Allah'u'abha, it's Febraury 1. It seems like I’ve been here longer.
I have been learning prayers and reading scripture. In Leviticus of Bible (pretty much on how to prepare meat for sacrifice) and beginning of Qu’ran. Puzzled by things like Moses writes the 10 commandments (Thou Shall Not Kill) and then they slay 3,000 men who turned from God. Hopefully as more reveals itself I will come to new wisdoms. On the other hand, prayer has been incredible, being able to pray surrounded by nature is an experience that empowers the soul with the elements of pure life. <>The Baha’is holding me down here are two older women, Kamachee who is Malaysian (cooks for us all the time) and Lihlehleng, a native, (sometimes stay at her house in town, she’s hilarious) so they take very good care of your Andrea. Funny moment with Lihlehleng (there are many) is she gave me her phone # -last digits (1418) I tried to call, wasn’t her. When I saw her I told her to call me and turns out her # was 1814. She said “Oooh, that’s why that handsome gentlemen who wanted my number never called me” lol.
I live in my own ronduval 30 min walking from town. The farm’s caretaker speaks very little English so it is a wonderful experience finding ways for us to communicate. He has a 16 yr old son, Mokhabi, who I play cards with and teach other fun activities.
I spend a lot of my time with children which brings me constant joy. Dance & prayers with 2 groups of kids (one in a town 30min away) on Sat. I met a wonderful Basotho Bahai’, Motlalekhotso who helped b/c the kids there speak less english. I’ve begun teaching about Universal Connectedness in class 5, 6, and 7. At first they giggled at my accent but they adjust quickly and I teach without the help of a Sesotho teacher translating. The kids don’t know much about USA, just music and a few knew who President Obama was, but I think it’s helpful b/c they see me as an equal. I’m just the Madam with the silly games, & funny American accent. [=. The adults think a lot more of it. People are amazed that I left US to pay for myself to volunteer here. Some also expressed never dreaming that an American would be sitting in their living room talking to them. I was told I have a unique mind, I think that encompasses that I am weird, which is true in every country!
It’s starting to get frustrating the # of boys asking about marriage. A teacher explained that in Lesotho when you see a girl & you have “that feeling” you have to ask to her to marry you. I think “that feeling” is a big issue. Lesotho has one of the highest spread HIV and Aids rates. People get married after knowing each other a short time and then men and women sleep with other people. I know that things aren’t much better in the states (though we use more protection). This is another reason I want to start this dance and activities at the youth center, so that ladies and men can do activities as friends and get to know each other. Right now the only time they really hang out is school or in sexual context. I had a hard time communicating with some of the youth leaders, but one named Mpho, seemed really excited about applying new ideas.
I met 4 other Americans. 3 are Peace Corps volunteers who are spread out among this district. The other works very close at a rehabilitation/health center for kids called Touching Tiny Lives; that's Kirsten. She is from NY and I hang out with her most often. She’s a sweetheart, vegetarian; we share about proposals and kids giggling at our accents. Because she is white, they don’t expect her to speak Sesotho like they do with me. Besides us there are a few Chinese families here but they seem to have grown up here and speak more sotho than English.
NEW EXPERIENCES
I rode a horse for the first time on Friday! Loved it. I thought, am I hurting this horse? It was going so slow, I mean I’m only a little over a 100 pds, it carries more weight than me pretty often lol. Needless to say, the horse knew I had no control, I didn’t want to hit or hurt him. People were walking uphill faster than my horse was moving; he stopped to eat grass, pick flies off himself, pick up his dry cleaning from the local shop! Lol. Really it was great just to enjoy nature and I will do it again soon with more experience. It has rained everyday since I came, which means I can’t see stars but the other day after it rained I saw a crowd of gray clouds and a rainbow on the right and one big white cloud poking out of the middle. My God, it was too amazing to even take a photo
GROSS BUT FUNNY THINGS TO SHARE
When I went to put on my shoe one day I felt a hop. Of course I threw my shoe off and a little frog jumped out and hopped behind my dresser.
Bees like to die in the window seal. When I first got to the preschool I was looking for a can to put stones in. There were so many dead bees in the can that I stopped for a second & thought, are they doing some kind of dead bee science project? They weren’t!! At home when I get up, it’s a small bee battlefield. 3 or 4 bees will be crawling over 10 dead bees on the window seal trying to get out. I usually try to get them to grab onto a piece of toilet paper and fling them back outside. I didn’t understand this but Kamachee told me they come in through some hole in the wall or roof (there are many) and then keep slamming into the window trying to get out.
The hardest part so far has been hand washing clothes, if white socks & I ever had a good relationship before (I don’t think this is our first falling out) it’s over now. Lol
If you are wondering what you could send me, I can receive soft/small items here. I could use loose paper or notebook to put in binder, Nature’s Valley oats and honey bars, any sweets especially gummi bears, baked or mixes, we have an oven.
PO Box 47
Mokhotlong 500, Lesotho
Did I mention oats and honey bars?! [=
I seem not to be getting some texts so please email spread.hope@yahoo.com if I don't respond
“With great humbleness and entire devotion, I pray to Thee to make me a minaret of love in Thy land, a lamp of Thy knowledge among Thy creatures, and a banner of divine bounty in Thy dominion.”
With open arms and open hearts,
Shine your light,
Andrea Hope
I wrote a comment at first, but didn't fill out the security form, so here's a near copy:
ReplyDeleteI am happy you are are getting to explore your spiritual life, have friends there, and are getting to work with children. I will remember the frog story. :-)
I think there might have been some details in things Moses said missing from the story of Leviticus, or more likely those details were meant to be explained by a later Manifestation when people were more educated, like Muhammad.