Winter is coming.

Its still hot during the day here in the lowlands, but at night a chill is in the air and you know that winter is coming soon. I came to Lesotho at a good time. My group came in the winter, and we were in training, so Peace Corps paid for all of the gas to heat our little houses. And it was still cold. This year, we are on our own, which means many, many layers of clothing as gas is very expensive. It builds character:)

Work is going well. My youth group of peer promoters has been going to different villages training new peer educators. Some days we will spend 4-6 hours walking to villages through really beautiful mountains, getting to talk to the villagers who are off the beaten path. I even had a herd boy offer me lebola (bride price) to marry me. I thought about it. He's 23. I figured the 22 year age difference would make for good late night cultural exchanges! But as I thought about it, I considered the question of: who would receive the lebola? Would it be the head of the family I live with? Would it be someone Im close to back home? And if that were the case, would the herd boy pay for shipping? (which has gotta cost a lot) Or perhaps he could just convert the cattle to cold, hard american dollars.But then, the youth who were with me told me that the price the herd boy offered was just too low.He offered something like 6 cows, 4 sheep, some donkey, etc... The youth said that since I was a foreigner and Im "exotic" Im worth at least 40 head of cattle... I dont know, too complicated for me I think. So I guess I have to pass.

I've been hearing a lot lately from home about the financial situation. People losing their jobs and homes, businesses closing...As our country director says, "its probably a good time to be in grad school or Peace Corps" The way things are affected here is even less jobs to be had (there weren't that many to begin with) and food prices going way up. How that translates for many villagers I know is eating 1 meal a day (or some days 0) as compared to 2 meals a day. And yet with the added suffering, it is always humbling to watch people find joy in there lives as they go on day to day trying to survive.

Life is basically good here. Its exciting when a young person gets it, gets excited and shares it with others.But, there is always craziness here, and Im going to share a crazy public transport story. I was on a Kombi coming from the local camptown of TY back to my village of Ha Nkalimeng. It was one of those times where a lot of kids were coming back from school and there were 26 on a 15 passenger kombi. The kids get crammed in every possible corner, on top of each other. Very dangerous. I was sitting closest to the door and a little girl was kneeling across from me. The kombi driver was driving even more crazy than usual was playing chicken with other cars, passing at scary speeds on the shoulder etc... the conductor was behind me and was playing at opening and shutting the door.Some of the women were beginning to say stuff to the conductor, but he wasn't listening. So we whipped around one particular corner way too fast, the door (a sliding one) flew open and the little girl start to fall out the door. I grabbed the back of her sweater, pulled her in and had a few choice words to say to the conductor with the little girl cling to my neck crying hysterically and everyone in the kombi silent. It wasnt pretty. This kid wouldve died if she had gone out the door. It was really scary and made me appreciate public transport in the states!!! I guess its moments like those when I want to escape all of this.... but then the people here can't escape and I know that I need to stay and see it through.

Enough for now. Ive been trying to download a bunch of pictures and it wont do it, so I will try next time I get to internet. I hope you are all having a good spring. Go Dodgers!!! (I mean Cubs... oops, what was I thinking)
Salang Hantle
Merrill