Morate

The building of our nes classrooms at school has begun!

Pea Field

In the village of Ha Maputsoe we have been given the use of a small plot of land. On this land we have planted peas. They are just starting to sprout and should be ready to eat in a few weeks. In the resorce centre in Ha Maputsoe we have started feeding the children - every weekend they get some papa, cabbagge (soon peas) and an egg. Then on Sunday they get chicken. For treats they get peanut butter on bread - nice and good for them! The children are all in school and during the week they are provided with one meal a day in school. We also have 'Art in the Afternoons' - the kids love this. Lots of paper, pens and there happy! The gentleman in the picture is Ntate Lazuruas - the chairperson of the commettiee we work with in the village.

A little note from Amy!

For those of you who don't know me I'm Amy-Coll's little sister. Me Mom and Dad went to Africa in July for 2 weeks to spend some time in SA with Coll and to see Lesotho aswell.
We flew into capetown and met Coll at the airport. We spent 3 days in capetown and went to Table mt., Robben island and other tourist attractions. Then we hired a car and drove along the coast,stopping at villages and towns along the way. One of the places we stopped was Albertinia where we did a Safari. It was amazing!
The food and accomadation were sooo cheap and really good everywhere. The food was out of this world(probably my fave thing about the trip!). Another place we stopped was Plettenberg where we did Whale watching...O MY GOD!! It was sooo cool-the whales where under the boat and everything! They were 17 ft(i think) long! We did another Safari in Addo. This one wasn't guided, u just drove through yourself and you had to spot the animals. It was way better than the first one because the animals weren't locked in and we saw 47 ELEPHANTS!! All of the towns were along the coast and they were famous for surfing-we watched so much surfers and they were brilliant!!One of the towns was Jeffreys Bay were there was a huuge surfing competition and everything revolved around it!
We drove back to Capetown and flew to Lesotho.We went to the ambassadors house and had a dellicious dinner and a great time! When we got to Maputsoe we saw Coll's school,its soo small and there's only one tiny toilet for loads of pupils! The village was so packed with people selling things in there stalls and women with babies tied to there backs and it's like something out of a Trocaire add. But they were all so happy because they dont know any better. There just happy with what they have and you dont fell sorry for them but at the same time you know that they need help. We went to the orphanage to visit the kids and they were soo beautiful, they were so good and always smiling.When your there you dont think about them all being sick or anything like that. They're just kids,the same as at home. Coll's house is actually alot nicer than i expected(but its still pretty basic) and she's well looked after by everyone who knows her. We met Father Tim-a lovely man who really understands what needs to be done there and how to do it.We met Elana-an Italian girl living next to Coll. She's a teacher in the nursery and she's Coll's best friend out there.
Everyone at home is really proud of Coll and we're so happy to see how settled in she is. I miss her lots but she's coming home for Christmas so thats something to look forward to!

Beautiful Lesotho Landscape

The landscape around Lesotho at the moment is so amazing and changing every few miles and every few days.

eew

English School Boys

The second quarter exams have been sat and passed!.....now only 8 weeks till the main one - a lot of work to be done but hoping for just as good an out come!

Holidays 2

Here are some random pictures of our holiday. There's more to come........

Holidays

Cape Town

Well I just waved Mom, Dad and Amy off for there long trip home. They have been here for two weeks and we spent two days of that in Cape Town - doin' the tourist thing and seeing the sights, before we headed along the coast on the Garden route and then spent our final few days in Lesotho.

Initiation School

I was delighted to get to one of the ceremonies of the Maswati village initiation school.
It started with the slaughtering if a sheep (ugh!) – I think I got to see more than I wanted and the smell was unbelievable! Then it’s the women’s job to clean the intestines and fill it with left over meat to make sausages. The men butchered the rest of the sheep and started cooking it….
We spent the next few hours watching dancing, songs and story telling….. This was class!
The chief and the sangoma (traditional doctor) then brought us to the kraal (A resting place for animals and where the first and last parts of the school take place). Initiation school is not talked about and is a kind of taboo so to be able to go there and be told about it was impressive!
We met with boys who have graduated, as you can not see the boys who are in the school. This school is for males and females, and as a female we were only allowed to hear about there roll of girls, but we managed to get some info out of the lads after!
When we went back to the village it was time to eat. Seeing the sheep slaughtered and how it was cooked did nothing for my apatite!

