July 5th 2002

This is almost for sure for a while my last e-mail. Sunday morning I am off to the village. There I will be living in my own little place. It may or may not be directly connected to a host families house but it will be my private place with my own private entrance. So far it sounds like quite an experience.

The two weeks will be spent doing the things that the rural traditional Basotho do. It is the plan to learn how to cook traditional food, steam bread made from scratch, wash my clothes by hand, bath and cook with water that was carried by bucket to my living quarters, learn to live without a toilet, electricity, and so much more. It is like in a way going back in time to the middle ages. I relish the idea knowing that even Lesotho one of the worlds most undeveloped countries in the world will still be developed enough that in thirty years I predict this "old way" of living will be all but to a few gone away. I relish the idea because I got to experience it.

What those who came before me lived like on a community scale. Yes I really believe that on an evolutionary view of the world that the last of the communities of the people that still lived in an unmodernized world are fastly disappearing and all but too soon will be gone. I feel like this is figuratively speaking "the last chance" for someone to experience such a way of life.

As much as I am going on about this experience it is only going to last for about two weeks. After that I get to see the site that has been made ready for me that I may reside there for two years. I have today been able to receive additional information about the place I might be assigned too.

The information is a preliminary scale of information but it seems like it won't be as primitive as the village I am getting ready to stay in. In fact from what I understand my counterparts for the most part are going to be in rural areas with non of the modern amenities where as I will be in a "camptown" which is what would be the equivalent of a state capital in the United States. Basically there are about ten providences in Lesotho and each one has a camptown which is like the providences main operating city.

It is the place that has more of the shops, phones, indoor plumbing, electricity, libraries, and modern style communities. So I have already been told that I will have electricity and regular access to a phone. I am speculating that I might not have running water but will not have to go far to fetch it and while I have not heard really of to many people having showers in their places especially the rest of the people not in my group but in my class but I might have a community shower nearby that can be accessed. I also while having not heard any official word on it nor talked to any other volunteers that have told me they have managed it, I plan on getting internet access. Far as I can tell if I have a phone I can regularly use that maybe I can sign up for dial up and be able to get on-line occasionally! Of course it might not be a daily thing like I use to get on before but maybe like twice a week or so for an hour.

As it is missing America is something for me at the time is not going to just go away. You all which have move around before which is almost all of you should have some idea of what it is like to move away.

On the good news the health care here at least so far is phenomenal.

Anything these doctors say goes. To put it in perspective the doctors are like the supreme court of the Peace Corps. The directors might make decisions about this and that but anytime the doctors want to overrule anything then everyone is subservient to them. They seem to be absolutely eager to help out in any way. They prescribed some new pill for me to take for the asthma once a night. This new pill has totally cleared up all signs of asthma and even made it so I don't really snore so much at night.

Unfortunately I had developed a bad case of bronchitis and a cold that still has be down. The cold should be gone by a week but the bronchitis might stay as long as it is cold which will be a couple months but will eventually go away I suspect. Also three of the four places where the wisdom teeth have basically healed up with the fourth one coming along really well now.

I suspect that in a couple of weeks it will be finally healed! That same spot has bothered me now for like four years and I am glad this is the last of it and I can figuratively speaking "see the end of it".

We went shopping today in Maseru the capital city. Everything went really well. I was basically allotted 450 rand for my spenditure and bought everything I needed it seems like except for my cooking ware for about that much. I was the only one that bought cast iron cook ware where as everyone else bought aluminum pots and pans. Most of you know I don't cook on aluminum anyway and I had no plans to change.

Other than that things are well, I send light and love Jeff