Training is almost over -- thank God. There's no doubt I have learned a lot and met some fabulous people, but it has been exhausting having a full schedule and very little alone time. I can't wait to get to my site. We find out this week where we will be living and working for the next 2 years. I'm a little nervous. There is a site in the mountains that I'm really hoping for, but I'm trying not to get too attached to it.
These last few weeks we have done a lot. Our training group has gone on multiple field trips around Lesotho to see the various services offered. We held a fundraising concert in our village to raise money to buy chairs. The village bo-'m'e sang songs in Sesotho -- they sounded awesome. Basotho really know how to sing. Unfortunately the volunteers don't -- we sounded pretty awful but everyone had a good laugh. My favorite Sesotho song called "Tsamaea" involves a whole lot of "tebuka"-ing ("tebuka" is Sesotho for shake what your mama gave ya). It's really fun. Then yesterday we put on a Career Fair for kids in our village. The small business group brought in speakers from different professions; the permaculture group presented info on nutrition; and the HIV Advisors (my group) did activities with the kids involving HIV info. The teenagers were extremely curious about the female condom so I ended up doing 5 or 6 female condom demos. I wonder how many condom demos I'll give in Lesotho -- never thought I'd be doing that semi-professionally.
Cooking and cleaning for myself has been going well. Again I'm excited to get to site because I'll have more time to cook and try new recipes. Making my own bread is awesome -- it's way easier than I ever thought it would be. Living without electricity and running water isn't that bad at all. During training my family fetches water from the water pump for me, but I think I'll have to get it myself at site which will kind of suck. I boil all of my drinking water and heat water for bucket bathing and dishwashing. I have probably 10 buckets and basins of varying shapes and sizes that all have a specific purpose.
My Sesotho is getting better too although I still don't understand the vast majority of what Basotho are saying. I think I'll do fine on the Language Assessment prior to swearing-in (to be an official Peace Corps volunteer), but I wish I could learn faster. :) Only 2 weeks of training left! Yay!
