Officially Volunteers!

Hi everyone! It's been a bit since I've posted, the end of training was pretty busy, but...I'm officially a volunteer! We swore in on December 14 and have now moved to our sites. This post will be dedicated to updating y'all on what I've been doing the last month and sharing what changes have happened since moving to site.

After coming back from site visit, we just had a few weeks of training left. In addition to sessions, education volunteers hosted model school at the primary schools of our two different villages. It happened the week after school let out, so the students we taught stayed for summer school. In my village, there was one class from 1st grade, one 3rd grade, and one 6th grade. We had worked with these students and teachers before to do a couple days of practice teaching, but model school was 7 days. The first day was World AIDS Day, so some of us taught related lessons during school. After school, we planted a tree at the school to commemorate those who have lost their lives to the disease and those who continue to live and thrive despite an HIV positive status. We also gave out red ribbons for students and teachers to wear. The students enjoyed the planting, and hopefully the tree will continue to grow. The tree we planted is pictured below on the left with the banner provided by Peace Corps. The rest of the days, we taught either literacy or life skills. There were four periods through the day, with the 6 of us teaching two classes per day. I taught 3rd grade literacy and 6th grade life skills. We made it as fun as possible, given that it was summer school, so I planned games and activities when possible to relate to the lesson. The second to last day, students took a test, and the last day was the closing ceremony. We gave everyone certificates for participating, and some prizes. All in all, model school was an interesting experience, and it was fun to work with the students! The school is pictured below in the middle, and the 3rd grade classroom is on the right (after school was over; usually the desks are throughout the room in rows, with two students sitting next to each other. The students move their desks to work in groups sometimes too).

One weekend, we took a last day trip all together to Ts'ehlenyane. It was beautiful! The mountains were so green, and we got to hike to a swimming spot along the river. There was a pool formed, and the water was very cold, but it was so nice to be able to swim. Especially with the view. After swimming and hiking, we went back to have a braai, or outdoor cookout. Peace Corps staff had grilled the meat and brought prepared sides. It was very good, and nice to relax and eat outside.

After all our sessions and model school were over, we had a village feast. My village hosted, and we all gathered the day before to help prepare the food. It was held at the primary school. The day of, all the volunteers came with their families and some of the chiefs came. Most people were in traditional dress. We had all gotten seshoeshoe made for us, by seamstresses in our villages. Mine is my district colors! There was a ceremony that consisted of speeches from some Peace Corps people, a chief, and a volunteer, dances from the kids, and some musical performances. A couple volunteers played ukulele and sang a Sesotho hymn, and Derin and I played a flute/clarinet duet of America the Beautiful. We also exchanged gifts with our host families. After the ceremony, there was very good food and some more dances from the kids.

The last part of training was our final Language Proficiency Interview. This was between the village feast and swearing in. We all passed! So, we were all able to swear in on December 14. We wore our seshoeshoe again and went to the cultural village at Thaba Bosiu. This was very close to where we spent our first week in Lesotho, so we had come full circle. There were a lot of people present at the ceremony, including much of the Peace Corps staff and some Returned Peace Corps Volunteers. Some of them now live and work in Lesotho. The king came to the ceremony too! We got to take a photo with him, so I've now stood right next to a king. The ceremony consisted of speeches, two from volunteers given in Sesotho (one health and one education), swearing the oath, singing the national anthem and a volunteer song in Sesotho, receiving our certificates, and yummy food. It feels very good to finally be done with training and be moving on to my two years of service!

The day after swearing in, we all moved to our sites. It was a bit sad to say goodbye to everyone, but education volunteers will be together again in January for a workshop before school starts and we will all be together again in March for another workshop. Since moving to site, I've spent a couple days unpacking and decorating, and now am spending time reading, playing cards with my family, and getting to know the village. The kids taught me their version of crazy 8, which has more rules, and I've taught them a couple games as well. Health volunteers have jumped right in to working in their clinics, but education volunteers have a few weeks before our workshop and school starting so we can ease into our new surroundings. I like my host family and village a lot so far. It's nice to have this time to establish routines and fully settle into my new house. The views here are beautiful, and I've enjoyed making my house my home. Along with the photos of my now decorated house, here is a double rainbow I saw a couple days ago from the porch! I've seen so many rainbows since it's the rainy season, and I'm excited for many more. The stars at night are also so bright; the sky here is just beautiful no matter what time of day.

Lastly, enjoy some pictures of the animals since coming back! The calf is getting bigger, and sometimes the donkeys come to eat the grass right outside my door. The cat also likes to hang out on the windowsill.

That's all my updates for now, thanks for sticking with me! I hope everyone is doing well, as always feel free to reach out to me and ask any questions you may have. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!