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| They were dressed like monkeys and the for the "dance" they were acting like them! |
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| Boys dancing in traditional hats (Mokorotlolo) with the traditional stick for men (molamu) they are also wearing their school uniforms |
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| Please note that they have "rattles" tied around their ankles - they are shoe polish containers filled with pebbles |
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| Action shot! I do wish I could upload the videos - these dances are amazing! |
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| These girls are doing a very common traditional dance, mostly using the muscles around their shoulder-blades if you can imagine. It is definitely one of those "How do they do that?" things! |
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| The singers - wish we got good audio! |
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| Flag of Lesotho with mountain backdrop |
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| A lot of other countries just don't feel the same way about litter! This is just one part of the crowd and all of this is from the celebration... |
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| The Defence Force, Prison and Police dressed up in their best and did formations before the dancing began |
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| Here you can see the traditional Seshoeshoe dress and fabric (even head wrap) as well as the blankets and the traditional way of carrying babies |
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| Some visitors trying out our sunglasses (they also drew me pictures!) |
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| Typical view in Lesotho with a VIP latrine and a "Kraal" |
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| This man adopted this little boy who was abonded - we thought the contrast between him and the giant gun was telling... |
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| Traditional house - a rondavell or mokhoro |
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| This is hard to see but those little splashes of color are all wild dahlias! |
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| My canning triumph... |
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| Our new herb garden... basil is coming up! |
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| Our garden, after the season. The soil has been terrible - hopefully next year we'll see and improvement, but we've gotten tomatoes, green beans, zucchini, even potatoes |
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| Corn and Sunflower from Ntate Nkhooa's field |
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| Here is is - Snake Park! Please note the large rock behind the building. It is called Letloepe. |
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| Inside Snake Park building you can see the flip chart paper with project plans on them - these guys have been hard at work! |
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| Uncanny - on top of Letloepe rock |
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| Snake Park from the top of Letloepe rock |
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| Shane at the top with town in the background |
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| Another view from the top, you can also see SA from the top of this rock but not in this photo... |
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| This is where the Jiu Jit Su action happens - the mats are this tarp with two layers of hard-earned cardboard boxes underneath |
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| Playing Morabarab (a traditional men's game with guns and cows) at Snake Park |
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| Sharing the food |
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| Hanging out in the shade |
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| One of the amazingly strong women of Lesotho |
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| I'd hate to be a donkey! -Taking the food home |
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| A snapshot of a WFP food distribution in progress, at one of the district health centers. You can see the beneficiaries waiting for their names to be called so they can be given their food, and put in on their donkey or their head and carry it home! |
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| This is the food actually being brought in on the trucks and unloaded. |
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| If you remember the road/bus incident from a couple weeks ago, I had a chance to snap a photo of why that dirt road pass had to be made. This is a typical "donga" a result of the terrible soil erosion problems in Lesotho. This was bad enough to wash out the road you can see above (look for the gaurd rails on top). |
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| Not sure if this is a house or a store... |
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| Good sunset pic from our house |
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| From last spring - so still brown, but a good view of the terraced fields. |
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| One of the schools I work with |
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| Spiral Aloe - one of the more interesting indigenous plants |
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| Inpatient care for local clinic |
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This is one of the health centers, the people from our programs must come and get measurements taken each month.
BMI and midupper arm circumference. Please note the ceiling of the clinic and the naked child with distended stomach, also there are wheel barrows being stored here. |
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| You can see the reason for WFP's presence |
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| Baby weighing - this never goes well.... |
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| Morning Glories |
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| The Orange River Hotel, did not stay here - too expensive. Used to be one of the nicest hotels in the country. Got some decent pizza here. It is in a beautiful setting, but I have a difficult time really capturing the impressive topography of Lesotho and really doing it justice... |
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| Some of the posters that we submitted to the contest, with one of the artists:-) |
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| Mohale Dam |
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| The "lowlands" - in their summer green |
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| Laundry day |
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| Muddy Senqu River |
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| Walking across after the bus - post infrastructure improvement |
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| Typical scene, please read the sign (Khotsong - means place of peace) |
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| Waiting for the bus... |
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| That is a Santa hat - this picture was actually taken in July |
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| I love blooming Cacti! |
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| This is a different kind of bee than the other two! This is our host mother's hydrangea. |
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| The musicians for the dancing |
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| One of our village friends practicing the dance routine - I love her T-shirt! |
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| Desk grafitti at a school - it is Sesotho for "I'm hungry." We as volunteers actually get told this a lot by people, especially me because of the WFP position, so it was a funny sort of funny to see it scratched into the desk. |
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| Baby Donkey! |
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| This guy I saw with his traditional instrument at one of our distributions - he was such a great character! |
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| I almost added this to the front page - damn this kitten is cute! |
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| As noted in the post, we've been trying to do yoga at home, more regularly - Serurubele was helping Carol with Savasana |
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| This is from the youth group we've been going to, this guy was leading a game to the tune of "Father Abraham, had many sons" but, he was saying that "Master Jackie Chan has many sounds..." and then you'd make the sound and a body movement to go along with it. |
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| This is one of the groups of women that I am working with - check out the bright green shoes, they are crocheted green plastic bags! |
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| I went to a primary school last week and we learned about compost |
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| My counterpart/supervisor, rather than bring his dog to work - he prefers to bring his cow, this was taken right outside of our office building |
More flowers...
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| Succulents |
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| Not sure what kind of plant this is but it was on a spike from a cactus looking thing |
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| This amarylis was growing in the flowerbed lining our yard! |
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| Sweet peas! and another action shot:-) |
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| Cool bee on California poppies |
Below you will find more pictures of our house - but I just couldn't sit on these botanical pictures any longer - and yes, I know, photography may not really be my calling but maybe this will give some of you a sense of what we see and the ecosystem here.
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| The FIG tree - yay! |
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| The begining of grapes... |
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| Roses everywhere - you will see more of these. |
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| We are trying this "garden in a bag" idea and Shane was planting through holes in the sides - I'll post another one after it has grown up some. |
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| Our outlet - with our glorious electricity |
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| The bathroom, with the glorious sink - I'm not posting the toilet and this photo vouches for the underwear thing. (The orange basin is the real "bathub" and the small green one next to it is for the dishes.) |
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| Bedroom/office... please note photos of all of you hanging on the wall. |
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| Our kitchen space, you can just see the edges of some cards above the water filter - thanks! |
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| The creekbed where we are supposed to throw our garbarge, makes a person think twice about what you throw away when you have to look at it in your own mini-landfill. Also, last week a dead sheep was thrown in there. |
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| Our garden - most of it anyways - the sticks are our attempt to keep the animals out! |
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Not Complaining!
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