This was my last week in Lesotho, but once again I claim that it really was the best!  Sunday, Ann and I went to Cenez Roman Catholic Church, the church my students attend.  It was all in Sesotho, but I loved it!  I saw three of my students there and invited them over for lunch.  I walked them home to ask their parents (I discovered that the girls each live miles away!).  Once we got to my house, they immediately started cleaning the entire place- I was shocked, but couldn’t stop them!  They had a blast!  We watched a movie, ate dinner, and made cupcakes :)!   I made sure they arrived safely back home. 

 

Monday, Ann and I went to Botha Bothe, a rural medical outreach site, with Dr. Smita from Baylor. We watched as she treated patients and lectured community members about the importance of receiving testing for HIV.  The more rural the area, the more heavily stigmatized the disease is.  People will have their children tested and treated, but won’t go themselves!  This is horrible, because most of the children contracted HIV from their mothers.  If the parents die, the child will become an orphan and all the consequences of that will ensue! 

Tuesday was day one of my Girl’s Camp!  It was great!  Twenty girls came.  Each day’s schedule was very similar, first, we had breakfast and morning prayer- the students are very religious.  Then, we played an ice breaker game that was followed by a lecture, activity, and lunch.  After lunch, we read, played two games, and had a cooking lesson.  Tuesday’s activities included beading, limbo, cookie decorating, and a lecture on Health.  I was a little intimidated by the topic of health, but it went amazingly well!  I knew what the girls really needed to hear and developed my lecture accordingly.  I taught about how the body changes, how to stay healthy (including drug/alcohol education), and how to protect one’s self against HIV.  I answered any and all questions and made sure everyone completely understood.  They had never had this type of sex-ed lesson before, so I was glad to have met that need.  I was amazed by their great questions. Wednesday was equally rewarding.  The theme of the day was female leaders and empowerment.  I discussed several powerful African and American Black females and how they became such strong leaders.  The girls were made aware of the fact that the key to the leaders’ successes was their educations.  Ann helped out on Wednesday.  The craft was sewing, lunch was rice and beans, and I taught them all how to make no-bake cookies. (The school has no electricity, so we used the fabulous little stoves that the engineer group from Rice brought to boil water.)  We played a game where the girls flipped coins and then either said a hope/dream or a fear/concern for their future.  Then we played “would you rather.”  Everyone had fun and some great discussions were initiated.  On Thursday, after breakfast we played a goal game for skittles.  The theme of the day was “you are awesome-reach your goals.”  I lectured on how they each are a leader everyday.  The girls placed themselves in groups of four and chose a problem that exists in Lesotho; they selected soil erosion, poverty/starvation, and lack of jobs.  Each group came up with a plan to solve the problems!  They made name acrostics on poster boards with the qualities they each liked best about themselves.  I gave each of the girls a notebook (they were so excited!) with an encouraging letter from me on the first page.   On the second page, the girls wrote down 5 positive qualities about themselves, 3 talents, and 3 things they need to work on.  On page three, they wrote down 5 goals- one for this year, high school, their career, their family, and their faith.  They then described what they would do to reach their goals.  The next page was filled with a drawing of what they wanted their lives to be like when they were forty.  Prayer, my “helper”, drew a policeman and wrote “I want to be good father.”  Wow!  On the fifth page, they created a goal statement (which almost made me cry) in the format I, _______, will ________, ________, and _________ to become a ________ by the year ______.  The statements were truly beautiful.  One of my favorites read: I, Sebonela Morake, will read, never give up, and never drink alcohol to become a scientist by the year 2020.   We made fortune tellers but under each flap, the girls wrote different careers.  They played the game with one another to “see which career” they would have- it was fun.  After lunch, they played the human knot game and then created skits to “teach Danielle Sesotho!”  Finally, I taught them how to roast marshmallows, it was hilarious!  They were in seventh heaven!  Goodbye was hard; I was fine until one of the girls, Neo, who is an orphan, began to cry.  This was truly the most rewarding experience of my life.  I developed phenomenal relationships with the girls and hopefully was able to encourage them to reach their goals.  I really appreciate being given the opportunity to do such a camp.

Each day, I went to Baylor to finish up some projects.  There had been some problems with an adherence calculator, but the problems are now fixed.  

Ann and I worked with Allison to prepare for going to Malawi.  We are lecturing on global health and HIV to the students there.  

The theme for my summer thus far has proven to be developing relationships and loving all people.  Besides the Basotho people, I was blessed to form great relationships with a couple of the doctors at Baylor.  I know I have become a better person and have been left with amazing role models!