Balelapa La Me Mo Mochudi

...or... My Family in Mochudi

I don't even know where to start. Maybe my host mom. Her name is Andile and she's 35. She has three kids who I'll talk about later. She has a boyfriend in Mochudi who I've met one. And I think the kids' father is working in South Africa, or that's what the kids told me. Andile is a councilman. I'm not sure exactly what that means, and we've never really talked so I haven't asked. She likes to drink and smoke a lot though. Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday she goes out to bars. And like I mentioned, we don't really talk. She normally gets home around dinner time and is really tired. So she'll lay down either on the porch or in the sitting room. After Generations, a TV show that comes on at 8 that everyone watches, I go to bed and she stays up. Lately we've been sharing a room so we'll chat in the morning sometimes.

Andile's sister is Zowie. She was really nice for the first two days and helped me out around the house, letting me know where thigns were and how I can help out. Now there's never anything for me to do. Zowie doesn't work but does most of the house work. She cooks every meal, cleans and looks after Andile's kids during the day. She tends to walk around in leggings and a towel. This weekend I was doing my laundry in teh yard. I washed all my clothes and then hung them on the line to dry. Zowie walked by and asked if I did my laundry like that at home. When I said no, she said "I can tell by the way you hang them" and walked back inside. She was laughing and I did too, but I was overlapping the clothes because there hadn't been enough clothes pins out and I hadn't asked for more. It's just a little awkward.

I don't even know Andile's brother's name. He goes to bars on the weekends too and I don't think he works. He lives in a one room building in front of the house and I hardly ever see him, although he did watch me do my laundry one day while eating breakfast. awkward.

Andile's mom is super sweet. We don't really talk but we tend to laugh when we see each other. One day she asked me if I knew how to iron. When I said yet, she just laughed and walked away.

Tlotlo is Andile's 6year old son. He's super cute but also likes to push the rules. He's in Form 3 (3rd grade) likes to talk to me in English. Sometimes I have to make him and his younger brother leave my room when they start to fight.

Legae is Andile's 3 year old son. He's adorable but wants to be just like his brother so he'll sometimes see how far he can go too. His favorite thing to do is make faces at me that I return. He's also found it really fun to try to balance on my out stretched leg as we watch TV. By far Legae's biggest fault is the fact that he's not a morning person at all. He cries every morning. His mom bathes and dresses him most mornings.

Peo is Legae's twin sister. She might just be the cutest thing I've ever seen. She has a smile that lights up a room. Her English isn't as good as Legae's so I try to talk to her in Setswana, and while we can talk a lot of the time, she doesn't understand that I can only understand her when she speaks slowly. Peo really likes to play with my hair and sit on my lap while I try to eat.

So that's the fam in Mochudi. I'm trying to upload pictures of them to facebook, and hopefully it'll work but my connection's a little slow today.

Looking into the future: I'm finishing up my last week interning wtih BOFWA. On Saturday we take a bus back to Gabs where we meet our next families and move right in! Talk about no down time!

pictures here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068401&id=1036350539&l=81a6b82d33