On March 22, Wes and I traveled to Maseru to pick up our shipment of books from the African Library Project (all 43 boxes worth!). We brought them back to Ha Sekake and started getting them prepared to be on the shelves on the 23rd.

The youth team worked tirelessly to get all 1572 new books labeled, numbered, categorized and entered into the computer by yesterday, March 30, in time for SMARTD’s Annual General Conference. All of SMARTD’s stakeholders attend the conference, so it was very important for everything to be together by the time they arrived. (Did I mention we also had to write 1572 library catalogue cards by hand…and then alphabetically file them all?)

After seven ten-plus hour work days, the library is complete and it is amazing! For everyone who donated books, time and money to make this project successful, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart. A very big thank you to Springcreek Church, especially Lorraine, for working so hard to pull this together despite all of the logistical problems we encountered.

With the addition of the new books, we will now be able to check them out to the community. Prior to this time the library held around 600 books, but they were all on different topics and were at wildly different reading levels. There was no way that a class of 70 students could check out books that would all be appropriate to their interest and skill level. The new books have solved this problem. The teachers will now be able to use books in the classroom, something they have never had the opportunity to do before. This will help to improve the student’s mastery of English, something they need to pass their tests. And, most importantly, it will expose a group of people to a wealth of knowledge they didn’t previously have access to. I wish I could truly express to you how excited the students, teachers, community, staff and stakeholders of SMARTD are about the improved library. You have all made a big difference in the lives of the people here! Here are some pictures to illustrate just how far you have helped us come..

Here was what the library looked like when we arrived in August 2010:

Here is what it looked like not too long ago:

And this is what it looks like now thanks to all of our wonderful donors!

Pretty impressive when you consider that the library looked like this just a week ago:

The library will be open this coming Monday, and I will make sure that I get a lot of pictures of the community using the books. If you want to see the rest of the library preparation pictures, click here.

At the end of February Wes and I went on a cruise out of Durban that went to Maputo and Portuguese Island, Mozambique. It was a really nice and relaxing break for both of us. We enjoyed the great food, daily hot showers, good drinks and constant entertainment.

In Maputo we went on a guided tour of the city. We visited a beautiful train station designed by Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame. 

We then traveled to several bustling local markets where we were able to buy the best cashews either of us have ever eaten! The markets were packed with beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as fish and all sorts of other goods.

We then visited the Museum of Natural History which was a big room full of all sorts of animals that had been stuffed-most in various stages of eating each other. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

Finally we had a seafood lunch on the beach before returning to the ship.

The next day we were supposed to visit Inhambane, Mozambique, but due to bad weather we were diverted to Portuguese Island. At Portuguese Island we tok a boat trip to a neighboring island to do some sightseeing and shopping. We spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach, swimming and enjoying a BBQ lunch.

On the last day of the cruise I had the luxury of getting a facial, massage and haircut. It felt amazing to be so pampered! Here is Wes and I at dinner on the last night:

If you want to see the rest of our pictures, click here.

This is another good read from a fellow African PCV:

The Real Peace Corps

This is a really good article from the Huffington Post:

What the Peace Corps Taught Me About Failure

Since the arrival of our counterparts we have established a youth team that has taken responsibility for the library, clubs and computers. The youth team consists of one SMARTD staff member, Wes, me and four out of school youth. The team has been working very hard and has achieved a lot more than I could have ever expected in such a short time. Here are some of the projects and clubs that have been created or improved since the creation of the team: 

In a month since their arrival, the library is now officially open and we are seeing around 100 students and community members a week come through. Once we receive the books from African Library Project we will begin distributing library cards and will allow the books to be checked out. (THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to our African Library Project. I am so sorry that I have failed to express our extreme gratitude before this time. The community is very excited about the new reading materials. Once the books have arrived, which will be sometime in March, I will make sure to post a lot of pictures and updates.)

