December 2nd 2002

I am enclosing a picture. In America on the 28^th of November it is Thanksgiving and even though this photo might look like these girls are celebrating thanksgiving holding up little pieces of turkey and turkey bones for the camera I assure you it was just chicken. They were celebrating the last day of school a day, which by all means I am glad, has come. I felt like it was a pleasant day and semester I should say though a little bit more about this picture.

In this culture being fat is good. Food is celebrated. I guess it has to do with the fact that for generations there might not of been enough food so it has been engrained in the subconscious that times of plenty of food are times to celebrate. So here the girls when having full plates of food with chicken see it as a perfect photo opportunity where in as in America if some one wanted to take a picture of the family gathered around the table in the middle of a session of stuffing themselves on thanksgiving that it might not go over to well. These girls while the idea is changing still want to be fat and as you can see from the picture some of them are on their way. Being fat is such a celebrated thing here. It is just fine when referring to someone to call them “the fat girl” or “the fat lady” and the conversation moves on like it would normally. I feel like the stereotype might be changing some especially with the younger girls as they see the models in magazines and watch the TV but for the most part most of them still want to be fat.

A teacher earlier that day was just telling me, “I am jealous of Me Machama (a fellow teacher) because I am older that her and she is fatter than me.” She really thinking it unfair that a person younger than her had been able to grow fatter had been earnestly complaining to me. Anyway with a big smile in Lesotho I write. I hope you all got fat on Thanksgiving. Jeff