In My Backyard

Yesterday night, I was awoken at 3AM to the sound of many animals fighting. I bolted up in bed. Maybe its just my Mommy dog fighting with our other dog. No. I heard the puppies. They were being killed. I heard their screams. I heard Mommy Dog being bitten. I heard Kali yelp. WHAT THE HELL WAS OUT THERE!?!?! I rapidly went through the different scenarios if i went outside. would I be mauled to death? did these animals have rabies. were they even animals.

A few months ago the majority of our animals had been poisoned. our cat. and most of our dogs. Mommy Doggy had survived the poisoning and had had more puppies a few weeks back. they were just opening their eyes and stumbling around. we had just named them.

One after one I heard the puppies being dragged out of the barn and killed. I was too afraid to save them. i was too afraid to leave my house. the only thing i could do was shine a flashlight out my window. i didnt see anything.

i somehow fell back asleep. in the morning i awoke to the mourning ululations (high pitched wails) and remembered what had happened. i didnt want to go look. they yelled my name. i went outside. "theyre all dead" Mabela said. "all of them". "I know, I heard it last night". Everyone was crying and talking about it. it was a hard conversation. the saddest thing was that mommy doggy wouldnt let us bury them. she kept trying to nurse them. she kept licking them. i told them to let her get tired of them. maybe she would realize they were dead. 4 hours later we buried them behind the trash pile very unceremoniously. mommy doggy literally went insane. she jumped around. tore around the property looking for them. she did this for the rest of the day. no amount of food could sway her determination. thankfully she stopped later that night.

we did a lot of crying this weekend. i had most of my sisters in my house crying in my arms. they like crying with me for some reasons. my oldest sister Mpoi is my favorite. because she loves animals just as much as me. she still blames herself for not being brave enough to leave her house. me too. now we are worried mommy doggy might get rabies.

after i had helped with the cleaning up of dog blood and i had counseled Mpoi as best i could. i decided i needed to get the hell out of there. so i decided to take a long walk. i walked down our field towards our gate. out the gate and down the dirt path. past the sunflower fields (i wish i could take a picture of it), taking the dirt road towards the mountain. i pass the maize and mkopu fields. i see molipi birds and dung beetles. its an hour walk to the waterfall with the quartz crystals that i keep a huge collection of. and i keep on walking up the mountain.

about 2 hours up, i am stopped by some herd boys who had been following me. herd boys are boys that dont go to school but tend to their cows and sheep instead. they dont speak english and most girls are afraid of them because some of them do rape younger girls. but i am not scared of them. i am too big and loud and aggressive compared to basotho girls. i actually enjoy herd boys company. if they have a horse i try to get a ride. sometimes they have homemade guitars. these herd boys seemed like they were warning me of something. they kept yelling and telling me to go back down the mountain.

i guessed it was an initiation school. they kept saying basotho nation, boys not girls, and do not go over and over again. they even said in english "people beat you". so i kept asking "initiation school?? initiation school???" but they did not understand me. i have no idea how to say "initiation school in sesotho. but i decided that they probably knew more than me, so i gave up on reaching the top and started back down. they herd boys seemed relieved. when i turned to look back they were gone.

an initiation school is the traditional male rite of passage. for six weeks small boys go up to the top of a mountain and live in a makeshift village with some men who teach them how to be men. they get circumcised and then they come back down. some of these boys die. and if a female or uncircumcised male were to accidentally venture onto this place they would be beaten. so its best to avoid the tops of mountains. and its true that i did hear the boys singing one night when it was still and i could hear for miles. i guessed it was a initiation ceremony up on one of the mountains.

i am kinda upset that i can never reach the top of my mountain and look around. i love climbing them and i hate having to worry if i will accidentally walk in onto one of these things. i also wish peace corps would have given us the name of the initiation school in sesotho.

other than that my weekend was okay. i had a nightmare last night. ive had some anxiety lately. because of the dog thing. also my teaching is getting progressively more frustrating. they just hired 6 volunteer basotho teachers who are definitely not qualified. and the teaching schedule is just a huge mess. i really hate it. no one informs anyone of any changes. friday i went to go unlock the assembly hall for my drama club meeting and when i came back with my supplies another volunteer teacher was using it to do a traditional dance lesson. and he doesnt speak english. i yelled at him anyway. and then i cancelled my drama club meeting.

i dont think i ever told you some important things. like they changed my name 3 months ago when i started living at this village. its Neo Lehloenya. Neo means gift. and Mahloenyeng is land of the Lehleonyas. so i like own this village.

also the king lives near me. he lives in Matsieng which is the larger village that my village falls under. he lives right up the road from Ed and Carol. he drives back and forth from Maseru everyday and you can always see him because he is in a sudan surrounded by security jeeps with blinking blue lights. our kombi pulled over to let him pass on the way over here.

i was going to tell you other things but i forgot. i very lonely lately. and all of my electronics are dying. my ipod died this week. hopefully i can get it fixed. thats all for now.

