Seeing Happy Endings (Phrasing)

As my Close of Service (COS) approaches, I can’t help but be more introspective and reflective. The Peace Corps is a two-year program and while many people may think that is too long, it honestly isn’t long enough. Most of us are now seeing the fruits of our labor in largely unexpected ways, and even seeing our projects showing strong signs of sustainability and progress.

One success is that now about once every two weeks the teachers and I eat meat together!

SEX BOOK

Along with my main goal of improving math and science education, I am entrusted to impact my community on the HIV/AIDS front. Although my school does not have a life skills time slot during our schedule, I find about five minutes every class to inform my students on various topics usually related to sex. Just the other day we had the head nurse from our Millennium Clinic visit our school and give “The Talk” and during the entire course of our awkward question and answer period, the students kept mentioning how I love to talk Life Skills. 

This kid

Additionally, our library shelves have been finished and it is more or less organized and running. One day on my way back home from school I overheard a few students speaking in English and talking about Sex. I snooped a bit further and looked over their shoulders while acting like I was just on my phone. They were holding a book titled “Sex” found in our Life Skills section of our library. At that moment, I realized how three initiatives my teachers and I started actually proved in someway successful.

 

1) Our Library is self-sustaining. Students know that if they want science, life skills, or any books the library is available to that at all times.

2) These students were practicing English without being forced to. Last year I tried so hard to make my students speak English and met so much resistance. This year I essentially gave up, but you can still hear whispers between students encouraging each other to continue speaking English.

3) My students were no longer scared to talk about Sex freely. They weren’t inhibited or embarrassed if other teachers saw them with the book, and they were taking the books home. This means the shyness and ignorance about sex and sexually transmitted diseases is being chipped away, literally (Archer figuratively)at the grassroots level.

 

Before these two years started, I knew what our jobs entailed, but I had no forethought that these projects could synergistically mingle in such positive ways, and I was simply lucky enough to witness just the beginning of what seems to be pure development and progress.

 

Also in these two years I would have no idea that my roof would finally get fixed!

Life Skills Play

Because I am a native English speaker, I have almost automatically and willingly been adopted into our English Department. I am often asked for advice, or for help with our school debates and compositions from students or teachers. 

Debate

I often feel like a walking dictionary (Beyond ironic if you know who I am). One day our English Club approached me for assistance on their Drama that would occur on our English Day Festival. I am no Shakespeare either, and therefore I simply posed the question, “What do you want it to be?” Instantaneously they said they wanted to create a Life Skills Play and I stood their quivering with excitement (Archer Phrasing). More often than not students don’t care for life skills, and definitely don’t want to advertise any sex-talk to the entire school (especially to the audience of teachers). So I posed the next question, “What if you had HIV/AIDS, what would be the first thing you do?” I proposed the topic of the drama, and then I let them come up with each step after. It was a short play, but it was an interesting way to understand their thoughts on the idea of HIV/AIDS on a more personal level. The play went as the following:

 

A female student has two boyfriends. One is good and one is bad. She tests at the clinic and finds out she is positive. The ausi (girl) becomes insanely depressed and confused while the nurse is telling her all will be well with medicine and counseling. The ausi ignores and seeks after her two boyfriends. She meets the bad boyfriend first who gets angry, and tells her that he can’t have HIV/AIDS because he is circumcised from the mountains, uses more than one condom, has ten sex partners who are also negative, etc. She tells him to get tested and meets the good boyfriend who is shocked, supportive, but hesitant to get close to her. She then tells her best friend who reacts the same way. The boyfriends end up drinking at the local bar and gossip to the whole school that this ausi is HIV positive, and the next day at school she is embarrassed because people are too scared to share food with her, or even sit near her. She runs home and abandons school. She then paces outside depressed and angry, and ultimately exclaims verbally her intention of suicide. The mother overhears her and calms her child. They go back to the clinic seeking counsel and medicine. The Ausi is a bit chipper and less ashamed. She then boldly goes in front of the whole school and preaches to them about her HIV positive status and encourages others to test. Everyone is then impressed and thrilled for her positive attitude and her confidence. The good boyfriend comes back and says he still loves her.

Fin

 My drama folk

A pretty complex, and insightful drama essentially thought of and acted out by students who have had a lifetime of impedances to their life skills education. I felt extremely proud that they had the courage and tenacity to formulate and execute such a mature play.

 

Soon I will be updating on our Solar for Breakfast project and perhaps some intriguing weird fun times. Updating certain news: I did not win the blog competition, but I was fortunate and happy enough to become selected as a finalist. It did boost my blog’s readership and that was what I needed most to ensure my inceptive thoughts to roam free in the minds of a multitude of Americans. I will be leaving Lesotho Oct 10th, and will see many of you shortly. The political unrest that is currently ongoing is nothing to be startled by, and it may calm you to know I am not by any means close to the capital.

A week before the political unrest, I was on vacation eating in the capital with my cousin. 

