Loving Japan

Hi everyone,
Sorry it's been a bit. We've been needing a vacation in the worst way, and I finally found time to write from our get-away spot: Toyama, Japan!

We came here to visit our friends Sean and Ayumi, who are here for about four years while Sean teaches at a glass blowing school here. They live in a farming area near Toyama, and it's just turning spring, so people are planting and things are a bloomin' (like these cherry blossoms). It is still quite cold here, so I'm very, very bundled at the moment (snow hat, scarf, sweatshirt, long sleeved t-shirt, pajama bottoms, and three pairs of socks!).

Japan is an amazing country, and we're excited to learn more about it while we're here, but a few things we can tell you so far:
1) They have exciting vending machines with hot and cold drinks inside including hot pancakes in a can!

2) They have fancy toilets that require directions to use!

3) Garbage disposable is very complicated here!

4) There are serious mountains and therefore, many tunnels! We went to the city of Nagoya today, and there were no less than 56 tunnels!! Oh yeah, and one of them was 11 KM long (about 7.2 miles!).

5) The people are extremely helpful! Especially the amazing individuals at the Mac Store in Nagoya who graciously fixed my computer by replacing the logic board. I am ever so grateful, and I'm loving Japan even more now that it has given me back my Mac!

Will write more tomorrow. Mostly I wanted to let you know about the computer and our first experiences in Japan. Hope you all are well!

Sarah

Vignettes from recent school days

_{For all those who have never taught middle school, here’s a glimpse. For those of you hearty souls who have, this is what it’s like at a tiny school in southern Africa. Please bear in mind that these students are awesome. They want to learn and have worked so hard this year. This is just that sometimes the circumstances seem to work against our progress…}

_{A scene from Thursday:}

_{I stand in the middle of my L shaped “classroom” (really a converted bedroom!), six 7th graders around the small table on the short side, and eight 8th graders squished around the T configuration of desks at the long side. It’s 1:45 and the students are done with my “hopping back and forth” trick as I try to teach both classes at once. No sooner have I checked in at one table and left to the other than I hear giggles and chatting break out at the first. Adolescence fills the air, thick and intoxicating.}

_{Beyond this chatting, loud screams and cheers emanate from the shelter/P.E. room directly kitty corner from my classroom. It is raining, and the shelter is the only option for P.E. today. Being confined seems to prompt the P.E. kids to yell even louder. I have to yell myself to get any instruction across to my students, who are only half listening because they are anxious to catch a glimpse of the game.}

_{Just as the director and board president are spotted on the porch of our upper school house, the lights go out, and several of the 7th graders join the screaming of the P.E. class next door. “Wait! Did you just do that?” one of them beseeches me. The others laugh at her gullibility. I open the curtains wide, pray that time will speed up and that the director and board president will pass by quickly. I take a deep breath, and return to the 7th grade side of the room.}

_{My Friday:}

_{Because I was on my own today (Jay had to take our inherited bearded lizard, who has cancer, to the vet), the plan was to send small groups to the computer lab to type the essays we’ve been writing all week while I turned my attention to the students in the classroom. The day was meant to end with all of us in the lab and 19 typed final draft essays in my googledocs list.}

_{Five minutes after the 8th graders head to the lab, one of the girls bops into the middle of my conversation with the 7th graders. “Um, Ms. Sarah, there’s only like two computers that are working in the lab.” I probe for details, but , in typical 8th grade fashion, she speaks in non-descript pronouns: “Well, like, the ones that are like against that one wall, there’s only like some that are working. And then those other ones are saying something and they aren’t doing stuff.”}

_{Leaving the 7th graders to ponder the list of common phrases from their class novel, I head to the lab, checking in on the 9th graders who are working on a thinksheet involving dialogue from Of Mice and Men before I leave our building. The 9th graders, of whom there are only four, don’t mind being left alone, but a glance at one person’s sheet reveals that they need significant help to be able to tell the purpose behind each piece of dialogue, so I stop to quickly go through another example. My explanation isn’t great, but it will have to do for the moment since there are 8th graders waiting at the lab.}

