July/August - Pictures

The attached pictures are of Karabo, 'M'e's granddaughter and "m"e wearing my blanket; she borrowed it to attend a wedding, and one of me holding the infant Sekonjela.

Article for the Peace Corps Journal - July 2012

This is a story I wrote last month for a Peace Corps newspaper article.

I love cooking…have always loved to cook and shall probably never lose that passion! It does come, however, with some challenges. I remember cooking huge wonderful Sunday dinners for the immediate and extended family while my three children were growing. As they grew and “spread their wings” across our wonderful country, I faced the challenge of paring down my meals to accommodate only one or two people…a challenge I was able to meet successfully. And so, my enjoyment of this art continued. In 2010 I was invited to join the Peace Corps in the tiny country of Lesotho, where papa and moroho are the basic foods…day and night! I am still in Lesotho and still enjoying cooking! My biggest challenge here was first learning to cook my meals on an open flame or a two-burner gas stove. Both were easy challenges to meet. Ah, but my love of baking! How was I ever going to bake my cakes, scones, cookies and pies? The Peace Corps supplied all volunteers with a HUGE cooking pot which I quickly converted to a Dutch oven; I did this by lining the bottom of the pot with empty tuna fish cans…one layer of cans for a certain temperature and a second or even third level for items which tended to cook faster on the bottom, so as not to burn those bottoms. It worked and I was able to bake again! I am a volunteer at three different primary schools in the district of Leribe. In these schools, I have met the most wonderful, dedicated and fun-loving young people I could ever hope to meet. All of them remind me, daily of my three children and three grand children at home. To help them celebrate themselves, I have begun the tradition of baking cakes, cupcakes or biscuits (cookies) for them on each of their respective birthdays! For the past two and a half years, I have managed to bake something for each and every teacher and principal at all three schools and for my host families. What fun it’s been to watch their surprised faces as they’re called into the principal’s office for a meeting, only to find a cake filled with burning candles and a group of fellow staff members singing “Happy Birthday” to them! It thrills me to know that in all three schools, not only is “their day” something that is looked forward to with anticipation, but I have seen how, during these gatherings, the teachers have learned to communicate with one another on a more personal and warm level. One of the schools has already decided that this is a tradition that will not be dropped when my tour is finished in Lesotho! In fact, that very same school had a birthday cake for me for my seventieth birthday this year!!

Winter in Tabola: July 12, 2012

This is typical Maria (winter) weather in Tabola...very cold and sunny. The tjale (small waist blanket) I am wearing was a gift from Sekonyelo's parents. You can see that although I am freezing (notice the wrists), I am also sunburned!!! I wear sunblock daily, but the sun is so strong.

Photo Contest June, 14, 2012

P.C. is running an HIV photo contest. One of the categories is Education and Prevention. I want to submit a photo showing my little ones reading all the wonderful HIV books we have. My favorite photo is this...what do you think?

Snow in Taboa: June 9, 2012

Hi all, It's been snowing all day!. This is the first snow many of the children from the villages have ever seen!

Me's House

Me's House from My House

Poor Chickens

Pre-School Donations

A new pre-school has just opened in my village and they have NOTHING. The school is called Mopeli pre-school; it's named after a former chief in our village (the one who donated the land for Mopeli Primary School).. The children's ages range from 2 years to 4 1/2 years. If you have appropriate gently used toys, puzzles, etc. which you'd like to pass on, these kids would really love to have them. My address is: Rusty de Lucia, P.C.V. P.O. Box 31 Peka 340, Leribe Lesotho (southern Africa) Anything you might be able to part with will be so appreciated. Thanks, Rusty

April 11, 2012

My birthday/Easter get-away was wonderful! On Saturday morning, Ausi Mathabo, Tiisetso and Tseliso came to my mokhoro with a birthday present. Their mother, visiting from somewhere in South Africa, came with a typical Basotho water goblet and six matching glasses.

In the eyes of an American, it wouldn't be considered the treasure that it is…but knowing where it came from, I was so touched. Their mom must have spent quite a bit of her hard-earned maluti on that water set; it’s a glass set, painted gold and black…very fancy…very unlike anything treasured in America…and it’s something I shall always treasure!

Later that morning I met Andrea and we left for Bloemfontein, South Africa. We arrived in Bloem in the mid-afternoon, found a place to stay and then went to a huge mall where we ate, ate and ate some more! It was heavenly to have so many choices of food and drink. We were going to catch an early evening movie, but we were too stuffed and tired from all that eating. We went back to our bed-and-breakfast and vegged out in front of the T.V. I actually took the prize this time for T.V. watching; Andrea fell asleep while I watched “Shark Tale” from beginning to end (I think I was just so excited about our planned excursion for the next day that I couldn’t fall asleep)!
In the morning we were ready to eat some more!!

Then we headed for the Cheetah Experience…and what an experience it was!

The place is run by volunteers of various ages, all animal lovers. The owner is a woman who gave up a career as a doctor to follow her dream of rescuing wild cats. We didn’t get to meet her, but the volunteers spoke so much and so highly of her that I felt as though we had.

Let’s see…we saw:

Cheetahs-babies, adolescents and adults

I learned that the easiest way to distinguish a cheetah from a normal spotted leopard is by looking at the face; the face of the cheetah has two black lines running from the inside corners of the eyes to the nose. This helps to block some of the sun's brightness.

The normal spotted leopard doesn't have these lines; he does, however have a necklace of spots around the bottom of the neck.