Theory of 2nd Goal and Thermodynamics

Have you seen the documentary “Dirty Wars?” It discusses how our military presence abroad, and our perhaps immoral or unjust actions rotted the reputation of Americans in several countries. Warring and conflict have left the world scarred with a seemingly reasonable contraction that Americans are a short term, and violent people. We as a nation have evoked an era of distrust and as you travel you will witness the discontent that is generated. Even in places where we are not currently in conflict, people detail their opinions of Americans as power hungry and unnecessarily involved as evidenced by the many discussions I have with my fellow teachers.

While our Nations’ Leaders are focused on National Security, it must be imperative that the mission of the Peace Corps is to divert and alleviate the attention from the militaristic view of the United States, into that of a friendly and helpful neighbor. But my question, and perhaps posed by several people, is that do we as Peace Corps make a difference? Do we change foreign opinion? Do we aid our host countries in ways that they cannot themselves?

Cultural day

As an education volunteer, it is often quite difficult to assess whether I have impact on the developing world. I have come across Bo-’Me on multiple occasions who thank me for my service, and commend me on the wonderful job we have done here, but I am afraid that they will associate me with any progress that occurs in Fobane even if I was not part of the link. For instance, my school produced a top ten student, the highest award possible for a student based on her standardized exams. Additionally, my schools both received over ten boxes of new books to further engage our students’ education. These two improvements in my community are in no way related to me. The student was never taught in my class, and a Minister donated the books. Although I enjoy the praise I reiterate that it isn’t because of me. My village may even have its road paved, which some people have been asking me where I am getting the money.

Local community discussion

I am not saying that I have not had some form of an impact, but I think I have come to the conclusion that even if we are not active volunteers, our presence itself is a contributing factor to development, and it can be accounted for through the lovely science of thermodynamics. Thermodynamics is a branch of physics created to understand the relation between energy and work. I believe it can be extrapolated to the Peace Corps to describe the interactions between energy, work, and the economy of developing nations.

Thermodynamics are about random particle movements, and this post is about random pictures

Take the following system:

An elderly woman needs to carry groceries to her house for 30 minutes uphill. 

I help her with the groceries and consume 200 calories. 

The woman did not use 200 calories and had an easier time to walk uphill. 

I saved the woman 200 calories and accosted myself with this energy debt. 

She no longer requires sustenance to fill the void. 

Energy is neither created nor destroyed, and therefore I do need to fill this void. 

Therefore she saves money on buying food. 

I am forced to buy 200 calories worth of food through my salary. 

The American Government provides my salary.

Therefore, the United States Government infuses money into the community that I am working in through me. My presence implies my local community will save energy, and therefore money.

My shopkeeper where I spend my money

In Lesotho, the Peace Corps sends teachers to rural schools not to replace teachers, but to supplement schools with extra labor force. Therefore teachers attend fewer lectures, saving energy, and therefore saving money. In Summary, villages are able to improve their local economy because of our sacrifice, while the Federal Government sustains us to continually make these sacrifices. As long as we Peace Corps Volunteers do our primary job, the hidden benefits of having a Peace Corps Volunteer may be present. This is different from just throwing money at a problem. By placing a volunteer in a rural area, economic growth (however small) is directed to a specific needy area, and not just given to large organizations or governments that lack the capacity to distribute the wealth appropriately.

The United States Government provides my monthly salary of $200. I spend nearly all of it in Lesotho. Between the nearly 2300 volunteers that have served Lesotho since 1967, the United States investment in Lesotho under the Peace Corps can approximately (and underestimated) be $11 million. This figure does not include staff salary, nor grants allocated to Lesotho. However, many countries the Peace Corps are involved with have a declining economy. In Lesotho, I know it is related to resources being imported by South Africa with little exportation. It also is related to a similar style brain drain, where many of our gifted university graduates find better opportunities in South Africa, therefore providing the government of Lesotho with less through income tax, and a decrease in business investments. I think that the infusion of funds by the hands of volunteers through Peace Corps alleviates some of this economic decline, and without it the situation could be exacerbated.

The brain drain can take her from us

Thinking completely objectively, I view myself not necessarily as an entity capable of change, but more an economic tool sent by the government to slowly trickle in capital into a country whose economy is being leeched out to competing sources.

The economic impact that the Peace Corps may provide to its several host countries is in fact hidden to local citizens. But the military actions of the United States are often front page to countries abroad and their perspective remains negatively affected. I am not saying that the military deserves this, but violence (regardless of its necessity) warrants hostility and can devalue the reputation of the United States.

The perceptions on Americans by locals are exactly what the Peace Corps’ 2nd goal was intended for - to promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.

Just as our presence implied directed economic improvement, I am inclined to believe that our presence within rural communities enlightens a perhaps less evident side of Americans, that we promote peace in ways unrelated to violence.

Just by befriending my teachers, having open discussions on religion, world affairs, and cultural ambiguities and differences, we are promoting a friendlier side to the American face. Our impact may be hard to measure, but we know we are doing our job and our nation a service when we are able to walk away from a conversation with a smile and a new friend. 

Mundane Mondays

Recently my posts focused on the several community projects my counterparts and I are engaged in. However, my day to day can be generally just as uneventful as yours and I wanted to share that with you in an extremely unnecessary and analytical way.