_{The lab is a mess. The students did the sensible thing: they checked that all the power was on and that the computers weren’t just sleeping. Unfortunately, one bank of computers is unplugged, one set is completely unresponsive despite being on, and one set was displaying a cryptic message that must mean “show me to a professional technician!” in HTML. I plug in the bank that was unplugged and we are able to get six computers working – not enough for the 8th grade nor their 7th grade colleagues. Suddenly I’m making an impromptu plan B.}

_{I send the 8th graders back to the classroom and brainstorm as I follow them. The 9th graders have finished their thinksheet when we arrive, so I send them to the lab to type. Then I dig out the Lord of the Flies essay assignment that we were going to start next week in 8th grade, and quickly explain how the assignment builds on what we’ve been talking about in class. I split the kids into their reading groups to create an outline with supporting quotations from the book. I let them go outside to work at picnic tables and pray that their good nature is genuine and not just a rouse.}

_{With the 9th graders typing and the 8th graders hopefully helping each other create outlines for the essay, I return to the 7th graders who swear that they can’t figure out any more phrases and that there are no analogies anywhere in chapters 7 or 8. I review what an analogy is and still receive blank stares, so we start perusing the chapter. One student comes up with a fantastic example and all the others jump to find out which page it’s on so they can take it and stop their own searching. I put the kaibosh on that idea, and continue the search, but no sooner have we come to a quote in which the main character calls someone an angel then we are interrupted by a needy 8th grader who “can’t find anything about his character in the book.” We finish our conversation about the angel analogy, and I allow all the rest of them to use that as their answer for question two. Then I tell them that they need to finish the book for the weekend, and that they will have the rest of the period to read quietly. They seem to protest, but I don’t have time to stay and hear it, so I leave them in order to make the rounds to 8th grade groups.}

_{Returning to the 7th graders, I find them gabbing and laughing over magazines. “Ms. Sarah, we all want to read the end of the book at home, like on Sunday night so we’ll remember all the stuff for the class on Monday, cause if we read it now we’ll forget.” I decide it’s not worth fighting them, even though I know they’re not all going to complete the reading, and head to the lab to assist 9th graders. At least they’re reading something, right?}

_{By the time it’s 11:45 (we have 12:00 dismissal on Friday, for which I am amazingly grateful today), students have used up all the energy they can muster for independent work, and I opt to gather them early to go over homework and dismiss them to their Friday afternoon bliss. They crowd around to get their homework journals signed, but I make them sit and review the important points on the board before I’ll sign. When the last student leaves, I sit in one of the few untucked chairs and ponder what just happened. The day started out with such a straight-forward plan…}

A Review of Classroom Without Walls 2011: Johannesburg

Happy Moshoeshoe Day, everyone! Here’s a picture of the celebration that was staged in front of the sheet store at the mall on Friday. :)

For those of you left wondering who Moshoeshoe (Moe-shway-shway) was, he was the first king of Lesotho who managed to gather a group of diverse tribes and bring them together to fight off the Zulu, the British, and the Boers all atop a mountain called “Thaba Bosiu” or “the mountain that grows at night”. We’re thankful to him for the four day weekend we get in his honor...oh yeah, and for the country he helped create.

Anyway, the really big news is that we survived the trip to Johannesburg with our students. It was a wonderful time and all the kids loved it. I’ve included some pictures below.

On Monday the basic itinerary involved going to a mall to collect ideas about what it means to be urban and staying overnight at the Cradle of Humankind (a world heritage sight where they’ve found some of the oldest fossils of homanid bones in the world). On Tuesday we went to the Cradle of Humankind museum and made an urban mural at the Cradle of Humankind’s student accommodation in the afternoon.

Wednesday was a big day that saw us heading to the sobering and well done Apartheid museum. We had dinner at the Montecasino (like a Las Vegas casino with lots to do and very impressive facilities), and then attended Cirque du Soleil’s first performance ever in Africa. All the urban stuff was in preparation for seeing Cirque du Soleil. The theme of their show was “urban”, so the students were asked to compare their own impressions of urban to what they saw in the show, and they’ll be writing an essay next week. It was definitely a loose theme, so we’ll see how they do!

Finally, on Thursday we went to the Gold Reef City amusement park where we had a tour of an old gold mine, saw gold being cast, and then had time to ride the longest roller coaster in all of Africa: The Anaconda (and some other rides too). Sounds like fun, huh?

