shortages, are chickens really chicken?, and grant-writing chaos

so, i've been really busy the past couple weeks! shocking, but true. probably about 12 hour workdays for the past week, and an average of walking 6 miles a day. i've been trying to write a grant that is due at the end of the month, to get funding from the us embassy to build a preschool and community center in my community. the community was trying to help too, but the members have a lot of trouble thinking things through and thinking ahead. for example, there are people in my community that know how to build, so we had a 5 hour meeting last week to determine dimensions of the building, materials needed, etc. they listed cement, corrugated iron, and doors and windows, but they don't think of screws needed to connect the materials, or a frame for the door. so trying to get quotations was really difficult. i seriously have been running around talking with contractors, building supply stores, sand vendors, electricians, etc. i still have to determine the amount of things we need and write it up, so i'll probably be doing that tonight.
funny story, speaking of which. i was on the phone with an electrician and we were going to meet in five minutes to go over what i needed. he asked me what i looked like. this surprised me. i assume that people can tell by my voice that i'm not native, and that i will probably stand out. but this man asked. my response: ummmmm...i'm white?.
so, hopefully we'll get the money. i'll find out in september. apparently the embassy never gives the full amount asked for, so hopefully i'll also be able to convince the local community to help out. we'll see what happens with that.
i'm also trying to get jerseys for my school's football team. i actually am trying to get the National AIDS Commission to help fund us because i thought it would be cool if we could use their logo and be promoting HIV awareness while playing. i'm hopefully going to meet with them tomorrow.
so that's all my grant work of late. i've also been working at school. i'm having a lot of trouble with my form a students. they are lazy and do not want to work. it took me 3 weeks to get them to bring their books to school so we could read. During this time, they got to write 200 lines and a composition. but we've finally managed to get started. and the book's only 40 or so pages, so hopefully we'll get through it ok. my form b's had their first biology exam a couple weeks ago. actually, it took 2 weeks for them to write it and of the 80-something students, 5 got over a 50% and 6 got between a 40% and 50%. a 40% is a pass in Lesotho. it's sad. and it was so obvious that they don't study, because most of the exam was just memorization. so i think i will have to start giving weekly quizzes to motivate them to work harder. and rewarding them with prizes like pens and pencils works pretty well, too.
and then there's the primary school. 3 of the teachers in the school quit over the past month, so there are now only 3 teachers for 7 classes. the school is basically failing, and it's really sad because these students aren't going to be able to learn anything this year without a proper teacher. they just run around the school grounds all day instead of learning. i actually used this to my advantage this morning. i brought my dog to school and taught some of the kids about dogs, and how to let a dog get to know you, so that the kids might not be afraid of her. they are amazed that she sits and lies down when i ask her to. training a dog is a very foreign concept here. even the dogs that are supposedly herd dogs really aren't trained. and i'm trying to prevent any more rocks being thrown at my dog than necessary. when i finally got a kid to put his hand down so she could sniff him, she licked his hand. all the kids thought this was great, and suddenly they were all putting their hands down for her to sniff. i just had to make sure she didn't get over-excited. so hopefully the kids are learning something.
speaking of the dog, she's afraid of chickens. i have discovered, though, that calling someone who is afraid "chicken" is inaccurate. chickens can be mean! and they can peck pretty sharply. it's also really amusing to watch a chicken chasing my dog around the yard. serenity's hilarious. and a handfull. she's got tons of energy, and is smart. it's going to take a lot of work to train her, but it'll give me a project. she already knows a lot, and is happy to listen if she can get some peanuts out of the deal. peanuts are her treats, since dog treats are hard to come by. i'm just happy i can find dog food.
she and the cat have a weird relationship. they can be really cute together, but then the dog plays roughly with her sometimes. and the cat is actually often the instigator. she chases the dogs tail and jumped on her head once last week. and then she whines when the dogs chases after her. oh, another funny story. i was dressing a couple days ago, and was putting on a belt. i guess the cat was fascinated by the movement of the belt because suddenly i felt a few pounds of excess weight on my rear. the cat had jumped up and sunk her claws into the back of my jeans. she was just dangling as if she was a tail on my back. i kept turning to try to get her off, but she just hung on. i really wish someone had been around to take a picture. crazy animal!
in other news, we had electricity shortages a couple weeks ago. lesotho gets electricity from south africa, and apparently south africa is not generating enough electricity to meet it's needs. so its randomly cutting power in certain areas for hours at a time. usually this wouldn't matter to me, as i don't have electricity at my house, but i went in to town to type up some work and had to wait to use the computer for a while.
even more importantly, there's a coke light shortage! noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. south africa has a carbonation shortage, so it's cut back on coke light.
and in other big news, a shop in mohale's hoek, rooster's, might start to sell pizza! this is what my life has become, getting really excited over pizza.
and i've learned some fun new phrases for the next kids who ask for candy/money or the next ntate who profeses love:
tlola ka donga (jump in a donga)
ema ka hlooho (stand on your head)
ha ke tsotelle (i don't care)
so, life's going ok. it's getting cold here, and the daylight is cut down to about 12 hours now. not looking forward to winter.
hope everyone is well. keep in touch