In the Peace Corps, I have become more diurnal than my previous university self. I can barely stay up after sunset, and I wake up just 30 minutes post-sunrise. Summertime I usually wake up around 5, and now that it is Winter I wake up around 7. It’s still pretty cold nowadays, so when I wake up I stay huddled in my blanket trying to absorb some of the leftover warmth of my rubber water bottle heater. Technically, teachers are required to be at school at 7am to observe the morning study. However students are always late, and teachers are even later. It supposedly happens every year. When the school year starts, teachers and students are gung-ho and we are always present before 7. As the school year proceeds, we show up progressively ten minutes later than the previous month until we reach the 2nd semester, where we show up at 8am. During my training, we were encouraged to integrate by modeling behavior, therefore this is subjectively one of those opportune moments to gain an optimal standard of integration. I’m not lazy, I just want to retain the heat I generated in my cocooned blanket throughout the night.

7:45am. I am late. I jump out of bed, brush my teeth outside, toss my pee bucket remains into my “flourishing” garden, greet my neighbor child pooping in the trash heap ahead of me with a gentle wave, slip into some warmer clothes for school, drag my two solar setups outside and rush out the door. As I walk towards the school I realize I left my red pen back home, run back, realize I should probably urinate and run back out to my latrine for a quick release.

Basotho roulette to see who greets me in the morning

I get to school by 8:00am. We are late to start our morning assembly, but I somehow always arrive right before the students sing the National Anthem. In the United States we raise our right hand and place it over our heart to recite the pledge of Allegiance. In Lesotho we sing (sometimes passionately, we are a big singing people) the National Anthem and keep our arms and hands at our sides parallel to our bodies. After, we sing a church hymn. We have 5 grades in the school, so Form A leads the songs on Monday, and Form E closes with usually a stellar performance on Fridays. The Form A’s for some reason just don’t get it. We have done it everyday since the beginning of the year, but they always, as a collective group of 150 students, somehow forget that they should sing. Heathens. After some announcements, the teachers release the students to the classrooms except for the Form A’s. Because they didn’t sing on time, and probably sang pseudo-synergistically, becomes pertinent to have a massive corporal punishment session. 

The morning assembly line-up

8:20am. The form A’s line up to receive their weekly character building energizer. Honestly, corporal punishment isn’t that bad at my school. My staff has even talked about how we shouldn’t do it as much, but it’s just an easy solution for the teachers - students actually say if you don’t beat them, they won’t learn. Parents even want teachers to beat the children. I don’t beat any students however, I do punish by ensuing creative psychological embarrassment torture methods. What I dislike most about this method of punishment is that it causes a lot of noise, which is distracting when I am teaching a different class. Also, I expect the teacher who is beating the students to be very tired, that’s over a hundred swings. Students are smart however. They always seem to move their hand at the right time away from the stick in order to lessen the blow.

The students are choosing who gets beaten first

9:20am. I get to my favorite class. These students know how to distract me, but I don’t even mind. They always get me to talk about sex, and since we don’t have Life Skills I consider these lessons important. I always talk about HIV/AIDS, its history, prevention, and treatment. However recently we started talking about other sexually transmitted diseases. I usually get my phone and browse the Internet for various disturbing photos and pass it around as a teaching aid. Recently a student somberly sauntered up to me and said, “Tonight I will have nightmares.” I was proud, but I think I did my job when another told me he would never have sex. I don’t tell them sex is bad, I just describe that it can be dangerous if you are too scared to pose questions, don’t protect yourself and or know the risks. A result of encourage inquisitive minds led to a complete backfire.

“Sir is sex nice?” “How do girls masturbate?” “Do you do the oral sex?” I thought I was supposed to make them feel uncomfortable. I am not sure if it is right, but I try my best to answer accurately yet appropriately. Keep in mind that many of us learned from Google because we were too encumbered to ask our towering adult figures. They don’t have the luxury of the Internet and the parents are even less knowledgeable of the issues. I like to think I am a walking, talking, sextionary (sourcing my iPhone).

I also had to teach about crabs

10:40am. I get a break, run back home and eat some leftover dinner for an early lunch. Sometimes I buy makoenya and polony, which are essentially fried dough bread balls and bologna. It is not bad, but not that great either. Then I get back to school to finish the rest of my classes.

Students relaxing on break absorbing sun to stay warm

At 1:00pm we break for lunch. All of last year I used to eat the school food. I now choose to eat at home. I enjoy Basotho food, but not school food. Often you encounter foreigners in African countries chastising the quality of the food the African children or people eat and advertise it as an injustice. Although I don’t eat the school food, the kids love it. Just because it isn’t American style food doesn’t mean the whole continent is starving. Papa (boiled corn meal, almost like plain grits) and Meroho (spinach or cabbage) are what the students usually get. Tuesdays and Wednesdays they get protein through beans, eggs, or hot dogs (we call them Russians). Around this time, we as the teaching staff can just relax and chat. Usually it is all in Sesotho but it turns into English whenever I want to chime in.

This is papa (white)

We have fun conversations on all sorts of topics. My favorite conversations however are when we talk about the differences in our accents, or when they teach me inappropriate Sesotho lingo.

When classes end, the afternoon study begins around 2:00pm. Some teachers and I will work on secondary projects, which included the HIV/AIDS Soccer Tournament, the Solar Paneling, and now the Library. The library is coming together really well, but slowly; I will create another post on its completion.

