trying to get the internet here at school but I will definitely hit you all with a fatty blog once we do get that sucker rolling. All the best,
Jason

April 13th, 2007 (written by Janeen)
Well, I can’t really say that I am too excited to be back. The return to school meant that I had to finish grading 200 quarter exams, which all consisted of reading comprehension questions, grammar questions, and the dreaded compositions. This time the topic for Form A students was: “My first day at Tsakholo High School” and for Form B students: “A day when my friend disappointed me”. So I got to read about 100 of each of those. It can get just a tad boring and sometimes the essays all start to blur together. Though, I can say that I am almost through. I’ve only got about 50 more compositions to read. Then I get to fill out quarter reports for each student. All of this is due by Monday, so my first weekend of being back at school is of course going to consist of doing work! Our small home is in disarray, and needs a good sweep and mop (not to mention that I need to clean up my piles of clutter that have accumulated as I have spent my time grading, sleeping, eating, and going to class).
ANYWAY! I am going to stop complaining because the teachers here do this ALL the time, and I only have to deal with it for 2 years (I’m never going to be a high school teacher). For those of you out there that have ever thought, “Those who can’t do-teach” you are TOTALLY wrong. This is one of the most challenging jobs ever. Many days I get frustrated because I know that I can do better, or I wish that there were more hours in the day so that I could do all the things that I hope for.
And then there was how I was feeling this week—like I didn’t want to do any of it any more because I didn’t think that what I was doing was making any difference any way. Here a passing score is 40% and many students are happy just to pass. I am NOT okay with that and of course want my students to score in the 70% or higher range, but those are few. So of course I feel like I am failing because my students don’t do as well as I would hope. So I ask myself does it even matter that I am here? Am I really making any difference?
I guess I am probably just dealing with “coming home from vacation blues” and I am sure things will settle down. I do enjoy my students and I hope that I am teaching them well. It can just get you down sometimes when you know how much better things could be, you see what the reality is here, and then realize that my impact may only be small.
Thank you again for all of your correspondence. They really do help cheer us up when we are having a frustrating day! When we left for training & vacation I had just about caught up on my letters, but since being back I think we are about 10 letters behind, which of course will not get responses until AFTER I am done with all the exam & report madness! We miss you all so much!

2007-04-01T14:42:00.000+02:00

April 1, 2007 (Written by Jason)

So James and myself, ditched our last language session meeting to come down to the VRC (volunteer resource center) and putz around a little bit on the computers here. We were just starting when these 2 older gentlemen came in and introduced themselves. Fred, a former volunteer in Columbia, back in the 70's, and Matt, a former worker down in Antarctica were coming through on vacation. Fred knew that Peace Corps volunteers are the real source for the on the ground information as to where to stay and what to do while in country.

The trully funny part was that Fred now lives in Mariposa, which for those of you not from the north is only like 30-45 minutes away from Sonora. It is kind of funny that things like this just seem to happen. I really do love the random nature of events as they happen around the world.
Ok well I thought that this was blog worthy. Sorry to bore you if it wasn't!
Jason

2007-03-31T16:40:00.000+02:00

March 30, 2006 (written by Janeen)
Well we are back in Maseru and let me say, it is a very different feeling. It is Friday afternoon at the end of the month and the lines for the ATMs are HUGE! I bet people stand in line for about 2 hours or more! Most people get paid at the end of the month and then withdraw most of their money at that time, since the bank pretty much charges for any transaction (deposits, withdrawals, from the ATM and even more inside the bank). Plus most people here do not really save money. They live paycheck to paycheck.

Anyway, my friend and I walked around downtown Maseru and it was pretty crazy! I felt a little flustered because there were so many people around and I am not used to that. It kinda felt like the mall at Christmas time!

It is nice to be back around with other volunteers, but its pretty crowded at the training center this time because other volunteers not in our group are also staying with us because there is another group of volunteers also in town because they were having their Close Of Service (COS) conference and the transit house was full. There were a lot of volunteers in Maseru this week!

So this morning we talked to our country director about something very important to us. We have been considering adopting a child while we are here, but had to get his permission before we do so. He has given his blessing and we are going to start looking into that process. Its pretty crazy to think that within a year or so we could be parents!!!

Well next week we are off vacationing and are excited for that time. The only unfortunate part is that I have to grade papers while I am there. Report cards are due four days after we get back and my 200 students all took a quarter exam last Monday. My supervisor is going to bring them when he comes on Monday for a workshop. So I am trying to enjoy my time until I have the burden of that grading. Jason and my friend Nichol (who is my twin & born on the same day & year) have offered to help, so that will be nice.

We are coming up on the 5 month mark of being here. I can’t believe its been so long, but at the same time miss everyone like crazy. Love you and miss you much!

2007-03-30T14:52:00.000+02:00

March 30th, 2007 (written by Jason)

So training this week is finally wrapping up and that is good because some times it just drives me a little bit crazy. I have been trying to stay cool and calm but sometimes it can be really really hard to keep my mouth shut. I almost seriously lost my cool with the safety and security coordinator but I managed to wrangle my emotions back in. I am however really enjoying the ammount and quantity of food that we get here at the training center. It is amazing.

In reality I am having a hard time not thinking about vacation. In only 5 days time, we will be in South Africa at what is considered by many as the premeire backpackers in southern Africa. It is really hard to focus as I spend most of my time dreaming about the ocean and not doing anything for a few days.

Some of you have written that you have noticed that we might look like we are losing weight. The answer is yes we have. Janeen has lost about 15 pounds and I am around 20. The thing is, is that we are losing weight naturally and healthily. It is really nice. I am excercising about 2 hours (because of the long bike trips) a day and Janeen and I think we are going to train to run in a half marathon in Cape Town next year. It should be really good. Help keep us motivated as at the elevation it can get discouraging some times. Ok well I think I have bored you enough for this installment. Hope everyone is well. Love and miss you all.

Jason

2007-03-28T06:47:00.000+02:00

March 28th, 2007 (written by Jason)

Well it has once again been way to long since I have e-mailed and let all of you know what is going on with us. WE are currently in Maseru for yet another round of trainings. This will be our final stage or phase of training until our half way point. WE are getting more information on technical training stuff and language. It is a little bit redundant for those of us who were either trained professionally as educators or have been working as teachers, but it does give us a chance to get away from site for a few days and mellow out which is nice!! Mostly people are venting their frustrations alot but that is cool as we all need some healthy release.

After this week of training, Janeen and I with some other people are going to be going on our first vacation to S. Africa! We are super excited to spend some time at the beach doing a whole lot of nothing. It will be great to get away too. The place we are going to is called Cintsa or East London. Check it our on Google Earth and let us know what you think! WEll I should wrap it up.

I did fix our computer problems that is good but I have to redownload the Service Pack so that I can get Office 2003 to work. It kind of sucks because it is like 166mb and the internet here is lets just say, slow!! Ok miss you all! Jason

2007-03-09T14:19:00.000+02:00

March 9th, 2007 (written by Jason)
So I am not going to write very much today as I am at the internet cafe and I am helping them update their software. It is really dragging the network down but it is good to make friends and help out when you can. A little more on the computer stuff. We are attempting to get the internet at school so by next week we may get it.
This was a hard week on my emotionally. Fortunately I have my life mate here to help me get through the rough patches. She is a rock star!!
Well all the best to all of you out there.
Next Blog Preview:
Vacation Plans!!
Jason

2007-03-03T12:10:00.000+02:00

March 3, 2007 (written by Jason)
So what a week it has been. Very long and a little tiring. Janeen is still blugging away at grading her 200 compositions that the students wrote a few weeks ago. I think that this has definitly turned her off to teaching high school in the US, not that she was ever "turned on" to that idea anyway. I am trying to stay out of her way as much as possible so that she is just able to work. It has been a good strategy that has worked thus far.
So bad news. Computers at the school have been crashing because of viruses so this will be a shorter blog than normal because we have not had a computer for a few days. If there are any rescue strategies that I should try or links to emergency boot disks, that would help me out immensly as I am acting IT guy (as I have the most computer experience, which is a little scary).
Health wise, Janeen and I are getting used to going to the bathroom quite frequently and we have what is know here as Kea Matha (I have running). So that is tons of fun! But we are doing good otherwise.
I am also doing my first workshop tomorrow after school so we will see how it goes! It is on "routines and procedures". Sounds boring but it needs to happen.
Well anyway, hope that you all are good and enjoying your weather (still hot as blazes here).
All the best,
Jason

2007-02-26T13:09:00.000+02:00

February 26, 2007 (written by Jason)
So I know we don't normally post this often but I had the chance to come back into the city to send a letter to Peace Corps that will be going out to the new trainees. I am going to include it because it is kinda funny and you can see what kind of sense of humor we are developing here. All the best,

Jason
Dear New Trainees,

Greetings from the Mountain Kingdom! We would like to wish you the warmest of welcomes as you will soon be our new neighbors in the small country of Lesotho. Congratulations on getting through the arduous and sometimes monotonous application process. We know that you must be nervous now that things are finally starting to materialize into reality and you will begin selling or consolidating your possessions. Enjoy this time while you are at home. It may be for most of you the only time that you will see your favorite restaurants, television shows and most importantly friends and family for quite some time.