The way home was also an adventure, with the bus drivers trying to set some kind of speed record on a road that must surely have the most potholes of any road ever, and Jay trying desperately to try to keep up in our little car. It was frightening, really, but we made it right when we said we would at 8:00 PM on the dot.

So this Moshoeshoe day weekend we are dedicated to resting, relaxing, and catching up on things that were left undone while we rushed to get grades done, do parent conferences, and get all things set for the trip. We went to Bloemfontain yesterday where Jay acquired a new hair clipping set, Sarah got a haircut, and we purchased new pots that don’t have a non-stick lining (the stuff on ours was coming off on our pasta!). Today the name of the game is sleep, exercise, and laundry. Tomorrow it will be back to the grindstone to prep for Tuesday’s return.

We hope you all are well and having wonderful adventures of your own! We’re turning now to prepping for our trip to Japan in April (yay!), and also planning for our time home in late June, July, and August. We hope to be able to see many of you on our visit home!

~S&J

Lesotho Loves Mainers!

Okay, so I think after this post you’ll be sufficiently caught up. ;)

The weekend we returned from Holiday break we had the good fortune of meeting a lovely family on the hash hike: Katie, Brian, and Zevan. The whole family was here for a month while Katie, a medical resident, did a stint at the Baylor Clinic in Maseru. We'll admit that it was Zevan, an adorable one-year-old with chubby cheeks and a beautiful head of curly, dark hair, who initially drew us in, but we were hooked once we found out that they live in Portland, Maine! Who’d of thunk it?!

The crew left today, but while they were here we had the pleasure of showing them around our area, eating Brian’s awesome meals (ostrich meat pizza, amazing eggplant parmesan, elegantly modified tuna fish sandwiches, beautiful hamburgers, gorgeous apple crisp), and we even managed a trip to the Malealea Lodge (The picture below was taken there. It's the same place we had the staff retreat way back in August). It was great fun.

Unfortunately, seeing them go made us a little bit more homesick than we already were. That’s okay, though, because now we have more people to visit when we come home this summer.

How nice of Maine to send some its best half way around the world to visit us. Maybe it’s trying to lure us back…??

Pretty good strategy, Maine.

Eight days without water: a reflective entry

In our quest to get you caught up with our lives, today’s entry is about the eight days we recently spent without running water. That’s right: 8 days with no water in almost the entire city of Maseru plus four other municipalities. As if to taunt us, it rained for almost the entire time. What is more, the rain was apparently to blame for the failed pump. Lesotho definitely has its ironies. Ready for this one? Water is Lesotho’s primary export.

The good news about the whole thing is that the school finished installing a well about two days before the water went out, so we were able to fill up bottles from school. We shared with our housekeeper and guard, of course, but couldn’t help feeling for those people who didn’t have any connections like this; after all, life without water is difficult!

While we were busy experimenting with how best to take an effective shower out of a 5-liter bottle, things were much worse elsewhere. The factories gave their workers the week off (without pay, we are certain) because they were unable to operate without water. We heard that the hospital was not able to perform chest x-rays because water was required for the machines to work. One of the teaching assistants at school had a very sick child who was treated with antibiotics and prayers because the lack of water prevented doctors from being able to properly diagnose him.

Where did they have running water, you ask? Well, our friends who live in the mostly European neighborhood didn’t lose water at all. In addition, the teacher at our school who lives near the palace didn’t seem to have any trouble. The worst is that, while the hospital was not performing x-rays, all of the food venues at the mall (which surely depend on water) were fully functional.

By day four we started asking ourselves: When do people here start getting fed up with this, and insist that something be done? Why aren’t there any newspaper stories about this serious problem that is affecting so many people? Who knows the truth about what’s going on here? Should we start building a pit latrine outside?

Interestingly, the people with whom we talked all seemed to agree – since running water is such a new amenity in Lesotho, the vast majority of Basotho haven’t become accustomed to it. People weren’t getting angry because they weren’t very bothered. Those who lost running water simply returned to the old ways of carting water from the pump. Those that already cart water each day didn’t know the difference.

