Sorry for the delayed update, but if you haven’t already heard, I am back in Lesotho.
During the time we were in South Africa, my favorite thing was the survivor style cooking competition that the hotel staff hosted for us. It was part of a “field day” event; there were all sorts of outdoor relay-type games, but during that two of our teammates at a time (and we were forced to switch) had to cook. We were given one pot, a meat at random and an entire restaurant kitchen of fruits, vegetables, spices, sauces, and more. We had to start our own fire, prepare all of the ingredients and cook a dish of our choice with the meat we were given. My group was given lamb. We made a lamb stew with carrots, potatoes, onions and green beans. And our dish won! I think I would have had just as much fun if we hadn’t won, but it was such a unique experience and so much fun.
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| Me and my cooking partner, Brandy, making sure the fire is going. (Photo courtesy of Lisa) |
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| Me and Brandy with our completed dish. (Photo courtesy of Michelle) |
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| My team with our winning dish! (photo courtesy of Michelle) |
Even being in a nice hotel with showers, activities and amenities, pretty much all of the volunteers were looking forward to going home. Overall, consolidation was stressful. I never felt in danger. But being completely helpless in the situation and having to put everything on hold for an indefinite amount of time causes a lot of anxiety. Thankfully, all the Peace Corps volunteers were together at a hotel that was very welcoming. Finally, after almost three weeks of being in South Africa, we were able to return to Lesotho.
Once I got home, I was pleasantly surprised – my host family had taken all of my perishable food so there was nothing gross and rotting like at other PCVs’ houses, and my host mom had watered my plants.
The next day was back to school. I came back in the middle of exams week, so I just started invigilating (proctoring) exams, writing my exams for later in the week, and grading. It was a pretty boring week and I felt bad for my students who have had no math class in the 3 weeks prior to the test, but it was nice to be back. Walking into each class, every student was shouting hello and remarking how long I was away for and it made me realize how much I missed them.
This week, we have independence day vacation, basically bring break. I’m glad that we got this week off because I really needed alone time to clean, get resituated and just relax. One of the highlights of this week was going to help my friend, Zoe, with the mural at her school. One other volunteer and her sister came to help as well. We spent all day painting and it was so rewarding to see the finished product. Other than that, I’ve been working on grading, Peace Corps paperwork and prepping for the last quarter of the school year. Back to normal.
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| Me with Zoe, Laura, and Leslie (Laura’s sister who is visiting) in front of the finished mural. |