But that is not the purpose of why we are writing. We don’t want you to have any apprehension of coming to this lovely country. Lesotho as I am sure that you have read by now is one of the highest countries in the world. This gives us the distinct advantage over other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa of having seasonal weather. That means you will get 4 distinct and very different seasons.

As we write this letter, we are on the tale end of a very hot summer. Not to worry for those people who sweat buckets because it is a very dry heat and the summer is typically the rainy season though this one has been rather dry. The season that you will probably need to worry about most is the winter. We have heard that it can get down to below zero (in centigrade) and is commonly this way in the mountains. So pack warm clothes if you were not planning on it. However be warned because we have heard that it heats up during the day, sometimes even up to 60º so be sure to pack clothes that layer.

Other than the weather, things here are as normal as can be expected. Some volunteers have access to modern conveniences like running water, electricity and even modern super markets. This is not always the case though so it still might be a good idea to pack that solar powered i-pod charger just in case. Also if you are thinking of bringing a computer, you can, it just might only get charged every once in a while or you might have to by a solar charger and car battery (what can we say, Peace Corps Volunteers are rather industrious and we steal a lot of ideas from the Basotho).

Other “luxury” items that we would say are a must pack item:
Solar Shower (such a nice break from bucket baths), I-pod or other mp3 musiDear New Trainees,

Greetings from the Mountain Kingdom! We would like to wish you the warmest of welcomes as you will soon be our new neighbors in the small country of Lesotho. Congratulations on getting through the arduous and sometimes monotonous application process. We know that you must be nervous now that things are finally starting to materialize into reality and you will begin selling or consolidating your possessions. Enjoy this time while you are at home. It may be for most of you the only time that you will see your favorite restaurants, television shows and most importantly friends and family for quite some time.

But that is not the purpose of why we are writing. We don’t want you to have any apprehension of coming to this lovely country. Lesotho as I am sure that you have read by now is one of the highest countries in the world. This gives us the distinct advantage over other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa of having seasonal weather. That means you will get 4 distinct and very different seasons.

As we write this letter, we are on the tale end of a very hot summer. Not to worry for those people who sweat buckets because it is a very dry heat and the summer is typically the rainy season though this one has been rather dry. The season that you will probably need to worry about most is the winter. We have heard that it can get down to below zero (in centigrade) and is commonly this way in the mountains. So pack warm clothes if you were not planning on it. However be warned because we have heard that it heats up during the day, sometimes even up to 60º so be sure to pack clothes that layer.

Other than the weather, things here are as normal as can be expected. Some volunteers have access to modern conveniences like running water, electricity and even modern super markets. This is not always the case though so it still might be a good idea to pack that solar powered i-pod charger just in case. Also if you are thinking of bringing a computer, you can, it just might only get charged every once in a while or you might have to by a solar charger and car battery (what can we say, Peace Corps Volunteers are rather industrious and we steal a lot of ideas from the Basotho).

Other “luxury” items that we would say are a must pack item:
Solar Shower (such a nice break from bucket baths), I-pod or other mp3 c device (however many of the taxis down here do have CD players and yes, even tape decks so if you want to have American music in the taxi, bring those if you want), cards, gold-bond or baby powder (if you are a moist character) ear plugs (you’ll see!), those favorite pair of jeans or t-shirt that makes you feel good just wearing it, patience (make sure you pack lots of this as many times you will want to pull your hair out because the pace of life moves much different here), some kind of sport sandal ( I recommend Chaco’s and I heard that they even give a Peace Corps discount), pictures of family (you will want them and your Basotho family and counterparts love seeing pictures of your life back home), a pack-able sleeping bag (we bought synthetic and it was good as I got rained on, on a hike, and my bag stayed warm even wet. However down is lighter and can be just as good!), coffee and a non-breakable French press (for you caffeine addicts), a sense of humor (sometimes you just gotta laugh), a small backpack or day bag for traveling, a sleeping pad (I once again recommend Therm-a-rest), perhaps a few DVD’s (the Transit House for Volunteers does have a DVD player!), maybe and this is a big maybe a GSM SIM Card ready cell phone (we do have cell phone service here and the phones are pretty cheap, in fact most volunteers have purchased a cell phone… it’s a good way to keep in touch with fellow volunteers as well as your family), anything that makes you feel good after a long day, a journal or some way to record what you are going through, lots of energy and ideas and an authentic desire to meet some of the best people you will ever meet!

Things that you should leave at home:
Bowling Ball (not really needed here, though it could be an income generating project), bad attitude or inflexibility (go with the flow man!), pets (I know we had to leave our little girl Bella at home too), too many clothes (girls and guys can buy clothes here if you really need them), too many books (there are all kinds of books here but a few more paperbacks to keep the flow going would probably be enough) and any doubt that you aren’t ready! You will be great!!

We have separate jobs here in Lesotho. Janeen is teaching English at a high school where we also live and Jason is working at 2 elementary schools as a Primary Resource Teacher. Our jobs are distinctly different primarily in the amount of structure that they have. Janeen’s job is very organized and structured as to when she will have classes and how long they are. Jason has a little bit looser makeup of how his job works. He is currently observing his schools to assess for needs and in the future will hold workshops, coaching sessions, and model teaching lessons in hopes that it will improve the overall achievement of the school. Topics that we will work on will range from classroom management to how to teach conceptualized math. This and everything in between will be the topics that he will hopefully address over the next two years.

As secondary projects (which almost everyone here does) we are planning to do many things. Youth groups that hold discussions on life skills, being responsible in an HIV/AIDS environment, and about life in general have been very popular with PCVs here. Others have done fund raising and building projects in the community as well as many more exciting things that are too numerous to mention here. Though remember, one of the best resources for projects or help in any area (travel advice, information on writing grants, etc.) are your fellow volunteers.

To summarize, we are here to help the Basotho people, who are very welcoming and friendly. You will be in good hands when you enter this community! The biggest part of your service is just by being here and having and open perspective. So come, bring that big, friendly smile and that attitude that you can change the world (a positive attitude here will take you long way), and we will see you on the ground.

All the Best,
Jason and Janeen Samuelian (2007-2009 ED PCV’s)

P.S. You can check out our website and blog if you want to find out a little bit more of the inside scoop on us and Lesotho @ www.jasonandjaneensam.com
Peace Corps OUT!!

2007-02-24T11:53:00.000+02:00

POSTED FEBRUARY 24, 2007

February 16, 2007 (written by Janeen)
For the past two to three weeks, we have been typing some blogs and saving them to our flash drive. Unfortunately, the computer at school that we were working on had some viruses and when I put my flash drive into another computer to post the blogs, the files were deleted by the virus software on that computer. I was so bummed!