Maputsoe

Here's a few sights I see everyday in Maputsoe.

IN KINGS PRESENTS

Me and Elena at the Kings house.

The King and his daughter.

The backdrop to the kings house....

No1. The Funeral
The queen’s grandmother died in May and on the 27th we attended her funeral here in Mapustoe in the present of the king.

No2. The Christening
Last Saturday we were honored to be invited to the christening of the next in line to the thrown. The kings first son Seeiso Seeiso. After we went to the king’s residences for a slap-up meal in his beautiful gardens. I got to meet and have a little chat with him. He’s a good looking man!

No3. The Castle
Wednesday is the day we have our formal reception in the palace……I’ll let you know how I get on.

Broken Bakkie

Oh I am so stupid sometimes…. I had to go up the north of the country last Wednesday so I took the mission’s bakkie (pick-up truck). After my day of touring I pulled into the local petrol station to fill up. I couldn’t get hold of Fr. Tim so I asked the guy at the pump if it took petrol or diesel – after a lot of smelling stuff he decided diesel. So 5 min later I found myself at the side of the road with a broken bakkie and no credit on my phone! This would have all been fine except it was getting dark (you don’t be outside in the dark in this country!) Just before I started panicking Bethanne phoned. She and Sarah B were running around trying to get credit for me and text me the number so I could send out a few SOS’s……….
Fr. Tim to the rescue…….we got towed to a garage which cleaned the engine and the bakkie was back to normal the very next day!

Durban

It wasn’t warm enough to swim but paddling was nice.

Well after waiting for our trip to Durban it finally came and went. We had such a blast. We got a little heat into our bones. Durban is a seaside city that has tropical weather all year round.

Pic915

We managed to stumble across ‘Africa day’ in the middle of the colonial area. There was music and people just enjoying the weather on there bank holiday weekend.

Durban has a big Indian influence – so to get the most of the city we went to the Indian market to browse, shop and haggle. We left at 5….after waiting and waiting for our taxi and being told that it wasn’t safe for us to be out; we were ushered by a friendly local in to the Cathedral. Being told again that it was not safe; we met a guy from the church youth group who brought us in to the priest’s house for safety while we waited for the slowest taxi. When our taxi finally arrived we were escorted out by body guard! It was exciting stuff – Durban is not a safe place to be after dark!

Knowing that the biggest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere was in Durban we had to see it – It was big. The problem with big malls is that you have to walk like miles to find what you want, it was a bit unproductive, but I did manage to buy a scarf!

The Aquarium was one of my highlights. It was massive and in an old ship. It took us most of the day to get around it and marvel at everything.

I got the chance to sample foods that I wouldn’t normally taste. First, sushi – which was horrible! We were in like the best sushi place in South Africa and I ended up having noodles and beef. I also had the Durban Indian specialty, bunny chow - half a loaf of bread scooped out and filled with curry. I think we all tasted dished that night that were too hot for us and it was glasses of milk all round (well to begin with!)
We managed to stumble across ‘Africa day’ in the middle of the colonial area. There was music and people just enjoying the weather on there bank holiday weekend.

After trying in vain to find live music we ended up in a rock bar that was having a fashion shoot for some magazine. I was hilarious to see the models pose and men wearing way too much make up…..as well as every male in the bar looking like they had reached heaven – Beer, music and the chance to oogle at 6ft models. Unfortunately we I didn’t get in the shoot but Bethanne should be getting a huge check some day soon for her the back of her head appearing in a picture!

Culture Day

Here are some pictures of culture day at a local school......... I think the pictures say it all.

