Hello Friends,
How do you like the new header and video on my blog?
The round hut is called a rondavel, from the Afrikaans word rondawel. It’s the westernized version of an African-style hut.
I love the one I selected as it has a turquoise door. I might live in a rondavel in Lesotho, while I serve as a primary education teacher in Southern Africa. In case you didn’t know, I‘m heading off to the Peace Corps.
I want my new “look” to fit the changes in my life, and my casual video, and natural curly hair, are part of that change, and the new me.
Did you watch my video?
Here’s what’s happening over the next two weeks, and how the Peace Corps is sending us off to Lesotho, Africa.
- On October 4th, I fly from California to Philadelphia.
- October 5th, I meet the 29 or so, other volunteers, who are serving as primary education teachers, or secondary math teachers, in Lesotho.
- On October 6th, we leave our hotel at 2 a.m. (Yes! we’re learning to adapt,) and then catch a bus to JFK, airport. Our flight to Johannesburg departs around noon.
- The flight lasts 15.5 hours
- We board a bus from Johannesburg to Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, which takes about 6 hours.
- After our first night in a hotel in Lesotho, we start PST (pre-service training.)
- We have morning classes, then meet our Basotho host families where we shall live for the first three months.
- Classes start at 7:30 a.m., and end at 5 p.m. Learning Sesotho, the language of Lesotho, is an important partof our PST. We also cover safety and the culture of Lesotho.
- Our host family teaches us how to bathe in a bucket, cook local foods, wash our clothes, as help us practice Sesotho.
Water is scarce and here’s what a Peace Corps volunteer wrote about his experience on the PC website. (Read more on daily water usage in Lesotho.) —Peter Yurich, Ha Khayensti, Lesotho
“There isn’t much water available because we had a very dry winter and no rain this spring. I usually try to use only one to one and a half liters of water a day. This includes bathing, cooking, and cleaning dishes. Once a week I wash clothes, but try to use as little water as possible.
My day starts by boiling two liters of water. I use less than one liter to bathe; I drink two cups of coffee; and then I save the rest for cooking and cleaning dishes. If the tap is working, I may indulge myself by using a little more for bathing.
My host family uses a little more than I do because there are more people in the family. They use a wheelbarrow to carry two 10-liter buckets of water. Right now they use more water because they are making dung smear for the floor and walls of a new building. The building was constructed from rock and held together with a mud mixture that dried and became hard.”
I realize that I have to get used to changing my lifestyle, but when my family lived in Belize, in 2004-2005, water was also a problem. We had a cistern,and due to the lack of rain, we had to sponge bathe.
If you don’t want to miss my “gutsy updates,” please subscribe underneath the hut on my landing page.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE.
Any questions? Don’t hesitate to ask.
Great website. I shall be checking i regularly to see when you update. That nay have to be at intervals as you may not have any internet connection if they send you to a rural outpost!
You’re looking good and I expect the excitement is rising now.
Have fun! 🙂
Yes Ian,
The excitement and adrenaline have kicked in. I’m running around, visiting friends, and having a great time.
Sonia Marsh recently posted..Check Out My New “Gutsy” Website For the Peace Corps
I’m so excited for you,Sonia and looking forward to sharing in this next chapter of Gutsy Living. You look fabulous and your passion and enthusiasm are contagious. Safe travels my friend. Enjoy! 🙂
Kathy, thanks for following me. I plan to stay in touch with all my author friends. I see you’re busy with your memoir and conferences, etc. Keep going!
Sonia Marsh recently posted..Check Out My New “Gutsy” Website For the Peace Corps
I’m following along too, Sonia. Love the new header with the blue door rondavel. You’ve already taught me a new word and the correct pronunciation of Lesotho.
Hat’s off to you.
I predict that if you don’t already have an aversion to the way Americans use water, you will develop one after your Peace Corps experience.
It’s raining right now here in Virginia. I send you metaphorical showers of blessing as you go.
Shirley Hershey Showalter recently posted..BLUSH Turning Two — Means a Bargain for You
Thanks Shirley. I agree that I shall learn how to live on less, and it will be a shock to come back to the U.S, and have so many choices at the stores etc.
Sonia Marsh recently posted..Check Out My New “Gutsy” Website For the Peace Corps
The time is almost here! I hope you have additional drinking water so that you can avoid dehydration. Maybe your body will adapt too.
Light to your journey!
Linda Luke recently posted..Simple Ways to Make Life Better
Hi Sonia and goodbye.
Sounds like you will have to be gutsy indeed. Measuring water can’t be easy. I admire your initiative and your courage to take up this new challenge. It won’t be easy to last 27 months in Lesotho living under primitive conditions though I know you roughed it for a year on Belize. On the other hand, I have a feeling that your teaching is going to compensate for a lot of hardships. Maybe you will discover your goal in this life.
Enjoy your adventure and I will enjoy reading your posts from the comfort of my room.
Hi Sonia, I’ll be following your blogs and looking forward to them. All of my best wishes for your coming adventure!!
Thanks Alana. I hope to have Internet at least every two weeks.
Sonia Marsh recently posted..Check Out My New “Gutsy” Website For the Peace Corps
Can’t wait to hear more, Sonia. I’m going to write a blog post about two veryadventurous women — you and a gal named Joannah Merriman who’s walking the Camino de Santiago for the second time within a couple of years. You ladies rock!
Patricia Stoltey recently posted..Random Thoughts About the Writing Life