First off, I want to let everyone know that I am safe. There has been political instability in Lesotho, but there is no need to worry about me at all. The short summary is that the army general and the prime minister disagreed so the army attempted to stage a coup, the police dis-banned (but are back to work now), and the US government deemed the country unsafe. There has been no incidences of violence or unrest, but the Lesotho government is not in a position to take control if something bad were to happen, so for right now, we are not allowed to be in the country. It has been really stressful and we still don’t know when we will be able to go back and resume our lives, but Peace Corps has done an amazing job to make this situation as comfortable as possible. Here is the long summary of the past 2 weeks:
Friday, August 29: I went to my friend Kristy’s house. A diversity committee meeting was scheduled for Saturday at 11 am in Mafeteng, near where she lives, so we planned to hang out all weekend.
Saturday, August 30: We wake up to phone calls, emails and whatsapp messages saying that we are not allowed into the capitol, Maseru, until Tuesday. A political rally was scheduled for Monday, but political unrest started between police and the army. Because I need to travel through Maseru to get to and from Kristy’s, I was stuck there until Tuesday. I only brought one change of clothes, but we went grocery shopping and prepped to have a fun extended weekend.
 |
| Me at Kristy’s site |
Sunday, August 31: If I had to be stuck with anybody, it would definitely be Kristy. We (She) made lemon poppyseed pancakes for breakfast. After, we walked to her coworker’s house – she had a baby a month ago so we just played with him. Then another PCV, Jody, came over and we all hung out outside – it was a beautiful day, getting sunny after the past week of freezing cold and snow. We had pasta for lunch, then we made lentil soup for dinner. Such a great day off.
 |
| Kristy beside a row of peach trees in bloom – it’s spring! |
Monday, September 1: I went to school with Kristy, who teaches English at primary school. She also has much smaller class sizes – all less than 20, so I really enjoyed seeing how good of a relationship she has with each of her students and how much they adore her. During school, we get a call from Peace Corps staff, telling us that we are on standby, we are still not allowed to go to Maseru, and that we may have to leave our sites. Stretching my two outfits for 4 days, was painful enough, especially since I brought my warmest winter clothes and it suddenly became very warm, being told I may have to wear the same thing for a week or even longer, was a little scary. Monday night we were officially told that we would have to go to our consolidation points and to pack enough things for a week. Also, at this stage in our emergency plans, we are supposed to label our items that we want to take home in case we get evacuated. I’m glad I was with Kristy through this stressful period of unknown, but being away from my site without any of my things was an added stress.
Tuesday, September 2: We has a pretty restless night and woke up on Tuesday morning tired, but ready to go. We are about to leave when I get a call from Peace Corps staff telling me that I am getting picked up to go home and to my own consolidation point in the north. I am driven though Maseru in Peace Corps vehicles. Everything in Maseru looks normal – I can’t tell that anything has changed. I was sad to leave Kristy, but happy to have a second to get a few things from home – another change of clothes, my laptop and most importantly, my passport. I finally get to the consolidation point in Lesotho. That night, we are told that we need to wait for instructions the next morning, but that we may have to leave Lesotho.
Wednesday – Friday, September 3-5: We wake up early Wednesday morning, and are told that we need to leave the country. So we pack up everything and leave to the border, less than an hour away. Our new consolidation point is in South Africa. For the next few days, we meet every morning and evening for updates, We find out our plans about a day in advance. For the past few months, Peace Corps Lesotho has discussed an all volunteer conference. Because we have nothing else to do, they decided to proceed with the conference this weekend.
 |
| All of the PCV’s and Peace Corps staff at the All-Volunteer Conference |
Saturday, September 6: We drove a couple hours to a large hotel for our all-volunteer conference. Still more waiting, but at least we will all be together. We arrive at the hotel pleasantly surprised – the rooms are nice, there is a full buffet for every meal, pool, indoor hot tub and sauna, volleyball court, grassy area, bar, movie theater, Play Station room, game drives, spa, and more.
Since we arrived, we have been having updates every morning and evening. We have had a couple of conference “sessions” that usually just involve us talking. My days include playing volleyball, laying out by the pool, playing pool at the bar, and basically relaxing….it’s a consolidation vacation.
We really don’t have a lot of information because it is still unknown but here is a little bit:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-28994193
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/08/30/344576175/south-africa-condemns-apparent-coup-in-lesotho
Related