The girls helping with the library

I get home around 4:00pm at which time my Mother never ceases to send a whatsapp encrypted, “Good Morning Shawnee.” Now, I have never brought this up with her, but I hope she realizes I am at least 6 hours ahead. So when she says good morning, does that mean she is telling me she is having a good morning? Or is she telling me that tomorrow when I wake up to have a good morning? She calls every few days and we chat for an hour while I pace around my house. I can’t bring my phone inside or else I lose reception. During the call, she always laughs at the random chicken or cow noises in the back, the numerous children squabbling, and my interrupted greetings to fellow villagers (it is very rude to not say hello here).

These boys are always playing knock-knock ditch 

At 5:00pm students sometimes show up for some extra studying or just to talk. I don’t mind because it is often the older students who are around my age. While they are hanging out on my couch I indulge them with random American foods or anecdotes and prepare dinner. I try to cook early while I have daylight because cooking and eating by candlelight may be romantic for two, but it is intolerably ill advised for one. They leave just before dark and I start eating my dinner while warming up water for my bed. I snuggle into the covers around 7:30pm, watch some random movie or tv show on my laptop while whatsapping friends in the States and here. I quickly fall asleep around 9:00pm if I am able to make it that late.

The family I usually say goodnight to

I am lulled to sleep by the gentle random unpredictable church hymns surrounding the school compound getting ready for another day.

I hope you enjoyed getting an exclusive peek into the wonderful world of a rural Peace Corps Volunteer. In related news, I have been nominated as a finalist for the Blog it Home Competition for the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps has three goals which paraphrased are: 1) Do Development Work for your Host Country. 2) Provide Insight into American Culture to Locals. and 3) Make Americans aware of your Host Country and what it is like to be a Peace Corps Volunteer.

This Peace Corps Competition is centered on the 3rd goal, and with your help I may be able to attend a conference in Washington D.C. to represent my host country of Lesotho (The Forgotten Kingdom). As an avid Math/Science enthusiast, I rarely considered anything English-Oriented of mine to be generally literate, but it has been very encouraging to hear all your comments about my blog, my work, and especially being recognized as a finalist. Between August 1st and 10th you will get an opportunity to like a certain picture that is linked to my blog on the national Peace Corps Facebook Page. The more likes/comments I get, the more likely I can become one of the chosen ones in September. 

Like the photo by clicking this link:

https://m.facebook.com/peacecorps/photos/a.10152404780060914.1073741843.110634980913/10152404780180914/?type=1&source=43

If all goes well, maybe I'll see some of y'all in D.C. 

Solar for Breakfast

In January, my principal and I came together to tackle some of the issues that plagued our high school. The following are what we came to agree were the most devastating yet solvable issues:

Our school office

1. Hunger. Our double orphans come to school hungry. Because they are in school, they neither have the time nor resources to grow their own food. They also don’t have any income in order to purchase food. Therefore, when they do attend school (tuition provided by the government), they are sluggish, inattentive, and unable to perform to dig themselves out of poverty. It is impossible for these students to learn effectively when malnourished.

2. Electricity. Our school is spending excessive amounts of money on petrol for our generator to provide students with scholarly material, quizzes, and exams. The generator provides unregulated current that damages our computer and printers at least once a semester resulting in costly repairs and maintenance. We use the generator to run our school television during fundraisers, but unfortunately with the rising cost of petrol, our profits have been plummeting leading to a continued cancelling of our HIV/AIDS related secondary activities.

   
   
   

3. HIV/AIDS. Fobane High School does not have Life Skills education, which leaves our children more vulnerable to HIV/AIDS and an unprepared adulthood. Our English Club wants to desperately create a Life Skills/English Magazine in order to provide some education on this front. Previous magazines incorporated several important life lessons through grabbing images, and stories, however it had to be sold at such a high cost to the students that only ten were able to afford it. The inability to distribute the information leaves us just as precariously threatened to HIV/AIDS as before.

   
   A free condom distributor now in every shop!

To address the issues we cleverly evoked one material solution that would perpetuate the solving of the others. The idea was to create a sustainable solar panel system that would save money on petrol. Half of the expected savings would then create a breakfast fund to provide nutrition to at least half of the double orphan population. The other half of the savings would be used as emergency maintenance and repairs in the event that the green energy system would falter. Without the need to purchase petrol, the Life Skills Magazine would then be affordable for individual purchase and HIV/AIDS education can be distributed among the masses for invaluable CAPACITOR building.

Me caring for my own solar

We applied for a grant through the Peace Corps to generate the funds and purchase a large solar panel system. The project cost roughly $3000 USD and the grant covered about 75%. The system consists of 6 85W panels resulting in 510W of clean electricity stored in 6 105Ah Solar Batteries.

Construction

Some RESISTANCE:

As with any project, we have run into a few snags. Right after we bought the system, our printer broke from the unregulated current of our generator (see, major problem). We then purchased a new laser printer/copier, which now consumes power at a higher rating. Our system can still supply enough power, but our inverter is not able to cope with regulating the current need. However, we are underway with getting the new more capable inverter to handle our needs more appropriately. The electricity is CURRENTly (get it?) amazing, quiet, and convenient.

