Serving in the Peace Corps in Lesotho, in Southern Africa

July 6, 2005:

Lesotho Cultural Day Photos

As promised here are pictures of the cultural day held at my school in early March! It's taken me quite a while to get them posted on the net so you better enjoy them darnit!!

Link to Pics

All is well with me right now. Just doing a little bit of grad-school research and realizing that my resume doesn't seem as thick with work opportunities as it should! I can toss a pizza and flip a burger like nobody's business!!

I assume each of you respectively will have room for me on your couch when I get home right!? My contract is up this December... I might be home in time for the holidays even...be suspicious of large boxes under your tree,.... or third night of Chanukah knocks on the door!! hoo-ha-ha!!

Cheers,
Mike

________________________ 

October 4, 2004:

Swaziland Adventures!

Greetings once again everybody! Just wanted to shoot off a quick email about my most recent travelling adventures in Swaziland. Michelle Faure (friend from my youth) happened to be visiting her college roommate in Mozambique and expressed interest in meeting up somewhere in Africa.

We decided Swaziland would be a good destination! So I took public transport through Durban, South Africa and headed up! We met in the capital on thursday night and prepared ourselves for the coming two days!

We visited two game parks in Swaziland, Hlane and Mlilwane. We were able to get extremely close...within breathing distance that is...to a number of animals I had yet to see in Africa...including white rhino's, impalas, ostriches, elephants, hippos, kudus, buffalos, zebras, elephants, lions, and warthogs.

Both parks we visited were amazingly beautiful and we got the opportunity to hike around with and without a guide. Kind of scary to be within a couple feet of a 3 ton hippo as well as lions...the other animals were less intimidating, but still kind of crazy to have no fence separating you from them. Strange to wake up to an ostrich on your doorstep and warthogs crossing your walking path.

So we mostly spent our days on safari in the extremely hot "bush-land" and forest areas. And we got the sunset tour to catch a peak of the lions, which is better to be in a vehicle that can move away in case of any immediate danger. In fact...at one point the male lion started to get up from his slumber looking at me like a piece of white meat. Then he realized I wasn't probably even worthy of an appetizer for him so he sat back down. My heart was beating quite furiously the remainder of the tour! All in all a great short trip, that I was glad to have the opportunity to take.

Now I'm back in the capital of Lesotho, and we're celebrating our independence today. Then I'm back to my site for fourth quarter, and before most of you know it I'll be knocking at your door begging for some good home-cooking. For those of you who don't know, I'm coming home over the holidays from approximatley Dec 20-Jan 6, and I hope to get the opportunity to visit you all!! Until next time,...take care of yourselves!

love,

Mike

September 9, 2004:

Khotso kao feela (hello everybody!) Greetings once again from Lesotho!

Just a quick note to let everybody know I've changed email services! This is the only email address I'll be able to check or write from (however infrequent that may be) so don't delete it!!

I'll write again soon to let you know what's new with me! Hope your all in good health and good spirits wherever this may find you!

salang hantle (stay well)
-mike

mosothomike@yahoo.com

 

June 20, 2004:

Lesotho Orphan Project!

So you asked if you could help in any way!?

Currently the HIV/AID prevalence rate in Lesotho is nearing 35%. Because of this pandemic situation many times the infected are virtually "excommunicated" from their villages regardless of their personal situation. Children are being born into a situation where their parents are close to dying from the virus or not able to care for them appropriately. Consequentially there are a number of infant/toddler orphans who receive no attention let alone food. This results in a number of malnourished children who are mostly HIV negative and have the opportunity to live a life devoit of pain and suffering if given the opportunity. And here's where you can step in to help these under-privileged children.

Currently I'm aquainted with a former PCV in my district who's working for a non-profit agency. He has just gotten the go ahead from his employer to receive donations for their specific project online. It's an amazing opportunity to give a little and help a lot. This means that you can support this project directly with your donation and at the same time receive a tax-benefit. It takes only 5 minutes to jump onto the internet and make your donation, so I urge you to consider this project. It's called "6-Degrees" implying that you will actually be within "6 degrees" of connection to these children. By knowing that I am actually visiting these children daily and hold partial responsibility for their care makes you on the second degree of contact to these kids. This also, in turn, urges you to contact your acquaintances to ask for their help. I, personally, have already spent many hours at this house holding these tiny children, changing there diapers, and feeding them. It's amazing what the power of love does for these children. They have been progressing to normal health at an amazing rate and will continue to do so provided this project receives an appropriate level of attention. The project is hoping to expand in order to take in more children, but this can't happen without a steady in-flow from volunteer donors.

If you feel motivated to help this project please go to www.neareast.org and follow the page to the donations section. In the "specific project you would like to support" box type: 6 degrees-Lesotho and the money will be directly associated with this project. You can use credit cards/ debit cards. Consider that a $10/USD donation will be able to buy enough formula here to feed an infant for almost two weeks! Any and all contributions are welcome.

