Khotso! Pula! Nala!

I finally made it to a computer! I cannot begin to describe the joy that I have had since I have been in Africa and Lesotho. Things are great here, today marks our 1 month in country. Things have been excellent. The first 2 weeks were training in Maseru, the capitol city. We have since moved to different host villages for more training and practice teaching. The village I live in in called Barea, which is subsiquently in the district of Barea. We taught for 2 weeks in Barea. The final days we spent testing the students and last friday we gave an assembly for the top 3 students in each class. One of my students got first place for his entire grade so i was extremely happy and proud, his name is Abuti Jon and he is really a great kid. I teach forms that would roughly equate to 12th grade science and 10th grade maths. Today I am back in Maseru to do some grocery shopping to get supplies to bring back to barea. I am sorry i cannot post pictures at this time. The internet cafe will not allow photos to be downloaded onto their computers which is really lame. I have some really good pictures and videos I will post once I am able to use the PC computer or get a wirelesss modem, whichever comes first.

Barea has been great. My host family has been taking extremely good care of me. I have a mom, 2 sisters, and 3 brothers. My mom is called 'M'e Manthihli. So far she has taught me how to wash clothes by hand, make bohobe (bread), and moroho (Basotho vegetables). We live about 30 minutes outside of Maseru in a village that is nestled into the side of a mountain. At the bottom there is a valley where another mountain starts to rise. My host mother gave me my Sesotho name which is Reitumetse (Ray-Two-Metsey). This means "the one we believe in". My host mother has said that I am a gift from god who has come to teach their children. These are pretty big shoes to fill, no? lol.

Today was an extremely exciting day for a number of reasons. 1 we get to go to Maseru which is always a welcome to break up village life. 2 we had Chinese food in Maseru which was AMAZING! 3 we found out our permanent site visits. This is where we will be for the next 2 years of our lives. I will be moving to the district of Thaba-Tseka in the mountains! By the grace of god I was placed in the nicest house of any volunteer currently serving in Lesotho. I am 5 minuters away from the Khotse Dam and many lakes and rivers... so excited about this. Are you ready mom...? I also have running water and electricity! The other volunteers cant believe it. They placed me in the village of Khotse. The school is brand new and was built in 2006. One of the faculty told me they wanted to place me in a school that had new teaching materials and an adequate facitility that would be conducive to my teaching styles. This was great news to hear as I have really enjoyed teaching the learners. The past two weeks in Barea have been great. I have learned so much and have had some really good constructive criticism to help my teaching methods. I did not realise how hard teaching is but thankfully it comes pretty natural to me. I would like to that all of the teachers I have had the pleasure of working with during my tenures in High School and the University of Florida. These teachers have shaped who I am and I cannot begin to express my deepest gratitudes towards them.

I want to thank all of my friends and family for their continued support. This has been a life changing experience and I have only been here for a month and I would not be able to do it without all of your thoughts and prayers. I want to especially thank my parents who have been the biggest blessing in my life and my girlfriend Maya! Goodluck baby climbing Kiliminjaro this week, Im so proud of you! If you guys have any questions please send them to my email: tmaresco@gmail.com and I will respond to them as soon as I can. If you would like to send me a package or a letter you can send them to:

Tom Maresco/PCV
Peace Corps/ Lesotho
PO Box 554
Maseru 100
Lesotho
Southern Africa

I would love to recieve a letter from you and I will definitly write you back. When I get the address for my permanent site in Khotse I will be sure to post it on here. I love all of you!
I wish you all the best and God Bless,
Reitumetse Tsenolti

PS: There is lots more to say but that is for another email... I am running out of internet time and I have to be back at the training center soon... eek!