Installing

We also did not expect an issue of jealousy to arise. The solar panels are primarily for the office and printing needs, however the teaching staff is requesting additional paneling to provide for cell phones and laptops. The grant money does not, and will not cater to this need, but we are looking for alternatives to alleviate these unwavering pressures to accommodate.

Unexpected Benefits:

While teaching, we all noticed that we didn’t need to yell to teach (as much, I still yell at my students quite a lot). We didn’t realize, but that generator was obnoxiously loud, and at times it did make teaching quite frustrating. The silence has made it much easier to hear the unwarranted screaming of tiny children.

The community has been asking if they can charge there cell phones, to which our administration is considering using this solar system as additional fundraising potential as long as the printer is not being used. At the moment we are unsure whether this money will go to our breakfast fund, but that is what it seems we may be leaning towards.

Finished

Future

The project is not completed, but we may be close. We have the major construction portion and budgetary issues finalized, and are tinkering with how we plan on using our savings on petrol to provide our most needy students with regular sustenance. We expect that we can offer breakfast to 20 double orphans starting in two weeks. The literary magazine has its first drafts, and is being edited. In the following weeks I will repost on how we attempt, and hopefully solve our breakfast issues. Just recently I was able to speak to our several shopkeepers (all in Sesotho!) and struck a deal that could make breakfast cheap, efficient, and sustainable for each school week. Wish us luck!

Although we still have our library to finish, this has been the final, biggest project I have had the honor of working with my community on, and it has been difficult, tiring, worthwhile, and enjoyable.

Kids

PS. This project was a selfish one. My cousin is visiting, and wants to straighten her hair. How American of her...WATT??? 

Tuition Assistance Program

Last year I became a co-chair of the Tuition Assistance Program. This committee, under Peace Corps Lesotho, works with the home based organization of Friends of Lesotho. Friends of Lesotho is comprised of several people stateside, Returned Peace Corps Volunteers or those who have worked in Lesotho in the past, who still remain vital, active members in the development of Lesotho. This post is to explain TAP and FOL’s purpose in aiding to the education sector of development in Lesotho.

Our senior team

Education in Lesotho has been one of the major fronts of development that the Peace Corps community has been addressing. Unlike the states, the government of Lesotho provides only some of the schooling for students. Children get no monetary support from the government for pre-school or kindergarten (actually I believe in the states, pre-school is also not provided for). The government does start funding children at Standard 1, or 1st Grade. They are paid for in full (with food for lunch) from Standard 1 until Standard 7. However funding for students cease upon graduation of Standard 7.

Although most schools have no electricity, no running water, little to no visual aids, and are essentially concrete cubes, the students perform vibrantly. They are taught English starting in Standard 5 and gain some form of fluency by the time they enter High School. The government unfortunately does not pay for students starting at Form A (8th Grade). This means that parents or guardians must save money for their students if they want them to enter high school. At my school the high school fees are R 1350 or approximately $130 USD for the entire year. This however does not include book fees or exam fees, which are similarly comparable.

Working hard

This may not sound like much for parents or guardians to handle, but in a country where 75% of the population is unemployed and most rural villagers get food from subsistence farming rather than through economic means, mustering the R 1350 to send just one of their many children into “higher” education can take its toll on the family. For those students who are double orphans (both parents deceased) the government does pay for the students in full as long as birth and death certificates can be materialized. Therefore the most at risk students who have the most difficulty paying are those who are single orphans, and whose living guardian isn’t working.

That is where TAP, or the Tuition Assistance Program, comes in with its support from Friends of Lesotho. The main premise as to further the education of the citizens in developing countries is that those who become educated will then in turn bring about further development in their own country. Education is the tool that trains a system to be self-serving. The true purpose to volunteering and development is to have that country become self-reliant. TAP and FOL hope to achieve that by funding the brightest, yet neediest of the students in the many schools in Lesotho.

Our most important meeting

The Peace Corps Volunteers in Lesotho work directly in the schools and gain insight and develop personal relationships within the school. We learn to see which students try the hardest, which ones are excelling with little to no parental support, which ones just need a little more help to become the tools for the future. Each volunteer who wishes to have their school participate in TAP scholarships submits up to 5 students chosen by the volunteer and the volunteer’s community. These students must not be a school member’s child (meaning a school member has a well paid job in order to pay for their child), must not have any other scholarship (for example: government double orphan scholarship known as manpower), and must be in the top third of the class (to statistically assess which student scholarships may allow more students to enter tertiary schooling).

These students then write compositions, which are used to judge their English skills and used to thank the sponsors that provide FOL with funding. The process is a simple one, with plenty of people benefiting.

Some students who applied 

Last year 30 schools participated with 290 students given half scholarship. Friends of Lesotho donated over $17,000 USD. This year 37 high schools in Lesotho applied. 71 students were awarded full scholarship while 46 students were awarded half. Approximately $10,600 USD was awarded and distributed giving the 117 students incentive to stay in school longer. The amount of funding is directly related to how much support is generated to FOL from America and other organizations. These students often receive food, life skills education (HIV/AIDS prevention), and invaluable mentorship. These students are encouraged to continue working hard to keep up their marks and we predict great things to amount from them.

