June 8 We have made it (back) to Thaba Tseka. It is nice to come back to something familiar, to know where things are and to recognize faces. I think that Joy is a bit out of sorts (who wouldn't be?), but she's doing quite well. We are staying with the nuns-not right in the convent, but on the grounds. We have our own space with a bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen/Joy's bedroom. It's even got a toilet and cold running water! Not bad. It's definitely not the Hilton, but it's comfy. It's old and a bit run down, but I'm not complaining! I told 'M'e Tsebo that we'll most likely leave with Joy. She seems disappointed, but I think she understands. Plus, I think they were going to have the school open just because we are around. No break! I wouldn't want to be responsible for that. We gave her the ideas we had about a camp and she was very receptive. Joy brought tons of supplies, so that's good. There shouldn't be any shortage of stuff! This morning we heard a huge thump but neither Joel nor I got up. Come 7 o'clock, Joel got up to find Joy stuck in bed. The board snapped down the middle and her head was still at bed height but her feet were on the floor. Too funny. Today we started the candle project. The kids will make candles to sell in their villages. It will hopefully bring in a bit of income for the school. June 9 Today school sort of closed. The kids are called up one by one, according to their marks. Pretty crappy for the last ones in the class. But, none of the adults seems to notice or think anything of it. Are we too protective of our children in North America? We started to settle into our place today-we put things on the walls, covered the shelves, etc. We might be moving to a newer place next weekend, but I think I prefer to be in one spot the whole time. Now I'm starting to get used to the look of this place. Unfortunately, the toilet doesn't work very well. Ah well, it could be worse! We do have a propane heater, which is nice. I was actually warm while I bathed today. We cracked open the candle moulds today and they looked pretty good! We need to add more wax because the bottoms are a bit hollow. We lit one tonight and it worked wonderfully. Hooray! June 10 Today Mofihli came by for a visit. He was knitting and playing Boggle. He even taught Joel how to play moraba raba, which is sort of like checkers with cows. Totally a guys' game. June 12 The first day of camp went well. We had about 50 from Class 7 and 30 from Class 6. We did friendship bracelets, which they loved, gave them a snack, read a story and played games. I have a feeling that more kids will show up tomorrow once they hear that it's fun and not like school. June 13 Joel and I have decided to sponsor Mofihli, a class 7 boy who's taken a real shine to Joel. He's so adoring! He got some wool and knit Joel a headband to keep his ears warm. How sweet! He then knit a matching one for himself. There's a girl named Maletsatsi whom I would like to sponsor. I don't know if it's wise for us to commit to 2 kids right now though. I've decided to take on the challenge of getting as many kids sponsored as I can. Maletsatsi is so wonderfully curious, has such a warm smile and is so beautiful. I want to pack her up and take her home. The camp we're running is going well so far. I think the kids are enjoying it. We made origami blow-up cubes today and they loved them! I'm so excited about sponsoring Mofihli. I want to talk to 'M'e Tsebo and him to tell them. I just think that it's so awesome that we've gotten to meet our sponsored child. What a rare opportunity. We got 100 apples delivered to school today and the vendor was so happy! We ordered 50 bags of popcorn for snack on Thursday and it made that vendor's day. It's nice to know that if nothing else we're putting money into the economy. I have a nasty rash on my inner thighs. It hurts a lot, even just for pants to touch it. Nice. Oh, and this afternoon the toilet officially blew up. Hopefully the plumber will come tomorrow to fix it. June 14 It's so cold in here tonight-probably the coldest it's been since we got back to Thaba Tseka. And we found evidence that a mouse has been visiting us. At least our toilet got "fixed" today, although it's still not sucking everything away. This afternoon we picked up our popcorn. It's pretty hilarious-there's a guy with a random propane-run popcorn machine along the main strip. We stood there for an hour and watched him make bag after bag of the stuff. We loaded as much as we could into Joy's huge backpack. We strung the remaining bags on the outside. Oh the foreigners are always so entertaining! After school we went to Maletsatsi's to drop off her 25kg bag of maize meal (a gift from Luxembourg for the orphans in Lesotho). Joel figured (correctly) that she would have no one to help her carry it, so we offered our services. She was overwhelmed it seemed. She took me to the shebeen (bar) where her mother works; she