Monday, January 16, 2006

July 3rd 2002

Hi everyone Happy 4th, we obviously don't really celebrate it here so get one in for me. Things here are coming along. The thing is my asthma has acted up. More than that I have a cold and bronchitis. After going to the doctor though I have been given a new medicine and my capacity for breathing has been at least doubled.

Other than that I have been given some preliminary information about where my assignment will be and it will not be in the mountains and there is a fair chance it might be in one of the bigger cities here in Lesotho. Be it so it won’t be like two years of camping. Some of the modern amenities might be able to be acquired including the net.

I am learning some differences in culture. One is that the food her is
not on much of a rotation. It is decently prepared food but it is just the same old stuff basically three times a week. Another thing is that girls are looking good the fatter they are here. So it is actually quite common to here a guy tell a girl “you are so fat, I love you.” Another is that the Basotho don’t really ever say no. They just always kind of say yes and then do as they please. And a last thing is that time here is really the way things are organized but is more of a suggestion about when things should take place. Oh. Another thing is that the women are property kind of here.

The man buys the wife from her parents at the wedding and then she is his, what a difference!

I had a couple of questions about the rand. Basically everything is priced the same here but we spend rand. So like a soda costs 1 rand instead of 1 dollar. But the catch is that I can get 10 rand for 1 American dollar because of the exchange rate. So really everything is like 1/10 the amount.

This also goes for my pay too

Good news about me being sick is that we got rid of the gas heater and now have an electric heater. This allows me to sleep better now that it is no longer 30-40 degrees in my room during the night!

Anyway as I mentioned earlier we are starting to prepare for going to the villages next week to see how the country folk live. Apparently it is quite different from the city people. The place I am going for a couple of weeks is not my permanent cite. I should though have a host family that is helping to fend for myself.

As it is I feel like going I will talk again as soon as possible. I have heard that there is some possible problems about my address. It is

Jeff McDonald PCV

Peace Corps\ Lesotho

PO Box 554

Maseru 100, Lesotho

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