Let's keep these kids in school

Without TAP and the support from FOL, these students may have been dismissed from their education. If you are interested in supporting FOL in its TAP endeavors next year please check out their website:

http://www.friendsoflesotho.org

 

What's Going on Year 2

The first year of Peace Corps is essentially a learning and observing experience. Most people say that no real, substantial and sustainable development can happen on the grassroots level until one has at least been in village for a year. I would have to say from my experience that this is unquestionably true.

In my first year I fumbled through a slew of projects that I more or less forced on my school and community. This year I have taken a more relaxed (Basotho style) approach and waited for people to approach me to aid in their own development. That is how the HIV Soccer Tournament was started and executed as elaborated in my previous post.

Happily tested

This year we have a few projects that have started, and or are currently in progress. In this blog post I will elaborate on some of the smaller projects, and in future posts I will dedicate larger projects their own post.

1. Libraries

2. Borehole (Clean Water Project)

3. Chicken Coop

4. Write-On Competition

5. Condoms on my Desk

1. Libraries

Last August we submitted two applications to the African Library Project from the High School and the Primary School. Unfortunately due to bureaucratic issues, the High School application was lost and only the Primary School was provided over 1000 gently used school books. Fortunately the Primary School and the High School have a very good relationship, and the Primary School offered half its supply of books to the High School as long as the following year the High School would return the favor.

Excited to read

The Primary School decided to make 10 separate classroom libraries while the high school has decided to create one large school library. So far the Primary School has completed their individual libraries and have started effectively using and sharing the books. The kids are very thankful, as before they had fewer than 5 books per class (50 kids) to share. It has been shown that schools in Lesotho with libraries generally perform better in their English exams, and we hope to see that trend in Fobane.

Carrying the books from the PS

In the High School we have been a bit delayed as we have been waiting for our contractor to build shelves. Students and Teachers have been helping with organizing the books into categories based on difficulty, and we predict that shelves will be complete in August along with our new staff room.

Helpful Organizers

The minister from our village allowed me to get the books in his car and his driver drove me back personally to my village almost 3 hours away. Private Rides are phenomenal. I forgot how great it was to use AC, or plug in your iPhone to listen to music, or have heated seats! But I am still fine with public transport now that I have downloaded Pokemon Platinum on my phone.

2. Borehole

Our school periodically goes through droughts. Among the many volunteers who have visited me, my village may be in 1st place for the dustiest and sandiest village. We are always bombarded with dust storms and mini twisters here, the other day my chewing gum was quite gritty. Because we have over 500 students, our taps run dry and students are often fainting due to dehydration (Although they may argue with me that it is the devil, to which I respond that I am a Satanist and they just giggle but simultaneously keep their distance). 

How it was dug

Our issues do not come from unsanitary water; they come from having no water. Therefore our community and school raised over 30,000 Rand ($3000) to dig another tap and raise a 2000L water tank.

Just installed

This was also to make sure our school gardens can be properly irrigated so our food costs will go down, and our agriculture exam scores can be improved through hands on training.

Now we can grow food

Lots of food. Beans and cabbage

It was started two months ago, but is now complete and ready to go. Funny enough the main individual helping the school with the Borehole project was a local Indian man. My students were convinced he had to be American and my brother. What’s nice is that my students and community here see me as American first before they jump to my skin tone and then say I am a different kind of American because I look like and Indian.

Refreshing...

3. Chicken Coop

In February my counterpart (we worked together on the library) asked for my help to manage a chicken coop. The purpose was to raise almost 60 chickens and sell them by Easter to raise money for student funds for double orphans who cannot seem to get government funding. Double Orphans are those who have lost two parents, and if the student can prove their status, (with legal documents such as death certificates and birth certificates) they can receive full government sponsorship through high school. Unfortunately that process can be quite difficult, even with the School’s help, therefore our community saw a need to seek aid elsewhere. Primary School is free up until Standard 7 (7th grade) but the rest is about 1350 Rand per year ($135). This can be quite difficult even for students with working parents. The chicken coop ended up have 5 chickens die, but still made a large enough profit to help 3 students and still have enough money to start another chicken coop in August. It was a very ingenious and simple Income Generating Activity with a lot of future potential and provided families with a very fresh and healthy protein source.

Synergy

4. Write-On Competition

In February I gave information on an initiative from our Ministry of Education about a creative writing competition to the school English teachers in the Primary and High School. The teachers and students loved the idea. Creativity is not exactly encouraged here. Basotho culture has a very strong emphasis on equality, and forces its students to wear school uniforms that way students who cannot afford proper clothing do not feel any worse for coming from a poorer family. In addition, because school performance for students is often lower than desired, (passing is 45% and yet we still only have a 10% pass rate in Maths and Science) time is not allocated for nonessential studies such as Art and Life Skills. This competition gave students a 1- hour period to write on an assigned creative topic and encouraged them to not focus on grammar or structure, but about ideas. While most students could not reorient their trained English skills to this new style of competition, there were some students that shined through. Out of almost 400 students who competed at the High School, in the district we had 9 district winners and 1 national winner. At the Primary School we had 2 district winners and 1 national winner (only 2 classes competed). Each student received certificates and the national winners compositions were shared over the Internet. Check out the link. 

http://www.writeonlesothoblog.wordpress.com/

Primary School Girls who won

My favorite composition was our national winner in the high school student who wrote about the world’s most important invention. He discussed the importance of Tar road, and how a tar road can help connect the country better by reducing travel time and reducing the use of petrol. What was great about his essay was that it was truly from the perspective of a village child, who wrote what they have observed in the world as most important. While we in America may say the Internet, or individuality as our culture’s most important invention, this student revealed what we may indeed take for granted.