To summarize my five typed pages will not be the same, but here is what I wrote about:

I wrote about my feelings on corporal punishment. Two weeks ago I was one of the teachers on duty, which meant that I had to be on campus at 7:00 am to be sure students arrived on time and we wearing the proper uniform. That was the third week of school, and up until that point I had not seen much beating. That week I saw A LOT! Now it may not hurt too badly, as it does not leave any lasting marks (no bruises, just redness for a short time), but it makes me sick to my stomach when I see it happening. Part of the problem here is that I may not necessarily agree with WHY the student is being punished. For example, they are beaten for speaking Sesotho (in fact I had 3 of my Form A students suspended for a month merely for speaking Sesotho), not wearing the proper uniform, misbehaving in class and others. I have been coming up with alternative forms of punishment like pulling weeds after school, jumping jacks for falling asleep in class, etc. If you have any other ideas, let me know. I have also been discussing the matter with a few of my fellow teachers. I think I have convinced one teacher that beating is not necessarily effective and he is going to try another punishment, such as taking away part of their break (Which is a BIG deal because students are at school from 7-4:30 and again from 7-9 at night. They only have a 20 min. break from 10:40-11 and an hour for lunch). Technically beating students is against the law here in Lesotho, but because it has been a common practice for so long and the law is not enforced, it still occurs. I also spoke with my principal about the punishments because I wanted him to know that I would not beat the students. I asked his permission to use other forms of punishment, and he even said that he encourages his teachers to use other forms of punishment first, but he leaves the decisions up to them.

I also wrote about elections. Elections are tomorrow and we are a little nervous about the outcome of the elections. There is a lot of tension. Many people are not happy with the ruling party, but others still support them. There are about 20 political parties here, but it seems that there are 2 that it is mainly between right now. We are a bit worried because Lesotho has a history of rioting after elections. The fear is that 1) the new party will win and the governing party will not relinquish power, or 2) the new party will lose and they will riot. Like I said the tension is high and both parties have already made claims that the elections may not be fair. Here elections are not completed by the government. A third party was created to ensure fairness, but some people still do not think that they will run fairly. Peace Corps has an emergency action plan to keep us informed and safe. If there are riots we will probably evacuate to South Africa. Though it would be nice to take a trip to South Africa, I still pray for peace for Lesotho. Jason and I normally go into town on Saturdays or Sundays, but this week we are heading in on Friday and coming back to Tsa Kholo. Don’t worry about us. We’ll be safe. We have begun to build relationships here and our community will keep us informed and help take care of us! Also, when there were riots after previous elections, our town only heard of them. It was only the main cities that were affected by the riots.

I also wrote about our packages! We were visited by our supervisor from the Peace Corps and he brought packages! The day we got them felt like Christmas!!! J So that the senders can have peace of mind that the packages arrived, here is who we received packages from: Mom & Dad L-2 packages, Mom & Dad Sam- 2 packages, the Valvos and our life group, the Allens, Bari- 2 packages, Dan, Fiona, and Tracee. Yep, that’s right 11 packages! We were so excited! Thank you all, a thousand times! We appreciate all of you so much and we definitely feel loved. I finally got to remove the stickers on our pots and pans with the goo-gone. We were so thankful and so excited about these gifts! We send our hugs and kisses as thanks. I know that there are a couple packages still on their way (we hope that they will arrive safely). Jason talked to another volunteer whose longest package took 6 months. So we may be waiting a while for the others. We appreciate you too! We got so much stuff that we will have to update our wish list. I’m pretty sure we have at least a 2 year supply of deodorant. Jason has 7 and I have 9! I know we asked for it, but do we smell that bad??? We have updated the wish list of items that can be sent. We removed some items that we no longer need and added a few other items. We got a lot of jerky and gum, but those things can keep coming! I didn’t add this to the wish list, but if you feel like sending candy here are some that we miss: Red vines, Milk Duds (must be wrapped separately in case of melting), Junior Mints (same as Milk Duds), and Reeses Pieces. I didn’t add them to the wish list because we really don’t need that much candy! We have both lost a few pounds (we are still healthy) and both feel good about that. On another note, we appreciate receiving packages, but please don’t feel like you must send one. We know they are expensive to send. Correspondence through letters will keep us happy because we miss you all so much and want to hear about you!

So I have been keeping busy with school. I have about 200 students and I have to learn their names, teach them, and grade their papers. Today all students wrote an English exam, so I will be busy grading those now (they call it marking here). I have also been designated the school librarian. The library was a mess when I got here, so I’ve been cleaning and organizing with the help of some students and of course Jason. He has helped me set up some procedures to keep the library books in the library (apparently some students like to steal books) and keep the library neat. Unfortunately it has taken me 4 weeks to complete this project, but I am happy to say that the library will be open for student use next week (provided that elections go well and I am not in South Africa)

Please lift Lesotho up in prayer tomorrow and the following days. I think the results can be announced as early as Monday, but it could be later.
We hope everyone had a happy Valentine’s Day! We miss you and love you AND can’t say it enough!

OK so elections will be over by the time this actually posts because we are staying away from town until the results are announced, but I guess its still important to let you know about what’s been going on! –Feb. 17, 2006

February 17, 2006 (by Janeen)
Today is Election Day in Lesotho! So far everything is running smoothly. I am told we could start getting partial results as early as tonight. We had about 5 guests sleep over last night. Some were trying to avoid being in town for elections and some were just visiting. We had a great time. I think about 3 people are planning to stay tonight & tomorrow as well. We are not anticipating anything to happen, but we’ll see! So I did not save my portion of the blog correctly so here is what I wrote (some is now outdated… the joys of inconsistent computers and a mistake by the operator).

February 19, 2007 (by Janeen)
So far we have heard no news of any violence. As of now, the current ruling party (LCD) is in the lead, though ABC, the new party has won some constituencies, which is a new thing for Lesotho. Even if ABC does not win the power, they will still be able to affect change in Lesotho. We’ll keep you update.

February 22, 2007 (by Jason)
Well things here have been pretty quiet. Falling into a routine is sometimes the easiest thing to do around here. An average day for us begins around 5:30 a.m. with the alarm clock going off. That’s right no more roosters or donkeys to wake us up in the morning now that we are on a school compound. It is at this time that one of us, usually Janeen (not that I don’t offer) gets up and begins boiling water for our shower. We brought a solar shower (think we mentioned this) and we have a tub in the house. Man is it nice compared to bucket bathing.

After our showers, we prepare a breakfast of 1 of 3 things. Cereal with milk or yogurt, Eggs in multiple forms or Oatmeal. Lack of variety is something that we are definitely feeling here so if you have any ideas for quick and easy breakfast foods (sorry no pop-tarts here) let us know.

Then Janeen heads to class and I head to one of my 2 schools. Still biking as that is the most reliable (although both wheels on my bike right now are busted) form of transport other than walking that takes 2 to 3 times as long. Then at around noon to 2 o clock, depending on whether or not the school is doing something or there is a meeting, I will head home. This is the hottest part of the day mind you and not usually much fun but I have been seeing my endurance steadily increase so that is kind of cool.

Upon returning home, we usually make a quick lunch consisting of a sandwich or tuna and crackers and then a myriad of activities can take place. Some days I just veg-out playing Gameboy or reading. Other days I go to the library and type blogs or do work for school. Most days that is what happens. There is the occasional day where I have to head to town after work for something or another and this usually kills the rest of my day.

In the evening, usually around 5:30 or 6:00 we begin preparing dinner. After dinner we wash the dishes that we have used the whole day and then just chill out. The days have been so hot, the nights have been some reprieve. Last week we actually watched a movie (once again, think I told you that already)! That was a nice change of pace. We still have no way to watch our DVD’s being that the DVD player our friend has is Region 2 and all our disks are Region 1 (what is the deal with that anyway??). That is fine though as I just finished my 29th book since being in country and am already half way through number 30. I will probably at this rate have read between 100 and 150 by the end of the year but who knows.

We still miss all of you and thanks again to all those who so graciously sent in ideas for grants. Also be thinking about doing small community things like a book-drive or bake sale. Maybe you will only raise a few hundred bucks but here that is a whole bunch of money! Love you all
Jason

February 23, 2007 (by Janeen)
Yippee! Office Live (the server that our website is posted on) has changed the format for editing our website. So, it seems that the process will be easier and there are not as many pages to load before we can post what we need! Hopefully everything will still go smoothly when we try to post tomorrow. Though, please don’t worry about us if we miss a week of posting. The internet is really expensive for us. We are going to try a new place tomorrow that is about ½ the price. Hopefully it will work just as well. Well, it is Friday and normally I am thankful that the weekend has come. I am only half excited today because I still have about 150 compositions to mark. And, Oh! how I love to grade essays! (Can you sense the sarcasm???) I procrastinated last weekend because we had visitors, but just didn’t get them done throughout the week. : ( We also have a busy weekend ahead of us. A Peace Corps volunteer is having a BBQ Saturday afternoon and one of Jason’s schools is having a mokete (Sesotho word for party) on Sunday because the Bishop of the neighboring district is coming to visit.