had tears in her eyes when Maletsatsi told what we had done. I promised to go back for a drink. She wanted to give us some for free, but I knew it would come off her measly pay that is probably used to support close to a dozen family members. I feel like I could give Maletsatsi the world-paper and markers to colour, ribbons for bracelets, education, warm clothes. But I know it doesn't make sense to shower her with things. I don't know what it is about her that has captured me. I love her spirit. I feel like every decision I make here is a moral debate. The woman with AIDS who sells her World Food Programme maize meal instead of feeding her 4 children-do you help? Will it help her change her ways? Do her children deserve to suffer because of the actions of their mother? Do you hand a hungry man food, knowing that the next white person to come his way might then be expected to do the same? And how do you choose, from the multitude, the one lucky child who will receive your sponsorship? Every gift offered, every large purchase (popcorn included) registers in their minds as the generosity and endless resources of the whites. And by their standards we do have endless resources. Interestingly enough though, they wouldn't see us as greedy if we chose not to share. The Basotho are an amazing people. June 16 We made a happy birthday toast to Mom tonight. I'm not sure what she'll be doing to day but I hope it's a good time. School was brutal today-it was pretty much complete anarchy. The kids weren't listening so Joy said that she wouldn't do the daily candle-making routine with them. Then 'M'e Tsebo came in and picked kids to make candles. It was such a crazy day that making candles was the last thing we wanted to do. I decided to help out and the group ended up being really great. It just took longer than we had hoped. We met Mofihli's stepmother today; his father is in South Africa looking for work. We told her that we will sponsor Mofihli through high school. It seemed to us that she was very happy. We haven't talked to Mofihli about it yet, but he has been told. Today he was walking on air, but he seemed almost embarrassed. He was shy to spend time with us, but I know he is happy. He was told to keep it hush=hush, so he was probably keeping his distance for that reason. He's such a great kid and I am so happy we've made this journey. On the other hand, it breaks my heart to know that we're leaving so many others without sponsorship. My heart aches for Maletsatsi and Rorisang. They both deserve to go to high school. There's just so much need all over this country, it's hard to justify pulling one kid out of the fire and leaving the rest behind. These kids will disappear into a black hole if we don't take the challenge and step up to help them. June 20 Man alive it's cold in here! We ran out of propane for the heater. We can hook it up to the big tank but that means we can't bring it to heat up our bedroom. Yikes. We've taken to boiling water for in our Nalgene bottles to pre-heat the beds. Today one of the Peace Corps (American volunteer organization) girls came around. She is doing agriculture stuff with the kids and was talking about the joy of GMOs; it was hard for me to bite my tongue and Joy knew it! We went to mail letters yesterday and the post office was out of stamps. How ridiculous is that? There's nothing you can do but shake your head and laugh. The guy told us to come back tomorrow. We'll go back next week and I bet they still won't be there. Every day I'm feeling a bit more connected to this town. Yesterday on our way home we saw a guy from the butcher shop where we often go for dinner (there's a café and they sell great fish and chips). He stopped to talk to us. Then we saw the girl who always waits on us; she was in the wholesale shop. It's nice to be able to recognize people and, of course, they always recognize us. It turns out it's no mouse that's been visiting us. It's a rat. Nasty. I saw it outside and it looked huge. I doubt that I'll sleep well tonight. June 21 First day of summer at home; first day of winter where we are. Hooray! Joy saw the rat again today. We think he's probably getting in via the cupboards under the kitchen sink. There are big holes that basically lead to the ground, or so Joel says. (I wasn't about to go poking around.) We did our best to plug his possible entrance points, but who knows if it's enough. June 22 Today we did origami boxes and paper airplanes with the kids. We're into Classes 5 and 4 now. They love everything we do with them. They are much easier to please and much better behaved than the older classes. Typical, I guess  We even had stickers for the planes and I thought the kids were going to hyperventilate, they were so excited. June 23 It snowed yesterday! Today the snow was still on the ground as we headed for school so only a handful of kids showed up, most of them from Class 7. A bunch came back here and we did