Thakani (pronounced tah-kah-nee) is secretly one of my favorite students (I mistakenly spelled her name Takane in one of the previous blogs, so this is the same girl that says no with a capital N-O). She is a hard worker and just a genuinely sweet girl. Last week, she invited the rest of the teachers and me to come have lunch with her over the weekend. She lives alone in a small rented room about 15 minutes away from school because she can’t afford to live with her mother in Maseru. Her father passed away when she was younger, and she only sees her mother around once a month, so she often feels lonely at home.

The visit was wonderful. We ran into several other students that live in the same area and prepared a delicious meal together of potato salad, green salad, curry chicken and baked beans with green peppers and onions. She was thrilled to have us and kept talking about how excited she was that we were there. All we could say was that we didn’t think she appreciated how much we loved being there talking, joking, and just passing the time with her.

Vincent and Mashecks also came to join us near the end of the meal. Vincent and I talk about soccer, and Mashecks and I set a final day for getting my hair braided. Other students tried earlier in the week, but couldn’t braid as small as they wanted to because my hair is so fine. Apparently, Mashecks is the master, so I will have to see how her attempt goes Monday.

While we were walking, back we started talking about the party we are planning to have the last day (this coming Friday), which inevitably transitioned to us talking about leaving. When I asked them if they were going to miss me, they replied “so much Beth, so so much”, after which I acted out my future reaction to leaving and started to fake wail. We will have to see how “fake” my sadness is come this Friday.