One of the things that I thoroughly enjoy is morning assembly. Because the school I teach at was begun by a Catholic church, we meet every morning to recite the Lord’s prayer (which I now know by heart… never did before), sing a few songs, and hear a bible verse. Most of the time I cannot hear what verse is being read because the students do not speak loudly enough, but I still enjoy it. I already have some favorite songs though I do not know any of them because they sing in Sesotho. My favorite is about the story of Jesus and Zachias. I only figured that out because I knew the Sesotho word for tree- sefate! Singing in the morning lifts my spirit, especially when it is a fun song. The teachers are in the back dancing while the students sing and sometimes dance themselves. By the way, they can SING here! On Thursday and Friday mornings we are blessed with selections from the school choir, and they are amazing. I wish you all could hear them!

Boy this is getting long, but I have to share one final story (or two). The topic of HIV and AIDs has come up a lot this week. We think we have just about convinced a fellow teacher to go and get tested for HIV. We had a long discussion about why he should know his status. He kept saying, “But what if I’m positive?” They are really afraid here. I know that it is a terrible disease, but we told him that if he does not get tested, he could spread the disease. AND, if he is positive than he needs to get on ARVS (which by the way are provided by the government here) so that he can live a longer, healthier life.

The sad thing is that most people don’t go to get tested until it is too late and ARVs are not an option for them. Also, today I began the discussion with one of my classes about HIV and AIDS. We mostly just discussed because I wanted to see what they knew about the disease. I asked students, “What should you do if you find out that you are HIV positive?” The response I got was outrageous. A student stands up and says that he would kill himself and other students supported his response! I could not believe it. They said that they would rather die than go through the pain. I also got a student who said he would go to the bar and drink so that he would not have to think about being positive. So then we had to discuss healthy choices verses irresponsible choices! Well, it’s a start and this beginning conversation has only convinced me that we need to continue discussing the issue. I know that my specific job title is “English Teacher” but Peace Corps has also made it apparent that we need to also deal with the crisis that is hitting this nation.

Two more things (I promise!): 1)I have a student who is struggling with his eyes. Today he went home early because he could not see out of one of his eyes. He has also been having headaches. I do not know what the doctors have said, or even if he has been to see a doctor, but if you could pray for him I’m sure he could use it! 2)There is another volunteer in our district whose friends and family pay for several students’ school fees. If that is something you are interested in, let us know. So far, I do not know of any students who have dropped out of this school because they could not pay their school fees, but I am told that it is common for students to leave in the middle of the year for that reason. Just so you know: for the entire year, the fees for my school are about 1800 Rand (divide that by 7 and you get US dollars—somewhere between $200-300).

Today it is raining! YEAH! The temperature will cool down for a day or so!

Khotso! Pula! Nala! (That is Sesotho for Peace, Rain, and Prosperity… most speeches end with these words, and it is a part of the national anthem. It is the country’s motto)

Love you all sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!

February 23, 2007 (written by Jason)
So let me tell you how nice little luxuries are again! We have a friend here at school, Lebaka, already mentioned him in a prior blog, has so graciously given us space in his refrigerator which we quickly filled with water bottles. These water bottles will then freeze and we will have a few hours of cool refreshment before we have to start all over again and have luke-warm to warm water! Blech!!
Also I am reading “Reaching for the Invisible God” by Phillip Yancey. If you want to see almost to the “t”, where I am at spiritually, read this book. I am being humbled again, by how someone I don’t know can look directly into my soul and yank out huge chunks to be examined like that. It is such a good feeling. Well I promised to keep this short (per Janeen’s Orders). Love again
Jason

2007-02-16T12:53:00.000+02:00

February 16, 2007(written by Jason)

Well what a week, what a week! As many of you probably read, we had previously typed long blogs that were in depth about what is going on with us and how we are coping with everything. But I think the computer gods did not want us to send that one out because; the files got the flu (virus) and had to go bye-bye. But such is life here in Lesotho. We are just very grateful to have a computer on which we can type frequently and use to play free cell and solitaire (we get very bored sometimes.).
The week it self went really well. I returned home after a weekend in the mountains hiking and camping. It really is so gorgeous here. The beauty just continues to take my breath away every time I see one of the gargantuan mountains. I also saw the most wildlife, I have seen since I have been here. It was not a lot but I saw 3 bearded vultures, 3 spring bok (deer like creatures), 2 snakes, and numerous other wildlife in various shapes and sizes. The hike itself was tiring and just as we were about to end day 1, the skies decided to pour rain on us.
In case you have never slept in a thunder storm on the side of a mountain, I don’t really recommend it for a deep nights sleep as water will most likely come through your tent and drench you, your companions, and everything that you brought with you. The weather did clear up though for the rest of our journey and it was a real delight to see this beautiful country in more detail.
Work this week went rather well as well. I was able to coach a few teachers on some simple practices and although I know it will take time, we are going to move ahead. The funny part is, is that I am writing this the morning before I am going to go to school. My schools are very far apart from each other and I have been riding my bike back and forth from them 3-4 days a week. Needless to say I am getting in pretty good shape. By the end of the two years, many of you will probably not recognize me.
Otherwise, we also had a nice treat, watching a movie last night at a friend’s house here at school. Trying to explain certain euphemisms from “Sweet Home Alabama” was a fun cultural experience. It is also bonding us together with one of my closest friends at site. We talk about everything, including politics and religion and he is a really good guy! His name is Lebaka and I am thinking about giving him the nickname Chewbaca! We will have to wait and see though.
Thanks to all of those who have been sending ideas for foundation grants and the like. It really does mean a lot to me that you are being so active in trying to help this little country! Thanks again, but don’t stop. I still need fresh ideas from all of you. To date we have had something close to 3000 visits to our site but I have only had a few responses with ideas! Lets keep them rolling in! And pass this site along if you think someone would enjoy it or wants to know what Peace Corps life is kind of like! All the love in the World!
Jason

2007-02-14T14:36:00.001+02:00

Frustration!

So Jason and I had both typed some long blogs to post, but apparently the files had viruses and have been deleted. Sorry to say, no updates this week. We'll try to revive our things soon. Miss you all.

Love,
Janeen

2007-02-14T14:36:00.000+02:00

2007-02-03T13:29:00.000+02:00

February 2, 2007
(Written by Jason)
Hello all once again! It has been a really long week here in Lesotho! We have had intermittent rainstorms all week but still not enough for the crops that are fed only by the rain. The people here are very scared to talk about it as you can probably imagine. It is a not a great situation as things here may get really bad if there is not enough food this next years harvest. However it is not that bleak as there is still 2 months left in the rainy season. Yet if you think about it throw a shout up to the big man and tell him to let it pour here in little ol’ Lesotho!
We had a friend come stay with us the last few days. Nichol, who is from Colorado, came to hang out with us and bring us our mail that she got from a volunteer who went to Maseru (Yeah it is that confusing right now for us to get our mail. Sorry if you wrote a while ago and we haven’t responded. We really will write you!). That is not the only reason she came though. She is a Resource Teacher like me, but she is working with the ECCD (Early Childhood Care and Development) sector of education. This is a very new program here in Lesotho and needs constant care and support. The ECCD teachers are all volunteers that get paid like M 400 a month. That is less than 100 dollars (to be exact it is close to $50) a month! The pay is so low that these teachers really do it for the love of the students and to see them develop into good students. I will tell you too that in my observations, you can see the difference in those that have been to the schools and those who have not!
My job is going well if not very fast. I have so many ideas for improving the schools and the teaching practices but I know that patient diligence is the only way that I will be able to make a sustainable impact. I know that I have harped on the point that I need ideas from you all out there in cyberspace to look for ideas and possibilities for grants and cooperatives that I can apply for. I have yet to really receive any ideas. I know that you out there are busy, but you have easy access to the internet and that you could spend 10 to 15 minutes surfing for technology or education grants. Some of the places I was thinking that might have them are the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, The Kellogg Foundation, The Ford Foundation, etc. IF you could do some small bits of research for technology or education grants and send me a link or info. to jason.samuelian@gmail.com that would help me out so much.
I want to leave you with one story on why this is so important for the country and its many students. This morning as I was walking home from taking Nichol to the taxi stand, a woman I have talked to before invited me to her house for peaches. On the way to her house, she told me about her husband who died in 2003 and how she now has no way to make an income or even to plow her plot of land and grow food for her self. She showed me the dry and grown over fields that at one time provided enough food for her, her husband and her 4 children.
She then took me to her house that was barren except for a small wood burning stove and a table. There were no chairs or visible food in the room. In the small bedroom off to the side, there were 2 bags of WFP (World Food Program) maize meal that had been given to her by the chief so that she would not starve. However in order to cook this she had to spend all day collecting enough fuel for her stove in order to boil water so that she can make Papa (corn maize mush). That is basically all she will eat other than the few peaches that she has on her trees.
Her story is all too common. She had no training on anything so that after the death of her husband she was left with no skills except those to get by with. She has no way of advancing her self or moving beyond her desolate situation. This is why I need your help out there. We must train the next generation with the tools and skills that will make them able to compete in the modern world.
So off my soap box again. I love and miss you all! I desperately wish I could see all of you and just hug you for a few minutes. With all my heart,
Jason