Our High School winners 

5. Condoms on my Desk

Without asking for permission, I decided this year to always be fully stocked with Condoms. This may not be the best Peace Corps approach to HIV/AIDS prevention, but I banked on the fact that I have a perfect friendly relationship with almost all my co-workers. Whenever I go into town I grab a bunch of free condoms from the Hotel Bathrooms (I could get the free ones from my village clinic but it is more about the thrill of stealing free condoms; I can’t stop). They are always chaotically spread on my desk, but for some reason almost every two weeks I need to restock.

My teachers all ask why I have condoms, and ask if I am promoting sex to which I respond in Sesotho (people love it if you speak Sesotho) that I want people to love each other regardless if its students or teachers. Also I usually through a racy sex joke while doing it, and therefore dodge any opposition. What’s great is that the staff room isn’t so busy, or my desk isn’t always monitored so people who want/need condoms for safe sex know where it is, and take a few discreetly. Everyone thinks it is very funny, but when I tell them how many condoms I have gone through they all understand its importance, but just eye the pile from a safe distance.

These are some smaller projects that I have been working on and with my community. The next blog post will discuss the following items which are probably some larger, perhaps more impacting projects.

6. Tuition Assistance Program

7. Solar for Breakfast

8. Literary Life Skills Magazine

9. Peace Corps Volunteer Replacements

   
   It's time for a replacement...I'm getting too local...

HIV/AIDS Tournament: Everything

Although I am an Education Volunteer, it is our secondary project to focus on the HIV/AIDS epidemic that is currently plaguing Lesotho. Approximately 25% of Basotho are suffering from HIV/AIDS. Although it is a multifaceted issue, some of the problem is perpetuated from the fear of testing itself. Because the disease is predominantly spread through unsafe sexual activity, and has had a history of homosexual prevalence, to have HIV/AIDS creates certain stigmas and myths that make people choose to remain unaware of their status rather than to seek medicine and counseling.

 

In my high school, I did a pre-survey just to see how many students knew their status or whether they have ever been tested for HIV/AIDS. Approximately only 5% of the students knew their status or had ever been tested. In a country where the HIV/AIDS rate is so high, this minute fraction is horrifying. I am almost certain that this statistic can be extrapolated to many rural high schools, and diminishes to nothingness in communities without a clinic.

 

HIV/AIDS can be a very touchy subject, and being an outsider it would be unwise to rush into any testing event without knowing the community’s background. Peace Corps Volunteers are also given intensive training on the ideas of development through sustainability, with a grassroots and cultural awareness focus. It has sometimes been criticized as a slow, and often ineffective form of development, but this Tournament was done in probably the most Peace Corps possible way, and that is what I am most proud, and most happy for. The Peace Corps way is a very challenging approach but after seeing the success of the tournament and its many hopefully long lasting effects, I couldn’t have done it any other way.

 

I moved to Fobane back in December 2012, and roughly a few months in I met a very inspired man who is a volunteer primary school teacher in pursuit of a full bachelor’s degree in education. He quickly discussed with me his idea of hosting an HIV/AIDS Testing Soccer Tournament. I was quickly intrigued but remained hesitant. Many people have ideas, but if it looks like a host country national is expecting you to do all the work, Peace Corps tells us that the project will most likely fail. Our job here is not to do things, but to do things with people and build the capacity of our counterparts so that they can carry on the work when we leave. What is the point of developing an area and having it fall apart in the years of our absence? I learned this while doing an extensive peer tutoring program between the primary and high school. A certain teacher told me of the great idea and began to implement it with me, but unfortunately left me high and dry. I began to get frustrated, and unable to maintain the program on my own and eventually had to abandon the project because the motivation and dedication didn’t originate in the host country national. It wasn’t a failure, but it certainly wasn’t a success. Therefore, when this bright man, Ntate Mboeane, approached me with his idea of the tournament, I decided to wait until he really wanted to initiate its fruition.

 

Over the many months we occasionally met dreaming and prophesizing over what the tournament would be like. I kept my ground and gave no inclination that I would do any work unless he was serious. Then suddenly without warning he brought me another person named Peter Mokete who shared the interest, and told me it was time to start the tournament. His exact words were, “Because you are leaving this year, we have to start this tournament now.” And so we began…

 

We had weekly Wednesday meetings where we each equally divided our jobs. Ntate Peter was the Fobane Soccer Team liaison. He relayed all the information, sent out the invitations, and collected questions and registration fees from the 13 teams that eventually participated. My job was to find ways to raise funds, and coordinate with the testers. Ntate Mboeane was the key player though, as Peace Corps taught me he should be. He was the liaison between Peter and myself. He was also the one, who called all the shots, spoke to the chief, spoke to the clinic, made all the culturally sensitive decisions, spread word with the community, and organized the entirety of the tournament.

