The Small Things

I haven’t been doing so well at keeping this thing updated. My fault. Things have been going rather well here in Lesotho as of late, and when things go good I tend not to complain and thus keep my big mouth shut.

Also, there isn’t anything I can really talk about at great length. Deep insights into the human soul have been withheld from me for some time now. Grand understandings of the human condition remain, as ever, just out of reach. There isn’t any one thing that I feel I can write about that is worthy of Slumberland.

But don’t get your hopes up.

I think I’ll comment on a number of small things! Thus hopefully reaching the epic length you have come to expect.

When I was a child, in particular when I was six years old and a proud first grade Lincoln Lion, I would walk home from school. My brother, Joey Thomas (the neighbour) and myself often found ourselves in the local SCUBA shop. Yes, that’s right, in little Ol’ DeKalb Illinois, home of barbed wire, seed corn capital of the world (I see the DeKalb flying ear of corn even here!), thousands of miles from any sea, there was a SCUBA shop! The SCUBA shop also had a dog named Nakita, a husky. I still wonder if Huskies swim.

We would use our childhood super powers to make time slow down. It seemed that hour upon hour would pass as we marvelled at air tanks, face masks, life vests, and pressure gauges. The day dreams that would dance around in my little head still haunt my dreams to this day.
My fascination with the sea, born those lazy afternoons when the world was innocent and my dreams big, is as strong as ever.

The ocean calls to me.

With this simple insight into my simple soul I think you can begin to understand just how exciting this little bit of news really is. In mid August myself and three other PCV’s will be going to a place in South Africa to get SCUBA Certified. Not “I’m at a resort and want to look at pretty fish for a day” certified, I mean “slap down my card, no questions asked, get my gear and dive” certified. The plan is to spend five days at “the place” (as I’ll call it because I don’t remember the name), four of which will be spent learning to dive. There is one full day in the classroom, a full day in a pool, and then four dives in open ocean for two days. At the end of all this we will officially be PADI (I think thats the name of it, anyway, its a big official kind that is recognized everywhere) certified divers! Then, because we’re so close, we’ll just drive up to Mozambique for about another five days and try to use our newly acquired status to get chicks (or dudes for some of the PCV’s) and maybe even dive a little.

Needless to say I’m excited.

In America something like this would cost upwards of $1000. Here it can be got for as little as $300 (depending on the exchange rate, which would actually put it closer to $360. The downside to economic development).

Everyone at home should keep that in mind as the middle of June rolls around. *hit* *hit* *wink* *wink*

When it rains it pours they tell me. While that’s not always true of literal rain, it does seem to be true of other things. I have spent good words on tails of sitting around in boredom, long days of reading books and wondering about the state of the world. There were days where I didn’t even talk to a living soul (unless you count children...).

Alas, how I long for those days.

I have suddenly found myself mixed up in schemes that smell suspiciously of “development” and “help” and, god forbid, “work”. It feels good really. My one year mark is coming up (!!) and I finally feel like I’m doing something. Here is a quick overview.

We (more she than me. Kristan is a fellow PCV) are setting up youth groups in the area. The goal is to get some 10 or 11 organized by June and have them hit the ground running as “peer educators” by spring time. This is alot of work! My little neck of the woods will have between 3 and 5 youth groups. Each one should have between 5 and 10 members. Thats alot of motivated kids to find. But it’ll be rewarding work.

I spoke with the gardener here at the Lodge and as it turns out he is attempting to establish Community Botanical Gardens (capitalized because I think its important) in all 10 districts of Lesotho. He has asked that I help (at least with the one in BB) to establish business plans and the such. You see, they have money, but they don’t have ANY kind of plan, yet still want to spend that money. We think it would be a good idea to plan ahead.
I have (foolishly perhaps) volunteered to head up a committee to make our training center a habitable space. Right now, when we come to Maseru, we stay in what amounts to a prison of filth and grime. As one PCV put it, “its like a frat house, only no one cleans it”. Its a big job and I’ll be heading to Maseru to help with that every weekend this month.

I need to stop Volunteering.

As if the world wanted to remind me that I cant always get what I want, some sad news was delivered last Monday. My APCD (the head of the Community Health and Economic Development (CHED) mission) informed us all that she’ll be leaving Lesotho this month. Due to personal reasons she has decided to head back to the states. Maria is one of the most amazing people I’ve met. Her impact on my life is something that is baffling, as I’ve only known her for 10 months. Like a cowboy riding off into the sunset she leaves a stunned crowd of town folk tracing the dust as it fades away. As we watch the figure disappear into the distance none of us are sure what actually happened in the short time this lone ranger was in our lives but we’re all sure it was something important.