2007-01-26T13:50:00.000+02:00

January 26, 2007
Exciting News!! WE have our pictures posted online thanks to Andy! I can’t really explain them but they are super cool check them out!!
http://thelansfords.com/ftp_photos/jason/cd1/

(Written by Jason)
Ok so I know the last blog that I wrote was pretty negative. It is tough sometimes to fight off the birds of negativity that land on your shoulder and leave the remnants of despair and anguish. But things are not bad here. In fact more and more it is feeling like home.
Turning on the gas to light the oven seems more and more like a normal practice everyday. Seeing cars that zoom by as you wait for the bus feels normal. Sweating out of every pore from sunup to sundown is becoming comfortably familiar. Riding my bike long distances is to get somewhere not just for fun or exercise (which we get plenty of so we can eat most all the carbs we want!). Seeing cows, donkeys, chickens, goats, sheep and having them watch us, feels practically like they expect us to be there.
I mean not everything is like this. The classrooms here are a mess. Some are missing bricks, they have cracks, no electricity or windows that open for the breeze, chalkboards with more holes in it that if it were shot with a shotgun and none of the chairs have backs on them (this will most likely be the reason that Janeen and I look like old people when we return. Well that and the wrinkled skin on our arms, faces, pretty much anywhere that the sun touches…). But the children and the teachers are generally happy. Their happy energy is contagious and becomes difficult to be negative or sad. I love to ride into my little school, having 10 or so kids trailing after me, to see the smiling faces of my colleagues and quickly forming friends.
The strange parts is, is that I am making mostly female friends here as the men are typically very secretive and keep to themselves. I wonder quite often how they view us strange white people in their land. Do they see us only as white land lords like the Boers of South Africa? Or are they generally guarded as a people? These questions haunt me as I search for Basotho male companionship.
So in conclusion, things are not as bleak as I led on. We are good and although there will be many more blogs where I am confounded and confused by life here, we know again that this is the reason we have come. All our love to you!

January 23, 2007
(Written by Jason)
This is our second day of school for the both of us. Janeen if you all did not remember is teaching at the High School and I am working with 2 primary schools to improve teaching and learning techniques. Janeen’s assignment for this term is 3 form A classes (8th Grade) and 1 form B classes (9th Grade). She is also responsible for the library this year which will most likely be a huge project, getting the books and materials organized and making sure that everything is in order. The one great part is, that there is a computer so that we will be able to blog and create spreadsheets and what not for work. We will also be able to print from the computer in office which is really nice!
I can not speak for Janeen, she does that rather well for herself, but I am finding things tiring and wearing at this point. I know that it is only the second week but with the constant heat during the day, the intensity of the sun and the lack of a social network, things can get pretty tense and tiring at home. This is not to say that Janeen and I have not been doing exceptionally. WE are doing great! I am super excited about that. It is that we have a short fuse for each other and other things around us. Needless to say we need your prayers for patience (one that I have been praying repeatedly today) and temperance.
Let me tell you why I am typing this. The first day at my schools was yesterday. The night before happened to be the first big rain storm we have had in some time and so the ground was very muddy and sloppy. Therefore, when I arrived at my school about 5 minutes late, my legs and shoes were covered in poop smelling mud (as most of the mud mixes with cow, sheep, goat, chicken and other animal fecal matter.). I rushed because I thought that I would miss assembly which is supposed to start at 7:45. Silly me, that on the first day of school the principal/head teacher would not show up and all of the teachers stood around until 8:30 waiting for her to unlock the office. Once we did actually start school, we did not actually start school. The kids milled around cleaning out the classes and making sure that there were desks in the rooms. The teachers meanwhile, kind of supervised, yet I noticed more than one kick, hit, spit fight, play at the tap, etc.
Then finally at 10:00 we started our meeting. The whole purpose of the meeting was to meet me. And me, being the long winded person that I am, spent all of 15 minutes talking about what we are going to do together. This put us at 10:15 when the teachers said that they were going to let the kids go home early and teach tomorrow and that I could leave.
This was fine with me as I had to get to my other school for a meeting that was taking place. However after waiting for the bus which was supposed to come at 10:30 for an hour, I decided to start walking. I was finally picked up and taken to my site right around noon.
At the important meeting that I was supposed to attend, there was a large group of parents and students. This got me really excited and I thought we would be doing something really important. Over the next 3 hours of sitting in the burning sun (yes I do get sunburned), listening to a meeting in Sesotho, of which I understood maybe 3%, I was finally introduced to the crowd. My introduction however got me very nervous because the principal introduced me as the newest teacher to their school. I am not a teacher! Let me repeat that! I am not teaching these next 2 years. I am here to be a means of support and resource not a classroom teacher (come to find out that my supervisor had not talked to him and she promised me that she would write a letter to correct this misunderstanding. We will see!). This took a total of 10 minutes to do mind you and I spent 3 hours baking like a biscuit for that!!
All of this to say that it is only Tuesday and I am already fried. I do hope that you find all of this as funny as I do because what else can you do but laugh, right??

2007-01-11T08:14:00.000+02:00

January 11, 2006

Well we have finally arrived here, swearing in day! It has been two months to the day that we arrived in country and we are swearing in about the time that we first arrived at the training center where we have lived off and on during that time. An exciting piece of news is that my fellow volunteers asked me to give the speech today at our swearing in ceremony. I will post the speech possibly some other day. But today we just want to say hello, give our NEW ADDRESS and let you know that we are good and that we love you all!! This will also be the last time for a while that we get to use the internet for the next few months. This however does not mean that we don't want those ideas for grants and stuff to stop rolling in. IN fact, this will give you all plenty of time to do your homework and find the really juicy ones that will provide long lasting sustainable aid. Ok no pressure, but really keep the ideas coming.

So our NEW ADDRESS is:

Jason and Janeen Samuelian
Tsa-Kholo High School
BOX 7
Tsa-Kholo 960 Lesotho

Keep those snail mail letters and stuff coming! They seriously do mean the world to us and we really enjoy writting back! We will see you later Jason and Janeen

2007-01-11T08:09:00.000+02:00

January 8, 2006 (by Janeen)

WE ALL PASSED! Everyone in our group passed our language assessment. Jason received an Intermediate Mid level. The rubric states that a sympathetic listener will understand what he is saying. I got an Intermediate High level. The rubric says that most people will understand me, though my errors are evident and I lack vocabulary.
The test made me very anxious. I really do not like to take tests—especially orally. I was nervous pretty much most of the day since I was third from last. The tester was very nice and helped calm me down a bit. I know that I could have done better. After taking the test I thought of things that I could have said, but I didn’t say them. Oh well-- I passed and that is all that really matters.
Today we had an administrative session about money and vacation. I still think that we will be living pretty comfortably even though we are in a developing country. Of course we will be lacking amenities, but we will still be comfortable.

