Big Building Projects!

 Everywhere I go people need help building things.  My school needs a new classroom building, a new water supply, the orphan garden needs a shelter and kitchen, the primary school a new everything!  At the end of April I helped my deputy principle to write a grant to the US Embassy asking for funds to build a new classroom building.  The grant is for R50,000 and the approximate cost of a new two classroom block is around R200,000 so if they will even consider us is up in the air.  My classrooms now are very crowded and my form D math class has 70 students.  Whether I want to put in the effort to raise all this money on my own for a new classroom I am not sure and I am not sure it would make a big impact on the functioning of my school.

Lynn is helping my school to build a new water system for the school because sometimes water runs out during the dry season and the school water use puts a lot of pressure on the surrounding communities water supply.  I am really excited to help because of my background and it is something I actually know something about unlike teaching haha!  The surveyor is looking at possibly connecting a source to the school with an organization close by that does plant preservation for herbal medicine.  Hopefully I will get a chance to talk to him the next time he comes out and help out by writing a project proposal.

The orphan garden is an amazing place.  I visited their last weekend with Liteboho (my closest Basotho friend) and Caitlin.  Liteboho organized some really fun small games for the kids.  One involving strings and stacking cups to try to teach team work and another goofy circle game where one kid went in the circle and said simple English phrases about having a ball, dancing with it, and passing it to another person in the circle.  The kids loved it and it was really fun to see their confidence grow as the game progressed and they went into the circle alone.  The orphan garden is an uplifting place and I feel such a positive energy when I am there and the bo-mme are incredible people.  All the kids old enough to carry a shovel help with planting and preparing new plots.  They are asking me to help them to build a new building to house the orphans when it is cold and a place to cook.  It is possible that I will be able to apply for grants through PEPFAR and hopefully will learn more about this in June at an in service training.  Lynn the picture of the baby cow is for you! 

African Library Project – Makhoakhoa Primary

During my first few months at site I visited the local schools other than mine to introduce myself and get familiar with the area.  The principle at the primary school asked me if I could help them to get a library and I said that is something I might be able to do!  Through the organization African Library Project donors in the states who do a book drive to raise 500-1000 books and $500 for shipping and match them with communities in Africa to build libraries.  In Lesotho their partner organization is Peace Corps and many volunteers work on setting up libraries.  The application for the library is almost finished and I have been visiting the primary school often to get them to write letters asking for the library and saying how they will support it and discussing the project with the lead teachers.  The primary kids are way cuter than the high schoolers!  I asked East Lansing Public Library to help support my project and while they don’t want to do the whole thing they are willing to supply 100 books.  So if you want to help me with my library let me know!

HIV Testing and the Qholaqhoe Mountain AIDS Ribbon

Since being back from break I have been working with the local hospital to organize two events at my school.  The testing event went really well and the painting of the AIDS ribbon is going to happen but being pushed back to next term.

The HIV testing event was coordinated at my school by a group called SolidarMED who do HIV and AIDS testing and counseling.  The organization is Swiss and a Swiss doctor and his family live at Seboche Hospital and run the organization.  A group of three counselors and two nurses came to my school for a week.  Each day they visited one grade, Form A – Monday, Form B – Tuesday, etc.  They spent the whole day giving HIV lifeskills lessons in Sesotho which allowed them to get across to many students that I was not connecting with in my lifeskills lessons because of language.  Then throughout the day the students could go to the library two at a time and get tested.  Many of my students where so scared to get tested but were eager to do it.  Rightfully so they should be scared, a positive test means the stress of knowing the disease is going to kill you, discrimination from your peers, and feeling like your lost.  However, about 180 of my students got tested about one third of the school. 

The students probably learned more in that one day of school than any other day all year.  However, many of the teachers did not welcome the visitors.  They complained it was taking away from class time, though they skip their classes regularly, and was doing nothing for the students but causing stress for the students who tested positive.  It was a good opportunity to talk to them and share perspectives on HIV and thoughts on testing.  Overall the event went really well and I am really excited about the work that the lead counselor Ntate Khotso is doing and working with him more; he is caring, fun and really believes in what he does. 

The second project that I tried to put together this term was to paint the Qholaqhoe Mountain AIDS Ribbon.  It was built in 2001 and is a landmark for the community and everyone knows its history.  Unfortunately time got cramped and I wasn’t able to organize the event details with the hospital fast enough.  The idea is that SolidarMED will do a community testing event on the day of the repainting and I will organize students and community members to take part.  Hopefully students will perform poetry and dramas to begin the event and the painting of the rock will commence during the open testing event.  The hospital is willing to fund purchasing the paint.  The ribbon is huge!  About 20m in diameter and sits about an hour hike up the mountain.  It fell through for now but will hopefully happen in the spring once it starts getting warmer and the days longer.

Work Out Club!!!

Since being back from vacation I started a work out club at my school.  We meet on Mondays and Wednesdays after school for about an hour after school.  Our normal routine is to do an activity called card work out.  I use a deck of cards and each suit is assigned a different exercise for example hearts is push ups, diamonds is burpies or down ups (we call it push up jumps the translation is easier!), spades is sit ups, etc.  It keeps everyone involved when a lot of guys are there and we don’t have much equipment.  I also bring a jump rope and a resistance band.  The resistance band is a favorite by the guys they make up all kinds of crazy exercises with multiple guys pulling on it at the same time.  We also do other activities like competitions of pushups, wall sits, or calisthenics running back and forth across the hall.  Usually at the end I have either a football or a Frisbee and we go outside and practice throwing.  I also got a volleyball sent by my parents which has been a huge hit!

It has been a really enjoyable part of the week and the older students love it.  It gives them a chance to do something besides sit in the same seat and copy notes.  They need some other kind of activity in their day.  It has been more difficult to keep up as the semester has gotten near the end and things have gotten busy and the days are short and the students don’t have much time to get home before dark.  The space that we use for the club is the newly built hall which rarely gets used for any other activity even though we have 70 student classes and the space would be well served as a classroom or two.  It has been really fun and I need some new exercise activities to keep them engaged so if you have ideas let me know but hopefully I can keep it going next term!