Working

Well my mother recently asked if I'd be starting up my blog again because I have the opportunity to travel with work. I wasn't going to but as I sit here this morning, I say, why not? Why not? Because no one actually reads this is why not but hey, it's a little outlet and maybe if you're unfortunate enough to get some sort of notice about a new post you can read the ramblings of a mad woman.

I recently found out that I'll be headed to Ethiopia for two weeks with work. As you likely know, I've started a job working for CPAR, an NGO based in Toronto that does work in Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. It's a pretty exciting time for me and this trip should prove an excellent learning experience.

Whoop there it is

My supervisor and I are heading over to attend a programs department meeting. I'll have the chance to meet some of my colleagues who I have been communicating and working with strictly over email. This has actually proved to be a challenge because it can be difficult to build a rapport with someone you have never met. It's hard to know if your tone seems harsh, rude, funny (probably funny right?), demanding, offensive, naive or what. As the new kid, have I come in and seemed like chump? Guess I'll find out...

So it's a busy week and half preparing for the trip. Thus far activities have included - early morning expedited passport renewal, frantic but cost-effective flight booking and a trip to a travel doctor that left me with two very, very, very sore arms. The nurse was wrong...the Hep A shot actually hurts more than the tetanus shot. To her credit, I felt neither needle go in.

Off to work...on my way I'll be filling the usual scrip for malaria and travellers diarrhea meds...oh the the glamorous side of international travel.

Alone Time

Tara is gone.

It's just me.

Here in Lesotho.

Ha, no it's not, there are about 2 million other people here.

But in this weird big "mansion" as a peace corps friend likes to call my home, I might as well be all alone.

I'm not complaining, it most certainly could be worse.

I am presently boiling a pocket of beetroot.

Translated, that is, I am boiling some beets.

They take forever.

I was going to have them with dinner but I finished that dinner about half an hour ago.

Anyway, here I sit, blogging away because, I've sent enough emails for the day.

And hopefully a few of you will read what I have to say.

I'm rhyming for jokes. I guess I'm bored.

The point is, I'm here living on my own and it's a good adjustment.

See what things might have been like sans my fellow intern.

See if I can make it on my own.

It would really have been tough but I think I can handle two weeks.

I have a few things left to do here in Lesotho.

So this weekend, I'm going to a more mountainous area to go fishing and hopefully ride a donkey.

I think you need a permit to fish but apparently they don't stop foreigners...

They do stop foreigners driving. All, the, time!

I've been stopped 2 for 2 in my last driving expeditions.

The Po Po just be looking for bribes so they make up weird reasons to stop you but never actually produce a ticket. So far I've managed to wait them out but it isn't really fun because they still have the power, sort of.

I think I'll go watch Karl Pilkington in An Idiot Abroad to see if in this next episode he has any experiences I can relate to. Hopefully more to being abroad, rather than to being an idiot. But, you never can tell.

Transition Time

Well I've spent the last week travelling around the Western Cape. Visiting with old and new friends in Knysna and Cape Town. I stopped in wine country to sample some of South Africa's excellent wines. Very beautiful area, very delicious wines. I've had too much coffee and really, too much rich food.

I'm here at the LuckyBean guesthouse in Johannesburg. It's a wonderfully beautiful place with a peaceful atmosphere, welcoming hosts and a gentle vibe. I love it here and it's the one place I've been able to get away to to feel refreshed.

Feeling very anti-social these days and I can tell I'm retreating within myself. It's how I cope with change so the idea of leaving Lesotho has got me pulling inside and my mind working on overdrive thinking and spinning ideas around. It's really tiring as I'm sure those of you who are 'thinkers' know. If only my thoughts were more profound.

Anyway, I've seen some beautiful views over the past few days and things are really getting green again here. I expect a week away from Lesotho will make all the difference when it comes to the vegetation there...or I hope it will. It's been very dry and extremely dusty. Right now in Jozi, as some call it, it's freezing and my sweatshirt smells like cigarette smoke from the restaurant I was at last night - yuck! Life sure is difficult ;)

I'll try to post some photos again soon. I should have functioning internet when I'm back in Hlotse.

Some photos of things I see

Countdown to Departure...

Leads to Intern with Mixed Emotions

That is all

FACT - it snows in Lesotho (and therefore Africa)

For those of you who missed the memo, it's winter in Lesotho right now.

I think I already wrote about this because so many people are freezing cold.

Right now we have 4 electric heaters burning through energy and our oven on (baking and making pizza) and our kitchen and living room are, well warm? I'll say livable.

As soon as I step into the gaping massive room I'll call our bowling alley, you can feel the difference, it's cold.

But the point is, there is snow in Thaba-Tseka and in the mountains. There were flurries here in Hlotse yesterday but luckily it's a bright blue sky today. If there were clouds, I'm certain it would be snowing. Here are some photos of the snow up in the mountains. I was in a car so it was hard to capture but I think you all know snow when you see it. Never mind, I found WAY better photos than the ones I was thinking of. These are from a one day, there and back, whirlwind trip to Thaba-Tseka. Hectic. Check me out, I'm above the clouds. Where are you?

Alison

That is the road less travelled.

Snow capped mountains and a guard rail.

I probably should have been driving seeing as I'm more familiar with the old snow driving techniques. Oh well, we made it.

We are high high in the sky.

29

Yup yup, I made it! Whoa, amazing.

Okay not really but I had to try to make this exciting.

Trying desperately not to make light of the average life expectancy in Lesotho...it's a coping mechanism.