January 7, 2007 (by Jason)

Well I am back again, with another story in the saga that is Janeen and my life. Today is our language test day of which we must pass at an intermediate low level to pass for service (this basically means that we have to speak at a level of a 4-5 year old in order to pass). As things worked out, I was the first one to be tested, along with my friend Rachel. Janeen is probably testing as I write this blog, so if you get this in the next 5-10 min (11:28 lesotho time) throw a prayer up for Janeen.
As for me, I think that my test went pretty well. I won’t really know the results until this evening but I should definitely pass maybe even at a 6-7 year old level!! Pretty excited about that though. So lately Janeen and I have been a little tired and stressed out. We are anxious to get to our site and get some normalcy to a routine, a clean house, etc. However, after the test, we have a week of procedures, exit interviews of training (where they ask like 50 times if you are still committed to the Peace Corps, which we are by the way and if we will stick it out, which we will God forbid anything happen), and finally swearing in. It is not that we don’t love being in Maseru and hanging out with our friends, but we just want to go and get started. You know what I mean?? I don’t know if you do but it is just a little unnerving sometimes.
Thinking about the future at our site, I was already informed that 1 of my schools is going to be expanding starting in 2008. So I know that it is a long way away but the way that I am, I have already begun thinking of ideas that this could possibly mean. I think that it might be the perfect time to put in a library or an art room or something. This means that I am going to need funding for it. This is where all you out there reading this can help me out. I get very limited access to the internet and hence limited time to search for stuff like grants and what not. If you could start researching grants and funds that might be available for such things that would be awesome. Also, other volunteers in the past have petitioned local community groups and churches to collect money and resources for such projects and have had great success. We have a year to do something incredible and I would be so cool if we could do this together. If you find anything or have any ideas, shoot me an e-mail @ jason.samuelian@gmail.com
Thanks for the help! Keep the prayers and e-mails coming! They truly lift our spirits in these strange times! Love you all

2007-01-05T12:54:00.000+02:00

January 5, 2007
Back in Maseru and back to the internet café!! We went to our actual home for the next two years and had a sweet time moving in and getting settled. It is a huge place that has four rooms and a bathroom. In case you have not heard yet, we do have running water and electricity, and yes it as nice as we remember. Although the water is cold, it is nice to be able to turn on the tap to wash your hands or brush your teeth.
When we first arrived at our site. We were greeted by 3 of my co-workers and a mother from one of the schools that we will be working in. They helped us move in an get settled into our new life in Tsa Kholo. It is a cool village even though it is not small by any means. We have all the modern conviences of a post-office, clinic and multiple shops (that carry the same thing). IT is kind of funny really, but it is really nice, set against a large hill. We are certain to get cell phone coverage and this means you can call whenever you want.
Speaking of which we have cell phones too! If you get a calling card you can talk to us for cheap! Incoming calls are free for us, but it costs us about $2/minute to call you!
011 266 584 70 277--Jason
011 266 584 70 278—Janeen

So call us already! WE would love to chat with you and see how you are doing!! Love you all
Jason

December 31, 2006
(written by Janeen)
Happy new year (almost)! We will experience 2007 10 hours ahead of all you Californians. So at 2:00 PM we will be ringing in the new year. We are very excited to see what 2007 has in store for us. We have left our village from training and will spend the next few days in Maseru at the training site. On January 2nd we will leave Maseru and head to our new home in the Mafetang district.
Christmas and my birthday were enjoyable. We had several people cooking in the kitchen for most of the day. The feast was HUGE and delicious. We went back to the village on my birthday after going food shopping. We tried to get on the internet that day, but it was closed because they celebrate boxing day here. Jason and I wore the cone hats that Bari sent us during dinner. It was a nice day.
While we were back in Maseru during the Christmas break, the kitchen staff spoiled us with American food. We had pizza twice and fish & chips (Ok so that is British…) and I brought out my Heinz Ketchup that Andy & Mari bought for us the night before we left. We shared it with everyone and finished about ¾ of the bottle. Everyone was very excited about it! They have ketchup here called All Gold that is pretty good, but its just not the same as Heinz 57! J I’ve heard that we can get Heinz in South Africa, so I am going to wait to request it until we have permission to check out the South African goods. Once we swear in on January 11, we have to remain in our districts for the first 3 months. So we are even restricted in our travel within Lesotho.
Another note about Christmas…. We THOUGHT that we were escaping the hustle and bustle of Christmas, but it was the same here in Maseru. Of course in the village it was quiet. They do get new clothes at Christmas and they clean their homes, but the commercial aspect is quiet. We came back to Maseru and had to brave the horrendous Christmas lines to get Secret Santa gifts. It was fun. Jason got a permanent marker and some toy cars, and I got a tank top and some measuring cups. Its amazing how excited we got over so little! J
So… a few things about the internet here---it is HORRIBLE. Not only is it slow, it does not work consistently. I’ve learned to type the blogs on word, while I am waiting for the pages to load. I’ve had to email what I wrote in word to myself several times and had to post them later when I got the page to load in the hour of internet that I paid for. Or right now I just read an email from Val, tried to respond and then instead of sending the email response, I got “Cannot find server.” So most likely we will read your emails and respond with snail mail. With the internet being so slow, we have also tried to post pictures without being successful. I’ve heard internet in South Africa is faster, so we’ll try again in about 3 ½ months. So until then you’ll only get to see the few that we have posted so far. L
By the way… we have consolidated our “send us” list and posted it under the “contact us” section of our site. You will also find a running list of books that we have read. I am currently in the process of finding a book. I was going to read Dear Exile next, but one of our trainers borrowed it and is reading it now.
By the way, Jason is also writing something to post on the blog. We are both sitting at the internet café right now. If we repeat any info, we apologize.
Once again, we love you all and miss you sooooo much! Happy New Year, may 2007 be good to you.

December 31, 2006
Written by Jason:

Hey all from the mountain kingdom!! We are finally done with CBT (community based training)! Hooray! I do say this with some regret as we made some close friends there and I don’t really know if we will ever make it back there to see those people ever again, which is kind of sad! Let me give you a run down on some of the funny and not so funny things that we have seen:
Bats flying in and out of our ceiling making all kinds of racket all hours of the night
A grasshopper flying into Janeen’s hair while she was sleeping and we are not talking the tiny kind. We are talking 3 inches long!!
Pit Latrines that you should never, ever, ever spray bug killer down in, but you have to or risk being overtaken by flies, bees, spiders, etc.
Sickness everything from HIV, to TB, to Colds
Children being hit, chastised, laughed at because they can not defend themselves.
Children doing the same thing to each other because that is the model that they have been given.
Poverty, because of the world food program. Don’t get me wrong. IT is a good thing but it makes some people very lazy and unproductive. Giving food can not be the answer!
Habitual Alcoholism-mostly by men but some women too
Did I mention HIV/AIDS??

We had a great time at site learning the language (ke bua Sesotho Hahoolo! I speak Sesotho a lot!! NOT REALLY, but I try really hard!) learning the culture, everything from witch doctors to circumcision school (our Masotho Brother just went and came back, weird!!), and eating bland starchy foods!! But the best part is the people. Happy, sad, real people. We can only put on a mask for so long and then everybody shows there true colors. Our m’e (mother) really let us into her life and let us see her pain and her joy. The exhaustion that poverty and sickness takes and most of all the beauty of her language and people. We really do love it here!
Pray for Lesotho and the people here! Pray that we will be accepted at our site and most all pray for Janeen and mine continued great relationship. We love and miss you all and appreciate all those e-mails, letters, packages, etc. that you are sending! Keep it up!

December 22, 2006

We are back in Maseru at the training compound for a few days! J We will get to take warm showers and use the laundry machine. Jason and I will try to post more pictures tomorrow, when we have more time! We’ll update you all as well. Merry Christmas! We miss you all.

December 23, 2006

It feels like Christmas! J Yesterday we received 4 packages. One from Mom Samuelian and three from Bari & Eric Amos (Jason knows Bari from semester at sea). We got lots of goodies. Bari sent a care package, a Christmas package, and a birthday package! We got stockings and fun toys.