A gym has been created at SMARTD that has a stationary bike, a bench press, jump ropes and free weights. It has been incredibly popular with community members of all ages. Out of this a body building club has been created for the youth. In the near future we also hope to begin a aerobics club that will appeal more to the girls and women in the community. The gym has led many people to begin making healthier choices about their diets. There have been many requests for further training on proper nutrition and ways to lose weight. 

The Tae Kwon Do club has begun again and is pulling in between 20 and 30 students every Friday and Saturday. We also have a music/dance club and drama club for the youth that meet weekly. (I will take pictures of the clubs this week and I will put them up on flickr).

Computer classes are back up and running. Wes is currently teaching alongside the youth team so that they can take over once we leave. He has been busy training the team how to maintain the computers and keep them virus free (or reformatting them often due to the inability of the anti-virus to keep up with the multitude of viruses that are everywhere here!) 

My wonderful sister sent me close to 60 early reader books that we have donated to the local primary school. Prior to this time, the school had very few books for the students to use to help them learn English. The principal was overjoyed with the donation and is going to put them to very good use in the classroom. Thank you so much Tori!

This last week the standard seven students and several teachers helped us build 8 tippy taps (hand washing stations) at the primary school. Prior to this time, the students and teachers had no way to wash their hands after using the latrine or before eating. The tippy taps are easy to build and maintain and use materials that can be found locally and inexpensively. The day after we built the tippy taps Wes and I went back to the school and taught the students and teachers why it is important to wash your hands, when to wash your hands, how to wash your hands, how germs are spread and the correct way to cover your coughs and sneezes. I showed them how far germs spread by putting flour in the palm of my hand and coughing and sneezing into it. This was a big hit with the students. I also put flour on my hand and showed how germs spread easily when we touch others, our face, and objects like door knobs. Wes did a great job demonstrating the correct hand washing technique. The students listened very well and proved later that they knew how to properly wash their hands using the tippy tap. Hopefully we will see that increased hand washing will lead to less illness and missed days of school.

The principal at the school told us today that she likes having the tippy taps so much that she has already built one at her house!

On a totally unrelated note, Carol, a fellow PCV, sent me this picture last week and I thought I should share it with all of you. This is me teaching the new group of volunteers last June how to properly use a condom. Oh the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer! It has come in handy though. I have done several condom demonstrations in the community since then. 

Finally, I would again like to wish Wes a very happy birthday! He had a bit of a rough birthday week last week, so we are going to celebrate it again this week…and next week when we are on a cruise to Mozambique! Here is a picture of the donuts I made him to celebrate. They are a little bit deformed because I am limited in my selection of things to cut cirlces, but they were still good.

We successfully survived our first Christmas away from our families. It was made much easier by the company of good friends. We spent December 23-26th in Maseru. On Christmas Eve our friend Lee had a party for expats and some Peace Corps staff. We had wonderful food and a really good time. Christmas Day we hung around the house and relaxed. It was really nice to have a break after a long month of traveling back and forth between Maseru and Ha Sekake. It was also nice to have hot showers everyday. So many things we used to take for granted!

On the 28th Wes and I left for Cape Town. Cape Town is truly an amazing place. I was blown away by how much there is to do and how beautiful the city is. You can view the pictures from the trip here. (We are getting them up as fast as Wes edits them. Right now only the first day of our vacation is there, but more will be coming soon)

Steve Huff posted some of Wes’ pictures as one of his “Daily Inspiration” posts. Be sure to check it out here and to look at the rest of his site. There are some incredible articles and pictures from great photographers.

Tomorrow the schools are opening up again and we are getting back in the swing of things for our last six months in Lesotho. It feels strange to have so little time left. We are excited to have five people in the community who will now be working with us on our projects. This will allow us to accomplish much more and will increase the sustainability of our work. We have already seen an increase in the number of high school students who are involved in the youth programming at SMARTD. I am looking forward to all of the things we will be able to achieve together. 

Every breath is a second chance. ~ Switchfoot