Swaziland!!!

hey - it's been a while since i posted, but not too much has happened in lesotho. School finished for the year. I had to return to Maseru for some education training and the third phase of my community health training. and peace corps is trying to find me another house in my village, away from the middle of the village so that i have at least some privacy. also, they would like to find me a house whose windows actually open, so i can get some air, and whose windows are larger, so i can actually see. other than that...
I WENT TO SWAZILAND. HOORAY VACATION. three other volunteers and i left for swazi on dec 15. we were to meet in bloemfontein, south africa, to pick up the rental car, and given the transportation it took forever to get there. so we ended up staying in bloem for the night. it was nice to be back in civilization for a while. they had a mall there, which was really exciting, and it had a sports store so i could buy new running shoes. hooray. one thing i think is interesting about my coming to southern africa is that in some ways it's made me girlier. i was never that excited about malls in america. anyways, spending the night in bloem. i was the only one who wanted to go out, so i went to a bar by myself called the mystic boer. it was actually pretty cool, slightly grungy, but they played good music (i heard the flaming lips and franz ferdinand, plus some middle school and high school stuff). then, on to swaziland. only two of us could actually drive a manual car, and had a liscence, so i started driving. they drive on the wrong side of the road here, which took a little getting used to. and shifting gears with my left hand was a little odd. was scared me the most though was yellow line driving. basically, a lot of highways are 2 lanes only, but have large shoulders. so if you want to pass someone, they pull over so they're partially on the shoulder and you drive over the lane marker. basically you have one car to your left going in the same direction as you, and another car to your right going in the opposite direction, and both cars are really close. you're creating a third lane where there should only be 2.
Swaziland itself was amazing. i'd heard that it is what lesotho could be if it tried, and i really believe it now. they country was so green. and it wasn't just stubbly grass, but shrubs and trees as well. and they have so many crafts, most of which are pretty cheap. some of the women have even organized a large craft group to sell their products together. i got a few baticks, some jewelry, etc. i actually bought a pinky finger ring that's silver with elephant hair in it. pretty cool, i thought. we stayed at a place called sondzela, a backpackers in mlilwane nature reserve. it was a really nice backpackers, and it was pretty cool meeting people from all over the world. there were a lot of europeans there, some canadians, and i met peace corps volunteers from swaziland, south africa, and botswana. it was nice comparing programs with them, and all this made me realize that i really am living in the backwater of africa. peace corps programs in other countries are much more organized, and lesotho is one of the least developed countries in africa. of all the backpackers i talked with while in swaziland, only one had considered going to lesotho to visit. the country is like the little brother no one wants to discuss. other tourists just take the southern route along the south african coast.
while in swaziland, we went to hlane nature reserve and checked out some animals. we got really close to some lions. i didn't realize lions don't reach full maturity until they're 2, but i did get to see some male lions in adolescence. they have partially grown, kinda tufty manes, like a teenage boy trying to grow facial hair. hehehehe. i also ended up close enough to some elephants to touch them, and saw white rhinos. in mlilwane, the nature reserve where i stayed, i saw impala, nyala, zebra, and warthogs. i think warthogs were my favorite, especially the babies. they're hilarious. and when they run, it's more like they're prancing, with their tails sticking straight up into the air. i thought of "the lion king" a couple times.
besides seeing animals and crafts, we went to mbabane (the capital) and manzini, two cities in swaziland. yes, this country has more than one city!! wow. and the country has multiple grocery stores, and shops. it's crazy, i didn't know what to do with myself.
on the way back from swazi, we got pulled over for a traffic stop. there were over a hundred cops at the stop and they were pulling everyone. we had to get out, show passports, i had to show my liscence (i was driving), open the trunk, answer questions about firearms, etc. and when they let us leave, they gave me a stress ball. so now i have a stress ball courtesy of the south african police. funny. anyways, we spent a night in bloem again, had some good food, and returned to lesotho the next day. i didn't want to come back. oh, well. i'm spending christmas in maseru, and going to visit a friend in semonkong (kinda in the middle of lesotho) for new years. semonkong is a touristy area, and they are now offering donkey pub crawls (drink a beer, hop on a donkey, go to next bar, drink a beer, hop on a donkey, etc), so i might have to try that out. this is lesotho. why not? next vacation - maybe a tour from namibia, through botswana, zambia, and up to vic falls (if i can afford it). i hope everyone has a great holiday. keep in touch.
ann