Anywho I know it's been a bit so let me give you the chronological update. Stay with me here
I had kind of difficult closing out in Mokhotlong. The kids had testing for a week, then Easter break (March 31- April 6) people went back to their villages, and the next week they were grading and reviewing from testing. Basically I didn't get to do close out activities how I had hoped but I did get to play tag, grade and send some letters from children in Lesotho to my old classes in Washington DC at Positive Nature Inc, leave a list of activities for teachers and say farewell to everyone on my list. The kids at DayCare and St Peters sang songs for me. I made the kids laugh at St Peters when I was trying to talk through tears. I think they didn't know how to handle a ball of emotion like me. I think people don't really get emotional about leaving each other here, maybe because they mostly stay in the country. Very sad to leave 'Me Lihlahleng and my Sesotho tutor 'Me Mahlokoa, I exchanged gifts with some friends and had a sweet farewell from the DayCare teachers. Also Qiao Ming had been working a lot so putting a damper on our lessons. I am so CONFIDENT that he will do well though because every time I came in and he was at the shop, he would have his exercise books out. And when he came to say goodbye to me, we had our whole conversation without any Sesotho.
KE RATA BOPHELO! The talent show, I LOVE LIFE! update. I had challenges in preparation. Even though I am mentally spastic, I'm an avid planner so I was getting a bit frustrated with my dance team not practicing on time. (DIVAS- lol it wasn't like that maybe 1 person would show up and wait then leave, 30 minutes later 2 boys would show up and I was trying to stress the importance of planned times). I just have to adjust to the relaxed time frame here. Even moving to Butha Buthe, I didn't know where I would be staying until the day of...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Thato came for the weekend from Maseru and sponsored the speakers, amplifier, and mic, so I was very lucky. The show was Sun at 4, at 3:45 there were few people, so I did one last walk around town. One of my performers' little sister (very sweet girl) said "I don't think people are coming, they would be here by now"- lol so that made me worried. I gathered about 10 people on my walk and by the time I got back there was already a crowd waiting for us! Someone was even like can you go get some more chairs, and I thought more chairs?!! lol ofcourse! So we had like 50 pple, among the crowd were volunteers from Touching Tiny Lives and my fav, Sara from PeaceCorps (my judge). The acts were poetry, two dances, a freestyle dance for audience members, modeling, two pop songs, one rap, and a gospel song. The girl winner got a butterfly purse and the boy, a football (not American football), but I got all the participants football water bottles in different colors and a picture of our dance troupe. I was very sad to leave them and hope to visit next month! So YAY my mummy can be proud that I threw my first successful community event! Thato loved it and made me very happy with her positive comments, the students also had a blast.
The next few days were a bit of trouble. The work computer got a virus just in time for me to have no way of buying a virus software so I'll have to try to bring something next time I visit and I dropped my MP3 player in the river. I still have it and thankfully got some songs transferred to my phone, but none of the touch screen buttons work. I want to post pictures but am afraid the virus is on my memory card and don't want to infect this computer.
On the plus Tau came from Maseru with coworker BK on business for his graphics business and BK's wife who is from the UK, Ella. Loved her accent! She is a tom-boy and I was delighted to have her. They are an adorable couple trying to move to UK together. It was thought provoking and a bit sad to hear how easy it is for her to visit BK in Africa but how much trouble he had trying to go to UK. She has to go over like a yr before him to set up a house and life for them before the government to consider him coming over, and thats after they are married! I'm definitely lucky to have a US passport and I'm going to put it to good use my friends! Tau and I had wonderful conversations about religion and the Baha'i Faith (he is Baha'i) and the cultural unity that he has seen the made him want to be Baha'i. This guy has A LOT of stories to tell (and quite a few crazy jokes).
UP NEXT BUTHA BUTHE!
"If I can only reach one set of ears, I know that I've fulfilled my purpose here, to change the world, one boy, one girl, one person at a time..there's still time"
With open arms and open heart,
Spread hope,
Andrea Hope
Yay on joining the children's groups! That list of activities should be helpful. Thanks for the note and example about being a ball of emotion: it helps me understand you. Good work on your dance group. Good work. I like the quote.
ReplyDeleteMuch love,
Aaron.
I'm so happy to hear about the success of the talent show! It sounds like you really had to do everything, including additional last minute promotion. That part right there was probably the most inspiring part for me.
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