Merry Christmas

Khotso!!

Its 4 days before Christmas, and it doesn't feel like it. Its pretty hot. Somewhere in the upper 90's. Christmas is a big deal out in the villages. For many, this is the big feast day. Kids get new outfits, people bake bread, there might even be meat. They are excited.No santa.. (which is sort of good)no Christmas carols. And from what Ive been told, a lot of drinking on Christmas and on Boxer day the next day which is a Lesotho holiday. Because of the drinking, the advice is: dont be alone in your village on Christmas if you can help it. So, I wont be. I will be traveling out of country for the first time and going to Bloemfontein for a few days. And then on New Years eve, I will be going for a week in Cape Town, returning to Lesotho in time for Peace Corps 2 day "all volunteer" conference in Maseru. And then, hopefully back to my site in Ha Mohatlane.

I just finished a week training with my youth group at with my ngo (Lesotho Durham Link) at their facility in Maseru. Its a nice place on a lake and we stayed at a local backpackers type facility. LDL did a great job on the training which was to teach the youth to be Peer Promotors back at Ha Mohatlane and the surrounding villages. The youth worked hard and did well. They are taking this very seriously. We also had a lot of fun with games, activities.... most nights we were up till at least midnight, and then they woke every morning with the sun... at about 4:45am... Im whipped, but it was worth it. I have to thank David Holcomb... cause now the dum, dum song is known in Africa! They have gone back to the village and for now I am in Maseru. Hopefully after the new year, the next part of the plan to teach in the villages will begin. I also look forward to starting the new year off teaching english at the local secondary school. The last few months there have been a blast.

I have gotten my camera back (thanks everyone who helped with that)but have not taken any pictures yet as my camera lenses are at my site. But I will get them back tomorrow or tuesday, so my next blog will have photos up.

I hope that all of you have a wonderful holiday season. I really miss you all!