So this will be my last posting for 2008, as I will be on vacation for the next few weeks and won’t have my computer with me and will probably be taking a bit of a vacation from email as well. I thought being in Africa would help me lose my dependency on technology however I think it has made me more dependent than ever and savvy I might add. I’m pretty proud of myself for getting internet for myself all on my own. I also thought that being in Africa would help cure me of my dependency on Diet Coke, but alas I now supply the whole village of Ha-Senekane with empty plastic Diet Coke bottles so they can fetch milk and water. At least I’m recycling right?
For Christmas we are going to a lodge in southern Lesotho called Malealea Lodge and then we will be off to Durban, South Africa. I can’t wait to go because Durban is a legit city where there are shopping malls and movie theatres and coffee shoppes and a beach!! It is right on the Indian Ocean and there is also an aquarium there that has the world’s largest collection of sharks, really I can’t wait, it will make up for missing Shark Week on the Discovery Channel this year. It also claims to have the largest shopping mall in Southern Africa; I am making it my personal duty to thoroughly investigate this claim. I have one obstacle in front of me. On Monday at the clinic I have to give a cooking demonstration on how to properly cook your greens over an open fire in a cast iron pot. This will be interesting, I pray I don’t screw it up! After that I’m off, woo hoo!!!!
Well since it is the end of the year I have started to ruminate about my last year and how crazy it has been. Last year this time I was furiously cooking and baking cookies (which I will get to do this weekend and all next week) and working at the bank in order to scrounge up enough money to buy Christmas presents and get the latest Broadway soundtrack. I have since graduated college, which is kind of a big deal, I guess, and then two weeks later relocated to southern Africa, yikes!! Eventful, I know. After that the last six months have whizzed by. I’ve kind of learned a new language, made friends who have become my family in Africa, have had so many new experiences that I’m gonna need a bigger handbag to carry them all around, have become an avid blogger/knitter/ crotchetier, become Peace Corps Lesotho’s very first Iron Chef Champion (and yeah I’m going to ride that wave as long as I can) and find the best place to store my money is in my bra. And this isn’t even the half of it I’m sure. Crazy. And since this blog posting is already cheesy as hell, I’m just going to roll with it and let you all know that everyone’s support back home has been awesome. I mean yesterday when I went to the post office I had FIVE, yes FIVE, packages waiting for me and only two were from my parents! The wonderful packages aside, the emails and the incredible response to the library project is just remarkable; I mean the other volunteers are starting to get jealous.
And well here comes the real cheese, but being in Africa for six months in a country with as many problems as Lesotho makes me really happy I’m from America. Yeah, we have sucky times every once and a while as most countries do, and not everything goes the way we quite plan for it too but what I’m really grateful for in America is the reliable infrastructure. I know it is not 100% reliable but come to Africa for six months and experience one that is soooo far from reliable it is not even a speck on the horizon and you will be grateful. I mean in America yeah we have people who take money that is not theirs but most of the time it is resolved and a lot of the time it is the rich taking from the rich or from the American people (who are some of the richest in the world, believe me we are) and yeah that sucks but the great thing about America is that most of the American people can cope with it okay. But in Lesotho it is the insanely rich taking from the extreme poor, and when the money is taken that means that the education and health of the people is going to suffer and because it is already so fragile and meager it needs every possible cent because it will make that big of a difference. And if proper and good education was supplied it would help solve if not actually solve a great majority of problems. And yeah my view point is most likely a little skewed but, new year, new perspective, eh? So be thankful for your wonderful, semi efficient American infrastructure!!! Woo hoo America!
Well I best stop before I get political, which I know nothing about so I really need to stop while I am ahead. Have an absolutely wonderful holiday season, I miss everyone from home soooo much, and will toast to you all while I am on vacation in Durban, South Africa!!!! Yay!!!! And finally Chirstmas E Monate!!!!!
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