Khotso!!! (Peace)

Wow, I have so much to write about but don't know where to begin. I'll take you all back to Thanksgiving, dinner with the Ambassador was superb!! A good old fashioned Thanksgiving dinner and great times were had by all. Now on to what I have to say about trudging along on my journey from afar!! I have been on a sight visit to a current volunteer's rondaval and it was great! I embraced the pee bucket, no pun intended, and realized that I will be fine with whatever I end up doing, I too will adapt and perservere. This past week I have been out with a family in a village to begin my community based training which will last for 5 weeks. The lulls and the lows that are unavoidable have been swept away the the laughs of each new day. My Bosotho family is wonderful, I think that I have the best family in the village, we laugh and sing and dance. When we arrived at the village last Saturday we were greeted with song and dance in front of the chief's place it was amazing! The children were dressed in traditional skirts as they sang and danced for us. It was a huge reception that was amazing and viewed with tears of joy. After the dance, we were introduced to our 'Me, (mother for the next 5 weeks) I have 2 sisters, Ausi Lerato (love) and ausie Kuena (crocodile tears) as well as a brother, Aubuti Mokhasa that all live in the home that my room is attached to. My brother walks me out and around to my room each night and makes sure that I am locked up and secure. The culture here in Lesotho is very different from America. We have so much to learn from this culture that values human relationships above all else. If you are walking along the road and having a conversation with someone and you pass someone else, it is considered very rude if you don't stop your discussion to greet the other person and engage in small talk. This bit of the language I have down, when all else fails with my language gaps, I either smile and laugh or say 'ehhhh' (yes). Now I'm sure that this is not a shocker to anyone, but as soon as I step out the door, I am swarmed with children of all ages. On a side note, in order for you to understand what I am about to say, I must add that my family has given me a Sesotho name, which is Ausi (Ms) Paballo (secruity) Lisanyane (the family name). Any time that I am out walking the village I can hear "Ausi Paballo, Ausi Paballo" in fact at night as I lay my head down, I still hear their sweet voices. If I dance, they dance, if I run, they run, climb a mountain, well, you get the picture. All of the interacting can be really exhausting, which brings me to my next point, with no electricity I find myself to sleep by 10 and up by 5am to clean and bathe. I also am in new circumstances where at 32 I find myself asking 'Me if I may go out. This is an advantage when young men come bye for a visit and my 'Me goes out and tells them that it is too late. That Rocks!! Last night I taught my family how to play cribbage, which was awesome!! We laugh together about them knowing all that I have done and said, as it is a small village and everbody knows everything. 'Me will ask me what I have done or what I'm going to do and I just crack up and tell her to tell me, she then begins laughing. We laugh over funny things I and others have said and we simply enjoy each other very much. She is in her 40s and has five children and does all the work, as her husband needs to be 8 hours away in South Africa to earn an income. She is a phenomenal woman!! My fam is teaching me so so much, they are great! Well, I could write on forever and ever but I fear that my thoughts will begin to race away from me in several different directions, so I will stop for now. I think it will be as couple weeks until I get to town to write, but rest assured I will bring my journal along next time to be sure you get to hear more of the good stuff!!!
Cheeers!
Ausi Paballo (pa bal o)