Sports Weekend

I do not know why I still insist on showing up on time. Maybe it has something to do with they fact I spent 22 years in America prior to the five months I have been here in Lesotho. Even more unbelievable than the fact I am still on time for everything is the fact I agreed to accompany the school on another field trip. There is no way more could go wrong on this trip, despite the reality that this one would be four times longer. I am becoming an eternal optimist. Insert chuckle here.

We packed our bags and by that I mean I packed my school backpack while each student who was going packed more than I brought to Lesotho. Incredible! I was in awe of how much they needed for this four-day adventure, but how little they need on a daily basis. It can’t be explained.

I will stop pretending to be a fantastic volunteer and clue you in on the real reason I chose to attend sports weekend. I was going to get to spend four days with T.C.M. as his school was hosting the event. Forget him, I really just wanted to take advantage of his running HOT water (kidding, sort of). My students, all 240 who could afford to go, and teachers were planning on staying at the high school. Have I mentioned it’s freezing? That did not sound appeasing at all. I will never be half as hard-core as them… and slowly I am coming to terms with it.

There I was at three in the afternoon sitting alone outside school with Spads (she has a lot of nerve) waiting for others. At four, departure time, they (the students and teachers) started strolling in. By five the kombis had arrived and around six we determined an additional kombi would be needed for stuff alone. Half past six (the time T.C.M. was expecting me) we were on the road. I thought to my phoneless self, this is going to be quite interesting. In spite of the fact my kombi driver was drinking for the last half of the trip we made it safely to Katse around nine. T.C.M. was waiting for me with J.W.M. (another volunteer) at the local bar. I must tell you the bar was well placed, eyesight of the bus stop. We hung out and played a few rounds of snooker (alternative pool) before hitting the sack.

Thursday I got up and went for a run while the boys kept sleeping. Then I took the hottest bath of my life. I wish I had words to describe what this felt like. Those of you with running water probably understand, five months and I have clearly forgotten. The boys prepared breakfast with Starbucks coffee (oh America), and as always, their food was delicious! Sports were supposed to start at nine sharp but things were just getting underway when we rolled in at 11AM.

Throughout Thursday and Friday I spent a lot less time watching sports than I intended. T.C.M.’s couch, reliable electricity (movies and tv shows on laptops galore), running HOT water (in case you missed it the first time), and the companionship of other Americans made sports less then appealing (for the first time in my life). The afternoon on Thursday and late afternoon Friday and I had about all the unorganized chaos I could handle. Similar to the last field trip I really just enjoyed being around my students out of the school atmosphere despite the commotion. I take pleasure in watching them engage in sports on the field, hanging out with their friends, and watching them be teenagers (sneaking in the bar or off to smoke, ha).

We made an executive decision to leave Katse on Saturday morning for Bobete to catch the district going away party for O.L.S., who completes his service May 8th. This is not before T.C.M. and I hosted a brai for all of our teachers who attended sports day. T.C.M. goes all out for everything so, of course, the boys insisted on slaughtering a sheep on Thursday night for the occasion Friday. For those of you counting that’s four sheep for me, and no, slaughtering does not get easier with time. Meat is a rarity for Basotho subsequently our teachers indulged themselves. I can’t tell you how much entertaining it was to hang out with my teachers outside of school and away from the students. The school is as a result rural we are all spread out, translation, I never see them on the weekends. We danced, sang, spoke broken Sesotho, drank, and ate the night away. At 2:30 AM T.C.M. and I were forcing them out of the house!

We would have ended the party a lot earlier had we known knocking on the door was going to wake us up at 6:00 AM (sharp). Not cool. We lounged around in bed and finally decided to get up and start cleaning (oh there was so much cleaning to be done) around eight. After cleaning we hit the road. A lot a bit of walking, the best hitch ever, and a kombi ride later we made it to O.L.S. around five with empty stomachs. Turns out, O.L.S. had no gas at his place, meaning no food. I suppose that is what I have to look forward to at the end of my service. Liquid diet fae-la (only) Saturday night. Another extremely late (3:30 AM) bed time and up the next day at seven to catch the 7:30 bus out of town. With 32 Maluti between J.W.M. and I for a ride that cost 40 Maluti total we managed to make it back to Thaba Tseka in one piece. I’ll consider that a discount thanks to a broken ATM (the only ATM in the entire district). It was a whirlwind long weekend and I definitely paid for it today but if I could do it again I would, without hesitation.