Palama!

This is going to be a long post because I finally found a computer that has working internet and it won't kick me off in 30minutes.

I don't think people in America realize how hard it is to get on the internet in a third world country. This is what it takes for me to write to you:

I woke up at 5AM this morning. I took a bath and rehung my laundry from yesterday (because clothes can't "sleep" outside since they will get stolen) then I made my breakfast and fed my cat. Then i got dressed and walked the mile down a mountain to get to the bus stop.

Then I waited at the bus stop for 10 minutes before a Kombi arrived. okay let me tell you about these Kombis. Picture in your mind the most decrepit looking van you have ever seen. It has missing doors and seats. It's windows don't open or are made out of cellophane and duck tape. It smells of gasoline and goes 3 mph up hills. That is a good Kombi. more often that not i ride in the bad ones. also they blast horrible basotho music (accoridians and yelling need i say more) and drive back and forth along the same route trying to pack 20 people into a van that sits 12. once you cant breath, hear, or feel your legs they finally begin the 50km drive to the capital. also since i am white there is usually 19 pairs of eyes on my the whole time. sometimes they ask me for money.

then once i get here. i am dropped off at the taxi rank which is a field filled with makeshift shacks and other kombis and taxis. its smells. its hot. people hassle you. and today a tiny basotho dwarf grabbed my breast as i shimmed past horse poop and ancient piles of trash.

then i walk 2 miles to the peace corps office. which internet may or may not be working. and this time the doctor spotted me and made me get 2 SHOTS. in my arm. and my arm hurts now. and i feel dizzy.

so thats what i have to do to write on this little blog. oh and palama is what they yell at you from the kombis it means "ride". like "do you want a ride?"

in other news. yesterday i found out they do indeed have snakes here. they have cobras. http://www.kingsnake.com/elapids/cape_cobra.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Cobra

i was coming back from a swim at the moshoeshoe II pool when i noticed my dogs barking at something infront of my door. i walk over and see this huge snake. its ready to strike. probably the scariest thing ive ever seen. i yell for my family. they come running out the door. my mother throws a rock at it. she misses and it comes slithering at a fast pace (faster than i could ever think snakes could move) toward her. my sister comes running from the back door with a shovel and throws it like a javelin. it slices the snake in half. it still moves. we throw rocks on top of it and my mother pounds on the rocks with other rocks. then they burn it. it was terrifying. i just read that it is one of the most venomous snakes in the world.

oh and i found a waterfall the other day! it has geodes around it too. cooooool.

heres some photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2411230&id=12307651&l=747264fa97

Laundry

Doing laundry here is an ordeal. Well for me, it was an ordeal in America too. And there I had a wonderful machine to do all the scrubbing and another wonderful machine to do all the drying.
Here all I have is my own two hands.

If you have ever lived with me, you will know that I wait until the very last moment to do my laundry. I will wait until I have nothing clean but some random sock and a pair of pants that I don't wear because I can't even fit my leg into them but I keep them anyway.

So I waited until I had a huge Bo-M'e bag (the largest of large bags) full of clothes. Then I lug them out to my washing table (it's a huge concrete block outside my door that i wash my clothes and dishes on and sit occasionally and enjoy the sun). I fill a plastic bath tub up with water from the oil drum. I fill two other plastic tubs. I put my soap in. and start to feel a sun burn coming on. So i go back inside to get some sun screen. when I come back out there are three women standing around.

this is how it starts. everytime i have to do laundry i hope and pray no one notices. i do it in the early morning, on sundays when everyone is at church, hoping i can just do it by myself. but no. never. never have i done my laundry alone.

my sister comes out of the house "hey ausi are you washing your clothes?". "yeeeeees m'e" i groan. then my other sister comes out "Neo! why are you washing your clothes?". "because they are diiiiity!" I almost yell.

Soon enough there are 4 women washing my clothes. scrubbing my underwear. fussing over the stain on my shirt. telling me what not to do next time if i dont want to ruin my clothes. then they are admiring my dresses. asking if they can have them. then they are hanging up my bras in plain sight of the whole village.

I am going to do my underwear in my house next time. but they will probably catch me.