drawings, etc. I get tired by lunch. Not physically, but spiritually I guess. I need more time to myself and I think I'm ready for this trip to be about me. Selfish, I know. I feel like I have been trying to meet someone else's expectations (mainly the kids'). I'm ready to try and start meeting my own. I will begin by looking for lions  I'm enjoying my time and I'll be sad to leave, but I'm ready for a little break from all this emotional turmoil. Phew. It's 9:35. Time for bed! June 24 I'm getting really anxious to go to Maseru. I really want to hear news about Carter and Nicki. I feel like there are a million things I was to do in the city. Plus, now I feel like we're just killing time until we leave. Today we are lazing around. We put a note on our door telling kids that we're resting and to come back after 1 pm. It's close to 10am and no one has knocked yet. Yahoo! 8:10pm Tonight we went to the butchery and had "a plate". Good ol' fish 'n' chips, as usual. On our walk home, the light behind the mountains was beautiful. You could see their silhouette lined with a pale pale blue that gradually darkened to the darkest blue of night sky as it got further from the mountaintops. I hope that I never forget the sight of it. The children arrived at about 11 today. We sent them away and said they could come back at 2. They just went down the road to play. When they came back, I just puttered around. My mind is elsewhere (mostly with Nicki and family). June 25 Tomorrow means only 48 hours until I get word about the baby! I can't wait. There's also a possibility that we can get a lift to Maseru, which would be awesome. It would be much quicker and more comfy to boot. Today the kids came a-knockin' despite the note on the door. One was Tankiso, a kid from Class 4 who seems to have real issues. We didn't have the heart to turn him away. Did the laundry today, spoke to family on the voice recorder, and went for a little walk to the cliffs past the hospital and nursing school. Turns out there's a garden in the valley, of all the most unlikely places! Joy and I didn't go far; Joel, Mofihli, Paballo and a few other boys we don't know went up the mountain. We could see them up there from the window in our house, which was neat. June 26 I'm getting more sad about leaving here. I know that Maletsatsi isn't happy that we're going; neither are Rethabile or Gloria. I'm sure that Mofihli and the other boys will be sad to see Joel go. We got a letter from sister Shauna today. I know most of the news, but it was still nice to see her writing and hear her thoughts. She even sent some photos, including a couple of shots of Em, Lauren and Bailey. The letter seemed to quench my homesickness a bit, so that's good. I still miss everyone, but it's not as urgent to get to Maseru. I'm surprised that I sank into this so quickly, made it home. Maybe because I knew it needed to happen that way? It wasn't quick at first, but once we left, I was sure that Thaba Tseka was meant to be our short-term home. June 27 We had our Canada-Lesotho Day celebrations with the kids today. Fewer than 100 showed up, I think, but that's okay. We were happy no to have the stress of big numbers. First we sang the anthems and talked about the flags. Only after we prayed, of course. We managed to get a Lesotho flag from the District Administrator (like the Premier), after some cajoling by Joel ("Oh, no flag? Well, that's too bad because we'll have a beautiful one from Canada..." Joel and I took Class 7 and did beaded bracelets with them while Joy did pinwheels with classes 1 through 6. Then we let them do chalk art on the steps-they did such a great job! Then Joy and I did beaded bracelets with the little one and Joel did origami with the 7s. After that the kids ate and 'M'e Tsebo prepped our lunch-fish, chicken, chips and salads from the butchery; fresh fruit; papa and beans; joala (although it never did get brought out); bread; and much more! We gave the kids cookies with maple syrup on top as a treat. Of course, they loved it. 'M'e ended up spooning it into their hands once the cookies were done! The kids sang and danced for us. The boys did some traditional dances (one led by Mofihli) and then Lenono, Lithatane and Lefu did a cool dance. The girls did a bunch of different dances, one of them in skirts that 'M'e had made out of sheep skin and then attached maize and beans to. The skirts were amazing and the girls were beautiful. It was sad to say goodbye. We did the secret handshake with Class 5, gave them high 5's and hugs. At one point Mahali turned to leave and then came back for another hug-she held on so tight that I thought she'd never let go. We told Maletsatsi about sponsorship today; she was so happy. We've decided that we'll make it work financially. It's really only while we're traveling that we're worried about the money. We'll make it work somehow. It was so nice to see her smile again-she's been so down about us leaving.