Technology Breakdown

Option #1

Come from America to Lesotho bringing an Unlocked Blackberry

Because the phone is brought from America, you skip the cost of the purchase. Therefore you are left with just the cost of the BB plan costs 50R/month. In 24 months, your total cost will be 24*50 = 1200 Rand.

This comes out to be only

R1200 Total,
50 Rand per month
2.3% of your monthly salary

Option #2

Come from America to Lesotho, but buy a Blackberry in Country

The cheapest blackberry sold in Lesotho is 1500 Rand, (at a private shop) while at the Vodacom store, the cheapest found is 1800 Rand. These models are not 3G compatible, and the 3G compatible ones can be found starting at 2200 in the store. In 24 months, if you buy the cheapest phone and the blackberry plan, you will spend R1500-1800 + R1200 = R2700 – 3000 total in the two years.

This comes out to be only

R2700 – 3000 Total,
112.5 – 125 Rand per month
5.1% – 5.7% of your monthly salary

Option #3

Come from America to Lesotho, bringing an unlocked Android/iPhone

The iPhone/Android can range in how much you will spend total widely. It depends whether you are a light user, or a heavy user.

The following are my own, arbitrary, but educated estimations of data usage per category of light, medium, and heavy usage. Now the payments can be confusing so bare with me. Each data bundle payment only lasts a total of 7 months. (stretches to 8 depending on when you purchase).

 So a light user only used 20Gb, but if they buy 2 data bundles each of 10Gb, it will only last 14 months, meaning they are left with an additional 10 months to buy more data. So a light user, it is recommended that they buy 6 bundles, of 4Gb each. I have described which bundles are better to buy for each case of light, medium, or heavy user.

A light user will use 0.8Gb/month-totaling 20Gb in 24 months 6, 4Gb bundles = R3900-4080

A medium user will use 1.2Gb/month-totaling 28Gb in 24 months 2, 10Gb bundles and 3, 4Gb bundles = R4800 – 5040

A heavy user will use 1.4Gb/month-totaling 34Gb in 24 months 3, 10Gb bundles and 1, 4Gb bundle = R4900 - 5180

Therefore, this comes out to be only

R3900-5180 Total,
162.5 – 215.8 Rand per month, 7.3% – 9.8% of your monthly salary

Now remember, with the blackberry, those prices are fixed. That is exactly what you will be paying. But the iPhone/Android, you may be able to pay less, or you may be paying more. For the heavy user, I really tried using a large amount so I hope that is the top amount anyone using an iPhone/Android in Lesotho will spend; but if you are constantly downloading movies who knows how much you can spend. The data bundles can be on sale for lower prices, so the prices above can even dip depending on if you are lucky to buy data at the right time. For instance right now, you are able to buy 4Gb for about half the price. I kept the prices as fixed prices.

I myself am a medium user, although I plan to purchase in the heavy user way because it is a small difference in spending. I am always on Facebook, posting pictures of food, talking on Whatsapp, kakao calling, shazaaming, stumble uponing, redditing, updating my apps, downloading new apps, and browsing on safari. I am still considered a medium user.

Now the above was an unbiased breakdown of the pricing in this technology. Below, I explain the differences in using a Blackberry and an iPhone/Android. I may show that I am a bit fond of “true” smart phones.

Blackberry

Benefits

• You can cheat the system, and download large files without being detected by the 5Mb limit per download

• Easy payments of 50 rand each month

• Not as flashy as iPhone/Android, will get less attention

• Blackberry Messenger 

 Sucky Things

• 5Mb limit per download means, no Youtube, no Audio calls through skype/kakao, no video chatting.

• Not as reliable, some volunteers have issues, some do not

• No Tethering, you must buy a modem if you want Internet on your

  computer at home.

  iPhone/Android

  Benefits

• Youtube, watch movies, read books

• Shazaam

• Kakao/Viber call

• Video Chat

• Real apps, like scanning, stargazing, GPS with maps

• Better Pictures

• Real Engaging Games

• Siri, iMessage

• Tethering internet 

  Sucky Things

• Flashier, gets more attention

• Cannot cheat the system, anything you download takes off that amount of

  data

• Have to pay in large bundles and keep track of when the next payment

  should come, not the easy 50 rand a month

• If it breaks, you will be more sad than if the blackberry broke.