Now, most days we feel as if we live in “Africa light”. The city is a little bud on it’s way to blooming, just trying to figure out how. Often it’s as though Maseru could flower at any moment. The realization, however, that most people here don’t consider running water essential to their day-to-day lives, made the city feel much less developed. Newsflash: we really do live in the 3^rd world.

We’ll leave you with the questions we’ve been pondering: at what point does a life-altering technology become so valuable that you start to rely on it? How long does it have to work well before you stop using the old ways and start depending on the new one? Do people have a right to running water in countries that have the technology and resources to provide it?

We hope you are well. More updates are to come. Think of us next time you turn on a tap!

Love,

S&J

January Update: Pics from the Holiday

Hello Everyone! Sorry to have gone such a long while without a blog update. We’ve been busy at school and are starting to feel more and more at home socially, so the time flies. I’ll plan to give you a few small updates over the next week to catch you up on our lives. First off: some pictures from the wonderful holiday vacation we took to Kwazulu-Natal province in South Africa.

Here is a map of South Africa with Kwazulu-Natal Province highlighted in red for you geography buffs out there:

For the first part of the trip, we drove from Maseru to Hluhluwe (pronounced not at all how it is spelled: “shuh shloo wee”) where we visited the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game park and saw all sorts of animals including giraffes, zebras, cape buffalo, white rhinos, dung beetles, turtles, upside-down bird's nests, warthogs, baboons, and an African elephant. It was incredible! Here are some of our favorite pics from the safari:

After that wonderful adventure, we set out for the big city of Durban on the southern coast where we got to see the Indian Ocean. Unfortunately, we hit a rough patch of weather starting in Durban, so there was not a lot of sunning to be done. We did, however, enjoy walking along the beautiful Durban beachfront. We also got to see all sorts of marine life at the uShaka aquarium - South Africa's Sea World. We ate the famous "bunny chow" (Indian curry served in a bowl made from an entire loaf of white bread) and had a lovely meal at a fish place that had a conveyor belt with little sushi choices along the bar. It was great fun.

The next leg took us to Margate in a section of South Africa referred to generally as the “South Coast”. We managed to find a beautiful room in Margate with a view of the ocean, but the weather simply refused to cooperate, so we spent a lot of time catching up on sleep and reading. It was a different kind of vacation than we expected, but it was lovely none-the-less. In Margate we came to appreciate the Cock and Tail bar, where they make a mean Pina Colada, as well as a South African coffee shop chain called the Mugg and Bean, where they make a drink called a Pedro with Amaretto or Kalua. Needless to say, we enjoyed ourselves.

We ended the trip by driving North to the Drakensberg Mountains. The first day we intended to drive up the Sani Pass, a huge mountain pass with Africa’s highest pub at the top. Unfortunately, there had been so much rain that week that the pass, which is normally an epic drive, was simply impassable. We turned around after several guides recommended that we do so, even refusing to take the advice of a couple in a small truck who told us to “go to the first river-crossing at least…the water comes up over the hood of the car!”

Despite the failed attempt at Sani Pass, the Drakensbergs are beautiful, and we enjoyed immensely our drive around the eastern side of Lesotho with the mountains as our backdrop. We managed a stop at Royal Natal Park along the way where we took a lovely walk along a small creek that had become a raging river because of all of the rain. The scenery was breath taking, and we definitely want to go back to the area sometime soon.

So that was our vacation in a nutshell! It was our best three weeks in Africa so far. South Africa is definitely a destination to put on your “must see” list . Kwazulu-Natal is an agrarian province (we saw Sappi paper forests, pineapple farms, Clover dairy farms, grape vines, and our fair share of majestic windmills) with a wonderful mix of wild preserves and city. We really enjoyed it.

Okay, that’s all for now. It’s 11:43 on a school night, and I will soon turn into a pumpkin. We hope you’re all well and would love to hear from you soon.

S&J

Basotho Wedding Update

Hi All!

We’re finally on vacation and enjoying it to the max. It’s been a bit rainy over here (from what we’ve heard that’s really out of the ordinary) but the temperature is 70+, so it’s not too shabby for December!

We’re headed to Durban next week where we are told it will be a lot warmer, and we’ll be at the Indian Ocean, which is supposed to be beautiful and warm. Apparently the South Coast of South Africa is known for its shark attacks. The beaches we’ll go to have shark nets, but I don’t think I’ll be wading in too far!

