Reach Lesotho

Out of Sight, But Not Out of Mind

Posted on 19. May, 2010 by Natalie in Natalie

Its hard to believe that there’s only one month left of classes.  And with the break from school comes a break from the Reach Lesotho coursework.  Its not as though the coursework has been overly demanding or stressful, but its always good to get some time to refresh, recharge and get ready for the new school year.

And I do plan to recharge and refresh, but I do not intend on putting Lesotho out of my mind for the summer.

After becoming involved with Reach Lesotho, my eyes have been opened to a whole array of things that I had not noticed before.  After listening to Anne Marie tell us that the money spent in the United States War on Terror in one month could eradicate AIDS forever, I was shaken.  After reading, in 28 Stories, Lefa Khoele’s experience before he had access to antiretrovirals, I was sad and angry.  The fact is, once you become aware of these things, there is no way to ignore them.  Every time I look at my wrist, I see a bracelet that reminds me of how far we have come and how far we still have to go.  Every time I sit down to do my homework, 28 Stories is on my desk, reminding me that even the saddest stories can inspire hope.

I carry around this knowledge, along with how to solve quadratic functions, the correct structure of a twelve sentence paragraph, the process of DNA replication…you get the idea.  But come July 20th, if you were to ask me what the zeros of a parabola are, I would probably have a blank stare on my face.  Its quite easy to forget the equation necessary to solve this problem.  However, I know that the stories I’ve heard from Anne-Marie and the stories I’ve read from Stephanie Nolen will not be out of my mind anytime soon.

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