Friends 2

I wrote about some of my friends before and now I finally have pictures of them to show you all- Farther Tim was is flying form when we went for a slap up meal at the sisters last Sunday..... I think we were all after a little too much wine and a lot of really good food!

I got the girls, Sarah B and Bethanne, to pose for my little Iechyd da! (cheers in Welsh) picture....Only three more weeks left till they all leave me - Sob!

Jo's just showing off here - she's kissing a police man and it means she can get away with wearing the hat- it actually suits her!

Malealea

This is Bethann, Sarah K, Sarah C and Jo enjoyin the sunset in Malealea.

Sunset

Beautiful sunset.........

Lebese

Over Easter I had a special friend staying with me - She kept me occupied and was great company! Named Lebese (meaning milk) has now gone back to her owners, so no-one to catch the rats for me!

ISPCC

This is Donal, his girlfriend Celine, Elena and me. We went to see the school that the 18 voul from the ISPCC built in 7Days - pretty impressive!

Basotho Blanket

The Basotho blanket is not just pretty but very pratical in the mountains on cold days. I met these lovely Me's (mothers) in Butha-buthe with there traditional blankets.

Me’ Lidia’s orphanage

This was my second orphanage I have visited in Lesotho. It is on the out skirts of Maseru. It is run by a wonderful, magnificent woman, Me’ Lidia. This is one of the orphanages that Dee is involved in. It’s not just her who has a soft spot for the children but the children there have a soft spot for Dee. Me’ Lidia is a social worker and the orphanage is for children who have been abused sexually, male and female.
There is a wonder feeling of home (where the neighbor’s children come to play), an amazing atmosphere and a real feeling of love – this is all because of Me’ Lidia. If you think these children haven’t been through enough, at the start of March the orphanage burnt down (It was a warm day and the kids were outside. The orphanage was Me’ Lidia’s house. Since then Me’ Lidia and the kids have been living with Me’ Lidia’s mother. This house is tiny, only two bedrooms, they have since received a porter cabin. There are talks of funding for a building for the new orphanage. Through Me’ Dee I hope to do a lot for this Orphanage.

Colder days!

Bbrrrrrrrr……they were right – it’s bloody cold! I have been layering my clothes; it’s like minus 150 in the mornings and like hotter than boiling in the day! I start with a vest, 2 t-shirts, a jumper, a cardigan and a coat – by 1 o’clock I’m in just my vest! My next purchase is a hat, gloves and thermal long johns because if this is anything to go by I’m going to be found dead in the June winter snow!

Friends

Isaac Maleafie - always smiling! Elena and Me' in Butha-Buthe

I’ve only had little access to the internet for the past few weeks so here are all my blogs – been savin’ them!

While in Lesotho I have had the chance to meet some really great people. The first was Father Tim. He’s the parish priest here in the mission and he’s Irish. He’s tried to practice his Irish with me but I’m not the right person and we end up talking pigeon bla!
I seem to spend my Fridays in TY (a village about 10miles away) with 7 Welsh teachers who have become my rock(‘s). They have been here since January and know a lot more about the place – they also have some great Basotho friends who I bump into all the time and it makes me feel at home. They throw excellent parties and try to see as much of the country as they can, so I tag along. With seven of them it’s an easy group and I don’t feel like I’m intruding. We’ve planned to go to Durban in two week as we have the Thursday and Friday of school. This will be their final weekend away because they start to head back to the UK in June – I don’t know what I’ll do with out them, Sob!
My third alloy here is an Italian volunteer, Elena. She lives next door and we have dinner together most nights as there’s not much else to do. As I’m not the best cook we have one bad dinner and one amazing feed (when Elena cooks!) She went home the first month I was here and brought back loads of great food – She even made pizza one night! She lives with a Basotho girl, Moliehi, and between them they are my new family. Elena’s very involved in the mission and knows all the gossip! The three of us we have probably analyzed everyone here!
In school my principal Ntate Isaac is a gentleman and treats me so well. All the teachers are good fun and talk in English when I’m around but let me zone out for a bit everyday while they chat in Sesotho (I’m coming along really slowly with the whole learning the language thing!)
Dee, the Irish ambassador’s wife, is my salvation when I need to get back to Irish reality. She lives in Maseru and cooks the finest Irish fry’s (with Lesotho products) after a night out! Dee knows all the Irish community in Lesotho and all the best places to have a drink! Her husband is a wonderful man and so interesting.
I also teach a group of Boys English on Sundays. I say boys but most of them are older then me, as they were once herd boys and started school very late. It has taken them a few weeks to get used to me but now they get my sarcasm and get there Basotho sense of humor….were getting on very well. They are really intelligent guys that are overly willing to learn!