Anyway, I had a few requests for a report from the Basotho wedding we attended last weekend, so I though I would do that today. The first thing you need to know is that Basotho weddings actually consist of several parts there’s the traditional ceremony that bonds the couple together in the eyes of the culture, then there’s the church ceremony that bonds them in the eyes of God, and then there’s the reception, which is the party part. We got invited to the party part (since the traditional ceremony is sort of private and takes place beforehand and the church part is very long).

The first adventure was finding the venue. It was only about 15 minutes from our house, but in a part of town where there is an open-air market, which means one wrong turn in the car can lead to a very, very slow crawl down a pedestrian street! We were traveling with a colleague from India who was unfazed by the massive number of people, but we were both overwhelmed.

Once we arrived, we sat outside for a bit. There was a small room inside where there was a buffet line, and it seemed like we were going to get our food there and then come sit outside again, but no sooner had we made ourselves comfortable then they called us in. The bride’s colleagues were called first, which we thought was weird, but apparently it’s because that’s who all the foreigners were and they thought they should seat us first. It turns out that there was another room behind the first that was HUGE and decorated elaborately for about 300 people! Here’s the picture:

Once we were seated, we had a long while to wait while the other 300 guests were seated too. It was quite an ordeal. The worst part was that there was a limited supply of ginger beer and papaya juice and it was quite hot in the hall. Note to self: bring a bottle of water to all public events in future.

The outfits were quite a site at this wedding. The invitation said “Attire: Red and Silver or Traditional”. I wasn't quite sure what to do with that (my red and silver attire is limited, after all, and “traditional” to me means blue jeans and a t-shirt, which I didn’t think was quite appropriate!). Other people had on red seshoeshoes (It’s pronounced sheh-shway-shway. That’s the traditional dress in Lesotho. The women in that picture above in the lower right-hand corner have them on) or even prom dresses in silver and red!

Our favorites, however, were the Swazis who all came wearing some version of a blanket with their king, Mswati III, printed on it. Here is a picture:

You will note that they also have elaborate beaded jewelry and the women wear a sort of hair net, while some of the men had a comb stuck in their hair sticking up at the back. It was quite a site!

For reference, apparently the king of Swaziland is quite popular, but also lives in extreme opulence amidst his very, very poor constituents. He also has 14 wives, which is not quite caught up to his father, who had 70, so the saying goes, “When in Swaziland, watch your wives and daughters!”


The last people to enter were, of course, the bride and groom and their entourage. It was kind of cool because they all danced down the aisle. Apparently, that is traditional (not a fad like it currently is in the U.S.). Here is a picture:

You’ll note that the wedding party was dressed in traditional Western dress. That is an option here for anyone who can afford it, and it’s becoming more and more popular, we’re told. The bride, who is the preschool teacher at our school, looked beautiful in her fishtail dress. The stark white against her ebony skin made a stunning combo!

Then it came time to eat, but first the host had to give us directions as to how we should proceed up to the buffet lines. He gave the directions in Sesotho and then the kid next to him translated into English. The translations were very literal so everything came out, “We will eat immediately. You must get in line right now. We will eat until we’re full right now, immediately.” *lol* Despite all the immediacy, it took about 20 minutes for the instructions alone!

The food was pretty traditional Sesotho fare -- beef, lamb, rice, and cooked carrots. It was meat-heavy, which is the way the Basotho like it. If only there had been a little more liquid to wash down all that meat! For desert there was a little bowl with a piece of specialty bread (mine was banana and Jay’s was pound cake) and then custard underneath with fruit mixed in. It was...interesting. :)

When we took our leave, the bride saw us stand up (out of all of those 300 people! I guess our white skin stuck out a little!), and asked us to come up to the head table, which was on a stage, to say goodbye to her. It was a little bit embarrassing. Then her father found us afterward and wanted to shake our hands and thank us for coming. It was all a little much! Apparently it was a big deal that I was the only school colleague who went to the bridal shower, and it really impressed the family. Who knew?!

So, there’s the story! Sorry it’s so long winded! Hope you’ve enjoyed your vicarious experience of a Basotho wedding. :)