Observations

Lately I have taken to just observing how things go here. Putting thought into what goes on and why it ends up going that way, you know, thinking. Maybe I’m in a contemplative mood, my current headache would confirm such an observation. I mean it has got to be something, on iTunes, my like 25 most listened are a mix of Patty Griffin, and I’m pretty embarrassed to admit this (me, the matron of Broadway) but Josh Groban, oh and the Glee soundtracks, but that goes without saying. And I’m pretty sure I’ve watched my Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince DVD like 5 times since getting back. Maybe the feeding post that were once my legs, got bitten by something that injects a mood changing serum, wait, I have seen Harry Potter too much. Anyways, I thought I should put all this contemplation into creative use, and since my oil paints are at home and you can only get so creative with knitting when you only know two patterns, I thought it was time to jot down a blog, so God only knows where this is going to go with me and my contemplations.
So I’m probably beating a dead horse by bringing up my frustrations with work, but beat on I will. Recently I have been working with an organization here in Lesotho, helping them with nutrition stuff. I have been going in and out of meetings with them over the past, I’ll be generous, and say 6 months. So a week ago I finally got to go and do a little field work. Now me being who I am, I expected to really get into it and cook with the cooks at the school we went to and look at the malnourished kids and see what this organization I was working with could do to help, and really get to use the skills I have. Naturally I got ahead of myself. The first time we went, the people at the school told us that it wasn’t a good time and to come back another day. So two days later we return, are abruptly dropped off by the organization and given instructions to get height and weight so that we can figure BMI’s. So I spent the next 3 hours taking height and weight for kids. Not exactly what I had in mind, but hey it was still nice to do interesting work and get to see what the kids at these schools look like. I mean nothing horrible or terribly interesting happened it just made me realize that in Lesotho, with every golden opportunity there is a poopy, grey lining. Once the organization came to pick us up, I made them wait an hour so that I could continue asking questions to the lady who runs the school and give them every ounce of nutrition information I could. Oops.
Other than that with work, finding motivation is hard now also. They keep saying that you will probably never see the results of your time here, but it would be much more motivating if I did. It feels like you give every part of yourself up to be here and it just kind of sucks when you search for results and don’t see any. It is hard because you are constantly challenging adversity here. There are so many opportunities and then it gets frustrating when I spend afternoons in my home with little to do except reading or teaching myself something new that will bring me closer to becoming Martha Stewart. While many of her crafts and recipes are amazing, they don’t really apply here. So motivation wanes and a lot of times I question myself. Why did I choose to confront adversity? Especially when there is plenty at home to confront. Why did I search it out, when, I realized, and you often do when you go away from a place, that there is plenty of it in America? Kind of seems silly, right? But you know then you remember the reasons, like living in Africa, getting to be in a different culture meeting different people, bringing services that were not in the place when you first got there, and then of course I bring up standing up to adversity. And I’m back to where I started; don’t get me wrong, it’s great here but as always a conundrum knocks. Oh well, I think I will just write it off as a slump until the question doesn’t bother me anymore. I’ve got a big enough headache as it is, with all the freakin’ pollen in the air and bees flying up in my face, I have a sinus headache that makes a migraine seem pleasant. I’m just waiting for either my head to implode or for a full on sinus infection to attack. Jeez, aren’t I the optimist?
Anyways, on to lighter topics, I mean adversity is kind of heavy topic to skip through in a paragraph, but don’t think you are off the hook, it will be revisited. So I guess it was in the last two months a new mall, which is the only mall, opened here in Maseru. It’s pretty awesome, apparently in February the movie theatre will open, which is pretty amazing. So just walking around that place is weird, because it is like this place caught between two places. Let me explain, and I am going to be blunt, if you want to find white people this is the place to go. It’s like all the parts of the world that are represented in Lesotho converge into this mall on the weekends and after work. It is weird; it is like being back at home. I realized this the other day when I was in line buying groceries and heard three different languages being spoken in like a 7 foot radius of myself. Well actually what I thought was “Wow, those Germans just came out of nowhere!” Then I realized how crazy it was that a grocery store in new mall can represent the diversity of a country. While lopsided, there are probably more Europeans/Canadians/Americans/Etc in that grocery store than in any other place in Lesotho at any given time. I mean the cultural diversity is great, you rarely see it, and I guess it makes sense that you would find it in a grocery store, everyone has to eat. But you just don’t expect to stumble across it when you are in mad pursuit of coffee cream. I mean eggs-check, peanut butter-check, realizing and respecting diversity-check? You just don’t normally acknowledge or realize it in a grocery store; you got your mind on other things like FOOD. What I’m really trying to say that I just took a whole paragraph to say, is that I was surprised by it and then even more surprised that it took me two months to realize this. I just chock it off to food, the grocery has good food, and if you can afford to go there, you do. I mean you can get Nutella there AND sushi AND shredded cheese AND tortillas AND refried beans. It’s a pretty big deal. As most of you know I could go on…So I will. No not really, I don’t have anything more to really say unless you want a detailed list of all the food you can get in the new grocery store that you couldn’t get in the old one.
Other than the miracle mall I do have one more positive bit to add. My library is officially up and running! Yebo! It took long enough. The students now know how to properly treat the books and they all got a synopsis of Harry Potter (I really need to watch something different, really though) and they are checking out books. Not to mention the teachers are doing a great job of keeping the library looking good and the books in order and there are world maps in the library so the students no longer think America is in Northern Africa. So I am seeing results with this, which is nice for a change. And also the reason I spend so much time there, it is tangible, and helps to regain my sanity when I feel it starting to slip. So again thanks so much to everyone who helped out, not only are some kids getting to read Harry Potter but you are also keeping me sane. So thanks.
So that’s what’s going on here. Nothing too exceptional, but you know things are moving, slowly as always, but in motion they are. I’m starting to plan for coming home and I’m closing things up, which will take all the five months (approx.) that I have here. That being said, I hope everyone has an enjoyable week and weekend. Take care and salang hantle!