Time in between

We had a great trip to Maseru on the Friday after camp. Maseru is 100 km from Leribe where we are stationed at the office. Carolyn, the director of Orphan programs and Volunteers, took us to the city in the new Toyota truck, standard, drive on the left, and the first time she had used it…. crazy traffic, taxi vans…we managed to get stuck in a mud track leading to the Orphanage…. we were delivering food left over from the camp.
It took 5 teenage boys and 15 minutes for us to get unstuck- after which I met Sister Margaret and saw the orphanage, my placement location, for the first time…there is a cluster of brick buildings around a central courtyard and a tidy kitchen and eating room, which is attached to the nuns quarters. There are dorms for boys and girls as well as a nice rondavel house that was built for the HL volunteers. Though the area is a nondescript suburbia of cement block homes with mud tracks running between them, there is a good feeling at the orphanage itself. I will go Jan 27 th.

We went downtown and spent some time in the city core. Very different to anything else I had seen in Lesotho, clean, bustling, signs of economic activity such as full restaurants.
Spent some time doing errands and at the Internet café before delivering shoes and other supplies to one of the top achieving girls at St Mary’s school and convent. She was there with her 2 yr old daughter waiting for us under the trees. The child was healthy and beautiful- HL supported Emily, the mother, through the pregnancy and got her back into school. She wants to be a doctor, and somehow I think there is a chance she may make it.

Saturday we wandered the market and downtown area of Leribe with another experienced volunteer. We were picking up school supplies for the coming week for the sponsored children. In the case of the boarding children it included candles, soap, other toiletries and also shoes, many sizes, in the standard black for boys and girls. The market area was a wild, vendor in tin booths selling everything from veggies to dresses and tin pots - with rutted mud tracks, garbage, loud music and rich smells everywhere. You cannot escape the essential African-ness of it all. Take the Caribbean and multiply by 10…definitely more fun in company though as otherwise may well have been hassled. We accomplished a lot, including setting up a voucher system for the kids at a big store where they can get their own supplies. Spent the rest of the days typing in speeches on leadership from the camp as they will be judged in Canada and monetary prizes presented at next years camp.

A third good day before the onslaught of the sponsorship week. Three of us went to Ficksburg South Africa for an outing. Sounds simple but we took public transport. There are the taxi vans and they are very crowded and today were worse due to going back to school week. They wait till they are full and then go down the road cramming even more people in. It was a fun experience, and on the way to the border, where you show your passport then walk across a bridge, I sat by a small girl who couldn't stop staring and laughing at my white face .It was a very fun interaction for me as she studied me at length. We shopped a bit in the Afrikaaner town (Dutch names and signs) but most of it was shut down for Sunday rest and then walked back across the bridge for the adventure home. The ½ hr ride took an hour and a half, torrential rain, cramming in people and parcels with the music/bass on max! At intervals the driver got out and shouted at other drivers for stealing his fares. There was a young man hanging out the side most the the time soliciting other passengers.

At night, as usual, we start to think about the children and the week ahead and make lists. Tomorrow a.m. there will be a line up to get vouchers and of others to find out if they have been accepted for sponsorship. This is very grass roots work as HL is still small, and the reality will hit all of us when we see them waiting tomorrow. Off to work at 7 a.m…it wills all happen this week and we will promise most of them we will get them into school even though we are scrambling.