  If you are willing to spend the 5% difference on bringing an android or iPhone, you will make that money up with an extra 40% comfort from home!

  If you have any questions on the technology, how the money was broken down, or if you feel as though I forgot to include certain information please feel free to contact me! 

Phase III and Port Elizabeth

After three months of being at site, and two months of teaching, all my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers who I came with in October, reconvened in our original training village Makola, in the Berea district of Lesotho. It was just for a week, but we finally all got to see each other again. Luckily, modern technology and the wireless Edge network are able to keep us in relative constant contact, but it’s a completely different experience seeing each other back in our original environment.

We all came ready, packed for a week of village life with our host families, and then for another week of vacations off to Swaziland, Durban, Cape Town, and Port Elizabeth, South Africa. As I got off the bus stop and saw my training village, I started recognizing so many children and people. Sadly, after three months I forgot the difficult names I already didn’t know when I stayed there. Somehow I bumped into my host sister Mapeku, and immediately our faces lit up with excessive smiles. We got home, where my host mother ‘M’e Matabelo made a delicious meat meal for me. I’ve been cooking a lot (as you can tell by my FoodBlog/FaceBook) and I forgot how great it was to have meals prepared for you. Although the week was just more workshops, and informative lessons, it was hard to pay attention because of the looming ideas of what the first vacation would be like.

On the last night before leaving for vacation, my host mother made the most spectacular meal. She knew that I appreciated really fancy looking meals, and delicious ones at that. She made homemade bread for me, I reclaimed my title as Ntate Peanut Butter, and we just had a great night filled of food and talking. Living in Fobane, I live alone on the school compound. I have a neighbor, but she never became my formal host mother as other volunteers have it. It never really bothered me, I liked my independence and alone time, but somehow having that sense of unconditional mothering and love was a great refresher and lifted my mood intensely. Now I make it a habit to call my host mother at least once every other week. I call me real mom about once a week but we whatsapp about everyday.

I left on vacation with Laura, Mike, Kyle, and Mike’s girlfriend who is extremely cool and named Celena. We drove to Port Elizabeth in our rental car, and by we I mean Kyle drove the entire way. I was the navigator, and the iPhone maps app was quite handy. On our way to get our rental car, we found a Wal-Mart sort of store. It was insane; I almost forgot how much stuff could be found in the “real” world. Lesotho is just 4 hours away from this 1st world haven, but somehow it lacks all of the amazing infrastructure and booming economy that is South Africa. We arrived to Port Elizabeth, and our hostel was near a McDonalds. The first McDonald’s I had seen in 5 months. I don’t, or rarely eat McDonalds, but I desperately needed chicken nuggets, ice cream, crispy chicken sandwich, burgers, etc. I had a large part of the menu in that week. Its surprising that anything that is slightly American, we pounce on immediately, almost treasuring it as a sense of home, even if it was something we disliked before.

On vacation we went for a safari at Addo Elephant Park, and saw a variety of interesting animals. Zebras, Elephants, no lions unfortunately. The whole week in Port Elizabeth was rainy, but it allowed us to just relax and be American, something that surprisingly takes a lot of energy to suppress while living in village. I forgot the comforts of just seeing a movie in theatres, walking around a mall, speaking English everywhere, and being allowed to walk outside at night. The biggest change from my village pace of life was the convenience and diversity of food that we ate in Port Elizabeth was excellent.

It was my job, as expected, to find all the delicious food places during vacation. We had intensely amazing Mexican food, where I order a very spicy, cheesy, shredded beef chimichanga. The meat was more tender than Chipotle’s famous Baracoa. In a very nice grocery store, I even found pecan pies, donuts, and kinder chocolates. A buffet that served Chinese food, pizzas, pastas, steaks, ice cream, waffles, etc. We had some of the freshest sushi known to mankind, and that is where I probably dropped the most cash. Our final meal, I enjoyed a delicious, large portion of pork belly steak with sweet potato gnocchi. Appetizer was steak tartar and dessert was a fried chocolate Lindt truffle. It had been about 5 months at that point since I had seen an actual menu with options of things.