Thanks for your time!

Love, Mike

June 11, 2004:

Greetings from the mountainous and right now snowy kingdom of Lesotho. Winter has finally come which means snow surrounding my mountainous site's location. I was able to jump out of that altitude and down to the capital for a training session this week, hence my ability to email. The school year finished up nicely and I am happy to say that my students are still performing well (or at least par) for their English courses. I now have a lot of down time to reevaluate my performance and make some changes for the second half of the year!

Me and some fellow volunteers are trying to plan a winter break trip right now which might include stops in Swaziland, Mozambique, and South Africa. On limited means it will definitely prove to be an adventure. Early July I'll be able to fulfill this dire need to travel and then I'll get back for the second half of the school year! Speaking of my school here's one short interesting fact:

Every quarter all girls attending school are required by the administration to take a pregnancy test (keeping in mind that some of these girls are only 12) and if they are found to be pregnant they are expelled. If the boy who got them pregnant is also a student and can be identified they are similarly expelled. Weird rule...yes!! Everybody else here thought that was something unusual about my school so I thought I'd relate that!

Anywho...all is well, like I said...I'm just getting used to living in a cold climate after 23 some odd years in the Southern California area where the temperature change from season to season is somewhat non-existent. I've decided to visit during December this year to see my family (to include a new niece or nephew!!!) and friends so I look forward to seeing the majority of you if time allows! As time moves on I'll give you all more details about my visit and the dates I'll be in town!

I will have email for the rest of the week (hopefully) so you can respond to this mail if you'd like! 

February 28, 2004:

 Khotso (peace) from the Mountain Kingdom once again! I write you on a bright Saturday morning just before venturing off to a place called Modumong, not far outside of the town in which I live. I'm going there for the night to camp out with a couple other volunteers. Should be fun. Hope all is well wherever this email may find you!

Wanted to write a short note to all, to let everybody know I'm still alive and what not! Have some interesting news to share as well!

This past week I heard through the grape vine that Prince Harry (of the English royal family) was due for a stopover in my small town. Supposedly he had been invited on a site-seeing tour by the prince of Lesotho. For whatever reason he was invited, there was mostly an indifferent emotion stirring about Mokhtolong amongst the locals. The volunteers in town however were more than excited to be that close to royalty (probably something about being raised with magazines like People). Any how, my school had been invited to some sort of tree-planting ceremony (quite far from my school in fact) and by the time we hiked to the sight of this event low and behold there was the prince. A lot less impressive than I thought actually, no red carpets, no flower petals being thrown at his feet. To make the story short though I was invited to some sort of dinner party that evening where he was supposed to be in attendance. I was reluctant to believe that rumour, but approximately 4 hours later I found myself kicking back a couple Amstel's with the Prince of England himself. Very nice guy in fact! So, I've shook hands with and drank beer right next to royalty, and out of everywhere in the world where I would expect it to happen!? Huh!

Other than that small piece of news fit for the National Enquirer, teaching has been coming along well. My students seem to be improving slowly but steadily which is more self gratifying than I ever thought it could be. I joke around with them a lot, as you all can imagine, I'm still as big of a goof-ball as I ever was! I happened to forget the piece of paper with my vacation dates on it, so look forward to the next email I guess for details on that.

Take care! Sincerely yours-

Mike

February 11, 2004:

Short note for all! It's amazing how many responses when people know I'm interested in keeping in contact with them. After I sent out that real mass email I got tons of responses! Thanks it made me feel loved after not feeling it for the past two months when I was assuming people were ignoring this guy from Lesotho! Anywho! Briefly! You should have my mailing address now!! And seeing as how internet might not last forever please give me your home mailing address as well as your birthday!! I want you to receive some mail from South Africa as well as a Birthday card or two! Ok, so write back soon with your mailing address and B-day!! All is well! Miss you all tons!!

Take care
Khotso(peace)
Mike

February 7, 2004:

!Lumela! (Greetings) from Lesotho once again! First off, let me start with an apology to all parties who have not received my past mass emails which included stories and mailing information. I just found out today that AOL SUCKS! And all these mass emails I thought were going to everybody were only going to a group of about 10 people. So, sorry, but at least I figured it out now and you can all look forward to weekly/monthly updates from me when the internet is available. Not much time to write, so on to more important things than how big of a dork I am!!

Hello All! And greetings from the Mountain Kingdom once again. Finally getting the chance to send you a link to some pictures I've taken thus far! So just click the link below and you'll be able to see a select few photos taken all over Lesotho!

