ghetto tours, quthing, seqanqana, wish list, site, etc

ok, so i was going to write a couple of posts, but my internet connection is really slow, so i'm going to try to fit everything in to 1. i forgot to mention that we had a concert a couple of sundays ago, and that we taught the basotho the macarena. this was not my idea, and i'm proud to say that i had to relearn the dance myself so i could teach them. it was pretty funny, though. this week i've been learning a lot more sesotho, including useful phrases such as "seqanqana se seng le se seng sea iqhomela" which translates to "every frog for himself." i think this is actually a saying here. hehehe. sesotho also has clicks associated with every"q" making the phrase even more fun. it's kind of interesting how the culture plays into the language, too. there are three different words for "to put on clothes": roala, which is to put things on the extremities, apara, which is to put things on the upper body, and tena, which is to cloth the lower body. if someone knocks on your door and you want to tell them to wait because you are dressing, you use apara, because tena is too suggestive (the lower half of the body includes the hips and "important parts" for sex.
we also went to quthing this past week. it's in the mountains and therefore colder than mokhatoaneng. it also has a greater mix of nationalities and different cultures. everyone in that area speaks 4 languages. english is not one of them. there are also a lot of superstitions. we saw some babies wearing nothing below their waists, but they had beads on their waists to keep them from getting sick. i'm also getting used to bare baby butts, and apparently will be getting use to a lot of upper body female nudity as soon as it gets warm. the breasts aren't seen as sexual here, so i think women walk around without tops sometimes when it's warm. they also have some traditional dances that are done topless or naked. i've already seen a couple of women breastfeeding their babies, including one of the women in my family. in quthing, i got to plow a field using oxen, by hand. it was really difficult with the plows they use. i can't imagine doing an entire field (i only did one row and that was enough). apparently they can only do 10 rows a day, because they and the oxen are tired after that. we also got to talk with town councilo memebers to discuss the politics of the town, talk with a coop group and support group for hiv and orphans to see what they do, and talk with the principal of a school that is just starting a library. they got donations of a whole bunch of english books. unfortunately, most kids can barely speak and read english. maybe this will motivate the.
i found out that i will be living in a town called ha thaba bosiu for the next couple of years. it's near mohale's hoek camptown, south of maseru. i'm going to visit my site tomorrow. i have a rondeval i know, and i will be doing food insecurity and nutrition work, and working with a school and a library i think. i'm running out of time now, but i'll let you know more about the site next time i get to a computer.
am back in maseru now. did lots of shopping today for site visit. spent lots of $. fun times.
ann