Working as a Peace Corps volunteer in a foreign culture can be tricky. On the one hand, you need to be respectful and not impose your ways on the people you work with, and on the other hand, you want to improve things. It can be a frustrating balancing act, and last week, I had a moment when I spoke out, because I knew what would happen if I kept Continue Reading
Electricity Has Arrived In My Village-Gutsy Living
I did not want to make any announcements about the arrival of electricity in my rural village in Lesotho, until I could switch on a light in my rondavel. Other Peace Corps Volunteers told me not to get my hopes up when holes were being dug for the electric poles in February. “I’ve had poles in my village for more than a year, Continue Reading
Is The Internet Preventing Community Integration?
One of the objectives of the Peace Corps is to have volunteers integrate into their communities, but I started to question whether the Internet is actually having an adverse effect on my ability to fully integrate within my community. I arrived in Lesotho in October 2015, and have tried to be flexible, share and learn new skills, but I admit Continue Reading
Lineo is one of the Vulnerable Children at My School
Lineo and Sonia On the first day back to school, after a public holiday, Sister B. decides to send the vulnerable children home to collect money for a field trip to Katse Dam next month. Many students have a one and a half hour trek over the mountains to school, and now she orders them to go back home and collect the money. They’ve Continue Reading
Children Debate Major Cultural Differences-Gutsy Living
As a Peace Corps volunteer teacher in Lesotho, I'm discovering major cultural differences, even in the classroom. What may seem, "normal" in a school in Lesotho, would be cause for jail, in the U.S. I'm helping grade 7 prepare a debate on, “Are teachers to be blamed for the poor performance of students?” While brainstorming points on the Continue Reading
