August in Brief

We celebrated Aaron's birthday with guacamole burgers and ice cream at SPUR, a new "native american" restaurant. There may have been birthday songs in Sesotho, lots of stares, and a firecracker on top of the ice cream!

My PCVL job has begun and I'm thoroughly enjoying working at the Peace Corps office. We recently swore in 27 new CHED Volunteers and will soon make preparations for the new Education group that arrives November 3. My first desk on the first day of the job was covered in flowers, pictures, and sweet notes by a special someone.

The CHED '10 group has very diverse site placements and this year 3 are based in the capital. Jesse and Zach are based with Millennium Challenge Compact and Lee is with Baylor. Because her original site fell through, Lee was picked up by Baylor, will serve as Teen Club Coordinator at the clinic, and is now my roommate. Christina, Baylor's new Princeton in Africa fellow, will arrive September 2 and will be the third and final roommate in our house.

A portion of my work as PCVL is to go on outreach to conduct site assessments for volunteers currently serving in the field. Issues regarding security, health, and work are discussed with the Volunteer and host organization to ensure optimal effectiveness. I opted to visit Ketane to celebrate Aaron's birthday while simultaneously conducting two site visits. The 2 photos above were taken at a week-long CRS workshop for youth in remote areas. The target audience was particularly fascinating as it combined in-school and out-of-school youth. The latter, who are generally local herd-boys or kids working to basically survive, have very minimal education so reaching out to that population is important.

Over the past several months, Baylor has been collaborating with Lesotho's Ministry of Education to plan the-first-of its-kind HIV testing event at a primary school in Qacha's Nek. To my surprise, the MoE selected Most Holy Redeemer as the pilot primary school. Because I taught Life Skills and Health to these kiddos during my days in Qacha's Nek, I wanted to be a part of the event, to put the kids at ease with a familiar face, and encourage them to test along with their caregivers. We drove down Thursday, prayed away the snow, and awoke to a gorgeous sunny day with snow-capped mountains. While waiting to test, the children enjoyed games provided by Sentabale and Kick-For-Life counselors and local Baylor staff proudly wore their t-shirts delivered last minute by the MAF plane. I can't be sure of the results just yet but over a third of the school pupils tested alongside teachers, ministry officials, and local chiefs- a great turnout! My favorite students took part in the event, and while I am curious as to their HIV status, I know that it really does not matter. They now know how to care for themselves if positive, and how to remain healthy if negative.