While I’m talking about new friends I feel lonely for my friends. I hope you know I’m missing you a LOT!

End of term Party

I know I put up a few pictures of the Easter school staff party but I didn’t manage to tell everyone all about it.

It started for me the day before. I went with the principal to get the cow and pig (I think) that had been slaughtered for the occasion. The school received the highest results in the region for 10 yrs! There were very important people there; the local MP came and also a member of the Senate, as well as the school board and others I believe were important but had no idea who they were. That evening I watched as the carcasses were cleaned and the intestines were taken out. This was all done on a table in the ‘kitchen’ (see pic above). Then, with a hose pipe and stick, they washed and stuffed the intestine – with what? I don’t know! That is when I vowed to go hungry!
The next day the braai (barbecue) was to start at 1. With things going on African time we didn’t eat till 6. By then I was so ravished (breakfast is at 6am) I would have eaten the inside of a cow…….and I did - with papa and salad. I think it was the nicest meal I have eaten since arriving.

Then the drinks arrived………

End of Term

This is most of the female teachers in my school, there loud and a little bit crazy! We also had a end of term party, where a pig and and sheep were killed then put on the BBQ! This is a pic of our school dinner lady in the kitchen cooking the papa - in the big black couldren and it's served in the buckets you see!

One of my many students

So I'm in Bloemfountain........where the internet's quick enought to up load photos! This is one of my students - happy drawing a picture while he's ment to be studing!

Basotho name

I met an Ntate (sir/gentleman) on my way home one day and after getting talking he asked me how long I had been in Lesotho. When I told him I’d been here a month he asked my Basotho name. He was shocked to hear that I hadn’t been given one yet - so he took it on himself to name me. ‘Malikhetho (Pro. Ma-d-cath-o) ‘Mother of elections’ because I arrived the time of the elections and it all went down peacefully!
In Lesotho a person is given a Basotho name at birth. This name is normally the felling of the parents when they have their child. Because of this people will be called Loreto – Love, Mpho – gift, Ndeshipanda – to be grateful for what you see, Motsoall – Friend, the list goes on….. This idea is taken quite literally and one of the teachers I work with named her child ‘BabyK’ this is slang for crazy child!
After a mother has given birth she has to spend three months inside with the child. For no reason are they to come out of the house (normally the grandmothers). Then they are brought out for all to see - normally when they are baptized and get there Christian name. Most people go by there Basotho name but some are so long and complicated that they stick with their Christian names. Most people will introduce themselves to me with there Christian name, but will never answer to it. And other people don’t know them by this name, so it becomes difficult and I normally just end up getting the Basotho name and pronouncing it wrong!
I’m very proud to be given a Basotho name. I don’t know how much I’ll use it though!

Malealea

Well as my last post said I was really excited about my little trip to the embassy for Paddy's day and in true Lesotho fashion things didn't go as planned. There was a bit of political unrest that weekend and I ended up spending 5 days in the beautiful mountains in the South East. This was an experience! Before I came here I had a picture in my head of how things would be and the village of Malealea was exactly that!
Things have settled back to that crazy normal as ever, so a quiet week with a lot of school!