At the hotels in Lesotho, the menu is pretty bare, and usually many things are absent. You can get your standard grilled cheese with tomato, or bacon, a burger (substandard) and pizza (no tomato sauce). They have had banana splits on the menus probably for years before I arrived, but never served it.

It is very unimaginable to see how Lesotho, being landlocked in South Africa, was unable to ascertain any of these modern comforts, conveniences, and benefits. But when I returned from vacation, I simply relaxed at my home, and realized why everyone is still so happy here. Because life is simple, it’s easy, and there really aren’t too many things to worry you. Basotho are happy with eating papa and cabbage, they are happy being able to know everyone in their hometown, and I also am happy with where I am. Although, where I am does desperately need at least one sushi restaurant. 

School School School

Although I have not posted in awhile, I plan on catching up very quickly. School started January 28th, and it has been a nonstop ride. Although this may come off chauvinistic and conceited, I would say my science and math skills are sufficiently adept, and I rarely have to look at a book to know I am on the right track while teaching. But teaching, especially to students where English is a second language, is extraordinarily difficult and frustrating.
The culture here is much more relaxed, where deadlines for homework can be flexible, students who are late to school, still leisure their way over. For the first three months of teaching, I always compared my high school time to the Basotho version of High School. I questioned why students don’t care about coming late, or why they don’t care about studying or turning in homework, and even why come to class if they aren’t going to take notes or pay attention. My philosophy is that if you don’t take notes, or don’t pay attention, than you probably already are starting at an A in my class. But the students don’t strive for American A’s; they strive for passing, which is a dismal 50. And if they don’t pass, they laugh it off as if nothing is really the matter.
But then I took a step back, and tried to come up with reasons why they don’t consider school as important as I did growing up. Many of these students are single and double orphans, meaning that they have no parental figure guiding them, or explaining them why education is important. Even so, it is easier here for men, and even women, to get a job in the mines without a formal education, and still make a lot of money. At Fobane, we see a lot of villagers returning at the month’s end, and they are doing just fine economically. Basotho here generally don’t buy much, and the food they grow is enough for them to survive and eat fine. Many students also have not ventured out of the village often, or have only seen the local close by camp towns such as Maputsoe or Teyateyaneng. Therefore, there is no real motivation for them to see that education can really help them. Why change something that you are already content with? And its true, Basotho all over the village are extremely happy, kind, and generous people.
My primary job here is to educate the high school students in math and science, and also to motivate them to understand how proper education can open up their world. I started a few things in my school, one being a prefect system, based on Harry Potter, which creates an environment for students to speak English more often. There are two students in each class, boy and girl, who teachers have chosen as the prefects and their job is to write down the names of students who speak Sesotho. In theory, this will prepare students for their final COSC exam in their Form E (Kind of like the SAT), which is entirely in English. This idea has definitely gotten more people to speak English, but has also created a lot of work for the English Teachers and myself. When a student gets caught speaking Sesotho, their punishment is to write an Essay in English on one of the fun topics we came up with. It is still a work in progress idea, but I hope that diligence will eventually make a permanent English-speaking environment at School.
The other big thing I started here was a general peer-tutoring club, where I bring Form B students (9th grade) to the primary school to teach Standard 7 students (7th grade) math. This was a great endeavor, and students really enjoyed it. Although I am unsure of the impact, it definitely exposes my Form B students to older material that they both forgot, and need for the future. This tutoring then spread between classes in my high school, so students in Form C tutor Form A students, and Form D students tutor form B students. Unfortunately this past month after my vacation to Port Elizabeth (next blog post), this club died down because every day after school the time I had for tutoring was used for practicing cultural dances for Cultural day (also next blog post).
I also joined the Teacher's soccer team, and I'm surprisingly not as bad as I expected. But these teachers, even the large round ones, can run and play soccer a lot longer than I can!
I hope this was an easy to follow post, updating you on my main job in school!