Dancers

Note One Sketchy Canadian

Traditional Dance

On my last night, the children treated me to dances they practice and perform frequently for visitors. The dance with the skirt ( made from feed bags) is done to a hymn, despite its apparent sensuality. The dancers wear a belt of hundreds of bottle caps under the white skirt and throw their hips back and up creating a fantastic jangle to accompany the voice and drumming. The shoulder dance, my favorite, done on the knees, also is a hymn. I tried and was terrible at it, but got alot of laughs. Strangely, for what is called traditional dance, both have a lead with a whistle and are done with many rotations to the timing of the whistle.They are hypnotic. The concert, including the two last choir numbers, lasted about one hour.

Traditional Dress

The boys dance in Basotho blankets of varying designs, usually with fighting sticks. Their posturing does'nt really tell the truth about how sensitive and caring they are. They asked me for a photo with them in traditional dress. And of course,l I always want to have a photo taken with Liteboho as she is such a favorite, so I couldn't resist capturing her for the last photo shoot of the visit. I brought home two Basotho blankets as gifts, unique symbols of Lesotho.

Camp Week

This portion of the blog will show the camp week and atmosphere. Watch for one more post with photos of my second week at the orphanage and photos of the wonderful children and the new cow.

What was it all About ?

This photo says it all.....the camp built on friendship, trust and relationship. Many of the children are double orphans, and this teen heads a child headed household. Peg says he sleeps with his sponsors photo beside his bed. Whether in their prayers and hymns, or in explosions of joyful music, or at a quiet sing song around the Canadian campfire under the incredible stars , we saw children and youth respond to education, responsibilty and trust in a positive way and rise to the challenge of self examination. We may have only reached a few, but bonds were created that will last and hopefully leaders will emerge and grow.
And I simply had to keep them all fed ! Great work Gillian, Peg and Help Lesotho......

Improv Drama and Other Classes

The participants, including groups of primary and secondary school teachers , did classes in the mornings. Classes covered such issues as self esteem, gender roles, drug and alcohol abuse, HIV/AIDS education and grief and loss. In the afternoons, they were taught improv drama by Doug Thicke, the Ottawa volunteer there for the next placement at the Centre. At first reserved, the teens gradually got into the "act" and we saw some good leaders emerge. Music and sports were also in the afternoons and a group specializing in teaching HIV sensitivity and non stigma to teens came to share time and skill, also through role playing and drama. These kids had more access to talent and education in one week most Lesotho children ever do. They all reproted the sessions were excellent and thought provoking.

Girls Dorm

Each of the three brick dorm buildings at St Pauls school for the deaf has room for 12 beds. We had mattresses( in theory) shipped in and had to ask 25 girls to sleep in each of three rooms, for a total of 75 per building/washroom. There was also an adult staff or teacher room per building to keep order. This room housed at least 25 girls with luggage and was about 110 degrees by the time they all lay down. the atmosphere was definitely "camp like"- an unfamiliar concept in Lesotho.Role call at 9:30 p.m. was amusing and confusing...who was really saying "present" ? And then there was sharing the lavatory with them all......sometimes you actually couldn't open the door for kids bathing standing up in small plastic wash tubs, but they all turned out perfectly every day!

Nothing was broken!

Since no one had thought about how or where the dishes would be done, we had to improvise. 4 concrete sinks in the utility shed were filled with soapy or rinse water before each meal. The kids learned to work as a team including drying and restocking everything. I then had 15 sopping dish towels to hang up and collect again as an additional part of my " EXTREME CATERING" routine.

Never Ending Line Up

The kids had to line up 6 times a day - breakfast, break, lunch, break, dinner, Simba's ( peanut and raisin snacks before bed). They also had to line up to wash their own dish, until we dscovered it worked best to have 1 group of about 30 people wash all the dishes on one day, and then be off the hook. They often finished by candlelight.

We do in the kitchen ladies!

This is how we all felt by 10 pm after the last papa pot was scrubbed........or this could have been Friday night after the 450 grated cheese sandwiches were made for the kids trips home.