Yesterday everyone else found out where they will be living for the next two years. We have known for about a month now, so there were not any surprises for us. Except that we got to view a short video of what our home will look like. Our home will have both electricity and running water! Jason was a little disappointed because he feels that our experience will not be roughing it as much as he thought we would be. We will have 3 rooms, a living room, and a bathroom. We get to see our site on January 2, when we will visit for 4 days before swearing in. The purpose of this visit is to have a reality check and to be sure that we really can live like that for 2 years. They really want to be sure that we will not quit.

On our cell phones—we are 10 hours ahead right now. The best times to call are from 8 PM-10PM (CA time) or 6 AM-10 AM (CA time). During training we have sessions and are not always available. We’d love to hear from you (but be sure to buy a calling card so that it does not cost you an arm and a leg). Incoming calls for us are free, but it is $2 a minute for us to call you!

Jason might update also today. We are really missing you all right now. We hope you have the merriest of Christmases!

December 14, 2006
So we are back in Maseru today for food shopping because we are going to the national park on Saturday as a field trip. We have heard great things about this trip and are quite excited. We’ll let you know how it goes. There is not much new today. We have received quite a few letters recently and are VERY happy about that! It helps us feel connected to home and we really miss everyone! We are coming to the end of our Community Based Training (CBT). We will have a few days in Maseru over the holidays and will respond to emails at that time. Please do not feel that we are being short with you. We are really just limited on internet time. We have written over 40 snail mail letters. Which reminds me, can you let me know when you have received them and also let me know what # you received. That would be very helpful in knowing how long mail takes. Merry Christmas everyone! We wish we could celebrate with you, and enjoy the cooler weather. It has been VERY hot the past few days! Love to you all!

December 9, 2006

Hey all those folks out there in the rest of the planet! Greetings once again from Lesotho. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas all. It has been a little hard to get into the spirit this year as we are currently dealing with temperatures in the 90’s. It is dry though so not that unbearable. It will certainly make for an interesting X-mas!! We are really starting to miss friends and family as we are about to reach our month mark in country. On the bright side though, getting into routines of bucket baths, cooking at 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. because it is still light and because we want our house to be cooler for sleep time and those trips to the pit latrine, now seem almost (emphasis on almost) normal. Life is much simpler when all you have to think about is walking to work, walking home, eating and that is pretty much it. It is really nice. Some new experiences this week as we had our first practice weeks of teaching. Janeen is teaching Form A which was the equivalent of 8th grade and I taught class 5 (5th grade equivalent). Needless to say, kids here are starved for education. In the 5th class, the students did not have a teacher the entire year and had to make due with teachers that would come in at intermittent time periods. It is crazy to think that they would even have class for them. The students basically just hang out and do the assigned reading. Then someone may or may not come and check their exercise books to see if they finished them. Then they test and fail and have to repeat the class again. At least primary education is now free, unlike where Janeen is teaching where it costs money to go to school plus books, uniform, food, boarding, etc. One bit of exciting news was that our Ntate (Dad) came home 2 nights ago from the mines in South Africa. He will come home only twice annually and then for periods ranging between a few days and a few weeks for close family deaths. It is customary to bring a gift for family members when they do come home and he brought us some chicken. Not live, like our trainer thought, but just meat. It was a little weird having our M’e knock on the door at 6:00 a.m. with chicken meat. Our Ntate looks older than I think he is and very, very tired. Health update for our M’e (mom), we still think that she might have breast cancer as we have not gotten a contrary story to that thus far. We don’t think that they treat it here and it really is quite sad to think about. Other than that we will try and post some more pictures next week if we get a chance. We would love you to see our daily life here and we will attempt to post some of those pictures. . Please E-mail us if you can. We miss you all and it is our First x-mas away from family and friends.

December 2, 2006

First of all, we now have cell phones! You can get a calling card and call us anytime you wish! :)
Here are our numbers:
011 266 584 70 277--Jason
011 266 584 70 278--Janeen

We are not sure just yet, whose phone will be whose, but wanted to give you the numbers.

We are currently living in a village with a host family. The communication barrier is certainly difficult. For example, one morning our 'M'e wanted to iron our clothes and the situation went like this: a lot of misunderstanding. When we figured out that she wanted to iron our clothes, we went and got some clothes to iron. Then still not doing what she wanted, I took the ironing board into my room thinking I had to iron there. Finally we figured out that she wanted us to iron the clothes that we had on! It was pretty crazy!

Another interesting story I have is from when we went on our site visit about a week ago. I was in the staff lounge with the teachers and they began a debate on gender equality. One male teacher stood up and said that women are inferior because they were made from the man's rib according to the bible. I also broke out with a bibical response and told him that in the bible it says that women were created from the rib in order to stand beside man, not in front of or behind him! Apparently we will be working on gender issues here in Lesotho.

Just a side note--- if we email you (or write a blog) that contains many errors, it is because we are trying to write really fast as we are very limited on time and internet availability!

We are having a great time and are really enjoying ourselves. We still have about 6 weeks left of training before we are officially volunteers! Happy Holidays everyone! We love and miss you much!

November 22, 2006

Hey all! Just got back from Ha Sefako in the Butha-Buthe district. It was in the northern most part of the country. It is an extremely remote location with beautiful views and a totally quiet pace of life. Janeen and I went with two other Trainees; Sasha and Karli. These girls are both from Minnesota and grew up 20 minutes away from each other. They added a whole other dimension to our travels.

Our hosts for the weekend were Marissa and Anthony. They have been volunteers for a year and have had a variety of different experience. It was our first time with no electricity and no running water on the trip. It wasn’t half bad. It actually did make you consume less and think about every drop that you were using. It really was interesting when we choose to bathe. I guess you just adopt different meanings of “clean”. Other than the lack of normal amenities, the location was beautiful. It would be the ideal place if the population had work or if there were basic health services. I also think that I would get pretty tired of Papa and Morroho (Corn meal fluffed and chopped up spinach sauted in sunflower oil).

Mainly the trip got us excited for being in our CBT (community based training) villages and stressed the importance of knowing the language. Being able to communicate to the nationals in the native tongue brings such an impact as they are struck with how much you value their culture. Anthony is basically fluent and communicates so well that he is often called a son of Moshoeshoe (the first king of Lesotho). We both hope that we will be there in a years time.

Also posting some pics. Don't miss em!!!

All our Best

Jason and Janeen

November 17, 2006

Khotso! (pronounced Hho- tszo and is a greeting that means peace)

We have now been in Lesotho for a full week. It feels like we have been here a month! Initially the pace was slow. Last Saturday we were anxious to get started because we got here and had a few relaxes sessions, and then had a free day on Sunday. Little did we know what would begin on Monday! This week has been full of activities from breakfast at 8:00 AM to our final session ending at 8:30 PM. We are learning A LOT about the Basotho (pronounced Ba-soo-too) culture as well as the Sesotho (pronounced Si-soo-too) language. We are practicing our language, but still talk in English outside of Sesotho class. I am sure that when we go to the village next week we will get a lot more practice.

Jason and I are lucky enough to find out what our placement will be for the next 2 years (after our swearing in ceremony on January 11, 2007). Because we are a couple, they had a place ready for us. Jason has already met one of the teachers that he will be working with. He even met the volunteer that he will be replacing. She went home today and had worked very hard to make improvement in the school. He will have a good base and will be able to continue some of the things she began as well as introduce new ideas. He will be the resource teacher for 2 schools that are on both sides of where I my project will be.

I will be teaching English at Tsa-Kholo (pronounced Sa Hollo) high school and we will be living on the school compound. The school is located in the Mafeteng district (one of 10 districts in Lesotho), which is just south of the Maseru (capital) district. We will have electricity, but will have to fetch water from the pump. We have also been told that internet is VERY expensive there, so we will have to wait to post blogs for when we are able to go into Maseru (or very rarely).

As for the next few weeks: here is what’s up. We leave on Sunday to visit current volunteers. We will return to the training site on Wednesday, but will leave again on Thursday (Thanksgiving) for our Community Based Training (CBT). We will be adopted into families in three different villages. We will learn to cook, wash our clothes and dishes with limited water, as well as speak Sesotho better. We will still have training activities during the day as well. We are really looking forward to getting out there because we feel that we have been very sheltered staying here on the training compound.

Now that I have written a LOT… I will bid adieu. We really do love you all and think about you all the time! We appreciate your prayers.