 

Over the course of two months, we fundraised over 2500 Maloti, or about $250. This money was allocated strictly for the prizes, which we decided as,

12 gold medals for getting 1st place in the tournament, 12 silver medals for placing 2nd in the tournament, and most importantly the team that encouraged the largest number of fans to test for HIV/AIDS would receive 13 jerseys. We made the focus of the tournament testing and coincided it with the biggest interest of the community: football. By making the most valuable prize for testing, we predicted that teams would be less resistant to forcing fans to test in their name.  

 

To raise money my counterpart and I ran around our local towns asking small shops for donations. Each shop was willing to give whatever they could spare which ranged from 2 Rand to 50 Rand. I used to bargain a lot with the Chinese here, and I enveloped a reputation (They call me Ntate Chipi) but because I also brought them business from a few other volunteers many gave me large donations during the solicitation. Quick Fact: Basotho don’t generally like the Chinese because they have very cheap prices and can outcompete local shops, but when I was walking around the Chinese shopkeepers seemed almost proud to help out their country. Perhaps things are changing. In addition, I am fortunate to be of Indian descent, because the local Indian people really enjoyed donating to our cause as well. Our favorite place to hang out had also “Kenya Letsoho” (Offered a hand) to our cause by donating about 450 Rand to buy heavy gold medals. The churches in our community of Fobane raised awareness and funds, along with our high school. Although at this point we were still running short, we reached out to our local government where an extremely helpful Minister who was born in our rural village offered help by donating a large sum to our cause without even requiring and asking for recognition. This is an indication that not all the world and governments are corrupt, and that some people just do good to do good.

 

Everything was shaping up well for the tournament, but Ntate Mboeane and I (I call him Boyane) were certainly getting a bit stressed and anxious. We needed to find a waynot just to bring testing, but more motivation and education on the importance of testing. Therefore we found it absolutely critical to call Sesotho Media who came on April 2nd, just a few days before the tournament, to educate our high school students on testing. For many this was theirfirst time hearing someone openly come out and say that they were HIV positive. It was many of their first time to be educated on the dangers of HIV/AIDS from a Mosotho (trust me I pester enough in class, but having a Mosotho come and explain was superiorly more effective and meaningful). Like wildfire, this information was spread to the primary school, and propogated through the community. Sesotho Media also gave many students magazines/comics on HIV/AIDS where they took home to show their parents and friends.

A few days later the tournament began…

 

The first of 12 games started at 9:40am (40 minutes late meant we were perfectly on schedule). We were supposed to have 8 testers come at 9:00am, but unfortunately the first day of testing was a bust. We had only 3 testers show at 11:40am, who all left at 2:30am testing only about 52 people. They also refused to test women, or anyone under the age of 18. The demographic they were looking for was something we were unaware. They turned away over 300 people who were very excited to test and to support their team. I have to say, that was our low point. The 6 games went well, and the organization of the games went flawlessly, but the point of the tournament was testing and we wallowed over the wasted 3 months and 2500 Rand on a miserly 52 people to be tested.  I am very fortunate to have had other Peace Corps Volunteers there who lifted my spirits in statements such as, “At least you had 52, at ours we had none,” or “That’s 52 more than ever would have tested here,” and even, “At least you tried, I know I wouldn’t have.”

But the story isn’t over – we had a backup plan. We knew that testers can often be unreliable, so we made a deal with the local clinic that if not enough people could test on the Saturdays of the tournament, that we would require the help of the clinic. In the following 5 days, we had around 250 people tested. The clinic was on fire. The information was again sent through the students that if anyone wants to test to go to the clinic. The clinic come to us in the schools where one tester on a Wednesday and a Friday tested 97 and 92 people respectively within 4 hour testing sessions. These nurses were truly miracles. What we had learned at that point was that only local resources really are there to crave development – A Peace Corps Point. Bringing in testers from the outside wasn’t the solution (although I spoke to their boss and our luck turned around for the 2nd Saturday of the tournament).

 

On the final day, 5 testers showed up at 8:45am (15 minutes early is essentially unheard of, I was still brushing my teeth). They tested about 160 people. The games got very heated as our school team competed against a neighboring village team for the gold. The school team won (I was told not to play because they needed to win). All in all, there were approximately 2000 people within the 2 days of the tournament, and an invaluable 458 people tested. Placing the medals over the player’s heads, and telling the community on its remarkable success at testing while handing the jerseys to our team was the emphatic symbol of success. 

The next phase of this tournament, is to see whether my counterpart will replicate it. He now has all the contacts, the know-how, and his motivation and inspiration seem to have even unparalleled vigor. He is the agent of change in Fobane, I can tell. He is the one; he would take the red pill.

Now when I walk around village, everyone really seems to know me. They see my value. They see that I am not just that white volunteer forcing them to see my way. I predict they see me now as a valued member of our community who works with rather than for…to make our livelihood better, brighter, and healthier.