Any extra time I may have gained, however, was put to good use. I had been working on a rudimentary grade report program for our school. In the final days before the reports had to be made, I certainly had my hands full working out last minute bugs in the program and helping my fellow teachers learn how to use it. We pushed things to the wire but managed to get everyones reports made and printed in time for the big parents meeting, held at the end of every year.
The next day I left my village for what would be a a multi-part journey. This first day was spent at my camp town with fellow volunteers from my district, as well as a couple from the lowlands, having a belated Thanksgiving party. Those must be very good friends indeed to have made such an unpleasant journey just to sit around and drink wine with us in the mountains for a day!
The next morning I was off again. I was taking a dozen of my students down to Maseru (Lesotho's capitol, pronounced something like "Mah-sare-oo") for a 3-day life skills camp put on by a group called "Phela". In Sesotho, "phela" is a verb meaning "to live". A common greeting here is "U phela joang?", meaning, "How are you living?", or "How are you?" The group Phela works here to promote healthy lifestyles among youth. They are funded heavily by Ireland and the UK and, in addition to putting on these camps, produce and distribute a series of full color magazines, talking about everything from self-esteem and decision making to HIV/AIDS and contraception use.
Phela totally funded the whole thing, sending buses to ever district in the country to pick up over 1000 kids from dozens of schools and bring them to the capitol. They provided a place to sleep and meals for the entire time. This camp was a wonderful opportunity for my students, a few of whom had never been to Maseru. Our bus was full of very excited kids from 6 school in Mokhotlong. The sound track to the journey was the students singing Basotho songs and hymns, occasionally punctuated with the excited cry of "Maseru!"
Maseru is not a big city. You can stroll from one end of downtown to the other in about 30 minutes. It is, however, the largest city (and probably the only place I would give the rank of "city") in this country of 2 million people. As we made our way through the afternoon traffic towards our destination, I literally saw jaws drop. One of my students leapt from his seat and cried out upon seeing a junkyard with a hundred or so cars in it. They about hit the ceiling when we drove past the large (and rather nice) soccer stadium where they have countless times watched their favorite teams playing on television. I'm sure we looked quite a site from the outside, with everyone standing up, peering and pointing out the windows at almost everything we passed! We made a quick stop so the students could grab some food and, after an initial scare at having lost 2 students only 15 minutes after arriving, continued on to Moshoeshoe II High School, where the camp was to be held.
There were some initial logistical hang-ups with providing bedding for 1000 kids, but despite the spartan lodgings, everyone was cheery and excited. The next couple days were pretty fun for everyone. I met a bunch of cool teachers from all over the country and the students all made lots of new friends. There were debates and games with topics on HIV/AIDS and self confidence. They even had one of those gruesome STI slide shows that do a decent job of scaring everyone away from sex. A couple schools also put on dramas addressing relationship issues. On the last day we all took a long hike to the top of a nearby mountain where we enjoyed a beautiful view over some of the lowlands including the King's Residence. We had a quick lunch up there and then scurried down and back to the school as a massive afternoon thunderstorm rolled in. The final night was all fun with dance competitions and rap battles. My students were easily identified as a bunch of shy country kids, but even I was surprised at how outgoing and self-confident many of the lowlands kids were. They weren't afraid to get up in front of 1000 other kids and sing or dance or do whatever.
The next morning students were loaded up on the buses again and headed back home. As a treat for their good behavior during the camp, the bus from my district took the kids to the Pioneer Mall for an hour before departing. This, naturally, was the first mall many of the kids had ever been to. More than once I saw astonished students looking at the expensive clothes displayed in storefronts and sneaking a picture or two with their camera-phones. I ordered a big cappuccino (at one of the few places in Lesotho where one can get real coffee) and chuckled to myself as high school students from the mountains took the escalators up and down like some sort of carnival ride.
All too soon, their hour was up and they boarded the bus and headed back to the mountains. I stayed behind, as I had another part of my journey to embark on.
No comments:
Post a Comment