By the way… we also received our first piece of mail! Thank you Mom Sam! J We LOVE it… keep it coming!

--Janeen

Hey everybody! Lumela ea Lesotho! Greetings once again from the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. Well as you can see, we have been super busy moving around and doing stuff. We are in sessions daily from early in the morning to what has been very late at night. The sessions range from everything from Cultural Awareness to language training. Things are very good. We love it here. I did have a moment of anxiety when we did find out our placement. I took a few deep breaths was wide eyed for a while but then was fine.

I also found out that the person that I am replacing is like mega ultra amazing volunteer. She was instrumental in setting up a national HIV/ AIDS awareness campaign using puppetry for youth. She also started a library at her school and received 1200 books from donors around the world. So I have no shoes to fill what so ever! But I am super excited!!

Well we would love to hear from you all and see how you guys are doing. Life here may be very busy but it moves very slow as well!

Khotso! Pula! Nala!- Peace, Rain, Prosperity!

--Jason

November 14, 2006

Lumela! (hello in Sesotho, pronounced Doomayla) We are in Lesotho, Africa! We are really enjoying our time here, but are VERY busy learning about the culture and language! Currently we are living at the Peace Corps training center and have hot showers and electricity. Next week we will go to our villages to live with a family for about 5 weeks.

We have 22 other Peace Corps trainees in our group and are enjoying getting to know them. Everyone is a lot of fun. Peace Corps volunteers aren't all granolas! They are normal people like us! :)

We miss everyone and will write again when we have more time! Love you all!

P.S. We are 10 hours ahead of PST.

November 1, 2006

So we are finishing packing up, tying up those loosed ends and taking care of business. We are about 95% finished packing and will be moving all of our worldly posessions (minus the stuff that is staying here, will explain, and the things we are taking with us) to Sonora. The stress levels have been moderate to low, but we are getting tired of packing and moving stuff out. One good thing is that even though we aren't being billed for cable, they haven't shut it off yet and we are enjoying free internet and TV until pack the last of our things.

The Peace Corps did send us our final packet of information and letters from country staff. Pretty interesting to check out!!

I am also trying to sell our XC-90. SO if you know anyone that has a interest in a slightly used luxurary SUV, send them to my E-bay site http://http:/cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=ADME:L:LCA:US:31&viewitem=&item=110050365040

One more interesting aside, Andy and Mari are going to be living in our house for a while and they will be keeping some of our stuff during that period of time. It is nice to be able to have the flexibility of them staying here so that we don't have to move all of our stuff.

Well that is pretty much it. Keep on praying for us and we will do the same if you ask it of us. Much love!!

This page was last modified on November 01, 2006 11:49 AM
October 25, 2006

We would be delighted to hear from everyone while we are away. Our mailing address is:

Jason & Janeen Samuelian, PCT

c/o Peace Corps/Lesotho

PO Box 554

Maseru, 100 LESOTHO

PCT stands for Peace Corps Trainee, and becomes PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) after our three months of training.

We have heard that the mail system is pretty reliable, but that it takes about 2 weeks to get mail there.

Sept. 12th 2006-
Announcing the news... That we have been waiting to give you all for a year now.

Janeen and I have been invited to join the Peace Corps in the country of Lesotho (pronounced Lesutu). We recieved the invitation yesterday, on my birthday and are happy to say that we accepted the invitation this morning. We will be leaving the good ol USA on the 10th of Nov. for our new home. We will be in staging beginning the 7th of Nov. and then we will leave for our new adventure.
There is a lot to tell and so little time to do so, hence we would love to hear from any and all of you and answer you questions individually. Please feel free to e-mail me or Janeen at our emails. http://jasonandjaneensam.com/_layouts/wh/Designer/mailtjason.samuelian@gmail.com http://jasonandjaneensam.com/_layouts/wh/Designer/mailtjaneen_samuelian@yahoo.comYou can also check out our website that we will update, internet permitting, from time to time. The address is http://www.jasonandjaneensam.com/
Pretty simple to remember and look at. We have also posted our graduate thesises and we will be posting the PDF of information that the Peace Corps gave to us for more info. about our situation while in Lesotho. We are so excited to share this adventure with all of you and know that we will be in your thoughts and prayers.

All our Best
Jason and Janeen Samuelian
Peace Corps Volunteers 2006-2008 (Lesotho)
August 2nd, 2006

So I am in an Excel class @ CompUSA in Monrovia. It is for work, however some of the class is a little behind what I am already capable of doing. We were having some difficulties at work today and I can't help but think of what kind of challenges that they are having over there today and I can't wait to get this class over with so I can head back there and see if I can do anything.

I also don't even remember the slow pace of life that was easy to get used to on vacation just 1 short week ago. It feels like an eternity since we were there. But that is the nature of life.

Till tomorrow.

Jason

2006-06-07T03:45:00.000+02:00

I have begun posting more regularly and find it to be a nice break from the monotony of work. You see, I am working less hours in the office, as most of the things that I am working on can be done at home. So I bring it home with me to get some of it done, and it goes by rather quickly. I don't know if I just like working at home better or that there are less immediate distractions. You know the constant barrage of e-mail, the phone endlessly ringing and people coming into your office to see if you boss is there, not say one word and then turn around and walk out again. I find it rather annoying really. But I digress.

Last night, I happened to turn on the TV and to my surprise I heard a familiar voice emanating from the screen. A friend from college was on the popular show, "Deal or No Deal". I knew her as Kacie Wooster, but she is now Kacie Bell. She looked good, if not different but her vivacious spirit was still very evident. She went on to win almost $200,000 dollars. It was fun to see another person, from what seems another life, doing well and making something of themselves, even if it is on a game of luck.

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2006-06-06T04:47:00.000+02:00

As Janeen has finished up her masters degree, it has got me thinking about people and what motivates them. What is it that pushes people to do the things that they want to in life? Is it solely the motivation to buy and sell goods to each other or are we more aware of ourselves than that?

It has got me thinking about what I want to do. I had a conversation with Janeen about attempting to take the MCAT's. The draw to become a doctor has always been on the back of my mind and I don't believe that it was put there by accident. I am just trying to figure out what to do with that. I am thinking about taking a MCAT study book to the Peace Corps and studying that while we are there to see if that is something that I am capable of doing. If I fail the practice exam a few times, I think that would be answer enough. Until that time, I am left wondering...

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2006-05-26T01:49:00.000+02:00

Ok So here is the background. The Peace Corps has a super extensive backround, medical, dental, vision and financial check. The process feels like that they can ween them out in the beginning that we will be all the better. I happen to agree with them, even though I think that they are hilarious in some of their rationale (according to my BMI, I am obese, but then so is Arnold Swazenegger). Anyway, back to the real point. I need some help. I have to choose a second pair of glasses so if I lose, break or destroy my first pair I have a back up. Now I would like to save my nice pair as the back up and have the Peace Corps issue pair be my primary. That is where you the reader come in. I need you to help me pick a pair. So in the comment field, leave which number and color you think I should choose. The pair with the most ammount of votes will be the pair that I choose* (*All descions are subject to final approval of my superior, my wife).
Happy Voting!

2006-05-24T06:38:00.000+02:00

For those who don't know what the life of a Peace Corps Nominee is like, this is for you. For those lucky few who have gone through the seemingly enless questions of "So when are leaving?" and "Have you signed up for Timbuctoo yet?", you will understand fully what it is that I am talking about. I have been inspired by the wonderful writings of past volunteers, hearing stories of their harrowing and sometimes, bone-chiling stories, to begin to document my own story. While my story right now might not be bone-chiling or harrowing, it might serve as an outlet for something productive to do other than buying useless, but awesome, stuff on the internet or watching the idiot box. This will be a platform for me to complain, inspire, digress and hopefully decompress all the thoughts that I am having about our adventure.
While I know that I am prone to wander and possibly bore all those who read this (mom and maybe wife?), It is a place that is more about me than the reader. It is my thoughts on life, the things I find myself wondering and questioning. It is a place for dreamers and mostly a place to think. To stop and ask the questions that I am not going to be affraid of asking. And that is as they say is that. First blog down, hopefully, many more to follow...
Did I mention that I often get bored with things and lose interest?