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!