Wendy, the PC Country Director, graciously opened up her
home and conveniently HUGE backyard so that the current crop of 33 Education
trainees who are nearby wrapping up Pre-Service training could experience
Thanksgiving. As it turns out, our 13 semi-new
“Healthy Youth” volunteers were also nearby for the “Phase III” part of their
training, so they got to come along (this is the group whose swearing in I got
to witness right after my arrival), And, finally, we had a handful of misc.
other current PCVs who were in town for medical reasons, or were closing their
service, etc.
Our concerns about the weather ended up being
well-founded. While it had been warm and
dry the past several days, Thanksgiving day dawned cloudy with intermittent
showers. We pushed forward with two
large tents set up in Wendy’s backyard, and the weather held long enough for us
all to gather under one of them to do round-robin introductions and each share
something we were thankful for. Most of
the volunteers said they were VERY thankful to have this opportunity to celebrate
Thanksgiving, and to do so amongst such a large new “family.” One was thankful he had not yet had diarrhea in
country – such is the life of a PCV. J
The weather held just about until everyone got their food –
then it started POURING. Most of the folks stayed fairly dry under the tents,
but all the woosy American staff (and local staff) – including me – stayed indoors.
It was also fairly cold (at least for Lesotho in November). I’m sure for some of the volunteers, the
deluge just added to the experience.
After dinner, Wendy’s husband and sons managed to get the Macy’s
Parade on their TV and I played a few games I’d brought with some of the volunteers
in the dining room—including a nice young married couple from Montana. It was definitely cool to get to better know
this group; I always get a kick out of talking to the volunteers, hearing their
stories, etc. And even though there was
no stuffing, we DID have turkey, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, green bean
casserole, etc. AND cranberry sauce I’d brought along from Whole Foods right
before I left DC (organic!), which many folks appreciated.The following Sunday, I went with the 2 other PC U.S. staff (Wendy had left for a S. Africa camping trip with her family right after Thanksgiving) to the Ambassador’s residence for a “Town Hall” and Thanksgiving celebration. The Ambassador has only been in country for about a month, as his appointment had been delayed—surprise surprise—by the GOP for no discernible reason for over a year. Ambassador Harrington seems to be a pretty cool guy – esp. since he is a Returned PC Volunteer, himself. J Served in Mauritania, I think.
As mentioned above, there were about 50 or so ex-pats under
3 large tents in the not-as-big-as-Wendy’s-backyard backyard. Most were from the U.S. Mission related orgs
(Embassy, USAID, CDC, DoD, PC, etc.), but then there were also folks from the
smattering of various U.S./western NGOs operating in Lesotho – including Baylor
University and the Okie I mentioned in an earlier blog post working here on
ending human trafficking. The latter
actually gave a “Boomer” shout out while I was introducing myself that I unfortunately
did not hear, so he came over and gave me crap later and we commiserated over
OU’s “disappointing” season.
Turns out, amongst the various ex-pats there, around a dozen
are former PCVs, so that was kind of cool.
And the guy sitting next to me – a “colorful” older guy who owns a fair
amount of property around town, including a space we looked at for our possible
new office space – stood up and gave a nice speech about how much he respects
Peace Corps and appreciates the work we’re doing here, etc., which got a nice
round of applause. PC is definitely
well-regarded amongst the Embassy and other ex-pats, which is kinda cool, but
can also be kind of “challenging” when they want to run out and visit PCVs,
take them to dinner, hear their stories, etc.
It’s almost like they see them as cute pets or zoo oddities to go gawk
at and then return to their nice homes and Western “luxuries” while the PCVs
toil away in their electricity-less rondevals and pee buckets. But such is life.
The Ambassador’s Thanksgiving spread was pretty nice and
definitely better-stocked on the dessert side.
And while they did not have mashed potatoes, they did have stuffing, so
at the end of the day/week, I ended up getting to have both. J
The following Wednesday, I had my “formal” meet and greet
with the Ambassador at the Embassy, since he’d arrived while I was in DC, and
it further confirmed my thoughts that he seems to be pretty cool. Obviously, as an RPCV, he has a fondness for
PC, and wants to help if/where he can.
Also turns out he’s a board game freak, too, so we’ve agreed to tag team
hosting game nights for those interested.
The meeting ended on a somewhat amusing note as we discussed
the just-discovered fact that the Chef he had used for their Thanksgiving – a local
guy who actually was formerly the chef for a previous Ambassador AND who had
also cooked the PC Thanksgiving meal at Wendy’s place – tried to shake the
Ambassador down for a “fee” that we at PC had supposedly charged him to allow
him to use the kitchen at our former training site to cook all the turkeys for
the Ambassador’s get together. I
confirmed that, of course we had NOT charged him to use the facility (even
though I had joked about it to our General Services Manager when he called me
to get the okay). I mean, how dumb can
you be to not think we would not talk/compare stories and/or would not be
wondering where the receipt was? Dude
just lost some serious business. Ah
well.
So now we turn to Christmas, even with our consistent 80-degrees-that-always-feels-hotter, bright sunny weather.
I am hosting a housewarming/holiday party for all the PC staff to show
off my new place and also just coz I love the holidays, and I am also looking
forward to unwrapping the “mystery” present I discovered in one of my boxes
when I unpacked. I seriously have no
clue/memory of what it is. I do feel
pretty certain it was something generic I had bought, wrapped, and put under
the tree in case it turned out I forgot someone for Christmas in 2012 when I
was in Oklahoma, or in case someone got me something and I had not gotten them
anything, or, actually who knows what
it is or was for? But at least I have
something exciting to look forward to opening on Christmas! J
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