Lesotho days

First of all let me talk about the weather – it’s hot! Every day is about 30 degrees. It gets cold at night but only like 10 degrees. The Basoto (people from Lesotho) are talking about how cold it is and telling me I’ll bring the winter by wearing short sleeves! I hear it gets a lot colder here but that’s to come. There was rain the first weekend I was here, but since nothing – It is a BIG problem!
At the moment my days are spent in school. I have been here three weeks but I’m still getting used to the place and trying to find my way – which is harder then I thought. I’m up every morning at 6 as school starts at 7 but I don’t need to be there till 7:45 for assembly. This might sound early but by then the place is buzzing and most people have been up since 4:30 or 5. School is a long day and finishes at 4:30 but it’s about 5:30 by the time I’m home. The big thing is that you can’t go out after dark, which is about 6:30 so I find I have very little time to do stuff. Between washing my clothes and getting dinner it’s about all I do before bed.
It hasn’t all been early nights and washing. Last weekend I meet a group of teachers from Wales. They were excellent and invited me to a brie (S.A. word for bbq) which was great and as they made room for me it meant that I didn’t have to worry about getting home before the sun went down! That and the lack of internet are my two biggest problems.
Also this week I met a group of volunteer clowns – they are a group from Ireland with an Ozzie lad and a girl from Brazil thrown in. There called “Clowns without borders” they go to third world countries mainly, bringing entertainment – they will go to schools and do performances on the street….pretty brilliant stuff! The kids here really took to them and the street show went down amazingly.
Another really brill thing is Paddy’s day – I have been invited by the ambassador and his wife to celebrate it with them and others in the Irish embassy!
So far it’s been excellent! I’m still trying to blend in but as “Lahore” (slag for white) it’s kind of hard! I’m learning a bit of the language, not easy, but that will all come in time. What is very difficult is the poverty and the fact that there is not much you can do about it on a large scale. The projects that have been set up all lend a hand towards helping the amazing friendly, intelligent, motivated people who I have had a chance to meet.

Love from the bottom of a heart shaped continent – quote from Bryan the clown.

Week one - the intro!

Well here I am finally.....I've had a crazy week and no Internet so I could not tell everyone about it! There have been amazing storms with electrical lightning - that of course knocked out the computers.
Besides that the weather has been fabulous - cold in the morning but about 27-30 in the day between the heavy showers that last 20min. They really need the rain here so I'm not going to be the one to complain about it.
This little update is only an intro - when the Internet working better I'll let you all know whats happening.

What a Month!!

Well after giving up work and realizing I had no debts, no dependents and no real responsibilities – nothing tying me to home anymore; I knew it was time to set off again.

I thought about where to go and what to do when I got there. This led me to thinking that to really fit into a place I had to be involved with an area. I had a light bulb moment - not a saint by any means – I decided to do “something good”. Then I found out about Lesotho. I had a great deal of help with this. I spoke to Father Tim Wrenn who has been living in Africa for 20 years and the Irish ambassador and his wife in Lesotho, Paddy and Dynpna Fay who helped me – they have set me up in two schools, teaching. The school day is long there and with early mornings – it will be a bit of a change, but that’s all to come.

I have been using all my contacts to try raise money……and it has been brilliant!!! I did not expect the response I have gotten. Between the Beavers and there excellent smoothie party and the Attic with a gig that was to remember I def had a few surprises………people were more that willing to help! The hardest part of me was trying to publicize events and write to the papers after to say how thing went – This took a lot of my brain time and I’m sure my friends are sick of hearing about what I’m doing as well as asking them to proof read…….just in case it sound stupid or I haven’t explained my self properly.

I’m finally excited…….not that I have even thought about packing (or doing the ever growing pile of washing) that would be way too organized.

I have learnt a few things from people that have been there before and some are things I would never have thought of- bringing a torch! Needing a jumper for the cold nights and mornings (I thought it was hot there?) That the teaching there is very strict and just go with how the Africans do things and not to intercept.

Well Friday night is the next step (Mouse Racing!) – get over that and I’ll be on the homeward stretch to Lesotho.

1^st of March here I come!