Speaking of Lesotho! It's winter here now so I had my first ever winter birthday. Luckily it was actually a beautifully sunny day but first thing in the morning it was ccccold - note the frost I'm afraid of in the photo below.

Maybe you can't quite see it but trust me, it's there. Anyway, Tara and I hosted work friends and a few others for my birthday. We spent the day chopping toppings and making pizza dough. Tara also took on her own secret mission of making me a surprise ice cream cake, AMAZING and DELICIOUS and also drove to Ficksburg on another secret surprise. She got us the t-shirts made we always talked about making. They are featured blow - on front is a location in Lesotho that holds a special place in our hearts - Phokeng, Lesotho. On the shirt, it's spelled Lestoho, which I'm pretty sure I told most of you about already (CIDA, German development agency and Habitat for Humanity Lesotho glossy publication on land rights that misspelled Lesotho on the cover - whoops).

Right so my birthday included good food, fun friends, great dance moves, a mix of hip hop, house, traditional Sesotho music, homemade pizza and sangria. Good times all around.

I received some thoughtful gifts as well, including homemade steamed bread from one of the 'M'es that works in the kitchen. She's great. Don't worry, I changed out of my sweatpants for the party...reluctantly.

Gillian, Retsu, Palesa & Mampaka Hlomphi & Andy

AB & Leronti Adam & Tara

I watched a lunar eclipse

t was really nice.

I tried to watch one about 7 years ago and it was cloudy and at 3 am so I was tired and saw nothing. This one started at 8:20 so it was great timing. The view of the moon from the balcony (yes, we have a balcony) was obstructed by a giant tree so Tara and took some plastic chairs and a blanket outside and sat on the lawn. It was a really nice sight and although there were a few clouds they were thin and didn't obstruct too much.

I only sang total eclipse of the heart a few times and watched the start until the full eclipse and then went inside and skipped the second half. I also was able to spot the Southern Cross and point it out to Tara. For some reason it is often an elusive constellation but every now and then, BAM, it hits me in the face and that is exciting. Y'all can't see it up there in the northern hemisphere.

So that was a nice thing to do on a weeknight in the happening town of Hlotse.

Durban, A Lunar Eclipse and My Birthday

Apparently I'm not writing often enough.

I feel like I email my 'readers' fairly regularly and that my life isn't that exciting so it's not such a big deal to let the old bloggity blog slip. But then I forget things and forget to even tell people I did certain things so here we go.

Durban - uhh when was I there?

Oh, Ascension Day - we had the 2nd of June off for Ascension day and HL kindly gave us the 3rd off as well so Tara and I took advantage of the old four day weekend to get the heck out of town! We awoke to thick thick frost and I spent a good deal of time scraping off Notorious' windshield with my gloves. Scrapers are really handy. I froze my hands. I checked the oil and the rad fluid (which likes to run out...frequently) and noticed by chance that we had a low lying tire. We went to get petrol (which Hlotse was out of the night before) and find a pump. We found petrol but had to drive for 45 minutes on our tire. Luckily it wasn't flat or punctured and we topped her up in Butha-Buthe and hit the road. We hooked up an ipod to a portable speaker powered by my laptop and let the beats flow! Notorious B.I.G. featured heavily and about an hour after leaving Lesotho, the weather really started to warm.

I like the ocean a lot and it was so warm compared to Lesotho

We made it to Durbs with no real issue and found the backpackers. Very nice, quiet, peaceful, clean and in a nice neighbourhood. Things we did in Durban - ate good Italian food, ate delicious Indian food, ate fantastic Moroccan food - which we opened with a rose & lime mojito, which was AMAZING. Mmmm.

We also found a fantastic coffee shop where you could choose your own bean, even for the espresso based coffees. We went there every day, even on our way out of town. It was near the beach as well. It was sunny, warm and so so nice. We got a gear lock on our car, which meant walking down a sketchy street, which we enjoyed, meeting some funny guys who upon finding out we were from Canada said 'oh, you guys have good weed there don't you.' Um, okay?

AMAZING COFFEE

Tara and I went on a TERRIBLE dive. I barely saw the rock I crashed into...had to surface to find the crew and then spent the hole time keeping my eyes on the leader of the dive to not get lost. Still fun to be underwater but it's better when you at least see a fish or two. Tried to find good sushi but ate bad sushi instead. Bought amazing food for home at Woolworth's. Drove around, got laughed at in Notorious (I can only presume this was due to jealousy), tried to find some nightlife, settled for patio drinks and random conversation with some Durbanites. Good times all around. The drive home was a little slower because I was worried about the car overheating but with frequent stops and radiator top ups, we made it. Oh and we went to the largest Mosque in the southern hemisphere which was hard to find, interesting, beautiful and awkward because we were led in just before prayer time and it felt like we shouldn't be there. Oh and bought some spices from a local market.

I'm going to add some photos and then post this. To be continued on above mentioned topics.

Notorious gets it done

Things I used to live without

So I'll write about Durban next but yesterday Tara and I were talking about how we used to hate going to Ficksburg and didn't think we needed anything from there. We were hardly roughing it and we could live without the things we couldn't get in Hlotse.

Um, yeah, times have changed.

Things we used to live without but now can't seem to resist:

Goats Cheese (only available in Ficks on occasion)

Chick Peas

Baby Spinach (also only available on occasion)

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive Oil

Good Coffee (which has to be imported from Canada or Durban, Jo'burg or Cape Town)

Wine that isn't Nederberg Baronne (the only red available at the off sales - it's overpriced)

REAL Whole Grain bread

Pesto

Draft beer - only an occasional treat on a trip into ficksburg

The illusion of being somewhere else