Just a quick note as well. Survived my second week of classes at the high school. I'm getting to know my kids better but chances are I still won't know their names for a while seeing as how their names are things like Mataliana Nyahphisi. Even though I know a little bit of Sesotho I haven't been able to conquer such names as of yet. My lesson planning is coming along. Hard for me to preach the concepts of grammar when comprehension of my basic English is hard for them all to understand though. They're also getting used to my California accent, never knew I had one til now! Trying to be as full of energy in class as possible, you know, large sweeping movements with my hands and legs trying to get the full attention of a classroom of 65+ students. So my teaching mostly relies on charades.

Unforuntately this week I got a taste of the school's policy on corporal punishment. I've seen kids getting hit on the hand with a stick for failure to do this or that. It's really hard to stomach, and being in my position (the newbie) I can't really step in the way and stop everything like that from happening in one day! I've come to the conclusion that this first year will almost have to be observation of my teachers and students, and then once they feel generally comfortable with me being around then maybe I can make some suggestions, esp. alternatives to corporal punishment. I actually took it upon myself to subtly hint that I don't approve, but I have to be careful of not stepping on any toes too soon, I have only been here for 3 weeks. This is all very new and frustrating but their society condones such punishment as necessary discipline most often, and the teachers are almost expected (by the parents of these learners) to perform such punishments. In short quite the quandry. Anywho!? Other than that I try to get off the school compound on the weekends to visit fellow volunteers all over and on the outskirts of town. Trying to get to know my surroundings better! Staying healthy, mentally, physically, and spiritually, although I can't help but miss you all dearly!! Thankfully I've started receiving some of that long awaited mail just recently, you know, Christmas cards and the like. Belated is better than nothing!! So thanks for all your letters, prayers, and thoughts, they brighten up my days here!

All for now! I'll try to post pictures on that ofoto.com website as often as possible! Although it is a lengthy process it seems one of the only ways of doin it!

Peace!
Mike

Here's the link to the photos..enjoy!

http://www.ofoto.com/BrowsePhotos.jsp?&collid=32032584905&page=1&sort_order=0

p.s. if you don't have my mailing address already here it is!
Mike Young
Seeiso High School
Box 70
Mokhtolong 500
Lesotho
Southern Africa

February 4, 2004:

Global Studies Faculty, Students & Colleagues,

Lumelah (greetings) from Sub-Saharan Africa! I write you from the desktop of a Peace Corps resource center in the village of Mokhotlong, Lesotho where I have been assigned for the next two years. I hope this message finds you all in good health. I wanted to write and wish you a belated happy holidays and New Year, and also update you on my experiences thus far here in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho as a Peace Corps volunteer.

After a staging event in Philadelphia (NOV 10-13) where I met my group of educational trainees Peace Corps arranged our transportation to New York. From there we caught a direct flight into Johannesburg (14hours). Even then our journey had just begun! We had a commuter plane to Blomfontein, SA which took us directly through a thunderstorm in which we all asked ourselves if we would ever make it to Lesotho. Finally after a 3 hour bus ride we arrived in the capital city of Maseru to stay the night before once again being transferred.

Shortly thereafter was taken to a place called Outward Bound, strangely similar to 6th grade camp, for those of you not familiar, it is an adventurer/hikers training center, for lack of better words. Complete with kayaking, hiking, rock climbing and communal showers! They started our training there which consisted of language (Sesotho), culture (Basotho), technical sessions (how to teach English as a second language), gender and development, AIDS (a pandemic here, approx. 31% of the population), health, diversity, etc. All of the training was very thorough and handled mostly by currently serving volunteers or hired Basotho trainers.

Then we were whisked off to a small village called Mahobong to continue our training. I personally stayed with a very generous and hospitable family there for the duration of 6 weeks. Community based training taught me how to cook the local cuisine and deal with normal household chores in the absence of running water and electricity. I never knew how much I loved the microwave and the washer and dryer til now! Can someone send me pics of a kenmore or GE appliance? Seriously though, it was great getting to know a Basotho family personally and I imagine I'll keep in touch with mine for a long time to come!

We then got the chance to visit some currently serving volunteers in country. I visited a town called Mohale's Hoek and helped with an AIDS Mural project while there (part of World AIDS Day). Can't wait to send you all pics! After that visit we finished up our training at Outward Bound and the village. Celebrated Xmas in style complete with turkey and all the fixins and New Year's at the chief's house.

All 9-weeks of training have been great. My fellow trainees are all fresh college grads and Californians represent the majority of our party of 24 so it's easy to see eye to eye with most people. We finally got sworn in as official volunteers yesterday 1/15/04 and I apologize for not communicating any of this sooner but internet access is rare here as are most resources. So, I'm finally at my site where I'll be teaching primarily English at a High School, the first time in 5 years in which they've requested secondary educators. I believe it might have something to do with lack of teachers due to the proliferation of the AIDS virus here.

The most intriguing issue for me thus far is the AIDS pandemic, 31% of the population if not more. Mostly unsafe sex, traditional initiation schools, and lack of education cause the disease to proliferate so I've been told. One cultural difference is that it is not socially acceptable to discuss the deaths of people and what factors might have caused it. Because AIDS is an opportunistic virus people will say rather that their relatives died from Tuberculosis than the AIDS which let their immune systems be destroyed so that TB could kill them. A fine line yes, but people that deny AIDS will similarly believe that it does not exist or is shameful which in turn will let it spread.

There are also numerous myths about the disease which are hard to reverse. They believe that Americans invented the virus primarily, that you can contract AIDS from condoms, the most interesting, you can't eat a candy with the wrapper on, reasoning behind unprotected sex. The Peace Corps mandates all volunteers in Sub-Saharan Africa to include AIDS in their assignments, whether it be support groups, education, or whatever, so I look forward to working with my community to make some efforts. I've witnessed so many funerals since being in country and it's hard to deny that at least a percentage of them are AIDS related.

Well, I believe that's it for now. I hope that all the students are keeping up their studies and paying attention to Prof. Juergensmeyer, he's a wealth of knowledge and a good friend.

Til next time.

Khotso (peace),

Michael Young
Seeiso High School
Box 70
Mokhotlong 500
Lesotho, Southern Africa

December 3, 2003:

Hello everyone,

Sorry to say this email wasn't written by Mike but rather on his behalf.

I recently received an email from a "seasoned" Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho who had met Mike. At this time Mike does not have phone or email access --- so he persuaded this volunteer to forward his current mailing address to his parents who in turn were to forward it to his friends and family.

The only authorized Peace Corps mail service (U.S. mail) to Lesotho takes @ 2 or 3 weeks and with Christmas fast approaching probably longer.

Upon last word from Mike he seems to be doing well; healthy, eating well, and finding the language (Sesotho) to be quite challanging!

He misses you all and would love to hear from each of you. Mike's address is listed below:

Sincerely, Jim (his dad)

October 6, 2003:

Hello all!! It's Mike Young writing to extend his warmest greetings and let you all know the fate of my long-awaited PeaceCorps endeavor!! As some might know for the last year I've been working at the airport in Santa Barbara and taking advantage of some travel opportunities here and there (Costa Rica, Paris, London, Cancun, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Denver, Phoenix, Tahoe, Boston). I've had an awesome time so far but have been anxiously been awaiting a different awesome opportunity that I have had the privilege of applying for. In March of this year I sent in an application for an assignment with the PeaceCorps (ironically on the night that we started dropping bombs in Iraq).

The PeaceCorps, for those of you who don't know, is a governmentally run organization which sends people abroad all over the world for humanitarian purposes. After much paper-work shuffling back and forth with their offices in D.C., a couple physicals, background checks (which I had to fake so they wouldn't figure out I was associated with any of you hooligans!!!), and interviews, interviews, and more interviews!!! I found out around the middle of August that I was eligible for a position in Africa teaching secondary English and HIV awareness (timeframe November). Initially I didn't expect to meet all the deadlines necessary to fulfill the expectation of that departure, however this last Tuesday I received a knock at the door from a UPS guy with my invitation to serve in the PeaceCorps.

I appreciate foremost your blessings, and support for my assignment in November of this year and hope that you similarly agree that this will be an exciting adventure and growing experience for yours truly. It will take me far beyond the bounds of any of my previous traveling experiences at the airport and I know it will prove to be a learning experience, and afford me many opportunities in the future.

As of November 10th of this year I will be traveling to a country in Africa called Lesotho to teach English and HIV awareness primarily but I'm sure will be asked to serve in many facets while there. Lesotho is a tiny country located within the borders of the country of South Africa, approximately 6 hours (as the bird flies) from Johannesburg, South Africa. I'm excited to be sent there along with approximately 90 other volunteers from the U.S. who will be spread out across this countries mountainous geography. However I'm not so stoked I'm not able to bring you all with me as I will miss you all greatly!! However I hope this will start as an introductory correspondence between my self and all of you for the duration of my entire assignment.

The term of a regular PeaceCorps assignment is 2 years and 3 months which I anticipate completing with no hesitation at all. It genuinely is important to me that all who I'm writing (and lots more) will keep in contact with me while there, as I imagine that day to day will be slightly different than human contact in the O.C. !!

In short (as included in my motivational statement to the PeaceCorps) I have been blessed my whole life, surrounded with people who make me smile, and think, and afforded so many awesome opportunities that I feel honored to share (with some who are less fortunate) the love that has been shared with me!! Thanks to all!! Wish me luck, and most importantly, keep in touch!!!!

I'm still around for 2 more months, plenty of time for visiting before I'm gone for a short while!?

-Yours Truly and Thankfully!!
Mike

Mike Young
mosothomike@yahoo.com